Trusts & Foundations Fundraising Manager

About Perennial

Perennial is the UK's only charity supporting everyone working in or retired from the horticultural community.

Working in horticulture isn't always straightforward. Challenges such as seasonality of work, physical injury, isolation, ill-health and financial hardship can arise when least expected.

As the charity for the industry, Perennial has a unique understanding of these challenges. Our free and confidential support services help horticulturists and their families navigate difficult periods in their lives through practical, financial and emotional support. Delivered through a network of caseworkers, debt advisers and wellbeing services across the UK, our work helps individuals and families build resilience and find stability during times of crisis.

At the heart of our work is a commitment to helping people in horticulture thrive. By offering the right support at the right time, we strengthen wellbeing, improve financial security, support family relationships and help people remain connected to the industry they love.

Alongside our support services, Perennial operates a select number of gardens and learning environments that help develop horticultural skills and careers, ensuring the long-term sustainability of the sector.

For more than 185 years, we have been helping people build better lives within horticulture.

The Opportunity

This is an exciting opportunity to shape and grow Perennial's trusts and foundations fundraising programme.

Our current trust income is modest but established, with a loyal group of family trust supporters generating circa £50,000-£60,000 annually against a growing pipeline of opportunities. We have recently strengthened our Services Directorate, creating a culture where colleagues are increasingly developing new projects and approaches that have strong potential for charitable funding.

We believe there is significant untapped opportunity within both our existing services and emerging projects. From advice and advocacy services to health, wellbeing, family support and employability programmes, Perennial delivers work that aligns strongly with the priorities of many charitable trusts and foundations.

This role is as much about developing fundable opportunities as it is about writing applications. We are looking for someone who enjoys building as well as managing; someone capable of identifying opportunities, developing persuasive cases for support and helping colleagues transform strong and growing service delivery into compelling funding propositions.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to build a trusts and foundations programme with genuine growth potential and play a key role in unlocking significant future income for Perennial.

Purpose of the Role

To develop and grow income from charitable trusts and foundations by identifying opportunities, building meaningful relationships and securing significant grants for both core services and project-based activity.

The postholder will play a key role in strengthening Perennial's readiness for trust fundraising by helping colleagues develop projects, articulate impact, evidence need and create compelling cases for support.

A central aspect of the role will be collaborating with teams across the organisation to bring our work to life for funders, helping colleagues translate their expertise, ideas and service delivery into attractive and fundable propositions.

The successful candidate will maximise support from Perennial's existing trust and foundation partners whilst developing a strong pipeline of new funders capable of supporting both current services and future strategic priorities. They will also work with senior colleagues to develop compelling narratives around organisational sustainability, long-term impact and the strategic use of charitable resources.

Key responsibilities

Trusts & Foundations fundraising

• Develop and deliver a trusts and foundations fundraising strategy.
• Build and manage a pipeline of charitable trusts, foundations and institutional funders.
• Prepare high-quality funding applications, proposals, expressions of interest and cases for support.
• Research and identify new funding opportunities aligned with Perennial's strategic priorities.
• Manage funder stewardship, reporting and grant compliance requirements.
• Maintain accurate records of applications, reporting deadlines and relationships within the CRM.
• Monitor income performance and provide regular pipeline and forecasting reports.

Project development

• Collaborate with teams across the organisation to bring our work to life for funders.
• Support colleagues to identify, shape and develop fundable projects and services.
• Work closely with service leads to gather impact data, outcomes, beneficiary stories and evidence of need.
• Help develop funding propositions ranging from small service enhancements to larger strategic initiatives.
• Ensure projects are clearly costed and supported by realistic budgets and outcomes frameworks.

Relationship management

• Develop strong relationships with new and existing funders.
• Create tailored stewardship plans for key supporters.
• Arrange visits, presentations and meetings with prospective funders.
• Act as a trusted internal adviser on trusts and foundations fundraising.

Strategic development

• Work with senior colleagues to develop compelling narratives around Perennial's financial position, reserves and long-term sustainability.
• Identify opportunities for multi-year and transformational funding.
• Monitor trends in trusts and foundations funding and advise on emerging opportunities.

Person Specification

Essential

• Proven track record of securing significant grants from trusts and foundations.
• Experience managing a trusts and foundations pipeline.
• Excellent proposal and bid-writing skills.
• Experience developing compelling cases for support.
• Strong relationship management and stewardship skills.
• Ability to translate complex services into fundable propositions.
• Experience working with project budgets and impact reporting.
• Strong organisational and prioritisation skills.
• Experience using fundraising CRM systems.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively across teams.

Highly desirable

• Experience helping organisations build or expand a trusts fundraising programme.
• Experience securing five-figure and six-figure grants.
• Experience fundraising for welfare, health, employment, community or advice services.
• Understanding of balance sheet and reserves issues and how these can be addressed in grant applications.
• Membership of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising.

Success in the First 12 Months

The successful candidate will:

• Produce a comprehensive trusts and foundations fundraising strategy.
• Build a robust pipeline of prospective funders.
• Develop a portfolio of compelling funding propositions and cases for support
• Strengthen internal project development processes.
• Increase the value and number of trust applications submitted.
• Secure significant new grant income.
• Establish strong relationships with key funders and prospects.
• Improve understanding of trusts fundraising across the organisation.