Senior Stewardship Manager

Senior Stewardship Manager

Application Deadline: 12 January 2026

Department: Development

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: London

Reporting To: Head of Development

Compensation: £44,000 - £48,000 / year

Description

Somerset House does not receive any regular public funding, therefore income from fundraising and sponsorship is especially important. We have ambitious plans to increase income and recognise that exceptional stewardship is key to realising those ambitions. The Senior Stewardship Manager is a new role and will collaborate closely with the Director, Head of Development and Development Team to ensure that relationships with donors and stakeholders are meticulously held, and the depth and breadth of our work is highlighted to stakeholders in an engaging, creative and impactful way.

Somerset House is an inspiring cause to support, and there is a real opportunity to create rewarding associations with donors and stakeholders across activity including public programming, artist studios and our work developing pathways for young people into the creative industries. The Senior Stewardship Manager will create and lead a strategic programme of donor stewardship and high quality events that deepens relationships with donors, partners and institutional stakeholders, as well as cultivating and strengthening relationships with potential donors and stakeholders. They will ensure every engagement strengthens relationships and drives long term affinity and growth in income.

The ideal postholder will have a sophisticated grasp of relationship management, a collaborative and creative approach to engagement and stewardship, and an exacting eye for detail. We will consider applications for this role on either a full time or 0.8FTE basis (salary pro rata).

Key Responsibilities

Strategy & Planning

• Lead on the strategy for relationship management at Somerset House, ensuring donors and external stakeholders receive the highest level of bespoke relationship focused stewardship.
• In consultation with colleagues across Development, create and maintain a new stewardship matrix that maps across the various sources of income.
• Create processes and frameworks which enable the tracking and monitoring of stewardship activity, ensuring stewardship provides value for money and return on investment.

Relationship Management and Cultivation

• Work with the Director, Head of Development and fundraisers (who will act as the external partners for each of the stewardship relationships) to understand the interests and motivations of potential and existing donors, in order to create tailored, innovative and systematic stewardship plans across the full stewardship cycle.
• Work closely with senior leadership and Trustees to support stewardship and cultivation of key external relationships.
• Identify and shape opportunities to bring stakeholders closer to Somerset House and demonstrate the impact of the charity's work.

Communications

• Produce key stewardship materials including project based updates, digital storytelling, donor reports and publications like the annual Impact Report, working in close collaboration with colleagues across Somerset House.
• Devise an overarching strategy for Development communications, and oversee their delivery working with the Development and Partnerships Coordinators.
• Working with the Coordinators, ensure processes for thanking and acknowledging support is seamless.
• Oversee donor recognition (plaques, listings, donor boards, naming opportunities, print credits), ensuring accuracy and timely delivery.
• Plan and manage the follow up processes for all key institutional events and engagement, including drafting and coordinating communications to be sent by the Director and Head of Development.

Events

• Design a creative and inspiring annual programme of events which engage potential supporters and stewards existing donors and stakeholders.
• Work in close collaboration with the Coordinators, the Commercial Events team, and programming teams to oversee the end to end delivery of all donor, prospect and key stakeholder events including receptions, dinners, private views, talks and VIP events.
• Oversee strategic event elements including briefing notes, guest profiles and evaluation reports.

Operations & Data

• With the Head of Development, plan and manage the annual Development budget as it pertains to stewardship costs.
• Provide regular reports, updates and analysis on stewardship activity and stakeholder relationships to support senior strategic planning.
• Look for opportunities to harness our data to improve the donor and stakeholder experience, such as segmentation and activity tracking.
• Ensure that all activities are compliant with the Fundraising Code of Practice, GDPR and Somerset House's own Gift Acceptance Policy.
• Record all activity promptly and accurately on Tessitura.

General

• Work with colleagues to ensure that Somerset House's fundraising message and charitable purpose are widely understood and embedded across Somerset House.
• Develop strong internal relationships in order to support fundraising activity and relationship management.
• Act as a positive ambassador for the work of Somerset House, including at events at Somerset House and externally.
• Undertake any other duties as may reasonably be required in the post.

Skills, knowledge & expertise required for the role:

Essential

• Significant experience in stewardship, donor relations, supporter engagement or fundraising within the arts or charity sectors.
• Track record of designing and delivering successful stewardship strategies and supporter journeys / plans.
• Proven track record of delivering high profile events for donors, senior stakeholders or VIPs.
• Experience crafting communications across a range of channels and audiences.
• Excellent working knowledge of fundraising best practice, including GDPR and the Fundraising Regulator's Code of Practice.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to oversee multiple complex projects.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with the confidence to engage and influence high net worth individuals, senior stakeholders and VIPs.
• Ability to manage multiple internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong networking skills and ability to build relationships at a variety of different levels.
• Excellent writing skills, with experience crafting donor facing content.
• Strong budget management experience.
• High level of tact, discretion and professionalism.
• Meticulous attention to detail.
• Willingness to work collaboratively to strengthen and implement Somerset House's Development strategy.

Desirable

• Experience of leading the stewardship function within a fundraising team.
• Experience in a major arts venue, museum, university advancement office or cultural organisation.
• Experience producing digital stewardship materials.
• Strong working knowledge of CRM systems.
• Creative flair and understanding of how to translate the work of Somerset House into engagement and stewardship opportunities.

Benefits to working at Somerset House

Mental Health & Wellbeing

• Access to our external Employee Assistance Programme (CiC) for free 24/7 confidential advice and support, including up to 6 free counselling sessions per year where needed.
• Mental health support and guidance from our in house trained Mental Health First Aiders.
• Hybrid working based on having 3 days in the office per week (pro rata if part time).
• Contribution towards eye tests and glasses.
• Trust life insurance scheme.
• We offer winter flu vaccination vouchers.

dependent on the needs of the role

Holiday

• Enhanced annual leave - 25 days plus bank holidays (pro rata).
• Birthday leave - additional day leave.
• Celebration day - to celebrate anything of your choice.

Other Leave

• Sick leave - 20 days full pay, followed by 20 days half pay (pro rata & following 3 months service).
• Emergency dependent care - option to use 25% of paid sick leave for emergency care of a dependent (pro rata & following 3 months of service).
• Enhanced maternity pay.

Benefits

• 8% employer pension contributions, no employee contribution required.
• Option for salary sacrifice.
• Season ticket loan.
• Cycle to Work scheme.

Discounts, offers and free stuff

• The list is endless and includes tickets to Somerset House events and entrance to other London Heritage sites.
• Discounts in Somerset House cafes and restaurants.
• Discounts with various high street retailers and restaurants.
• Discounts to local leisure centres.

following 3 months of employment