Partnerships and Events Manager

Plant Heritage is looking for a Partnerships and Events Manager to help us to grow our profile and our network of supporters, so we can expand our plant conservation work. This is a key role in the team, working closely with the CEO, membership team and local groups.

Who we’re looking for

This could be for you if you’re great with people and juggling different tasks, able to communicate our work clearly to different audiences, and passionate about helping us to succeed. You don’t have to be a plant expert, but you’ll enjoy the role more if you love plants. You need to be prepared for busy days and some occasional weekend working during the show season (April to July), including the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May 2026. 

About Us

Plant Heritage is a charity, founded in 1978 with a unique mission to protect the diversity of garden plants across the UK and Ireland. We are the home of the National Plant Collections® and the Plant Guardian® scheme. With our thousands of members and volunteers, we are safeguarding around 100,000 plants by growing them, sharing them and recording information about them. Find out more from our website, and the Information Booklet provided on our recruitment page.

The Role

As a small team, we work closely together. Your key responsibilities will be as follows:

• Shows and events: creating engaging displays at major flower shows to increase understanding of and support for our work, working closely with National Plant Collection holders and our dedicated volunteers. Also organising an interesting programme of talks/workshops/events for our membership and other stakeholders (in person and online), liaising with local groups and the rest of the team.
• Membership and supporters: working with the membership team and our membership and supporters committee to grow and diversify our membership, and to support our network of local groups across the UK.
• Corporate partners and major donors: strengthening current relationships and developing new partnerships, supported by the CEO and a professional fundraiser.
• Publications: overseeing publication of our highly respected Plant Heritage Journal (twice a year, working with the Editor) and our annual National Collections Directory.
• Comms and PR: continuing to raise our profile through publicity around events and contributing content for social media/website/press releases/newsletters/giving interviews. Supported by a freelance comms professional. Media training provided.

With the CEO, you’ll also be responsible for helping to create a supportive work environment for the team, and ensuring Plant Heritage’s work is managed effectively and efficiently, in line with UK charity rules. You’ll have line management responsibilities for the membership team (2 staff, part-time). You’ll work regularly with volunteers and be responsible for ensuring they receive the right support and guidance.

Key Skills and Experience

We’re open-minded about where you’ve come from and value diversity and inclusion. If you think you can meet most of the criteria we’ve asked for and you’re committed to learn, please get in touch. Please also let us know if you need any reasonable adjustments.

• Excellent organisational skills: strong track record of juggling a range of different tasks, to different deadlines (short and long term). Calm under pressure. Good eye for detail, from budgets to visual displays.
• Sound judgement: happy to take responsibility for important areas of work and for people’s health and safety. Happy to work with minimal oversight once up to speed.
• Excellent communication and listening skills: building and maintaining good relationships, in person and online. Negotiation/influencing skills (e.g. asking for money!) Creating engaging comms content for different audiences, including text/photos (you don’t need to be a pro, but happy to get stuck in).
• Digital confidence: ss well as standard Microsoft programmes, you’ll be using our customer relationship management system (Donorfy), editing content for the website, organising meetings in Zoom and Eventbrite etc. Training can be provided.
• Great team player: flexible and able to adjust your style to whatever needs doing, especially when building show displays. Work well on your own or with others, including people of different ages, backgrounds and spread across the UK.

NB Some travel around the UK will be required, especially for shows and events. Not all venues are accessible by public transport, and we are often taking things with us, so a driving licence is important and access to a car would be useful. If you do not have this, please let us know and we can discuss possible alternatives.

Working for us

We are advertising this as a full-time role (37.5 hrs plus breaks) but we are open to part time working, with a minimum of 3 days a week and flexibility around shows/events. We have an office next to the beautiful RHS garden at Wisley, Woking (shuttle available from Woking station). You will need to be in the office at least 2 days a week. Beyond that, you can work from home on other days if you prefer (we will provide a laptop). 

The full-time salary is £35-38,000, depending on experience. We offer a defined contribution pension (5% of your gross salary) and 23 days holiday a year, plus 8 bank holidays/statutory holidays (adjusted pro rata if you work reduced hours). We provide time off in lieu if we need to ask you to work in the evenings or at weekends/bank holidays (e.g. for events).

Start date

As the role is vacant we’re looking for someone to start as soon as possible, but we’re also prepared to wait for the right person.