Permanent, Full Time

The British Library is home to a world of discovery for researchers, writers, thinkers, artists, creatives and scientists alike. We have over 170 million items in our collection, from Magna Carta and Shakespeare’s first folio, to Beatles’ lyrics and Angela Carter’s archive. Our philanthropic supporters help us open up this world of ideas and inspiration for everyone. Their support enables us to share our collection as widely as possible by developing learning programmes for young people, supporting growing businesses, inspiring diverse communities, broadening our exhibitions and events and improving our physical spaces.

The Individual Giving Officer is an important role in the Library’s Development team. It’s a really exciting time to join us as we ramp up our fundraising activities in preparation for a multimillion pound fundraising campaign.  Working alongside the Individual Giving Manager, you will contribute to the Development team’s targets by increasing income through a range of regular giving programmes, donations (online, top up donations via box office, shop sales and donation boxes), large scale public appeals and direct marketing activities.

You’ll apply your professional fundraising experience and creative writing skills to tailor communications for different audiences. You’ll use your strong project management skills and good working knowledge of fundraising legal and taxation issues including GDPR and PECR to devise and run appeals to recruit new supporters to the Library.  This is an exciting opportunity for the successful candidate to learn from others and enhance their expertise, skills and confidence in this area of fundraising. Experience in digital marketing is not essential as the role will be working collaboratively with the Marketing team.

Knowledge of fundraising and/or customer databases are essential for the role, as is the ability to analyse information and complex data sets to inform fundraising activity. A proactive and collaborative team player, you will support the team towards data selection, mining and identifying appropriate individuals in order to grow the prospect pool and pipeline of gifts. You will also work closely with the Individual Giving Manager to provide excellent stewardship for individuals within the British Library’s Legacy Society, Benefactor Membership and Patrons’ Programme, whilst managing your own portfolio of donors giving up to £5,000 per year.

The ideal candidate will relish the challenges of working for a complex, ambitious and multi-stakeholder environment, enjoy working collaboratively with others, and be an excellent communicator with a creative approach to solving problems. 

In return we offer a competitive salary and a number of excellent benefits.  Our pension scheme is one of the most valuable benefits we offer, as our staff can become members of the Alpha Pension Scheme where the Library contributes a minimum 26.6%. Another significant benefit the Library provides is the provision of a flexible working hours scheme which could allow you to work your hours flexibly over the week and to take up to 5 days flexi leave in a 3 month period. This is on top of 25 days holiday from entry and public and privilege holidays.

More about the British Library

As one of the world’s great libraries, our duty is to preserve the nation’s intellectual memory for the future. At the moment we have well over 150 million items, in most known languages, with three million new items added every year. We have manuscripts, maps, newspapers, magazines, prints and drawings, music scores, and patents. We operate the world’s largest document delivery service providing millions of items a year to customers all over the world. What matters to us is that we preserve the national memory and enable knowledge to be created both now and in the future

For further information and to apply, please visit the Recruitment page on the British Library Website, quoting vacancy ref: 03644.  Please note we do not accept CVs.

Closing date: 6 June 2021

Interview date: 11/14 June 2021