The charity has in place a plan supporting its growth to become a £10m charity funding innovation in research, education and patient care. As it looks to create a step change in the role of philanthropy and increase its grant-making, Moorfields Eye Charity is looking for someone with experience of fundraising and fundraising governance, whether as an executive or non-executive, to join the Board of Trustees and chair the Fundraising Committee.

Time commitment: 4 Board + 5-6 Committee meetings per year + ad hoc engagement

Deadline: 15th February

Moorfields Eye Charity is an independent charity which supports pioneering eye health research and innovation at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust ("Moorfields") and the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology (“UCL”) which, combined, is the world-leading centre for eye health treatment, teaching and research.

The charity's mission is to improve eye health by funding innovation in research, education and patient care to benefit Moorfields’ patients. Funding research and education will help patients across the UK and globally. Its six-year strategy (2021 – 2027) outlines ambitious objectives for the charity and its role supporting the work of Moorfields and UCL. This brings together all aspects of its work and focuses them around a core belief, mission and vision, with five main objectives to:

1. Create a world-class integrated centre for advancing eye health, teaching and research
2. Be the leading charity for research into eye health
3. Support innovation in patient care, enhancing the patient experience
4. Support sharing knowledge and the development of people’s expertise
5. Shape national policy to increase resources allocated to eye health

Across the last three years, Moorfields Eye Charity has awarded 160 grants worth a total of £16.8m to support research, innovation in patient care, staff wellbeing and training at Moorfields and UCL. In recent years, this grant-making has grown and there are ambitious plans to increase this further to over £10m annually in the coming years. The resources to increase grant-making have come from generous donors across a wide range of philanthropic sources. The charity has recently invested in growing its fundraising capacity in order to deliver this ambitious business plan, and it knows that even more needs to be done to communicate the world-leading work which it is supporting and to demonstrate its impact on patients in the UK and globally. To support this ambition, the Board of Trustees have recently approved a new five-year fundraising strategy to 2029.

In addition to its continuing grants programmes, the charity is working in partnership with Moorfields and UCL to develop a new world-class integrated centre for advancing clinical care, teaching and research (known as Oriel), which will be located near St Pancras in London. Construction started in summer 2023 and the centre is expected to open in 2027. In partnership with UCL, it has sought to raise over £100m towards the cost of the new centre and to support world leading research and education in eye health. To date, the fundraising campaign has raised £72.5m against the joint capital fundraising target of £80m and significant progress has been made against its £25m research and education target in line with business-as-usual fundraising activity.

You can find out more information about the charity's Strategy 2021-2027, about the impact of its work in its Impact Report 2023, and about Oriel.

The Board currently comprises 11 Trustees under the leadership of Chair, Mervyn Walker, who will be concluding his term later this year. The majority of Trustees are independent, but a minority are appointed by Moorfields.

Trustees:

• Ensure that the charity pursues its objectives as defined in its Articles and uses its resources exclusively in pursuance of its objectives
• Contribute actively to the Board of Trustees’ role in giving firm strategic direction to the charity, setting overall policy, defining goals and setting targets and evaluating performance against those objectives
• Ensure the financial stability of the charity, making sure that robust systems are in place for internal financial control and the protection of the charity’s funds and assets
• Safeguard the good name and values of the charity and wherever possible play a strong ambassadorial role, helping to raise the profile of the charity and to promote charitable giving for the benefit of the organisation, both with regards to Oriel and generally
• Act in the best interests of the charity, beneficiaries and future beneficiaries at all times and avoid any personal conflict of interest

The Board has an established committee structure to support in the governance of the charity; there are seven board sub-committees reporting to the Board, each of which is chaired by an independent Trustee and has other Trustee members. In addition, some committees have additional members who also serve in a voluntary capacity but who are not Trustees.

Following the recent death of Professor Sir Eric Thomas, a distinguished clinician and scientific researcher and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol, the successful candidate will succeed him on the Trustee Board and as Chair of the Fundraising Committee, which oversees the charity's income-generation activities.

As it looks beyond the success of fundraising for Oriel, to create a step change in the role of fundraising, embed a culture of philanthropy and increase its grant-making, Moorfields Eye Charity is looking for someone with experience of fundraising and fundraising governance, whether as an executive or non-executive, to join the Board of Trustees and chair the Fundraising Committee.

Candidates will not be expected to contribute directly in fundraising, but will instead be able to use their prior exposure to this area to guide on strategy and implementation and to ensure that it is governed correctly. This may have been gained as a senior executive in a not-for-profit or public organisation with a significant level of fundraising, or through relevant trustee experience for this type of organisation. They will be able to act as an effective sounding board as Moorfields Eye Charity embarks on a new, five-year fundraising strategy, building on its Oriel fundraising campaign and broadening its base of committed supporters.

In addition it would be desirable if the person had experience in one or more of the following: communications and PR; medicine; the health sector and the role of hospitals in the NHS; research-based organisations and the higher education sector; charity trusteeship.

Above all, applicants will have an interest in and commitment to the mission, vision and values of Moorfields Eye Charity, and the work which it does to improve the lives of those affected by sight loss. They will inspire confidence and trust, and will bring sound, independent judgement to matters which come to the Board and Committee, as well as a commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion.

Mervyn Walker, Chair

Michael Izza, Vice Chair

Shachi Blakemore

Noland Carter

Dr Lee-Ann Coleman

Kevin McGrath OBE DL

Dr Robert Jones

Dr Martin Kuper

Professor Dame Carrie MacEwen

Miss Louisa Wickham

Dr Jyotsna Vohra

You can find out more about the Board here.

This role is unremunerated, but reasonable, pre-agreed travel expenses will be reimbursed.

The Board meets four times per year (currently a Monday afternoon in March, July, September and December). Occasionally the Board may be consulted between meetings. A board away day is held every other year. Additional time will be needed for induction as a Trustee. The Fundraising Committee meets three to four times per year, with the Chair also engaging on an ad hoc basis with the Director of Development and attending events.

Committee chairs are also appointed to the Nominations Committee, which meets twice per year.

In-person attendance at Board and Committee meetings is preferred. Board and Committee meetings are held at Moorfields or elsewhere in central London. Candidates will therefore be UK-based.