Could you be our next Head of Fundraising?

Great Western Air Ambulance Charity is the youngest air ambulance in England and Wales, celebrating our 11th birthday this year. Despite our youth, our charity is well loved and supported by our local communities in Gloucestershire, South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol and North Somerset. This is a population of around 2.1 million people. 

One of the benefits of working with GWAAC is how much the public appreciate what we do – as a charity and as individuals supporting the cause. Whilst not everyone may know that our primary purpose is to provide critical care rather than patient transport, or that we are funded by charitable donations and not the NHS, everyone understands the need for our service, and wants us to be there for them and their loved ones.  

As well as treating patients after a serious accident or major medical emergency, we train children in CPR and lifesaving skills, as part of our Great Western Heart Starters programme. Our aim is to create a new generation of lifesavers – people with the skills to preserve life until professional help arrives. Our medical crew also help to disseminate knowledge and skills to other medical professionals. 

GWAAC is unusual in that we are there for everyone – regardless of ethnicity, social-economic status, age or geography. From the horse-rider near Cheltenham to drug users in Bristol, from ramblers in the Forest of Dean to motorcyclists in South Glos, from children on the beach in Weston to retired tourists in Bath - it doesn’t matter to us.  

We are called to over 1,800 missions a year, and have an impact on multiple people with every critically injured or unwell person we see. This means that our supporter base is broad, and it should be possible for us to work effectively with all parts of society.  

In 2018, we ran our first capital appeal, raising over ￡1.3 million towards the subsequent purchase of our new airbase. Now we need a new Head of Fundraising to build on this success and increase our annual income in order to cover our running costs and fund developments in our frontline service.

Each year we need to raise over ￡3 million, and this figure will increase. We have benchmarked ourselves against other air ambulance charities, and believe that there is huge potential to increase the level of support we receive. We are open to new suggestions about how we do this, and know that we need to diversify our income even further to reduce our reliance on our weekly lottery and create greater financial stability. 

Ours is a small, collaborative and friendly charity, with only around 16 employed staff plus a team of 30 medical crew. We are an enthusiastic, supportive and dynamic team, fuelled by passion for our cause and a healthy balance between work and home life. We are true believers in the concept that fundraising should be fun for everyone, and that a happy team is a productive and successful team.  

We have invested in our fundraising team over the last year or two, and now have a team of 10, including specialists in community fundraising, corporate support, grants and trusts, volunteering, legacies and in memory giving. 

We have come a long way over the last decade, but we can and must do more to help and engage with our local communities. This is an exciting time for us as a charity, and we seek someone who is just as excited as us about the challenges and huge opportunities in front of us over the next decade.

You can find out more about the role and how to apply on our website, but if you have any questions or would like to discuss, please just drop me a message - https://greatwesternairambulance.com/head-of-fundraising/  

I hope to hear from you soon!

Best wishes,

Anna