Head of Trusts and Foundations

London Youth

Children and young people in London matter; their voices, experiences, and futures. They deserve every chance to make the most of their lives. But too many young people can’t because they don’t have the opportunities they need to thrive. That is where transformational youth work comes in offering somewhere to go, something to do, someone to trust.

London Youth’s vision is for all young Londoners to grow up healthy, able to express themselves, navigating a fulfilling career, and making a positive contribution to their communities.

The Head of Trusts and Foundations plays a pivotal role in the delivery of this vision, leading on the significant growth of restricted and unrestricted funds through this income stream. You will line manage a Trusts & Foundations Manager and a Trusts & Foundations Officer, collaborating closely with them in order to drive success and deliver against target. You will be personally responsible for securing new high value multi-year relationships (six and seven figures) as well as stewarding a range of existing high value relationships. You will also play an important leadership role across the organisation, working with colleagues in all departments to ensure an efficient and effective approach that delivers for children and young people and youth workers and organisations across the capital.

What you will be doing

• Lead on the development and implementation of a successful trusts and foundations strategy that achieves £2.5m of restricted and unrestricted income by the end of 2026 and delivers growth from 2027.
• Offer inspirational leadership to the Trusts and Foundations Team, line managing a T&F manager and a T&F officer.
• Take overall responsibility for developing and managing a robus pipeline of trusts and foundations and statutory funders that enables London Youth to hit its income targets, coordinating the distribution of responsibilities across the team, including the implementation of a quarterly mailout.
• Work in close collaboration with appropriate teams across London Youth to ensure all applications and proposals produced by the team are compelling, accurate, produced to the highest possible standards, and submitted to deadline.
• Ensure contracts or MOUs are in place with all funders and that all conditions and reporting requirements are clear and met.
• Ensure all information is recorded in an accurate and timely manner on Salesforce, enabling you to track progress against monthly income targets and KPIs, and expertly steward and manage all relationships with funders.
• Lead on the development of the annual Trusts and Foundations budgets and the monthly review of management accounts for your area.
• Produce appropriate reports and presentations for team, directorate, senior team, committee, and board meetings.
• Prepresent the fundraising team in leadership team meetings and senior meetings as appropriate when required.
• Contribute to wider fundraising and communications led activities such as site visits, Lunch and Learn sessions, the London Youth Awards, and external networking opportunities.
• Ensure you and your team understands the external funding environment, spotting trends, identifying opportunities, and making informed strategic recommendations for how London Youth should be operating in such an environment.

What you bring to the role

Knowledge and Experience:

• Proven ability to lead and manage a trusts and foundations team and deliver growth through this income stream.
• Experience of successfully delivering six and seven figure funds.
• Proven ability to lead and collaborate with delivery, finance, policy, data and learning, and senior teams to develop applications and proposals.
• Proven project management skills.
• First class relationship management skills.
• Demonstrable knowledge of UK and London funders.
• Ability to undertake rigorous prospect research and build and manage a robust pipeline.
• An analytical approach with experience of regularly recording and reporting on data, including an ability to interpret financial data.
• Experience of acting as an organisational ambassador in a range of outward facing contexts.
• Awareness of Fundraising Regulatory Framework.

Attributes and Behaviours:

• Passionate and demonstrably committed to improving the lives of young people.
• Outstanding written and oral communications skills with attention to detail.
• Ability to think strategically.
• Ability to adapt to working with a variety of internal and external audiences.
• Ability to work independently and use your own initiative.
• Ability to manage multiple competing priorities.
• Ability to work in a changing and flexible environment.
• Willingness to develop and learn new skills.
• Discretion and ability to maintain confidentiality.
• Willingness to work occasional evenings or weekends at London Youth events.

You will be able to demonstrate our values of being:

• Ambitious
• Collaborative
• Inclusive
• Accountable

Why work at London Youth

• Generous holiday allowance – 39 days paid holiday each year (including bank holidays and closure days). If you work part-time, your holiday allowance will be proportional based on your working hours.
• Employer 4% pension contribution.
• Additional leave granted to support voluntary activity.
• Free access for you and your family for the Employee Assistance Programme.
• Free access to the ‘Headspace’ app for you and your family.
• Free Health Care Cash Plan.
• Free access to the Charity Mentoring Network, as a mentor or mentee.
• You’ll be working with a fantastic team of passionate colleagues across London Youth.
• You will be making a difference to the lives of young people!