Donor Relations Manager in London

About Us

Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement (P&A) provides a fundraising and alumni engagement function in support of King’s College London. We are proud to work with colleagues across the university and its health partners to help them serve society through world-leading education, research and healthcare. Our work also includes a partnership with the Maudsley Charity in support of children’s mental health initiatives between the university’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience and the South London & Maudsley NHS Trust.

We are a committed team that brings together fundraisers working across different channels, alongside colleagues who promote King’s College London’s engagement with its worldwide alumni community. Our work is underpinned and enhanced by a range of dedicated professionals in supporting areas covering proposition development, supporter engagement, supporter operations and business operations.

We have an impressive, well-established track record of success in securing support that allows the university and partners to deliver on their missions. This includes our global, award-winning World Questions: King’s Answers campaign, which set the standard in the sector and enabled us to raise substantial funds to help tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges. Ambitious and innovative, the team has won awards such as a CASE Platinum Award for Fundraising and a CASE Gold Award for Donor Relations and Stewardship. We are strongly values-driven with a focus on sustaining an excellent and supportive culture, which we see as key to creating a successful team that can support the university and its partners in making a real and positive difference to the world we live in.

More on King’s College London

King’s College London is an internationally renowned university delivering exceptional education and world-leading research. The university is dedicated to driving positive and sustainable change in society and realising our vision of making the world a better place. Through its commitment to exceptional education, impactful research and genuine service to society, King’s College London is creating positive change in its communities, both in London and on the world stage.

The Strategic Vision 2029 looks forward to King’s College London’s 200th anniversary in 2029 and sets out ambitious plans in five key areas:

• Educating the next generation of change-makers;
• Challenging ideas and driving change through research;
• Giving back to society through meaningful service;
• Working with our local communities in London;
• Fostering global citizens with an international perspective.

About the role

This role will shape how King’s builds trust, celebrates generosity, and strengthens long term donor relationships. The Donor Relations Manager (maternity cover) will lead the creation and delivery of high quality stewardship for some of the university’s most impactful supporters. Reporting into the Head of Donor Relations, the role oversees the project management of more than 120 bespoke donor reports each year - compelling, insight rich updates that show donors the real difference their gift has made across King’s, from pioneering research into personalised cancer treatments and young people’s mental health to innovative programmes in AI and Law and sustainability.

Working closely with fundraisers and our Advancement Writing team, the post-holder will ensure every report is delivered on time, to an exceptional standard, and with opportunities to introduce more personalised, creative stewardship along the way. The post holder will partner with fundraisers to design tailored stewardship plans for major and principal gift donors, including those giving £5m. This includes impact reporting, naming and recognition, and bespoke engagement projects that help donors feel valued, connected, and confident in their support of King’s.

Strong project management skills, excellent writing and organisational abilities, a sharp eye for detail, and the ability to juggle deadlines with confidence and initiative are key to this role, as are creativity, curiosity, and a passion for crafting meaningful donor experiences. This is a full-time post (35 Hours per week) and is a fixed term contract for the year of maternity cover. P&A has a hybrid working approach, with a minimum of 40% of time in the office. Typically, this equates to two days per week, but we’re very happy for colleagues to be in more frequently if they so wish.

About You

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates with the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

• Understanding of one or more of: UK Charity sector/Higher Education and donor relations/stewardship
• Project management skills and strong editorial, copy writing and proof-reading skills
• Insight driven – ability to think about what is and isn’t working, see new innovations in the sector and take on feedback from fundraising colleagues and our donor community
• Ability to meet deadlines, work well under pressure and deliver projects to budget
• Strong relationship management and people focused skills with proven experience in collaboration across teams to achieve shared goals

Desirable criteria

• Adobe InDesign software experience
• Experience of using Microsoft Dynamics or similar customer/donor data base and associated processes and systems

Further Information

At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university. The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension. We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.

When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King’s guidance. We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description.

If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible. We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day. We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages. We are open to discussing flexible working arrangements, including part-time, compressed hours and/or job shares, as appropriate and in the context of the business needs associated with the role.

We offer the opportunity of an “Ask Us Anything” Teams call on Thursday 9th April 2026, 12 – 12:45. During this call you will be able to ask any questions you might have about the role, the selection process, our department, our core values and work culture, our current hybrid work policy, or simply listen to others’ questions.

This roles with have two interview stages, a standard skills-based interview followed (for up to two appointable candidates) by a Core Values interview.

Close Date: 12-Apr-2026

First stage interviews are likely to be held on w/c 20th April 2026. Core Values interviews are due to be held on w/c 27th April 2026.