Senior Fundraising Manager

Salary: c.£46,000 per annum based on skills and experience
Hours: Full time, 40 hours per week
Based in: Covent Garden, London

The Royal Ballet and Opera continues to lead the way in opera, ballet, music and dance both live on stage and through multiple digital platforms, from live streaming to worldwide cinema screenings. Our Covent Garden theatre has been at the heart of London and British cultural life for three centuries. We are home to two world-class Companies: The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera.

This role sits within the highly committed and successful Development and Advocacy Department, which generates over £41m revenue annually, plus additional capital funds, and secures the annual Arts Council England grant (currently £22.9m). The Department s revenue generation and advocacy to Government of the value of our creative sector ensures the RBO can retain the best artists and crafts people, deliver our thriving National Schools Programme, maintain our beautiful grade I listed building, deliver on our charitable mission, and continue to produce world class performances.

The focus of the Senior Fundraising Manager role will be to deliver and run the successful fundraising appeals and draws function, delivering against targets of c. £1.25m for 2025/26. Managing a small appeals team within the wider membership function, you will grow our income and innovation in this space, ensuring fundraising best practice principles are adhered to.

Our ideal candidate will be results driven, with an open, curious, intelligent approach to analysis and reporting. You will be able to work successfully in partnership with other teams and departments as well as influence key stakeholders across the organisation. You will be able to lead and develop a small team, exercise diplomacy and discretion and contribute to the wider fundraising conversation and pipeline.

You will be able to demonstrate:

• Substantial professional experience of the project management of appeals and campaigns fundraising gained within a charity or other fundraising organisation including their planning, development, running and evaluation
• Experience of running fundraising appeals or campaigns across a range of channels and running lotteries or draws for fundraising
• Outstanding written communication skills, including the ability to tailor communications for different audiences and media whilst maintaining consistent tone and messaging
• A track record in setting and meeting income targets
• Excellent project management skills, with evidence of having successfully delivered concurrent projects

An understanding and knowledge of the art forms is not essential but the ability to learn and communicate effectively and persuasively about opera, ballet, music and dance to supporters is critical for this role.

The Royal Ballet and Opera is one of the UK s leading arts organisations and our aim is to inspire imagination, ignite emotion and make the extraordinary for everyone. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion underpin all that we do. We want our people to be representative of the diversity in the UK. We understand the creativity and innovation that diversity can bring and strive to create an inclusive environment in which everyone can thrive.

We encourage applications from people with a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and skills to join our teams. We particularly welcome applications from those who are from a global majority background and/or those who are disabled, as they are under-represented within our organisation.

We are a Disability Confident Employer, which means that we are actively working to ensure that candidates with disabilities and long-term health conditions feel supported, engaged and able to fulfil their potential in the workplace. We will endeavour to offer an interview to candidates who tell us they wish to participate in the scheme and who demonstrate in their application that they meet the essential criteria for the role, though sometimes due to the volume of qualified candidates with declarations this is not possible.

The RBO is also committed to safeguarding and protecting all children, young people, and adults and we implement robust safer recruitment practices. Due to our safeguarding promise, certain roles will be subject to a DBS check before commencing employment with us, which will be indicated in the advertising.

Closing date for applications: 11:59pm, Sunday 22nd February 2026.

Interviews will be held over two stages. The 1st stage will be online via Microsoft Teams w/c 2nd March 2026. The 2nd stage will be in person at ROH Covent Garden w/c 9th March 2026.

Applicants must have work authorisation for the UK. No agencies.

To ensure a fair process, late applications will not be considered under any circumstances.