Trusts & Foundations Manager

Old Vic Theatre; London; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 37,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player seeks a Trusts and Foundations Manager to secure vital funding from trusts and foundations. This role involves developing relationships, crafting compelling funding applications, and collaborating with a dedicated team to meet revenue and capital targets. You will play a crucial part in the organization’s fundraising strategy, ensuring the sustainability of its artistic endeavors. If you are passionate about the arts and possess strong fundraising skills, this opportunity offers a dynamic environment where your contributions will make a significant impact. Join a team that values creativity, collaboration, and community engagement.

Benefits

Enhanced annual leave

Complimentary tickets to productions

Free therapy sessions

Mental health support

Enhanced pension contributions

Time to volunteer

Family friendly policies

Staff discounts

Social events

Death in Service Benefit

Qualifications

• Proven track record in managing funder portfolios and meeting income targets.
• Ability to write compelling funding applications and communicate effectively.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deliver annual revenue and capital targets with the Associate Director.
• Build relationships with Trustees and key contacts at charitable trusts.

Skills

Fundraising

Relationship Management

Communication Skills

Organizational Skills

Strategic Planning

Education

Degree in Arts Management or related field

Tools

Tessitura

Job description

Department/Team: Development

Responsible to: Associate Director, Trusts and Foundations

Contract: Permanent

Location: Mix of home working and from The Old Vic, 103 The Cut, London, SE1 8NB (min 3 office days)

Hours: Full-Time - 40 hours per week, Monday-Friday

The Old Vic offers the ability to work these flexibly under the guidelines in our Hybrid Working policy. Additional hours may be necessary in order to fulfil the requirements of the post.

Salary: £35,000 - £36,750

Benefits

• Hybrid working for eligible teams and a company culture that promotes good work/life balance.
• Enhanced annual leave, starting at 25 days per year, increasing by one day per year up to 30 days (plus bank holidays). Opportunity to switch statutory bank holidays to mark a religious event or festival.
• Complimentary tickets for you and a guest to Old Vic preview productions.
• Discretionary invite to Press Night performances and parties.
• Free therapy from our therapy partner SelfSpace.
• Mental health support via our in-house Mental Health Champions.
• Enhanced employer pension contributions with The People’s Pension.
• Festive day – one discretionary additional paid day off around the festive period for a collective pause.
• Time to volunteer – one day per year to support a charity or project of your choosing.
• Commitment to learning, education and development.
• Enhanced sick pay.
• Access to interest free travel schemes including Cycle 2 work and Season Ticket loans after your probation period.
• Family friendly policies and enhanced maternity/paternity/adoption/shared parental pay.
• All staff social events.
• Staff discount in Penny and The Old Vic bars as well as discounts in local bars and restaurants.
• Opportunities to get involved with staff clubs and working groups such as the Inclusion Working Group.
• Buddy schemes including New Starter and Parental buddies to support your induction and return to work after parental leave.
• Death in Service Benefit.

Role Summary

The Trusts and Foundations Manager is responsible for securing income from trusts, foundations and grant-making organisations across both revenue and capital targets, managing a portfolio as well as developing new relationships, and supporting the Associate Director, Trusts and Foundations by taking a lead role in the stewardship and cultivation of trusts and foundations in line with The Old Vic's fundraising strategy.

Your Team

The Trusts and Foundations Manager works alongside the Associate Director, Trusts and Foundations and Senior Proposal Writer, within the Development team, which fundraises for The Old Vic Theatre Trust 2000 (a registered charity). Its remit is to raise voluntary funds for the theatre from individuals, companies and charitable trusts and foundations.

The team comprises Development Director, Associate Director, Trusts and Foundations, Senior Proposal Writer, Trusts and Foundations Manager, Head of Corporate Development, Corporate Development Manager, Corporate Development Officer, Head of Events, Events Manager, Head of Individual Giving, Senior Philanthropy Manager, Individual Giving Manager, Individual Giving Officer and Senior Development Operations Manager.

The Old Vic Trust receives no government subsidy and is reliant on fundraising and ticket sales for its annual income.

Areas of responsibility

The Trust and Foundations Manager will be responsible for:

Raising Income

• Working with the Associate Director, Trusts and Foundations to develop strategy and deliver annual revenue and capital targets, and to assist with more complex, large-scale applications.
• Building relationships with Trustees and key contacts at charitable trusts through strategic cultivation (creating invitations, liaising with the Events team and other event admin) and information sharing (organising mailings and reporting).
• Researching and developing compelling funding applications to existing donors, and new prospects, giving at the 4 and 5 figure level.

Strategy & Development

• Working with the Associate Director, Trusts and Foundations to identify and develop new income streams and build the funding pipeline.
• Managing an annual schedule of applications, developing cultivation plans and tracking progress.
• Coordinating across departments at The Old Vic to collate information for dynamic funding proposals and reports.
• Maintaining detailed and accurate database (Tessitura) and digital records to ensure actions are recorded and followed up.
• Overseeing the content of the Trusts and Foundations webpage, ensuring it is updated regularly.

Stewardship and Relationship Building

• Managing the stewardship of a portfolio of donors, using a wide range of mechanisms to retain and develop their involvement with the Theatre, including tailored reports, phone calls, regular mailings, ticket bookings and meetings.
• Understanding and communicating projects and programmes, creating dynamic funding reports for trusts, foundations and other grant-making organisations.
• Providing excellent customer care by responding to queries swiftly and effectively, being a friendly and professional point of contact and maintaining good relationships with all contacts.
• Working collaboratively with colleagues across The Old Vic and building effective internal relationships.
• Working with the Development Events team to deliver a range of events for trust and foundation contacts.
• Supporting Development colleagues by working at occasional evening and weekend events.

Administration, budgeting and compliance

• Assisting the Associate Director, Trusts and Foundations to meet an agreed annual revenue target and monitoring and reporting on income and expenditure.
• Co-ordinating the administration needs of the Trusts and Foundations team with support from the Senior Development Operations Manager, including updating the sub-team’s tracking systems and organising mailings, events and meetings.
• Processing donations accurately and acknowledging receipt of all grants promptly.
• Maintaining excellent donor and prospect history records by updating the team’s tracking systems, including Tessitura.
• Ensure activities are compliant with the Fundraising Code of Practice and GDPR.

This is not an exhaustive list of duties and the Theatre's management may, at any time, allocate other tasks which are of a similar nature or level.

Person Specification

Essential

• Substantial and proven track record in managing a portfolio of funders, meeting income targets and an awareness of fundraising best practice.
• Ability to write a compelling case for support and communicate this effectively through both face-to-face presentations and written copy.
• Knowledge of the T&F landscape and of the wider arts or fundraising sectors.
• Experience of using venue software Tessitura or other fundraising software.
• Excellent track record of stewardship and building relationships with donors.
• Experience working to – and achieving – financial targets and KPIs.
• Natural organisational skills, demonstrable from previous experience.
• Ability to prioritise, meet deadlines with competing demands.
• Able to liaise confidently and diplomatically both externally and internally at all levels.

How to Apply

We understand that everyone is different and we want you to apply in whichever way you feel best shows your skills and experience. There are a range of ways that you can apply with us:

• 1. Sending a short video file of yourself (no longer than two minutes in length), detailing your experience, why you are applying for the role and what about working at The Old Vic interests you.
• 2. Sending a short audio file of yourself (no longer than two minutes in length), detailing your experience, why you are applying for the role and what about working at The Old Vic interests you.
• 3. Completing our application form.
• 4. Uploading your CV and covering letter, explaining why you are interested in the role and working at the Old Vic.

As a Disability Confident employer, The Old Vic has made a commitment that all applicants with disabilities who meet the essential criteria for this job will be invited to interview. However, in the event that we have a high volume of applications all of whom meet the criteria and identify as disabled, meaning it is not practicable to interview everyone, we may apply a weighting to the shortlisting criteria, or add an additional shortlisting stage before any interviews take place. In all cases we will take care to ensure that any criteria or weightings do not disadvantage disabled applicants.

All appointments are made subject to satisfactory references and proof of eligibility to work in the UK.

The Process

The recruitment process for this role will be two stages:

• 1st stage virtual conversation.
• 2nd stage in person conversation.
• You may be asked to complete a work based skills assessment or challenge.

The closing date for this role is 7 May 2025 at 10am. First Conversations are likely to take place w/c 12 May 2025.

Equal Opportunities

We actively support and encourage people from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and skill sets to join us and help shape what we do. We are particularly keen to receive applications from people of the global majority, LGBTQ+, neurodiverse and disabled candidates.

We may take positive action, in cases where candidates are equally qualified, to increase the employment of under-represented groups at The Old Vic.

In the event that we ask you to attend the theatre for a conversation and you are struggling financially, we may be able to reimburse you for any reasonable travel costs.

We partner with a range of inclusive organisations, to find out more please read our FAQs.

FAQs

Read our recruitment and selection and equal opportunities FAQs here.