Trusts and Foundations Manager

The country’s most vulnerable children have overwhelmingly poor educational and life-outcomes, with disastrous consequences for themselves and society. Many of these children are excluded from school.

The Difference exists to improve the life-outcomes of the most vulnerable children by raising the status and expertise of those who educate them. The organisation creates specialist senior school leaders, with the expertise to lead whole-school and multi-agency approaches to meeting the learning, wellbeing, and safeguarding needs of all children.

The Difference is a small and growing organisation, founded in 2017. They’re an agile and flexible team and you’ll be joining at a time of investment in fundraising, having recently employed their first full-time Head of Fundraising.  It’s an exciting time to join the organisation as they develop a new strategy to take them to 2030 with fundraising playing a key role in the organisation’s growth. They have a small but generous group of funders who have supported The Difference and as Trust & Foundations Manager you will work to grow the pipeline of trust funders and work closely with the Head of Fundraising to develop a fundraising strategy.

You will manage, develop, and grow The Difference’s portfolio of trusts and foundation donors, supporting to diversify their donor base and secure high value, long term support. This post will manage trust income in line with donor requirements, identifying and building relationships with new prospects and submitting high quality and engaging reports and proposals. You will feel real ownership over your work and need to be self-starting, flexible and hungry to grow with the charity.

The position will: 

• Write compelling funding applications and grant reports to trusts and foundations at 5- and 6-figure level
• Grow multi-year restricted and unrestricted income from existing and new donors and support the growth of overall income from £1.25m to £1.9m annually in next 3 years
• Work closely with the Head of Fundraising to support with strategy and growth plans
• Develop and expand meaningful engagement opportunities that can be offered to funders

Ideal skills and experience: 

• Experience developing bids and applications for 5+ figure grants
• Proven ability to write compelling, well-organised content which turns complex ideas and detail into summaries that can effectively engage different audiences
• Experience overseeing management of end-to-end stewardship journeys, from prospect to long-term engagement, and building relationships with foundation trustees and grant managers
• Knowledge and passion of working in the education sector

Benefits include:

• 6% employer pension contribution
• 25 days annual leave
• Enhanced sick leave and compassionate leave
• Enhanced maternity & adoption pay