APPOINTMENT OF

DIRECTOR OF FUNDRAISINGJUNE 2020

Hello,

If I didn’t already work at Teenage Cancer Trust, I’d want to. We are a charity doing unique work that meets a clear need and, although we’ve been a driving force for young people with cancer for 30 years, we still have lots of untapped potential.

We are an organisation that has heart, is fuelled by relationships and packs a big punch. We’re also full of energy. Leading at Teenage Cancer Trust needs us all to be purposeful, bold and collaborative while also thinking clearly and being able to focus, prioritise and simplify.

We’re a good size - small enough to remain connected to the young people we serve; to our teams of expert nurses & youth support coordinators and the supporters who make our work possible, but still big enough to make change happen. We’re the only charity that does what we do for the age group we work with and we’ve never been needed more. It’s a powerful combination – and a big responsibility – so we need to find someone who is not only right for us but who is going to thrive personally and professionally.

So – what’s the gig?

Teenage Cancer Trust has been a hugely successful organisation for many years – leading the way in specialist support for young people with cancer in the UK and across the globe. We’re driven by what young people with cancer need and are the UK’s leading charity dedicated solely to the treatment, care and support of 13-25-year olds with cancer.

On becoming Chief Executive in 2018, I undertook a high-level strategic review which identified significant opportunities to further expand and deepen our impact. I recruited sector leading Directors of Fundraising, Services and Marketing & Communications to add to the long-standing and talented Directors of People and Finance & Performance. 2019 saw this strong team develop a stellar service expansion strategy – backed by a fundraising growth plan and investment - ready to launch in summer 2020. And then along came Coronavirus. Hmmm.

Our current fundraising model sees social gathering at its heart. From gigs to communities to challenges to workplaces – we are sociable and noisy. That’s not a model made for lockdown and surely that’s not an organisation to move to during a pandemic. Or is it?

Yes, we’ve furloughed staff and yes, roles we were going to recruit to have stopped and yes, the Director of Fundraising is leaving to move to a bigger charity. So why on earth would you think about coming to Teenage Cancer Trust right now? Well, because the future is packed with opportunity and a critical ingredient to help us unleash our potential is you – our next Director of Fundraising.

If we’ve learned anything from lockdown (and we’ve learned a lot) it is that we are stronger, more resilient, more creative and braver than we knew. And we need to be all this - and more - moving forwards. With the right fundraising leader to help rebuild revenue and develop our strengths we will not only survive but thrive. This is not an organisation – or role - that’s about more of the same or one size fits all.

Our team, our supporters and most of all young people with cancer need a fundraising leader who is creative, collaborative and prepared to think differently about how we work. We need to continue to innovate to help drive the growth in impact young people deserve and our supporters expect. This is where you come in.

Our next Director of Fundraising will be someone who works across the charity to help shape, drive and implement our organisational strategy to grow our impact and help us change the lives of all young people with cancer in the UK – now and in the future.

This role has the potential to be life changing - not only for young people with cancer - but also for you and the talented, experienced teams you will be leading and empowering.

Clearly, I am going to tell you this is brilliant job in an amazing organisation – that’s the point of the Chief Exec blurb at the start of a job pack. But this pack isn’t (just) about me making you fall in love with the opportunity. It’s about you being able to get a sense of whether this is an opportunity that suits you. Is this the sort of place where you will thrive and where you will belong? Where will it stretch you and how does that feel? Can you bring your whole self to work? Where might it work well for you and where are the challenges?

No role is perfect, and no individual or organisation is either. I am not looking for perfect – from me or from anyone else – but I am looking to make sure this process means you can work out if this is the right role and organisation for you as well as if you are the right person with the experience and approach that we need.

Fundraisers are packed with curiosity and I know you will have questions. I hope I have answered some of them in this opener, but I know there will be more. That is why I have included some ‘elephant in the room’ questions and answers in this pack. Once you’ve read all this through, I’d be happy to chat informally. If you’d like to know more, please do get in touch with Sophie (sophie.hutchings@teenagecancertrust.org) to arrange for a Skype or call so we can connect.

That’s enough from me - please have a read to see if we might be right for your next challenge. We might not be, but if we are then I am looking forward to chatting with you if you’re curious to know more.

Best wishes,

Kate

PS – we’re moving fast on this one so please do check out the dates in this pack!

DETERMINED We dream big, face problems and get things done.

OUR VISION AND PURPOSE CANCER IS DIFFERENT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. Our vision is a world where cancer doesn’t stop young people from living their lives – and our job in making that vision a reality is to improve the experience, survival and recovery of every young person with cancer in the UK.

OUR VALUESYoung people facing cancer are at the centre of everything we do. Our values are built around this. We believe we can support young people with cancer best if we work in a determined, united, spirited and kind way.

So, we need everyone to do just that. We need to hold ourselves and each other accountable to living these values - if we don’t, we won’t be working in the best way to meet the needs of the young people we are here for.

WE ARE:

UNITED We're a community, working with knowledge, passion and respect.

SPIRITED We are brave, energetic and believe in possibilities.

KIND We see everyone's value, treat them as individual's and welcome their ideas.

OUR WORKWe’re here to make sure young people facing cancer always have someone to turn to – whether that is from the first concern about a symptom, throughout treatment or supporting them after treatment is complete.

We know what it means to have cancer when you’re young – and we know how to support young people and their families from the moment that cancer is first mentioned.

We help young people and their families deal with the many ways that cancer can affect your body, your mind and your life. We do it in partnership with the NHS and by bringing young people together so they can support each other. And we do it from the moment cancer is diagnosed until long after treatment is over.

We make sure young people have everything and everyone they need to face cancer.

We have a critical role before, during and after cancer. Improving diagnosis experience, supporting young people and families cope throughout treatment and then helping them move forward once treatment is ended.

We do this by investing in and developing:

■ Places - our 28 purpose-built NHS units across the UK are at the core of our work. They’re comfortable and contemporary, rather than simply clinical. And they bring young people together, because young people are the best experts in what it is like to face cancer when you’re young.

■ People - we fund, train and develop Teenage Cancer Trust Nurses and Youth Support Coordinators (YSCs) who work in the NHS across the UK – this team now totals almost 100 frontline staff.

Our nurses know that cancer is different when you’re young. Their specialist training and experience means they provide the highest level of personalised nursing care for young people every day – in our units, in hospitals nationwide and in young people’s homes. Our YSCs are there to help young people and their families cope. They’re highly skilled members of the expert teams caring for young people with cancer and are often the first person a young person will turn to with questions or concerns. Whatever the issue is, sensitive, thoughtful support is always available. And if the Youth Support Coordinator doesn’t know the answer, they’ll find someone who does.

■ Peer Power – the real experts in what it’s like to be young and have cancer are other young people with cancer. Expertise from experience is vital during treatment and continues to be essential afterwards which is why so much of what we do has young people and peer support at its heart. From activities during treatment to conferences, workshops and events afterwards we’re there to bring young people together.

■ Powerful information - our job is to be there for young people from point of concern about a sign or symptom which might be cancer. We aim to improve diagnosis by working with healthcare professionals and young people around the signs and symptoms of cancer in young people – meaning that this generation know how to get help if they need it.

We also help medical professionals and politicians understand why young people with cancer need specialist support. And we publish a wide range of no-nonsense information resources including the award winning ‘Young Person’s Guide to Cancer’.

OUR STRATEGY2015-2020 REACHThere are 28 Teenage Cancer Trust units and around 100 expert nurses and youth support staff in NHS hospitals across the UK, offering young people with cancer the very best care and support from the moment they are diagnosed. But right now, we don’t have enough Teenage Cancer Trust Nurses to reach every young person with cancer.

Young people aged 16-25 may decide to have their treatment closer to home – closer to education, family or employment - and this can mean we can’t reach them with the support they need. And without a Teenage Cancer Trust Nurse in their team, it’s easy for young people and their families to miss out on the treatment, care and support that’s right for them.

In 2015 we launched our REACH strategy to expand our work and make sure there’s a Teenage Cancer Trust Nurse for every young person with cancer. This means that in addition to our teams in Teenage Cancer Trust units across the UK we’ve been adding further Clinical Nurse Specialists to deliver direct nursing support to young people, coordinate care, act as key workers and help to minimise the disruption of treatment.

Our next strategy was due to launch externally in summer 2020, but Coronavirus has rightly put that on hold. The strategic intention for us to expand our work so we can continue to improve experience, survival and recovery of young people with cancer remains, but – post Coronavirus - how we do it will be different.

Our focus in the acute phase of the crisis was on organisational survival by protecting cash and culture, maintaining frontline service delivery and looking after our staff. We’ve coped brilliantly – the team, our supporters, our frontline colleagues in the NHS, our Board and the organisation has been exceptional. Our income has performed more strongly than forecast and we’ve moved at pace to innovate and refresh not just our fundraising but also the way we deliver support to young people with cancer. The strengths we had going in to the crisis have proved to be bigger and stronger than we thought – and

BEYOND CORONAVIRUS OUR RECOVERY PLAN

the areas where we knew we had challenges, especially around being so event driven for income – have been the challenges we knew they were, just writ large.

As we enter a more stable phase of the pandemic, we are plotting a course which will see us through 2020 and well into next year. We are reimagining our business model as we look to return as quickly and effectively as possible to full speed.

Our strategy for this period is currently being finalised, but we know what we need to do. We need to rebuild our income, focusing on our strengths and opportunities and acknowledging the current challenges. We need to take this opportunity to reshape our service delivery, owning the expert and clinical space and being ‘digital by default’. We also need to seize this unique opportunity to rethink how we work as an organisation, being more agile, innovative and focusing relentlessly on the needs of young people.

This strategy represented a significant shift from Teenage Cancer Trust being a ‘builder’ of units to a provider of nursing and support services. This change isn’t wholly understood, and some stakeholders still associate the charity with units rather than services. We’ve also faced challenges implementing this model in some parts of the UK and it’s taken us longer than we planned – alongside the challenges that Coronavirus has posed to income generation.

OUR DIRECTOR OF FUNDRAISING THE ROLE CONTEXT, AIMS AND ASPIRATIONS

Our challenge over the coming years will be to increase our impact when income is hard to raise, the world has changed and continues to change fast. We’re not daunted by that, far from it, and we’re looking for a Director of Fundraising who feels the same.

The role of the third sector in the delivery of public services has always been challenging and it’s getting more so. We are determined to continue our vital work – in partnership with the NHS – to ensure every young person with cancer gets the specialist care and support they deserve. To do this, we need a committed and growing supporter base and the income it generates. Our Director of Fundraising needs to be the key lead in making sure we have the sustainable income that is essential to us delivering our vision.

We need our Directors to be brilliant cross-organisational leaders with stacks of emotional intelligence and stakeholder engagement skills. You need to be a role model, inspiring other teams to deliver their best, as well as your own. At Teenage Cancer Trust we succeed, fail and learn together and are stronger than the sum of our parts.

You will lead the development and delivery of our post-Coronavirus fundraising strategy, so we have the income needed to support young people before, during and after cancer. You’ll also contribute to the leadership and strategic direction of Teenage Cancer Trust. By acting as a role model and ambassador for our work with staff & volunteers, with the media, current and potential supporters, you’ll be someone who relishes visible and vocal championing of fundraising and supporter experience.

You will thrive when working in partnership and making alliances. Success and strength are not about us doing everything – it’s about getting everything done with others.

In addition to our high-profile and high-value fundraising partnerships with the likes of Aldi, Domino’s and Morgan Stanley we also have ongoing partnerships across the music and entertainment industries which culminate in our flagship week of music and comedy gigs at the Royal Albert Hall each March. We rely on voluntary income, so our Director of Fundraising needs to be someone who doesn’t just ‘drive a desk’ but thrives when out and about, stewarding the high-level, high-value funders who make our work possible.

In addition, it is vital we are collaborative and sometimes this is with organisations we compete with for funds but collaborate with on service delivery. This includes our friends at CLIC Sargent who do excellent work supporting young people as part of their social care support which runs across the 0-24 age range. It can be a delicate balance to strike, but if the focus is on doing the best for young people - not on ego or brand - it is more than achievable.

You will need to have significant credibility with our experienced teams across the UK as well as our long-standing supporters, patrons and partners. You’ll thrive when influencing and advocating for and securing strategic funding relationships but also when advocating for fundraising & supporters at the highest levels of decision-making. You won’t be daunted by digital and the role it can – and should – play in income generation and supporter experience and will be someone who makes decisions informed by evidence and insight – but can also cope with ambiguity.

Advocating for priorities and pacing – especially when there’s a relentless urge to do more and do it quickly – won’t daunt you and you’ll have the gravitas, network and background to open doors and to get into the diaries of senior decision makers.

ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOMNot real elephants, metaphorical ones. You know – the stuff you don’t know if it’s ok to ask about when you’re going for a job but is really important and that you definitely need to know.

GEOGRAPHY AND LOCATIONWhen we last recruited to this role – in May 2018 - I was clear it was wholly office based. Lots of the team are London-based, the one office we have is in London and lots of our events happen in London – in and out of work hours. Additionally, not all the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) are London-based so it was important then to ensure that we had Director cover in the London office.

London – or within easy commuting distance of London remains important - however, the office has been closed since March and we’re all home-based right now – using technology to connect, create and work. Having seen this work so well in practice it’s clear we can be flexible about location of the post-holder. You will need to and be able to travel (when we can travel again) but you don’t have to be 100% London-office-based to be a candidate for this role.

SALARY, ANNUAL LEAVE, HOURS AND PENSIONSSalary for the role starts at £90k if London based.

Annual leave is 25 days plus bank holidays – and we typically also give additional time off between Christmas and New Year that doesn’t come off your 25-day allowance.Annual leave increases over time with service – rising to five additional days when you have five years’ service.

Hours – the standard working hours for a full-time week are 0930 – 1730. Given the scale and scope of the role we can’t consider part-time working and this means the role is full-time, but if you need a flexible pattern of hours then that shouldn’t be a barrier to you applying.

Pension – we’ll match your contributions up to 5% of your salary and you can choose salary sacrifice contributions for greater financial benefit.

WELLBEING AND BALANCEThis is a big job – it’s challenging, fast-paced and deeply rewarding. Working alongside supporters who have themselves experienced the difference we make – whether as a young person in treatment or member of their family – can be hugely inspiring for you and for your team.

It can also take its toll emotionally. We do all we can to look after the emotional health of everyone at the charity – whether that’s through taking time off in lieu, making the most of the various wellbeing support we have in place or simply by knowing it’s ok not to be ok – we work hard to make sure our team members and colleagues can balance the demands of their roles with their own wellbeing. We’re always learning, and we need leaders who are tuned in and prepared to learn too. We’re wholehearted and we work hard – but it’s also ok to stop too – in fact, it’s required!

WHY IS THERE REALLY A VACANCY?Good question – we get it. Liz Tait joined us in September 2018 and is leaving in under two years; that’s not normally the way things go. We have also been very candid publicly about the big challenge that Coronavirus has posed to our income – we anticipate we will be £8m down on income in 2020 and have temporarily furloughed around 60% of the staff team and reduced the hours and pay of the remaining working team in order to protect our frontline service delivery. You are probably wondering what’s gone on, what the real story is and whether there’s a hole beneath the waterline here that you *really* don’t want to inherit.

The good news is that our income is performing better – much better – than we forecast in March, a testament to the whole fundraising team, our supporters and some of the new things we’ve tried in the last few months. Some of the initiatives we have undertaken aren’t just performing well in the short-term – they have huge potential in 2021 and beyond.

We’ve also been able to restore working hours and pay for the working staff team from July. We have also begun to return some roles – admittedly only a few at this point – from furlough leave as the business need has increased.

Liz is brilliant – we haven’t fallen out with her and she hasn’t fallen out with us. She is leaving to go to a much bigger charity– in no small part because she has the kind of opportunity that doesn’t come up often, but also because the role offers her a chance to lead a broader fundraising programme on a scale that Teenage Cancer Trust can’t. It is tough timing – for the organisation and most importantly for Liz’s fundraising team – but there’s no drama. If you want to have a chat with Liz directly – or with Kate our Chief Executive as part of your decision-making, then we can set that up for you.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSIONAt Teenage Cancer Trust we are committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive community, where our staff and volunteers can bring their whole selves to work and where differences and lived experiences are valued and embraced. We want to be the place where a diverse mix of talented people want to come, stay, and do their best work. To support this, we offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies along with flexible working arrangements.

SAFEGUARDINGAs a charity that supports teenagers and young adults with cancer, we have a duty to ensure that the young people who benefit from our support are not harmed in any way, and we expect all our staff to share in our commitment to safeguarding and the welfare of young people. The suitability of all prospective employees will be assessed during the recruitment process in line with safer recruitment practices. This role requires a DBS check.

ABOUT YOU, YOUR EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS:Although it’s not essential to have a proven track-record of delivering fundraising growth in a voluntary sector organisation, it is essential that the knowledge, training and background mean the post holder has the gravitas and credibility to inspire respect from experienced senior fundraisers and long-standing supporters of the charity.

You’ll bring:

■ A deep understanding of business development and income generation with a focus on relationship management to drive commercial results

■ An understanding of the role of digital technologies, brand, marketing & audience segmentation to inform and influence income growth

■ An understanding of, and demonstrable commitment to, the cause, objectives and culture of Teenage Cancer Trust and to ensuring supporter experience and needs inform our fundraising activity

And have senior-level experience in:

■ Leading £multi-million income generation activity and teams in the private, public or third sector with demonstrable effectiveness at working with high-net worth and high-influence supporters/clients

■ Developing and delivering income generation/business development strategy that is underpinned by the needs and voice of the supporters/customers it serves

■ Aligning and partnering effectively at both a strategic and operational level when it comes to business development

■ Initiating, developing and implementing successful fundraising/sales strategies for both existing and new fundraising/sales activities

■ Setting clear strategy and inspiring teams to deliver through innovation, agility and change

APPLICATION AND RECRUITMENT PROCESSAs we’re all working from home this will be a virtual process – using Skype or MS Teams for video interviews. If you need additional support with this then please do let us know what you need and where we can help make this accessible.

To apply please submit the following information through our online recruitment page www.teenagecancertrust.org/about-us/work-us

■ A CV showing your experience and roles ■ A two-page supporting statement about how you, your experience and skills meet the criteria set out above

KEY DATESWe’re moving fast on this one – the timeline is:

Pre-application informal chats: Flexible but time is held on 25 & 26 June

Closing Date: 3pm 6 July 2020

Shortlisting: 7 & 8 July 2020

Interview invitations: 9 July 2020

First round interviews: 13 & 14 July 2020 (MS Teams or Skype)

Optional informal chats with SLT & Fundraising leadership team: 16 & 17 July 2020

Second round interviews: 20 & 22 July (MS Teams or Skype)

The views and perspectives of young people with lived experience of cancer and the work of Teenage Cancer Trust are vital to us. Part of the second round interviews will include an interview with a panel of young people, as well as with a leadership panel of the Chief Executive and Board members.

If you have pre-existing commitments that mean you can’t meet this schedule, we may struggle to accommodate you – but we will try. Please make it clear on your application if any of the dates are a problem for you as this will increase our ability to be flexible.

Teenage Cancer Trust is a registered charity: 1062559 (England & Wales), SC039757 (Scotland)