Development writer and research officer jobs

We are looking for a fundraising manager whose core strengths are trusts and foundations fundraising, major donor cultivation, and excellent proposal writing.

The NCTJ is the guardian of the gold standard in journalism training. Through charitable initiatives including the Community Reporting Fund and Journalism Diversity Fund, we widen access to journalism careers, strengthen community reporting, and champion trusted journalism at a time when misinformation and public scepticism make high professional standards more important than ever.

Diversifying and growing charitable income is a strategic priority for NCTJ. Following the development of our fundraising strategy, this role will focus on building and growing income from UK trusts, foundations and high net worth supporters. You will have the autonomy to shape the grants and major donor pipeline.

Corporate partnerships are led primarily by our Head of Business Development. This role focuses on grants, major donors and stewardship.

About the role

You will:

• Research and manage a strong pipeline of trusts and foundation prospects
• Write and submit high-quality, tailored grant applications and expressions of interest
• Develop compelling cases for support, budgets, outcomes and proposal templates
• Build and manage major donor/high net worth pipeline through warm networks
• Lead on donor cultivation and follow-up
• Strengthen stewardship and reporting so funders feel valued and close to the impact
• Use HubSpot CRM to track pipeline, deadlines, reporting and performance

About you

You will have:

• A strong track record in trusts and foundations fundraising
• Experience securing substantial grants (five-figure and above)
• Excellent proposal and case for support writing skills
• Experience working with major donors/high net worth supporters (or strong transferable relationship-led fundraising experience)
• Strong organisation and CRM discipline
• Confidence working with senior leaders

Experience in journalism, media, education, social mobility or EDI is welcome but not essential. It is vital that you support the critical role professional journalists play in our democracy.

Benefits

• Salary c £40,000 (£37,000-£43,000) depending on experience
• Pension: 5% employer and 5% employee contribution
• Annual leave of 25 days plus bank holidays
• Discretionary bonus based on company performance
• Life cover
• Training and career development

How to apply

Please apply with your CV and a supporting statement (maximum 1,000 words total) addressing the following:

1. Trusts and foundations track record (300 words)
   Describe one trust or foundation grant of £30,000+ that you personally led. Include who the funder was, what the project was, how you shaped the proposal to meet their criteria, and the outcome.
2. Proposal writing approach (250 words)
   When starting a new funding application, what are the first five things you do before you begin writing? Please be specific.
3. Working with senior stakeholders and impact information (250 words)
   Give an example of how you worked with colleagues, senior leaders or contacts to gather the information needed for a funding proposal or donor meeting. What did you do and what was the result?
4. Interest in journalism and the NCTJ mission (200 words) What is it about the NCTJ’s work, values and mission that interests you, and why do you think it is important at this point in time for journalism and society?

Your supporting statement is an important part of the assessment for this role. We are looking for evidence of your own proposal-writing style, experience and judgement. Generic or highly templated responses are unlikely to score well.

Shortlisted candidates may be asked to complete a short writing exercise as part of the interview process.

About the NCTJ

The National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) is the charity at the heart of journalism education and training in the UK. We are the guardian of the gold standard in journalism training and qualifications, and we champion equality, diversity and inclusion so that journalism is accessible to people from all backgrounds.

Through charitable initiatives including the Journalism Diversity Fund and the Community Reporting Fund, we widen participation in journalism, support community reporting, and strengthen trusted journalism at a time when misinformation and public scepticism make high professional standards more important than ever.

NCTJ is financially stable and widely respected within the industry. However, diversifying and growing charitable income is a strategic priority for 2026–27. We have developed our first fundraising strategy to support sustainable growth and impact, and this role is central to delivering it.

Purpose of the role

This is a specialist role focused on securing and stewarding funding from trusts and foundations and developing a pipeline of major donors and high net worth supporters, underpinned by exceptional proposal writing and strong relationship management.

Corporate partnerships are led primarily by the head of business development. This role will support corporate fundraising through proposal/case development and stewardship where needed, but the primary focus is securing charitable grants and major donors.

Key responsibilities

1) Trusts and foundations fundraising

• Build and manage a strong pipeline of UK trust and foundation prospects that advance NCTJ’s charitable priorities (including diversity, community reporting, and training for a fast-changing media industry).
• Develop and maintain a grants calendar and tracking system, including deadlines, funder preferences, decision timelines, and reporting requirements.
• Write and submit high-quality, tailored grant applications and expressions of interest, working to agreed targets and timescales.
• Develop a suite of core fundraising materials (case for support, programme proposals, budgets, outcomes and evaluation narrative, boilerplate and templates) to increase quality and consistency across submissions.
• Confidently communicate the NCTJ’s purpose and impact through presentations, reports, and digital content and represent the NCTJ at meetings and events, both virtually and in person.
• Build and maintain strong funder relationships, ensuring excellent stewardship, timely reporting and opportunities for renewal and uplift.

2) Major donor / high net worth giving

• Work with the senior team to identify major donor prospects through networks and sector connections.
• Undertake proportionate prospect research and build a high-quality cultivation pipeline.
• Create tailored donor proposals and impact statements that support donor interests while advancing NCTJ priorities.
• Support cultivation meetings with briefs, materials, follow-up and stewardship plans, tracking all activity in CRM.

3) Impact, storytelling and stewardship

• Work closely with programme and communications colleagues to gather impact data, case studies and beneficiary stories to strengthen proposals and reporting.
• Develop and deliver a clear plan for thanking trusts and major donors, keeping them updated on impact, and staying in regular contact.
• Use NCTJ events and industry milestones as stewardship and cultivation opportunities, coordinating targeted follow-up and relationship management.

4) Systems, reporting and evaluation

• Maintain excellent data quality and discipline in HubSpot CRM, including prospect stage, relationship owner, next actions, submissions, reporting deadlines and contact history.
• Produce clear pipeline and performance reports for the HoBD/chief executive (eg, submissions, conversion rates, forecast, learning and next steps).
• Contribute to quarterly review sessions to evaluate progress and refine approach.

5) Collaborative working

• Build strong working relationships across the charity and its stakeholders to translate NCTJ’s work into fundable propositions and well managed projects ensuring effective delivery of programmes through cross functional collaboration.
• Bring innovative and creative concepts to the team, and develop valuable programmes and initiatives which add to the NCTJ’s new income stream.
• Contribute to shared messaging that reflects NCTJ’s mission: high standards, quality, trusted journalism, accessibility and measurable EDI impact.

Person specification

Essential

• Significant experience in trusts and foundations fundraising, including writing successful applications.
• Proven track record of securing substantial grants (five-figure and above, including multi-year where possible).
• Outstanding proposal and case for support writing skills (clear structure, persuasive narrative, strong budgets/outcomes, and tailoring to criteria).
• Strong pipeline management skills and ability to deliver multiple submissions to deadlines.
• Experience cultivating and stewarding major donors/high net worth individuals (or strong transferable relationship-led fundraising experience).
• Strong CRM capability and reporting discipline.
• Confidence working with senior stakeholders.

Desirable

• Experience strengthening fundraising systems, templates and stewardship processes.
• Experience in education, media/journalism, social mobility, EDI or local/community development.

Personal attributes

• A high-quality writer who takes pride in precision, tone and evidence.
• Proactive, organised and accountable.
• Warm, credible and professional with funders and senior stakeholders.
• Motivated by widening access, high standards, and trusted journalism.

Are you looking for a dynamic and rewarding role working for an organisation with the feminist agenda at the core of its ethos? Do you believe in our values; to listen and support, to empower and respect, collaborate, innovate, and take accountability? 

Then working at Advance Charity could be the career choice for you!

We are looking for a Bid Officer (Bid Writer)

Salary: £34,000 - £39,000 per annum

Location: Hammersmith Head Office

Hours: 35 hours (full time)

Contract: Permanent

We recognise that many working women have commitments outside of work, so we’re open to discuss flexible working options and solutions that suit you, and still suit the needs of the business. Please indicate in your supporting statement if you’d like to discuss flexible working options with the Hiring Manager, should they contact you regarding your application.

About us:

Advance Charity is a well-respected, award-winning, and innovative women-only organisation, established in 1998, providing emotional and practical support to women experiencing domestic abuse, and supporting women with short-term sentences to reduce offending.

About the role:
As the Bid Officer, you will support statutory and non-statutory funding across Advance’s services, with oversight by the Development Manager and support from the Development and Fundraising Co-ordinator. They will also provide assistance to the Head of Fundraising. The role will ensure a high standard of professional bids are created, showing strong attention to detail, an ability to work under pressure and to demanding deadlines.

You will plan and produce compliant proposal documents, bringing together expertise, best practice, research and data to develop compelling tender responses. Your role will be responsible for shaping service delivery models in collaboration with internal subject matter experts, bid writing and editing, coordinating the final document review and document governance. 

Please note: In this role we are always exploring new technology and tools to support better ways of working, however the sector we work in means that we are often required to submit bids that are written without AI involvement. We need someone with great writing skills in this role and will be testing this with an in-person assessment as part of our recruitment process.

Key responsibilities include (but are not limited to):

• Plan and write compliant, professionally produced proposals within defined timeframes and coordinate supplementary documents required

• Foster collaboration and coordinate proposal input from a variety of stakeholders including Services, Evidence and Insights, People team, Finance and Governance team, Safeguarding

• Undertake editing of proposals, including spelling and grammar checks, and share with internal stakeholders for final approval in advance

• Project manage the writing of smaller tenders/grant applications including responsible for agreeing budget with Finance team

• Ensure all supplementary documents, including approval documents, are produced in a timely fashion and accompanying governance processes are completed

• Follow team processes for filing and version control

• Work alongside external partners to inform competitive bid submissions

• Support preparation for tender handover following contract award with Implementation Manager

• Monitor statutory and non-statutory funding opportunities (local authority, central government, trusts) via portals and support existing services to prepare for retender

• Brief leadership on go/no go decisions

• Conduct post-proposal reviews and support continuous improvement of the department

About You:

To be successful as the Bid Officer you’ll need the below experience and skills:

• Experience of writing successful tenders, proposals or grant submissions, with excellent written and verbal skills that support coordination of clear, compelling and concise bid responses

• Excellent attention-to-detail and accuracy with strong editing and proof-reading skills

• A pro-active approach to developing strong working relationships with staff at all levels of the organisation and with external stakeholders

• Be highly organised and solutions-focused, able to plan, prioritise and meet deadlines under pressure

• Be committed to Advance’s values and ethos, with a clear understanding of safeguarding, equality, diversity and inclusion in the delivery of statutory services.

This post is open to female applicants only as being female is deemed to be a genuine occupational requirement under Schedule 9, Paragraph 1 of the Equality Act 2010.  

Please note: Any offer of employment will be made subject to references and confirmation of the right to work in the UK, and satisfactory enhanced DBS check.

How to apply:

Please submit your up-to-date CV with a supporting statement. Please note that only applications made via the job advert will be considered. 

Please see the end of the advert for the downloadable Job Specification

Closing Date for Applications: 26th February 2026 *Advance reserves the right to extend the advert and/or close the advertisement early, or on the appointment of a candidate

Interviews are taking place: Between 3rd to 9th March 2026 (this may be subject to change),

We recognise that women often only apply to roles if they meet 100% of the criteria (whereas men apply if they meet only 60% of the requirements). We encourage you to demonstrate how your skills and experience would make you an asset to the role, and if you don’t have the exact skills/experience, tell us in your cover letter how you think you might grow and develop in the role.

Under the Equality Act 2010, we are required to make any reasonable adjustments. If you have a disability as defined under this act and/or have additional needs, please email the Talent Acquisition Team will aim to make the necessary arrangements to accommodate your needs.

What we can offer you - Employee Benefits: 

• An exceptional 30 days of paid holiday per year (pro rata for part time), PLUS public holidays on top (that's nearly 40 days paid holiday per year!) 

• Additional days off to celebrate International Women’s Day, and for religious observance and moving home

• Perkbox - an employee discount platform where you can receive free rewards as well as take advantage of savings on clothes, groceries, travel, leisure and more

• Pension scheme

• Enhanced maternity/adoption provision

• Access to our Employee Assistance Programme

• Access to Yoga/Meditation and many more activities on our wellbeing online platform

• Employee eye-care scheme

• Clinical supervision for front line staff and first line management roles

• Refer a Friend Scheme - £250 for each referral who passes probation

• Organisation wide away days-

• Thorough induction and training

• Career development pathways 

Diversity, Inclusion and Equal Opportunities

We value diversity and believe the variety of ideas, perspectives and experiences it brings creates an effective environment in which talents can be fully utilised to achieve our goals.

We are committed to providing equality of opportunity and actively seek to recruit people from groups underrepresented in our current team. We have policies and processes in place to ensure that all employees are offered an equal opportunity in recruitment and selection, promotion, training, pay and benefits.

Liberty is looking for a Grants Officer to join our Philanthropy Team.

This is an exciting and varied delivery role which reports to our Fundraising Manager and is responsible for grant administration and reporting across our portfolio of grant funders, and co-ordinating, as well as administering a series of events aimed at donors and funders.

The successful candidate will be organised and self-motivated, with a focus on partnership working and building strong relationships. You will balance an enjoyment of events co-ordination with being a skilled writer, who enjoys producing applications and reports.

With experience in a similar role, you will be used to gathering a range of data and detail on the teams’ work, and comfortable with end-to end delivery and working to deadlines. You will be a keen team player with a commitment to, and passion for, Liberty’s work.

You will have a strong commitment to Liberty’s anti-oppression values and strategy.

Liberty fully embraces flexible working and is committed to employee development. We aim to encourage people from all backgrounds to work with us and are particularly interested in hearing from people from minority backgrounds and all socio-economic sections of society. Liberty supports hybrid working, with a minimum office attendance of between one and two days per week in the Westminster office, depending on contracted hours.

The deadline for applications is 9am Monday 16 March 2026

Applications received after this deadline will not be considered.

Please be aware that we do not accept CVs for this role. All applicants must complete the application form to apply.

First round interviews will be held online on Wednesday 25th March

Second round interview will be held in person on Wednesday 1st April

Apply via the job board on our website. 

Church Engagement and Marketing Officer

Location: Hybrid: Office base is in London with expectation for a minimum of one day per week in the office (The Foundry, 17 Oval Way, Vauxhall, London, SE11 5RR).

Contract: Permanent

Hours: 28 hours per week (0.8FTE)

Salary: £30,000 FTE pro rata (£24,000)

Annual Leave: 22 days + 3 discretionary days

Church Urban Fund has a proud history of being good news within our low-income communities across England. We partner with churches, social action charities and different faith communities to end poverty together.

For almost 40 years, Church Urban Fund has been enabling and supporting mission and ministry amongst the lowest income communities. Over the years we have developed several programmes which have made significant grassroots impact. Despite this work, and the work of many others, levels of poverty and engrained inequality remain desperately severe, despite living in one of the wealthiest countries.

This newly created role seeks to help us resource churches across England, so that we can achieve our vision of ending poverty and doing this together.  The successful postholder will be key in helping develop new resources that sit alongside our very successful Growing Good resource and form part of our expanding Knowledge Bank that enables churches to have the knowledge, confidence and connection to engage with social action as a core part of their mission and serve their local communities.  This role will also be influential in helping plan and deliver our increasingly popular and well attended webinars and in person events.

Our core mission is shaped by the drive to end poverty in all its forms, by developing partnerships and programmes to create a movement of love, justice and mercy. We are inspired by Jesus’ ministry to be with and alongside and serve the most marginalised and vulnerable in society, and follow his teaching to love our neighbours as ourselves.

We are seeking someone who is passionate about resourcing local churches to have knowledge, confidence and connection in serving their local areas, is skilled in developing and refreshing resources, can be persuasive in encouraging churches to engage with CUF’s range of resources, and is experienced in managing events (online and in person).

If you feel that this role could be for you, we would love to hear from you.

How to apply

To apply, please email an up-to-date CV and covering letter (only applications with a covering letter and CV will be considered for shortlisting) outlining your relevant skills and experience, relating to the listed responsibilities and person specification to the HR Officer.

Closing date: 17:00 Monday 2nd March 26 with interviews to be held on 12th March 26 online

Are you a proficient copy-writer who is passionate about the natural world and communicating stories and impact to funders?

Synchronicity Earth is looking for a Senior Philanthropy Marketing Officer to create, curate, and design compelling materials to showcase Synchronicity Earth’s programmes and partners around the world and promote our distinct philanthropic approach. You will help us to engage new and current audiences including prospect donors, and philanthropy and conservation specialists across the UK and Europe, the US and Asia.

While the role is embedded in the Philanthropy team, you will work closely with Communications colleagues to ensure consistency across written materials (funding reports, slide decks, information sheets) and digital content (newsletters, targeted content for social media).

You will enjoy working collaboratively with colleagues across the organisation (including our Engagement, and Programmes teams) to deliver high-quality materials that engage donors and supporters and contribute to our mission to protect and restore biodiversity where it is most at risk.

PLEASE NOTE THAT IF YOU USE AI IN YOUR APPLICATION, YOU ARE MUCH LESS LIKELY TO BE SHORTLISTED. WE WANT TO SEE YOUR UNIQUE, BRILLIANT SELF. We do not use AI in any part of our recruitment and selection process.

Closing date: 16th February 2026 10am

First stage interviews (Zoom):  23rd – 27th February 2026

Second stage interviews (at our office in-person): 2nd – 4th March 2026

Synchronicity Earth’s mission it to bring conservation to life through our work, championing effective approaches and increasing funding for Earth’s overlooked species and ecosystems and the communities working to protect them.

By joining, you’re not just taking part; you're contributing to our vision of a world in which biological and cultural diversity are valued, celebrated, and flourishing.

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds for this role, particularly non-graduates, and are happy to discuss flexible working arrangements. We also welcome candidates who may have taken a career break. Your unique experiences and fresh perspective will only enhance our team's diversity and strengthen our ability to tackle the complex challenges facing our planet.

Candidates from Black, Asian, and Minority-Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds and people with disabilities who meet the criteria (in the section of the job description headed ‘What you will bring to the team’) and opt-in to our Guaranteed Interview Scheme will enter the first recruitment stage, see more information below.

Application and Recruitment Process

Inclusion is a priority throughout our workplace culture and is embedded in our recruitment process. To support this, the first stage of recruitment will be anonymised by Charity Job to mitigate against unconscious bias. Please let us know at any stage during the recruitment process if you have any accessibility requirements and we will do what we can to accommodate these for you. Please also let us know which pronouns you would like to be referred by, if you wish.

How to apply:

· Complete the application questions, upload your CV, and submit your application through Charity Job.

· Fill in our candidate survey. Whilst this survey is optional it is the way to opt in to the Guaranteed Interview Scheme (information below) if you would like.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

We recognise that people from Black, Asian, and Minority-Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds and people with disabilities are under-represented in our sector, and that there are often additional barriers present for people from these groups when applying for roles in the charity sector and beyond.

As part of our commitment to attract and retain talented individuals from under-represented groups to the conservation and environment sector, if you belong to these groups, you can opt in to the Guaranteed Interview Scheme (GIS) in our candidate survey. See the attachment which outlines how to do this and includes the link to the survey. If you meet the essential criteria for a role, you'll be guaranteed a first-stage assessment. The results of this assessment will be used to select candidates for the first-stage interview.

We are looking for a highly motivated and gifted communicator to craft Spotlight’s messages and help us achieve real change. 

You will be joining a small dedicated team of anti-corruption experts and campaigners for this busy, varied and multi-skilled role. We have a full programme of work for the year ahead with projects on illicit finance, political integrity, and corporate accountability for financial crime. 

Candidates should be exceptional all-round communicators, with significant experience in achieving impact through a range of channels from digital and social media to print, broadcast and events. They will have a track record of driving communications efforts to achieve campaign or policy objectives, as well as experience of developing messages for a wide range of audiences, and translating complex expert subject matter into newsworthy content. The successful candidate will be enthusiastic and proactive, a strategic thinker, an excellent writer and able to apply their skills and experience across a range of different communications channels. They will also have an interest in corruption and its impacts at home and abroad. 

Deadline for applications is 23.30 on Saturday 14th February.

About Spotlight

Spotlight on Corruption is a UK based charity which aims to end impunity for corruption, promote political integrity within the UK, and ensure the UK acts as a global leader on fighting corruption. We are a bold, expert voice that pushes forward the anti-corruption agenda in a pragmatic and credible way, consistently punching above our weight in holding the government to account for taking action against corruption, cronyism, and dirty money in the UK.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and deliver Spotlight’s day to day communications and public messaging to ensure we achieve real reforms and impact in tackling corruption and protecting UK democracy. 

• Secure strategic and influential media coverage by developing and maintaining relationships with journalists, developing ideas for stories, and identifying key communication opportunities to get Spotlight’s messages across, including by monitoring daily news.

• Build Spotlight’s reach and influence online with target audiences (politicians, civil servants, journalists, civil society, and funders) by maintaining Spotlight on Corruption’s website, social media accounts and mailing lists, and working with colleagues to develop engaging content.

• Develop newsletters, press releases, website copy, social media posts, and other communications materials, including scripts for, as well as filming, videos on Spotlight messages that appeal to different audiences.

• Develop a communications strategy for the organisation to implement its three year strategy which builds and secures Spotlight’s reputation as a leading anti-corruption organisation.

For full job description and person specifications please see the attached Job Description

Working arrangements

Full-time, 35 hours per week. Working from home required, but with one day a week in the office near London Bridge. Must be based in or near London. We support flexible working arrangements and operate a nine day fortnight. Attendance at networking events and being on-call for media work outside of office hours occasionally required.

Responsible to: Executive Director