Interim Trusts and Foundations Manager  

Job Description and Person Specification 

Reporting to: Head of Trusts and Foundations  

Location of work: Remote, with some requirements to travel to our London office (monthly team meetings + around 4 ad hoc days across the contract length) 

Contract type: Full-time, 35 hours per week, although 3 or 4 days per week will be considered. The role may require occasional evening and weekend work.  

Contract Length: Initial 6-month contract with potential to be made permanent.   

Salary: £37,500 

BACKGROUND 

Our work has never been more needed. The latest research suggesting that the number of children and young people at risk of hunger has rocketed to 2.6 million* means that one in five children don't have enough to eat.  When a child is too hungry to learn, when they’re aching for something to eat, they can’t concentrate. They can’t absorb information. Big feelings and worries can be impossible to control. They fall behind in their studies.    

Magic Breakfast provide a nutritious and filling breakfast to over 300,000 children and young people every school day. We work with schools in areas of high disadvantage, helping staff target the children most in need without barrier or stigma.  Magic Breakfast are ambitious to grow our impact to remove hunger as a barrier to learning for all children and young people in the UK.   

 This is an exciting time to join Magic Breakfast if you wish to make a difference to the lives of children as we work to influence both policy implementation, with the national rollout of primary-aged universal school breakfast, and legislative change, through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. There has also been commitment from the Scottish Government for a national breakfast scheme and we are seeking to expand our advocacy work into Wales. Magic Breakfast’s influence will be instrumental to ensuring school breakfasts are implemented in a way that is hunger-focused and barrier free.  

In addition, thousands of secondary school children are at risk of losing their free school breakfasts from September next year. For many of these students, this is their only opportunity to have a nutritious meal before facing a demanding school day, including taking exams.  And for the very youngest, we know that the disadvantage gap begins before they even reach reception. With the Government commitment to another 100,000 places in school-based nurseries, early years is also a critical part of our advocacy work. 

 Being part of the work of Magic Breakfast is your chance, together with parents, teachers and people across the UK, to demonstrate the power of school breakfasts and to shape the way forward to end morning hunger for good. 

*Food Foundation Insecurity Tracker Jan 2025 

JOB PURPOSE 

We are looking for a Trust and Foundations Manager to join our ambitious and friendly team, initially for a six-month contract. We are seeking to grow our funding partnerships, with a team focus on multi-year and £50,000+ grants. The successful candidate will have a particular focus on researching, cultivating and applying to new prospects. We are looking for someone with excellent writing and interpersonal skills to join our dynamic and passionate team to fight child hunger and unlock opportunities for the next generation.  

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES  

New business  

• Contribute to the achievement of our team target of £2.3m in 2024/25, as well as securing funding for future years. 

• Research and identify new opportunities for growth, utilising tools and reaching out to lapsed donors and trustee connections. 

• Prepare, compile and submit high quality funding proposals and budgets in accordance with timetables and application criteria, with a particular focus on larger, multi-year and project funding opportunities. 

• Develop cultivation pathways for potential funders, including creating tailored engagement plans for high level donors, arranging school visits, attending key meetings (or briefing senior stakeholders) and delivering presentations to secure their support.  

• Work with teams across the organisation to build projects to proactively fundraise for. 

Account management 

• Successfully manage relationships from your own portfolio of trusts and foundations, ensuring timely reporting and effective communications.  

• Champion the interests of trusts and foundations across the organisation, ensuring grant conditions are met and project outcomes are achieved. 

• Support the team to deliver strategic, multi-year partnerships and to steward key funders.  

General  

• Maintain accurate financial, performance and account management records via Salesforce.  

• Work with the Head of Trusts & Foundations to support the forecasting of income from current and potential donors. 

• Deputise for the Head of Trusts and Foundations where necessary.  

• Work closely with the finance team to ensure accurate restrictions and financial reporting processes, as well as on project budgets and to manage grant income and expenditure.  

• Take an active role in setting, delivering, and evaluating progress against the Trusts and Foundation team strategy and goals. 

• Represent the organisation at relevant forums, events and seminars. 

• Occasional work outside of regular office hours and UK travel.  

• Build good working relations across the organisation and within the fundraising team.  

• Help ensure the continuous improvement of team processes and ways of working.  

• Ensure that all activity is compliant with current legislation, including media and fundraising regulations, copyright laws, GDPR and child safeguarding requirements. 

• Work collaboratively across the organisation more widely to build good working relations, including through ad-hoc support to other teams/ members of staff.  

• Keep abreast of changes to the fundraising landscape to ensure compliance with fundraising regulations and adoption of best practice. 

PERSON SPECIFICATION 

Knowledge and Experience 

• Experience leading on successful applications for funding from trusts and grant bodies, or relevant transferable experience (ideally £50,000+). 

• Working with databases, uploading information and pulling reports. 

• A track record of developing strong, mutually beneficial relationships with funders. 

Skills and Abilities 

• Exceptional writing skills.  

• Strong research skills and the ability to find links between Magic Breakfast’s work and funders’ priorities. 

• Outstanding presentation and interpersonal skills. 

• Excellent time management and organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously and to work to deadlines.  

• A collaborative team player with the confidence to work both self-sufficiently and across teams and departments, proactively engaging colleagues on projects and initiatives.  

• Ability to communicate data/information effectively and compellingly, in writing and verbally to both specialist and non-specialist audiences.  

• High level of competency in the use of Microsoft Office and database software (Salesforce experience desirable but not essential).  

Other 

• Passion and commitment to Magic Breakfast’s aim of alleviating morning hunger as a barrier to learning for children in the UK. 

• Share Magic Breakfast’s commitment to Diversity, Equality and Inclusion within the workplace. 

• Willing to travel within the UK occasionally for launches/events/media opportunities.  

• Experience of working for a charity especially in the area of children and young people desirable but not essential. 

• WHAT WE OFFER

At Magic Breakfast we value our employees and work hard to develop offer a supportive, respectful culture which enables everyone to bring their whole self to work.

Please click here for our job pack

Please click here for our website

APPLICATION PROCCESS

Should you wish to discuss the role before applying please email our People and Culture Team, recruitment@magicbreakfast.com

Shortlisting - w/c 9th June

Interview 1 - 16th and 17th June

Interview 2 - 20th June

All interviews will be held online via Teams.

We reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately, once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.