Development and Alumni Engagement Assistant

Highgate School; Greater London; On-site; GBP 24,000 - 28,000; Full time

Job summary

An educational institution in Greater London seeks a Development and Alumni Engagement Assistant to support fundraising efforts and alumni outreach. The role involves organizing events, managing databases, and enhancing communications within a collaborative team. Ideal candidates will possess graduate-level education, excellent English skills, and a proactive, flexible attitude. This position offers hands-on experience in a supportive environment dedicated to educational opportunities and charity initiatives.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Comprehensive induction support

Access to sports facilities

Complimentary lunch

Flexible working options

Qualifications

• Transferable experience in events management or office management.
• Experience in the charitable or voluntary sector is preferable.
• Ability to work calmly under pressure and manage diverse workloads.

Responsibilities

• Support the delivery of high-quality alumni and fundraising initiatives.
• Assist day-to-day operations and key project delivery.
• Manage donor and alumni records in Raiser’s Edge database.

Skills

Excellent written and spoken English

Strong organizational skills

Ability to prioritize

Confident in building relationships

Numerate and confident in handling financial data

Flexible with a 'can-do' approach

Education

Educated to graduate level or equivalent

Tools

Raiser’s Edge

Microsoft packages

Job description

Development and Alumni Engagement Assistant

• Job title: Development and Alumni Engagement Assistant
• Job Type: Permanent, 8am-5pm, Term Time Only + 4 weeks
• Salary: £24,168 pro‑rated salary (FTE £27,560). If full pension flex benefit utilised pro‑rated salary would be £27,529.
• Department: Development and Alumni Engagement Office
• Reporting to: Development Manager
• Location: Highgate, London
• Start: ASAP
• Closing Date: 23 January 2026 at 9:00 am

Join Highgate’s Development and Alumni Engagement team in a key role supporting bursary fundraising and alumni engagement. This is a varied role and offers hands‑on experience in communications, events, and database administration, giving you the chance to develop your skills in a supportive, positive and ambitious environment. Motivated by making a difference, you’ll play a key part in advancing educational opportunity and social mobility while contributing to Highgate’s bold charitable mission.

This is a term‑time + 4 weeks role with some out‑of‑hours work required as part of our engagement and events programme. Out‑of‑hours work is recognised and compensated through our TOIL policy.

As Development and Alumni Engagement Assistant you will:

• Be enthusiastic, personable and motivated by making a difference to the educational opportunities of children and young people.
• Work closely with the Development and Alumni Engagement team to help deliver an ambitious strategy to advance fundraising at Highgate, contributing to key projects and the delivery of high‑quality alumni, stewardship and major fundraising initiatives.
• Bring excellent organisational skills, the ability to prioritise effectively, and confidence in building relationships with colleagues and stakeholders.
• Be managed by our experienced Development Manager to give you support in ensuring the smooth running of day‑to‑day operations.
• Be part of a vibrant, diverse and welcoming community. We currently employ around 650 people who work together to maintain and develop our leading co‑educational school for pupils aged 4‑18.

The Department

The Development and Alumni Engagement Department at Highgate School is a team of six people responsible for delivering on Highgate School’s enduring commitment to public benefit. We do this by fundraising for bursaries for children from the age of seven and for our partnership work, primarily with our sibling school, LAE Tottenham with whom we work closely. By providing opportunities for generations of alumni to re‑connect with each other through events and regular communications, we also help to ensure that the Highgate community endures, and that alumni can play a meaningful role in the school’s future as volunteers and donors.

Our team is small, with both defined roles and opportunities to collaborate on campaigns and special projects, such as Giving Day. The Development Director has a consulting background with experience of coaching, training, and developing fundraisers and leaders, and has a deep commitment to the professional development of team members. In this role you will benefit from this, whether transferring from a different sector or building on existing experience.

As Development and Alumni Engagement Assistant you’ll report to the Development Manager, working day‑to‑day with them, as well as providing support for the rest of the team in the delivery of key events, communications and operations.

“Highgate has allowed me to experience things I never would have dreamed to experience, meet people so unique I never would have approached them if I hadn’t been in the same class as them, and given me a positive outlook on a future that is both wide open, and full of opportunity. Thank you, Highgate!” – A bursary recipient, class of 2022

Key Responsibilities

Events and Communications:

• Supporting the delivery of high‑quality alumni, stewardship and major fundraising initiatives such as communications and events, e.g. coordinating logistics, and liaising with internal and external vendors.
• Supporting the delivery of fundraising and alumni events, including setting up and managing event records and registration forms in Raiser’s Edge and NXT, processing payments and refunds via BBMS, maintaining accurate guest and donor data, and providing and maintaining timely guest‑list reports to support team‑wide event coordination.

Administrative Support for the Development and Alumni Engagement team:

• Working across all areas of the department to support the smooth running of day‑to‑day operations and delivery of key projects, such as Giving Day, our annual 48‑hour, mass participation fundraising campaign.
• Taking minutes and supporting the administration of key team meetings, and external meetings, such as the termly OC Committee meeting.
• Dealing with general and development‑related enquiries on the telephone, in writing or by email from alumni and parents.

Gift and Database Administration:

• Working closely with the Development Services Manager to ensure donor and alumni records are accurately maintained and updated using the Raiser’s Edge database. This will include data cleaning tasks in preparation for migration to the new database in 2026.
• Gift administration: processing donations, ensuring timely and personalised acknowledgment letters and receipts are sent to donors.

Being an Advocate of Highgate School Charity:

• Participating fully as a team member and member of Highgate staff, contributing to key campaigns and activities within the Development and Alumni Engagement Office, and to the positive, outward‑looking welcoming staff culture.

Person Specification

• Criteria
• How will these be tested or verified?
• Qualifications
  • Essential – Educated to graduate level or equivalent.
• Experience
  • Essential – Transferable experience, gained in sectors such as events management, office management, marketing, the charitable or voluntary sector, a start‑up, or education.
  • Desirable – Working in an educational institution (e.g. a university or a school). Knowledge of database systems commonly used in fundraising management e.g. Raiser’s Edge, Donor Strategy, etc.
• Skills/Knowledge
  • Essential
    • Excellent written and spoken English.
    • Proven ability to prioritise, demonstrate initiative and creatively problem solve.
    • First‑rate administrative skills demonstrated in either professional or educational settings.
    • Communicate effectively through written, visual and digital channels with a wide variety of people.
    • Numerate and confident in handling financial data.
    • Flexible with a ‘can‑do’ approach.
    • The ability to work independently and imaginatively, and as a part of a team, and to take initiative.
    • Work calmly under pressure and manage a diverse workload within tight deadlines.
    • Ensure a high level of attention to detail and accuracy in all work undertaken.
  • Desirable
    • Prior experience in administrative roles and event organisation.
    • Awareness and understanding of safeguarding and welfare of children.
    • Knowledge of Microsoft packages.
• Personal Attributes
  • Essential
    • Commitment to Highgate’s ethos.
    • Highly motivated.
    • High levels of personal integrity and maturity.
    • Strong written and verbal communication skills.
    • A willingness to travel in the UK, and to work outside normal office hours.
    • Diplomacy and tact.
    • The ability to maintain in strictest confidence any information received concerning School matters.
    • A positive, flexible and responsive attitude and approach to work.
  • Desirable
    • A willingness to be involved in the wider life of the School.

Location and Benefits

Location: Highgate Village, adjacent to Hampstead Heath, with quaint shops and easy connections across London.

Pension: AVIVA workplace pension scheme offered with a generous 26% employer contribution, with the ability to flex up to 16% of this as additional non‑pensionable salary; employees contribute a minimum of 5%.

Personal Development: Comprehensive induction support for new staff and focus on continued professional development for all employees.

Leisure Facilities: Free access, at stipulated times, to our sports facilities, including a fitness suite and swimming pool (recently refurbished).

Lunch: A complimentary lunch.

Sustainable Travel: Access to the Cycle to Work Scheme and a Season Ticket Loan scheme for public transport.

Family‑Friendly Policies: Highgate appreciates that employees sometimes have family commitments, so we try to be as supportive as possible, for example with enhanced maternity pay (8 weeks’ full pay, then 10 weeks’ half pay) and paid dependent leave.

Working at Highgate

A Culture of Community, Kindness and Belonging

Highgate is a caring, open‑minded community, where we promote kindness, empathy and friendship. Everyone who works and studies with us deserves to feel they are part of a welcoming environment that enables them to be themselves and to thrive as individuals.

Our community extends beyond the school, through partnerships, charity work and our commitment to equality, inclusion and sustainability. All members of our school community are encouraged to look outwards and play an active role.

Following a visit from the Independent Schools Inspectorate in September 2024 to assess Highgate’s regulatory compliance and school standards, we are pleased to share the inspection findings, which report compliance in all five areas and a ‘significant strength’ in our teaching expertise.

Highgate is committed to staff wellbeing, which we promote by encouraging a strong work‑life balance; trying our best to support flexible working requests; providing a nutritious complimentary lunch in the dining hall, and offering access to sporting facilities including our recently renovated swimming pool.

The Staff Wellbeing Committee, with representatives across the School, meets regularly to drive forward initiatives, and a selection of staff have been trained as Mental‑Health First Aiders.

We encourage an open culture throughout our school, with regular staff surveys, action committees and opportunities to give feedback. We strive for continual learning and improvement, and staff training and development is paramount. There are opportunities to participate in the wider life of our school, such as taking part in trips or societies and getting involved in partnership projects.

More details about working at Highgate can be found here.

Charitable Work and Sustainability

As an independent school, we want to use our position as a charity effectively: to make high‑quality education accessible to as many children as possible – through our bursary programme at Highgate and through our work with local state schools. We have partnerships with over 60 state schools across 7 London boroughs, and we are the principal educational sponsor for London Academy of Excellence, Tottenham – an academically‑selective state sixth form in a community where such opportunities are lacking.

Alongside this, our staff and pupils undertake charitable activities throughout the year. These range from staff giving up their time to neighbourhood schools and charitable organisations, focused fundraising campaigns, to pupils undertaking community work in the local area or further afield.

We have a central role to play in educating our pupils, staff and parents about the importance of environmental sustainability. We are taking positive action to adapt our operational performance to tackle the negative effects of climate change. We encourage all our staff to reflect upon their personal and professional practices, to support our environmental agenda and to make positive changes wherever possible.

Early Application: Applications will be considered ‘as and when’ received and we may close the vacancy if we appoint before the closing date.

We know that more diverse teams are stronger teams, and that the more inclusive we are, the more our staff and pupils will feel a sense of belonging and will thrive. To enable us to make reasonable adjustments, please let us know of any disabilities (including neuro‑divergence) when you submit your application.

Safeguarding

As this role will have regular unsupervised contact with children you must, if appointed, comply with Highgate’s Safeguarding Policy and Staff Code of Conduct. If, in the course of carrying out the duties of the post, the post holder becomes aware of any actual or potential risks to the safety and welfare of our pupils, these concerns must be reported immediately in accordance with the Safeguarding Policy. If, whilst in the post, Highgate becomes aware of any safeguarding concerns to staff, pupils or the community, these will need to be followed up in line with the safeguarding policy and code of conduct which is underpinned by KCSE and other legislation. These concerns may need to be shared with other agencies. A copy of these policies will accompany all offers of employment. Training will also be provided to all staff to support Safeguarding practice.

Please Read Before You Apply

Highgate is committed to the safeguarding and welfare of children and applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening appropriate to this post, including checks with past employers, the Disclosure and Barring Service and overseas police check if necessary. Candidates from overseas must provide information about their past conduct, for example, by providing documents issued by overseas teaching authorities. This role is ‘exempt’ from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, so you are required to declare any convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings that are not protected as defined by the Act. Shortlisted candidates will be asked to provide details of all unspent convictions and those that would not be filtered, prior to the date of the interview.

In accordance with the latest guidance from KCSIE, we shall be conducting online searches on any candidates who are shortlisted.