Trusts & Foundations Senior Specialist in London

Location: London NW10 (hybrid; role-specific on-site and external working as required)

Job purpose/summary

Grow sustainable income from trusts and foundations by developing high-quality applications, reports, relationships and renewal activity, and delivering against agreed portfolio income targets. Manage a focused portfolio and pipeline of funders, translating Mayhew’s services, impact and priorities into compelling, accurate and fundable propositions. Work closely with the High Value Fundraising Manager, service teams, Finance and impact colleagues to secure new, repeat, unrestricted and multi-year support.

Main areas of responsibility

• Prospect research and pipeline management: Research and qualify trust and foundation prospects against Mayhew’s funding priorities, eligibility, likely value and relationship potential. Maintain an accurate pipeline of prospects, applications, deadlines, probabilities, decisions, reports and renewals. Develop a balanced portfolio of new and lapsed prospects and existing funders, identifying opportunities for unrestricted, multi-year and strategic funding. Provide clear updates and forecasts, highlighting risks, gaps and actions required to maintain sufficient pipeline coverage.
• Applications and propositions: Write persuasive and tailored applications, proposals, concept notes, letters and supporting materials for a range of funders. Work with service, Finance and impact colleagues to gather accurate plans, budgets, outcomes, evidence and case studies. Ensure applications reflect realistic delivery capacity, appropriate full-cost considerations and clear alignment between need, activity and impact. Coordinate internal review and approval, maintaining high standards of accuracy, compliance and deadline management.
• Funder relationships and stewardship: Build and steward relationships with funders through timely communication, meetings, visits, updates and reports. Develop tailored contact and stewardship plans that encourage confidence, renewal and deeper support. Prepare high-quality reports that demonstrate progress, learning, expenditure and impact against agreed requirements. Support the High Value Fundraising Manager with larger, more complex or strategic funder opportunities and relationships.
• Income, reporting and compliance: Track secured and prospective income, deadlines, restrictions, payment schedules and reporting commitments. Maintain complete and accurate CRM records, correspondence and documentation for audit and relationship continuity. Work with Finance to ensure restrictions, budgets, claims, payments and reporting requirements are understood and managed. Ensure fundraising activity complies with relevant regulation, data protection, ethical practice and Mayhew policies.
• Cross-team collaboration and continuous improvement: Work with Brand, Audiences and Communications to develop strong cases for support, stories and funder-facing materials. Use Mayhew’s impact evidence and service insight to improve proposition quality and demonstrate the value of preventative and community-based animal welfare. Keep informed about funding trends, priorities and competitor activity, sharing relevant insight with colleagues. Review conversion, average value, renewal and portfolio performance, using learning to improve targeting and approach.
• Portfolio planning and income delivery: Develop an annual work plan for the portfolio, balancing high-value, repeat, new and lower-probability opportunities against available capacity. Deliver against agreed income and activity targets for the trusts and foundations portfolio, maintaining sufficient application and renewal coverage to support the forecast. Prioritise opportunities where Mayhew has strong fit, credible evidence and realistic prospects of sustainable support. Review unsuccessful applications and funder feedback, recording learning and adjusting future targeting or propositions.
• Due diligence and funder requirements: Complete proportionate funder research and due diligence, escalating ethical, reputational or contractual concerns. Maintain current organisational documents, policies, accounts, trustee information and evidence commonly required by funders. Check funding terms, restrictions, monitoring requirements and payment conditions before acceptance and throughout delivery. Ensure colleagues understand material commitments made to funders and that changes are discussed before they affect grant conditions.
• Internal engagement and fundable programme development: Build strong relationships with service leads so emerging needs, development plans, capacity and outcomes are understood early. Help colleagues shape projects into clear, realistic and fundable propositions without creating activity driven solely by funder criteria. Coordinate input from Finance, Impact, People and Governance colleagues where applications require specialist information or assurance. Share funder intelligence and pipeline priorities with relevant teams so information and decisions are available in time.
• Case for support and evidence management: Maintain a strong working knowledge of Mayhew’s strategic case for support, service model, beneficiary need and organisational priorities. Develop and refresh core narrative, statistics, outcomes and evidence that can be adapted efficiently for different funders. Work with impact colleagues to strengthen monitoring plans and ensure proposed outcomes are meaningful, measurable and proportionate. Identify gaps in evidence or information that may weaken applications and work with colleagues to improve readiness.
• Team contribution and professional development: Contribute to High Value Fundraising planning, prospect discussions and shared stewardship activity beyond the immediate portfolio. Support consistent quality standards, templates and record-keeping across trust and foundation fundraising. Share relevant funder intelligence, successful approaches and learning with colleagues across the Growth Engine. Maintain professional knowledge through sector networks, training and review of changing funder practice.

All Mayhew Employees Responsibilities

In addition to the specific duties and responsibilities outlined in this job description, all Mayhew employees should be aware of their responsibilities towards the following: Mayhew is committed to encouraging volunteering throughout the organisation. The postholder will support and respect volunteers and may work alongside or supervise volunteers where appropriate. Adhere to all health and safety and fire regulations and cooperate with Mayhew in maintaining good standards of health and safety. Adhere to all Mayhew policies and procedures, including safeguarding, data protection, equality, diversity and inclusion. Actively promote and support the safeguarding and welfare of dogs and cats in need, observing Mayhew’s values and work collaboratively across Mayhew and undertake other reasonable duties consistent with the level and purpose of the role. This job description is not exhaustive. It merely acts as a guide and may be amended to meet the changing requirements of the charity after discussion with the postholder.

Knowledge, educational & experience

• Strong knowledge of trust and foundation fundraising, application processes and funder stewardship.
• Understanding of restricted funding, budgets, outcomes, impact reporting and compliance.
• Experience securing multi-year, unrestricted or larger grants.
• Proven experience writing successful trust or foundation applications.
• Experience managing a funding pipeline, deadlines, reports and renewals and coordinating internal information.
• Animal welfare, community or service-delivery charity experience.

Skills / abilities

• Excellent persuasive writing and attention to detail.
• Strong research, planning and relationship management skills.
• Able to translate complex information into clear and compelling propositions.
• Organised, collaborative and comfortable working to income targets.

Where appropriate, reasonable adjustments to these criteria will be considered to accommodate personal circumstances such as disabilities.