Trusts and Foundations Manager

About Us

Literacy Pirates vision is for every child to have the literacy skills, confidence and perseverance to succeed at school and beyond. We provide free, after-school literacy support to children who are falling behind in class and who have fewer opportunities for additional support due to their personal circumstances than others. Founded in East London, Literacy Pirates programme now runs online and serves children anywhere in the United Kingdom.

Literacy Pirates is on an exciting journey of growth, rolling out our innovative learning programme to reach more children than ever before. An ambitious, fast-growing charity we have set ourselves a goal of reaching 3,000 children a year nationally, by 2030 compared with 650 this year. To support this, the fundraising team must double the charity s revenue over the next four years, from £1million to £2million annually.

This is an exciting opportunity for an ambitious Trust and Foundation specialist with a keen interest in developing strategy and a flair for building strong relationships with funders. You will be excited to play a pivotal role in the growth of this charity, knowing the huge impact every new grant will have on the number of disadvantaged young people we are able to support. You will have significant freedom to design and execute a strong growth-oriented trusts strategy.

What we're Looking for

• Proven track record of securing significant multi-year grants from trusts and foundations.
• Strong grant-writing skills with the ability to produce clear, persuasive, and tailored proposals.
• Experience using AI to generate proposals and grant reports time-efficiently.
• Excellent relationship building and management skills, with experience engaging funders and external stakeholders.
• Strong track record of prospect research using a mixture of techniques and strategies
• Experience representing an organisation at events and conferences.
• Strong numeracy and experience in preparing budgets for funders.
• Highly organised, with the ability to manage multiple deadlines and priorities.
• Familiarity with Salesforce or other CRM systems.
• Commitment to safeguarding and the welfare of children and young people.
• Commitment to the mission of improving outcomes for children from less advantaged backgrounds.
• Knowledge of the education sector a plus, but not essential.

Responsibilities

• Research and identify trusts, foundations, and other funding opportunities to grow Literacy Pirates funding base.
• Develop a pipeline of high-quality funding applications to meet agreed income targets.
• Write or generate compelling funding proposals and grant applications, drawing on organisational impact data and stories
• Place AI tools at the centre of routine content generation for applications and reports.
• Build and maintain excellent interpersonal relationships with funders, ensuring effective stewardship at all stages.
• Attend conferences and networking events, and arrange funder visits, meetings.
• Track progress against targets and provide regular updates to the Head of Development.
• Provide support and leadership to the broader fundraising team
• Contribute to the development of the charity s wider fundraising strategy, ensuring trusts and foundations income complements individual giving, corporate partnerships, and community events.
• Work with the Education and Comms team to ensure the right impact data and case studies are available to strengthen proposals and reports and contribute to organisation s marketing work
• Ensure accurate and up-to-date records of applications, grants, and funder communications in the CRM system.
• Monitor sector trends and share insights on funding opportunities and best practice.