Supporter Development Manager (2070)

The Donkey Sanctuary; Sidmouth; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

An animal welfare organization in Sidmouth seeks a Supporter Development Manager to lead initiatives in supporter engagement and fundraising strategy. The successful candidate will require strong communication, leadership skills, and experience in managing donor-centric campaigns. The role offers a full-time contract with a hybrid working model and numerous benefits, including 31 days of holiday.

Benefits

31 days holiday including Bank holidays

Healthshield plan

Free parking

Subsidised restaurant and shop

Qualifications

• Demonstrable experience managing multi-channel supporter development programmes.
• Working experience with raffles, lottery, sponsorship, regular giving, and cash giving.
• Proven line management experience in leading marketing teams.
• Advanced knowledge in managing multimillion-pound marketing budgets.

Responsibilities

• Deliver and improve integrated donor journeys across various channels.
• Manage annual income and expenditure budgets for Supporter Development.
• Identify new fundraising and income growth opportunities.
• Lead and mentor the Supporter Development Team.

Skills

Communication skills

Interpersonal skills

Direct marketing knowledge

Donor-centric journey delivery

Leadership capabilities

Job description

The Donkey Sanctuary is an international animal welfare organisation, offering care and protection to donkeys worldwide. Our vision is a world where every donkey has a good quality of life, and our mission is to improve the lives of donkeys every day. We will achieve this by transforming the lives of donkeys in need worldwide by fostering greater understanding, collaboration and support, and by promoting lasting, mutually life-enhancing relationships.

We have an excellent opportunity for a flexible and professional individual with outstanding communication and interpersonal skills to join our dedicated Fundraising Department. As Supporter Development Manager, you will provide leadership to the Supporter Development side of the Individual Giving Team, successfully delivering supporter development activity in line with agreed annual targets and our Fundraising Strategy. You will work with the Head of Individual Giving to evolve and continuously improve our supporter journey activity, bringing an integrated, cross-departmental approach to deliver the most donor‑centric activity, continuously evaluating performance to ensure lifetime value (LTV) optimisation.

About you:

• Demonstrable experience of managing, growing, and delivering multi-channel and multi-product supporter development programmes.
• Working experience of several of the following areas: raffles, lottery, sponsorship, regular giving, reactivation, consent management, gift aid and cash giving (appeals).
• Experience of delivering complex donor-centric supporter journeys using a test and learn framework and LTV modelling.
• A track record of leading, motivating, and inspiring marketing teams, together with proven line management experience.
• Advanced and contemporary direct marketing knowledge, together with experience of managing and reforecasting multimillion pound direct marketing budgets.
• Experience of conducting effective direct marketing analysis to support and enhance the performance of channels, products, and specific appeals.
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills.

About the role:

Your principal duties and responsibilities will include –

• Working in partnership with internal stakeholders to deliver the Individual Giving annual roadmap.
• Delivering, evaluating and improving integrated donor journeys across online, post, social and other channels as required.
• Managing the Supporter Development annual income and expenditure budgets.
• With the Head of Individual Giving, monitoring and reporting on the targets and KPIs of Supporter Development activity.
• Proactively identifying and delivering new fundraising and income growth opportunities within Supporter Development.
• Working closely with internal teams across the charity to analyse activity performance, audience behaviours and learnings to shape future campaigns.
• Leading, training, coaching, and mentoring the Supporter Development Team, upskilling their knowledge and experience within key areas of delivery.

What we offer in return:

Based in Sidmouth, Devon – an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – this is a full-time, maternity cover contract starting on 2 February 2026 until 1 April 2027, working 35 hours per week, 08.30-16.30, Monday-Friday.

The working pattern for this role will be hybrid working, which combine onsite and home working under our guiding principles for such roles, with onsite attendance currently anticipated to be a minimum of 2 days per month. Candidates must be able to travel to Sidmouth for onsite attendance. As this role may/will involve occasional travel to Donkey Sanctuary sites and external suppliers, a full, valid UK driving licence is required.

Please refer to the FAQs section regarding travelling to work on our Candidate Journey page:

31 days holiday (including Bank holidays), rising to 34 will each full year of service.

Wellbeing team.

Recorded Pilates and Yoga classes.

Long service awards.

Healthshield plan –

• Reimbursement of some medical expenses up to the specified limits per membership.
• Offers, discounts and cashback on shopping, travel and entertainment from participating outlets.
• Access to a 24/7 GP and counselling service.

Free parking.

Subsidised restaurant and shop.

Closing date for completed applications: Sunday 16 November 2025.

The Donkey Sanctuary is a Disability Confident Employer.

The Donkey Sanctuary is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable people (children and adults), and expects all staff and volunteers to undertake this commitment. Applicants will be subject to safer recruitment processes, including an application for a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check where required for the post.

The Donkey Sanctuary also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme and, for relevant posts, may request information from applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment.

Please note: The Guaranteed interview scheme is only applicable to candidates who consider themselves to have a disability applying for roles based within the United Kingdom.

NOTE TO APPLICANTS: We look forward to receiving your application, but we do ask you to complete this in your own words, and not to employ an Artificial Intelligence (AI) writing tool or assistant. Applications that are considered not to be an applicant’s own work may not be shortlisted for interview.

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