Head of Philanthropy

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance (EHAAT) are a locally focused charity aiming to save lives, reduce or prevent disability, or suffering from critical illness and injury, by delivering a first-class pre-hospital emergency medical service to the people of Essex, Hertfordshire and surrounding areas.

EHAAT were looking for an experienced Head of Philanthropy to create and develop the organisation’s first-ever major giving programme. With plans for an upcoming multi-million capital appeal to purchase a new air ambulance helicopter, this individual needed to be experienced in developing and delivering large capital campaigns whilst also creating a new major gifts programme that synergised with this campaign.

As a locally-focused charity, this person had to have good knowledge of the high-net-worth-individual networks within the Essex and Hertfordshire area. They also needed to be extremely experienced in working closely with senior volunteers and CEOs who needed guidance on major gifts fundraising, so that they could become advocates with their own networks for the organisation. They were also going to be the only philanthropy fundraiser within the organisation so they needed to be capable of delivering major gift relationships from beginning to end, including the prospect research.

The successful candidate was an accomplished philanthropy fundraiser who had worked for large national charities, through to local heritage organisations within the Hertfordshire area. They had delivered successful capital appeals of up to £7.5million for a local organisation and worked closely with Trustees to create fundraising boards that focused on major gifts fundraising. They had been a sole philanthropy fundraiser before, creating, developing and delivering major gifts fundraising strategy and growing a new major donor programme for a Hertfordshire-based charity.