Philanthropy Manager

Job Summary

Salary: circa £40,000 per annum

The Philanthropy team at War Child is sector leading with our heritage, connections, and relationships. Our friends are superbly connected and ready to use their networks to help us. With a talented, hard-working team, we deliver amazing, creative and innovative fundraising that has a huge capacity to inspire people.

We are seeking  a highly motivated and experienced Philanthropy Manager with a passion for international development to join our growing team. Working in a fast-paced environment, you will bring deep expertise in major donor fundraising, exceptional interpersonal skills, and a strong understanding of how to identify, cultivate and steward high-value supporters to grow sustainable income.

Your Role

You will play a key role in developing and managing a robust pipeline of major donors, securing significant restricted and unrestricted gifts through tailored cultivation, compelling proposals and high-quality stewardship. Working closely with colleagues across the organisation, you will help shape the future of War Child’s major donor programme and contribute to a sector-leading supporter experience.

Reporting to the Philanthropy Lead, you will lead the delivery of an effective stewardship programme, nurture long-term relationships with major donors and supporters, and help deliver a programme of high-quality events and engagement opportunities. This is an exciting opportunity to join a high-performing, values-driven team and make a meaningful contribution to War Child’s growth and impact.

Your Responsibilities

• Systematically identify, qualify, and develop a pipeline for up to six figure gift opportunities for both unrestricted and restricted giving using research, prospect mapping, and data-driven insights.
• Lead the design and delivery of an excellent stewardship programme, supporting relationship managers to provide sector-leading supporter journeys through tailored communications, recognition, and engagement strategies.
• Develop and implement strong cultivation and solicitation plans for existing donors to generate significant income, including personal meetings, networking events, proposals, reports, and presentations.
• Take an active role, and lead where relevant, in planning and delivering a diverse portfolio of philanthropy events, including those hosted by high-profile individuals and Ambassadors, ensuring high-quality donor experiences.
• Support the creation and launch of new fundraising products that enhance donor engagement, retention, and stewardship.
• Contribute to strategy discussions in department, team, or working group meetings, providing insight and recommendations to improve fundraising activities.
• Maintain accurate and up-to-date records of all donor communications in Salesforce, ensuring data is properly secured and utilised to inform engagement strategies.
• Monitor income and expenditure targets, producing regular reports on performance against targets using War Child’s database.
• Participate in, and lead where relevant, cross-team working groups to provide expertise, share insights, and identify opportunities for the Philanthropy & Partnerships team.
• Maintain an up-to-date understanding of War Child’s activities and programmes, acting as a brand ambassador in all interactions.
• Perform other duties as may be required by the Head of Philanthropy and Philanthropy & Partner Engagement Director
• Contribute to creating a culture committed to the safeguarding of children and adults and compliant to War Child’s Safeguarding and PSEAH (Protection from Sexual Exploitation, Abuse & Harassment) Policies.
• We are committed to building an inclusive and equitable workplace. All staff are expected to actively contribute to this by embedding principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging into their day-to-day work, decision-making, and interactions with colleagues, partners, and supporters.

You Are

• Experienced in a similar fundraising role, with specialist knowledge of major donor fundraising, including securing five-figure gifts from high-value supporters, ideally within an international development or humanitarian NGO.
• Able to work independently to develop and implement fundraising strategies with a proven track record of securing five figure gifts and delivering against income targets.
• A confident relationship manager skilled at building and maintaining strong relationships with senior stakeholders and high-value donors, both internally and externally.
• Experienced in developing and delivering effective stewardship strategies or supporter journeys that deepen engagement and retain major donors over time.
• Able to demonstrate experience of planning and delivering high-quality fundraising or cultivation events, with a clear understanding of how events engage and inspire high-value audiences.
• An excellent communicator, with strong verbal and written skills, able to present compelling cases for support, proposals, briefings and reports to a range of audiences.
• Knowledgeable about international development and able to represent War Child’s vision, mission and values with credibility and authority.
• Highly organised, with the ability to plan, prioritise and manage multiple deadlines while maintaining attention to detail.
• Up to date with fundraising regulation, compliance and GDPR, and able to apply this knowledge confidently in fundraising practice.
• Confident in using fundraising databases, ideally Salesforce, and able to use data effectively to manage prospects, track performance and inform decision-making.

About Us

At War Child we are driven by a single goal – ensuring a safe future for every child affected by war.

Using our 30 years of experience and proven methodologies, we aim to reach children as quickly as possible when conflict breaks out and stay long after the cameras have gone to support them through their recovery. We work with local communities and governments to help protect and educate children, and support them to heal and learn, for a safer, brighter future.

We understand children’s needs, respect and stand up for their rights, and put them at the centre of everything we do – because one child caught up in conflict is one child too many.

Every day, our local teams are in communities and in refugee camps creating safe spaces for children to play, learn and access psychological support, and we specialise in responding rapidly to emergency crisis situations to deliver immediate and critical care impartially to help to those who need us most, when they need us most.

Because no child should be part of war. Ever.

Our Values

• Bold:We use our passion and creativity to deliver high quality evidence-based work designed to maximise our beneficial impact for children in conflict.
• Accountable to children:Children can rely on us to respond to their voices and to treat them with respect and dignity.
• Anti-racism:Anti-racism is not merely a belief. It includes actions that we mainstream throughout our work to change and challenge policies and behaviours that perpetuate racism.
• Transparent:We expect to be held to account by our supporters and participants and we respond with openness and honesty.
• Supportive of each other:We support each other to achieve ambitious goals and be the best we can be. We are honest and open, sharing our successes & confronting our challenges.

Our Benefits

• Flexible working- we recognise the considerable benefits that flexible working can bring and are happy to discuss any possible flexible working options with our employees from hiring. For most roles, the following types of flexibility are usually possible: flexible hours, occasional working from home and compressed hours.
• Annual leave– 28 days per year (full-time) rising to 33 days with service, plus bank holidays
• Pension- all eligible employees automatically enrolled into a Group Personal Pension Plan with a 5% employer contribution, with minimum employee contribution on a salary sacrifice basis. This increases to 6% after one year's service.
• Family leave– we offer enhanced Maternity, Partner/Co-Parent/Paternity Leave, Adoption & Shared Parental Leave
• Health & wellbeing- employees may take advantage of a healthcare cash plan and a range of wellbeing initiatives and training. In addition, all employees have access to free, confidential one-to-one wellbeing consultations with trained counsellors.
• Learning & development- dedicated to the investment in learning and continuing professional development for all our employees
• Workplace Nursery Benefit– employees make tax and NI savings on nursery costs for children up to the age of 5
• Flexible public holidays- up to two standard UK public holidays can be exchanged for those that have cultural or religious significance.
• Voluntary contributions can be made through payroll allowing employees to claim back on a range of cancer treatments.Cancer Cover:
• GP 24/7 Helpline:A GP helpline is be available to all UK employees providing access to a qualified GP, 24/7 via a telephone or webcam consultation, and offers diagnosis, advice and reassurance on a range of medical matters, as well as authorisation of private electronic prescriptions.
• Welcome Bag for new starters:A War Child Tote bag, War Child T-shirt and some other practical things to welcome new colleagues to War Child.
• Discounts on War Child Merchandise: 25% discount on full price War Child merchandise, available to all employees, sold through Shop for Good.
• Range of flexible benefits such a Cycle to Work scheme and season ticket loans.

Flexible Working

We positively support flexible working arrangements. These currently include: office working, homeworking, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexi-time, flexi-place (hybrid working) and job shares. We would be happy to discuss individual flexible working requests during the interview process.

How to Apply

• To apply, simply submit an application through our Current Vacancies page and attach a copy of your CV.
• On occasion, we might close a vacancy early due to a high number of applications being received. Interested candidates are encouraged to submit their application as early as possible.
• If you have any questions about reasonable adjustments before or during your application, we welcome the opportunity to talk about what we can do to fairly adapt our process for you. Please share what you’re comfortable with to help us put the right support in place, by emailing careers@warchild.org.uk. Anything you tell us will be kept completely confidential by our HR team.
• We are unable to provide sponsorship for this post. In order to apply, you must be able to demonstrate your eligibility to work in the country where this role is based.

Safeguarding

Our work with children and at-risk adults to ensure their safety is our top priority. We are committed to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults in all aspects of our work. We maintain a zero-tolerance policy for any behavior or practices that put children and/or vulnerable adults at risk of abuse or harm.

Successful applicants will be required to comply with and sign our Safeguarding Policy, Code of Conduct, and PSEAH Policy. You can find the Safeguarding and Integrity policies here:https://warchild.sharepoint.com/sites/Integrity

Diversity and Inclusion

We value diversity and inclusion and are committed to ensuring that all our people and job applicants are treated fairly, irrespective of where, what or whom they were born, or of other characteristics. We want to offer a safe and inclusive workplace where all our people, especially those who are currently marginalised or underrepresented, can be themselves at work. You can read our Diversity and Inclusion policy on our website, and if you have any questions about our commitment to diversity and inclusion do get in touch: https://www.warchild.org.uk/our-work/policies-and-reports/diversity-and-inclusion

Pre-employment Checks

Employment with War Child will be subject to the following checks prior to your start date:

• a satisfactory police record check to include a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and/or an International/National Criminal Record Check
• a clear vetting and Due Diligence check
• receipt of two professional satisfactory references