Fundraising Officer (Community & Events)

Salary: £31,236 - £32,080 with progression to £34,610 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 7 September 2025

The Role

We have an exciting opportunity for an individual with experience of community fundraising to join our team as a Community Fundraising Officer. 

This role sits within the Children’s Cancer North charity team, raising funds to make life better for children with cancer. This is a professionally rewarding role that has real-world impact and if you have experience in community fundraising and events delivery, we want to hear from you! Charity sector experience is essential. The role is designed to deliver a programme of excellent stewardship, on-going support and motivation to individual fundraisers and community groups supporting our cause. Because of this, empathetic communication skills are essential to this role. 

Having the confidence to represent the charity in a range of settings is a key aspect of this position. This includes delivering talks to audiences ranging from small groups to community-based organisations of several hundred, building relationships with bereaved families or those with a child in treatment, and working independently to resolve sensitive queries. A driver’s license and access to your own car is essential. 

You will be joining a small team of 8 colleagues and 1 regular volunteer, with varying experience levels, who have worked for the charity between 1 and 9 years and will report to Adam Greenwood, Events Manager, who has been with the charity for 18 months.

In this role, you’ll be based at our Newcastle Upon Tyne campus that has fantastic transport links and state of the art facilities, and we offer a hybrid and flexible working model.

To apply for this position, we’ll need a copy of your CV which should outline how you are suitable for the role, with a particular focus on the essential criteria in the knowledge, skills and experience as listed in the job description. We encourage you to submit a supporting covering letter, which should focus on example of the below bullet points.

• Excellent interpersonal communications skills, including tact and assertiveness, and the ability to communicate at all levels in a complex environment
• Ability to confidently represent the charity in a range of settings and to a broad range of audiences
• Flexibility to a range of changing tasks, including income generation, supporter stewardship, volunteer management, budgeting and reporting, events management support, and brand development and reputation
• A history of creating new partnerships with community groups and organisations
• A general understanding of fundraising regulations and charity law in the UK
• A driver’s license and your own car

If you have any questions prior to applying, please contact Abigail Hewison, Head of Charity, via [email protected] for further information.

About the Charity:

Children’s Cancer North is an independent charity with over 40 years of heritage in supporting individuals and families affected by childhood cancer. Newly formed in 2021, from the marriage of North of England Children’s Cancer Research and Children’s Cancer Fund, our charities have collectively raised over £40 million to support children with cancer in the North East and Cumbria since 1979. Children’s Cancer North aims to make life better for children with cancer through providing direct support to children in treatment and their families, investing in revolutionary research and raising awareness of the disease across the North East and Cumbria. It is a registered charity working in partnership with Newcastle University, funding research carried out within the Centre for Cancer, a Newcastle University centre of research excellence. 

This post is full time, tenable for 12 months.

Key Accountabilities

Income Generation and Supporter Stewardship

• Design and deliver a programme of excellent stewardship, on-going support and motivation to individual fundraisers and community groups supporting our cause, encouraging repeat or ongoing activity, and proactively seeking new supporters in communities across the North East and Cumbria.
• Lead on and support stewardship with local community groups and associations, giving talks where possible to encourage their support and adoption of Children’s Cancer North.
• Represent the charity confidently in a range of settings resolving any issues or queries independently or recommending alternative sources/courses of action if unable to assist ensuring efficient customer service is maintained.
• Liaise with community fundraisers to link them with Children’s Cancer North events or develop their fundraising potential through other fundraising opportunities working collaboratively with other members of the team.
• Respond to telephone and email enquiries from event participants, filtering issues and resolving queries independently, seeking the relevant support for customers.
• Liaise with Ward staff with regards to their needs and requirements and report back to the charity team. Take the lead in resolving solutions to these needs where appropriate and possible.

Volunteer Management

• Recruit and maintain good working relationships with volunteers to ensure their continued support.

Brand Development and Reputation

• Leading on the development of new content following up to date demands in the fluctuating markets and trends around fundraising, create and provide appropriate fundraising materials to supporters.
• Supporting the team with up-to-date sector knowledge and passing information regarding new fundraising resources that may easily be translated to other areas of fundraising income streams for the charity.
• Work with the Digital Fundraising Officer to collaborate on social media and website content plans to provide excellent supporter care. Maintain social media accounts and website content when required.

Empathy and Emotional Support

• Provide excellent supporter service to enquiries from members of the public and build long term beneficial relationships with supporters and families that are bereaved or have a child in treatment via phone, mail and in person, encouraging their support.
• Arrange meetings with beneficiaries and supporters of the charity with a personal link to the cause who are visiting the Great North Children’s Hospital to collect donations or provide information as required.

Budgeting and Reporting Administration

• Proactively ensure that details of stewardship plans are compiled, documented, implemented and recorded on the charity’s CRM database which records and reports all key relationships and partners involved in Children’s Cancer North’s work, e.g. donors and other supporters.
• Liaise with the Charity Administrator with regards to the acknowledgement and thank you process as well as writing personalised acknowledgement and stewardship letters, certificates and emails to supporters as required. 
• Provide the Head of Charity with timely updates on progress against plans and circulate regular information to the charity team to ensure they are aware of key community fundraisers.
• Ensure that accurate, up to date financial and supporter records are maintained in order to ensure the charity finances can be appropriately and efficiently managed and reported on to the Board of Trustees
• Receive, record, bank and process income in co-ordination with the Administrator and in line with Children’s Cancer North policies and procedures.
• Maintain and record the stock levels for fundraising materials and merchandise.

Events Support

• Support the Events Manager in the planning and delivery of events including (but not limited to) the Children’s Cancer Run, Memory Day and Teachers Day and act as Event Lead for the Children’s Cancer Run at School element of the wider project.
• Support the Events Manager in the preparation and collation of event information and documentation, booking venues and suppliers and coordinating diaries where required.
• Attend event planning meetings as required and support the Events Manager, paying attention to any planning documentation or note taking that is required, attending in place of the Events Manager for meetings with suppliers/volunteers on their behalf where necessary.
• Provide on the day support at Children’s Cancer North events as required, and deputise event management if necessary, ensuring specific activities within the events are run efficiently and that the correct process of reporting issues or concerns are adhered to prior to, during and after the event live period.
• Support the Events Manager in the production and distribution of pack materials and mass mailings as required.
• Design and support the delivery process of promotional materials for events and fundraising activities.

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Demonstrable experience of providing good stewardship to supporters
• Demonstrable experience of working independently and dealing with unforeseen problems and circumstances
• Comprehensive understanding of charity supporters needs and motivations with work processes and procedures in order to develop them
• Able to understand charity event volunteer needs and motivations and develop them
• Excellent interpersonal and networking skills
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• Able to build and maintain good working relationships with people
• Able to prioritise, plan and organise own workload
• Able to work to targets, plans and budgets
• Good IT skills including word processing, email and data recording/database use
• In-depth knowledge of fundraising principles and methods
• Awareness of how to motivate and support volunteers, supporters etc
• Knowledge of fundraising and events operational procedures (e.g. health and safety, financial, volunteer etc.)

Attributes and Behaviour

• Flexible working - able to work occasional evenings and weekends, maintaining an enthusiastic and positive approach with a professional and friendly manner
• Attitude - empathetic to the vision and values of Children’s Cancer North whilst applying a creative approach to working practices
• Team working – You will be able to work collaboratively with others, playing a positive role in a small team environment, taking the lead on projects where required
• Communicating – uses clear, concise and accurate communication, tailoring the approach accordingly and encouraging a two-way communication process
• Ambitious – demonstrates a desire for continuous improvement in keeping skills up to date and development in knowledge of the community and events fundraising income streams through learning from a more senior/experienced colleague’s exposure to events delivery and professional fundraising qualifications

Qualifications

• Educated to HNC or HND level with prior industry experience OR
• Broad vocational experience, acquired through a combination of job-related vocational training and considerable on-the-job experience, demonstrating development through involvement in a series of progressively more demanding relevant work/roles
• Clean driving license and access to own car for business use

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 28503