Senior Individual Giving Manager (Maternity cover)

We are currently recruiting for a Senior Individual Giving Manager to join our Development team on a 12 month fixed-term contract from January 2027.

Glyndebourne is one of the world's leading opera companies. We produce opera of the very highest quality in a state-of-the-art opera house situated within a landscape of outstanding natural beauty.

We are going through a period of exciting change and growth, welcoming a new generation of opera-goers and taking our artistic ambitions to new heights.

In 2026 we welcomed close to 100,000 people to our acclaimed summer Festival: more than in any year since 2007. A further 30,000 will attend our Autumn season, whose principles are to platform emerging talent and to provide audiences an accessible route into opera. Our year-round Learning and Engagement programme focuses on two priorities: national talent development and local engagement with children and young people. Committed to artistic excellence, audience development, and accessibility, Glyndebourne continues to expand the reach and appreciation of opera for all.

The Festival has remained  financially independent since its inception and is a registered charity that relies on box office income, memberships, and donations to fund its operations. 

This position offers an exciting opportunity for an experienced and ambitious fundraising professional to join our small but dynamic development team, which includes major giving, trusts and foundations, prospect research, individual giving, events, and legacies. We are working towards our Centenary in 2034 and are looking for an innovative and driven senior fundraiser to join our highly successful team and help take the organisation to the next level by reaching ambitious fundraising targets.

The main focus of this role is to steward the relationships and generate further income from the Senior Individual Giving Manager’s donors and grow the prospect pipeline. As a member of the Development team, you will collaborate with fellow fundraisers and the Director of Development to shape, refine, and execute our fundraising strategy. The role centres on growing our fundraising revenue, building a prospect portfolio from scratch, forging meaningful connections, and nurturing long-term relationships.

Key Tasks and Responsibilities

• Create and implement comprehensive strategies to drive individual giving, focusing on identifying and cultivating major donors, as well as securing large-scale contributions.
• Manage and grow a portfolio of high-net-worth individuals, ensuring ongoing engagement, personalised stewardship.
• Work with the Prospect Researcher to develop a portfolio of prospects aligned to areas of strategic and fundraising priority.
• Work with the Development Coordinator to ensure all relevant data associated with individual prospects is collected, including contact reports, ensuring they are GDPR compliant.
• Deliver exceptional stewardship to existing donors by providing personalised invitations and meaningful year-round engagement, ensuring they feel valued, connected, and inspired to continue their support.
• Work with the Development team to plan and execute an exciting year-round calendar of events designed to engage, inspire, and strengthen relationships with prospects and donors, ensuring their ongoing support and connection to our mission.and steward prospects and donors.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

Essential

• Extensive experience of professional fundraising (in the Arts/Charity sector desirable but not essential) with a demonstrable track record in developing donor relationships and closing gifts
• You will be a strong communicator and creative thinker with the ability to work calmly under pressure and synthesise complex information to inspire a variety of audiences.
• You will have a strong understanding of effective fundraising techniques and donor stewardship best practice, excellent analytical skills and judgement combined with a highly professional and diplomatic approach.
• Knowledge/understanding of fundraising best practices. Understand and have a comfort level with the engagement and stewardship process/principles of securing major gifts.
• Excellent project management and organisation skills with strong attention to detail and demonstrated analytical skills; excellent writing skills with strong comfort with technology including fundraising databases (we use Tessitura).
• Confidence in face to face cultivation and negotiation.
• Highly organised with a proven ability to set and deliver to a high standard, work with competing and demanding deadlines; able to prioritise activity to achieve core purpose of funding world class opera.

Desirable

• A genuine interest in opera and a passion for supporting the arts 
• Outstanding personal awareness
• Exceptional communication skills.
• Ability to thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment especially during the festival

Hours of Work

The contractual hours are 35 hours per week but will involve unsociable hours including evenings and weekends during the Glyndebourne Festival, Autumn season and at other times of the year. The department offers a Time Off in Lieu scheme. We are ideally looking for a candidate who can work full-time, but we are open to discussing part-time working.

Salary and Benefits

We can offer a salary of c.£48,000 per annum.

We offer 33 days (6.6 weeks) holiday inclusive of bank holidays, per annum, pro rata. 

We can offer a beautiful working environment, and the chance to see world-class opera. For those without their own transport we have a free minibus service to and from Lewes railway station.

We also offer:

• Subsidised dining at our onsite restaurants
• Discount at the Glyndebourne shop
• Staff events
• Corporate Gym memberships
• Free Pilates and Zumba classes
• Free tea and coffee
• Free on-site parking
• An onsite Physiotherapist
• Cost price electric car charging
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Long service awards
• Discount at various highstreet retailers through the Glyndebourne benefits hub

How to Apply

Glyndebourne is an Equal Opportunities Employer and a Registered Charity. We promote equality, diversity and inclusion in our workplace and actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply for vacancies, including ethnically diverse and disabled candidates, who are currently under-represented in our workforce.

To help us monitor the effectiveness of our commitment to diversity and inclusion and our supporting policies and procedures, we ask all job applicants to complete our anonymized and confidential Equal Opportunities monitoring form .

Please apply by clicking ‘Apply Now;’ to submit your application. Candidates must be able to provide evidence of their right to work in the UK. 

The closing date for applications is Sunday 15 November 2026.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for our vacancies. If relevant to you, please inform us of this in your application. If you have any questions in relation to this or if you would like this advert sent to you in a larger or dyslexia friendly font then please contact a member of the HR team at recruitment@glyndebourne.com. 

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