Director Fundraising

JOB PROFILE: DIRECTOR FUNDRAISING
Date profile last
reviewed:

January 2026

Director Fundraising

Reports to:

Chief Executive

Role:

Name:

MAIN SUMMARY OF ROLE:
The Director of Fundraising is a senior leadership role at the heart of the RAF Benevolent
Fund’s mission: ensuring that no member of the RAF Family faces adversity alone. Sitting on
the Executive Leadership Team and reporting to the Chief Executive, the postholder will lead
the Fund’s fundraising at a pivotal moment - strengthening and growing income to underpin
the charity’s long-term support for serving personnel, veterans and the wider RAF Family.

The successful candidate will create the conditions for sustainable income growth over the
next five years, working across the charity to identify opportunities for fundraising and
income growth. Ensuring the Fund can continue to respond to changing need, increasing
demand and a complex external environment - and remain a trusted, resilient source of
lifelong support for the RAF Family.
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:
Strategic Leadership & Income Prioritisation

•  Lead the development and delivery of a clear, multi-year fundraising strategy aligned

to the Fund’s mission, strategic plan and risk profile.

•  Prioritise and balance the fundraising portfolio, making and holding decisions about
where effort and investment are focused, and where activity will be deprioritised or
stopped.

•  Ensuring that we identify and develop new income opportunities and innovative

approaches, informed by insight, performance data and external best practice.

•  Act as a full and effective member of the Executive Leadership Team, working closely
with the Chief Executive and the other Directors to ensure fundraising is fully aligned
with organisational priorities, opportunities and decision-making.

Team Leadership, Culture & Confidence

•  Provide confident, visible leadership to the Fundraising Directorate, creating clarity,

consistency and accountability in a complex and pressured environment.
•  Create a positive and inspiring multi-disciplinary fundraising team environment,

inspiring and empowering fundraisers to achieve and exceed targets.

•  Establish a high-support, high-challenge culture where performance is managed

consistently and difficult conversations are addressed constructively.

•  Develop and empower senior managers, building leadership depth and reducing

reliance on individual roles or informal ways of working.

•  Foster effective collaboration with welfare, business intelligence, digital and

communications teams to deliver a joined-up supporter and donor experience.

Financial Leadership & Trustee Confidence

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•  Own the financial leadership of fundraising at Executive and Board level, including

income projections, assumptions, phasing and risk.

•  Working with the Finance Team, responsible for setting, managing and monitoring
fundraising budgets and forecasts, ensuring targets are realistic and transparent.
Ensuring numbers are owned by all those involved.

•  Use financial insight and ROI analysis to inform prioritisation decisions and

investment choices with the rest of ELT.

•  Build and maintain trustee confidence through clear, honest communication,
professional challenge and transparent articulation of risk and trade-offs.

•  Engage senior staff and Trustees in strategic financial planning to optimise the net

financial position and ensure financial goals are met or exceeded.

Mass Fundraising, Individual Giving & Legacies

•  Provide strategic leadership for mass fundraising and its leaders, including individual

giving, legacy, in memory and community-based income, ensuring activity is
performance-focused and aligned to long-term retention, value and sustainability.
•  Ensure mass fundraising and legacy strategies are led by audience insight, supporter
behaviour and long-term organisational sustainability, rather than short-term volume
alone. Working in partnership with colleagues across the organisation, particularly the
Communications Team.

•  Work closely across the Fund to ensure alignment of fundraising and communications
activities around agreed audiences. Investing in and building data and knowledge of
key audiences, to be used to drive and develop future fundraising strategies.

High-Value Income, Pipelines & Stewardship

•  Lead the development of robust, disciplined pipelines across major donors, trusts and

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foundations and strategic/corporate partnerships.
Introduce and maintain organisation-wide approaches to pipeline management,
review and progression, reducing reliance on individual relationships.

•  Embed consistent stewardship standards across all income streams, strengthening

retention, progression and lifetime value.

•  Act as a senior ambassador for the Fund with major donors, corporate partners and

strategic supporters.

Governance, Compliance & Risk

•  Ensure all fundraising activity complies with Charity Commission requirements, the
Fundraising Regulator Code of Practice, GDPR and data protection legislation.

•  Proactively manage fundraising risk, reputational considerations and ethical issues,

escalating concerns early and appropriately.

•  Contribute actively to Board and ELT discussions, supporting strategic decision-

making with evidence, insight and professional judgement.

External Relationships & Representation

•  Represent the Fund credibly at events and functions, for example within the armed

forces charity sector and the wider fundraising community.

•  Build and maintain effective relationships with the RAF and key supporter groups.
•  Develop and steward strategic corporate partnerships, including those in defence,

aviation and government-adjacent sectors.

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•  Ensure fundraising activity aligns with MOD, RAF and wider charity sector

expectations and standards, including social value and ESG considerations where
appropriate.

COMPETENCIES REQUIRED FOR THE ROLE

Essential
•  Strategic leadership and judgement – able

Desirable
•  Entrepreneurial mindset – comfortable

to formulate clear strategies, make
prioritisation decisions, and translate strategy
into focused plans and outcomes.

identifying and developing new
opportunities, testing ideas and adapting
approaches.

•  Authority and influence – confident leading,

coaching and supervising senior teams,
persuading and influencing at Executive and
Trustee level, and providing professional
challenge when required.

•  Financial and commercial thinking –

demonstrates strong commercial awareness
and the ability to use financial insight,
analysis and ROI to inform decisions.

•  Communication and credibility – highly

effective in presenting, writing and
communicating complex information clearly
and persuasively to a range of senior
audiences.

•  Relationship building – able to build and
sustain strong relationships with senior
stakeholders, partners and peers, internally
and externally.

•  Delivery focus – consistently delivers results,
balancing strategic thinking with operational
grip and follow-through.

•  Resilience under pressure – able to cope
with pressure, ambiguity and setbacks,
maintaining clarity and calm leadership.
•  Analytical capability – confident using
insight, data and evidence to strengthen
decision-making and performance.

QUALIFICATION(S), KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED FOR THE ROLE

Academic or Professional Qualifications (or equivalent):

Essential
•  Professional experience.

Desirable
•  Qualification in Fundraising or a related

Knowledge/ Experience:

Essential

Desirable

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discipline

•  Educated to degree level

•  Senior-level fundraising leadership

experience across a multi-stream income
portfolio.

•  Demonstrable track record of delivering
significant income growth, partnership
development or step-change results.

•  Strong understanding of ethical fundraising

•  Experience working with armed forces,
veterans or service-related charities.
•  Knowledge of military culture or a clear
willingness and ability to learn and
adapt quickly.

•  Experience presenting to, and working
confidently with, Boards or Trustees.

practice and a high level of personal
integrity.

•  Sound knowledge of UK charity governance,
regulation and compliance requirements.

Skills/Abilities:

Essential

Desirable

•  Strong people leadership skills, with the
ability to build, develop and lead high-
performing teams.

•  Ability to develop compelling

commercial or Social Value-led
partnership propositions.

•  Ability to interpret data, insight and

impact evidence to strengthen cases for
support and investment decisions.

•  Experience navigating complex

corporate environments, including
defence, engineering, aviation or
technology sectors.

•  Ability to influence, negotiate and engage
confidently with senior stakeholders,
including corporate, procurement, ESG and
defence-sector leaders.

•  Excellent written and verbal communication
skills, with the ability to articulate complex
ideas clearly and credibly.

•  Demonstrates sound judgement,

professional credibility and the ability to
inspire confidence internally and externally.
•  Ability to build effective cross-organisational
relationships and work collaboratively across
functions to shape and deliver partnership
propositions.

•  Ability to think strategically while managing
competing priorities in a fast-moving, high-
accountability environment.

Other Requirements:
•  Willingness and ability to work outside normal office hours and to travel nationally and

internationally as required

•  Undertake any other duties reasonably required within the scope of the role, as

requested.

Signature
I confirm this job profile has been drawn up with my full involvement and accurately
reflects the responsibilities of the role.

Postholder's Signature:

NAME:

Line Manager's Signature:

NAME:

Date:

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