Head of Public Fundraising

Leukaemia UK Our Charity

We are a small but mighty charity with one big ambition: to stop leukaemia devastating lives. Over the next 10 years we want to help save and improve the lives of more people with leukaemia through finding and funding life-changing research and campaigning for change.

Despite progress in recent decades, someone in the UK is diagnosed with a blood cancer every 16 minutes and survival rates are among some of the worst of any cancer. And the physical and psychological impact can be lifelong.

Our current 5 year strategy outlines our plan to increase our investment into ground-breaking world class research and policy development focused on improving access to kinder, more effective diagnosis, treatment and care for leukaemia and other blood cancers. To do this, we have embarked on a period of significant growth, investing strategically to grow our income, profile, influence, and engagement and impact.

We are seeking an experienced, driven and passionate Head of Public Fundraising to lead the mass fundraising team to achieve sustainable income growth over the coming years. We are looking for someone with energy and ambition, who can demonstrate strategic leadership to maximise fundraising opportunities across Community, Challenge Events, Regular Giving, Legacy and In Memory audiences, to grow our supporter networks and optimise supporter engagement and experience. The remit of this role also extends to include oversight of our CRM Database Manager and Supporter Care.

Team

We are a close-knit team, who are all passionate about Leukaemia UK and putting those affected by the disease at the heart of everything we do. We are all focused on keeping it real with pragmatic, practical solutions, as well as ensuring that our charity maximises voluntary income to invest in invest in more life-changing research, so that we can continue to have impact for those with a leukaemia diagnosis.

From us you can expect all the laughter you can handle, as well as great challenge and support. We are all about delivering exceptional supporter experience and making a real difference to people s lives.

You will be part of an ambitious fundraising team driving growth across the portfolio, so we can fund more leukemia research and save more lives from this devastating disease. You will report to the Director of Fundraising, working alongside the Head of Philanthropy, and collaborating across the wider organisation to ensure mass fundraising aligns with our organisational priorities and values (Bold, Collaborative, Curious) and feels insight-driven, strategic and competitive in a crowded market place.

Leukaemia UK and You

We have recently invested in growing our fundraising team so that we can fund more life-changing research to increase our understanding of leukemia as a disease, and accelerate the development of kinder, more effective treatments. This includes investment to grow the public fundraising team, develop new fundraising products, recruit new supporters, and increase legacy giving through targeted campaigns.

We are also in the process of developing our new 5-year fundraising strategy, so you will be instrumental in creating an ambitious new plan to develop a diverse and sustainable mass fundraising portfolio, covering the key areas of donor acquisition, retention, and growth, with a focus on maximising our Challenge and Community events portfolio, and increasing Legacy, In Memory and Regular giving. You will be responsible for developing and delivering a portfolio of products to grow voluntary income, whilst leading a newly expanded and ambitious team. And you will help shape our data strategy, working with the Head of Digital and other colleagues across the organisation to develop our digital fundraising strategy; embed usage of our CRM and ensure GDPR compliance.

You will be results-driven with an appetite to innovate and drive continuous improvement, leading to increased conversions, deepened relationships, and long-term support.

Requirements - Skills and Experience

• Demonstrable experience of strategic leadership and oversight of a mass fundraising product portfolio.
• Proven experience of managing an engaging Community and Challenge Events fundraising portfolio.
• Proven experience of driving Legacy and In Memory giving to create a robust long-term pipeline. Experience of successfully developing and implementing legacy marketing strategies.
• Proven experience of applying the principles and techniques of Individual Giving / Direct Marketing within a multichannel, multi-discipline environment to deliver significant returns and supporter satisfaction, especially through supporter recruitment channels.
• Experience of fully integrating a CRM database as a tool in the day-to-day work and running of a charity.
• Demonstrable experience of managing a high performing team, focussing on creating a culture where people thrive as individuals and can be their best selves.
• Experience of managing multi-channel media campaigns by utilising print and digital channels including social media and email.
• Good experience of building effective relationships with internal and external partners, including creative freelancers, media and direct marketing agencies.
• Experience of working with, negotiating with, and managing outputs of external agencies and internal departments, including contractual obligations.
• Strong project-management experience, including managing budgets, schedules, creative development, and supplier relationships for fundraising direct marketing campaigns.
• Experience of setting and managing annual budgets, monitoring, and reconciling results and financial performance in income and expenditure. Providing associated narratives and monthly reforecasts.
• Proven experience of driving effective stewardship programmes to maximising supporter experience.

Requirements - Knowledge

• Excellent specialist knowledge of the principals and methods of Public Fundraising, including Challenge Events, Community, Legacy, In Memory and Individual Giving.
• Understanding of the effective development and use of supporter contact strategies, turning analysis and insight into high performance activity.
• Up-to-date knowledge of current digital fundraising trends, including social media marketing.
• High Level knowledge of Salesforce CRM databases and how best to utilise to steward supporters.
• Knowledge and experience of marketing processes and techniques across varied channels.
• High Level knowledge of legacy administration.
• High Level knowledge and understanding of charity law in relation to legacy fundraising, GDPR, PECR, data protection and other relevant fundraising regulation.

Role specifics & Benefits

• Hours: Full time hours are 37.5 Monday to Friday
• Location: We are very flexible! Our hybrid working policy is a minimum of two days per month in our London office unless it s a role requirement to be in more frequently. Typically, we would expect the role holder to be in the office once a week, and certain roles within the team have this as a minimum requirement.
• Salary range £55,000 - £65,000 (FTE)
• We are proud of our benefits see a summary on our website Work with us - Leukaemia UK

How to apply

If you feel you have the passion for our work and the right mix of experience, skills, energy, and flair to embrace this broad and challenging leadership role and enable our strategy to fly, then we would love you to apply. Please also see the full job description attached. Please apply via the CharityJob website with your CV and covering letter. To minimise unconscious bias, we use anonymous recruitment and are unable to consider direct applications.

• First interviews will be held via Teams on between 29th and 31st July
• Second interviews will held at our London Office on 13th and 14th August (26 Great Queen St, WC2B 5BL)

Closing Date: Midnight Sunday 20th July 2025

I look forward to hearing from you!

Holly Hastings-Payne

Director of Fundraising

Leukaemia UK