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National Fundraising Manager
England Rugby
The Rugby Football Union is the national governing body for grassroots and elite rugby in England. Its purpose is to encourage rugby, and its values, to flourish across England.
Job Posted- 21 Apr 2026
Status- Full Time
Location- England
Closing date- 10 May 2026
The RFU has recently launched Plan 2030: ‘More Than A Game’, which is our strategy to grow rugby across England for the next five years.
Our strategy contains four big goals that support and connect to one another - Play, Perform, Follow and Fund. In ‘Play’ we’re aiming to have an additional 50,000 registered players and have more people playing rugby for longer.
One of the ways we are planning to unlock this growth is through a transformation in how the RFU delivers community rugby by creating seven Regional Growth Partnership Boards tasked with driving participation, building partnerships, and unlocking funding opportunities within their region.
The RFU is creating a new regional structure to help grow rugby in regional areas of the country. The aim is to get more people playing, build stronger partnerships across the game, and bring in new funding to support local growth.
What the new regions will do
Each region will be responsible for:
- Developing the sport by creating playing opportunities for new people in new places
- Managing devolved RFU funding focused on growing the game
- Building high-level relationships regionally to benefit rugby
- Generating external incremental revenue for additional growth opportunities
- Developing partnerships with clubs, Constituent Bodies (CBs), and the professional game to deliver the RFU’s goal of “more people playing, for longer”
How the model will work
Seven Regional Growth Partnership Boards will be created with regional and a small central staff team supporting each board. Their job will be to build internal and external relationships, secure extra funding, and develop and deliver a Regional Rugby Growth & Promotion Plan.
About the new role
The National Fundraising Manager will act as a Subject Matter Expert for the Regional Fundraising Managers to:
- Develop a fundraising strategic framework to support underpinning delivery of the regional growth plans and to ensure the most effective and efficient fundraising methods are in place.
- Provide expertise in successful methods of fundraising across a variety of income streams (e.g. direct fundraising (e.g. public sector, trusts, foundations), philanthropy, fundraising events, commercial/ESG funding) to ensure that RFU and regional fundraising targets can be met and maximum benefit is gained.
- Provide advice, structure and best practice in establishing successful fundraising tools, templates and processes that can be effectively used by all regional teams.
- Implement required safeguards to ensure all fundraising activity is undertaken in accordance with required regulations e.g. Charity Commission.
- Lead on national and multi-region fundraising opportunities that present the biggest opportunities to drive significant incremental revenue into the game.
- Provide leadership and support for the Regional Fundraising Managers, and support with embedding regional ways of working across the organisation.
- Work across the organisation to understand available RFU assets that can be used for fundraising and make sure they are used most efficiently.
- Be responsible for fundraising performance of the new regional teams and delivery of the overall fundraising target for the regional function.
- Engagement and alignment with the wider RFU charity fundraising strategy and priorities of the Injured Players Foundation to maximise opportunities for the benefit of the game.
The Team:
The role will sit within the RFU’s commercial structure but be deployed to work as part of a new small regional transition team, working with a Head of Regional Partnerships to support all seven regions.
The role will have dotted line management responsibility for eight Regional Fundraising Managers deployed across the regions and will be regularly engaging with the regional staff and Regional Board members where required to deliver the fundraising strategy of each region.
A level of national travel will be required to engage with the regional teams and any significant fundraising opportunities appropriately.
Some key responsibilities include:
- Developing strategies, tools, and processes to support the regional teams to deliver regional external funding plans to secure revenue and income opportunities across public and private sector income sources.
- Bringing a ‘start up mentality’ driven by data, insights and knowledge of key challenges and opportunities to think creatively about how best the fundraising objectives and targets can be delivered.
- Providing leadership and guidance to the Regional Fundraising Managers to identify and pursue the funding opportunities in their region, creating a positive, inclusive and results-driven environment.
- Oversight of the monitoring and evaluation of regional fundraising performance against targets, providing direction on course-correction where necessary.
- Developing relationships and working closely with a wide-range of senior stakeholders to build and constructively challenge the direction of the regional fundraising plans to deliver the strategic goals.
- Leading on significant national and multi-region fundraising opportunities including engaging with prospects and delivering requirements to secure the opportunities.
- Supporting the financial reporting processes and identifying templates and potential technology solutions to improve efficiency and accuracy of tracking secured revenues and potential opportunities.
- Bringing creative, best-practice and forward-thinking ideas to explore and pursue alternative fundraising opportunities.
- Actively collaborating with and supporting the Head of Regional Partnerships and Regional Growth Partnership Boards to contribute to the development of the Regional Rugby Promotion & Growth Plans.
- Effectively building relationships and collaborating with team members within and across regions and other departments to share knowledge and implement best practices.
- Acting as an ambassador for, and promoting the best interests of the RFU, including the promotion of our culture and core values – This Rose Means Everyone: Put The Team First, Shape The Future, Respect Each Other.
- Undertaking other duties as may be required from time to time as are consistent with the responsibilities of the post and the needs of the organisation.
Qualifications, Skills & Experience:
The skills and attributes outlined in this description are not exhaustive and we welcome candidates who can bring different relevant experiences to the role.
Essential:
- Demonstrable success in revenue generation and strategic planning with particular emphasis on growth strategies.
- Demonstrable experience in developing and managing successful fundraising programmes from a variety of both public and private sector sources with proven success of securing major donations from individuals, public-sector bodies and private corporations.
- Proven success at management level within charities or business development.
- Demonstrable experience of delivering income targets and working with budgets and KPIs.
- Comprehensive understanding of best practice and trends in local/regional/devolved fundraising.
- A strong understanding of the benefits sport can deliver to communities.
- Experience of effective financial reporting for fundraising activities.
- Experience of developing and delivering high quality projects, processes and systems from scratch, working in partnership with different internal and external teams and stakeholders.
- Experience of matrix management of people, budgets and projects and the ability to motivate and lead staff to deliver targets.
- Experience of working and communicating with a variety of stakeholders at all levels.
- High-level ability to communicate, negotiate and build relationships both orally and in writing.
- Strong organisation and time management skills, with the ability to work on several projects at once; prioritising, communicating and adapting priorities as required.
- Ability to work independently and with high levels of autonomy.
- A can-do, problem-solving attitude and ability to think creatively to reach desired goals.
- Proficient in working with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
- Full UK driving licence.
- Committed to embodying the ethos our culture by using our three core values – Put The Team First, Shape The Future, Respect Each Other – to guide your day-to-day decisions, actions and interactions.
- Committed to actively contributing and building an inclusive culture in your role and day to day behaviours.
Desirable:
- An understanding of rugby landscape in England would be an advantage.
- Proficiency with Smartsheet.
- Degree level education or higher desirable, but not essential.
How to Apply
Please click APPLY NOW to begin the application process.