Trusts and Grants Manager

Home based or Hybrid

About us

Our purpose is simple, to save lives at sea. Since the 19th century, our crews have been risking their lives to save those who are in danger of drowning.

We're looking for an experienced Trusts and Grants Manager to join our Trusts and Grants team to look after a portfolio of prospects and grantmakers to help raise funds for our lifesaving work. This will be a full-time, permanent post. 4 days may be considered for the right candidate. Securing gifts from Trusts and Grantmakers will help bring our brave lifeboat crews home safely and provide the training and protective gear our crews and lifeguards need to save lives.

Your role

You will work as part of a supportive and collaborative team to help develop and steward a portfolio of Trusts, identifying new funders and projects and building sustainable long-term relationships with supporters in order to meet agreed financial targets and deliver our Trust fundraising strategy.  You will:

• Manage the stewardship of a portfolio of Trust supporters, making timely applications, delivering targeted reports and developing relationships in line with your stewardship plans.
• Be responsible for developing your pipeline to research and apply to lapsed and prospective Trusts, Foundations and other grant-making bodies whose objectives and interests fit with our work.
• Work collaboratively with programme and finance colleagues across the RNLI to identify projects and creatively package exciting funding opportunities to open doors to new prospects.
• Build well-crafted, ‘stand-out’ grant applications and impact reports with detailed budgets and timelines that clearly demonstrate to funders the impact of their donations.
• Through emotionally intelligent relationship management, keep funders engaged and excited about our work and inspire them to continue to give.
• Work closely with internal stakeholders and regional teams to identify creative approaches to new and existing funders.
• As one of a small team of Trusts and Grant Managers, support the rest of the team by gathering and sharing project and third sector information.
• Maintain excellent record-keeping to ensure accurate reporting and grant management in line with GDPR and accounting good practice.

The role is offered as a homebased or hybrid role. Some travel will be required.

About you

We are looking for a highly motivated Trusts and Grants Manager with:

• Experience of prospecting for large gifts and managing large donor relationships in a Trust fundraising environment or very similar discipline.
• Experience of working with project managers to identify and create attractive funding packages.
• Excellent attention to detail with experience of writing high quality, creative and compelling fundraising proposals and reports.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills and confidence in building internal and external relationships at all levels.
• Good personal resilience and an ability to work on your own initiative to manage projects and multi-task, plan and set priorities.
• A good understanding of the trust fundraising environment.
• A good understanding of financial reporting and experience in managing your own income pipeline.
• Excellent organisational skills with an understanding of the importance of good record-keeping.

So if you are an experienced fundraiser who enjoys relationship building and prospecting for new business, with an enthusiastic, creative and driven approach to supporting our organisation’s aim to reduce drowning, we would love you to join our team. Please apply via the button shown.

Closing date: 27 October 2024.

The RNLI is committed to safeguarding; protecting a person’s health, wellbeing, and human rights, enabling them to live free from harm, abuse, and neglect. We expect all employees and volunteers to share this commitment and have a zero-tolerance approach. The suitability of all prospective employees and volunteers will be assessed during the recruitment process in line with this commitment. This will include relevant criminal record checks being carried out dependent on the eligibility of the role. (England & Wales; DBS check, Scotland; Disclosure Scotland PVG, Northern Ireland; Access NI, Republic of Ireland; Garda Vetting; International, International Child Protection Certificate process).

Our staff and volunteers have been saving lives at sea without prejudice for nearly 200 years. We respect and value diversity of background, skills and perspectives within our teams, and consider it essential to help us deliver a world-class lifesaving service. We are an inclusive organisation and welcome applications from everyone. In addition to having the skills needed for the role, we also look for applicants who share our commitment to living our RNLI values (trustworthy, courageous, selfless, and dependable), and helping us work towards Our Vision: To save Every One.