Job Description

Are you interested in joining an ambitious and collaborative team to help make a difference in the world? The Fundraising & Supporter Development Office at King’s College London are pushing boundaries to tackle some of the biggest issues that affect our society.

King’s Vision 2029 sets out King’s College London’s ambition to make the world a better place and takes us to our 200th anniversary in 2029. In the years ahead, we will continue to advance our world-leading education and research while acting in service to society. We will expand the vast contribution King’s makes to London, while playing an increasingly proactive role in our more interconnected and complex world. 

As Senior International Alumni Manager you will be responsible for developing and maintaining an active community of over 65,000 international King’s alumni. Working closely with colleagues across fundraising, supporter engagement and the wider university, you will drive the strategy to engage international alumni through a comprehensive programme of events, benefits, and volunteering. This includes oversight of an established International Alumni Leaders programme, and a growing Alumni Ambassador scheme. This role leads the international section of the Alumni Relations team and has line management responsibility for the International Alumni Manager and International Alumni Coordinator.

You will have ownership of a portfolio of influential alumni in priority regions and be responsible for curating meaningful opportunities to bring these important stakeholders closer to King’s. You will be integral to developing stronger connectivity with senior alumni and rising stars internationally in preparation for the launch of King’s next fundraising campaign.

You will bring exceptional relationship building and communication skills, including a high level of cultural competency, combined with the ability to rigorously plan and deliver a diverse portfolio of activities within a changing landscape. You will have the ability to influence a range of internal and external stakeholders and strong people management skills to support and develop team members. Finally, you will be a strategic and creative thinker, and confident trialling new approaches to engage and inspire our most influential alumni.

This post will be offered on fixed term contract until December 2022

This is a full-time post

Key responsibilities

• Working with the Head of Alumni Relations, advance King’s strategy for international alumni engagement, and plan and lead on its delivery.
• Cultivate and manage relationships with international alumni leaders and committees, building a strong, cohesive network of international volunteers whose activity contributes to King’s strategic goals.  
• Work in collaboration with the Senior Alumni Manager (London) to grow King’s leadership alumni programme internationally 
• Proactively develop relationships with a portfolio of influential alumni in key international regions, who have the potential to have a demonstrable impact on university goals.  
• Have oversight of a programme of digital and in person engagement activities which increase connectivity with international alumni.  
• Assess the impact of activities against KPIs, evaluate activities and provide recommendations to inform future programming.  
• Manage the budget for international alumni engagement and rigorously monitor return on investment.  
• Work with Fundraising colleagues to identify opportunities for collaboration, and ensure they are aware of developments that might impact their pipeline.  
• Build strong working relationships with senior stakeholders across the university and ensure that international alumni activity aligns with the internationalisation pillar of King’s Vision 2029.  
• Research, liaise with and provide briefings for senior academics and other colleagues travelling abroad, maximizing opportunities to increase alumni contacts from the university. 
• Provide effective line management for the International Alumni Manager and International Alumni Coordinator, and exceptional leadership for the international section of the Alumni Relations team.  

Skills, knowledge, and experience

Essential criteria  

1.       Educated to degree level, or equivalent, preferably at 2:1 level or above 

2.       Substantial experience of working in higher education, a membership organization or charity sector 

3.       Able to set objectives, measure performance and achieve ambitious KPIs 

4.       Ability to prioritise and to work under pressure and to tight deadlines 

5.       Excellent understanding of the role of alumni relations within higher education 

6.       Exceptional relationship building skills with evidence of bringing others on board to support strategic goals 

7.       Significant experience of successful event and project management 

8.       Outstanding cultural competency and prior experience working with international audiences 

9.       Able to work on own initiative and make decisions independently 

10.   Confidence and ability to communicate effectively with senior stakeholders 

11.   Line management experience, and the ability to lead a high performing team to achieve shared objectives 

Desirable criteria

1.   Experience managing a volunteer programme 

2.   Experience managing budgets and rigorously monitoring return on investment 

3.   Experience using Raiser’s Edge, or a relationship management database 

Further information

About Fundraising & Supporter Development 

Fundraising and Supporter Development (F&SD) is an integrated department that provides a single fundraising and supporter engagement function for King’s College London, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Trust and for King’s Health Partners, working closely with the Maudsley Charity. Based at KCL, we work with colleagues across our partners to help them serve society through world-leading education, research and healthcare.  

We operate a unique and powerful model, which brings together fundraising for all our partners across major and principal gifts; trusts & foundations; legacies; corporate engagement and mass fundraising. We also promote KCL’s engagement with its worldwide alumni community, as well as engaging more broadly with supporters of all our partners. Our work is underpinned and enhanced by a range of professionals in areas such as donor relations, communications and marketing, prospect research, finance, data, supporter services and general administration. By pooling our passion and expertise to support the university and our health partners, our potential and impact is maximised.  

We have an impressive, well-established track record of success in securing support that allows our partners to deliver on their missions. This includes our global, award-winning World Questions: King’s Answers campaign for KCL, which set the standard in the sector and enabled us to raise substantial funds to help tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges. Ambitious and innovative, the team has won awards across the higher education and charity sectors, including the CASE Platinum Award for Fundraising. 

We continue to set ourselves high standards and expectations in terms of supporting our partners, mapping out ambitious fundraising campaigns and appeals where we want to achieve ground-breaking milestones in areas such as children and young people’s mental health; sickle cell disease; cardiology; cancer; global women’s leadership; engineering; international relations and support for students who will go out and make a difference in the world. We are a strongly values-driven team, maximising the benefits of working across organisations and united in our ambition to support out partners in making a real and positive difference to the world we live in.  

Our Partners 

King’s Health Partners 

King’s Health Partners (KHP) is an Academic Health Sciences Centre and a partnership between King’s College London and three NHS Foundation Trusts – Guys and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley. We bring together 40,000 NHS Staff with 30,000 students and researchers to join up world class research, education and pioneering clinical practice. Our partnership sees 4.8 million patient contacts each year. Academic Health Sciences Centres are engine rooms of high impact and innovation discovering new insights into disease, transforming diagnostics and unlocking new therapies. We speed up the time it takes to translate research and high impact innovations in physical and mental health into outstanding patient care. We do this by working in dedicated clinical academic groups and institutes and by involving more and more people in clinical trials and research. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org 

King’s College London  

King’s College London is an internationally renowned university delivering exceptional education and world-leading research. The university is dedicated to driving positive and sustainable change in society and realising our vision of making the world a better place.  Through its commitment to exceptional education, impactful research and genuine service to society, KCL is creating positive change in its communities, both in London and on the world stage. The Strategic Vision 2029 looks forward to KCL’s 200th anniversary in 2029 and sets out ambitious plans in five key areas:  

•         Educating the next generation of change-makers; 

•         Challenging ideas and driving change through research; 

•         Giving back to society through meaningful service; 

•         Working with our local communities in London; 

•         Fostering global citizens with an international perspective. 

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust 

Guy’s and St Thomas’s Trust is among the UK's busiest and most successful foundation trusts, with a long history of clinical excellence and high quality care.  The Trust is made up of two of London's best known teaching hospitals – St Thomas' Hospital and Guy's Hospital. It also includes Evelina London Children’s Hospital and both adult and children’s community services in Lambeth and Southwark.  

Dedication to the communities it serves is at the heart of everything the Trust undertakes, providing high quality and personal care. The Trust is guided by its values: putting patients first, taking pride in what we do, respecting others, striving to be the best and acting with integrity. 

Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals became part of Guy's and St Thomas' in February 2021, bringing together world-leading expertise and research in heart and lung disease.