5 Trusts and foundations bid writer jobs

Happy Days UK is looking for a talented and motivated Bid Writer to join our team on a permanent basis, 28 hours per week, reporting to our Head of Corporate and Capital Appeal.
 
This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced fundraising professional who can help us secure the investment needed to grow our impact.
 
As our Bid Writer, you’ll:

 - Research and identify potential funders across Trusts & Foundations, corporates, grant-giving bodies, and other organisations
- Build and manage a strong funding pipeline across both capital appeal and general revenue
- Lead on high-quality, persuasive bid writing and funding applications, from research through to submission
- Develop and maintain meaningful relationships with existing and prospective funders
- Manage application and reporting deadlines, grant administration and monitoring requirements
-Work closely with colleagues across the charity to understand our services, identify fundable projects and develop compelling cases for support
 
We’re looking for someone with excellent writing and research skills, strong attention to detail, great relationship-building abilities and a genuine passion for making a difference.
 
If you’re an ambitious fundraiser who enjoys combining creativity, strategy and compelling storytelling to secure funding for meaningful work, we’d love to hear from you.

Location: Hybrid, with a minimum of 8 days per month in the Leeds office
Salary: £45,000-£50,000 per annum
Contract: Permanent, full-time role

BookTrust is the UK’s largest children’s reading charity, working to ensure every child has the opportunity to develop a lifelong love of reading. Through programmes, partnerships and campaigns, BookTrust reaches millions of children and families each year, helping to inspire a brighter future through the power of books.

We are seeking an experienced Statutory Fundraising Manager to secure and grow income from public sector bodies, lottery funders and local government. This is a key role within the Fundraising team, responsible for developing a strong pipeline of opportunities, writing compelling funding proposals and building trusted relationships that support BookTrust’s work with children and families.

A significant focus of the role is coordinating BookTrust’s relationship with Arts Council England, one of the organisation’s most important strategic funders. The postholder will undertake performance monitoring, compliance and reporting requirements, ensuring BookTrust continues to meet its funding commitments while maintaining strong alignment with Arts Council priorities and objectives. Working closely with senior colleagues across the organisation, they will help maximise the value of this partnership and identify opportunities to strengthen and develop the relationship over time.

The successful candidate will bring proven experience of securing statutory income, with the ability to navigate complex funding environments and develop high-quality bids for significant opportunities. You will be a confident relationship builder, skilled at working collaboratively with internal teams and external stakeholders to deliver sustainable income and long-term partnerships.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a purpose-driven organisation and help secure the funding needed to bring the joy and benefits of reading to more children across the UK.

Please download the Candidate Pack [PDF] for further information, including details on how to apply.

Job details

• Reports to: Philanthropy Manager, ProVeg UK
• Location: Remote (UK-based) with occasional travel for co-working and events 
• Hours: Part-time (21h/week) - 0.6 FTE
• Contract: One year fixed term (with a possibility of extension) OR open to freelance applicants
• Salary: Pro-rated for a part-time role, based on a full-time equivalent of £32k-£34k (35 hours/week) 
• Application deadline: 17.09.2026
• When: October/November 2026

Role Summary 

ProVeg UK is part of ProVeg International, a global food awareness organisation working to transform the food system by replacing animal products with plant-based and cultivated alternatives.

Reporting directly to the Philanthropy Manager, the Philanthropy Coordinator will play a central role in driving ProVeg UK’s fundraising income. The primary focus of this role is using creativity to write high-quality, compelling grant applications, coordinate and track progress of projects for existing grants, and managing comprehensive, impactful reporting for our existing trusts, foundations, and institutional funders.

You will be an exceptional grant writer with basic financial acumen, incredible attention to detail, and a proven ability to translate complex project outcomes into persuasive narratives. By maintaining strong relationships with current funders and securing new grant funding, you will directly support ProVeg UK's mission to drive sustainable, plant-based food systems across the UK.

Responsibilities

Grant Application Writing & Prospecting

• Proposal & Application Writing: Research, draft, and submit tailored, compelling grant applications and proposals to UK-based trusts, foundations, statutory funding bodies, and major donors. This will include drafting accurate project budgets and financial forecasts for bids. On occasion, this will also involve co-ordinating cross-organisational partnership bids with other charities/NGOs.

• Case for Support: Work closely with the Philanthropy Manager and UK programme teams to translate UK impact metrics (e.g., School Plates initiative) into engaging stories and cases for support.

• Pipeline Development:  Support to the Philanthropy Manager (who leads on pipeline development for ProVeg UK) in identifying suitable funding opportunities. 

Donor Reporting 

• Impact Reporting: Take ownership of report writing for existing trusts and foundations, ensuring all reporting deadlines and donor-specific requirements are met accurately and promptly.

• Evaluation, Planning & Data Collection: Support the planning stage of awarded grants, liaise with programme leads to track delivery against objectives, and work with UK staff to gather monitoring and evaluation data for funder reports.

Systems, Compliance & Operations

• CRM & Pipeline Tracking: Maintain accurate and up-to-date grant management records, application deadlines, reporting schedules, and contact details in the CRM (HubSpot).

• Grant Compliance: Ensure all grant conditions, pledge agreements, and restricted funding parameters are communicated internally and strictly adhered to.

• International Coordination: Liaise with the ProVeg International Development Team to share best practices, templates, and joint funding opportunities where relevant.

Qualifications / Experience

• Grant Writing Track Record: Proven track record of grant writing in the non-profit sector, with demonstrable success in securing large grants from trusts and foundations.

• Donor Reporting Experience: Experience preparing detailed narrative and financial reports for existing institutional donors and grant-makers.

• Narrative Skills: Exceptional written English skills, with the ability to turn complex program outcomes, data, and food systems concepts into clear, inspiring narrative bids.

• Project & Time Management: Outstanding organisational skills, with a proven ability to manage multiple application and reporting deadlines simultaneously.

• Financial Literacy: Basic financial acumen and experience with building and presenting project budgets for proposals and reporting.

• Mission Alignment: Passion for and commitment to ProVeg’s mission of transforming global and UK food systems.
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Benefits of working with ProVeg

• A strong organisational focus on personal development, with a designated training budget.

• Provision of a work laptop.

• Flexible, trust-based working arrangements and home-office arrangements.

• Career development support.

• Mental health & wellbeing support via access to the OpenUp platform and a free Headspace subscription

• We are a workplace that encourages everyone to bring their whole selves to work. We are an inclusive workplace for our diverse employees around the world.

• Generous annual leave entitlement - 25 days increasing by one day a year to a maximum of 30 days (plus bank holidays)

• Enhanced maternity, paternity, shared parental, and adoption pay.

• Employee Assistance Programme including counselling

• Access to 24/7 virtual GP Service

• Access to the Wisdom app with exclusive perks and discounts

• Compassionate animal companion leave

• And, last but not least, become part of a great team and work with us towards a world where everyone chooses delicious and healthy food that is good for all humans, animals, and our planet!
   

Further Information

Please apply by submitting your CV and a cover letter including your motivation and describing how you meet the person specification. Even if you do not meet all the requirements, we still encourage you to apply. ProVeg supports and invests in staff growth and development.
 

We also request applicants to apply without attaching a photo or disclosing their date or place of birth.

If you are living with a disability, health condition and/or neurodiversity, please feel free to let us know how we can adjust and support your application process. For example, we can offer alternative tools, different interview formats, or additional time for tasks.
 

Important: Please make sure to use your own words and ideas in the cover letter. The goal is for us to get to know you better in order to assess if this role and your motivation are a good fit. Letters written with AI, or written in a language other than English, will be disregarded.
 

Application Process:

Typically, the recruitment process contains the following steps:

1. Screening of your application

2. Interview with People & Culture (30mins)

3. Job related trial task (~ 2 hrs.)

4. Second interview with the team (60mins)

Help build the operational backbone of a multi-award winning charity that's ready to grow further, with a clear path to becoming our COO.

For seven years, one exceptional leader has held impact, organisational development and much of YUAF's operations, building the processes, funder relationships and team support that became part of the spine of how we grew. As they move on, we're not just replacing them. We're rethinking and widening the role.

This post exists to hold the organisation steady and take operational responsibility off the Chief Executive's plate, freeing her to focus on strategy, key donors and the funding pipeline.

What you'll hold

You'll report to the Chief Executive and sit on the Senior Management Team, owning income generation, impact and evidence, business planning, governance, performance management and the systems underneath them all. You'll line-manage four people: the Pathways Lead, Marketing Lead, Project Manager and Futures Lead.

Where the role is going

From month seven, this role is intended to move to full time with deeper ownership of income and strategy. As YUAF grows, and subject to income generation, we want this post to develop into our Chief Operating Officer role. We'd rather appoint someone who outgrows this description than someone who fits it exactly.

How you'll start

The first six months are a settling period at 30 hours per week. You'll learn how the organisation actually works, get embedded in the culture, and understand the programmes by spending real time with young people and the people who deliver them.

You'll build relationships across the team, with funders and with partners, and by month three, we want people to naturally come to you as a trusted point of contact.

We also want you to look at YUAF with fresh eyes. Where are the gaps? What's held together by one person's memory alone? Where does delivery quality drop, and why? What would make life easier for the staff doing the hardest work? Bring us both the diagnosis and the solutions.

The timing is on your side: November to February is our quietest season, when the Studio Bus is largely off the road. Delivery picks up again in March 2027, so the role builds in stages rather than coming to you all at once.

How to apply

In addition to providing your CV and cover letter, it is a requirement of the application process that you complete our Head of Operations Questionnaire. A link for this can be found on the attached job description. 

Note

We recognise that AI is a useful tool, however, we will be assessing applications, cover letters and running through AI to ensure that it was written by yourself as part of our shortlisting process. So please take the time to write your own application, this is a serious role that requires critical and independent thinking.