Individual giving manager jobs in Cambridge, cambridgeshire

About us

Our purpose is simple: to save lives at sea. 24 hours a day, every day, RNLI lifesavers are ready to launch to the rescue.

We’re looking for a Senior Face to Face (F2F) Fundraising Manager to join our Face to Face Fundraising team. This is a fantastic opportunity within the RNLI to play a vital role in developing and growing the RNLI in-house F2F Fundraising team to reach the ambitious targets we have ahead. This role manages a team of F2F Managers who each lead a team of F2F fundraisers signing up regular supporters within a defined geographical area and raise vital long-term funding for the charity, as well as delivering lifesaving water safety messaging. The role is part of the F2F Senior Management Team, supporting the team’s development through leading projects that drive forwards team performance.

Your role

As a Senior F2F Fundraising Manager, you will be tasked with focus on the following areas:

• Recruit, train and manage a geographically diverse group of direct reports. Develop and motivate direct reports to deliver key messages, campaigns and products within the F2F strategy.
• As a senior manager in the F2F fundraising team (200+ staff), continue to develop and maintain a positive high-performing culture to ensure the team are performing at their best and developing. Drive continuous improvement across all KPIs.
• Construct and monitor financial and performance reports to ensure budget & KPIs are met, reforecasting where necessary.
• Develop a positive safety culture by identifying and managing risks to health and safety and safeguarding.
• Oversee compliance & complaints to ensure RNLI F2F fundraising adheres to best practice.
• Lead the delivery of selected team projects from initiation to completion, working with colleagues both within the F2F team and the wider organisation to provide the plans, processes and tools needed for the team to achieve their objectives. Develop solid relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders across the UK and Ireland.

About you

Leading a frontline team, you’ll have excellent communication skills and people management capabilities, with a proven track record of achieving fundraising targets. You will be a strategic thinker, with the ability to use your networks to ensure that plans are executed well and future opportunities are maximised to drive both the volume and value of new supporters.

You’ll be a role model to others, displaying behaviours that inspire respect. You’ll look after your people so they in turn can look after our donors, by displaying a passion to lead, manage and motivate a diverse team who engage with the public. You’ll be positive, confident, determined resilient and naturally outgoing. You’ll be a self-starter who can lead an energetic and innovative team to success.

You’ll be a team player with a pragmatic and solution-focused approach to problem solving and a calm attitude to prioritising a busy workload. Your strengths in planning and critical thinking will help you strike the balance between taking calculated risks where required and maintaining compliance to policies and sector regulations.

You’ll be flexible and prepared to work out-of-office hours with travel throughout the year. Substantial annual leave during the summer would not be practical for this role. This post requires a valid driving licence.

To be considered as the Senior F2F Fundraising Manager, you will need:

• Proven experience and success in leading a remote face-to-face fundraising team. This will either have been gained working for a charity or a fundraising agency
• Evidence of managing and motivating a team of paid staff or volunteers to achieve goals/targets
• Demonstrable experience of delivering projects that provide improvement to process
• Excellent communication skills and teamworking ethos
• Self-motivation and ability to create and prioritise own workload
• Knowledge of F2F charity sector, compliance and regulation
• This post requires a valid driving licence

For more information and to apply, please visit our jobs page.

Closing date: 4 January 2026.

Interview date: 12 January 2026.

The RNLI is committed to safeguarding; protecting a person’s health, wellbeing, and human rights, enabling them to live free from harm, abuse, and neglect. We expect all employees and volunteers to share this commitment and have a zero-tolerance approach. The suitability of all prospective employees and volunteers will be assessed during the recruitment process in line with this commitment. This will include relevant criminal record checks being carried out dependent on the eligibility of the role. (England & Wales; DBS check, Scotland; Disclosure Scotland PVG, Northern Ireland; Access NI, Republic of Ireland; Garda Vetting; International, International Child Protection Certificate process).

Our staff and volunteers have been saving lives at sea without prejudice for 200 years. We respect and value diversity of background, skills and perspectives within our teams, and consider it essential to help us deliver a world-class lifesaving service. We are an inclusive organisation and welcome applications from everyone. In addition to having the skills needed for the role, we also look for applicants who share our commitment to living our RNLI values (trustworthy, courageous, selfless, and dependable), and helping us work towards Our Vision: To save Every One.

Direct Marketing Manager (Face to Face Fundraising)

We are looking for a confident and driven Face to Face Fundraising Manager who is eager to join and lead the Direct Marketing team. This role has been created to enable us to meet our ambitious growth and diversification ambitions, ultimately doubling the size of our active regular giving file by 2033.

You will be responsible for the ongoing implementation, oversight and management of our face-to-face fundraising activity, managing significant income and expenditure budgets to accelerate progress towards a cure. You will have demonstrable experience of driving results, quality and positive supporter experience through face-to-face fundraising. You will ensure the highest standard of quality and compliance with organisational protocols, relevant legislation and codes of conduct. As part of this, you will spend time with our agencies, fundraisers and offices to build lasting relationships, including agency/ fundraiser training sessions and time with providers and the team.

You’ll work with a team of two across our face-to-face fundraising programme; speaking to a range of audiences with one theme in common – compelling people to stand with us for a cure.

Key Responsibilities:

Programme and campaign management

· Lead the development and delivery of the face-to-face fundraising programme and strategy across a range of products and channels. This includes Regular Giving, Lottery and Payroll Giving across Private Site, and Door to door.

· Oversee the delivery of the face-to-face acquisition campaigns; ensuring they are in market on time, on budget and on brand.

· To be responsible for reviewing and developing the face-to-face aspect of our Weekly Lottery Strategy to maximise income.

· Deliver consistent, structured testing to ensure continuous improvement. Where appropriate and worthwhile, ensure testing is applied to all activity and reviewed with recommendations acted upon.

· Involvement in charity-wide projects and groups; putting supporters at the heart of what we do as well as playing a key role in the delivery of our Fundraising & Marketing Strategy.

· Management of all key face to face fundraising agencies including routine reviews, briefing, optimisation and general relationship management.

· Annual planning of face-to-face fundraising; including input to operational planning and development of relevant marketing plans.

· Ensure routine end of campaign reviews and analysis (with suppliers as well as your own), with proactive adaptation of plans to optimise results.

· Ensure contingency plans and activities are in place to close any expected income gaps.

People management

· Management and development of a team of two.

· Empowering team members to succeed and grow with clear, SMART goals and development plans in place.

· Complete routine 1-1 meetings and annual appraisals with direct reports.

· Developing a high performing team who work collaboratively across the charity.

· Agency relationship management across a variety of partners and suppliers, from building relationships and negotiating, to contract and routine performance reviews.

· Working closely with the Supporter Care and Data teams to ensure the face-to-face acquisition activity and processes are well understood and that they can support the team as best possible.

· Forge strong, collaborative relationships with the Corporate Fundraising team to seek opportunities to cross-sell to their audiences.

Budget management and reporting

· Annual budgeting of face-to-face fundraising programmes and campaigns.

· Regular forecasting in line with the annual cycle, making recommendations around budget allocation and managing expectations throughout.

· KPI tracking, trend analysis and interrogation of results at all levels.

· Regular financial performance reporting.

· Programme optimisation to ensure contribution targets are met and contingency planning as required.

· Detailed reporting geared towards a longer-term view of performance, covering long-term & ROI modelling, lifetime value and considering supporter experience and engagement.

Training and compliance

· Develop and oversee all training of third-party fundraisers in person (where possible) and ensure that they are motivated, inspired and well informed about the work we do. This includes working closely with the team to develop annual training and engagement plans for each agency partner.

· Oversee the mystery shopping/ shadowing to ensure that new supporters are having a very positive experience at point of acquisition and communicate these findings.

· Work closely with our agency partners, the Compliance team and your team to ensure processes are compliant with the Fundraising Regulator, Gambling Commission, and Data Protection regulations. This includes monitoring fundraising training sessions led by fundraising partners (in person where possible).

· Look into and develop audits and processes across all of our face to face fundraising agencies, ensuring compliance against the Fundraising Regulator's code of fundraising practice.

What we are looking for:

· Budget management experience – preferably across expenditure and income 

· Campaign management – specifically face to face fundraising campaigns

· Media planning experience – across a range of media types

· Agency management – including creative and professional acquisition fundraising agencies as well as others such as printers and market researchers

· Demonstrable people management experience

· Ability to understand complex data sets and compile meaningful reports and analysis

· Excellent attention to detail

· Strategic and critical thinking

· Getting the best out of people and agencies

· Understanding of compliance in direct marketing

Additional Information:

Ways of working: As part of our Agile ways of working you will be required to work approximately 2 days a week from the office, which is subject to the requirements of the role and the business needs. Flexibility on where you work can be split between working from home and our office.

Roles that are classed as part of the Agile ways of working are not able to claim any costs for Mileage/Travel on Public Transport, Accommodation and/or Meals.  This includes when attending the office for various meetings/events.

Our Office: Our office is at 3 Riverside, Granta Park, Great Abington, Cambridge, CB21 6AD. 

Salary: Circa £44,000 per annum, plus benefits.

Please download the Vacancy Pack on our website for more information.

The closing date for applications is the 11th January 2026, with interviews being arrange once shortlisting has been completed. Please indicate in your covering letter if you are unable to attend an interview on a certain date. We would encourage you to submit your application at the earliest opportunity, as on occasion we may have to bring forward the interview date and/or the closing date based on the needs of the business. Although a possibility, this will only happen in exceptional circumstances. Please indicate in your covering letter if you are unable to attend an interview on a certain date.