Major gifts officer jobs in Milton keynes
Major Giving Administrator
Reporting to: Major Giving Manager – Trusts & Foundations
Location of work: Home-based. There will be an in-person team meeting or away day at least once every other month. Expenses will be paid in line with our Travel and Expenses policy.
Contract type: Ideally full-time, 35 hours per week. 28 hours or compressed hours may be considered. The role may require occasional evening and weekend work
Contract Length: Permanent
Salary: Starting Salary £25,500
JOB PURPOSE
This new role offers an exciting opportunity to gain hands-on experience and in-depth knowledge of fundraising within a dynamic, purpose-driven organisation.
You will play a key role in helping to futureproof and sustainably grow Magic Breakfast’s income from trusts, foundations, and high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs). This is a varied and rewarding role, with the opportunity for creativity with your own pool of funders.
You will be part of the Major Giving team, which secures income from trusts, foundations, and HNWIs. While your primary focus will be on trusts and foundations fundraising, you will also support the team’s work with HNWIs, adapting to the team’s needs as required.
With support from a friendly and experienced team, you will take ownership of a portfolio of trusts and foundations, managing relationships and securing donations typically ranging from £500 to £10,000. In supporting the team’s work with HNWIs, you will help to deliver outstanding donor care, nurture long-term relationships, and contribute to securing transformational gifts. Strong writing, communication, and research skills will be key to your success in this role.
You will join a creative and collaborative team that is passionate about tackling food insecurity and child poverty. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn, grow, and make a meaningful impact.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
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With support, submit reports, deliver effective communications and maintain engaging relationships with your pool of existing funders.
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Collaborate with colleagues to provide your donors with key communications (e.g. organisational updates, invitations to events).
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Support with team-wide stewardship such as donor events, thank you videos and newsletters.
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Contribute to the achievement of our team income target of £3.46m in 2025/26, as well as securing funding for future years.
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Support the team to prepare, compile and submit high quality funding proposals and budgets to new funders in accordance with timetables and application criteria.
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Maximise existing tools and processes to identify, research and write applications and deliver relationship management with new, small funders, to expand the small trusts programme.
WHAT WE OFFER
At Magic Breakfast we value our employees and work hard to develop offer a supportive, respectful culture which enables everyone to bring their whole self to work.
Please see our website for more infromation
APPLICATION PROCCESS
Should you wish to discuss the role before applying please email our People and Culture Team.
Shortlisting - 16th - 18th March
Interview 1 - 23rd or 26th March
Interview 2 - 30th or 31st March
We reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately, once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.
Thank you!
Are you passionate about bringing art to everyone? Do you believe in the power of digital to engage people with the arts? We’re looking for an enthusiastic Philanthropy Manager to join our friendly and dedicated team.
We welcome and encourage applications from candidates who are under-represented in the creative industries, particularly individuals who experience physical, mental or social barriers to accessing the arts.
About Art UK
Art UK is an art education charity and the online home for every public collection of art in the United Kingdom. It is making the UK’s national collection of art accessible to everyone online – for enjoyment, learning and research. Art UK brings together art from almost 3,500 British institutions in one of the UK's largest ever arts partnerships and showcases this art to a global audience of 5.5m users per annum. Approaching 60% of this audience is overseas.
Art UK provides significant support to museums and galleries in the UK, by providing them with a shared digital platform to showcase their art collections, reach new audiences, and generate income. Most of these collections would not be able to show their art online without Art UK. The Art UK platform is rich in story content, learning resources for teachers and students, and public engagement opportunities. A shared e-commerce infrastructure helps collections generate much needed commercial income.
About You
As the Philanthropy Manager, you will be a confident and persuasive communicator, comfortable engaging with supporters and stakeholders at all levels. You will have a solid knowledge of philanthropic giving and a deep appreciation of the value of high-quality donor stewardship. Highly organised and detail-focused, you will enjoy working with data and be skilled at producing compelling content both on and offline. You will bring initiative, creativity and the ability to work independently, while also being a collaborative team player.
The Philanthropy Manager is a new donor-facing role, which will focus on expanding and strengthening a major donor portfolio to increase five and six figure income from individual donors and family trusts for Art UK. You will lead on managing and growing Art UK’s philanthropic giving programme, which includes the Patrons and supporter events programme and our major donor activity. Working within an ambitious team, you will have the support of a freelance Prospect Researcher to identify new prospects, and the Development Manager and CRM Officer to develop donor journeys and relationship management systems. You will report to the Head of Development, work closely with the CEO and Chair of the Philanthropy Board, and collaborate with colleagues across the organisation.
You will actively promote equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging in all aspects of your work, reflecting your commitment to our organisational values and contributing to a positive workplace culture.
Key Responsibilities
- Build and maintain a robust prospect pipeline through identification, research, cultivation and relationship-building to secure five-figure gifts and long-term support
- Manage a portfolio of mid-level individual donors, converting one-off supporters into deeper donor relationships
- Manage and grow Art UK’s mid-level regular giving programme, strengthening donor relationships through face-to face meetings, events and personalised communication
- Develop donor development strategies, using CRM to analysis and identify higher gift prospects from existing donor pool and maximise giving potential
- Lead on major gifts for annual Big Give campaigns, identifying and securing keystone pledge donors, and leveraging networks to reach giving targets
- Create and implement, effectively and in a timely manner, development plans for each donor to retain and upgrade donors and document all activities in CRM Beacon
- Prepare and personalise correspondence and fundraising materials, including donor stewardship and reports, funding proposals and acknowledgement letters as appropriate
- Work closely with the Marketing team and other colleagues to showcase Art UK’s work and enhance donor engagement
- Organise and deliver events for major donors and prospects (with support from the Development team), including attending events where appropriate
- Support management of the American Friends of Art UK (launching 2026), including donor stewarding and events programming
- Support senior leadership and board members in the preparation and delivery of high-quality donor pitches to secure new philanthropic gifts
- Monitor progress against targets and maintain accurate reporting, including updates to Art UK’s Board of Trustees and the Philanthropy Board
- Ensure pledges and donations are processed efficiently and that donors are thanked promptly and personally
- Work closely with all members of the Development team to ensure prospecting and cultivation activity is aligned and complementary
- Ensure all philanthropic fundraising activity is conducted in line with legal, regulatory and ethical best practice e.g. GDPR and the Chartered Institute of Fundraising Code of Practice
Necessary Skills
- Essential: Experience managing a pipeline of philanthropic supporter prospects, including researching and devising bespoke cultivation plans
- Essential: Proven experience as a major donor fundraiser with a track record of securing five-figure gifts.
- Essential: Proven experience creating, implementing and evaluating philanthropic fundraising strategies
- Essential: Strong strategic thinking skills, with the ability to identify and shape innovative partnership opportunities
- Essential: Outstanding relationship-building and networking skills, including digital engagement
- Essential: In-depth understanding of the philanthropic fundraising environment
- Essential: First-class written and verbal communication skills, with the confidence to engage with a wide range of stakeholders
- Essential: Experience analysing and using supporter data to inform campaigns
- Essential: Strong copywriting, proofing and editing skills
- Essential: Experience using CRM databases with a high level of accuracy
- Essential: Thorough knowledge of fundraising best practice and legislation
- Essential: Self-motivated, reliable and exceptionally organized
- Desirable: Experience planning and managing fundraising events
- Desirable: Experience in donor acquisition through online giving platforms, direct marketing by email and social media campaigns
- Desirable: Active interest in the visual arts and awareness of UK art collections
- Desirable: Experience working with a diverse range of audiences
- Desirable: Experience working on projects with a broad range of partners
- Desirable: Experience of US fundraising and philanthropic giving
Contract terms
- Full-time
- Permanent contract
- Salary £38,000 per annum
- Three-month probationary period
- One-month termination clause
- Work from home, within 2-hour travel time to central London (once monthly travel to London for evening events and meetings required)
Benefits
- 25 days annual leave plus regional Bank Holidays
- Paid Christmas closure period (Christmas Day to New Year’s Day)
- Flexible working hours
- Workplace pension scheme
- Training and development opportunities
- Mental health and wellbeing support
- Above statutory paid sick leave
- Enhanced paid parental leave
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Monthly wellbeing hour
- Trained Mental Health First Aider’s
- Regular staff socials, both virtual and in-person
- Eye tests paid for up to £35, glasses subsidised up to £30
Registered Charity
21 - 50
Art UK is a charity – the online home for the UK's public art collections
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Our client believes every child should have the chance to feel safe, happy, and hopeful about their future. As the Charity's CEO puts it, "this is a genuinely game-changing moment for our Charity" as the charity ramps up its most ambitious investment yet in early help and mental health support through its Major Appeal. This is a standout opportunity to play a leading role in that step-change in impact and in the philanthropy needed to fund it.
Senior Major Gifts Manager
Permanent, full time, 35 hours per week (flexible arrangements open to discussion)
Work from anywhere in the UK (regular travel and London meetings required)
£50,000 - £55,000 per annum
As Senior Major Gifts Manager, you'll help deliver a step-change in philanthropy by providing strategic development and hands-on leadership of a major donor portfolio, securing high five-figure and six-figure gifts, and building new deep, long-term donor relationships that power the Major Appeal. This role is not about inheriting a fully "finished" programme. This is an opportunity for someone who can roll up their sleeves in a period of change: strengthening best practice, helping embed effective ways of working, and supporting a team (three direct reports) to thrive while key systems, processes and methodologies continue to develop.
The successful candidate will bring substantial experience in major donor fundraising, with a strong track record of personally securing significant gifts at high five and/or six figure level from individuals. You'll be a confident, supportive line manager, comfortable navigating key stakeholders internally and externally and evolving ways of working.
How to apply:
At Prospectus we invest in your journey as a candidate and are committed to supporting you with your application. We welcome all candidates to apply, regardless of age, sex/gender, disability, race, religion, sexual orientation, marital status or pregnancy/maternity. If you have any disability and require reasonable adjustment/s to any part of the process then please contact Femke Vorstman Prospectus.
If you feel you meet some of the criteria but not all, we really hope you'll enquire and learn more. Prospectus can advise and support on each part of the role and hopefully your application, so we look forward to hearing from you.
In order to apply please submit your CV in the first instance. Should your experience be suitable, we will arrange for a meeting to brief you on the role. You'll then have all the information you need to formally apply (your statement will need to answer three specific questions). We are looking forward to connecting with you soon.
Thank you!
We are looking for a part time Global Trust Fundraiser to join a small team and play a critical role in securing funding from diverse sources to support the charity with their innovative development initiatives.
The ideal candidate would bring senior-level fundraising experience from a similar role at an NGO, organisation, or charity with an established network of executive relationships in major foundations.
This is a remote working role.
The charity
A passionate international development charity, dedicated to to collaborating world wide to make a lasting social impact.
The Role
Relationship Management
Oversee the complete grant lifecycle, from initial lead to application to reporting and closeout.
Build and maintain relationships with current and prospective donors, program officers, and other key stakeholders.
Applications & Fundraising Development
Lead the development of high-quality grant proposals, ensuring proposals are compelling, well-written, and tailored to meet the requirements and priorities of each donor.
Events and Networking and Representation
Effectively convey the charity mission, vision, and programs to potential donors, organising fundraising events while overseeing teams of volunteers and probono partners.
The Candidate
Senior-level fundraising experience from a similar role at an NGO, organisation, or charity.
Extensive existing network of senior executives with major global foundations and organisations.
Proven track record of identifying and closing deals for 6 - 7 figure gifts.
IMPORTANT NOTE
Our aim is to respond to all successful applications within 5 days. If you havent been contacted within 5 days your application has been unsuccessful, but we positively encourage you to apply for any other positions that you may see in the future.
We apologise that we cannot contact everybody in person but thank you in advance for your interest.
Third Solutions encourages applications from individuals of all ages & backgrounds. Appointment will be made on merit alone but candidates must be able to demonstrate their ability to work in the UK. Third Solutions acts as an employment agency for permanent recruitment & an employment business for temporary recruitment as defined by the Conduct of Employment Agencies & Employment Business Regulations 2003.
