Institutional Funding Manager - Maternity Cover

Salary - £48,106 - £55,000 per annum (Competitive salary for the local market if based outside of the UK)
Location - Hybrid, London, United Kingdom
Team - Resource Mobilisation
Line Manager - Head of Resource Mobilisation
Line Reports - 2 x Institutional Fundraising Advisors, 1x Institutional Partnerships Officer
Hours - 35 hours per week
Contract - Fixed term (13 Months)
Start date - The ideal candidate shall start early September

The Vacancy

We are looking for a strategic and proactive Institutional Funding Manager with significant experience managing complex relationships with large institutional donors and securing high value funding in the humanitarian and development sector. You will be a strong relationship manager and confident leading ambitious seven and eight figure funding opportunities from early positioning and donor engagement through to proposal development, negotiation and award management.

Working closely with global programme, finance and operational teams, you will play a central role in shaping innovative and compelling proposals that support locally led crisis response and anticipation around the world. This is an exciting opportunity to work across a diverse global network, influence strategic donor partnerships and help grow a major international funding portfolio.

Job Purpose

Start Network is looking for an Institutional Funding Manager who is strategic, ambitious, and a great team player. You will work with the Head of Resource Mobilisation to set and deliver a strategy to maximise our institutional funding portfolio to grow and sustain our income over the coming year (current portfolio size of £30million+). This role will be key to enabling Start Network to deliver on its strategy, and the postholder will have the opportunity to engage across all areas of Start Network s programmes. The Institutional Fundraising Manager will be responsible for securing and overseeing significant levels of income from institutional sources for Start Network s work globally, including working with programmes teams on project development and the preparation of high-value proposals for institutional donors (narrative, budgets, monitoring frameworks and other technical documents). The postholder will be expected to work at both an operational and strategic level, managing their own portfolio of donors (such as FCDO), securing new business from scratch, and providing Start Network with tactical direction on donor outreach and compliance.

Over the period of the contract, we are especially looking for someone who is comfortable and experienced in finding new institutional donors, leveraging current contacts and networks, and pitching and presenting new opportunities.

Currently, we receive funding from multiple European governments and FCDO so experience with these funders would be critical for this role.

For more information please refer to the Job Description.

Our Current UK Perks and Benefits for 2026 are:

• 25 days annual leave, increasing with service
• Company days
• Pension Scheme
• Birthday off
• Hybrid Working Policy
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Personal Development Allowance
• Life Assurance

These are reviewed and updated each year and may differ outside of the UK

The Company

Start Network is made up of more than 90 non-governmental organisations across five continents, ranging from large international organisations to local and national NGOs. Our programmes allow members to deliver humanitarian action around the world.

Our mission is to create a new era of humanitarian action that will save even more lives. We aren t driven by media headlines or political will, we re here for the communities affected by and at risk of crises.

We are an organisation committed to doing things differently. For some roles, we need more technical humanitarian expertise, but for other roles, we are looking for relevant transferable skills, the right attitude, and a passion to bring change.