Head of Philanthropy & Fundraising
Location: Callington, England, United Kingdom
Report To: CEO
Grade: 5
Hours: Full-time, 37.5 hours
Location: Westcountry Rivers Trusts office is in Stoke Climsland and whilst we have adopted hybrid working there is an expectation to work from the office on a regular basis and to travel to sites across the delivery area.
Westcountry Rivers Trust is recruiting a Head of Philanthropy & Fundraising.
This is a permanent contract after a successful 6 month probation period.
The starting salary for this role is £40,000 - £45,000 per annum (dependent on experience).
Benefits While Working For Westcountry Rivers Trust
- 25 days annual Leave per annum, with a reward for long service - an additional 1 day per year for each year worked over 5 years, up to a maximum of 30 days for employees serving 10 years continuous service
- Additional Leave covering the Christmas Closure period
- 9% Employer Pension, plus Life Assurance cover
- Flexible & Hybrid working
Interviews will be held in person at our offices in Stoke Climsland on 30th June or 1st July 2025.
For queries about this role or the application process please contact our recruitment team.
About The Westcountry Rivers Trust
Formed in 1994, the Trust was established to restore Westcountry rivers. Measures to protect rivers can help to save money for farmers, lower costs for water companies, boost tourism, reduce the need to dredge estuaries and even benefit human health.
Today the charity works with a wide range of stakeholders from landowners to local communities, businesses, farmers and water companies to restore and protect the rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal areas for the benefit of people, wildlife and the local economy.
Spurred by a shared love of rivers, the Westcountry Rivers Trust is very much a grassroots organisation, brought into existence from the bottom up. In the early 90s, a group of individuals, passionate - but concerned about the waterways around them, began to stitch together their ambitions for restoring Westcountry rivers, laying the foundations for the Trust we know today.
It was this new perspective not to mention the hands-on and tireless approach to river restoration that grabbed the attention of so many supporters and funders, and which lies behind the flourishing rivers trust movement. Since then, the Trust now has circa 75 employees with an annual turnover of c£3m running multi-annual projects spread across a wide range of funders.
The Trust has three main delivery teams and a support services team. Our employees work on delivery sites, from home, and from the office.
About The Role
We are seeking a highly organised, efficient and dynamic individual to take on a brand-new role co-ordinating and driving core fundraising for the Westcountry Rivers Trust, by building on the wave of interest in the plight of our Westcountry rivers. We have had considerable success with securing project funding over the last 30 years and have achieved rapid growth in delivery and impact as a result, but this only allows us to deliver what others want to fund and it is not always possible to get project funding to cover what we would like to achieve. Therefore, we need to increase core voluntary income for key activities such as maximising our education and engagement as well as supporting core functions and project development.
You should ideally have excellent people, planning and project management skills, with a proven track record in core charity fundraising. You will also have a strong commitment to our mission and a good understanding of environmental issues. Due to the importance of this function, you will be reporting directly to the Chief Executive but will link into the Trusts communications strategy and approach. If successful, we intend to grow and expand this role into a directorial position linked to our communication and advocacy work, depending on how significant this approach is compared to our current project grant and services work.
This is a moment to get involved with a dynamic and passionate grass roots charity at a crucial moment when river health and societal interest has never been greater. We need your help to build an entirely new fundraising opportunities for Westcountry Rivers Trust that allows us to engage and empower more people across the region protecting our rivers both now and in the future. In this role, you will have the opportunity to affect real, lasting impact not only on the potential of this charity to help rivers in the Westcountry, but to see real growth and development in key engagement work across the Trust.
Responsibilities
- Set out targets and a fundraising and voluntary income generation strategy for securing additional core, unrestricted funding for the Westcountry Rivers Trust from a range of sources including individual donations, legacies, philanthropic foundations, and corporate sponsorship.
- Work with the CEO and communications team to build our case for support as part of our next five-year charity plan (2025 2030)
- Managing the administration of these funding awards including application forms, supplying bank details, grant agreements and reporting on outputs/outcomes as required
- Co-ordinate internal meetings to target fundraising and following up on actions
- Devise and co-ordinate fundraising events/campaigns as per the fundraising and voluntary generation strategy.
- Maintain the fundraising and voluntary income generation strategy and plan with strong links to communications
- Take responsibility for managing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system across the organisation together with the IT Manager
- Report on progress quarterly
- Ensure Westcountry Rivers Trust complies with the fundraising code for the UK
Knowledge and Experience
- Ambitious, dedicated, well-organised self-starter
- 4+ years experience relevant for the principal roles and responsibilities of this position
- Knowledge of sources of funding in the UK
- Experience of using CRM systems
- Proven communication, influencing and networking skills
- Excellent planning and project management skills
- Ability to work with uncertainty, plan adaptively and work at pace
- First rate interpersonal skills to liaise effectively with colleagues and clients and build
- Evidence of working in cross-functional teams to achieve best possible outcomes
- Experience of submitting funding bids to tight deadlines
- A strong commitment to restoration of the water environment and a good understanding
- Enthusiasm, self-reliance, ambition, tact, discretion and charm
- The ability to translate technical and complex activities into language that non-technical
- Some knowledge of charity law and best practice, particularly around fundraising
- Experience of effectively prioritising your workload
- Passion for rivers and the environment and a want to enact change through empowering
- Reliability and strong work ethic to ensure consistency in processes
- Open/Honest/Transparent, ensures challenges are articulated calmly, assertively and in a
- Good awareness of and articulation with of the Trusts strong team ethos
- Professional approach, seeking to provide a level-headed consistent tone and working
- Enthusiastic and collaborative, builds interest within the team to tackle problems
- Ability to travel around rural area with limited public transport is advantageous
Any offer will be subject to DBS and references check. #J-18808-Ljbffr Apply
