Senior Grants Officer (South West & Wales)
Job Description
Working hours: 35 hours per week, Monday to Friday
Duration: Permanent
Location: Remote (South West Region)
Job Ref: 205063
About the role
Benefact Trust, are looking for a Senior Grants Officer. The Senior Grants Officer plays a lead role in delivering Benefact Trust’s grant programmes and representing the Trust to beneficiaries, with a focus on the South West of England and Wales. This includes managing a small team of Grants staff, overseeing a caseload of assessments and live grants and leading on the management of specific grant programmes.
Why join us?
Join a team where your expertise makes a real difference to lives and communities. Since 1972, Benefact Trust has awarded over £310 million to support churches, charities and communities across the UK and Ireland.
Benefact Trust is the charitable owner of Benefact Group which itself thrives on a collaborative and inclusive culture and is ranked amongst the Ranked amongst the UK's 15 Best Big Companies to Work For in 2025.
What you'll be doing
Lead grants operations by managing a small team to ensure high‑quality assessment and oversight of applications in line with Trust policies.
Deliver grant programmes through applicant support, application assessment, active grant monitoring, and presenting recommendations to committees.
Contribute to the management of programme governance by overseeing specific funding streams, supporting Board committees, and contributing to programme design and guidance.
Represent the Trust externally at a senior level, including regular travel (2–3 times per month) across the South West, London, Gloucestershire and occasionally further afield, with some overnight stays.
Support strategic and organisational development by shaping grant processes, using IT systems effectively, contributing to communications content, and collaborating across the Trust and Benefact Group.
What you'll need to have
Demonstrable grant-giving experience.
Professional experience in the church, charity and/or heritage sectors (at least one).
Effective communication and relationship management skills.
Ability to effectively manage multiple projects.
Experience of Microsoft packages and grants management systems.
Basic understanding of the church and charity environments and sympathy with the Trust’s objectives, which includes promoting the Christian Religion.
What makes you stand out
Line management experience.
Good understanding of social media and its influence.
What we offer
A competitive salary - let's discuss it
Hybrid working
Group Personal Pension - up to 12% employer contribution
Generous annual bonus scheme: on-target bonus between 7.5% and 30%
28 days annual leave plus bank holidays, and a holiday buy and sell scheme
An array of health and wellbeing benefits, including private healthcare, income protection and life assurance
£200 annual personal grant to a charity of your choice
Encouraged to take at least one volunteering day per year
Employee Assistance Programme
Full study support to gain professional qualifications
Access to virtual GP
Enhanced maternity and paternity pay
Hear from the hiring manager
"Working for one of the UK’s largest grant-making charities, you will play a senior role in Benefact Trust’s giving, helping to distribute nearly £30m annually to Christian churches and charities across the UK and Ireland. Using your experience and knowledge of grant-making, you will ensure high standards and a positive applicant experience, whilst contributing strategically as the Trust evolves to maximise impact for its beneficiaries and the communities they support. This is a dynamic, home-based role that will suit a self-starter who can work independently and enjoys desk-based work but also collaborates effectively using Teams and enjoys engaging with stakeholders, including applicants, beneficiaries and Trustees."
About us
Benefact Trust was built on a simple, but ambitious idea - to be one of the UK's most impactful Christian grant-making charities.
This idea is at the heart of everything we do, it has defined our ownership of Benefact Group - which is made up of specialist financial companies whose available profits go towards funding our charitable giving.
We believe it’s essential to attract, empower, grow and reward talented people, offering fantastic opportunities for career and personal development. Our giving ethos, 135-year history and the diversity of what we do, has enabled us to build a culture of kindness, great ambition, and of passionate people driven to do better and be better.
At Benefact Group, we are committed to creating an inclusive culture and building an environment where each and every one of us feels valued and respected. We are a community made up of people with a range of different backgrounds, abilities, perspectives, beliefs and interests and we value the strength this brings to us as a Group. We welcome applications from everyone.
If you need any additional support during the recruitment process, then please let us know.