Events and Stewardship Officer 2022

The Sutton Trust is the UK’s leading foundation dedicated to improving social mobility. Founded by Sir Peter Lampl in 1997, the Trust delivers programmes to 8,000 young people each year across the country, rigorous research into the issues of low social mobility and educational disadvantage, and policy advocacy to affect systemic change. The Trust gives opportunities to young people from low and moderate-income backgrounds to improve their chances of accessing top universities and the professions. It seeks to ensure young people reach their potential, regardless of their background, school or where they live.

The Events and Stewardship Officer will support with the delivery of a sector-leading events and stewardship programme. The role will be responsible for supporting teams in organising internal and external events, both in-person and online. This will involve managing invites and responses, liaising with venues, and supporting with any additional preparation required. The postholder will also support with key central stewardship processes such as sending out advance notice of press releases, keeping our communications lists up to date and compiling all-donor impact reports. There will also be the opportunity to feed into and help shape our strategy, refreshing our donor journeys and identifying new ways to connect donors with our programmes and research.

The role will also include some responsibility for project management across the Trust, providing defined project support as needed, in doing so the postholder will gain experience in aspects of programme delivery, fundraising and advocacy.

This position will be an integral part of the Development Team, reporting to the Donor Relations Manager, but the postholder will collaborate with teams across the Trust as part of events and stewardship duties alongside working flexibly on discrete projects.

Main duties

• Co-ordinating and/or supporting with in-person and online events organisation across the Trust, examples include 
  • Cross-Trust events e.g., anniversary celebrations
  • Donor stewardship events e.g., programme visits, funder roundtables
  • Programme-related and alumni events
  • Policy summits and roundtables
• Working closely with team members to arrange venues, research speakers and manage invites using Salesforce, the Trust’s online Customer Relations Management (CRM) tool.
• Onsite or online support and administration at events where required.
• Supporting with key central stewardship processes: facilitating donor review meetings, compiling and sending out ‘save the dates’ and keeping the reporting schedule up to date.
• Working with Programmes and Research colleagues to gather and compile termly impact reporting alongside special reports for the Trust’s Board, Fellows, and corporate consortiums.
• Attending stewardship working group meetings with the Head of Donor Relations, Donor Relations Manager and Development Officer.
• Working with Development Team colleagues to track and assess stewardship activity.
• Supporting with discrete projects from the Development, Programmes and Research, Comms and Policy teams.
• Additional roles and duties may be required; to be discussed and agreed as part of wider objectives-setting

Person Specification

We are looking for an individual who:

• Is sympathetic to the aims of the Trust and its mission to address educational disadvantage
• Is interested in fundraising and engaging donors to achieve the Trust’s mission
• Has experience supporting events in any capacity and enjoys working in a team
• Is organised and able to prioritise multiple tasks to competing deadlines
• Shows a high degree of initiative and the ability to take responsibility for a variety of tasks
• Demonstrates excellent attention to detail
• Enjoys working with data, and has experience with a CRM system (or shows interest in learning these skills)
• Can demonstrate strong IT skills, particularly in Microsoft Office.
• Has excellent communication skills
• Is eligible to work in the UK