Volunteer Fundraising Manager
Lead campaigns, grow income, and support our work rescuing and rehoming cats. Flexible, Hybrid role with real impact. Experience essential, we value passion, ideas, and commitment to animal welfare.
What difference will you make?
As Fundraising Manager, your impact will be immediate, visible, and genuinely life‑changing for the cats in our care. StraySafe Rescue operates as a foster‑based charity, which means every cat we help relies directly on the resources we secure. There is no large‑scale funding or guaranteed income stream behind the scenes. Every veterinary treatment, every bag of food, every piece of equipment, and every rescue we take on is made possible through fundraising. Your work will directly determine how many cats we can help, how quickly we can respond to emergencies, and the standard of care we can provide.
One of the most tangible impacts of this role is enabling timely veterinary care. Many of the cats that come into our care require urgent treatment, sometimes for injuries, illness, or complications such as pregnancy or infection. Strong fundraising ensures that decisions are never delayed due to financial constraints. It allows the rescue to act quickly, confidently, and always in the best interest of the animal.
Your work will also expand our capacity. With consistent and well‑managed income, we can support more foster homes, take in more cats, and reduce waiting times for those in need. Without sufficient funds, even the most dedicated team must make difficult decisions about whom we can and cannot help. With your support, those limitations are reduced.
Beyond immediate care, your role contributes to long‑term stability. By building sustainable income streams, developing donor relationships, and strengthening community engagement, you will help move the organisation from reactive fundraising to a more secure and forward‑planned position. This stability allows us to focus not only on rescue, but also on education, responsible ownership, and prevention.
You will also play a key role in connecting people to the cause. Fundraising is not just about income, it is about storytelling, awareness, and building a community of supporters who care deeply about animal welfare. Through campaigns and engagement, you will help amplify the voices of the cats we rescue and inspire others to get involved.
Ultimately, your contribution enables everything we do. Every successful adoption, every recovery, and every life saved is made possible through the funds you help generate. The results are seen in healthy, happy cats going on to safe and loving homes.
What are we looking for?
We seek a motivated individual excited by the opportunity to take ownership of fundraising activity within a growing, volunteer‑led rescue. The role suits an experienced individual who enjoys turning ideas into action and is comfortable working with a high level of autonomy.
We are ideally seeking someone with three or more years of experience in fundraising, marketing, communications, donor engagement, or a related field. This experience may have been gained within the charity, non‑profit, community, or commercial sectors. We are particularly interested in individuals who have experience planning and delivering campaigns, engaging supporters, securing funding, or developing partnerships.
Strong organisational skills are essential. You will manage multiple campaigns, ideas, and opportunities simultaneously, so the ability to plan effectively, prioritise competing demands, and see projects through to completion is key. Excellent communication skills are also important, especially when creating engaging fundraising content, building relationships with supporters, and collaborating with the wider team.
Creativity is highly valued. We want someone who can bring fresh thinking to community engagement and fundraising activity, helping us develop innovative ways to generate support and income. Whether through digital fundraising, grant opportunities, local partnerships, events, or compelling public appeals, the ability to turn ideas into meaningful results will make a significant difference.
Experience in grant applications, donor stewardship, corporate partnerships, fundraising strategy, event planning, or digital fundraising would be highly beneficial. Understanding social media and online platforms is also important, as much of our fundraising activity takes place digitally.
This role suits a self‑motivated, proactive, adaptable, and confident individual who can work independently while also contributing to a small team. As a volunteer‑led organisation, flexibility, dependability, and the ability to manage one's own workload effectively are especially important.
Above all, we look for someone who genuinely cares about animal welfare and wants to play a meaningful role in helping cats in need. Your skills and experience will directly support our ability to rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome vulnerable cats across Greater Manchester.
Hybrid (work arrangement)
What will you be doing?
The Fundraising Manager plays a central role in ensuring StraySafe Rescue can continue delivering its core mission of rescuing, rehabilitating, and rehoming cats through a foster‑based model. This is a strategic and hands‑on role focused on building reliable income streams and strengthening the charity’s financial sustainability.
A key responsibility is the planning and delivery of fundraising campaigns. This includes developing monthly and seasonal appeals, coordinating online fundraising activity, and supporting targeted campaigns such as emergency vet bill appeals or themed initiatives. The role involves taking ideas from concept through to execution, ensuring campaigns are well communicated, engaging, and aligned with the charity’s values.
Another priority is identifying and developing new income opportunities. This may include researching and applying for grants, exploring partnerships with local businesses, and supporting community fundraising efforts. The Fundraising Manager will also help build relationships with individual donors, encouraging repeat giving and long‑term support.
The role includes oversight of digital fundraising channels. This means working alongside those managing social media and the website to ensure donation messaging is clear, consistent, and effective. Monitoring performance is important, with a focus on understanding what works and adapting future campaigns accordingly.
Key deliverables include a simple but effective fundraising plan, regular campaign rollouts, and maintaining or increasing monthly income levels. The Fundraising Manager should also support basic reporting, providing updates on funds raised, campaign performance, and opportunities identified.
StraySafe Rescue is a volunteer‑led charity with a small trustee board and an operations‑led structure. The Fundraising Manager will work closely with the Operations Manager and trustees, particularly when aligning fundraising activity with operational needs such as veterinary costs, foster capacity, or specific rescue cases. While the role offers a high level of autonomy, collaboration and communication are important to ensure efforts are focused where they are most needed.
This role is best suited to someone who can balance creativity with organisation, is comfortable taking initiative, and is motivated by making a tangible difference. The focus is not on large‑scale corporate fundraising, but on building consistent, realistic income streams that directly support the day‑to‑day running of the rescue.
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