Summary
More Details
Head of Individual Giving
£47,000 – £50,000 dependent on experience
Permanent, Full Time Contract
Full Details about the role can be found on our website https://www.cft.org.uk/jobs/head-of-individual-giving
We’ve set a closing date of 10am of Tuesday 7 October – full details of what we’d like to see in your application can be found on our website
In this pivotal position, you’ll oversee every aspect of individual giving – from cultivating major donors and growing our membership schemes, to running inspiring campaigns and developing legacy support.
You’ll bring energy, confidence and initiative – a natural self-starter who thrives on building relationships and turning passion into lasting support. Alongside extensive experience in individual fundraising, you’ll have the ability to motivate and inspire, whether working with donors, senior stakeholders or colleagues across the organisation.
You’ll be joining a dedicated, friendly and ambitious team of eight at a moment of growth, aligning with the new business plan for CFT. Project management expertise, persuasive communication, and strong negotiation skills will all be essential – as well as your love of theatre and the arts.
The Head of Individual Giving will drive the strategic growth of CFT’s individual giving programmes, overseeing Friends, mid-level giving, major donors, campaigns, legacies, and special events. Responsible for a team of three, you’ll actively cultivate and secure gifts, generating over £1.2 million annually from individual supporters. You will also deputise for the Director of Development when needed, playing a key role in shaping and delivering our ambitious fundraising strategy.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic
• As the strategic lead for giving from individuals, work with the Director of Development to
create an individual giving strategy that grows CFT’s family of supporters and the maximises supporters’ generosity.
• Advise and make recommendations to the Director of Development, Executive and Board on improvements to fundraising practices.
• Lead the new legacy fundraising strategy and marketing campaign to maximise lifetime giving of CFT audiences.
• Lead and empower the individuals team to expand prospecting and cultivation of individuals giving at all levels.
• Deputise for the Director of Development, when required.
• Contribute to cross-organisational strategy through working groups
• Be an advocate for CFT and charitable giving to the Theatre externally.
Major Donors
• Lead, manage and develop a portfolio of high value personal giving relationships and inspire our most valuable individual supporters to sustain and grow their support.
• Work with the Chair, Board, Development Committee and Executive to expand CFT’s network of prospective high-value individual supporters and convert prospects to supporters.
• Manage research and wealth analysis of prospective supporters
• Collaborate with colleagues across the organisation to identify fundraising opportunities and create compelling products, proposals and cases for support.
• Steward major donors, providing outstanding relationship management, cultivation and stewardship including reports, project visits and events programme.
Campaigns
• Lead on fundraising campaigns raising small donations from audiences and general public, including the annual campaign (currently Chichester Festival Youth Theatre), Name a Seat, regular giving and matched funding campaigns.
• Collaborate with the marketing department to create engaging, cross-channel fundraising collateral to promote campaigns and charitable giving to CFT
Legacy Campaign
• Drive the Legacy Campaign and the CFT Fellowship to support the Theatre’s long-term future, including through regular cross-channel legacy marketing campaigns.
• Develop In Memory giving to CFT as an income stream and raise the profile of this giving opportunity
• Be the main point of contact externally and internally for all fundraising relating to legacies and in memory giving
• Be responsible for the administration of all legacy estates.
Budget management
• With the Development Director set income targets and reforecast for individual giving income streams
• Work with the Director of Development and Finance team to monitor financial income targets and expenditure budgets for individual giving areas.
Database management
• Keep up-to-date supporter records on Spektrix for donors and prospects within the portfolio
• Take a continual improvement approach to developing the Development team’s use of Spektrix to drive effective fundraising
Team
• Empower team members to perform to their best and provide excellent line management of the individuals team.
• Provide recommendations to the Director of Development on the professional development of Individuals team members and future personnel requirements.
Other
• Ensure all fundraising from individual supporters complies with the Fundraising Code of Conduct and CFT Donations Acceptance Policy.
• Stay up to date with fundraising best practice and research
Person specification
• Demonstrable successful fundraising track record in securing five-figure gifts+ from individuals
• c5 years’ experience of working in a management role within arts fundraising
• Experience of working to targets and motivating others to achieve them
• Experience of budget setting, forecasting and monitoring
• Excellent communication skills, with tact, confidence and maturity to liaise with a wide range of people
• Flexible and self-motivated, able to prioritise and plan a challenging workload, as well as communicate deadlines and any support needs
• Knowledge of charity legislation and its application to CFT’s fundraising endeavours
• Experience of using a fundraising database, ideally Spektrix
• Warm, confident and driven, happy to be part of a team committed to our values and mission
Organisation
