Trusts & Foundations Manager (Maternity Cover)

The Sutton Trust is the UK s leading social mobility charity. We believe every young person should have a fair chance in life, regardless of their family s income, the school they go to or where they grow up. But today in Britain, the opportunity to succeed is heavily shaped by socio-economic background. Our mission is to change this. Our programmes empower young people to access life-changing opportunities, and our research influences national change to deliver a fairer future.

Each year, together with our university and employer partners, we support over 14,000 young people to reach their potential through our university, apprenticeship, and career access programmes. And our support does not stop there. We engage our thriving alumni community to help them to succeed in their professions and to act as advocates for social mobility.

Our rigorous and extensive research shines a light on barriers to opportunity from the early years to the workplace, and we strive to influence national policy change with evidence-based solutions to tackle educational and workplace inequality. Using insights from our programmes and research, we also test and scale new ideas in education and employment practice.

As an independent charity, our work is entirely reliant on the generous support of our community of donors. The need to support our work to tackle Britain s low social mobility has never been greater.

Fundraising at the Sutton Trust

We are seeking a dynamic and driven fundraiser to be our Trusts and Foundations Manager. The Sutton Trust is at an exciting point in our organisational journey, with a new Chairperson and ambitions to significantly grow our impact and fundraising as part of our 2030 strategy.

Over the past five years the impact of the Sutton Trust has increased, especially in our programme numbers, securing a relatively stable income of c.£6m over a number of years. In recent years this has grown to c.£7m, and our organisational strategy to 2030 will continue this fundraising trajectory to increase income to £12m. Trusts and foundations income currently accounts for c.37% of our fundraising, and we know there is considerable enthusiasm and opportunity in the grant-making world for building strategic partnerships with us.

Our fundraising approach will continue to focus on driving towards major gifts and strategic multi-year partnerships, leveraging a range of drivers to secure Trust, Foundation and Statutory support.

The Role and Team

As Trusts and Foundations Manager (maternity cover), you will be an experienced, proactive relationship manager and fundraiser. You will be confident in delivering high quality reporting and stewardship to a wide variety of Trusts, Foundations, Statutory and organisational donors, as well as proactively approaching funding prospects and preparing applications to secure funds.

We have strong relationships with a range of trusts and foundations, and over the fixed term contract period we are looking for a confident fundraiser to manage and support a portfolio of funders as cover for a maternity leave within the Development team.

The role will contribute to growing the portfolio of Trusts, Foundations, and organisational donors (predominantly at the five-figure level), while also providing strategic support on grant management of our major six-and-seven-figure Trust and Foundation partners. This will include compiling key reports and supporting the gathering and analysing programmatic data. You will work closely with colleagues across both the Development Department, including the Development Director, and the wider organisation.

Main duties

New Business

• Undertake prospect research into trusts and foundations, statutory opportunities (contracts or grants), and organisational funders in collaboration with Trusts and Foundations colleagues, and other senior staff and senior volunteers. This includes identification, due diligence, qualification, and creating briefings and outreach plans.
• Work with Trusts and Foundations colleagues to cultivate a prospect pool of potential donors, looking at lapsed supporters, the prospect pipeline, stakeholder network mapping through the Board and Trustees, as well as funders with an active interest in education / social mobility.
• Submit compelling funding proposals and reports to mid-level trusts, foundations, statutory and organisational donors to secure income (predominately at the five-figure level) for the Trust. Work alongside other Development team and wider organisation members to ensure high-quality submissions.
• Alongside team members, manage the shared Development inbox to ensure all enquiries are dealt with in a prompt, consistent, and friendly manner.
• Follow all relevant policies and processes to ensure due diligence is completed for prospective donors and that income projections and plans for the portfolio are kept up to date.

Account Management and Development

• Manage and grow a small portfolio of trusts, foundations, statutory supporters, and organisational donors, delivering impactful stewardship (e.g. impact reporting) while meeting all donor reporting requirements to maximise financial income and partnership longevity.
• Support senior team members on strategic management of our major trust and foundation partners, including leading on compiling key impact reports, coordinating meetings, attending programme visits, event invites, writing targeted donor communications and reporting.
• Work with the Head of Fundraising Operations to compile and analyse key programmatic data for use by the Development team in their grant reporting.
• Be accountable for achieving agreed trusts and foundations income targets, looking for opportunities to grow funding and diversify income for this stream.
• Ensure all record keeping and administration relating to trusts and foundations income is maintained, up-to-date, and processed in accordance with GDPR and Sutton Trust policies and procedures.

Fundraising Finance and Reporting

• Act as an ambassador for the Trust with external audiences, delivering presentations and providing expertise as required.
• Work with colleagues to deliver impactful events to cultivate prospects and steward partners, with a focus on experience for trust and foundation supporters and prospects.
• Work with colleagues across Development and Finance to ensure accurate forecasting, income tracking and reporting for trusts and foundations income, through the Trust s CRM (Salesforce), account management plans, and all relevant income pipeline documents.
• Ensure you appropriately follow policies and procedures on due diligence, Salesforce and data management, account management, stewardship, and reporting.
• Stay up to date with grant fundraising best practice, learning from senior members of the team, and keep abreast of developments and opportunities within the wider fundraising space.
• Other duties as necessary from time to time.

Person Specification

We welcome applications from individuals who have:

• Experience in successfully securing, managing, and developing Trust, Foundation, Statutory or organisational donor partnerships at four and five figure-level, from initial prospect research to securing income and ongoing grant management.
• Experience building and managing relationships, particularly in the philanthropic sector with organisational donors.
• Strong presentation skills and the ability to write compelling proposals and impact reports, or pitch to audiences with the intent of persuading them to your point of view or secure a specific outcome.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and the ability to summarise information from readily available sources clearly and concisely.
• Experience managing multiple priorities and tasks to successfully achieve project or other goals.
• Excellent prospect research skills and strong analytical skills.
• First-class interpersonal skills - a natural ambassador able to represent the Sutton Trust with confidence in a range of settings.
• Knowledge of fundraising in the education and/or not-for-profit sector.
• Experience using CRM software (ideally Salesforce) to accurately record funding relationships (desirable).

We are also looking for an individual who:

• Sympathetic to the aims of the Trust and its mission to address educational disadvantage and increase social mobility.
• Able to take the initiative and take responsibility for a wide variety of tasks and projects.
• Strong communicator, skilled at persuading others through writing and conversation.
• Enjoy working with impact and outcomes data to create compelling narratives for reporting purposes (desirable).
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Able to multi-task and prioritise multiple funder relationships.
• Able to work independently and as part of a team.
• Is eligible to work in the UK (see here for information about right to work)

Terms of Appointment

• Contract: Full-time, Fixed term contract until 31 August 2027
• Salary: £42,000-£47,000
• Working location: Minimum of two office days per week. Our home working policy gives staff the option to - work from home for up to 60% of the time, with approval from their line manager.
• Office location: The Sutton Trust, 9th Floor, Millbank Tower, 21-24 Millbank, London, SW1P 4QP.
• Hours: The standard working hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday . click apply for full job details