Senior Philanthropy Manager - Mid-Value

World Vision; Milton Keynes; Hybrid; GBP 38,000 - 52,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working policies

Job summary

World Vision UK is seeking a Senior Philanthropy Manager to grow high-value philanthropic giving. You will own a portfolio of major donors and prospects, open new networks and convert relationships into gifts of £25,000+ and multi-year commitments.

This senior, externally facing role combines relationship management with commercial judgement, disciplined pipeline management and the confidence to make compelling asks across senior leaders and trustees.

Qualifications

• Proven track record of cultivating, soliciting and stewarding major donors.
• Ability to meet stretching financial and activity targets.
• Excellent written and verbal communication for donor propositions and impact-led stewardship.
• Strong planning, CRM and forecasting discipline.

Responsibilities

• Grow income by achieving targets and building a robust donor pipeline.
• Convert prospects into £25,000+ gifts and manage six-figure, multi-year opportunities.
• Maintain active donor activity with regular meetings, including with new prospects.
• Forecast income and report progress using CRM data and pipeline information.
• Open influential networks to generate introductions through existing supporters and senior stakeholders.

Skills

Major donor fundraising

Donor stewardship

CRM forecasting

Stakeholder engagement

Job description

With 75 years of experience, our focus is on helping the most vulnerable children overcome poverty and experience fullness of life. We help children of all backgrounds, even in the most dangerous places, inspired by our Christian faith.

Come join our 31,000+ staff working in nearly 100 countries and share the joy of transforming vulnerable children's life stories!

Key Responsibilities

Senior Philanthropy Manager - Mid-Value

Contract: Permanent Contract - Full Time 36.5 Hours

Based: Home-based - Monthly Travel to MK

Travel: Regular UK travel for donor visits/events

Salary: Circa £45,000 per annum

The opportunity

World Vision UK is looking for an accomplished, ambitious relationship fundraiser to grow high-value philanthropic giving. As Senior Philanthropy Manager, you will own a portfolio of major donors and prospects, open new networks and convert carefully cultivated relationships into gifts of £25,000+, multi-year commitments and transformational support.

This is a senior, externally facing role for someone who combines excellent relationship management with commercial judgement, disciplined pipeline management and the confidence to make compelling asks. You will have the autonomy to shape donor strategies, engage senior leaders, trustees and advocates, and strengthen fundraising practice across the wider team.

Your key outputs and deliverables

• Deliver significant income growth: achieve a Year 1 personal income target of £200,000, building towards £750,000 annually by Year 3.
• Secure high-value commitments: convert qualified prospects into gifts of £25,000+, while confidently progressing six-figure and multi-year opportunities.
• Create a strong, active pipeline: identify new high-net-worth individuals, qualify their potential and move priority relationships through cultivation, solicitation and stewardship.
• Maintain purposeful donor activity: complete 12 donor or prospect meetings each month, including at least eight with new or qualifying prospects.
• Improve conversion and retention: develop tailored engagement, ask and stewardship plans that increase proposal conversion, repeat giving, donor upgrades and advocacy.
• Strengthen forecasting and accountability: keep timely, accurate CRM records and use pipeline data to forecast income, report progress and adapt activity.
• Open influential networks: generate introductions and opportunities through existing supporters, senior colleagues, trustees, volunteers, events and external networks.
• Raise team performance: model excellent relationship fundraising, share insight, coach colleagues and contribute senior judgement to philanthropy planning.

What you will bring

• A strong track record of personally cultivating, soliciting and stewarding major donors, high-net-worth individuals or comparable high-value relationships.
• Evidence of achieving stretching financial and activity targets, including income generation, proposal conversion and pipeline growth.
• The credibility and confidence to build trusted relationships, make significant asks and influence senior stakeholders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to create compelling donor propositions, proposals and impact-led stewardship.
• Strong planning, prioritisation, CRM and forecasting discipline, with the resilience and judgement to manage a complex portfolio.
• A collaborative approach and commitment to World Vision UK's mission, vision and values.

Why join us?

You will join a collaborative and ambitious Relationship Fundraising team, working across World Vision UK and with the Global Philanthropic Alliance to connect donors with compelling opportunities to create lasting change.

All applicants must be willing to work within a Christian framework and be sensitive to its various expressions across cultures and denominations.

Closing Date for applications: 13th November 2026

1st Stage interviews: W/C 16th November 2026

We reserve the right to interview candidates and close the ad ahead of the closing date should a strong candidate be identified.

Universal acceptance for everyone, everywhere is at the heart of our Christian organisation. We promote diversity of thought, culture and background, which connects the entire World Vision family. As such, World Vision is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity and aspire to reflect this in our workforce. We particularly welcome applications from under-represented sections of the community. World Vision UK also operates flexible working policies and practices. As a child-focused organi