Community Fundraising Manager

Sebastian's Action Trust

Sebastian’s Action Trust is a registered charity providing specialist holidays, alongside practical and emotional support to seriously-ill children and their families. We walk alongside families of life-limited and seriously-ill children from diagnosis, through treatment and beyond.

Sebastian’s Action Trust has an exciting opportunity for a Fundraiser to join our dedicated fundraising team at The Bluebells in North Waltham (just outside Basingstoke in Hampshire). This role will be responsible for maximising income across a range of community fundraising channels.

For more information about the Trust, please go to our website: www.sebastiansactiontrust.org

Geography to cover: Hampshire and IOW, Berkshire, and surrounding areas

Job Purpose:

To lead the development and implementation of fundraising initiatives, activities and campaigns within the community. Focussed on building relationships with third party fundraisers, volunteers, fundraising groups, schools, sporting clubs, associations, companies and communities who share our passion to make things better for families with a seriously ill child.

This role is all about relationships, it is about building lasting and repeated support rather than one-off income. This role, done well, will end each year with more loyal and engaged supporters than they began the year with. This is what growth looks like. The successful candidate will combine tenacity and passion, with relentless focus, great relationship and stakeholder skills and an ability to communicate powerfully, to spot opportunities and to be laserlike in seizing them, scaling up and stepping back from the day-to-day management of the relationship, having built up support from the volunteer network, and by ensuring supporters are equipped to operate effectively under their own steam.

Main responsibilities

Planning, Pipelining, Relationship building and truly knowing your patch

• Put in place a community fundraising plan and pipeline. Likely this will combine a geographic segmentation (key population concentrations that are close to our service delivery site), but also not losing the importance of the supportive communities that surround the families we help.
• Across each key segment of support – schools, groups, associations, local companies, and individual volunteers, fundraisers and fundraising groups – define our offer and our need. Have a new business focus increasing the numbers of organisations we engage with every year by way of building a pipeline of support. You’ll model an abiding curiosity in people as part of your relationship building approach.
• Your planning will be meticulous, especially when working across other fundraising areas. You will provide absolute clarity but also obtain buy-in by flexing and seeking to understand differences of view, and to capitalise upon these.

Volunteer Recruitment and Management:

• Work closely with the Trust’s Volunteer Co-ordinator to ensure sufficient, suitable volunteers are always available to support fundraising activities in the local area. More importantly than that though, you will ensure we have an ever growing network and volunteer structure, with volunteers in identified roles, with those responsible for digital and social (this may be an outsourced model moving forwards) to maximise the impact of our fundraising activities on our socials media channels.
• Your role will include identifying volunteers and volunteer needs, recruiting, training and managing volunteers to support our fundraising work.
• You will organise opportunities for mass volunteering including coordinated collections. You will also working with the Volunteer Co-ordinator to ensure volunteers are fully involve in annual recognition activities and that opportunities are in place to bring volunteers together.

In Memoriam, Tributes and Legacies

• To put in place a plan, journeys, promotional materials and campaigns for In Memoriam, tributes and celebrations of key life moments. Work with services to integrate these alongside our exisiting service offers for families facing bereavement.
• Champion In Memory giving and legacy across the charity, and work with fundraising events and service colleagues to plan regular in memory moments.

Working as one fundraising team

• Collaborate with the Fundraising team to develop and execute strategic fundraising campaigns and key focus periods – September for Sebastian, Christmas.
• Co-ordinate the collection and distribution of collection boxes, tins and other Trust materials – maintaining a record of this activity. To maintain accurate and up-to-date records on relationships and results with prospective, lapsed and existing supporters on the Trust’s database – all interactions with our supporters must be added within 24 hours of the interaction taking place. This helps us to be expert in our understanding of those who give their time and money to us.
• communicate effectively in writing, on the telephone and face-to-face with all our supporters. Be a passionate advocate for the importance of supporter experience within our fundraising model.
• Work closely with colleagues in the Fundraising, Communications and Family Services departments to maximise the development, support and appropriate promotion of relationships with supporters and volunteers.
• Work closely and collaboratively with service delivery colleagues.
• Develop and share compelling stories that highlight the impact of the Trust’s work on the lives of seriously-ill children and their families.

Reporting, Journey Planning and Administration:

• You will work with Finance and Fundraising Administrator to build streamlined yet effective systems and processes, and work with them to coproduce the supporter journeys your supporters want and expect, ensuring that every process places the supporter at its heart.
• Ensure the effective processing of funds raised, working closely with the Fundraising Administration team – but recognising that this is a charity where we all support the administration of our donors.
• Provide regular reports on fundraising activities, volunteer engagement, and relationship development to the Head of Fundraising as and when required
• Ensure that opportunities such as gift aid and legacy giving promotion are maximised within your area of operation.
• To work closely with the Fundraising Administrator to ensure any journeys developed integrate seamlessly with our journey design guidance and overall journey map.

The list of responsibilities outlined above is not intended to be exhaustive and the post-holder may be required to undertake other, reasonable tasks as directed by the Head of Fundraising.

Essential Skills, Experience and Aptitudes

• Extensive experience in fundraising within the charity sector, with a proven track record of success in securing new income and building lasting relationships.
• Highly desirable – a fundraising qualification or evidence of CPD in especially in the area of community fundraising.
• The ability to produce, utilise and track a community fundraising plan and pipeline. Able to use this to identify new opportunities and to evaluate the effectiveness of fundraising activities.
• First class relationship and stakeholder management skills are an essential for this post. Likewise excellent written and oral communication skill and strong presentational and pitching skills.
• You will combine attention to detail, with the ability to step away from the detail and to think strategically about how we can have most impact.
• Understanding of the potential of digital to transform our results, and sufficient digital skills to move forward the fundamentals of digital fundraising.
• Comfortable to work independently, but also be a supportive and cooperative team member
• Proficient in Microsoft Office
• Full, clean driving licence, as some weekend/evening working may be required

Remuneration Package

• 37.5 hours per week
• Circa £30,000 per annum
• Contributory pension
• Death in service benefit
• Time off in lieu system for additional hours worked outside of normal working week
• 21 days’ holiday plus 3 extra days given to accommodate Christmas/New Year closure, and an additional “Moment that Matters” day

Commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion:

Sebastian’s Action Trust is committed to promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in all areas of its work. We are dedicated to creating an environment where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, and where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. We value the unique perspectives and contributions of our diverse workforce and are committed to fostering a culture of inclusion.