Head of philanthropy and special events jobs

The Head of Public Fundraising will lead the design and delivery of a mass audience fundraising strategy for The Children’s Trust. Taking a supporter centred approach, the postholder will lead a team of individual giving and relationship fundraisers to generate income through the strategic and long-term engagement of new and existing supporters.

The role will include setting and delivering income and expenditure budgets across individual giving, legacy, events, community and partnerships income streams as well as evaluating new opportunities for voluntary income growth.

The postholder will play a key part within the Fundraising, Retail and Communications directorate and champion fundraising across the organisation.

This role is not open to sponsorship.

Staff benefits include shuttle bus, and more… Read more below.

Role Requirements

• Develop, implement and monitor a fundraising strategy across all public fundraising areas aligned to the voluntary income strategy.
• Working with the Director of Fundraising and Communications, set income and expenditure budgets, agreeing activities and initiatives to deliver these budgets ensuring. cost control regular forecasting and taking corrective action to achieve budgets. 
• Establishing and monitoring KPIs and quality standards for the Public Fundraising team 
• Review and build on The Children’s Trust supporter journey, ensuring that all supporter relationships are strengthened and that donors are engaged on many levels.
• Review and revise The Children’s Trust case for support, working with the Head of High Value Philanthropy to develop appeals and/or products relevant for different audiences.
• Using a donor centred approach, explore opportunities to maximise income growth and long-term relationship development.
• Work with Senior Events and Partnerships Manager and Senior Individual Giving Manager to strengthen relationships and cross-team working within the Public Fundraising team with a view to maximising supporter engagement and fundraising opportunities. 
• Lead the team to create a supporter-focussed plan to refine assumptions around product offerings and audience needs. 
• Using CRM principles, work with senior managers to optimise acquisition planning, and channels and campaigns within agreed budgets.
• Build and strengthen internal relationships across the organisation to co-produce fundraising propositions and ensure that budget relieving, organisational priorities are at the centre of all fundraising relationships.
• Work with Heads across the Fundraising, Retail and Communications Directorate to manage relationships, scope of work and overall budgets when commissioning external data analytics, creative and media agencies. 

Interview Date:

1st Stage - w/c 27th April 2026

2nd Stage - w/c 4th May 2026

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY – ‘How to Apply’

Terms and Conditions

PLEASE NOTE: The Children's Trust Application Form MUST be completed and submitted, for your application to be considered. As part of the shortlisting process, gaps in employment will be examined and further explored during the interview process. 

Strictly no agencies, please.

As we often receive high levels of applicants for our roles, we regret that we will only be able to contact those applicants who are shortlisted for interviews. Therefore, if you have not heard from us within 2 weeks of the closing date, please assume you have not been shortlisted for an interview on this occasion.

About Us

The Children’s Trust is the UK’s leading charity for children with acquired brain injury, providing expert rehabilitation, education, therapy, and care at our national specialist centre in Tadworth, and to children and their families across the UK, via our Brain Injury Community Service.

Boasting a beautiful 24-acre site in Surrey, we are located just outside of London, close to the M25 (accessible via Junction 8, A217 to Tadworth) and easily accessible via National Rail, by way of: Clapham Junction, Sutton, and Epsom.

Staff Benefits

The work we do is highly rewarding, and in addition to an attractive salary, we offer a valuable range of benefits, including our staff flexible benefits platform, on-site nursery, free eye tests, enhanced Maternity and Paternity Pay, time out days for those experiencing menopause symptoms and time off for gender reassignment.

We also offer additional annual leave days for those with long service, with entitlements ranging from 35 to 41 days (including bank holidays) depending on your length of service.

Other benefits include free on-site parking; a staff shuttle service from Epsom and Sutton train stations to Tadworth Court, subsidised cafeteria, on-site staff accommodation (subject to availability), the ability to retain your NHS pension (where applicable), Teacher’s pension (where applicable) or the opportunity to join an alternative scheme, and the opportunity to develop your career in a supportive and collaborative environment.

Rehabilitation of Offenders

Many roles at The Children’s Trust are exempt from the provisions of Section 4 (2) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, by virtue of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2013 and 2020) and as such, are subject to an Enhanced DBS check.  Successful applicants will be required to complete an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check, which will disclose all unspent convictions and adult cautions and any spent convictions or adult cautions that would not be protected.  The exceptions to this are our retail roles within The Children’s Trust shops, which are subject to Basic DBS checks which will disclose unspent convictions or adult cautions.

Equal Opportunity Employer

To help us achieve our ambition to give children and young people with brain injury and neurodisability the opportunity to live the best life possible, we want to accurately reflect the UK’s diverse population. We want equity, diversity, and inclusion to be at the heart of everything we do, and our people, services, and culture to reflect the diverse needs of all. Through our diversity and inclusion strategy, we have made a commitment to increase the diversity of our charity and create an inclusive culture. We have networks across the organisation working to ensure that these aims are met - including an LGBTQIA2S+ group, Ethnic Diversity Group, and Spark – our broad EDI group. Read more about our EDI work here. We welcome applications from all who share our ambition regardless of background. We will strive to ensure that any reasonable adjustments are made in respect of interview and working arrangements.

Online Searches

In accordance with statutory safeguarding and child protection guidance, online searches will be conducted for shortlisted candidates before interview. The online searches will be conducted by a person who is independent of the interview and selection process and will focus on relevant information returned via searches of the candidate’s name (and variations thereof). Social media searches will be limited to professional platforms such as LinkedIn. Any concerns relating to suitability for work with children and young people will be forwarded to the interview panel, for discussion during the interview.

We have an exciting opportunity for someone to join the Philanthropy and Partnerships Directorate on a one-year fixed-term contract to provide maternity cover for our Philanthropy Manager. As Philanthropy Manager you will manage a portfolio of existing major donors and lead on building relationships with new potential supporters to secure 5 and 6 figure donations.

The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity raises money to save the lives of people with cancer, everywhere. We ensure our nurses, doctors and research teams can provide the very best care and develop life-saving treatments, which are used across the UK and around the world. 

From funding state-of-the-art equipment and ground-breaking research, to creating the very best patient environments, we will never stop looking for ways to improve the lives of people affected by cancer. 

We are a very ambitious organisation which has gone through transformational growth over the past five years. Alongside funding an existing programme of world-leading research, treatment and care, the Charity completed its largest capital appeal to date, successfully raising £70 million to build the Oak Cancer Centre at the hospital’s Sutton site, which opened in summer 2023. 

With one in two of us expected to develop some form of cancer, it is essential that we go even further in our fundraising efforts to support the essential work of The Royal Marsden. Therefore, we are delivering our most ambitious strategy yet, that will see us raising at least £215m over the 5-year period.

The Charity is committed its biggest fundraising appeal to date, for a new major development project in Chelsea. There is also an extensive portfolio of engaging projects outside of the capital appeals that help to support all aspects of the hospital’s work to improve the lives of cancer patients. 

The Philanthropy and Partnerships Directorate

Working for us offers you a challenging and rewarding career, as well as the chance to really improve the lives of those living with cancer.

The Philanthropy and Partnerships Directorate, a high performing function that is responsible for all areas of high value fundraising including major donors, trusts and foundations, corporate partners and special events/high value committee supporters.

We work with the Charity’s most generous supporters, who make a significant difference to the work of The Royal Marsden. Philanthropy plays a vital role in the success of funding the hospital’s most urgent priorities and projects.

Job purpose

As Philanthropy Manager you will manage a portfolio of existing major donors and lead on building relationships with new potential supporters to secure 5 and 6 figure donations. You will support the Head of Philanthropy and Special Events, other members of the RMCC leadership team, to explore their networks, facilitate introductions and secure gifts.

You will be a proactive individual with a proven ability and passion for relationship management and donor acquisition driving the delivery of our donor-centric strategy for philanthropy. 

This is an opportune time to join The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity as we embark on our most ambitious Appeal to date. We are a high performing team, and this role presents an exciting opportunity to play a vital part in helping us to realise our ambition whilst developing your career within an ambitious organisation.

Working relationships

You will work closely with our Senior Philanthropy Managers, and regularly liaise with the Head of Philanthropy and Special Events, and Associate Director of Philanthropy and Partnerships and their Deputy. You will also work directly with teams at the hospital, as well as colleagues across P&P and Public Fundraising.

The Wave Project is an innovative, expanding and award-winning charity that uses surf therapy and the healing powers of the ocean to help children overcome trauma and mental health challenges. The Wave Project transforms young lives - in 2025 we supported more than 2,600 surfers through our Surf Therapy, Surf Club and Adaptive surfing programmes.

The charity, with headquarters in Newquay (Cornwall), was founded in 2010 and has expanded to become the UK’s leading ‘surf therapy’ charity. We now employ nearly 35 staff at 16 sites around the UK, and have nearly 1,400 amazing volunteers.

Contributing to our impact doesn’t just happen on the beach and in the sea. This role is a great opportunity to use your skills, experience and passion to help transform young lives. We are a small but highly driven and creative team who are making a genuine difference in the lives of children and young people. We are strongly values-led:

Care, Safe, Brave, Integrity, Inclusive, Impactful, Thrive

We take our Safeguarding responsibilities seriously. All our volunteers and staff team work hard to ensure that everybody who comes into contact with The Wave Project is safe. Before applying for any of our roles, please have a look through our Safeguarding policy, especially our code of conduct, to ensure you are the right fit for our organisation.

Please read the recruitment pack on our website for more information. 

The Trusts and Foundations (T&F) Officer is an integral part of the Philanthropy team, managing relationships with high value supporters. They are responsible for a portfolio of approximately 40-50 Trusts and Foundations donors, primarily giving between £25k-£100k, but also with the potential to include those giving below and above that level, to support with team capacity and best stewardship. The Trusts and Foundations (T&F) Officer will build strong and strategic relationships with donors, ensuring continued support of MSF.

They are also responsible for seeking and securing new funding from prospective trusts and foundations at the £25k-£100k level. Their overall focus is on delivering stable, new and increased income for MSF's work, and feeding into the  Philanthropy team strategy around the retention and acquisition of new trust donors.