Fundraising Manager (Challenge Events & Community)

LEVEL WATER; Tunbridge Wells; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A community-centric charity in the UK seeks a Fundraising Manager to enhance supporter experiences for events. You will drive strategies, build relationships, and optimize the supporter journey while working closely with the Senior Leadership Team. This role offers flexibility to work remotely or from the office in Tunbridge Wells and requires a proactive attitude, data-based decision making, and a genuine passion for community engagement. The ideal candidate will help foster long-term loyalty and drive income growth for a worthy cause.

Qualifications

• Must have hustle and drive with a proactive approach.
• Ability to build genuine relationships with supporters.
• Analytical mindset to translate data into actionable insights.
• Experience in testing and iterating to achieve results.
• Entrepreneurial thinking to drive growth.
• Ambitious with a desire to develop personally and professionally.
• Strong organizational skills to manage multiple tasks.

Responsibilities

• Own the supporter experience and enhance income growth.
• Develop relationships with supporters to increase retention.
• Design and optimize the entire supporter journey.
• Identify opportunities for major donations and partnerships.
• Track, report, and analyze engagement metrics.

Skills

Relationship building

Data analysis

Innovation

Project management

Communication

Job description

Fundraising Manager (Challenge Events & Community)

Help us build the best supporter experience in the charity sector

Location: Remote/Hybrid/Office (Tunbridge Wells)

Salary: £30,000 - £45,000 (depending on experience)

Type: Full-time, Permanent

What we're building

Every year, 3,000+ swimmers take on some of the UK's most iconic open water challenges, including the Dart10k, Bantham Swoosh and The Hurly Burly along with our growing series of 24‑hour Wild Swim Relays. They swim so that disabled kids who need it most can get life‑changing swimming lessons.

Last year, these swimmers raised over £1m. This year, we want to double it. And we need someone who can help us get there.

We're Level Water, a founder‑led charity solving learn‑to‑swim for disabled children. We own the events and run them like a business, moving fast and testing everything. We’re building something that doesn’t exist anywhere else.

We’ve just brought in a new Fundraising Director, and this role is a cornerstone of the team we’re building. If you want to help define how a modern charity does supporter care, this is your chance.

The opportunity

This isn’t a "send some emails and answer some queries" role. This is a "build something and make it brilliant" role.

You'll own the entire experience for our 3,000 swimmers from the moment they sign up, through their training and fundraising journey, to the event itself (yes, you’ll be there), and beyond. You’ll design the journey, execute it, measure it, improve it, and scale it.

You’ll have the freedom to experiment. Want to test a new communication sequence? Build a WhatsApp community? Launch a training programme? Run in‑person meet ups? Create a membership product? Brilliant, build the business case and let’s do it.

You’ll work with real people who are doing something remarkable. You’ll get to know them, thank them, support them, and help them raise more money than they thought possible. And you’ll do it in a way that makes them want to come back year after year.

You’ll also work closely with our Fundraising Director, Events and Marketing teams to turn our swimmers into our best marketing channel, because the people who’ve experienced our events are the ones who’ll bring their friends next year.

And you’ll grow with us. We’re scaling fast, and we need people who can scale with us, whether that’s into senior leadership, building out new teams, or launching new products.

This is a mission‑critical role in driving Level Water’s income growth. Every strong supporter relationship you build helps unlock more funded swimming lessons, bringing us closer to a future where every disabled child can have a great swimming lesson with a confident, qualified teacher.

This is the most exciting job in the charity sector for the right person.

What you'll actually do

This role owns the supporter experience as a growth engine. You’ll set strategy, drive innovation, and be accountable for how supporter care translates into income, retention and long‑term loyalty. You’ll work closely with the Senior Leadership Team to shape priorities, influence decisions, and build something that scales — not just for this year’s events, but for the future of Level Water.

Build relationships that matter

• Get to know our swimmers. Design the experience. Call them. Thank them. Make them feel valued.
• Be there at events throughout the summer meeting people, creating unforgettable experiences, and giving them reasons to come back.
• Deliver the personal touches that deepen connections: handwritten cards, phone calls, training tips, impact updates, recognition, celebration.

Design and optimise the supporter journey

• Own the end‑to‑end experience: from sign‑up emails to post‑event stewardship.
• Map out communications across our events portfolio throughout the year and execute them brilliantly.
• Use data to spot opportunities; where are people dropping off? Where can we increase average fundraising? What messages work best?
• Test everything. Buttons, subject lines, timing, tone obsess over the details that drive results.

Identify and unlock growth opportunities

• Spot the swimmers who could become major donors, corporate partners, or monthly givers and move them along that journey.
• Cross‑sell and upsell: if someone's just completed their first challenge, how do we make them another offer that they can’t refuse?

Track, report, and improve

• Keep our CRM up to date and use it intelligently.
• Report regularly on what’s working and what’s not: fundraising targets, engagement metrics, retention rates.
• Stay ahead of the curve: what are the best organisations doing? What can we learn and adapt?

Who we're looking for

We care much more about how you work than what you’ve done. You don’t need fundraising experience. You don’t need charity sector experience. You don’t even need customer success experience though if you have it, great.

What you do need

• Hustle and drive. You take ownership. You spot opportunities and go after them. You don’t wait to be told what to do. You’re looking for opportunities.
• A knack for building relationships. You genuinely care about people and you’re good at making them feel it whether that’s over email, on the phone, or in person.
• A data brain. You can look at numbers and spot the story. You know that "engagement is up 12%" means something, and you know how to act on it.
• A bias for action. You test things. You move fast. You’re comfortable with uncertainty and you learn by doing.
• An entrepreneurial mindset. You think like an owner. If this were your business, how would you grow it?
• Ambition. You want to grow. You want to get better. You want to build something you’re proud of.
• Organisation: Strong attention to detail, with the ability to juggle multiple projects and stay calm under pressure.

Bonus points if

• You love being outdoors (swimming, hiking, wild camping, anything that gets you outside).
• You’ve worked in a startup, scale‑up, or high‑growth environment.
• You’ve designed customer journeys, retention strategies, or growth loops.
• You’ve worked in sales, account management, hospitality, retail management, or anything that required you to build relationships and hit targets.

Why Level Water?

Our values — Bold, Driven, Personal, and Joyful — are at the heart of this role. You’ll be expected to bring ambition, move with purpose, care deeply about people, and help create experiences that feel genuinely joyful to be part of.

• Bold. This isn’t a "follow the playbook" role. We want your ideas. We want you to challenge us. We want you to help us build something better.
• Driven. We’re growing fast and we need people who can scale with us. If you’re ambitious, there’s a huge opportunity here.
• Personal. We’re a small, founder‑led team. We move fast, we debate hard, we test everything, and we care deeply about what we do.
• Joyful. You’ll work on some of the most iconic outdoor swims in the UK. You’ll be part of creating experiences that people remember forever.

Practical details

• Flexible working: remote, hybrid, or (even better) office‑based in Tunbridge Wells or Exeter, your choice.
• You’ll attend weekend events throughout the summer (with time off in lieu).
• Salary: £30k - £45k depending on experience.

How to apply

We want to hear from you in whatever way best shows us who you are and how you think.

Get creative. We really want to get a feel for your personality and style. A traditional CV and cover letter? Absolutely fine. A video introduction? Great. A presentation deck? Bring it on. Whatever format helps you shine and show us who you are.

Here’s what we’d love to know:

How you think about supporter experience

1. Imagine one of our swimmers has just signed up for the Dart10k but hasn’t started fundraising yet. Walk us through how you’d engage them over the next 8 weeks to help them raise as much as possible and feel brilliant about it.

What excites you about this role

1. Tell us why this opportunity appeals to you specifically.

Something you’re proud of

1. Share one thing you’ve built, grown, or improved. Doesn’t have to be in charity or even at work, it could be anything that shows your drive and ability to make things happen.

Before you apply:

If you’ve got questions about the role, the team, or whether this might be right for you, please reach out. I’m Andy Punter, Fundraising Director at Level Water, and I’d genuinely love to chat.

Book a call with me Here.

Stalk me on LinkedIn

Ready to apply?

Send your application by an email via the button below with the subject line: "Fundraising at Level Water - [Your Name]"

Deadline

We’re reviewing applications on a rolling basis and will close this advert once we’ve found the right person. So if this excites you, don’t wait, but do take the time to show us who you really are.

We’d rather see your best work than a rushed application. If you need a bit of time to put that together, talk to us.

We’re excited to meet you. Let’s build something brilliant together.