Fundraising Consultant

Background

Unicorn Preservation Society (UPS) is a Scottish charity responsible for the preservation of HMS Unicorn, one of the world’s oldest surviving warships and an important part of Scotland’s maritime heritage.

The Society faces two related fundraising challenges:

• Financial sustainability: securing sufficient unrestricted and revenue funding to support the charity’s core operating costs, develop sustainable income streams and strengthen its long-term financial position.
• Project Safe Haven (PSH) securing the capital funding required to support the major conservation project to safeguard HMS Unicorn for the future. Comprising transfer of HMS Unicorn into permanent dry dock in the East Graving Dock adjacent to her current location with new visitor facilities and shelter structure.

The Society wishes to appoint an experienced fundraising consultant/contractor to develop a clear, realistic and actionable fundraising plan that addresses both these priorities and supports the long-term sustainability of the organisation and the ship.

This work will contribute to UPS’s PSH Development Phase funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF.)

Purpose of the commission

The successful applicant will work with the Society to develop a prioritised fundraising plan for the period 2027 – 2030 covering both revenue and capital funding and keyed to Project Safe Haven milestones as appropriate.

The plan should identify the most promising funding opportunities, establish clear priorities, and set out the actions, resources and timescales required to pursue them. It should be grounded in an assessment of the Society’s circumstances, fundraising capacity and funding needs, and should distinguish between opportunities that can

deliver income in the short term and those requiring longer-term development.

The plan must be realistic about the likely availability and timing of funding, the probability of success and the resources required to secure it. It should be sufficiently practical to guide implementation by the Society following completion of the commission.

Full details can be downloaded below.