Head of Individual Giving

Head of Individual Giving

Since 2018, Connect: North Korea (CNK) has grown from a small community start-up into an effective and impactful organisation with an annual income of approaching £500,000, mainly through grants from Trusts and Foundations. We now want to develop our individual giving programme to build our unrestricted income and secure our long term growth.

As our new Head of Individual Giving, you will be responsible for growing our income from our individual and corporate base to help us reach more vulnerable members of our community. You will lead on  individual fundraising relationships and initiatives, including appeals, fundraising campaigns, and all direct marketing activities and communications. You will position us in our supporters’ minds and encourage them to actively support CNK in 2025 and beyond.

Position: Head of Individual Giving 

Responsible to: CEO

Based at: Our offices in New Malden KT3 with some remote/home working.  We will be as flexible as possible to accommodate the right candidate.

Contract: Permanent. Full-time (35 hours per week) with occasional evening working required. Flexible hours/days possible whilst respecting core hours of 10am-4pm

Salary: £42,000 - £45,000 + 5% pension on qualifying earnings, health insurance and gym membership

Benefits: 28 days holidays exclusive of public holidays. We also offer 2 additional days on top of this – 1 recharge day where the whole charity closes and 1 day in the week of a staff member’s birthday.

The role

Your specific objectives will be to:

• Grow our individual supporter base (individual and corporate) by 30% in 2025 through new donor acquisition strategies

• Increasing our unrestricted income from major, mid and low level donors and corporate partners to £100,000 per annum in 2025 and beyond 

• Delivering impactful messages, responsive and successful direct marketing and digital fundraising campaigns

This is a really exciting opportunity for a creative ambitious self-starter who enjoys a fast paced fundraising environment, is passionate about communications, building donor relationships and driving long-term income growth.

Funding dependent, we would intend that the role also entails future promotion and staff management potential.

You have:

1) ability and enthusiasm to start up our individual giving programme (low, mid, major donors and corporate) to reach our target to raise £100,000 by end of 2025

2) creativity in creating and communicating personal stories and compelling asks that motivate our supporters to give

3) analytical understanding, strategic acumen and practical experience of the supporter journey from recruitment to regular giving, and ability to deliver this for CNK
 

Supported by the CEO, your main duties and responsibilities will be:

Strategy:

• Strategise and plan our annual individual and corporate giving programme with targets and performance indicators.This will be a key focus area within our 2025/6 corporate fundraising strategy.

• Report quarterly on progress. Use online analytics, social media insights and other metrics to help us learn, improve and grow our income from low, mid,major donors and corporate supporters.

Annual Corporate and Individual Giving Programmes:

• Develop and deliver CNK corporate and individual giving fundraising programme of events, campaigns and appeals to raise £100,000 in 2025. 

• Work closely with CEO and CNK team members to craft information into compelling copy, asks, supporter updates, social media content and personalised campaign appeals. 

• Plan and deliver low and mid level individual giving campaigns to cultivate new donors, convert existing supporters from once off donations to regular givers and inspire donors to increase their current support.

• Design and deliver our annual major donor giving programme. Cultivate, communicate and inspire new major donors to join us with the aim of increasing our current major donor pool by 10%. Steward current donors, keep in touch, craft compelling asks to support their progression towards more frequent or higher-value donations.

• Report monthly to the CEO on the success of campaigns and programming, income raised, number of new supporters/followers, conversion rates, offering insight on ROI, learnings and how we will incorporate this learning to improve how we do things in future. 

Fundraising compliance:

• Save all profiles, donations, giving history, gift aid agreements, correspondence, and communications with supporters on CNK CRM database. Uphold GDPR and comply with fundraising best practice.

US Individual Giving Programme:

• Contribute towards developing a new US individual giving portfolio through prospect research and crafting compelling fundraising asks.

Staff & Volunteer Management:

• Create and manage a volunteer fundraising programme to grow individual giving through community events, social media and awareness raising. 

The role has no direct line reports at present but there may be in future, budget permitting

Essential skills and experience:

You will have at least five, ideally eight, years experience of:

• individual giving fundraising for a small charity, with a track record of developing and delivering successful individual giving campaigns that have generated 5 figure sums 

• building a supporter base - both amongst low value, but also mid level and major donors

• gathering information, case studies, data and finances, distilling and crafting high quality, well articulated compelling funding asks

• growing charity brand and positioning, thorough consistent approach, campaigns, asks,use of language and artwork

• digital marketing including social media, email marketing, and website content management

• designing tools, inputting data and keeping CRM software updated, using data analytics to report on donor journey and drive fundraising decisions

• relevant fundraising regulations and best practices, including GDPR compliance.

You:

• Can work quickly under pressure in a fast-paced environment.

• Are highly organised, able to act on own initiative, able to manage multiple projects and deadlines

• Have excellent written and verbal communication skills, able to craft compelling asks to engage and inspire donors.

• Have engaging people skills, friendly, approachable with a positive attitude. You enjoy talking to donors about CNK on the phone, by email, in person and are unafraid to ‘make the ask’ Can engage collaboratively and constructively in a small team with an entrepreneurial feel

• Are creative and confident in suggesting ideas and solutions. you are ambitious for what your role can deliver for our community.

• Are committed to supporting and embedding lived experience across CNK

• Are keen to build and develop your role as suits the needs of the organisation

• Can speak Korean although this is not essential to the role.

We welcome and encourage applicants from all backgrounds and do not discriminate on the basis of age, disability (physical or learning), LGBTQI+ or relationship status, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, gender or social class.