A national leader in palliative care, St Luke’s Combined Hospices (SLCH) were established in 1980 to provide quality life support and medical care to patients facing a variety of incurable and life-threatening diseases. With its unique and holistic approach, they afford over 650 patients a day with crucial treatment and comfort in a compassionate and integrated way, building a caring and compassionate environment that focuses on the individual’s and family’s quality of life.

SLCH provides not only physical pain relief, but also psychosocial, spiritual and bereavement support. This is done from Community Hospices, at the heart of the diverse communities served. Each patient is offered a dedicated interdisciplinary team comprising of Community Nurses, Medical Doctors, Social Workers, Spiritual, and Bereavement Counsellors and is afforded top quality care, comfort and peace. 

The Head of Donor Relations

The Head of Donor Relations is responsible for the overall generation of funds, donor care, marketing and events at St. Lukes. This crucial role involves leading a team of three, responsible for raising a combined target of R17m per year. This will involve working closely with the Chief Executive, Board, stakeholders, donors and other colleagues to maximise income to St. Luke’s and provide excellent donor support.  

To truly succeed in this role, you will be a driven and analytical leader with outstanding communication skills. You will possess a personal gravitas and the ability to engage people of all backgrounds, driven by your overriding desire to make a difference in the lives of others. If have the skills to develop and implement processes, as well as inspire your team to new heights in an ethical and values-based way and possess a Portfolio of Evidence of your track record in successful fundraising campaigns and projects  we would love to hear from you!

The ideal candidate for this role will possess the skillsets:

• Conceptualisation and implementation of a well-defined and realistic project plan to generate the required fundraising income targets, as defined by the CEO and SLCH Board. 

• Optimisation of donor development techniques to identify major gift and bequest prospects from within the existing supporter base.

• Creation of new, and nurturing of existing, donors and stakeholders with the aim of income generation.

• Leadership of the marketing functions of SLCH to deliver against focused goals and targets in line with organisational priorities.    

• Management of the donor relations team to develop and produce outstanding and cost-effective fundraising activities and marketing on /digital/social media channels. 

• Creation and distribution of high-quality information regarding programmes and services to the public and potential funders/ supporters with assistance from the Donor Relations team. 

• Provision of monitoring and reporting on all income, activities, performance issues and KPIs agreed with the Board and CEO. 

• Knowledge of the principles of ethical fundraising and best practice and a proven track record of success (Portfolio of Evidence)  in a professional fundraising role in the NPO environment. 

• Qualifications: An appropriate tertiary qualification in a related/relevant field (e.g. Sales & Marketing, Communications, B Com or MBA will be advantageous)

Closing date:   Midnight, 2 April 2025

First Interview date:   11 April 2025

How to apply:

Please email us at recruitment@charitycareersafrica.com to request a full job description and person specification. You are advised to get in touch well in advance of the closing date to give us time to consider your application and pre-interview the strongest applicants.