Development Assistant

Royal Ballet and Opera; Greater London; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 35,000; Part time

Job summary

The Royal Ballet and Opera is recruiting a Development Assistant on a part-time fixed-term basis. The role provides general admin support to the Fundraising Appeals and Membership teams, handling membership calls, donation messages and donor communications.

You will assist with ticket allocations during priority booking and craft donor thank-you letters, contributing to a world-class arts fundraising effort at Covent Garden.

Qualifications

• Strong written and verbal communication skills across channels (email, phone and letters).
• Ability to liaise professionally with donors, members and stakeholders.
• Experience with databases, accurate data entry and creating mail merges/reports.
• Commitment to delivering a high-quality supporter experience.
• Interest in understanding UK fundraising landscape and methods.

Responsibilities

• Provide general administrative support to the Fundraising Appeals and Membership teams.
• Support Membership phone lines for queries and ticketing enquiries.
• Manage the fundraising inbox for incoming donation messages.
• Assist with ticket allocations for Patron members during priority booking.
• Write meaningful thank you letters to donors to appeals.

Skills

Strong written communication

Face-to-face communication

Telephone communication

Database experience

Customer service

UK fundraising knowledge

Job description

Job Details

Based in: Covent Garden, London

Part time: 24 hours per week

£31,440 per annum, pro rata for part-time hours

12 month fixed-term contract

Based in: Covent Garden, London

Part time: 24 hours per week

£31,440 per annum, pro rata for part-time hours

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.

The Royal Opera House describes the place we work, not who we are. The whole is always more than the sum of its parts - we may be a House, but three quarters of our audiences experience what we do outside this building. While our Covent Garden theatre is the nerve centre, the impact and influence of the organisation can be felt in every corner of the country, and around the world.

The Role

The Development and Advocacy Department are looking to appoint a Development Assistant on a part-time fixed-term basis. This role will provide general administrative support to the Fundraising Appeals and Membership teams; including but not limited to supporting the Membership phone lines for incoming membership and ticketing queries, manage the fundraising inbox for incoming donation messages, assisting with ticket allocations for Patron members during their priority booking period and writing meaningful thank you letters to donors to appeals.

What You’ll Bring

• Strong written communication skills across email, digital and print channels
• Excellent face-to-face and telephone communication skills, with the ability to liaise professionally with donors, members, and stakeholders
• Experience working with databases, including accurate data entry and extracting data for mail merges and reports
• A commitment to delivering a first-rate experience to supporters (transferable customer service experience will be highly regarded)
• The ability and interest to gain an understanding of UK fundraising landscape, fundraising methods and processes
• Experience of processing Direct Debits (desirable)

This is a fantastic opportunity for an enthusiastic candidate looking to develop their skills in a world leading arts fundraising team. Prior knowledge of our art forms is not essential but the ability and desire to learn quickly is.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

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.

Job Description

A full job description can be found here.

For more information about working with the Royal Ballet and Opera, please review the info pack here.

For a list of potential reasonable adjustments, please review this guidance document. If you have any access requirements for your application, please contact the RBO Recruitment Team on [e-mail]

If you are applying as an internal candidate, you might find this guidance document helpful.

Closing date for applications: 11:59pm, Monday 24th August 2026.

Interviews will be held early-mid September.

Applicants must have work authorisation for the UK.