Business & Corporate Engagement Partner

Internal Job Title: Business & Corporate Engagement Partner - Temporary 12 months Opportunity - August 2025 - August 2026

Advertised Salary: £35,000 - £37,000 + £390 per month Car Cash Allowance

Location: Home working with regular travel across our Yorkshire & North East network. Hub location will be Leeds.

The Canal and River Trust is the charity that looks after 2,000 miles of canals and 72 reservoirs across England and Wales. Every role in the Trust plays its part in making our waterways places where biodiversity thrives, where local communities spend time and improve their health, and where businesses flourish. If you share our values and our enthusiasm and you have the right transferable skills and attributes, we look forward to hearing from you!

We are looking for a Business & Corporate Engagement Partner to join our Yorkshire & North East Operations team. 

We are looking for an ambitious and autonomous individual to develop, deliver and grow our long-term regional corporate fundraising programme.

The key aim of the role is to secure new corporate partnerships which will both contribute to Canal & River Trust’s core mission of Keeping Canals Open & Alive and help companies to achieve their own Corporate Social Responsibility goals.

You will work with businesses and companies across Yorkshire to secure support for work and projects that further our charitable objectives.  You will be focussed on securing unrestricted income or restricted funding towards work within our 2025/26 business plan.

You will be able to use your skills and expertise in corporate/charitable fundraising to help shape the projects and initiatives to help achieve your targets, with the key focus areas outlined below:

• prospecting new corporate partners, identifying new growth opportunities that match our charitable objectives, developing cultivation plans to build partnerships
• stewarding relationships to ensure that our corporate partners feel valued and connected to the Trust’s objectives
• identifying and shaping packages of sponsorship and support, ensuring consistency with other regions and the national Fundraising Directorate.
• Working with colleagues in the regional team to identify and shape regional projects, writing funding applications to local corporate foundations within Yorkshire & North East, working alongside the regional delivery team to track progress and help with forecasting, reporting back to funders
• Within Yorkshire & North East, we also have a unique regional opportunity to develop a corporate fundraising package based on the successful Paddle Under the Pennines canoe trips at Standedge Tunnel.

Location: This role will be offered on a remote home-working basis with a requirement to attend our Leeds hub for team meetings and collaborative working with colleagues.

Candidates will also be expected to travel across the region as required to meet with external partners in their premises or on the canal network (expenses will be paid). 

• See our network here: canal-and-river-network (https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/canal-and-river-network%C2%A0).
• Find our how we make a difference here: how-we-make-a-difference (https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us/how-we-make-a-difference).

Reporting directly to the Partnerships & External Relationships Manager (Yorkshire & North East) you will represent the Trust externally and champion corporate fundraising internally.  You will be part of a driven, ambitious and engaged team, and will have a supportive colleague environment and the space to shape and develop this important role within the team.  You will be working collaboratively with colleagues in Fundraising, Enterprise, Community Engagement, Operations, and other areas across the business.  Externally your ability to connect and develop strong stakeholder relationships with Corporate partners, our Regional Advisory Board, Agencies and suppliers are all important to your success and the success of the team.  

Key Accountabilities:

• Develop and deliver a corporate engagement strategy.
• Explore new trends in corporate giving and undertake research and prospecting to ensure a continuous pipeline of corporate opportunities and develop specific propositions for each (including corporate foundations)
• Support the region in delivering the fundraising pipeline.
• Nurture, develop, support and service a range of corporate partnerships that provide a range of benefits to the Trust primarily in the form of income, with associated in-kind support, volunteering, awareness raising and fundraising opportunities.
• Develop monitoring and reporting frameworks, and undertake the necessary reporting, for the corporate engagement programme as a whole and for individual corporate partners as required.
• Work with colleagues nationally and from other regions to ensure corporate engagement opportunities are coordinated across the Trust to maximise benefit, eliminate duplication and present corporate partners with a single point of contact.
• Work with regional colleagues to identify opportunities for projects and sponsorship packages.
• Represent the Trust in fundraising activities, at events, with supporters and the media.

Knowledge, Experience & Skills:

• Evidence of strong relevant experience with track record of successful corporate fundraising towards restricted and unrestricted targets.
• Ability to think and plan strategically with a proven track record of developing fundraising strategies.
• Proven track record of securing corporate partnerships that have delivered financial value.
• Proven track record of bid-writing for fundraising.
• Experience of successfully managing corporate partnerships.
• Experience of research and prospect identification and development.
• Experience of developing processes to manage corporate engagement activity and reporting on outcomes.
• Thorough knowledge of fundraising best practice and relevant aspects of charity governance.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and experience of working collaboratively.
• Good written and verbal communications skills.
• Creative, entrepreneurial and innovative.
• Strong networking skills and ability to represent the Trust externally.
• Ability to work on own initiative, remain calm and deliver to tight deadlines.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient suitable applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

In addition to your annual base salary of £35,000 - £37,000, we also offer Car Cash Allowance (£390 per month) & a competitive contributory DC Pension scheme arrangement, and numerous other employee benefits, including several salary sacrifice benefits we are also open to flexible working arrangements. These include:

• Competitive contributory DC Pension scheme arrangement, where we will double your contribution to a maximum of 10%.
• 25 days paid holiday (plus paid Bank Holidays), increasing to 30 days after 5 years.
• Home working status with ‘hub’ facilities available should you need the flexibility to work outside of home.
• Free access to specialist counselling on a range of issues, e.g. health, financial, well-being and domestic matters.
• Access to a range of employee benefits including store discounts, boating holiday discounts and holiday purchase scheme.
• 2 days paid volunteering leave per annum, allowing you to volunteer for a local community project etc.
• Free fishing facilities across our canal network.

At the Trust we care passionately for our waterways, and as importantly, for those who look after and use them. We strongly believe that a diverse workforce brings with it a diversity of ideas, thinking and ways of working which enhances what we do as a Trust. We are striving to represent the diverse communities that we are a part of and welcome applicants from across all sectors of the community.

All candidates will be treated on the basis of their merits, skills and abilities and solely by being assessed against the requirements for the job.

When you join the Canal & River Trust you become a member of an engaged team working to preserve our heritage for future generations. Come and share your passion and knowledge with a team that makes a difference to millions of people every day.

Find out more about us on our website: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us