Sports Manager

For over 40 years, a national children’s charity has supported families through the toughest moments of their lives. From funding vital research, to providing intimate care and wellbeing support to families and children.

This is an organisation which knows why they exist.

• £40,000
• Immediate Start Available
• Permanent
• Hybrid (3 days in office at WC1N 3NL)

Purpose of the role

To plan and deliver successful sporting events and fundraising campaigns, providing an exceptional supporter experience, maximising fundraising income and achieving agreed objectives to support Children with Cancer UK’s mission.

Children with Cancer UK

Children with Cancer UK is a leading children’s cancer charity dedicated to raising and investing funds into vital specialist research to save the lives of children with cancer. Our mission is to improve survival rates and the quality of survival in young cancer patients and to find ways to prevent cancer in the future. What began as a small memorial charity in 1988, has evolved into a major force raising more than £300 million and investing in over 200 research projects to help fight the injustice of cancer in children.

Sports Events Team

Generating approximately £4 million per year, the Sports Events Team supports fundraisers taking on a wide range of physical challenges - from runs and marathons to treks, cycles, swims and obstacle events around the world.

The flagship event, the TCS London Marathon, is the charity’s single largest fundraising moment, delivering around £3 million annually and engaging hundreds of dedicated supporters. The team provides expert guidance, logistics support, stewardship, and motivation to ensure every fundraiser feels part of something impactful and inspiring.

Key responsibilities

Sports Events

• Project manage a variety of sporting events and partnerships.
• Support the Sports Team in delivering the full portfolio of sporting events, such as the TCS London Marathon, Great Run Series, and Rat Race.
• Ensure all events are accompanied by comprehensive project plans, marketing strategies, and post-event evaluations.
• Provide an exceptional supporter journey for all participants.
• Recruit and assist new supporters to maximise their fundraising efforts.
• Organise and oversee the event day experience, attending events as needed.
• Maintain high standards in relationship fundraising.
• Monitor campaign KPIs and objectives, identify issues, and agree on corrective actions.
• Keep accurate and current expenditure logs for sports events.
• Remain informed about trends and activities within the charitable sector.
• Assist in the development and expansion of the sports events portfolio.
• Collaborate effectively across different departments.
• Prepare and deliver presentations to a range of audiences as required.
• Respond promptly to all sports event enquiries.
• Work with the communications team to ensure the website remains up to date.
• Identify fundraising stories suitable for external sharing.
• Maintain up-to-date records of sports events fundraising on the database (Salesforce).
• Manage and maintain the Sports Team’s existing systems and processes.
• Build strong working relationships with key stakeholders.
• To contribute to a positive working environment and culture.
• Support the Sports Executive performing administrative skills on a rotation basis within team.

Budget

• To contribute to the Sports Events yearly budget
• To feed into the creation of the yearly budgets and reforecasts.
• Analyse monthly income and expenditure against budgets. Providing commentary, identifying problems and agreeing remedial steps.

Additional Responsibilities

• Any other reasonable duties as directed by your line manager.
• The post requires an amount of evening and weekend work and the post holder is expected to attend events as and when required – throughout the UK. The charity operates a time off in lieu system to make this time up which your line manager will need to approve.

Person Specification

Essential Experience

• Proven track record of building and maintaining strong relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders.
• Successfully managing competing priorities and delivering multiple projects simultaneously.
• Planning, coordinating and delivering projects against agreed objectives and deadlines.
• Confident using databases to maintain accurate records, manage information and track activity.

Desirable Experience

• Contributing to fundraising growth through income generation, donor engagement or partnership development.
• Delivering confident and engaging presentations to a range of audiences.

Essential Skills and Abilities

• Sound organisational capabilities, with a proven track record of managing competing priorities, balancing multiple responsibilities and meeting deadlines.
• Experience in planning, coordinating and delivering projects, ensuring activities remain on schedule, within scope and aligned with agreed objectives.
• Commitment to delivering consistently high standards of customer service, responding professionally to enquiries and building positive, lasting relationships.
• Proficiency in monitoring, evaluating and reporting against key performance indicators (KPIs), using data to measure progress, identify trends and inform improvements.
• Collaborative and supportive approach to teamwork, contributing positively to shared objectives and collective success.
• Proactive, self-motivated approach to managing workloads, planning schedules and exercising sound judgement with minimal supervision.
• Confidence in building effective working relationships across departments, engaging colleagues and stakeholders to support joined-up working and organisational priorities.

Desirable Skills and Abilities

• Understanding of mass participation events
• Proficient use in the Microsoft suite (Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Sharepoint, Outlook etc)

Please note: If you don’t match all our essential criteria but have other relevant experiences and skills, please do apply. We would love to hear from you.

How to apply

Please initially apply via submitting your CV to this advert.

All applications will be reviewed and considered by Louis Eastwell of Hire Purpose and all candidates will be notified.

Advertisement will close by Thursday the 5th of November 2026.

Please note this role is Hybrid with 3 days in our office based in London.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The charity recognises that candidates may use Artificial Intelligence tools to support aspects of the recruitment process. Candidates may use AI tools for research, preparation or to support written applications; however, all submitted work must accurately represent the candidate’s own skills, experience and suitability for the role.

Candidates should disclose if AI has been used in preparing application materials or completing any assessment activity. Failure to appropriately disclose significant use of AI-generated content may impact the recruitment process.

You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy

Hire Purpose champions inclusive recruitment.

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and lived experiences. We uphold equal opportunity principles and challenge bias at every stage, partnering only with organisations that share our commitment to integrity, diversity, equity and inclusion.

Hire Purpose is also proud to be an active member of The TEAM Network, the UK’s largest recruitment community of independently owned recruitment businesses.