Philanthropy Officer (Mid-Level, Major Donor and Legacy Giving)
Starting salary: £28,500, rising to £32,500+ following successful completion of a five-month probationary period and achievement of agreed KPIs
Location: UK-based, with regular travel across the United Kingdom and occasional travel to the United States
Contract: Full-time, permanent
Reports to: Chief Operating Officer
About the Role
Are you an ambitious, commercially minded fundraising professional who wants to build meaningful relationships with people committed to protecting animals?
The Animal Welfare Investigations Project is seeking a driven and entrepreneurial Philanthropy Officer to develop our mid-level, major donor and legacy giving programmes across the United Kingdom and United States.
This is a new role within a growing fundraising function. You will take responsibility for researching and identifying prospective donors, building a strong pipeline of philanthropic supporters, and developing personalised cultivation journeys that move existing small-value donors towards deeper and more valuable engagement with our organisation.
You will work with supporters from their earliest signs of interest through to membership of our mid-level and major donor clubs, legacy pledges, and significant philanthropic gifts.
The role will involve regular travel across the UK and occasional travel to the United States for face-to-face donor meetings, cultivation events, briefings and other relationship-building opportunities.
This opportunity would suit a self-starter who enjoys building something new, takes ownership of results and is motivated by clear financial targets. You must have a strong personal commitment to our mission of protecting animals and securing accountability for cruelty.
Key Responsibilities
Prospect Research and Pipeline Development
- Conduct detailed prospect research to identify individuals with the financial capacity, interests and affinity to support our work at a higher level.
- Analyse our existing supporter database to identify small-value donors with the potential to become mid-level, major or legacy supporters.
- Develop prospect profiles, donor intelligence reports and engagement recommendations.
- Use giving history, campaign engagement, event participation and other behavioural data to prioritise prospects.
- Build and maintain clearly segmented pipelines for mid-level donors, major donors and legacy prospects across the UK and US.
- Identify new prospects through networks, referrals, events, publicly available information and specialist research tools.
- Ensure all prospect research is completed ethically and in accordance with applicable data protection and fundraising requirements.
Donor Cultivation and Stewardship
- Create personalised cultivation plans for priority prospects and existing donors.
- Build trusted, long-term relationships through telephone calls, written communications, virtual briefings, face-to-face meetings and events.
- Move supporters from small-value giving into structured mid-level, major donor and legacy programmes.
- Develop tailored donor journeys based on supporters’ interests, motivations and giving potential.
- Arrange and conduct regular donor meetings across the UK and, occasionally, in the United States.
- Work closely with the Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer to arrange high-level donor engagement opportunities.
- Ensure donors receive meaningful updates demonstrating the impact of their support.
- Develop effective recognition, retention and stewardship activities for members of each philanthropic donor club.
Mid-Level and Major Giving
- Help design, launch and grow clearly defined mid-level and major donor clubs.
- Establish appropriate membership levels, benefits, recognition opportunities and engagement plans.
- Prepare compelling and personalised cases for support, proposals, presentations and funding requests.
- Make direct financial asks and support senior leaders in soliciting significant gifts.
- Secure multi-year commitments wherever appropriate.
- Develop opportunities for donors to support investigations, animal rescues, prosecutions, campaigns, training and other priority areas of work.
- Monitor donor retention, upgrades, pipeline movement and income against agreed targets.
Legacy Giving
- Identify supporters who may be receptive to leaving a gift in their Will.
- Develop sensitive and effective legacy cultivation and stewardship journeys.
- Communicate the long-term impact that legacy gifts can have on protecting animals.
- Build relationships with legacy prospects, pledgers, executors and professional advisers where appropriate.
- Develop legacy materials, supporter communications and cultivation activities.
- Maintain accurate and confidential records of legacy enquiries, pledges and expected gifts.
- Work with colleagues and external advisers to ensure legacy administration is handled professionally and sensitively.
Events and Donor Engagement
- Support the planning and delivery of donor cultivation events, private briefings, receptions and mission-focused experiences.
- Identify prospects who should be invited to events and develop structured follow-up plans.
- Attend events across the UK and occasionally in the US, including some evening and weekend engagements.
- Represent the organisation professionally and confidently with donors, prospects and external stakeholders.
- Use events as a strategic tool for moving prospects towards meetings, proposals, pledges and gifts.
Performance and Reporting
- Deliver agreed income, activity and pipeline targets.
- Maintain accurate and timely records within the organisation’s CRM.
- Track meetings, asks, proposals, pledges, gifts, upgrades and stewardship actions.
- Produce regular reports on pipeline value, projected income, conversion rates and donor engagement.
- Use data and testing to improve prospect identification, donor journeys and fundraising performance.
- Manage an organised portfolio of prospects and ensure each relationship has a clear next action.
- Take ownership of results and adapt activity where performance is below target.
About You
We are looking for someone who is ambitious, proactive and confident in building relationships with people from a wide range of backgrounds.
You will be comfortable combining detailed research and data analysis with highly personal donor engagement. You should be able to identify opportunities, initiate conversations, make persuasive funding requests and maintain relationships over the long term.
Because this is a new role within a new function, you must be comfortable working independently, developing new systems and turning ideas into measurable results.
Essential Skills and Experience
- Experience in fundraising, business development, sales, account management, relationship management or another relevant income-generating role.
- Demonstrable experience of building and maintaining relationships with supporters, clients, partners or high-value stakeholders.
- Strong prospect research and analytical skills.
- Confidence identifying opportunities within large databases or supporter audiences.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to write persuasive proposals, cases for support and personalised donor communications.
- Confidence conducting telephone, virtual and face-to-face meetings.
- Ability to make direct financial asks and work towards stretching income targets.
- Strong organisational and portfolio-management skills.
- Experience using a CRM (Salesforce) or other relationship-management system.
- Ability to manage multiple prospects and priorities while maintaining accurate records.
- A self-starting and entrepreneurial approach to developing new programmes.
- Willingness to travel regularly throughout the UK and occasionally to the United States.
- Flexibility to attend occasional evening and weekend meetings or events.
- A strong commitment to the organisation’s mission of protecting animals.
Desirable Skills and Experience
- Experience in mid-level, major donor or legacy fundraising.
- Experience securing five-figure or higher-value gifts.
- Experience working across UK and US donor markets.
- Knowledge of wealth screening, prospect research databases or philanthropic intelligence tools.
- Experience creating donor clubs, membership programmes or giving societies.
- Understanding of legacy fundraising and gifts in Wills.
- Experience organising cultivation events or private donor briefings.
- Knowledge of UK fundraising regulation, data protection and ethical prospect research.
- Experience within the animal welfare, nonprofit or broader social-impact sector.
- A relevant degree, professional fundraising qualification or equivalent demonstrable experience.
Performance Expectations
This is a target-driven role. During the probationary period, the successful candidate will be expected to demonstrate measurable progress in areas including:
- Building a qualified pipeline of mid-level, major donor and legacy prospects.
- Identifying upgrade opportunities within the existing supporter database.
- Securing donor meetings and meaningful cultivation activity.
- Moving prospects through clearly defined engagement stages.
- Generating proposals, asks, pledges and new philanthropic income.
- Maintaining accurate CRM records and reliable income forecasts.
- Contributing to the successful launch of the organisation’s philanthropic donor clubs.
The starting salary is £28,500, rising to £32,500 or above following successful completion of the five-month probationary period and achievement of agreed performance indicators.
Development Opportunities
This is a new position within a developing area of the organisation. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to shape our approach to philanthropy across both the UK and US markets.
As the programme grows, there is significant potential for increased responsibility, salary progression and future leadership opportunities within the philanthropy and fundraising function.
Our Ideal Candidate
Our ideal candidate does not wait to be given every answer. They research, identify opportunities, develop a plan and take responsibility for delivering it.
They are motivated by building sustainable income, developing genuine donor relationships and helping supporters achieve meaningful impact through their philanthropy.
Above all, they believe in our mission and want their work to contribute directly to protecting animals, challenging cruelty and building a stronger future for animal welfare.
Pay: £28,500.00-£32,500.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company events
- Company pension
- Flexitime
- Health & wellbeing programme
- Work from home
Work Location: Remote
