Grant Manager (Arts, Culture and Heritage)

About The Opportunity

Job Type: PermanentApplication Deadline: 27 September 2025

Advert:

The Fidelity UK and international Foundations are looking to recruit a Grant Manager (Arts, Culture and Heritage) to manage and develop a portfolio of grants for the Arts, Culture and Heritage Programme.

The Foundation’s approach to grant-making is distinctive, in that it focuses on capacity building to strengthen the impact, effectiveness and/or financial sustainability of non-profit organisations so they can thrive and fulfil their mission and goals.  

This is an exciting time to be joining the Foundation as it looks to grow and strengthen its grants portfolio in the UK and internationally.

The Role:

• Role:     Grant Manager (Arts, Culture and Heritage)
• Location:            London, Cannon Street. This is a full-time role.
• Salary: £46k - £53k + comprehensive benefits
• Reports to:         Programme Manager (Arts, Culture and Heritage) 

Working closely with the Programme Manager (Arts, Culture and Heritage), the Grant Manager (Arts, Culture and Heritage) will be responsible for the development, delivery, and management of a significant portfolio of grants across the Arts, Culture and Heritage Programme. While this is primarily a UK-focused role, and the post-holder will also support the development of the international grants portfolio for the arts, culture and heritage programme (and also work on grant-making across other programme areas, as required).

The Foundation has evolved significantly in recent years, and this is an exciting time to join the team.

The Person:

The successful candidate will have an in-depth knowledge of the UK arts, culture and heritage sector’s funding ecology and policy environments and socio-economic impact. They will also have significant experience of grant-making alongside experience of working within operating arts, culture and heritage organisations. The post holder will also have a keen interest and knowledge in the interconnections between environmental conservation, health and wellbeing and/or children and young people.

Given the Foundation’s focus on strengthening the capacity of non-profit organisations, and in particular their financial sustainability/resilience, this person will also have the necessary analytical skills and knowledge to assess organisations as a whole (analysing factors such as leadership and governance, impact, financial health/sustainability/resilience, business and strategic planning etc.). They will also be adept at understanding how a capacity building project will strengthen an organisation.

In addition to excellent analytical, the successful candidate will have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to understand and articulate complex information clearly and concisely.  Attention to detail and ability to manage multiple deadlines and priorities will be key to success in this role.  Finally, you will have a high degree of humility and a collaborative style and will be able to pro-actively manage a diverse workload on your own initiative. 

Role:                Grant Manager (Arts, Culture and Heritage): Fidelity UK and international Foundations (the role is full-time and the post-holder will be employed by Fidelity International and seconded to the Foundation)

Location:         London (Cannon Street / hybrid - o the post-holder will need to be in the office at least 2-3 days per week, and available to be in the office/travel for site visits, as required).

Salary:             £46k - £53k + comprehensive benefits

Reports to:      Programme Manager (Arts, Culture and Heritage)   

Background

About the Fidelity UK and Fidelity international Foundations

The Fidelity UK Foundation was established by Fidelity International in 1988 and has been proudly supported by Fidelity International since inception.

The Foundation’s approach to grant-making is distinctive in that it focuses on capacity building (the capabilities, knowledge and resources charities need to thrive and achieve their goals), helping to strengthen the impact, effectiveness and/or sustainability of non-profit organisations (focusing on charities with budgets of between c.£1m and c.£20m).

The Foundation has four priority programme areas:

• Enabling disadvantaged children and young people to achieve their potential (focusing on education attainment, youth development, wellbeing and family life, and employability).
• Health and wellbeing (focusing on organisations that are delivering services that fall outside of the scope of state provision/areas of unmet need/prevention and early intervention - the Foundation does not fund organisations focused on health research).
• Arts, culture and heritage (focusing in the UK on three art forms – visual arts, theatre and music).
• Environmental conservation (focusing on land and freshwater conservation, and access and connectivity to nature).

The Foundation is pro-active in its approach to grant-making and does not seek unsolicited proposals. We run a highly interactive grant-making process. We take pride in our holistic and intentional approach, and seek to analyse an organisation as a whole, including its leadership and governance, impact, strategic plans, how it engages with the communities it seeks to serve and the wider eco-system, its approach to collaboration, operations, and financial management/sustainability - and importantly how any project proposed for funding will enhance capacity.

The Fidelity UK Foundation recently undertook a strategic review of its arts, culture and heritage programme, resulting in a focus on organisations that deliver activities relating to three art forms: visual arts, theatre and music. The Foundation has a significant interest in capacity-building projects that strengthen the financial resilience/sustainability of arts organisations.

In addition to the Fidelity UK Foundation, Fidelity International also supports international Foundations whose grant-making focuses on Europe and Asia Pacific. For the arts, culture and heritage programme, internationally our focus is on visual arts and also on organisations that harness the arts to support education/health and wellbeing outcomes. The UK and international Foundations are managed by one team.

Our values of, integrity, trust, compassion, collaboration, and a deep sense of humility guide our grant-making which is executed quietly as the Foundations do not seek public profile.

Information about the Foundations’ and their approach to grant-making can be found on the website.

This is an exciting time to join the Fidelity UK Foundation as it looks to grow and develop its grant portfolios, continues to finesse its grant-making strategies, and deepen its understanding of the impact of its grants. 

Purpose of the Role

Working closely with the Programme Manager (Arts, Culture and Heritage) - the Grant Manager will primarily be responsible for overseeing the management, development and delivery of grant-making across the UK Foundation’s Arts, Culture and Heritage Programme. The post holder will also support the Programme Manager with the development of the Arts, Culture and Heritage Programme for the international Foundations, and will support grant-making for other Programmes, as required.

Key Responsibilities

Grants Management:

Oversee development of pipeline of grants

• Pro-actively develop a strong pipeline of grants to ensure that grant-making targets for the UK (and international) Foundations are met and that proposals are well aligned to the Foundations’ strategic priorities.
• Assess concept papers invited from charities providing in depth analysis and recommendations regarding which could be taken forward to full application.
• Undertake due diligence on applications, effectively applying the Foundations’ due diligence framework, analysing an organisation as a whole (effectively analysing factors such as leadership and governance, impact, funding model and financial health and strategic/business plans) and assessing how a proposed project will enhance an organisation’s strategic ambitions.
• Reflect on appropriateness/relevance of organisational and project goals for grant proposals to support monitoring of progress and impact, ensuring that measures are meaningful and ‘owned’ by grantees.
• Write clear and concise proposals with sound analysis for Trustee consideration.
• Peer review grant proposals across the UK and international Foundations.

Portfolio Management

• Develop and maintain constructive relationships with grantees throughout the grant-making life-cycle - from application to monitoring progress, assessing progress reports and learning from grants made.
• Implement Trustee decisions, working closely with the Grants Administration team to ensure all aspects of grants administration are processed efficiently.

Monitoring, impact and learning

Working closely with colleagues focused on monitoring, impact, and learning:

• Review grantee reports and undertake periodic meetings/site visits throughout the grant period in the interest of developing positive relationships with grantees, monitoring progress and learning from grantees and from the impact of grants made.
• Analyse the impact of grants, preparing papers for Trustees, as required.
• Pro-actively connect grantees to facilitate shared learning.
• Support learning across the wider Foundations’ team so all Foundations continue to enhance their knowledge, strategic thinking and practice.

Grant-Making Strategy

• Support the Programme Manager (Arts, Culture and Heritage) in keeping abreast of developments in the arts, culture and heritage sector, pro-actively sharing knowledge and insights across the team.
• Build and maintain relationships with, and knowledge of other grant-makers that have shared interests.

General

• Ensure compliance with all Foundation policies, and effectively mitigate and manage risk.
• Ensure the Foundations’ grant-making database is kept up to date and accurate.
• Offer flexible support for the Foundations generally, as and when necessary, providing cover for other members of the team to ensure the work of the Foundations can continue effectively and without interruption.
• Represent the Foundations in a manner that is consistent with their values.

Experience and Qualifications Required

Qualifications

• Degree or equivalent experience (ideally in fields directly relevant to the role) 

Knowledge And Expertise

• In depth knowledge of the arts, culture and heritage sector in the UK.
• Knowledge of the international arts, culture and heritage sectors (desirable).
• Significant experience of grant-making and/or undertaking due diligence on/analysing non-profit organisations (e.g. as a consultant).
• Experience of working at a senior level within arts, culture and heritage organisations (desirable).
• In-depth knowledge of capacity/capability building needs non-profit organisations, including knowledge of the effective application of technology and insights regarding effective innovation that is supporting new business models, financial resilience and/or sustainability.
• Proven experience of analysing an organisation’s capacity building needs, including experience of analysing funding models, business plans and assessing the sustainability of organisations.
• A sound understanding of how philanthropy can be effectively harnessed to strengthen the impact, efficiency and/or sustainability of organisations.
• Direct experience of providing capacity building/organisational development support to non-profit organisations (desirable).
• Proven track record of producing clear, concise and insightful information for diverse audiences, including strategy papers.
• Established network across the non-profit sector, including with other funders active in the field.
• Knowledge of and/or an interest in environmental conservation/arts, culture and heritage (desirable).

 Skills, abilities and interests

• Ability to analyse complex information and assess charitable organisations as a whole (including reviewing and analysing business/strategic plans, impact data and financial accounts and budgets), considering an organisation’s role and impact in the broader context.
• Ability to produce strong, clear and compelling written material to inform decision-making.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Excellent communication and inter-personal skills - must be able to work effectively with a diverse range of organisations, other team members and Trustees.
• Ability to ask insightful questions and make informed and sound judgements, engaging effectively with organisations throughout the life cycle of a grant.
• Ability to think and plan strategically.
• Excellent administrative, project management and organisational skills and the ability to meet tight deadlines and work at pace, managing a diverse and demanding workload on own initiative.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Ability to understand and articulate complex information clearly and concisely.
• High standard of written and spoken English.
• Excellent listening skills and the ability to ask the right questions.
• Ability to analyse financial accounts.
• High level of personal responsibility, discretion, humility, and emotional intelligence with experience of engaging with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
• Empathic with an open and curious approach. 
• An understated and collaborative style. 
• Flexible, creative, approachable, and diplomatic.
• Ability to get alongside organisations, allowing them to lead.
• Generous approach to knowledge sharing.

General

• The desire to bring enthusiasm, ambition, and commitment to the role.
• Commitment to the ethos and mission of the Foundations.
• Willingness to travel within the UK (and internationally, if required), including some overnight stays.
• Evidence of commitment to work-related learning and development.

Appendix 1: About Fidelity International

Fidelity International offers investment solutions and services and retirement expertise to customers globally. As a privately-held, purpose-driven company with a 50-year heritage, we think generationally and invest for the long term. Operating in more than 25 locations, clients range from central banks, sovereign wealth funds, large corporates, financial institutions, insurers and wealth managers, to private individuals.

Our Workplace & Personal Financial Health business provides individuals, advisers and employers with access to world-class investment choices, third-party solutions, administration services and pension guidance. By combining our asset management expertise with our solutions for workplace and personal investing, we work together to build better financial futures.

Our clients come from all walks of life, and so do we.  We are proud of our inclusive culture and encourage applications from the widest mix of talent, whatever your age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, social background and more.

As a flexible employer, we trust our people to perform their role in the way that works best for them, our clients and our business. We are a disability-friendly company and would welcome a conversation with you if you feel you might benefit from any reasonable adjustments to perform to the best of your ability during the recruitment process and beyond.

Fidelity International Values

Integrity: Doing the right thing, every time, and putting the client first

Trust: Empowering each other to take the initiative and make good decisions

Fidelity International Behaviours

Our Employees Should Be:

• Brave: Challenge the status quo, be accountable and speak up
• Bold: Act with conviction, encourage diverse thinking and keep things simple
• Curious: Learn to do new things in better ways and encourage fresh thinking
• Compassionate: Have empathy, care for colleagues, clients and the community