EduSpots – Fundraising Manager 

Location: Flexible  

Hours & Contract: 8-16 hours a week, freelance. 

Salary:  Competitive, dependent on experience 

About Us

EduSpots is an innovative, dynamic, and locally driven UK and Ghanaian registered charity which connects, trains, and equips voluntary community educators to create transformative literacy and STEM opportunities through education spaces named ‘Spots’, with a focus on female empowerment and environmental action. Together, we are creating a movement of community-based changemakers. 

Since 2016, through collaborating extensively with over 250 local volunteers, we have supported 50 communities in creating community-led and owned education spaces named ‘Spots’, with a strategy to support them in moving towards our ‘Dream Spot Model’. We are creating a model for a community-led education space with accompanying network engagement that could have applications across the world.

Our 16-strong but entirely part-time and remote working Ghanaian team creates collaborative learning opportunities through our Ignite and Community Leadership in Development (CLEd) Programmes which include training to lead our EduLit, EduSTEM, EduKidz and Ignite Girls clubs, alongside locally designed education projects, reaching over 15,000 students of all ages annually. Read our 2022 Impact Report here.  

EduSpots is in an exciting period of its development, with multi-year funding gained in 2022, and our new Ignite Programme launched in April gaining support from six competitive trusts and foundations. In 2021, our Founder was selected as a Finalist for The Varkey Foundation’s $1 million Global Teacher Prize. We won the Tes International Award in 2018 and the Big Give Supporters’ Choice Award in 2022. In the next year, we are looking to advance our fundraising to further strengthen the depth of our impact across our communities and enable us to further develop our model. 

We are excited by our future.  Do visit www.eduspots.org for further information.

Across 2023 EduSpots will be:

• Advancing our operational and financial systems, with a particular focus on monitoring and evaluation. 
• Rolling out the trial of our Ignite programme, which aims to give all our volunteers the skills, knowledge and experience they need to lead community-led, sustainable, and transformative change in their communities through establishing a range of clubs in their ‘Spots’, alongside a particular focus on child safeguarding and protection training. 
• Continuing to track, review and advance the existing network of community-led libraries or education ‘Spots’, working collaboratively with community educators across our network to move our spaces towards our ‘Dream Spot Model’. 
• Creating new partnerships to strengthen the impact of our work, creating a network of EduSpots Ambassadors. 
• Creating a dedicated part-time team across the UK and Ghana to lead a strategic approach to fundraising, aiming to expand income by 100% across grants, individual giving, corporate sponsorship, and community fundraising. 
• Developing a medium-term and long-term strategy for the future, exploring different options for sustaining, deepening, and scaling our impact. 

About this role

We are looking for a hands-on, dynamic, and creative fundraising manager, to advance our strategy for building relationships with supporters, including individuals, corporates, and wider communities of support. You will be a strong relationship builder, with the interpersonal skills and understanding of marketing, to take our work to new audiences. 

We hope to find someone with connections to individuals, community-based groups and organisations in the UK with links to Ghana or Kenya, alongside other communities of likely support for our work.

This role will work closely with EduSpots’ CEO, Operations Manager, Trusts and Foundations Manager, and Head of Communications & Partnerships on different elements of fundraising. You can read more about our team here. 

Main Duties and Responsibilities

The areas of responsibility are not limited to, but are likely to include: 

• Advancing our systems and strategy for engaging with individual and corporate donors, likely based around launching a new ‘partner with a Spot’ model of support.
• Developing relationships with new communities of support for our work.  
• Supporting individual and corporate supporters with fundraising ideas, materials and strategies. 
• Overseeing the delivery of a strategic approach to the 2023 Big Give Appeal and a Radio 4 Appeal.  
• Working with the Ghanaian team to create resources that will resonate with prospective donors, communicate our impact, and advance donor engagement in our work. 
• Exploring more ways to advance how EduSpots is marketed to prospective donors, including potentially trialling new digital marketing products and using social media ads. 
• Working with the wider fundraising team to develop relationships with schools and our Ambassador Network that translate to income generation. 
• Maintaining strong communications (via emails, updates, meetings, calls, etc) with donors and potential donors, to retain their support.

Other

• Ensure all administrative tasks relating to the role are carried out accurately, sending a weekly communications document on your work. 
• Comply at all times with the organisation’s policies, procedures and performance expectations of staff as set out in the Staff and Volunteers Handbook.
• Any other duties as may be reasonably required under the role.

Personal Specifications

Essential 

Knowledge & Experience

• Experience of individual giving, community fundraising and /or corporate sponsorship.
• Experience identifying and securing new donors (corporate partners, community groups or significant numbers of individuals) for a charitable cause. 
• Experience of social media, digital marketing and design work, and leading fundraising campaigns.
• Experience representing an organisation at meetings or events with prospective supporters.
• Experience developing a wide range of written materials for different audiences.

Personal Qualities & Skills

• Proactive, dynamic, and able to drive things forward independently once a strategy is agreed. 
• Able to work in a fast-paced, ambitious organisation, understanding the value of fundraising for our community impact. 
• Creative; enjoy developing and trialling new ideas.
• Strong interpersonal skills; empathetic and flexible. 
• Strongly aligned to our organisational values and culture, with a genuine passion for educational equity and community-driven development. 

Highly desirable 

• An ability to create links with Ghanaian and Kenyan diaspora alongside other related communities of support. 
• Experience of leading individual giving campaigns. 

How to apply:

Please send a tailored covering letter and updated CV addressed to the Chair, Miss Cat Davison, at info@eduspots.org by 17th May 2023 with a hope to meet shortlisted candidates for a first-round interview in the week starting May 24th 2023 with an immediate start date for the selected candidate. 

For further information please see www.eduspots.org  or contact us at info@eduspots.org 

Also follow us on social media – @eduspots on Twitter and Facebook 

EduSpots is committed to the safeguarding of children. Appointment will be subject to an enhanced child protection screening appropriate to the post. Please note that you may be required to provide additional documentation as proof of your identity and qualifications.

Download this information here:

EduSpots Fundraising Manager 2023-2