Development Director

St John’s College, Cambridge seeks an exceptional individual to be our next Development Director. For over 500 years, the College has flourished as an independent and self-determining academic community, whose purposes are education, learning, research, and religion. We pursue this mission with an unwavering commitment to academic freedom, excellence and integrity, committed to sustaining and enhancing the College’s global renown for scholarship and interdisciplinary exchange, and aspiring to be regarded as a beacon of academic excellence and collegiality.   

The Development Director is the senior Officer in the College with responsibility for strategy, design and delivery in relation to our alumni relations and fundraising programmes, in order to support the College’s strategic priorities and long-term sustainability, and to ensure the enduring affinity of our alumni. The Development Office is central to the College’s mission, and the appointee will lead a well-resourced team running a mature and effective fundraising and alumni relations operation. The Director’s primary focus will be leading the identification, in-person cultivation and ongoing stewardship of (potential) major donors and legators, in conjunction with the Master, members of our Development Boards and Fellows. They will be a champion for the College and will bring a forward-thinking, thoughtful and focussed approach to developing high-value relationships to deliver philanthropic income. They will be a confident communicator with a strong sense of integrity and a passion for the mission and distinctive experience of St John’s.

Strong candidates will be outstanding and collegial individuals, with successful track-records of setting and delivering ambitious fundraising targets and personally securing principal gifts. Recent successful major campaign experience would be usual. Candidates will have excellent leadership skills and be proven influencers and tactful negotiators. The appointee will be a visible and engaged member of the Fellowship at St John’s, and able to develop strong relationships with our alumni community.

St John’s is a friendly, warm, and welcoming place which engenders a deep sense of belonging.  Our community is a tolerant, inclusive, caring, respectful meritocracy, with genuine joie de vivre.  We cherish the diversity of experience, culture, and perspective in members of the College, and the way this enriches our learning and our lives. We seek to balance how we fulfil our purposes today with our stewardship responsibilities to future generations in the College, and for the wellbeing of humankind and our planet.

St John’s College has retained Minerva (www.minervasearch.com) to advise on this appointment.

Please include in your application:

• A covering letter (up to two pages) outlining your reasons for wishing to take-on the role and your qualifications for doing so
• A full Curriculum Vitae
• Details of two referees

Applications should be sent to stjohns@minervasearch.com by 9 June 2025.

It is anticipated that interviews will be held in late June/early July.

Information provided will be treated as confidential and processed in accordance with the College’s Data Protection Policy, a copy of which may be obtained here.

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