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Job title Head of Trusts and Foundations

Department Advancement Office

Salary Starting from £46,485, rising to £55,295

Grade Grade 8

Contract Type Full Time, Fixed Term

Placed on Thursday 30 January 2025

Closing date Monday 17 February 2025

Interview date To be confirmed

Reference KW12154R

Applicant Visa Guidance Skilled Worker visa: guidance for applicants (bath.ac.uk)

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Head of Trusts and Foundations

About the role

Do you want to make a difference in helping students and researchers fulfil their ambitions? You will be key in raising significant philanthropic income from a portfolio of national and international trusts and foundations to increase our student scholarships and support research opportunities.

We have an exciting position within the Advancement Office Philanthropy Team. We are seeking a highly ambitious senior fundraiser to be the Head of Trusts & Foundations. Overseeing the entire portfolio and line managing the Trust and Foundation Manager, you will work as a team to build excellent relationships and raise significant philanthropic support to help us reach our ambitious goals.

The University of Bath is a nationally and internationally leading university that has placed in the top 10 rankings of three major national league tables. The Advancement Office plays a leading role in upholding our reputation for excellence through philanthropic support and partnerships.

As a key member of the Philanthropy Team, you will manage a portfolio of approximately 50 trusts and foundations capable of supporting the University with five, six, and seven-figure gifts for areas ranging from support for student scholarships to world-leading research.

Your background is likely to be in higher education or the not-for-profit sectors, ideally with experience in income generation. You must work well under pressure in a complex, multi-national, culturally diverse environment.

As a Head of Trusts and Foundations, you will have demonstrable success in writing successful proposals, managing relationships, and raising significant philanthropic gifts. Confident and credible, you will know and understand how to identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward trusts and foundations nationally and internationally. 

This is a full time mat leave fixed term position starting April 2025 with an end date of July 2026 or the early return of the post holder.

For an informal chat about this post, please get in touch with Laura Palmer, Director of Philanthropy, at lp2116@bath.ac.uk or 07812340661. However, please ensure you submit your application through our website.


What we can offer you:

We consider ourselves to be a university where difference is celebrated, respected and encouraged. We have an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations and have made a positive commitment towards gender equality and intersectionality receiving a Silver Athena SWAN award. We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students, so we encourage applications from all genders, backgrounds, and communities, particularly from under-represented groups, and value the positive impact that will have on the university. We are committed to maintaining a safe and secure environment for our students, staff, and community by reinforcing our Safer Recruitment commitment.

We are very proud to be an autism friendly university and are an accredited Disability Confident Leader; committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff.

Find out from our staff what makes the University of Bath a great place to work. Follow us @UniofBath and @UniofBathJobs on Twitter for more information.

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Further details:


Athena Swan, Disability Confident, Armed Forces Covenant, Living Wage Employer awards


We are constantly seeking to reduce the unconscious bias that enters any assessment process, with the goal of creating an inclusive and equal assessment process. To support this, personal details such as your name, may be removed from application forms at the initial shortlisting stage.