Job Description
Location: Hybrid – your time will be split between our office/venue on Bristol Harbourside, and your home or wherever you like to work.
We’re happy to support flexible working – both through hybrid working and your working pattern. Ideally, we would like you to be in the office 2 days a week so you can attend key meetings, have some crossover with the rest of the Development team and deliver the responsibilities of the role.
Department: Development
Report to: Head of Development
Contract: 18 months fixed-term contract
Working hours: Part-time, 22.5 hours a week (0.6 FTE), flexible over 3, 4 or 5 days. Occasional working outside of normal hours, including travel, may be required.
About We The Curious
We The Curious is an educational charity and one of the UK’s leading science centres.
We produce experiences that bring people together to play, get creative with science and explore different ideas.
We work with partners, locally and nationally, supporting people to be inquisitive, develop new skills and improve their wellbeing.
We are progressive, inquisitive, collaborative, playful and creative.
Our Why, What & How
Our vision
What if everyone is included, curious and inspired by science to build a better world together?
Our mission
To connect and empower people through sharing creative experiences which celebrate unknowns in science.
Our pledges
- Cultivate Curiosity
- Strive for Sustainable Futures
- Include Everyone
- Build Resilience
- Open Up Science
You can find out more about these in our Manifesto.
Our Values
- Inquisitive - Asking questions
- Progressive – Thinking about what’s next
- Playful - Embracing the unexpected with a sense of fun
- Creative – Generating and testing new ideas
- Collaborative – Being inclusive, connecting and valuing
Our Strategic Priorities
- SP1 – We will deliver collaborative, curiosity-led learning projects to reduce inequality and improve life chances.
- SP2 – Our team and those we work with will reflect the diversity of our city, delivering a more inclusive experience.
- SP3 – We commit to being a carbon net zero organisation by 2030 and will inspire audiences to take positive action for our planet.
- SP4 – To deliver our charitable mission, we will strengthen existing income sources and seek new opportunities to deliver long-term financial security.
- SP5 – We will provide opportunities for people to explore new ideas, develop skills and influence scientific research.
About the role
We The Curious is about to enter an exciting new phase in its mission to connect and empower everyone through shared creative science learning experiences. It is our 25th Anniversary Year and we have exciting projects which range from community and educational outreach through to preparing for some major capital projects for which we must develop and cultivate support.
The Development Team is responsible for fundraising across the whole organisation as well as the stewardship and development of our donors and supporters. The other members of the team are the Head of Development, Development Manager, Trusts and Foundations Manager and the Development Team Account Manager. We are looking for a Fundraiser to join the team, to help us maximise and unlock some very exciting opportunities.
The Fundraiser will primarily focus on engaging businesses and developing mutually beneficial corporate partnerships and approaches to Corporate Trusts & Foundations. You will use your skills to research businesses to better understand their work and priorities and how these align with our own charitable objectives. You will spend most of your time building relationships, creating business focused products, developing and writing proposals.
You will need to be organised and enjoy working flexibly to support multiple projects. You will enjoy building relationships both internally and externally, networking and have strong verbal and written communication skills.
What will you do in this role?
Role specific responsibilities
Cultivating Support:
- Research new funding opportunities, including companies and corporate trusts and foundations ensuring their operations align with We the Curious charitable purpose and Ethical Policies.
- Cultivate potential funders, including managing on-site visits, special events, large scale cultivation events, phone calls and delivering presentations to secure support.
- Work closely with the Development Team to develop corporate engagement products such as sponsorship, membership, and giving schemes.
- Prepare and adapt funding proposals which meet deadlines and specific application criteria.
- Work closely with internal departmental teams to ensure funding proposals accurately reflect their projects intended objectives.
Stewardship and administration:
- Work with project teams and Account Manager to develop a plan for any new or potential donor to ensure they are appropriately managed, recognised for their support and reporting and evaluation requirements are met.
- Support the migration of Development Team records into our new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database, Tessitura, keeping information up to date and easy to find.
- Occasionally support the Development Team to organise and attend events during and outside normal working hours to support the cultivation and stewardship of donors and supporters.
Team Support:
- Develop and maintain your knowledge of planned activities at We The Curious, across all departments, to present our work persuasively to finders and partners.
- Contribute to the Development Team annual strategies and business planning.
General responsibilities
- Embody and demonstrate our values; Collaborative, Creative, Inquisitive, Playful, Progressive.
- Safeguarding – Responsible for carefully following safeguarding policies and procedures and raising any concerns to your manager or the Designated Safeguarding Officer.
- Fundraising - Promote charity messaging wherever possible, with support from the Development and Marketing teams.
- General responsibility for departmental compliance with GDPR.
- Occasional out of hours work and travel to events.
Application process
Deadline for applications: 11.59pm on Sunday 23rd November 2025.
Interview date and location: Week starting 8th December 2025 at We The Curious.
Start date: Approximately Tues 6th January 2026
Application process:
If you would like to apply, please complete the application form. It contains questions designed to assess your interest in and suitability for the role.
These are:
- Why would you like to work as a Fundraiser for We The Curious? (300 words)
- Please tell us about the skills and experience that you would bring to the role. (400 words)
- Using a specific example, please tells us about how you have worked collaboratively to deliver a project or proposal. (300 words)
- How would you engage a business with partnering with We the Curious? (300 words)
Please don’t send in CVs or cover letters as we don’t review them.
We appreciate interviews can be stressful, so we try to make them more of a conversation and a chance for you to tell us about how your skills and interests make you the right person for the role.
If you are invited for an interview, we’ll send you the questions that you’ll be asked beforehand so that you have time to prepare.
If you have any particular needs or requirements, please do let us know so that we can make the required adjustments.
If you would like to talk about the role or the application process, please email [email protected]
Support during the process
We The Curious is a Disability Confident Employer and we welcome applications from candidates who self-assess themselves as having a disability. We will guarantee an interview to applicants who advise that they have a disability and who meet the minimum criteria for a job vacancy. To help you, under the Equality Act 2010 a person is defined as having a disability if a) they have a physical or mental impairment, and b) the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
We want to work with you to ensure the recruitment process is accessible for you.
If you are disabled, neurodivergent, or if you have a long-term health condition, we’ll be happy to make reasonable adjustments to our processes for you.
You’ll have the opportunity to let us know about any adjustments you may need throughout the application and selection process. We’ll continue this conversation if you join us as a staff member, and we’ll work with you to make sure you have the adjustments you need to succeed in your role.
Examples of adjustments could include:
- providing alternative formats at every stage
- options to apply extra time for tasks
- providing some extra information about what to expect
- office orientation before an in-person interview.
Including everyone
We value the positive impact greater representation will have on our organisation, programmes and culture. It’s our goal to become an inclusive place to work and for our teams to better reflect our city and the people who visit us.
We welcome applications from people of all lived experiences and particularly those that are not well represented* in the science centre sector.
*By not well represented we mean people with lived experience including but not limited to:
African and African-Caribbean heritage
- South Asian and East Asian heritage
- Global Majority
- Disabled
- Neurodivergent
- Visually Impaired
- Deaf community
- LGBTQIA+ and/or non-binary
- Working class background
- Didn’t go to university or first in your immediate family to attend University
Required skills
What we’re looking for from you
You do not need to have experience of being a fundraiser to do this role. Our experienced team are happy to develop an enthusiastic and proactive individual who can demonstrate they have transferable communication, written and research skills.
Essential:
- You need to be invested in learning more about charity fundraising, however you do not necessarily need to have worked for a charity or culture/heritage organisation before.
- We are looking for a professional, confident and enthusiastic communicator who enjoys talking on the phone, face to face and in meetings.
- Strong written skills, both in preparing and adapting documents
- You must enjoy researching and learning about businesses and use professional and impartial reasoning to identify potential partners and explore new opportunities which are aligned with our charitable objectives.
- Good organisational skills so that you can multi-task between several projects at once.
- Confident with Microsoft packages such as Word, Excel and Power Point and Teams.
Desirable:
- Some experience of working with income budgets, audited accounts and internal financial reports.
- Some experience of developing business focused products, services or experiences
- Experience of working with CRM databases.
- A demonstrable interest and commitment to the work we do, within the Development Team but also more generally as a charity, to make science learning more inclusive.
Benefits
Working with us
We value the people that work with us. Our staff have access to the following:
Wellbeing & support
- Flexible working
- Hybrid working (if suitable and stated for role)
- Cycle to work scheme
- Free yearly flu jabs and eye tests
- Paid sick leave for physical and mental health
- Mental Health First Aiders
- Confidential advice & counselling through the Employee Support Programme
Leave
- 25 days holiday in addition to bank holidays (all pro-rata).
- A day of extra holiday for every 5 years’ service.
- An amount of paid leave for emergency dependent care, domestic emergency leave and compassionate leave.
New Parent Policy
We are proud to be a family friendly organisation, which is why we work to develop our people practices in line with that value. We have recently introduced a none gendered approach to Maternity and Paternity, re-branded as our “New Parent Policy”. There are eligibility criteria and terms and conditions but the key take away is that anyone who is due to become a new parent, regardless of their gender, can take 1 year off work, and we’ll pay your full salary for the first 5 months.
Facilities & discounts
- Free tickets to the venue for you and up to four guests, plus 12 additional entry tickets per calendar year to give away.
- 15% off in the We The Curious café
- 20% off in our shop
- Range of discounts with local businesses and free entry to other local attractions.
- Social events
- Secure cycle storage
Pension
We offer a pension scheme with 5% company contributions.
Death in service benefit
Four times your annual salary.