Sara Thompson
Director of Fundraising and Marketing @Dorset Wildlife Trust
Signup · Get unlimited contacts
WORK HISTORY
Director of Fundraising and Marketing @Dorset Wildlife Trust
Dorchester, GB
Reporting to CEO, responsible for all aspects of income generation, marketing, and communications. Leading a multi-disciplinary team of 14 with direct line management of three senior managers. Responsible for >£2million individual giving and philanthropy income, plus additional approx. £500k legacy income. Principle achievements include: • Developed three-year fundraising and marketing strategy to maximise growth opportunities and enable achievement of the Trust’s strategic goals and objectives • Shaped team of 14 individual fundraising, marketing, and comms roles via strategic restructuring of the team and focussed, open-minded and ambitious recruitment. Led team to exceed income targets through Covid via regular, open communication, humour and empathy• Diversification of income streams by identifying opportunities for secured/major income outside of membership, such as introducing a regular giving product, designing and launching a major donor group, developing a launching an in-memory product and digital lead generation• Created new digital engagement campaign and significantly increased content-rich posts in 2020 in reaction to the pandemic, resulting in a 10% increase in open and click thru rates, and substantial growth of SM followers• Overachieved membership income target during the pandemic• Spearheaded a Trust-wide rebrand in 2020/21• Major gift, legacy and corporate fundraiser; notably developing and managing the communications plan ultimately responsible for two six figure legacy gifts in between 20••••23• Responsible for over £2million income target. Experienced in managing large, complex budgets• Development and overseeing delivery of communications plans for major, million-pound projects • Introduced both content and activity planning tools to enable transparency and alignment of communications• Identified lack of performance management process and worked with Head of HR to create fair, robust process for whole organisation.
EDUCATION
Oxford College of Marketing
CIM Level 6 Professional Diploma in Marketing, Marketing/Marketing Management, General
SKILLS
ABOUT SARA THOMPSON
A skilled strategist and SLT member with 13 years’ experience across the marketing mix, nine years within the charity sector and CIM qualification. A decade of management experience, skilled in leading teams to achieve organisational success and embedding a positive, test and learn culture. Passionate about pairing innovation and creativity with data and insight to create inspiring, customer-centric campaigns.Key Strengths:Skilled strategist, with strong planning, forecasting and project management skillsSuperior stakeholder management skills with proven experience of successfully influencing both external and internal stakeholders to ‘buy-in’ to and support various new concepts and changes Results-orientated solutionist with a robust delivery focus and a passion for continuous improvementThirteen years’ marketing experience across the marketing mix within both private and public sector, with in depth knowledge of marketing and communications legislation and best practice and CIM qualificationProven experience in developing and managing end to end projects, including writing business cases, commissioning agencies and contractors, managing multi million pound budgets, training and influencing stakeholders and monitoring and reporting on performanceEnjoy facilitating large groups, influencing and educating peers and the wider communityPassion for data-driven decision making. Committed to utilising insight to identify immediate and long term opportunities for improvement Substantial digital marketing experience and skills, with a passion for maximising digital channels to reach broader, more diverse audiences Significant leadership, management and mentoring experience, with a passion for leading teams to achieve objectives and embedding a positive culture among peers and wider colleaguesSkilled and experienced fundraiser, successfully soliciting significant donations from individuals, trusts and foundations and corporatesDesigned and implemented the University of Southampton’s pioneering engagement campaign, engaging 1,200 new alumni in phase 1Managed RNLI’s multi-channel opt in campaign, delivering on time, to budget and achieving 175% of target Talented presenter with a flair for public speaking and gaining buy in from large audiences, and experienced speaking at various professional events and conventions and contributing to panels and podcasts
This profile is compiled from publicly available professional sources. Unifers is not affiliated with or endorsed by LinkedIn. Request removal of this profile.