Development assistant climate change jobs

Are you interested in playing your part in making a difference to our world? Come and join our team as a Philanthropy Manager - we are hiring here at ClientEarth!

This role offers the chance to join a high‑performing, deeply collaborative Philanthropy Team within ClientEarth’s Development Department, working closely with major donors, trusts, and foundations across multiple countries.

Important dates to Note: Applications close on 20 July 2026 and if you are requested to submit additional information, the deadline to have this submitted is the morning of 22nd of July for your application to be fully considered. Please also remember to check our recruitment process section at the bottom of the advert to get acquainted with our recruitment process for this role.

Key Responsibilities

• Build a resilient donor pipeline and manage prospects and donors through each stage of the pipeline.
• Actively solicit and manage donor relationships across assigned portfolio to achieve global philanthropy income target with a focus on building new income and unrestricted income
• Work with the Global Head of Philanthropy and Lead to implement agreed fundraising strategies across geographies
• Collaborating with the team to implement the Philanthropy strategy as part of the overall Global Fundraising strategy, liaising with leadership, programme leads, communications and finance to ensure ClientEarth maximises potential income from corporate, restricted and unrestricted income streams

See the job description for a full list of duties for this role.

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

• Fundraising management experience working in major donor fundraising.
• Demonstrable experience of securing five (or higher) figure gifts as well as multi-year commitments including unrestricted income.
• Good knowledge of donor and pipeline management, and financial processes 
• Previous line management experience 

See the job description for a full list of duties for this role.

Job Benefits

Flexible working:  We are proud to be a Flexa accredited Employer. Visit our Flexa Employer page for more information on our approach to flexible working. Our flexible working policy allows our people the choice to decide to work from home/another location in the country where their contract of employment is issued for 80% of their month, with the other 20% of their month being office-based. See our benefits page for more: Benefits | ClientEarth Careers as well as our flexible working FAQ.
 

ClientEarth values diversity and inclusion and the benefits this brings. We aim to appoint the most suitable candidate at all times and welcome applications from people from all different backgrounds. See our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) at ClientEarth | ClientEarth journey page for more.

Please note that ClientEarth is only able to employ those who have the pre-existing legal right to work in the UK or Belgium.
 

ClientEarth is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services to third parties.

Location: Hybrid working. Our flexible working policy requires everyone to be in our east London office for 25% of the time as a minimum because building in-person relationships is important to us (for this role we ask that you come to the office every week for the minimum of one day), but you’re welcome to be there more as many staff are.

Salary: £48,524 p.a.

Hours: Permanent, full-time, contract. At NEON, we work a 28 hour week - the equivalent of a 4 day standard work week. This can be done over 4 or 5 days.
Benefits:  a 28-hour week, 7.5% employer matched pension, genuinely flexible working, 20 days holiday per year (25 days pro rated for a 4 day week), plus bank holidays and Christmas break, a progressive Parenting Policy, Sabbatical Policy, and a generous staff development budget

Reporting to: Director of Operations

Application deadline: Sunday 19th July, 11.59pm

Interview dates: First round of interviews (online): Mon 3rd - Weds 5th August 2026, second round of interviews (in person): Thursday 13th August 2026

This role requires that you are resident and have the right to work in the UK

About NEON  

NEON is a capacity and infrastructure building organisation that seeks to accelerate the transition to a new economy by building the power of social movements - because without strong social movements we lack the power we need to win. We deliver trainings, develop resources, facilitate collaboration and work in partnership with key movement allies, especially in the climate, housing and migration movements. Our focus is on strengthening the organising, communications and strategy skills of social movement organisations, as well as deepening movement alignment, as we believe these are key to building collective power. As part of our work, we are looking to change the starting point in social movements from “what do we agree on” to “what can we win together?” 
 

Purpose of this role

This role is the main point of contact for staff for all people & operations support. It is crucial in providing the systems and support that NEON staff rely on to do their best work by:

• owning NEON people and operations  policies and ensuring they are understood and applied consistently and equitably across the organisation;

• guiding staff through people processes;

• overseeing the smooth running of operations  systems across the organisation.

What you’ll be doing: 

1. Lead the full lifecycle of NEON staff, including recruitment, contracts, onboarding, ongoing management, and offboarding, while overseeing and supporting the Ops Assistant to run these processes. Lead on reviewing and improving people processes and ensure anti-oppression is embedded within them.

2. Manage HR systems and records, including contracts, payroll inputs, leave, training, appraisals, probations and policy implementation, ensuring processes are accurate, well maintained and completed on time by line managers.

3. Act as first point of contact for HR queries, taking ownership of NEON’s policies, processes, culture and employee relations. Advise staff and line managers on policies, accommodations, and support needs, conduct relevant HR meetings and escalate to the Director of Ops and People when appropriate.

4. Manage monthly payroll, submitting updates to the outsourced provider, checking accuracy of pension and other deductions, implementing pay increases and paperwork, and addressing staff payroll queries or signposting them to financial guidance.

5. Line manage the Operations Assistant to a high standard using the full spectrum of management tools and approaches e.g. mentoring, coaching, challenge and feedback using the feedback guidelines, more formal performance processes. Empowering them to thrive at NEON and perform their role excellently.

6. Oversee day-to-day operational support functions delivered through the Ops Assistant, including IT and systems, GDPR processes, office and facilities coordination, health and safety, staff event logistics and board logistics, ensuring tasks are completed on time and to a high standard, following NEON’s values.

7. Support the Director of Ops and People in developing and updating people policies, procedures, and practices, staying across emerging trends, and embedding a caring, anti-oppressive culture through organisational development projects such as internal comms, team guides, manuals, and frameworks.

8. Maintain core organisational administration, including Companies House filings, insurance renewals, subscriptions, and shared organisational inboxes.

9. Participate or lead on Operations projects as agreed, (e.g. HR systems, data protection, health and safety), with clear scope and prioritisation.

10.  Actively lead on the enhancement of the Ops Peer Support Network’s community of practice as part of implementing the network strategy.

11. Play an active part in the whole NEON team, contributing to organisation-wide plans

Who you are: 

• HR & people ops experience: You’ve worked in HR or people operations before and are confident managing the full employee lifecycle — recruitment, contracts, onboarding, performance, leave, payroll coordination and offboarding. You can hold these processes end-to-end and keep them accurate, consistent and compliant, whilst ensuring they align with the values and ways of working.

• Operational systems & improvements: You’ve held responsibility for systems like HR platforms, shared drives, IT tools or project management software. You’re confident in improving how things work and embedding changes so they actually stick and work for people.

• Strong organisation & reliability: You’re highly organised, detail-focused and someone who gets things done. You can manage multiple recurring processes (like payroll cycles, HR records and compliance tasks) and keep everything on track without things slipping.

• Line management experience: You’re a skilled and confident line manager, and able to support with feedback, development and performance. You know how to balance care with clarity and accountability.

• First point of contact for HR & ops support: You’re comfortable being a go-to person for staff questions on HR, people and operations. Supporting staff and managers with clear, practical guidance and handling sensitive issues with care, confidence and professionalism.

• Working knowledge of compliance areas: Good understanding of core compliance areas such as UK employment practice, data protection and health and safety. You know how to apply these in a proportionate, practical way that fits a small organisation.

• Self-directed and collaborative: You’re able to manage your own workload and priorities, whilst working naturally across teams, actively building relationships, sharing responsibility, and making sure work is joined up rather than siloed. You’re comfortable holding your own while staying deeply connected to the wider organisation and what others need from you.

• Proven understanding of anti-oppression work and commitment to tackling all institutional forms of oppression, bigotry and exclusion

• An affinity with NEON’s aims, objectives and organisational values of solidarity, generosity and respect.

We know that people from certain backgrounds and identities are often excluded in progressive movements and we’re committed to doing what we can to correct this. 

So:

1. We particularly welcome applications from marginalised groups, especially people of colour and other ethnic minorities, people who identify as LGBTQIA, Disabled people and those who identify as working class or have done so in the past.

2. We know the work goes way beyond "diversity", it's about making the space inclusive too. So we are continuously working on that at NEON. So far this includes tangible things like a flexible work policy so people have genuine flexibility around where and when they work and a 28 hour week as standard; a gender-neutral parenting/leave policy, an anti-oppression strategy which is held at senior level given how important it is to the organisation. It also includes the day-to-day work of creating psychological safety for everyone at NEON and celebrating the wisdom of black, indigenous, queer, Disabled and other cultures in the way we work and behave

There are no formal education requirements for this role. As long as you can show us you have the skills we don’t mind where you got them from! Also important to us is your potential to learn and grow in the role so even if you don’t have 100% of the skills listed we want to hear from you.