Head of major donor fundraising jobs in Bermondsey, greater london
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First Give
First Give is a national charity that partners with secondary schools to inspire and equip young people with the knowledge, confidence, and skills to drive change. Through our structured programmes, students explore social issues, connect with charities, and take tangible steps to improve their community.
Empowering and equipping young people to meaningfully contribute to their community is a first step to addressing many of the challenges we face at this time of social disconnection and division. Our vision is of a more generous society where everyone is willing and able to give their time, money and skills to the causes they care about.
The Route to a Million Campaign
This is an exciting time for First Give, as we seek to expand and diversify our fundraising streams into Corporate and HNWI. To support this, we are launching the Route to A Million campaign in March, aiming to raise an additional £1.5 million over the next 3 years on top of our forecast income. The campaign is supported by a newly recruited campaign board, and the new Head of Philanthropy and Partnerships will spearhead the work required to achieve this target.
Head of Philanthropy and Partnerships
We are seeking a dynamic, strategic and entrepreneurial Head of Philanthropy and Partnerships to supercharge First Give’s next phase of income growth. This is a pivotal role at the heart of our mission, offering the opportunity to shape and deliver a multi‑year fundraising strategy that fuels real, measurable impact for young people and society as a whole. First Give is a small charity, with a growing fundraising team and big ambitions. You will therefore be someone who thrives in a start-up environment, brings new ideas to the table and is comfortable leading a brand-new team.
As the senior leader for all income streams, you will own and drive our major donor programme; unlock new philanthropic partnerships; and build a talented team across other income streams to achieve ambitious goals. Working closely with the Director and our emerging Campaign Board, you will play critical role in growing our £1m+ annual income, deepening donor engagement and building the culture, systems and relationships that will propel First Give into its next phase of expansion.
This is an exciting opportunity for an exceptional fundraiser who thrives in a values‑driven, high‑ambition environment and wants to make a lasting contribution to a fast‑growing education charity.
Contract: Full time (35 hours per week), Permanent
Salary: £60K (+£2K London weighting if applicable)
Location: This is a hybrid contract. The successful candidate will be expected to work from our London office or attend in-person meetings and host donors at school Final events as required. The remainder of the week can typically be worked remotely, with flexibility as required.
The students we work with come from a diverse range of backgrounds, and so do we. We want to foster a diverse and inclusive culture, to empower our teams to achieve our vision drawing on the broadest possible range of experiences. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates from minoritised groups currently underrepresented on our executive team, particularly black and minority ethnic and disabled candidates.
Please download the candidate pack for more details, and don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like a chat about the role or any reasonable adjustments we can make before applying: contact details provided in the candidate pack.
Creating opportunities where young people are inspired and empowered to give their time, money or skills to charities and causes that they care about


Using Anonymous Recruitment
This organisation is using Anonymous Recruitment to reduce bias in the first stages of the hiring process. Submit your application as normal and our system will anonymise it for you. Your personal information will be hidden until the recruiter contacts you.
Leukaemia UK – Our Charity
We are a ‘small but mighty’ charity with one big ambition: to stop leukaemia devastating lives. Over the next 10 years we want to help save and improve the lives of more people with leukaemia through finding and funding life-changing research and campaigning for change.
Despite progress in recent decades, someone in the UK is diagnosed with a blood cancer every 16 minutes and survival rates are among some of the worst of any cancer. And the physical and psychological impact can be lifelong.
Our current 5-year strategy outlines our plan to increase our investment into ground-breaking world class research and policy development focused on improving access to kinder, more effective diagnosis, treatment and care for leukaemia and other blood cancers. To do this, we have embarked on a period of significant growth, investing strategically to grow our income, profile, influence, and engagement and impact.
We are seeking an experienced, driven and passionate Head of Philanthropy to lead on delivering income from our High Value (HV) audiences and income streams. We are looking for someone with energy and ambition, who can demonstrate strategic leadership to maximise fundraising opportunities across Major Giving, Trusts and Foundations, Special Events and Corporate Partnerships. The post holder will be a key part of the Fundraising Leadership Team, helping to grow our supporter networks, optimise supporter experience and contributing to the development of the overall fundraising growth strategy, at this crucial stage as we complete the current cycle and move into our new 5-year strategy period in 2027.
Team
We are a close-knit team, who are all passionate about Leukaemia UK and putting those affected by the disease at the heart of everything we do. We are all focused on “keeping it real” with pragmatic, practical solutions, as well as ensuring that our charity maximises voluntary income to invest in more life-changing research, so that we can continue to have impact for those with a leukaemia diagnosis.
From us you can expect all the laughter you can handle, as well as great challenge and support. We are all about delivering exceptional supporter experience and making a real difference to people’s lives.
You will be part of an ambitious fundraising team driving growth across the portfolio, so we can fund more leukaemia research and save more lives from this devastating disease. You will report to the Director of Fundraising, working alongside the Head of Public Fundraising, and collaborating across the wider organisation to ensure fundraising aligns with our organisational priorities and values (Bold, Collaborative, Curious) and feels insight-driven, strategic and competitive in a crowded marketplace.
Leukaemia UK and You
In 2025 we invested in growing our fundraising team so that we could fund more life-changing research, to increase our understanding of leukemia as a disease, and accelerate the development of kinder, more effective treatments. This included investment to grow the Philanthropy fundraising team, develop new fundraising products, increase our supporter networks, and build a stronger pipeline. As a result, we have seen significant year-on-year growth for a charity of our size and are keen to maintain this trajectory with the opportunities in front of us.
We are in the final year of our current 5-year organisational strategy cycle and in the process of developing our new 5-year fundraising strategy, so you will be instrumental in bridging the gap, delivering against agreed income targets for 2026 and driving forward new plans into 2027.
Reporting to the Director of Fundraising, the post holder will at times be required to work both strategically and operationally, autonomously and collaboratively, as a critical member of the Fundraising Leadership Team. You will be results-driven with an appetite to innovate and drive continuous improvement, leading to increased conversions, deepened relationships, and long-term high value support to upscale our research programme.
Skills and Experience
- Previous experience of being a Head of Philanthropy, demonstrating strategic leadership with a remit that includes oversight of a broad High Value fundraising portfolio, across multiple income streams.
- Experience of applying the principles of Philanthropy fundraising to develop and nurture a growing pipeline of 5- and 6-figure gift opportunities for supporters able to give at the highest levels.
- Experience of managing engaging Major Giving and Trusts & Foundations fundraising programmes to generate a warm pipeline of 5- and 6-figure gifts.
- Experience of overseeing a Special Events programme, comprising both fundraising and cultivation events.
- Experience of overseeing a Corporate partnerships portfolio and representing the charity at a senior level.
- Demonstrable experience of managing a high-performing team, focussing on creating a culture where people thrive as individuals.
- Strong experience of building effective relationships with internal and external partners, senior stakeholders and suppliers, leading on the key relationships for the charity.
- Strong written and oral communication skills with a real talent for connecting and influencing people at all levels.
- Strong project-management experience, including managing budgets, schedules, creative development, and supplier relationships for fundraising events and campaigns.
- Proven experience of driving effective High Value stewardship programmes to maximise supporter experience.
- Great listening skills and the ability to interpret the needs of individuals, teams, and organisations.
- Ability to think through complex issues and produce evidenced-based judgements.
- Experience of setting and managing annual budgets, monitoring, and reconciling results and financial performance in income and expenditure. Providing associated narratives and monthly reforecasts.
- Working to a wide range of financial and non-financial KPIs set in annual activity plans.
- Ability to work well cross-organisationally, recognising different teams’ priorities and workloads.
- Entrepreneurial and results-led, with the ability to lead programmes of fundraising activity, with strategic, well thought through resourcing to deliver growth.
Knowledge
- Excellent specialist knowledge of the principals and methods underpinning successful Philanthropy fundraising and stakeholder management across Major Giving, Trusts and Corporate partnerships.
- Up-to-date knowledge of current fundraising trends.
- High level knowledge of Salesforce CRM and how best to steward supporters.
- High level knowledge and understanding of charity law in relation to legacy fundraising, GDPR, PECR, data protection and other relevant fundraising regulation.
Role specifics
- Hours: 0.8 FTE are 30 hours per week – days and times to be agreed
- 12 months fixed term contract – maternity cover
- Location: We are very flexible! Whilst our hybrid working policy is a minimum of two days per month in our London office, for this role we would typically expect the role holder to be in the office once a week.
- Salary range £55,000 - £65,000 (FTE)
Applications
If you feel you have the passion for our work and the right mix of experience, skills, energy, and flair to embrace this broad and challenging leadership role and enable our strategy to fly, then we would love you to apply. Please also see the full job description attached to the advert.
- First interviews will be held via Teams Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th March 2026
- Second interviews will be face to face in our London Offices – at 26 Great Queen St, London WC2B 5Bl on either Tuesday 24th or Wednesday 25th March 2026
- We are proud of our benefits – see a summary on our website in the section Work With Us
Application instructions: To minimise unconscious bias, we use anonymous recruitment and are unable to consider direct applications. Please apply via the CharityJob website with your CV and covering letter.
Closing Date: Midnight Sunday 8th March 2026
I look forward to hearing from you!
Holly Hastings-Payne
Director of Fundraising
Together we can find and fund the research that matters most to people living with blood cancer.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Hours: Full time (30 hours over 4 days)
Location: Flexible across England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Salary: Regional £49,202 to £53,252 per annum, or London £52,500 to £56,550 per annum
(London salary applicable to candidates who live in London or are based in the London office a minimum of two days a week)
The role:
This is a great opportunity to join the UK’s biggest grassroots network dedicated to protecting people and planet at a critical time for our world.
We’re looking for an experienced high value fundraiser and team leader to join Friends of the Earth as our Head of Major Giving. The role will focus on growing income and leading our passionate and well-established high net worth team, which covers Philanthropy, Trusts and Foundations and Strategic Partnerships.
You’ll be responsible for developing the Major Giving strategy, retaining our loyal supporters and attracting new, long-term funders by refreshing the stewardship and cultivation programme to encourage deliver on our growth plans in line as we develop a new strategy to answer the challenges in the external environment and ensure that we have the funds to respond to the crises of climate, nature and inequality.
We are developing a new organisational strategy, building on our proud history of working with communities to achieve change. We have longstanding partners and loyal supporters to bring with us as we evolve to meet the challenges and deliver the urgent action needed to deliver our mission.
Key Skills and Attributes we’re looking for:
- Experience of motivating and inspiring team members to achieve high, sustainable performance.
- Collaborative and skilled at working cross organisationally and building strong internal relationships.
- A good networker and ability to work in true partnership with grassroots organisations and funding partners.
- Demonstrable experience of significant income growth and pipeline development.
- Experience of, or knowledge of campaigning organisations would be an advantage as well as organisations going through strategic change.
The team:
The Major Giving team consists of 12 people with five direct reports, leading the sub-teams of Philanthropy, Trusts and Foundations, Strategic Partnerships and our Events function. Your team sits within the Income Generation Directorate, and you’ll work closely with colleagues across that Directorate and with our Policy & Campaigns Engagement and Community & Network Directorates. You will play a key role in promoting a culture of philanthropy and partnerships across the entire organisation as together, we strive to create lasting change in the fight against climate and nature crisis.
For more information, please see the detailed candidate information pack.
Closing date: Monday 23rd February 2026 (23:59).
Please note we only accept applications via the Friends of the Earth Application System.
We offer a competitive range of benefits, good work/life balance including a 4-day working week with no loss of pay, additional leave for sustainable travel, excellent learning and development opportunities and a vibrant organisational culture.
Our staff body is currently under-representative of People of Colour, LGBTQIA+ people and people with long term conditions or impairments. We are committed to eroding these historic barriers, so as to create a movement in which people from all walks of life see themselves in, and so we particularly encourage you to apply if you belong to one of these groups or sit at multiple intersections of disadvantage. We are committed to the Disability Confident standard and will guarantee an interview to any candidates who declare a disability and who meet the essential criteria for the role.
Friends of the Earth staff who publicly represent Friends of the Earth (including all campaigners) are not allowed to also represent a political party. This is to ensure that there can be no confusion in the minds of the public about Friends of the Earth's party-political independence. Affected staff should also seek permission from the Senior Management Team if they wish to hold a non-public facing official role in a political party. If this is an issue, please do raise this with us as soon as possible.
Friends of the Earth is an international community dedicated to protecting the natural world and the wellbeing of everyone in it. We lead campaigns, provide resources and information, and drive real solutions to the environmental problems facing us all.
We are part of an international community dedicated to protecting the natural world and the wellbeing of everyone in it.


The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Salary: £65,000-£72,000
Contract: Permanent, Full-time
Location: Hybrid – 2-3 days per week in London Office
Closing date: Wed 18th Feb
Benefits: 27 days annual leave (plus bank holidays), enhanced pension, medical cash plan, cycle to work scheme, employee assistance programme, and more
We are delighted to be partnering with a global youth charity empowering young people in 130 countries to build confidence, resilience and skills.
This is an exceptional opportunity to lead the Foundation’s global major donor programme as Head of Philanthropy, overseeing the growth of the World Fellowship and managing international high value donor relationships. You will work closely with senior leadership, Trustees and influential volunteers to deepen engagement and drive philanthropic income.
In this role, you will lead a high performing philanthropy team, shape an ambitious income strategy and deliver compelling stewardship and events that inspire transformational giving.
To be successful in this role, you will need:
- A strong track record of growing international major donor income, ideally at five and six figure level
- Experience engaging and stewarding high net worth individuals and senior stakeholders
- Strategic leadership capabilities, with experience managing high?performing teams
- Excellent relationship building, communication and storytelling skills
- Strong commercial and financial acumen, including budget and reporting oversight
If you would like to have an informal discussion, please contact Ashby Jenkins Recruitment and ask to speak to Emma.
Ashby Jenkins Recruitment is a specialist charity recruitment agency. We are committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and take a relationship led approach to recruitment across the sector.
You can read more about our commitment to diversity on our website.
If enough applications are received, we reserve the right to close the application period early.
Please quote reference 2867EI when applying.
After a successful Inspiring Minds Campaign that raised £50m over a 10-year period and achieved the goal of providing bursaries to 1 in 4 pupils, the Latymer Foundation is now entering a new strategic period. A new three-year strategy will sustain and grow bursary provision, driving us towards the goal of achieving needs-blind admissions, whilst positioning Latymer as the independent school that sets the global standard for access, inclusion and opportunity.
Within this context, the Head of Philanthropy will play a vital role in securing the financial resources that sustain Latymer’s sector-leading bursary programme, ensuring that talent, not financial circumstance, determines access to a life-changing Latymer education.
The Head of Philanthropy role will have a strong personal focus on major gifts fundraising, whilst overseeing all philanthropic income streams — Major Gifts, Regular Giving and Legacies.
Salary circa £75,000 per annum, dependent on experience.
To apply and find out more about the school and our attractive staff benefits package, please visit our dedicated recruitment website via the Apply button.
Closing date: 9.00 am on Monday, 23rd February 2026.
Interviews 1st Round (Virtual) – Tuesday 3rd & Wednesday 4th March 2026.
Interviews 2nd Round (In-person at Latymer Upper School) – Wednesday 11th March 2026.
Diversity – The School is fully committed to the principles of equal opportunity, diversity and inclusion. We have an established and representative staff Equality and Diversity Board to help drive forward positive change. A further Equality and Diversity Committee has recently been formed from our student population.
We are committed to attracting and retaining the very best staff, ensuring that our staff body reflects the diversity of our students and local community. Acknowledging a lack of ethnic diversity within our Support Staff community, we particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates for this role. All appointments will be made on merit, following a fair and transparent process. In line with the Equality Act 2010; however, the School may employ positive action where diverse candidates can demonstrate their ability to perform the role equally well.
The School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. All posts are subject to an enhanced DBS, online checks and receipt of two satisfactory references.
Our Client is the UK's biggest grassroots network dedicated to protecting people and planet at a critical time for our world. As the organisation develops a new strategy to meet the challenges of the climate, nature and inequality crises, it is building on a proud history of working with communities to achieve change - bringing longstanding partners and loyal supporters on that journey. Our Client is recruiting a Head of Major Giving, and Prospectus is leading the search.
Head of Major Giving
Permanent, Full time (30 hours over 4 days)
Flexible across England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Salary: £49,202-£53,252 per annum (regional) / £52,500-£56,550 per annum (London)
This is a great opportunity for an experienced team leader and high value fundraiser to join at a pivotal moment. Reporting into the Director of Income Generation, the Head of Major Giving will lead a passionate and well-established team spanning Philanthropy, Trusts & Foundations, Strategic Partnerships and Events. With 12 people in the team and five direct reports, you'll set direction, inspire high performance and play a key role in championing a culture of philanthropy and partnerships across the organisation.
You will be responsible for developing and delivering the Major Giving strategy, driving significant income growth and pipeline development. Central to the role will be retaining and deepening relationships with loyal supporters, while attracting new, long-term funders; refreshing stewardship and cultivation approaches to deliver ambitious growth plans and ensure Friends of the Earth has the resources to respond to an evolving external landscape.
To be successful, you will bring demonstrable experience of income growth and pipeline development, alongside a strong track record of motivating and inspiring teams to achieve high, sustainable performance. You can bring experience in one or more high value funding streams (Major Donors, Trusts & Foundations, Corporate Partnerships). You'll be highly collaborative, confident building relationships cross-organisationally, and an excellent networker. Experience of, or knowledge of campaigning organisations and/or organisations going through strategic change would be an advantage.
How to Apply
At Prospectus, we invest in your journey as a candidate and are committed to supporting you with your application. We welcome all candidates to apply, regardless of age, sex/gender, disability, race, religion, sexual orientation, marital status or pregnancy/maternity. If you have a disability and require reasonable adjustments to any part of the process, please contact Femke Vorstman at Prospectus.
If you feel you meet some of the criteria but not all, we really hope you'll enquire and learn more. Prospectus can advise and support you throughout the process, so we look forward to hearing from you.
To apply, please submit your CV in the first instance. Should your experience be suitable, Prospectus will arrange an initial meeting to brief you on the role. You'll then have all the information you need to formally apply. We look forward to connecting with you soon.