Description
As our Fundraising Officer you’ll play a crucial role in raising philanthropic income for the university. You’ll be joining us at an exciting time as 2026 marks the University’s centenary.
Your work will involve planning and delivering a range of fundraising activities aimed at raising charitable donations from alumni and other supporters. Projects will include an international giving day, telephone campaign, direct mail appeals, online crowdfunding projects and raising money at public events on our campuses.
This is a chance to make a real difference during an important year. You’ll be joining a friendly, supportive and passionate team and your work will have real impact — supporting students, research and the wider community through our centenary projects.
To succeed in this role, you will have:
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills including the ability to work with a wide range of people
Experience planning and managing projects
Excellent organisational and time management skills
Good all round IT skills
Ideally gained some prior experience in a fundraising role
This role is a fixed-term full time position, working 35 hours per week, providing maternity cover for 1 year from February 2026 till March 2027. Working hours would normally be 9-5pm Monday to Friday, but the role will require periods of out of hours working such as during the telephone campaign.
The role requires some days working at the Whiteknights Campus each week, but The Fundraising Team supports hybrid remote working arrangements too.
Further details about the role and how to apply can be found here: https://jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetail?JobId=25002
Note that the closing date for applications is 9 January 2026 and interviews will take place on 21 January 2026.
Requirements
Main duties and responsibilities
The Fundraising Officer is responsible for leading and delivering a portfolio of fundraising activities to maximise life-time value donations from donors with capacity to gift up to
£1,000 a year. Projects typically include: direct mail postal appeals, telephone campaigns, giving days and on-line campaigns. The Fundraising Officer project manages these campaigns
which will include, although are not limited to, the following responsibilities:
Liaising directly with donors to support them in making their donations and contacting them by telephone, email or letter as appropriate to close their gift.
Managing the relationship with external providers and consultants to ensure activity is delivered to time, to budget, and in line with university policies.
Working with colleagues in Creative Print Studios to design fundraising materials that will encourage gifts, including drafting copy and sourcing images for digital and postal campaigns.
Working with colleagues in Engagement Services on data selection.
Management of a team of student fundraisers including the recruitment process, weekly rotas and shift patterns, timesheets and pay during campaigns such as the annual telephone
campaign.
Delivery of the daily administration associated with interactions with prospects and donors. This will include ensuring that single and regular gifts are processed accurately in liaison with the Gift Administrator and that clear records of all communications are recorded on our database.
Working with colleagues across a range of teams within the University to ensure donors are thanked and stewarded in a timely manner. This may include sending thank you letters,
writing impact reports and co-ordinating donor events.
Project managing the Reading FundSpace crowdfunding platform including sourcing new projects, working with project leads to prepare fundraising pages for launch,
monitoring and supporting ‘live’ projects.
Developing and maintaining the fundraising pages on our website www.reading.ac.uk/giving
Identifying compelling donor case studies and creating impactful digital content for social media and digital giving platforms.
Analysing the income generated from regular direct debit donations and engaging with donors who cancel direct debit gifts.
Supporting the development of long-term plans for growing the number of active donors, setting objectives, strategy, budget requirements, timelines and KPIs.
Developing a detailed understanding of the motivations and behaviours of relevant donor segments through database analysis and survey methods.
Constantly seek new channels, mechanisms, audiences, approaches and other innovations to increase our fundraising reach and success.
