BATH FESTIVALS APPLICATION PACK FOR THE ROLE OF

DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

CONTENTS:

1. LETTER TO APPLICANT

2.JOB DESCRIPTION & PERSON SPECIFICATION

3. ABOUT BATH FESTIVALS

BATH FESTIVALS

BATH LITERATURE FESTIVAL

BATH INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL

BATH FESTIVAL OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

LEARNING AND PARTICIPATION PROGRAMME

BATH FESTIVALS BOX OFFICE

CULTURAL FORUM

Dear applicant,

Thank you for considering applying for the post of Development Director for Bath Festivals. You will find attached a job and person specification, some information about the organisation, and an application form.
First though here is an outline of what the job involves, and what sort of person we’re looking for.

What’s the job?

  • Helping to reposition the organisation
  • Significantly increasing our sales and fundraising capacity and implementing an effective strategy in these areas
  • Leading and managing the development and marketing team and increasing their capacity and skills.
  • Building imaginative partnerships which leverage our funding, brand, artistic content, and our impact.
  • Increasing our impact and profile.
  • Building on our relationship with current corporate, individual and trust sector supporters, and securing new income from these sectors
  • Making the most of the skills and contacts of our board and fundraising committee

What we’re looking for

Someone:

  • With flair and vision
  • With the right mix of skills and experience to improve significantly our fundraising, sales and other income, and grow the team’s capacity in these areas
  • With entrepreneurial instincts
  • Who can relate effectively to a wide range of stakeholders including our artistic directors, performers, staff, the Board, ACE, the local council, local funders and the local business community
  • With excellent communication skills, with the ability to listen and negotiate as well as advocate
  • Who is a strong planner, who understands how to prioritise and who has a track record of delivery
  • Who is numerate and comfortable with budgets, accounts and data

I hope that gives you a taste of this exciting and challenging role, I’d be delighted to talk to you further in confidence so please don’t hesitate to email me , or to phone me on 01225 462231.

I look forward to hearing further from you.

Belinda Kidd

Chief Executive

Bath Festivals

JOB DESCRIPTION & PERSON SPECIFICATION

POST TITLE:Development Director

RESPONSIBLE TO:Chief Executive

RESPONSIBLE FOR: Marketing & Communications Manager, Development and

Marketing Officers

Purpose of the Post

The Development Director is a key post within the Bath Festivals team, with responsibility for the company’s external communications, sponsorship and fundraising, marketing and income generation. S/he will work closely with the Chief Executive, and will act as deputy to the Chief Executive.

The core aims for the post holder are:
To reach and increase targets for revenue generation for the company from the public, trust and private sectors, from local, national and international sources.

To deliver a successful communications and marketing operation for the company.

To manage other staff engaged in Sales, Development, Marketing & Communications and, in partnership with the Chief Executive, to manage the contribution of Board, other staff and freelance contractors in sales, fundraising, marketing, communications, PR and external relations.

Principal Accountabilities

  1. To advise and brief the Chief Executive, Board members, Artistic Directors, and other staff and co-ordinate their efforts as part of sales and fundraising activity, working in close liaison with each staff or project team.
  1. To research, devise and implement short and long-term strategies and plans in order to maintain and develop sponsorship, ticket sales and private sector fundraising income from the UK and internationally for Bath International Music Festival, Bath Literature Festival, Bath Festival of Children’s Literature, the company’s Learning and Participation programme, other events and series, Bath Festivals’ Box Office and other initiatives, through a range of benefits, packages and schemes including sponsorship, patronage, donations, covenants, endowments and help in kind.
  2. To ensure and oversee the coherence and integration of the company’s strategies and plans in marketing, communications, PR and fundraising.
  1. To develop and oversee the management of Friends and other loyalty and membership schemes for the company and its component activities, in order to maximise support from individuals and audience members.
  1. To research, devise and implement plans in order to maintain and develop public sector income from the UK and overseas through arts, social and other funding sources; and assist and liaise with the Chief Executive and the Board in maintaining and developing the company’s relationships with core public funders.
  1. To raise funds for company activities through the trust sector.
  1. To develop the international dimension of fundraising from various sources.
  1. To manage and co-ordinate the work of any other staff members or freelance contractors engaged in fundraising for company activities.
  1. To budget for, forecast targets and monitor achievement in all fundraising for the company, presenting targets, budgets and forecasts to the Chief Executive and Board for consideration and approval.
  1. To meet income targets and expenditure budgets as agreed with the Board and Chief Executive.
  1. To set up, co-ordinate and manage the work of any fundraising committees or groups established with or by the Board.
  1. To negotiate mutually beneficial contracts with sponsors; oversee the development of benefits for all donation schemes; and ensure compliance with conditions of public and trust funding applications and agreements.
  1. To oversee and ensure the correct management and delivery of the contractual benefits, funding agreements, donor benefits, practical arrangements and conditions of grant or donation in respect of all sources of income raised.
  1. To oversee the marketing operation of the company
  1. To develop new ideas for business development and earned income
  2. To undertake and/or manage relevant research into all aspects of the work within the job description and to prepare management reports as required.
  1. To advise the Chief Executive, staff, Board and others as appropriate on the company’s external relations with local authorities, institutions, and other public and private organisations and individuals, including those within the remit of direct fundraising.
  1. To oversee the management of - and assist the Chief Executive, board and staff in developing - the company’s activities in external relations (e.g. web profile, newsletters, public meetings, invitations and other communication and cultivation activities).
  1. To raise the profile of the company through an effective public and media relations operation, liaising closely with staff and freelancers, ensuring coherence in the company’s overall approach.
  1. To represent the company as required in external relations activities.
  1. To act as a member of the core management group with the Chief Executive and Financial Controller (agreeing plans, budgets, reporting to the board)
  1. To line manage the Marketing and Communications Manager, the Marketing Officer and the Development officer
  2. To act as deputy to the Chief Executive in their absence.
  1. To participate in Planning Group and/or other similar internal senior management meetings.
  1. To take a reasonable share with other colleagues of various general office administration duties.
  1. And other duties commensurate with the post that shall from time to time be determined by the Chief Executive.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Experience

Essential

  • a successful track-record in major fundraising and income generation, including securing sponsorship from the private sector and individual donations
  • managing and sustaining funds received from corporate sponsors and individual donors
  • a track record of achievement against sales and fundraising targets – and of maintaining and extending targets
  • demonstrable success in marketing and/or audience development
  • successful income diversification /business development, ideally in an arts environment
  • managing a team

Desirable

  • public and media relations in respect of arts promoting organisations
  • arts management/administration
  • raising and managing funds from charitable trusts
  • raising and managing funds from the public sector
  • growing audiences for artistic work

Skills

Essential

  • Negotiation and delivery skills within sponsorship, sales and business development
  • Setting and meeting targets
  • Developing markets and new opportunities
  • High level written and verbal communication skills, including negotiation, advocacy, and consultation
  • Proven leadership and team management skills, including evidence of having developed staff and led successful teams
  • Proficiency in the use of IT
  • Proven ability to plan proactively and prioritise
  • Strong interpersonal skills: ability to develop a rapport with a wide range of people; readiness to demonstrate tact and sensitivity in a complex local political environment; ability to cement and maintain partnerships
  • The ability to analyse and make effective use of performance information

Desirable

  • Professional fundraising and/or marketing qualifications

Knowledge

Essential

  • effective practice in securing sponsorship from the private sector
  • a range of approaches to securing support from individual donors
  • familiarity with marketing techniques including brand development and positioning, targeted communications etc
  • how to deploy social media to marketing advantage

Desirable

  • the private sector in Bath and the South West
  • the UK cultural scene, in particular music and/or literature
  • Arts Council England priorities and long term strategic thinking
  • the current economic environment and its impact on public funding, in particular its impact on local authority funding
  • Bath and the history of the festivals
  • the South West arts scene

Personal

  • a collaborative and approachable style.
  • ability to balance your expert opinion against advice from others
  • ability to work under pressure and to manage competing agendas
  • willingness to work long hours and weekends, particularly during the Festivals

ABOUT BATH FESTIVALS

Bath Festivals

Bath Festivals has five main areas of activity: the annual Bath International Music Festival, Bath Literature Festival, and the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature; an associated year-round learning and participation programme in the B&NES area and a year-round Bath Festivals Box Office.

The company is a long-established charitably registered independent arts company, receiving core funding from Bath & North East Somerset Council (B&NES) and Arts Council England. Other key sources of income are ticket and other sales, contributions from trust funds, private donors and a range of commercial sponsors.

Our current turnover is approximately £1.2m per annum and we employ a core permanent staff with a number of freelance contracts to plan Festival programmes and other activities.

Over the next three or four years the company’s work is set to develop significantly guided by a 4 Year Plan that seeks to provide an increased range of cultural activities in the area whilst increasing all sources of earned income, especially fundraising. Like most arts organisations, the organisation faces reductions in public funding and a demanding economic environment.

Bath Festivals has a committed and skilled permanent staff, and a team of highly talented Artistic Directors: Joanna MacGregor, who directs the Music Festival, James Runcie, the Literature Festival, and John and Gill McLay, the founders of the Festival of Children’s Literature. The new Chief Executive, Belinda Kidd, took up her post on 1st November 2010, bringing substantial experience from a long career in the arts. The organization is currently on a good financial footing, with a reasonable level of reserves.

Jane Drabble, who has a background in broadcasting, the arts, and public policy, was appointed Chair just over six months ago and the Board is strong, energetic and committed.

Bath International Music Festival

Inaugurated in 1948, the Festival has an illustrious artistic history and has long been a well-established event of national significance and international reputation. It takes place annually over 12 days in late May/early June, presenting a range of high quality events including orchestral, chamber and contemporary classical music, contemporary jazz, world music, electronica, multimedia installations, talks and films. The programme takes place mainly in city venues and also includes free outdoor events, including the opening night ‘Party in the City’ which attracts thousands of local performers and an audience of up to 16,000. In addition there is a developing programme of events in the surrounding towns and villages of the North East Somerset local authority area.

Well before Bath became a fashionable destination, the city was attracting audiences for its music, with Queen Elizabeth I visiting to hear the choristers from Wells perform at Bath Abbey. With a rich musical background that was firmly cemented by Beau Nash’s introduction of an Orchestra in Orange Grove in the early 1700’s, it seemed only natural that Bath should organise its own music festival, yet it was not until 1948 that a proposal to do so was made.

After initial success both culturally and financially the city took it upon itself to organise an annual event and the Bath International Music Festival has been in existence since 1948. Over the last 62 years the Festival has been host to many internationally acclaimed artists and has showcased many spectacular events including the now famous collaboration between Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar.

2006 saw the latest major development with the appointment of pianist and composer Joanna MacGregor as Artistic Director. Her vibrancy and enthusiasm have re-shaped the Festival and brought new audiences to this long-standing institution. Her introduction of a new format to the Festival saw a number of areas of the contemporary music scene introduced into the programme for the first time, and a return to cross-genre collaborations and Festival commissions. These have included Brian Eno creating new work in Bath Abbey alongside Bath Camerata and Joanna herself, collaborations between Tunisian oud player and singer Dhafer Youssef and Britten Sinfonia, and a major world premiere by jazz composer Jason Yarde for the great South African singer Sibongile Khumalo and singers from Soweto. The range of venues has expanded, and the series ‘On the Edge of Life’ has annually examined wider social issues (such as homelessness and adoption) through music and multimedia, with collaborators such as The Royal College of Art and writer and cultural historian Marina Warner.

The 2007, 2008 and 2009 Festivals saw further success in artistic terms, an increase in ticket sales and a broadening of the core audience. The 2010 programme expanded the remit further in all directions, featuring (among many other highlights of music from across the world) newly commissioned dance and music from English National Ballet and ECM trumpeter Arve Henriksen, Handel’s oratorio Israel in Egypt staged in the Roman Baths, Motown stars Martha and the Vandellas, and the singers and dancers of Georgia’s spine-tingling Rustavi Ensemble.

Bath Literature Festival

Since 1995, Bath Literature Festival has showcased the best local, national and international writers to an ever-increasing audience. The ten-day event takes place in late February/early March. The aim is both ambitious and simple – to be the most intelligent, the most entertaining, and the most thought-provoking Literature Festival in Britain.

The Literature Festival has become an important date on the national circuit, playing host to an array of journalists, novelists, poets, politicians, actors, comedians, scriptwriters and biographers. An intensive programme, embracing over one hundred and fifty events, offers up a shared opportunity to think about what it means to be alive; here and now.

Under its new Artistic Director, novelist and film-maker James Runcie, the Festival has begun to expand the elements of debate and enquiry, making Bath a focal point for discourse and ideas. Morning walks and talks, lunchtime debates and evening performances form the core of a themed programme of carefully chosen events.

In 2010, James Runcie’s highly successful first programme featured conversations with Hilary Mantel, Kate Mosse, Kamila Shamsie, Rose Tremain, A.N Wilson, Claire Tomalin, and Michael Frayn; debates with Andrew Rawnsley, Tristram Hunt, Natasha Walter, Mary Beard and Peter Hitchens; and performances from Sandi Toksvig, Carol Ann Duffy, Bill Paterson, Shazia Mirza, and A.L. Kennedy. It demonstrated how the Festival can offer audiences exhilarating debate, controversy, inspiration and involvement.

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Bath Festival of Children’s Literature

The Bath Festival of Children’s Literature was established in 2007 by Bath-based Children’s Publishing professionals Gill and John McLay. In 2010 ownership of the Bath Kids Lit Fest transferred to Bath Festivals, with the McLays retained as Artistic Directors.