Universal support best practice lead jobs

Join BookTrust, the UK’s largest children’s reading charity, and help change children’s lives through reading. For more than 100 years, we’ve been inspiring a love of books and reading, reaching millions of children every year, particularly those from low-income families and vulnerable backgrounds.

We are looking for a Senior Individual Giving Officer to deliver innovative, insight-led fundraising campaigns that grow supporter engagement and maximise income. Working as part of a supportive, ambitious and collaborative team, you’ll gain experience across the full Individual Giving programme while helping bring the joy and benefits of reading to children across the UK.

This is an exciting opportunity for a creative and data-driven fundraiser who enjoys managing campaigns end-to-end and is passionate about delivering an excellent supporter experience. You’ll help shape and deliver multi-channel campaigns, test new ideas and fundraising products, and use insight to drive performance and long-term supporter relationships.

The role can be based in either our London office in Farringdon or our Leeds head office, with a minimum of eight office days per month.

Fundraising at BookTrust

As a charity, fundraising is central to BookTrust’s mission, enabling us to bring our work to life and reach more children through a diverse portfolio of income generation, including mixed models of trading and philanthropy.

You will join a friendly, supportive, and ambitious fundraising team working together to generate sustainable income that supports our mission through the funding of programmes and projects and ensures excellent stewardship of our donors. As part of our new strategy, we aim to grow our income significantly over the next five years. With current annual income of £12.4m and a strong base of long-term committed funding, we are well positioned to expand our work. As we expand our work and reach more children and families, developing new income streams is a key organisational priority. The Individual Giving function within the Fundraising team, where this role sits, has been tasked with growing income to £2 million by 2030. We will do this by improving our supporter experience and engagement, employing a test-and-learn strategy across a range of campaigns and being data-led in everything that we do. 

Job Purpose

The Senior Individual Giving Officer plays a central role delivering the campaigns and plans that will achieve the Individual Giving programme income targets. The post holder, working closely with colleagues across BookTrust, will manage existing and test new Individual Giving campaigns and develop and test new fundraising products in order to generate income from new and existing supporters.

This is an exciting time to join BookTrust as we invest in growing our Individual Giving programme and develop new ways for supporters to help children discover the life-changing benefits of reading.

Key Responsibilities: 

Programmes and projects

• Manage acquisition and retention campaigns including testing new audiences and channels.
• Deliver effective supporter journeys to ensure the highest possible standards of donor experience. 
• End-to-end campaign management across the fundraising mix including legacies, mid value and in memory. 
• Support the testing and development of new community and events fundraising opportunities. 
• Work closely with and support the Individual Giving Lead to ensure all activity is delivered on time and to budget, contributing to annual income targets. 

 
Relationships

• Work collaboratively with colleagues across marketing, digital, comms and across the organisation. Work closely with Supporter Services and CRM colleagues to ensure best experience for our supporters
• Work effectively with external suppliers and agencies, maintaining strong working relationships. 

Budgeting, analysis and reporting

• Monitor and control income and expenditure against targets outlined in annual plans.
• Feed into quarterly forecasting and annual budget setting processes.
• Closely monitor campaign results, provide updates on performance and produce post-campaign analysis reports.
• Make recommendations to improve the performance of future campaigns based on evidence and data.
• Contribute to CRM development and update existing reporting mechanisms.

Other

• Keep up to date with innovation and changes in the sector and external environment.
• Undertake other duties as required that are commensurate with this role.