Head of Membership and Marketing | Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF) in City of London

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Head of Membership and Marketing Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF)

ACF is strengthening the way it serves foundations across the UK, and this role will help make its membership offer more relevant, visible and valuable.

• Location: Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0DS

About the role

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, you will lead ACF’s membership and marketing function. You will shape how members experience ACF throughout their membership, from joining and onboarding to engagement and renewal, while strengthening recruitment, retention and the visibility of ACF’s offer.

You will bring together member insight, marketing activity, brand and CRM. Working across the organisation, you will help colleagues build strong member relationships and use evidence to improve services, communications and decisions. This is a strategic role with a practical focus: you will develop approaches and see them through.

What we are looking for

You will bring significant experience of membership marketing, including developing and delivering multi-channel campaigns. You will understand how to grow engagement and retention, use CRM and analytics to inform decisions, and turn organisational priorities into clear marketing plans.

You will be an effective communicator, networker and relationship builder. You will be a self‑starter who enjoys working collaboratively across teams and influencing colleagues. A thoughtful, adaptable approach will help you balance strategic priorities with detail, competing demands and the resources available.

ACF is the leading membership association for foundations and independent grant‑makers in the UK. Our purpose is to strengthen trusts and foundations to meet today’s challenges and work together for social good. We bring foundations together to connect, learn and share expertise, while providing the resources, insight and collective voice they need to be effective.

Our membership is broad and varied. Foundations support an incredibly wide range of communities and charitable causes; from rural parishes to global systems change; from arts and education to social justice and scientific research. Our members differ in size, location and approach, and the value they seek from ACF is not always the same. We want every member to feel that we understand their needs and that ACF’s work is relevant to the choices and challenges they face.

Following a significant organisational redesign at the end of 2025, we are now focused on embedding a leaner and more agile way of working that puts members front and centre in everything we do. This means making clear choices about where we focus our resources, strengthening collaboration across the organisation and ensuring that member insight informs our plans. We are also preparing for a wider strategy review in the coming year.

The Head of Membership and Marketing will play an important part in this next phase. The role brings together the way we build member relationships and the way we communicate the value of ACF’s offer. You will lead work across recruitment, onboarding, engagement and retention, while developing marketing that helps existing and prospective members understand what ACF does and how they can benefit.

You will also help us make better use of CRM, data and feedback. By understanding members’ experiences and different needs, we can shape more relevant communications, improve our services and make decisions with greater confidence. This work will involve close collaboration with colleagues across ACF, including policy and communications, digital and data, learning, partnerships, finance and operations, and events.

We are looking for someone who can think strategically and make plans work in practice. You will bring experience of membership marketing and campaign delivery, a thoughtful approach to data and insight, and the ability to build strong relationships with members and colleagues. Just as important will be your curiosity about what members value and your willingness to listen, learn and adapt.

ACF’s values are that we care, we are open, we are evidence‑based and we are ambitious. We hope you will bring those values to life in the way you work, supporting colleagues and members with care while helping us keep improving.

Carol Mack OBE
Chief Executive

About the Association of Charitable Foundations

The Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF) is the leading membership association for foundations and independent grant‑makers in the UK.

Foundations are a vital source for social good. They excel at getting money to where it is needed, being nimble in a crisis, funding overlooked causes, backing brilliant ideas, with an ability to take risks for long‑term impact. Our 430 members collectively hold assets of around £75bn and give over £4.4bn annually to a wide range of charities, institutions and individuals.

Our members are at the heart of what we do. We organise a wide-ranging programme of events and learning, provide research and information, and advocate for an enabling environment for foundations.

• Vision– diverse, vibrant, and effective foundations, working together for social good
• Purpose–we strengthen trusts and foundations so they can rise to the challenges of our times
• Values– we care, we are open, we are evidence based, we are ambitious

ACF will provide fully accessible offices. We have flexible working practices that will support the needs of carers, parents, women, older and younger team members, those who have disabilities or long- term illnesses. These include home working, part time employment and flexible hours.

We offer the following amenities:

• Step free access to the building, all key meeting rooms and bathrooms, and an accessible workstation
• Accessibility dogs are welcome
• Papers and materials can be presented in different formats
• Working patterns and locations can be adjusted

Further information

ACF ensures individuals with protected characteristics under UK law are encouraged to stand for election to the ACF board.

ACF make all our website and publications accessible for those with visual impairment.

We invite anonymous feedback from our staff on the implementation of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policy and review the Policy and Action plan in response to this feedback and changes in best practice. We will work to create an open, supportive, welcoming culture that is inclusive and celebrates diversity.

If you require any job information in an alternative format (e.g. large print), please contact the lead consultant. Please also let us know if you would like to submit your application in an alternative format.

Applicants with disabilities are welcome to contact us in confidence at any stage of the recruitment process to discuss any reasonable adjustments or support that may be required to ensure fair and equal participation.

Recruitment selection processes are based on evidence of competence stated in the person specification and in relation to our values.

Timetable

Closing date: 9 a.m. Wednesday 25th November 2026
Candidates informed of outcome: By COB, Wednesday 2nd December 2026
First stage interviews (virtual): Thursday 10th December 2026
First stage interviews (London): Tuesday 15th December 2026

Peridot and Association of Charitable Foundations are committed to promoting equality and diversity. To help us raise awareness and support a culture that is diverse and recognises and develops the potential of all, we need to appreciate the profile of candidates who apply for positions.We will send you an equality monitoring survey at the point of receiving your application and at the time of placement. This ensures that our processes remain inclusive and equitable throughout, and provides us with important data to help us showcase our impact.

The information will be treated confidentially and anonymously and will help us to support our commitment to fair recruitment practice. All information provided will be held in the strictest confidence and will not be shared with anyone, in line with the Data Protection Act 2018.