About the role
This fixed term role will provide cover with the current position-holder is on secondment with another team. Within the Individual Giving team, the Fundraising Manager will have responsibility for the planning and delivery of activities that recruit new supporters and generate income.
You will manage our supporter recruitment programme, ensuring we meet our targets, and promoting investment strategies to cost-effectively and sustainably grow our supporter base. You will focus on the delivery of existing offline communication channels, as well as the development of new products, channels and audiences with a future-focused outlook on fundraising and recruitment. Over the next 12 months the new initiatives we plan to launch include a value exchange lead generation programme, improvements to our welcome journeys including the introduction of telemarketing, and potentially a lottery scheme.
Working closely with the other Fundraising Managers (especially the Digital Fundraising Manager), you will also ensure that new recruits go on to become loyal supporters, taking the lead on some projects and contributing to others, and will help to feed the pipeline of legacy pledges. You will help to improve the experience for our supporters and maximise their potential for giving.
You will also work closely with the Digital Team to ensure thoughtful integration of acquisition activities to optimise spending and ensure a seamless experience for new supporters across channels.
About you
Experience / Qualifications:
- Degree qualification in or c.5 years’ experience of individual giving fundraising, marketing, communications or related discipline.
- Experience delivering marketing / fundraising for a charity, ideally in international development
- Experience managing or leading others – ie line management or project management
- Experience managing external suppliers and agency relationships
Behaviours / Personal Attributes:
- Highly motivated and target-driven, an enthusiastic self-starter
- Collaborative and able to work across multiple teams
- Excellent relationship-builder
- Resilient and adaptable under pressure, capable of balancing multiple priorities simultaneously
- Creative, innovative and ambitious, and able to inspire that in others
Preferred / desirable:
- Experience with a variety of fundraising channels, products and platforms – with a particular focus on supporter acquisition
- Knowledge of the legal and compliance frameworks for charity fundraising and marketing including, but not limited to the Fundraising Regulator, Privacy and Data Protection legislation.
- Passion for the charity sector, ideally in international development
Skills, abilities and competencies:
To be successful in the role, the ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate:
Technical / Functional Skills:
- Ability to design and deliver fundraising strategies and campaigns
- Strong data analysis and reporting skills (donor metrics, campaign ROI)
- Familiarity with fundraising CRM software (e.g., Raiser’s Edge, Salesforce NPSP)
- Budgeting and financial management for fundraising activities
Soft Skills / Competencies:
- Excellent written and verbal communication for donor engagement and presentations
- Leadership skills for managing individuals within fundraising team
- Relationship and stakeholder management
- Excellent organisational, time management and project management skills
Why join us?
The opportunity to work for an organisation that is taking practical action against poverty and the environmental crises to start the big changes the world urgently needs. A friendly and supportive culture, working with values driven and highly engaged colleagues, work life balance and flexible working – these are just some of the reasons we think Practical Action is a great place to work.
In the UK, our open plan offices are located in the centre of Rugby and near to Rugby train station, but we also offer free parking.
In addition, we offer the following benefits:
- Full-time roles are contracted at 35 hours per week.
- It is our normal practice to operate a hybrid working policy, where flexible working hours are enabled as well as remote working.
- 27 days holiday rising with continuous service, in addition to public holidays
- Pension scheme – employer contributes 10.5% of salary and the employee contributes 5%.
- Enhanced family friendly policies, including maternity, adoption, paternity, and shared parental leave.
- Life assurance (3 x annual salary).
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Employee Assistance Programme – access to our Wellbeing platform
- Learning and Development Opportunities
- Sit / Stand desks available in our modern offices.
About us
We are a global community taking practical action against poverty and today’s environmental crises. Across Africa, Asia and Latin America we partner with people experiencing these challenges, especially those who are unheard and excluded. Our approach is to identify what works on a local level, then adapt and amplify it across different regions, countries and continents. All of Practical Action’s work is focused on two connected areas for action – livelihoods and climate resilience – and we’re working to deliver three big, global changes:
- Big change on food – to sustain people and planet
- Big change on energy – clean and accessible for everyone
- Big change on climate risk – safer lives, stronger livelihoods
Our values
We are People Centred, striving to create an equal, fair, accessible, dignified and respectful environment for everyone we work with – from colleagues and communities, to supporters, suppliers and stakeholders.
We are Impact Driven, existing to make a positive difference, so everything we do is driven by our energy to create lasting value for the people and communities we serve.
We are Transparent and trustworthy, acting with integrity, honesty, and strong ethics, building mutual trust with everyone we work with to achieve the highest standards.
We are Innovative, and champion learning, curiosity and fresh thinking, bringing local knowledge to create global impact.
We are Resilient changemakers working for sustainable development, meeting challenges head-on, and evolving through the lessons learnt.
Additional information
We treat all employment applications fairly, regardless of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, caste, tribe, belief, age, marital status, pregnancy, caring responsibilities, sexual orientation or disability.
Practical Action is committed to safeguarding and protecting children and vulnerable adults and as such candidates will be subject to pre-employment checks including criminal checks and terrorist financing.
To ensure that Practical Action meets its obligations of safer recruitment, appointment to posts within Practical Action will be subject to a satisfactory criminal check. Criminal checks will be conducted for all roles.
The successful applicant must already have the right to both live and work in the UK , where this role is based, and should be willing and able to travel.
Salary Range: Circa £44,000-£47,000 dependant on experience
Closing date for applications: 18th September 2026
How to apply:
If you want to work for an organisation with significant people ambitions, then we would like to hear from you. Please submit a copy of your CV / duly filled standard application form and a supporting statement that describes your suitability for the role which must include answers to the following questions, to [email protected]
Questions
- Please describe your experience of planning and delivering supporter acquisition campaigns in a charity setting. Include the channels used, your role, the results achieved, and how you measured success.
- Practical Action is looking to develop new supporter recruitment products and journeys. Please provide examples of any of the following that you have established, managed or improved: supporter welcome journeys, value exchange campaigns, charity lotteries, or other supporter acquisition products. What was your contribution and what were the outcomes?
- This role requires close collaborative working with colleagues and external suppliers. Please describe a project that required you to manage multiple stakeholders to deliver a successful outcome. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
RECRUITMENT PROCESS PRIVACY NOTICE
Information you need to know:
Your CV/resume, covering letter or supporting statement submitted in support of an application for any position with the Practical Action Group will be used during the recruitment process to short list suitable candidates who will be invited to interview.
Practical Action collects a range of information about you. This includes:
- Your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number;
- Details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history;
- Information about your current level of remuneration, including benefit entitlements;
- Bank details at on-boarding stage to set you up for pay if you are successful in your job application;
- Whether or not you have a disability for which Practical Action needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process;
- Information about your entitlement to work in the UK;
We sometimes use third party job application platforms to publish and receive applications for roles at the Practical Action Group. When you apply through these portals the organisation’s privacy information will be available to you. We only work alongside other organisations in this way under a contract and if we are satisfied that they will keep your information safely and securely using it only in the same legal ways that we would.
During the recruitment process and with your permission, informing you that we are doing so, Practical Action may also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers. We may also perform checks on your identity to establish your right to work in the UK where applicable. We are also obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences in meeting our obligations and exercising specific rights in relation to employment.
If your application is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will form part of your electronic personnel file and retained during your employment and afterwards in line with legislation including the storage of personal records and to comply with the requirements of any statutory bodies.
The legal basis for processing personal data is either contract and/or legal obligation when applying for roles and the employment contract between Practical Action and you if you are successful. If we are required by law to share your information, (e.g., in response to a warrant or court order), we will do so.
Practical Action may process information about whether or not applicants have a disability in order to make reasonable adjustments. This is to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.
Practical Action is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where Practical Action seeks this information, it does so because it is necessary for it to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.
We automatically delete the personal information of unsuccessful applications 12 months after the application process ends, unless a candidate requests that we keep their details for longer. Statistical information like ethnicity, sexuality and disability may be kept ensuring that our recruitment processes are inclusive and not discriminatory, but this information is completely anonymised.