Advancement Recruitment
Transforming teams for impactful advancement, development and alumni engagement across the education sector.
Values-led recruitment specialising in alumni, development and higher education advancement, tailored to your needs.
Contact us todayPartnering with colleges, universities and independent schools to enhance your advancement efforts.
Educational advancement professionals, including those in alumni relations, development, communication, marketing and operations, all help to drive engagement from alumni communities and our wider society and motivate them to contribute to your organisation’s continuing success. However, the sector faces challenges when hiring. Reduced department budgets coupled with limited movement in the recruitment market due to external forces, such as the cost-of-living crisis and rising interest rates, can all create inertia in the advancement job market.
It’s more important than ever to have agile, diverse, and integrated advancement teams with a strong vision for the future. No matter the size of your organisation, the perspectives and experiences of your staff must be centred on your team’s approach, with potential and real disparities addressed. An effective advancement team is integral to ensuring innovative solutions to complex problems, meaning you can deliver better outcomes for your organisation, students and the wider community.
Our extensive networks and thorough processes ensure we find and attract exceptional people. We provide a bespoke and highly personal approach to identifying, engaging and appointing advancement professionals for a wide range of clients. We understand the importance of placing experts and professionals within this sector to enable a transformative future; whether raising funds for scholarships, academic positions, research centres or capital projects.
Click here to download our brochureOur services
We find leaders who can support complex change management, drive financial sustainability and improve diversity and inclusion.
We’re plain-talking and transparent, and the organisations we work with are too. Together we understand the value of an open and trusting relationship to recruit the best talent.
We can support you with the appointment of:
- Executive Directors
- Directors / Deputy Directors
- Sector experts, Heads, Managers, Senior Officers
Specialist areas we recruit to include:
- Alumni Relations
- Corporate Partnerships
- Data and Insight
- Development
- Donor Relations
- Events
- Gift Accounting
- Global Development
- Legacy Giving
- Major Gifts
- Marketing and Communications
- Principal Gifts
- Prospect Research
- Regular Giving
- Supporter Engagement
- Trusts and Foundations
“The Peridot team were a highly efficient team to work with. Queries were responded to in a timely fashion and any meetings held were conducted with clear purpose. There was a clear understanding of the brief and the pool of candidates provided came from a satisfactorily wide range. James and his colleagues were always willing to speak to potential candidates to help them understand the roles and the organisation. This was a real support to the recruiting department at a time of pressure. The department successfully recruited to four positions and Peridot played a major part in this process. We would like to thank Peridot for all their support.”
Department of Development and Alumni Relations, University of Bath
Your dedicated consultants
Our selected track record includes
We are extremely proud of the organisations we work with and the positive changes they are able to make for their students and the wider community. Here is a selected track record of some of our clients and the types of roles we have placed:
Bournemouth University: Head of Fundraising
Charterhouse: Associate Director, Major Gifts
Davenies: Fundraising Manager
Durham University: Director of Development & Alumni Relations
Eton College: Director of Development | Deputy Director, Leadership Giving
Goodenough College: Director of Development & Alumni Relations
Imperial College London: Over 20 Senior Advancement positions
King’s College London: Senior Development leadership team (multiple roles)
London Business School: 3x Senior Development and Major Gifts positions
London School of Economics (LSE): Multiple Corporate Engagement Managers | Head of Prospect Research
Saïd Business School: Associate Director of Fundraising
St Anne’s College, University of Oxford: Director of Development
St Mary’s University: Director of Development
Trinity College, Cambridge: Director of Alumni Relations & Development
University of Exeter: Senior Advancement leadership team (multiple roles)
University of Bath: Senior Advancement leadership team (multiple roles)
University of Birmingham: 2x Senior Major Gifts Manager
University of Buckingham: Head of Campaign
University of Cambridge: Development (Major Gifts), Alumni Heads (x5)
University of Glasgow: Strategic Philanthropy Manager
University of Manchester: Senior Development Officer, Transformational Philanthropy
University of Oxford: Multiple Senior Advancement positions
University of Roehampton: Head of Development
University of Sunderland: Head of Development & Alumni
Multi-role recruitment campaigns.
Whether it be in the build up to a major fundraising campaign, continued team growth, or staffing review and change, we come with significant experience in leading multi-role recruitment projects. We have worked with partners such as Imperial College London, London Business School, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and University of Warwick.
More recently we have worked with the University of Bath to appoint their new senior advancement team during a significant growth phase, and equally, a new leadership team with the University of Exeter as they plan for their next philanthropic campaign.
International search.
We recognise that future talent within your team isn’t confined to the UK. Our clients can often explore experienced people from further afield and we are experienced in finding leaders and specialists globally.
A great example of this was working with Imperial College London. We have worked with Imperial College London on many recruitment campaigns, supporting their desire to search for high-calibre senior development professionals in the UK and internationally. Peridot targeted the best universities and colleges globally, as well as the highest-performing professionals in our network; both for direct approaches and networking purposes.
We successfully appointed to four senior positions, with three of these being international candidates. Our ability to network the opportunities, headhunt and act as effective professional ambassadors to the organisation assured we found uniquely skilled and high-performing individuals.
“Our consultants really got under the skin of the organisation, the role, and exactly what the opportunity. It was especially nice to hear our own briefing quoted back to us by candidates in the interview. I am sure it helped that Jules is a former fundraiser; Peridot understood our requirements well, sold the opportunity to candidates, and relayed really insightful views on each individual’s strengths.”
- Our partner on the recruitment of their new Head of Development
Some of the organisations we have worked with recently
