Development & Communications Assistant in Cambridge

We are seeking an ambitious early‑career professional with excellent organisational skills and a strong interest in fundraising and communications. As Development & Communications Assistant, you will contribute to both our fundraising activity and our communications work. You will support our work with individual supporters, corporate partners, and trusts and foundations, helping to deliver excellent stewardship and well‑run cultivation events. Alongside this, you will play a key role in helping with the creation and scheduling of organisational messaging, and ensuring communications are consistent with our brand identity. This is an opportunity to gain broad, practical experience within a small but ambitious team. You will develop skills in fundraising, financial processing, and event coordination, while also building experience in written and visual communications, and brand management. Through working closely with other staff across the organisation, you will grow your understanding and experience of a producing and receiving theatre and the charity sector. This role would suit someone passionate about the arts and culture sector, particularly the performing arts, who is looking for a first or early step into a career in arts fundraising or communications. It offers a strong foundation of transferable skills and experience that could act as a springboard into a wide range of future roles.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Fundraising

• Support fundraising through trusts and foundations by undertaking research tasks, and collating information for applications and funders’ reports.
• Maintain the application and reporting schedules for all funders and supporters.
• Support the department in looking after current and potential major supporters.
• Arrange ticket bookings for supporters and prospective donors using Tessitura – our Box Office and Fundraising database/CRM.
• Track the team’s financial processing and records, across all income streams, in close liaison with the Finance department.
• Use Tessitura to enter all donations, financial information, and relevant communications, assisting the team in prospecting and records maintenance.
• Responsible for paperwork for Gift Aid and manage our regular Gift Aid claim process with Tessitura, HMRC and the Finance department.
• Research potential supporters and funders, and produce meeting briefings and supporter biographies.
• Ensure crediting for supporters is correct and up to date.
• Ensure support pages on the Theatre’s website are dynamic and up to date.
• Support the team in preparing updates and reports for Trustees and funders.
• Be the primary entry point of contact for supporters.

• Support the Head of Communications in developing and delivering activity that raises the profile of the Theatre and strengthens its reputation.
• Coordinate the scheduling of external communications, working with other teams to ensure messages are aligned and go out at the right time.
• Draft, edit and proofread copy for a range of channels, including website, newsletters, press releases, social media and printed materials.
• Update and maintain content on the Theatre’s website.
• Work closely with the Marketing team on the Theatre’s social media channels, including monitoring activity and reporting.
• Help ensure consistent use of the Theatre’s brand, tone of voice and visual identity across all communications.
• Support the design and creation of visual content using existing templates and brand guidelines.
• Work with designers, photographers, and other creatives to brief, adapt and deliver visual materials.
• Organise content libraries, ensuring images, copy and digital assets are organised, up to date, and correctly credited.
• Track, log and report on press and media coverage.

• Supported closely by the team, lead on the planning and delivery of fundraising events, working with the Executive, Production and Front of House teams.
• Attend events as a representative of The Arts Theatre, supporting the work of developing and maintaining relationships.

Generic responsibilities apply to all Arts Theatre staff

• Attend meetings and events as required.
• Deputise for Box Office and Front of House staff as required.
• Assist other departments as required.
• Contribute to achieving the aims and targets of the organisation as a whole and assist with other projects and activities as required.
• Carry out administrative work generated by the above activities.
• Have a flexible approach to working hours.
• Maintain a clean and tidy working environment.
• Be presentable, well‑organised and have good time‑keeping.
• Comply with The Arts Theatre’s Equal Opportunities, Health and Safety and other policies at all times.

The list of responsibilities is not exhaustive, and you may be required to perform duties outside of this list as operationally required and at the direction of your line managers.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Experience and Knowledge

• Experience of working in administrative roles, ideally in fundraising, communications, or a charity.
• Experience of planning or delivering events.
• Customer service experience with donors or customers, building relationships, handling enquiries and problem‑solving.
• Experience of working closely with colleagues and other departments to deliver projects.
• Some knowledge of the arts, charitable fundraising or the charity sector.

Skills and Approach

• Ambition to develop fundraising and communications skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with a personable and professional approach.
• A very sharp eye for detail with strong problem‑solving skills.
• Confident but highly discreet, able to read a room and react professionally.
• Strong relationship building and interpersonal skills.
• The ability to work as part of a team as well as independently.
• Self‑starter with strong project management and organisational competencies with a demonstrated aptitude for multitasking, attention to detail, and meeting competing and overlapping deadlines.
• Good general IT skills, including Microsoft Office.
• Experience of Adobe InDesign and Photoshop, and experience of a fundraising CRM, preferably Tessitura or Spektrix, would be desirable but not essential.
• An interest in theatre and an affinity with The Arts Theatre Cambridge’s mission and purpose.

TERMS & CONDITIONS

• Salary £28,000 per annum
• Hours of Work This is a full‑time role, 40 hours per week including a 1-hour unpaid lunch break. This role will also include some evening work for Theatre events and press nights.
• Holiday entitlement 33 days per annum (pro rata) including statutory bank holidays. Employees are eligible to receive time off in lieu (TOIL) for approved additional hours or bank holidays worked.
• Probationary Period 3 months
• Notice Period Following the completion of a successful probationary period, the notice period is one month.
• Pension The Arts Theatre offers an auto‑enrolment pension scheme.
• Equality We’re committed to an inclusive recruitment process.