JOB PROFILE
JOB TITLE: Lead Trusts & Grants Officer
RESPONSIBLE TO: Senior Trusts & Grants Manager
HOURS OF WORK: Full time 35 hours per week
LOCATION: Home working/ Hybrid
DURATION: Permanent
SALARY / GRADE: £32,330
KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS
• Senior Trusts & Grants Manager
• Trusts & Grants Officer
• Director of Fundraising, Marketing & Communications
• Chief Operating Officer
• Senior Leadership & Service Managers
• Grant making trusts and foundations
• Major Donors
PURPOSE OF THE ROLE
The Lead Trusts & Grants Officer is responsible for developing and delivering income from mid-value grant making funders, notably trusts and foundations. The role involves managing a dedicated pipeline of opportunities, writing and submitting compelling applications, and stewarding funder relationships. This position works closely with service teams to understand project needs and create accurate budgets and impactful funding proposals. This role will also provide direct line management to the Trusts & Grants Officer, supporting their professional development and ensuring the team's overall success in meeting fundraising targets.
MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Fundraising and Grants Management
• Pipeline Management: Lead on prospecting, developing and managing the mid-value trusts and grants pipeline, focusing on bids around £20,000 - £70,000, including multiyear grants, ensuring a consistent flow of opportunities to meet team income targets. Developing the skills and ability to manage higher value and more complex strategic bids.
• Application Writing: Develop and submit compelling, high-quality grant applications and proposals for mid-value funders, working closely with service teams, ensuring accurate budgets and income against Adoption UK’s strategic priorities.
• Stewardship: Cultivate and maintain strong relationships with a portfolio of new and existing mid-value funders, providing timely and impactful reports to secure renewed funding, and developing relationships with key external contacts through excellent communication.
• Reporting: Oversee the accurate tracking of all applications, reports, and communications using team tracking methods, and the CRM database, providing regular progress updates to the Senior Trusts & Grants Manager.
• Collaboration: Work closely with the Senior Trusts & Grants Manager, the Trusts & Grants Officer, and service teams, to align fundraising activities with the organisation’s strategic priorities and annual income targets.
• Undertake other duties and projects as directed by the Senior Trusts & Grants Manager and Director of Fundraising, Marketing and Communications.
Team Management and Development
• Line Management: Provide line management and support to the Trusts & Grants Officer, including regular one-to-ones, appraisals, and professional development.
• Training and Mentoring: Guide the Trusts & Grants Officer on best practices for researching, writing, budgets, and stewarding of small-value grants.
Personal specification
Knowledge and experience
• Track record of successfully securing individual grant awards typically ranging between £10,000 and £50,000. (E)
• Knowledge of fundraising sector with specialist knowledge of grant making trusts and foundations, or similar grant/bid-writing experience (E)
• Experience in writing persuasive proposal documents and bids (E)
• Experience in developing and implementing fundraising policies and process to deliver strategic goals (E)
• Experience in supporting service teams to deliver complex projects on time and to budget (E)
• Experience in successfully stewarding multiple stakeholders including grant managers and major donors (D)
Qualifications and Education
• Graduate level or equivalent significant professional experience in fundraising/bid
Skills and abilities
• Ability to make decisions within area of responsibility, based on defined frameworks, policies, and procedures and/or based on knowledge of regulations and best practice (E)
• Shows good professional judgement (E)
• Can successfully operate matrix management of complex projects at a national level (E)
• Delivers high quality work with minimal supervision and direction (E)
• Able to communicate clearly and engage with stakeholders at all levels (E)
• Is successful in securing positive external relationships with stakeholders and supporters (E)
• Demonstrates personal credibility (E)
• Demonstrates experience and ability in impact reporting (D)
• Ability to research the sector to identify the best prospects (D)
• Has the capacity to deal with complex issues and is good at problem solving (D)
• An exceptional administrator with excellent organisational and writing skills (E)
• Self-starter, used to working to deadlines and delivering against KPIs (D)
Accountability
• Shows previous experience of achievement of income targets (E)
• Shows previous experience of excellent funder or similar relationship stewardship (E)
• Able to contribute to the development of income growth strategy and strategic goals (D)
Behaviours
• Takes pride in Adoption UK and promotes its values and mission in all interactions with external stakeholders.
• Demonstrates commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of role at all times.
• Contributes to an open and honest culture
• Encourages challenge and creativity, transparency and consistency.
• Leads by example.
• Offers outstanding service to members.
• Promotes cross-functional team working, sharing skills and knowledge
• Communicates clearly, seeking clarity when unclear and valuing the opinion of others.
• Values the opinion of others. Treating colleagues and other stakeholders with respect.
• Takes pride in own development, committed to achieving high standards and agreed objectives.
Adoption UK is the leading charity for adopted and care experienced people and adoptive families.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Governance Manager (12-months maternity cover)
About the role
This is an exciting time to join Emmaus UK and provide maternity cover for our Governance Manager.
This standalone role is responsible for managing the operations of the board and committees of Emmaus UK, as well as for providing support to local boards at Emmaus communities across Great Britain as they look to develop their governance arrangements.
The postholder will manage the board of trustees, leading on recruitment, induction and compliance, ensuring meetings run smoothly and are minuted effectively. They will also work as company secretary, managing the smooth-running of the AGM, and ensuring returns are made to Companies House and the Charity Commission within appropriate timeframes.
The Governance Manager is responsible for monitoring the development of policies, tracking completion and working with managers to continuously improve policies in line with changing regulation.
The role will also involve extensive work with members of the Emmaus movement, through the performance of reviews of local governance of members, reporting back to local boards on areas to celebrate and actions to develop. They will also be responsible for developing Emmaus UK’s best practice toolkit for trustees to refer to in developing their local governance arrangements, and for liaising with the wider Emmaus movement through facilitation of the membership processes with Emmaus Europe and Emmaus International.
About Emmaus UK
We understand that a home is more than just a roof over your head; it’s somewhere to belong, where you feel part of a community, and that’s what Emmaus offers.
Emmaus is a unique, secular organisation supporting homeless and socially excluded people by providing a home, meaningful work opportunities and a sense of belonging.
There are currently over 30 Emmaus communities across the UK, stretching from Glasgow to Dover and Norfolk to South Wales, including three Emmaus groups working towards the development of services in their areas. Collectively the Emmaus federation supports more than 1,000 people with experience of homelessness.
Emmaus UK Governance
- Manage the board of trustees, leading on recruitment, delivering a comprehensive and appropriate induction, dealing with enquiries, maintaining declarations of interest, skills audit and eligibility forms and ensuring all details are up to date and accurate.
- Act as company secretary for Emmaus UK, leading on the preparation for and delivery of the Annual General Meeting, filing required returns, developing documents associated with membership, and ensuring the charity is compliant with relevant charity and company law.
Board and Committee Meetings
- Coordinate board meetings including organising venues, liaison with the relevant secretary and chairs in creating agendas, preparing and distributing papers and taking and circulating accurate minutes
- Oversee the smooth-running of committee meetings in conjunction with the admin team, including creation of the annual calendar.
- Ensure all follow up actions are coordinated, and ongoing rolling actions logs are maintained and appropriately shared with the Emmaus UK staff team.
Emmaus UK Governance Development
- Lead on governance projects within Emmaus UK, including but not limited to risk, policy management and internal governance reviews, reporting to the Board and subcommittees as appropriate.
- Provide governance advice and support to staff members on an ad hoc basis.
- Monitor all internal policies and procedures ensuring they are fit for purpose and kept under review by the relevant staff members.
Federation Governance
- Lead on reviews of members’ local governance arrangements, scheduling, undertaking analysis, reviewing documentation, collating responses from members and observations from Emmaus UK Senior Leadership Team members, and reporting to local boards on findings and Emmaus UK’s Audit & Risk Committee on emerging themes.
- Provide guidance for federation members on governance development through ad hoc advice, the production of governance toolkits and supporting resources.
- Facilitate the membership processes and requirements for Emmaus Europe and Emmaus International, supporting transitioning members and contributing to movement-wide events such as the World and Regional Assemblies, international visits and exchange programmes.
To apply
· To apply for the role, please complete our application form and equal opportunities monitoring form and email us, our Email address is in the application Pack by COP Wednesday 19th November 2025.
· Please ensure you download the job pack and refer to the job description and person specification when completing your application form.
· Those shortlisted will be invited to an interview conducted via Microsoft Teams on Wednesday 26th November or Friday 5th December 2025.
· If you would like to arrange an informal discussion about the role, please email us, the email address is in the Application Pack.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.