Can you help award-winning organisations in sport, education and the third sector secure new income from trusts, foundations and institutions?

Here at Oaks, we help socially-minded organisations raise their game. Formed in 2008, our journey has seen us work with organisations of all shapes and sizes right across the sport, voluntary and education sectors: empowering socially-minded organisations to expand their work, support more vulnerable people, and ultimately change lives across the UK.

Borne out of sport, our work now spans five core sectors:

• Sport: We help organisations using sport as a tool for development to grow and sustain their activity
• Education: We help schools and academies to think differently about their income generation potential
• Third sector: We help charities and social enterprises to build their fundraising capabilities and improve capacity
• Social housing: We help housing associations to invest effectively in their communities and make their resources go further
• Corporates: We help businesses to develop, activate and evaluate their social responsibility commitments

Our clients include global sport-for-development charities such as the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation; prominent sporting institutions such as UEFA, Sport England and the LTA, some of the UK’s largest multi-academy trusts and over 40 other award-winning community organisations. Our work with these organisations has received its own plaudits too – with Oaks shortlisted as provider of the year at the Football Business Awards and Sports Business Awards in 2019.

The opportunity

We are now looking for a talented bid-writer and fundraiser to join our growing team – supporting our income generation work with several high-profile clients.

Successful candidates will focus primarily on helping to secure grants from trusts and foundations for our diverse clients so that these organisations can continue to enhance their life-changing work.

It’s a unique opportunity to hone your bid-writing skills in a variety of not-for-profit contexts – working with schools and academy trusts, national governing bodies, sport-related charities and regional and international development organisations to secure their long-term futures and deliver genuine social impact.

Key responsibilities include:

• Providing hands-on fundraising advice and support to a number of organisations in the education, housing, sport and not-for-profit sectors
• Identifying new grant opportunities from trusts, foundations and other institutions that are suitable for our clients and their award-winning community activities
• Securing these grant opportunities through responding to requests for proposals, drafting formal cases for support and applications, and nurturing new relationships with funders
• Developing and managing successful relationships with our clients that deliver exceptional client satisfaction levels and provide a significant return on their investment in Oaks
• Training and developing individuals within our team to be able to provide high-quality consultancy support

Core Skills and Experiences

We are looking for individuals who would be a natural addition to our energetic, purpose-driven team: independent and innovative thinkers who enjoy identifying new opportunities, developing high quality and persuasive prose, and who are naturally ambitious.

We are looking for:

• Experience of securing four or five-figure grants from trusts, foundations, lottery funders or other institutions
• High quality writing, with the ability to compose compelling content and adapt this to suit different audiences and different funder guidelines
• Excellent account management skills and confidence in developing relationships with a range of stakeholders
• Preferable experience in education, sport for development or the wider not-for-profit sector
• Efficiency – the ability to multitask and produce work to tight deadlines – and ability to independently prioritise between tasks with overlapping deadlines
• Excellent communications skills at all levels and the ability to give information clearly
• Experience in supporting the implementation of fundraising strategies, plans, projects and budgets
• Project management skills to support the wider consultancy work of Oaks

Who we are

We are a team united by our commitment to:

• Constantly challenging ourselves and our clients
• Having fun whilst we work
• Trusting and valuing each other
• Not taking ourselves too seriously
• Being agile and flexible in our approach

Individuals who join us on our journey will:

• Be rewarded for their efforts
• Continue to progress through the business and develop their skills
• Have a clear pathway for progression, being provided with the appropriate training and development
• Be continuously challenged
• Be given diverse and exciting opportunities and experiences
• Develop and hone skills that lead to great careers