Development Operations Officer

We are the independent scientific academy of the UK, founded in 1660. The Society has a long history of philanthropic support and in 2015 ran a successful 350th anniversary fundraising campaign which raised £100m. We count many well-known philanthropists, foundations and corporates within our list of current supporters who fund a range of activities including Science 2040, Brian Cox Videos, a Science Book Prize, Wolfson Fellowships and an annual bilateral meeting with India. Due to a convening power and reach that is globally unique, our philanthropic potential is enormous. This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing team and the next two to five years will be formative in enabling the Society to galvanise philanthropy in support of our founding mission: to promote excellence in Science for the benefit of humanity.

The Operations Officer underpins the success of the Development Department and plays an important role in supporting the growth and success of an ambitious fundraising team. The role will involve working with and supporting the Development Operations Manager to ensure the department’s systems, processes and data are managed effectively. The postholder will primarily act as the main point of contact in the department for support with gift processing and the CRM database. The ideal candidate will therefore be familiar with CRM systems (preferably MS Dynamics), have strong IT skills, a knowledge of the operational needs of a busy fundraising department, and be highly organised.

Please note that we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.

Reports to: Development Operations Manager

Line manages: N/A

Pay band: C

Salary:  £33k-£42k per annum

Contract type: Permanent 

Hours: 35 hours per week

Location: Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AG plus the option for some hybrid remote working
Closing date for applications: midnight of 12 November 2025

Interviews will be held: 25 and 26 November 2025

Gift management and finance

• Undertake all aspects of the receipt, batching, checking, logging and banking of donations to the Society.
• Responsibility for the administration of the Society’s giving mechanisms including CAF and Paypal, including liaising with external suppliers.
• Processing expenses, invoices and organising payments as required. Logging all Development expenditure.
• Preparing quarterly and end of year financial updates on philanthropy income and expenditure for the Development team.
• Maximise the Royal Society’s yearly Gift Aid claim by ensuring all Gift Aid forms are signed, collected and filed.
• Liaising with Development’s management accountant to ensure financial records are kept correctly and assist in the monthly reconciliation of philanthropic income as required.
• Overseeing income plan records in the Development CRM and raising gift payment requests as needed.
• Drafting and producing acknowledgement letters and receipts for single and regular gifts and other donor communications as required.

 Database and systems

• Act as a point of contact for the CRM and champion its use as a donor and stakeholder tool.
• Support the Development Team with collating data for internal and external reporting and invitations to events.

• Support the Development team to maintain and update the CRM in accordance with data protection legislation and Royal Society policy and procedures.

• Take responsibility for specific data cleaning exercises.
• Provide assistance on data segmentation.

 General

• Monitor incoming post.
• Maintain an efficient record keeping system for the team, including current and archived files.      

• Coordinate the Development team meetings.
• Be an ambassador for the Royal Society through maintaining a professional approach at all times.
• Undertake any other activities that may be reasonably required.

Key knowledge

• Experience of using a database to record information and produce reports. – Essential
• Experience of using Microsoft Office, particularly Excel. – Essential
• Knowledge of UK fundraising regulations and GDPR compliance. – Desirable
• Knowledge of the core principles of Gift Aid and tax efficiency. - Desirable
• Understanding of fundraising from high-net-worth individuals, trusts and foundations, and companies. - Desirable

 Skills required

• Excellent interpersonal skills to communicate with a diverse range of people. – Essential
• Planning and organising - determines priorities, allocates time and resources effectively, to enable completion of objectives. – Essential
• Able to use their own initiative when required. – Essential
• Decision making - makes good quality, objective and timely decisions having considered available courses of action. – Essential
• Ability to deal with information in a confidential manner and respond with sensitivity – Essential
• Administrative and IT skills, and an ability to maintain accurate records and produce clear written and oral reports. – Essential

At Band C you will hold a specialist role. Pay Band C roles are described in the following dimensions:

Decision-making – Your work is varied and you have a range of administrative or technical tasks. You take decisions in line with specific routines, guidelines or procedures.  You plan your own work and coordinate with others on how their work fits into the broader plan of activities.  Supervision is available for issues that fall outside of existing operating guidelines or your realm of knowledge

Thinking challenges - The solutions to issues or problems are not always obvious and investigation is needed before choosing a way forward.  Your initiative is required to help find ways to improve working practices and procedures in your area of work, in sorting out problems that occur in day-to-day work or improvements to work processes.

Communicating – You maintain relationships which involve liaison or coordinating with a range of internal and/or external contacts on mainly transactional issues.  

Developing people – You may be responsible for allocating work to, or checking the work of less experienced colleagues

Managing Resources – You may perform activities such as reconciling information/data or analyses of expenditure or income, adhering to agreed procedures

Applying knowledge & expertise - You require proficiency in, and keeping up to date with, skills required for your area of work or technical skills acquired through relevant work experience and/or vocational qualification.

The competency levels for a pay Band C role are described below.