Job Title: Head of Major Giving - Trusts & Foundations and Individual Donors
Reporting to: Director of Fundraising and Development
Location of work: Home based. The post holder will be expected to travel to meet donors, travel to away days and team meetings in London. The role may involve some irregular travel throughout England and Scotland. Expenses will be paid in line with our Travel and Expenses policy.
Contract type: Ideally full-time, 35 hours per week, 28 hours or 35 hours compressed would be considered.
Contract Length: This is a fixed term contract starting ASAP for 12 months.
Salary: £48,500
Visa sponsorship: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Magic Breakfast is not able to offer visa sponsorship.
JOB PURPOSE
This is a unique opportunity to step into a pivotal leadership role during an exciting period of transformation at Magic Breakfast. As Head of Major Giving (Maternity Cover), you will shape and deliver our strategy for high-value income generation across philanthropy and trusts and foundations, while embedding a newly merged team and fostering a culture of one unified, high-performing team within Major Giving and more widely as part of Fundraising and Development.
You will lead a team of five people, line managing and working closely with two Major Giving Leads, empowering them and co-creating a Major Giving strategy that fully seizes the opportunities presented by our refreshed organisational strategy. You will also oversee a well-established Trusts and Foundations portfolio and a group of highly engaged individual donors, maintaining and growing these important relationships whilst helping to provide strategic and targeted support across pipeline development.
This role offers a chance to make a tangible difference by bringing together two recently merged teams, embedding new ways of working, and setting up structures for long-term success. You will have a dotted-line relationship with the Business Development Manager (Scotland), enabling you to ensure joined-up major giving approaches across the UK and unlock exciting opportunities in Scotland.
We are looking for a natural relationship-builder with a proven track record of securing six- and seven-figure gifts, outstanding communication skills, and the ability to inspire donors, colleagues, and external stakeholders alike. As part of the Fundraising Leadership team, you will deputise for the Director of Fundraising and Development when needed and collaborate across the organisation to implement, monitor, and adapt our fundraising strategy, maximising the impact of major giving.
This is a rare chance to leave your mark on a highly visible and strategically important function, shaping a newly merged team, influencing our major giving strategy, and contributing to the long-term success of Magic Breakfast.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop and deliver an integrated Major Giving strategy covering philanthropy and trusts & foundations with clear objectives and KPIs for income and performance and an embedded review, learn and continuously improve culture.
- Provide strong leadership across the Major Giving team, ensuring delegation and empowerment whilst also setting clear direction that helps to mitigate challenges and unlock and seize on opportunities.
- As part of the wider leadership team, play a key role in ensuring effective delivery of the fundraising strategy, organisational goals and our long-term strategic vision.
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Oversee a collaborative approach to prospect research and pipeline development to ensure a sustainable flow of opportunities, working with colleagues from across the wider department to leverage opportunities for referrals and pipeline development.
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Work across the organisation to package innovative and compelling projects for funding. Maintain a strong knowledge of the organisation strategy, business plan and opportunities for innovation, to identify and build compelling giving propositions, wish lists and a persuasive case for support including non-financial asks.
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Prepare phased budgets and reforecasts, identifying and recognising opportunities and risks to income in line with activity plans and progress.
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Work with finance and performance and relevant business leads to manage programme budgets and restrictions.
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Foster strong communication and collaboration with the Business Development Manager (Scotland), ensuring effective two-way sharing of insight, alignment on donor and funder relationships, and joined-up approaches to national and devolved opportunities.
WHAT WE OFFER
At Magic Breakfast we value our employees and work hard to develop offer a supportive, respectful culture which enables everyone to bring their whole self to work.
Please see our website for more infromation and our job pack
APPLICATION PROCCESS
Should you wish to discuss the role before applying please email our People and Culture Team, recruitment @ magicbreakfast. com
Shortlisting - 12th - 14th January
Interview 1 - 19th OR 20th January
Interview 2 - 23rd January
We reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately, once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.
Thank you!
The Royal Ballet and Opera continues to lead the way in opera, ballet, music and dance both live on stage and through multiple digital platforms, from live streaming to worldwide cinema screenings. Our Covent Garden theatre has been at the heart of London and British cultural life for three centuries. We are home to two world-class Companies: The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera.
The Royal Opera House describes the place we work, not who we are. The whole is always more than the sum of its parts – we may be a House, but three quarters of our audiences experience what we do outside this building. While our Covent Garden theatre is the nerve centre, the impact and influence of the organisation can be felt in every corner of the country, and around the world.
The Development and Advocacy Department are looking to appoint an experienced fundraising professional who will work closely with the senior team on strategy development, generating opportunities to increase philanthropic giving by attracting new and lasting relationships and high value donors. Individually, you will make a substantial contribution to the current targets by managing and developing a portfolio of significant relationships, working to department best practice.
The ideal candidate for this post will be a team player with excellent communication and relationship management skills. You will play an active role in mentoring and developing junior members of the team and show your potential as a future leader. You will be able to demonstrate:
- A proven track record of securing major gifts and managing high-value donor relationships.
- Experience in developing and implementing fundraising strategies, prospecting plans, proposal writing and project management.
- Strong people management skills.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to engage credibly at senior levels.
- Strong understanding of fundraising compliance, tax-efficient giving, and donor stewardship best practices.
- Credibility and gravitas to engage confidently with senior stakeholders and donors.
- Strong relationship-building, networking, and influencing skills.
A background in the arts is not essential, though an interest in/the aptitude to upskill quickly in our art forms will be highly regarded. A firm understanding of the UK Philanthropic community and landscape is critical.
To submit your application, please provide a supporting statement that outlines how your skills and experience match the essential criteria listed above. Your supporting statement will be reviewed by the shortlisting panel, so please do take the time to consider your response and use this to highlight your suitability for, and interest in, the role.
We recommend drafting your response in a separate document and then copying the final version into the application form. Please note that as part of our commitment to anonymised shortlisting, panels do not view CVs during the recruitment process. If you choose to upload your CV, our system will automatically pull information from your CV into our application form.
The Royal Ballet and Opera is one of the UK’s leading arts organisations and our aim is to inspire imagination, ignite emotion and make the extraordinary for everyone. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion underpin all that we do. We want our people to be representative of the diversity in the UK. We understand the creativity and innovation that diversity can bring and strive to create an inclusive environment in which everyone can thrive.
We encourage applications from people with a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and skills to join our teams. We particularly welcome applications from those who are from a global majority background and/or those who are disabled, as they are under-represented within our organisation.
We are a Disability Confident Employer, which means that we are actively working to ensure that candidates with disabilities and long-term health conditions feel supported, engaged and able to fulfil their potential in the workplace. We will endeavour to offer an interview to candidates who tell us they wish to participate in the scheme and who demonstrate in their application that they meet the essential criteria for the role, though sometimes due to the volume of qualified candidates with declarations this is not possible.
The RBO is also committed to safeguarding and protecting all children, young people, and adults and we implement robust safer recruitment practices. Due to our safeguarding promise, certain roles will be subject to a DBS check before commencing employment with us, which will be indicated in the advertising.
Closing date for applications: Midnight, 5th January 2026.
Interviews will be held across 2 stages - the first online via MS Teams and the second in person at the ROH Covent Garden.
Applicants must have work authorisation for the UK. No agencies.
Registered Charity
501 - 1000
Our Covent Garden theatre has been at the heart of London and British cultural life for three centuries. We are home to two world-class Companies.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.