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Grants & Development Officer
Galapagos Conservation Trust
London, UK
GBP 27k-31k / year
Posted on Jan 21, 2026
Place of work: Galapagos Conservation Trust office, central London (hybrid working with min. 2 days per week in the office)Hours of work: Full time (35 hours per week), 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday (with one hour unpaid lunch break, 7 hour working day)Reports to: Senior Development ManagerLine Manages: No direct line management, possible volunteer managementSalary: £27K-£31K per annum (depending on experienceJob DescriptionThe Galapagos Islands, Ecuador are one of the planet’s first UNESCO World Heritage Sites and a global conservation priority due to unique biodiversity – with species found nowhere else on Earth, and a local community dependent on maintaining a healthy ocean and island environment.Based in London, Galapagos Conservation Trust (GCT) is the only UK registered charity to focus exclusively on the conservation and sustainable development of the Galapagos Islands. We are looking for a proactive individual with good storytelling skills to produce fundraising applications and reports that inspire. You will be joining our friendly team at an exciting time for the organisation, as we begin our 2026-2028 strategy and strive to achieve our key ambitions by the year 2030 across our programmes, fundraising and communications efforts.As part of GCT’s Fundraising & Communications team, you will work closely with the Senior Development Manager to secure grant funding from Trusts & Foundations across our programme portfolio (including island restoration, community resilience, ocean protection and plastic pollution topics), with an increasing focus on securing multi-year funding to embed sustainability in our programme delivery.You will be a great writer, researcher and comfortable working with numbers, enabling you to identify new fundraising opportunities and develop engaging proposals and reports with clear budgets. You will also be an organised individual with great attention to detail, ensuring you can effectively balance your time across competing deadlines and tasks.What we want:- An individual with experience of supporting the development of quality fundraising applications and achieving funding success from Trusts & Foundations.- An excellent storyteller and communicator, who is able to write proposals for a wide range of audiences and is confident making enquiries regarding potential applications, in person, by phone and email.- A highly organised individual, ideally with experience developing and maintaining fundraising pipelines and meeting funding targets.- A proactive approach, able to work on own initiative as well as part of a small team.What you will get:- A connection with cutting-edge conservation impact in the planet’s first World Heritage Site, the Galapagos Islands and the surrounding Galapagos Marine Reserve.- Opportunities to develop your skills with training from GCT’s senior fundraising team, joining us as we set out on ambitious growth plans – a great opportunity to boost your fundraising career.- Opportunities to benefit from professional external training to support further development where relevant and feasible.- Support from a fully engaged, friendly and inclusive staff team.What you’ll deliver:- Work with the Senior Development Manager to achieve an annual fundraising target for Trusts & Foundations income (c.£500K in 2026), also helping to secure six figure multi-year grants.- Produce high-quality, compelling grant proposals with clear budgets and measurable indicators.- Ensure all Trust & Foundation donors receive quality reports and a high-level of donor stewardship.- Support the development of GCT’s programmes by aligning project plans with fundraising opportunities, including targeted research for new potential Trusts & Foundations.- Drive administrative upkeep of GCT’s Trusts & Foundations database, planning documents, GDPR compliance and coordinating mailings to Trust & Foundation contacts such as for events or new magazine issues.- Support the Senior Development Manager with quarterly Trusts & Foundations fundraising updates in GCT’s operational plan, and for the GCT Senior Leadership Team, Fundraising Committee and Board as required.How we’ll measure it:- Amount of restricted and unrestricted income secured through Trusts & Foundations.- Contribution to development of GCT programmes and our 2030 goals.- Number of applications submitted, both those led and supporting other fundraising team members.- Successfully maintaining ‘repeat’ and ‘new’ funders as demonstrated through tailored cultivation and donations secured.What you’re responsible for:- Increasing restricted & unrestricted income from Trusts & Foundations in line with GCT’s fundraising strategy with the Senior Development Manager.- Supporting keeping our database, internal documents and files up-to-date and GDPR compliant for Trusts & Foundations and external contacts.- Producing high quality proposals and reports, ensuring consultation of key GCT team members and partners in their development, and submitting these to meet all deadlines.- Support the Senior Development Manager with applications for multi-year grants, such as writing and budget inputs, Theory of Change inputs and organising supplementary materials.- Helping to maintain excellent relationships with existing funders via bespoke outreach and thank you letters, project updates as appropriate, and semi-regular communications on GCT materials/events.- Proactively researching potential funders and supporting the Senior Development Manager and Senior Leadership Team members on their cultivation.- Reviewing fundraising success from Trusts & Foundations and developing annual fundraising plans with the Senior Development Manager.- Supporting the Senior Development Manager with Trusts & Foundations income and fundraising pipeline updates to GCT’s Senior Leadership Team and Trustees as required.- When grants are successful, lead or support the Senior Development Manager with handover actions to the Programmes team to ensure project budgets, timelines and donor expectations are clear.Person Specification:Work Experience:- 1-2 years proven experience in Trusts & Foundations fundraising.- Experience working with budgets in Excel.- Experience of working with a database and managing contact lists and records.Technical knowledge and skills:- Excellent writing skills (both creative and scientific writing experience is welcomed) with strong attention to detail required.- Thorough understanding of the process of engaging, cultivating and applying to Trusts & Foundations.- Strong knowledge of the UK grant-making sector.- Experience of working within the charity sector (including relevant voluntary roles).- Excellent verbal communication skills and a confident and polite telephone manner, and an ability to represent the charity at funder meetings & events.- Ability to organise and prioritise workloads in order to meet deadlines.- Strong research skills and data management skills.- Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, especially Excel.General:- A passion for conservation and the natural world.- A passion for story-telling and inspiring others.- Knowledge of fundraising best practice.- A proactive individual worker and a good team player.- Willingness to undertake any other duties which may be required from time to time (e.g. helping or representing GCT at occasional evening events/conferences).Desirable (not essential):- Experience fundraising for, or communicating about, environmental/conservation, education or sustainability projects.- Experience of working with volunteers.- A degree or equivalent background in an environmental or social science, education or policy topic.- Ability to speak Spanish.Galapagos Conservation Trust: Who We Are:Galapagos Conservation Trust (GCT) is the only UK registered charity to focus exclusively on the conservation and sustainability of the Galapagos Archipelago. With over 30 years of experience working in Galapagos, we collaborate with our strong local network of NGOs, community members, authorities and researchers, as well as international partners, to deliver projects that achieve measurable conservation outcomes, improve sustainable livelihoods, and protect the environment. We will soon launch our 2026-2028 strategy, with our programmes supported island restoration, ocean protection, community resilience and pollution solutions, taking a systems approach to conservation at the ecosystem scale, and ensuring our efforts tackle priority threats through a suite of solutions centered on science, education, community innovation and policy.To Apply:GCT welcomes applications from everyone regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith or disability.To apply for this role, please send (i) a CV and a (ii) a covering letter explaining how you meet the key requirements of the role and your motivation for applying to gct@gct.org.Closing Date: midday (GMT) Wednesday 3rd December. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so submitting your application early is encouraged as the role may be filled early.Thank you for your interest in joining the GCT team!