Head of Donor Experience

Acorns Children’s Hospice provides specialist care and support for babies, children and young people who are life limited or life threatened. When time is short, every moment is precious. Acorns helps children and families fill the time they have together with love, fun and laughter to create lasting memories.

Palliative care for children aged 0-18 is delivered at Acorns’ hospices in Birmingham, Worcester, and Walsall, as well as in family homes or elsewhere in the community. Their holistic, tailored approach meets each child’s clinical, emotional, cultural, religious, and spiritual needs. Supporting over 750 children and nearly 1,000 families annually, Acorns is a vital lifeline for families across the West Midlands and Gloucestershire during unimaginably difficult times.

Over the past three years, Acorns’ leadership has enhanced collaboration and innovation across the charity and embedded an organisation-wide fundraising culture. Following a period of investment and structural change within Fundraising, Acorns is now seeking a Head of Donor Experience to shape and lead a centralised, donor-first function that underpins sustainable income growth.

With an integrated fundraising structure and an upcoming £5m appeal, Acorns is looking for a senior leader to review, refine and scale its end-to-end supporter experience.

The Head of Donor Experience is a senior leadership role responsible for leading a central support function covering donor journeys, supporter care, data and insight, digital fundraising and compliance, ensuring consistent, high-quality experiences across all income streams.

Reporting to the Associate Director of Fundraising, you will play an active role on the Fundraising Leadership Team, with shared accountability for strategic decision making, compliance and cross-directorate working. You will be responsible for embedding a donor-centred strategy that drives engagement, loyalty and long-term value, while championing a digital-first, data-driven approach to stewardship.

As Head of Donor Experience, you will:

• Lead and embed a cohesive donor experience strategy aligned to the wider Fundraising Strategy
• Design and implement a structured supporter journey framework, ensuring appropriate automation and personalisation across channels and income streams
• Review and refine thanking, banking, fulfilment and supporter care processes to improve efficiency and supporter satisfaction
• Oversee CRM development and optimisation, ensuring robust data governance and a clear single supporter view
• Lead insight generation and segmentation strategy to inform fundraising performance and income growth
• Drive innovation in digital stewardship, journey design and platform usage
• Establish and maintain a centralised compliance framework across fundraising activity
• Strengthen collaboration between Fundraising and Marketing to enable more coordinated, funnel-led campaigns
• Champion a data-driven, donor-centric culture across the Fundraising Directorate
• Line manage senior managers across Donor Experience, Data & Insight and Digital Fundraising, contributing as an active member of the Fundraising Senior Leadership Team

Essential skills and experience:

• Strong background in fundraising operations, supporter care, compliance or customer experience within a charity setting
• Proven track record of developing and delivering stewardship strategies that improve retention and long-term supporter value
• Experience managing and motivating teams to deliver operational excellence and performance improvement
• Experience designing and implementing strategy, annual plans and process improvements
• Strong working knowledge of CRM systems, data governance and supporter database management
• Confidence influencing senior internal stakeholders and driving cross-team collaboration
• Experience of reporting, performance analysis and using insight to inform decision-making
• Strong understanding of fundraising compliance, including GDPR and sector regulation

Employee benefits include:

• 27 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• 5 days holiday buyback scheme starting from April 2026
• 7.5% employer pension contribution
• Life assurance scheme (2 x annual salary)
• Retail discounts (including the Blue Light card)
• Cycle to work scheme
• Discounted gym membership
• Access to expert financial health and wellbeing support