Retention & Legacy Fundraising Lead

Job Purpose

This role sits at the heart of Operation Smile UK’s five-year strategy to deliver transformational growth across all income streams. As Retention Fundraising Lead, you will be instrumental in delivering on three of the four core strategic priorities:

1.      Build Regular Giving – retain and maximise value from the regular giving base

2.      Drive All Donors to Legacy – ensure donors experience best-in-class stewardship, increasing their loyalty to the charity with an objective of feeding into legacy and long-term giving goals.

3.      Maximise Growth Through Digital Fundraising Integration – leading the expansion and optimisation of digital growth for all existing supporters.

The Retention Lead is responsible for delivering Operation Smile UK’s strategic individual giving retention and legacy marketing programme. This role is key to driving income growth from our existing donors from the point of recruitment, maximising value and minimising attrition from the regular giving pool and generating and retaining legacy actions and prospects.

You will lead on the strategy, planning, delivery and evaluation of retention campaigns, with full accountability for managing significant budgets, agency partnerships and performance metrics.

You will support the development of the Legacy strategy, be instrumental in planning legacy activity and delivering legacy marketing for the existing supporter base across all income streams and methods of support, from Partnerships, Volunteers and public fundraisers.

This is a senior, hands-on role suited to an experienced Individual giving fundraiser with strong commercial acumen and a data-driven mindset.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Campaign Leadership

• Develop and implement the retention strategy, aligned with income targets and supporter growth objectives.
• Lead on the planning and delivery of campaigns across cash, donor stewardship, legacy prospecting and stewardship, welcome, conversion, reactivation and upgrade appeals.
• Lead on strategic development of the cultivation journey to ensure Operation Smile maximise growth through digital channels.
• Monitor and report on campaign performance, providing insight-driven recommendations to optimise results.
• Drive testing and innovation to expand existing approaches and introduce new ones within acceptable risk and return parameters.

Budget Ownership & Performance Monitoring

• Take full responsibility for retention and legacy budget management, income forecasting and cost control.
• Set, monitor, and evaluate key performance indicators (KPIs), reporting against ROI, value and response, retention and conversion metrics and long-term value across all supporter groups channels.
• Collaborate with the Senior Database Manager and the Director of Data and Technology to develop and maintain performance dashboards (e.g., Power BI) and support strategic data analysis, including both short term and long-term channel performance evaluation.

Line Management

• Provide day-to-day leadership and support to the Retention team, ensuring clarity of objectives, effective workload management, and professional development opportunities.
• Conduct regular 1:1s, annual appraisals, and performance reviews for direct reports, supporting their growth and accountability.
• Foster a collaborative and inclusive team culture, encouraging innovation, learning, and high standards of delivery.
• Provide strategic and operational direction to external agencies or freelancers working on retention projects.

Agency & Partner Management

• Manage day-to-day relationships with external fundraising and creative partners.
• Lead on the relationship with the external fulfilment agency working with multiple internal stakeholders to ensure an effective partnership is in place.
• Lead briefings, content sourcing, agent training, stakeholder approvals, and quality assurance processes.
• Negotiate contracts and hold suppliers accountable for delivery and performance.

Cross-Team and Market Integration

• Represent the retention and legacy programme in cross-functional planning meetings and contribute to a unified team culture focused on strategic delivery.
• Work closely with the Acquisition and Digital lead to deliver a seamless supporter journey from point of recruitment to donor communications.
• Work closely with the Philanthropy Manager to develop and manage the pipeline of HV/Major donors.
• Work closely with the Legacy administrator, Philanthropy Manager and Volunteer Manager to develop the legacy pipeline.
• Work closely to ensure all digital communications are aligned and support the retention strategy
• Act as a key liaison with colleagues across Operation Smile global markets, sharing insights and exploring opportunities to align strategy, co-develop creative, or pilot cross-market initiatives.

Compliance, Risk & Best Practice

• Ensure all campaigns meet legal, ethical and data protection requirements (e.g., GDPR, Fundraising Regulator).
• Act as a key contributor to organisational risk assessments relating to income performance and supplier performance.
• Keep up to date with sector trends, innovations and benchmarks to maintain best practice.

Person specification

Essential Experience

• Extensive experience (ideally 5+ years) in Individual Giving, Legacy or fundraising acquisition roles.
• Proven success delivering multi-channel (including digital) retention campaigns for both cash, legacy and regular giving donors with strong ROI.
• Experience managing external agencies and suppliers to high performance standards.
• Strong background in regular giving retention.
• Demonstrable experience managing and reporting on retention budgets.

Skills & Attributes

• Strategic thinker with excellent campaign planning and execution skills.
• Highly numerate and confident using data for decision-making and optimisation.
• Strong project and stakeholder management abilities.
• Proactive, self-starting approach with high levels of ownership and accountability.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, able to represent the organisation externally.

Desirable

• Understanding of retention and supporter journey optimisation.
• Familiarity with CRM, Dot digital and data system Donorfy.
• Experience with Power BI or other reporting tools.

First-round interviews are set for the week of 9th March 2026. We strongly encourage early applications.

Disability Confident Committed Employer

We're a Disability Confident Committed employer, so we guarantee an interview to any disabled applicant who meets the minimum requirements for the job.

At Operation Smile UK, we value individuals based on their performance and potential. We're dedicated to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace that supports everyone's needs. We're happy to make reasonable adjustments throughout the application and employment process, and we particularly welcome applications from diverse backgrounds.

If you need this document in a different format, require any adjustments, or need help with your application, please contact us (further details contained within the job description).

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

Operation Smile UK knows fundraising could better reflect the diverse backgrounds and experiences of the people the charity sector supports. If you don’t meet every requirement but believe your transferable skills align with the role, we encourage you to contact us for a conversation. 

We want our team to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve, offering equal opportunities to everyone, regardless of, age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

We celebrate diversity and encourage you to bring your authentic self to Operation Smile UK. We are committed to supporting all applicants and ensuring a fair hiring process. All appointments will be made solely on merit, and we are happy to make reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.