Corporate Partnerships Manager

Come and work with us

Avon Needs Trees (ANT) is a registered charity creating new, permanent woodland throughout the Bristol-Avon catchment to fight the climate and ecological emergencies.

We fundraise to buy land to create woodlands that will stand for generations, locking up carbon, boosting local biodiversity, and providing natural flood management as well as publicly accessible green space where appropriate.

ANT was founded in 2019 by environmentalist Nikki Jones and a small band of volunteers. They were concerned by how deforested our area had become and that no charity existed to buy land in our catchment to guarantee the permanence of new woodlands.

Since our formation in 2019, we have had two incredibly successful projects in Wiltshire, purchasing two sites of 47 acres, planting and caring for 22,000 native trees with the help of hundreds of volunteers from local and surrounding communities.

In 2023 we started planting Great Avon Wood; a ground-breaking partnership with the Forest of Avon Trust. With over 100 acres of land and 40,000 trees to plant and care for, it was our most ambitious project to date. We have also planted Ed Woods, our first Land Partnership venture, which means we are working with the site landowners to create permanent woodland.

We have just completed the purchase of 420 acre Wick Farm to create Lower Chew Forest, the biggest new woodland in the South West in a generation. We are also leading a Landscape Recovery Project across a wide area of the Chew Valley.

Our Values

Ambitious: Our people are nimble and take opportunities, take urgent action to tackle the climate and nature emergencies, are bold in our ambition and scale

Reasoned: We are thoughtful, ethical and reasoned in how we deliver our ambitions

Positive: We are optimistic about the future and our ability to shape it, meeting our mission and challenges with positivity

Working with us

• Flexible working with an employer with a proven record of sensitivity to range of personal circumstances and needs
• Hybrid working, based on a 35-hour (full time) working week
• 26 days leave per annum, plus bank holidays (all pro rata for part-time staff)
• Wellbeing and resilience focussed employer
• Paid leave for emergencies
• 24/7 free, impartial and confidential support service
• 24/7 free helpline with health professionals
• Pension scheme, with a 3% employer contribution
• Real Living Wage employer, as a minimum Corporate Partnerships Manager 3

Corporates Partnerships Manager

Reporting to: Head of Engagement, Communications & Fundraising (HECF)

Hours of work: 0.8 FTE to full time (35 hours per week) depending on your preference

Duration: One-year fixed-term contract, with the expectation of a permanent contract

Salary: £32,000-£35,000pa, pro rata as relevant. Starting salary depends on experience, with opportunities to receive performance related pay increases within this salary band over time.

Location: Flexible working between home, our offices in central Bristol and with travel across our catchment area

Job Purpose

Your legacy will be a tangible impact on slowing down climate change, helping nature recover and creating social impact by initiating and developing enduring relationships with corporate partners.

You will join a fast-growing organisation that started in 2019 with four volunteers and has grown to a staff team of twenty (with more recruitment in the pipeline for 2024), over 1,000 volunteers and ownership of nearly 600 acres of land that will grow woodlands of over 160,000 trees.

We are looking for an experienced partnerships professional with exceptional relationship building and account management skills, with a particular focus on corporates. You will help take ANT to our next level of impact by helping our partners meet their own objectives and by inspiring them to join our ambitious plans for effecting change.

The role

Avon Needs Trees has a corporate partnerships programme with some strong partners and most excitingly, a lot of interest from dynamic & established companies.

We are looking for an individual who can come in to review our current offering, help develop and shape a sector leading proposition for companies, develop new relationships and lead on exceptional account management.

Our volunteering programme, getting hands-on with the tree planting process, is a standout strength that lends itself well to corporates. There are others too; building a tangible legacy in the local area, spaces which current and future generations will be able to access.

Corporates are one of the key areas of focus for our new fundraising strategy, released in September 2024 where we are aiming to build up a specialism in a smaller number of fundraising channels where we feel we have natural strengths and see opportunity.

There is also the opportunity to get involved with other forms of fundraising, in particular the coordination of our major donor programme.

While Avon Needs Tress is a charity, the role would also suit someone from the commercial sector with relevant skill sets of account management and new business acquisition who is looking to move into the social and environmental impact space.

Main responsibilities

• Work with the Head of Engagement, Communications and Fundraising to review our current corporate partnerships offerings & processes. Develop a set of recommendations for improvements, with the potential to overhaul the proposition and shape it in your own vision. This will cover a full range of relationships from larger charity of the year type partnerships to pro-bono support
• Manage our new business pipeline and generate new leads, with a focus of onboarding partners who share our vision & ambition and meet the environmental & ethical standards of our vetting process
• Attend or arrange events to facilitate networking and lead generation
• Develop relationships at all levels, from senior decision makers to more junior staff in companies, inspiring them with our vision and ensuring long-term buy-in
• Delivery:
• Manage a programme of employee engagement that looks beyond one off volunteering days
• Work with the project teams to manage a timetable of tree planting and tree car days
• Reporting & evaluation:
• Provide reporting that demonstrates impact & shows the effectiveness of our partnership
• Provide end of year reviews for multi-year partners 
• Communications
• Support partners in their work to communicate the partnership with internal and external stakeholders
• Work with them to produce high quality content for their and our use
• Working with the Natural Capital & Corporate Partnerships Lead to develop relationships in the Biodiversity Net Gain and natural capital markets
• Other areas of fundraising, in particular High Net Worth Philanthropy
• There is the opportunity to get involved with other forms of fundraising and diversify your skill set and experience. In particular, there is the opportunity to use account management skills to coordinate our pipeline of major donor contacts, building relationships with this audience directly, coordinating stewardship and supporting others across the organisation who might hold major donor relationships

Working relationships and expectations

• As a member of the Engagement, Communications & Fundraising team, you will work closely with the HECF, alongside the Trusts & Foundations Lead, Communications team & Engagement roles that work with a range of stakeholders related to our projects. You will also collaborate more widely across the organisation coordinating the corporate partnerships offering.
• Hybrid working between home and our office (38 Victoria Street, Bristol) with the expectation of being present in our office or on site more than half the days on the typical week
• Occasional evening and weekend working will be required but this is not a substantial feature of your role
• Our staff maintain an appropriate level of confidentiality, professionalism and discretion at all times
• Our staff comply with organisational policies, procedures, and guidance, and external regulations and laws

Person Specification

Essential / desirable Specification

• Essential Passion and commitment to addressing the climate and nature emergencies in general and woodland creation in particular
• Ambitious and positive about new opportunities and challenges, especially driving new projects
• A solid understanding of new business principles, generating new leads and experience managing a new business pipeline
• Exceptional relationship building skills, with the ability to connect with individuals at all levels - from senior level decision makers to more junior staff
• Demonstrable experience of client and account management, in either a charity or commercial setting
• Proven ability to manage a busy calendar of activities across multiple client relationships
• Experience of tracking & monitoring, producing reports & presentations to a high level
• Ability to thrive in a busy, exciting environment and a results-driven approach and the ability to work proactively on own initiative, continually learning and evaluating projects to improve delivery of our projects
• Educated to A-level or equivalent standard. The post holder should have competent IT skills
• Desirable Good financial skills & an understanding of income tracking
• A good understanding of corporate ESG programmes, including employee engagement
• Experience engaging a target audience through a range of digital channels including LinkedIn for corporates
• Experience working in other forms of relationship-based fundraising including with high net worth individuals
• Experience coordinating high quality comms that engage & persuade
• Experience of collaboratively managing relationships using a CRM

How to apply

Application deadline: Wednesday 2nd October 2024 at noon

Interview date: Thursday 10th October 2024

Corporate Partnerships Manager 6

Start date: As soon as possible

To complete an application please follow the link to the form - if you have any concerns or issues completing the application please email: contact@avonneedstrees.org.uk

Please include the job title “Corporate Partnerships Manager” in the subject line of your email, and submit by the deadline above.

Our commitment to equality and equity

We would be grateful if you could also complete our equal opportunities monitoring form. This is used for internally monitoring the diversity of applicants to our roles. Your answers will be anonymous and not be connected with your application, or seen by anyone involved in the decision-making process.

Your application will have all personal details redacted before being assessed by our short-listing panel.

As a Disability Confident employer, we will offer an interview to disabled candidates who meet the essential criteria for the role.

To address any diversity gaps in our team we will also offer an interview to candidates who meet the essential criteria and are from under-represented groups. At this time this applies to those from Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups.

Avon Needs Trees is a Living Wage and Disability Confident accredited employer, and a supporter of the West of England Good Employment Charter. We especially welcome applications from under-represented groups.