In a time of straightened budgets and increased demand of fundraising results, is it worth looking to colleagues in other sectors for a bit of inspiration?

We think so!

Peridot Partners, in conjunction with the Institute of Fundraising and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, is proud to host a free breakfast seminar exploring what colleagues in the charity and education sectors might be able to learn from one another.

We are very lucky to have Stephen Pidgeon and Colin McCallum leading the charge and kicking off with their thoughts on what the sectors might learn from one another.  We will then open the discussion to the group to share thoughts and ideas.

If you would like to kick your day off with a bit of expert insight followed by relevant and engaging conversations with colleagues across the sector, please do book now and come along.

Colin McCallum -President, GCU Foundation and Assistant Vice Principal, Glasgow Caledonian University

Colin has over twenty five years’ experience in leading higher education and cultural development and marketing.  Prior to joining GCU, Colin was Chief Executive of leading international philanthropic consulting firm Grenzebach Glier + Associates in Europe and he remains a Vice President of the firm.

Colin graduated in English and Business Studies with a BA and an MSc in Business Administration from the University of Edinburgh. He is a member of the CASE Europe Board of Trustees, as well as the Board of Scottish Opera and is a regular speaker at CASE events and conferences across Europe.

Stephen Pidgeon – Trustee and Fellow, Institute of Fundraising

Stephen Pidgeon was founder, now Principal Consultant, at Tangible (previously Target Direct) with its many charity clients, including Royal British Legion, Oxfam, Macmillan Cancer Support, World Vision and Salvation Army. He also works with Adrian Sargeant, Professor of Fundraising at Indiana University teaching throughout Europe for the Institute of Fundraising’s Academy.

Stephen speaks across the world and writes frequently, usually controversially, for the charity fundraising press!  He is both a Trustee and a Fellow of the Institute and chairs the Standards Committee that creates the Codes of Fundraising Practice.

To register for the event please follow the link:  http://caseiofroundtable1.eventbrite.com/

City University London is an international University committed to academic excellence with a focus on business and the professions and an enviable central London location.

The University is in the top 5% of world universities according to the times Higher Education World University Rankings 2010 and attracts over 22,000 students from around 160 countries.

As one of Europe’s leading business schools, Cass Business School is known as the intellectual resource of the City of London. Cass Development and External Relations Office was set up in 2005 and comprises three teams: Individual Giving, Corporate Development and Alumni Relations. The Individual Giving and Corporate Development teams are made up of fundraisers who generate income for the School’s core activities. The Development and External Relations Office at Cass was established in 2005 and counts 18 members of staff. It is a successful team that has quickly established a strong fundraising record.

Responsibilities

This post-holder will be responsible for informing the strategy for increasing income to Cass from trusts and foundations as well as Coordinating and developing Cass’s relationships with charitable trusts and foundations and other institutional funders, as appropriate.

The post-holder will lead / coordinate / assist with the development of project proposals, and to work with key senior staff within any and all departments of the university. To raise significant funds for new and on-going projects that will contribute to the university funding mix, in the £100,000 + range from Year 1.

Person Specification

- Degree or equivalent standard

- Five years’ experience of fundraising from Trusts and Foundations, ideally with experience of fundraising from international trusts as well as UK

- Experience in setting up and delivering targets for a trusts and foundations programme

- Five years’ proposal writing experience

For further information, please contact Julia Roberts on 07891 377458 or email her at Julia@peridotpartners.co.uk.  Peridot Partners will of course respect the privacy of any conversations regarding this role.

The closing date for applications is 12 noon on Monday 19 March 2012.

Work in the way that you’ve always wanted to…

Salary: £35,824 – 41,598 plus benefits

Cheshire West and Chester were established in 2009 and we have come far.  Against considerable challenges for improvement we have made good progress, and all the indicators show we have turned a corner.  We now have a strong foundation on which to build, and we need the very best people to continue to tighten our practice and help us build teams that can support vulnerable young people and their families in a way that exceeds every expectation.

Our new staffing structure means that as a Team Manager at Cheshire West and Chester you will have a small team of social workers, including a senior practice lead. We have halved case loads in each team so that we can all do our work well and help others to grow and develop.  Our leadership, corporate infrastructure and performance information is now highly effective and a real support to our Team Managers.

Cheshire West and Chester are one of four pilot areas for community budgets. We are a bold, modern and innovative organisation always seeking positive new ways of working. Come and be part of it, be supported and develop your career.

For more information please visit www.thebeststartinlife.co.uk in the first instance.

We are having an open day on Tuesday 13^th March; please contact our retained consultants Peridot Partners for more information about meeting us.  Sarah Engerer, Dawar Hashmi or Grant Taylor will also be delighted to offer additional insight and a confidential discussion.  Peridot Partners can be contacted on 0207 866 5455.

The University of Derby Students’ Union (UDSU) is a registered charity striving to make life better for around 20,000 higher and further education students studying at the University of Derby and Buxton College.   We have a staff team of up to 40 permanent staff and 20 part-time student staff, and a budget to spend of circa £800,000 from the university Block-Grant, commercial income and external fundraising.

We are a wonderfully diverse organisation with the age range of students from 14 to over 70.  Over two-thirds of our student population are from Derby or neighbouring counties and currently 34% students are mature classified as mature.  This presents interesting opportunities and challenges for student engagement.

UDSU is a genuinely open and friendly place to work. Relationships between staff, elected officers and volunteers are positive and we are a cohesive and supportive team. We are particularly proud of our excellent relationship with The University of Derby and as a result the student voice and participation in university decision making is outstanding.  We have an approach to co-producing the student experience and influencing everything from facilities to academic quality that is quite outstanding.

A key measure of success for our next Chief Executive is the development of ever stronger relationships internally and externally to ensure that UDSU is increasingly influential in shaping the student experience and developing student services.  Building on the progress we have made in recent years and ensuring that UDSU is run efficiently and professionally, particularly from financial, commercial, strategic and people management perspectives, is also critically important. Having achieved The Students’ Union Evaluation Initiative (SUEI) Bronze award, we have a template for moving to the next level which can be picked up as a guide for positive change.

Ideally, our next Chief Executive will have an understanding of the complexity of a students’ union, however, your values and ability to operate effectively in a dynamic, political and values based organisation, and to successfully balance charitable and commercial business objectives, is more important.    We are looking for you to bring creative ideas and innovation, strong motivation, experienced leadership and a proactive edge to make things happen and keep them moving.

Ultimately, the role is about ensuring that UDSU delivers for its members year after year, but it is your understanding, empathy and leadership style that will enable success.

For a detailed information pack with more about UDSU, the Chief Executive role and details of how to apply, please contact tanya@peridotpartners.co.uk.

For a confidential discussion about this opportunity, please contact our recruitment consultants at Peridot Partners, Tanya Stevens (07581 576679) or Grant Taylor (07958 690184).

Closing date for applications: Noon Monday 19^th March 2012

Setting the Scene

In today’s tight financial climate, students’ unions face increased pressure from students and universities to deliver value for money and innovative new commercial services that capture the interest and fulfil the needs of an ever-evolving and increasingly diverse student population.

With this challenge comes opportunity.  Students’ unions can enhance their standing with the university and develop the overall student experience by bringing in people with new ideas and different experience.  With the rise of new trading schemes such as student letting agencies, IT repair centres, nursery services, taxi collection schemes and lucrative retail and food & beverage partnerships, students’ unions increasingly want to hire people who can drive their existing commercial offer forward in new and exciting ways.  There are of course some excellent people working for students’ unions, but they are in demand and too few in number.

As recruiters we’ve seen a couple of consistent issues emerge when students’ unions seek to recruit commercial talent.

The first is an over-reliance on seeking candidates from other students’ unions because of the perception that ‘external’ candidates don’t understand the nuances of the sector.  The democratic and political elements as well as the complexity of stakeholder relationships take time to understand, but they are not insurmountable challenges and with a little support often they are easily understood.

The second issue is remuneration.  Experienced commercial people with the right values, attitudes and skills may be prepared to reduce their package for the benefits of joining a students’ union, but they still want to be realistically remunerated.  We must be realistic if we want to attract the best and compete effectively with town centres and high streets.

So how do you attract the best people from elsewhere into your students’ union?

Steps for Success

Define the priorities for the role and pitch it realistically – Before you take a commercial role to market, consider the key factors and salary matrix (below) as a guideline.  We generated this material by collating our findings from recruiting to three different commercial roles in three different students’ unions geographically dispersed throughout England.

Widen your talent pool – Actively seek candidates with relevant commercial experience from outside the students’ union sector.  Managers with highly commercial and customer focused backgrounds from the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors may bring fresh ideas around commercial management and business development, yet be quite familiar with providing services to students.

Candidates who have already transitioned from a private sector commercial organisation to the not-for-profit sector should be of particular interest.  Such individuals often bring political acumen, partnership experience and have softened their hard commercial approach with one that balances a financial return with values and other aims.

Choose a recruitment consultant with an established headhunting track record – Your recruiter should be capable at selling the benefits of the sector and widening your candidate pool to bring in new candidates from outside the sector to benchmark against the best candidates in the sector.  This is not simple.

Targeted headhunting is critical to engaging high performing candidates with transferable skills and experience who may not actively be seeking a job move and have likely never considered a students’ union as a future employer.

One of the biggest challenges for ‘external’ candidates is their lack of understanding of what a students’ union is and how it operates. Your recruiter needs to be adept at conveying the commerciality, charitable aims, politics, values and dynamism of the sector alongside specific opportunities presented with each role.  Our experience shows that the current socio-economic climate makes opportunities within the students’ union sector highly attractive to candidates, but only once they have become further informed about the operating environment.

If you recruit your leading commercial role at under £40k, headhunting may prove less effective / appropriate however an experienced recruiter will still be best placed to provide you with important candidate attraction support that will thoughtfully and informatively pitch your opportunity to relevant candidates.

Consider your advertising carefully – Unless you have a large creative advertising budget, it is very difficult to convey the complexity and excitment of the students’ union sector through advertising.  Common online and affordable routes such as the Guardian and Third Sector often yield a high response rate, but in our experience very few candidates will prove to be strong contenders.  We suggest minimising advertising spend by using limited online media, and investing in targeted headhunting as your main source for attracting candidates.  The personal approach is critical.

Nurture understanding in candidates – Selling the benefits of working in a students’ union to candidates from different commercial backgrounds is critical.  Almost always when we approach an ‘external’ candidate they say that they had never considered working in a students’ union.  After a conversation they are almost always intrigued and interested to explore the opportunity.  Whether you use a recruiter or not, how much do you educate and help ‘external’ candidates to build knowledge and therefore credibility as they move through the process?

Developing mini case studies that describe the success and complexity of your current commercial offer as well as stories about other senior managers who have effectively transitioned into the sector, can be powerful aids to engagement.

We also advocate developing a rounded candidate pack and / or recruitment website with your recruiter that can be used to broadly educate candidates about your opportunity.  Consider including your students’ union history / governance arrangments, strategic plan, recent financials, organisational chart and details of your institutional relationship.

Key factors to consider when developing the profile & package for commercial leadership

Organisational Context –Where are you located?  How well are your current services performing?  Do you need someone to make a major step change in performance?

Scope of role – What is the current size / turnover of your students’ union?  Does the role oversee trading services as well as marketing and new business development? How many staff will the role manage? Is there room for the appointed candidate to develop?

Management– How effective are the managers?  How well does the team function, are there performance issues? Are effective control and reporting mechanisms in place or do they need to be developed?

Strategic Leadership – Do you require strategic leadership experience and somebody  who can make an active contribution at the senior leadership team level?

Ambition for Growth – Are you entering a period of significant growth or change?  Are you looking for an established and credible commercial innovator?  Are you able to reflect your ambition in the package offered?

Package Enhancement

When considering the salary band in which to recruit, bear in mind that additional package enhancement such as a relocation premium or travel subsidy may make a given geographical location or package increasingly attractive to candidates without adding to core salary costs.

Key Factors & Salary Matrix

Please download our key commercial factors and matrix as a .doc – Commercial Factors & Matrix

For more about how Peridot Partners can collaborate with you on senior staff and commercial recruitment, please contact Tanya Stevens on 0207 866 5455.  Peridot Partners is a NUS affiliated preferred supplier for senior staff recruitment.