Membership Manager

Plant Heritage is looking for a part-time Membership Manager to join our busy team. Members are at the heart of our charity, from those safeguarding plants for the future through our flagship conservation schemes – the National Plant Collections® and Plant Guardians® – to those who run our local groups or help at shows, events and in the office. Membership is also a key source of funding for our work. It’s a great time to join the charity as you will be able to help shape our new membership and supporter strategy and will be part of our exciting plans as we head towards our 50th anniversary in 2028.

Who we’re looking for

The right person will be very organised, adaptable, great at building and maintaining relationships and comfortable with digital tools. You’ll have more fun if you’re passionate about plants and plant conservation, but you don’t need to be an expert. We’re a small team supported by lots of incredible volunteers, so looking for someone who’s happy to get stuck in and help us to achieve the maximum impact together. This role is largely office based, working from a great location (our office is next to the beautiful RHS garden at Wisley, which has a shuttle available from Woking station). There are some opportunities to attend events, including our annual members’ get together and to help with our displays at shows like the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

About Us

Plant Heritage is a UK charity, founded in 1978 with a unique mission to protect the diversity of garden plants across the UK and Ireland. We are the home of the National Plant Collections® and the Plant Guardian® scheme. With our thousands of members and hundreds of volunteers, we are safeguarding around 100,000 plants by growing them, sharing them and recording information about them. We have a network of local groups across the country who support members and National Collection holders in their area and organise regular events from talks and garden visits to plant fairs. We have affiliated organisations in Guernsey, Ireland and the Isle of Man and work closely with leading horticultural organisations from the RHS to the National Trust and National Trust for Scotland. Find out more from our website, and the Information Booklet provided on our recruitment page.

The Role

We’re a small team and we work closely together (you can see the full team on our website here - we also have support from freelance consultants in communications and fundraising).

As Membership Manager, you will have lead responsibility for our membership scheme, working closely with the Membership Assistant who works 14 hours a week and our Partnerships and Events Manager, who will be your line manager. You will also work very closely with our Membership and Supporters’ Committee and our network of local groups and local representatives.

Specific responsibilities

• Membership and Supporter Strategy - work with the Partnerships and Events Manager and the MSC to develop and deliver our new membership and supporter strategy, to grow and diversify our membership and supporter base, whilst ensuring current members feel valued and supported.
• Liaise with and support our network of local Plant Heritage groups and local representatives – including providing information and advice to help them to support current members, recruit more members, organise local events, and update the website.
• Manage day-to day operations for our membership and supporter schemes, including enquiries, onboarding, renewals, data management and administration of income (with our Finance Officer). Ensure compliance with Plant Heritage policies and relevant UK laws/regulations, including on data protection.
• Reporting: monitor membership metrics and prepare quarterly short reports for the chief executive/MSC, with an annual more in-depth report.
• Produce engaging communications material for members e.g. letters, emails, online forms, surveys etc. You will also be asked for contributions to wider comms material including reports, publications, the website, social media and press articles etc.
• Develop our membership & supporter processes, including identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and customer experience. Implement agreed changes.
• Events - coordinate a small number of member events (online and in-person), working with the Partnership & Events manager, including bookings.
• Volunteer and office support: work with volunteers in various roles within the office and contribute to the effective running of our Plant Heritage office e.g. supplies, opening up/shutting down for the day with the rest of the team. Help make Plant Heritage a great place to work.

Key Skills and Experience

We’re open-minded about where you’ve come from. If you think you can meet most of the criteria we’ve asked for and you’re committed to learn, please get in touch. Previous experience of running a charity membership/supporter scheme would be very useful but is not essential. The key skills and experience we’re looking for are:

• Good at building and maintaining relationships – both in person and via phone/ email/online meetings etc. Can you communicate clearly, sometimes diplomatically, conveying warmth? Previous experienced in customer service, membership management, marketing, or similar supporter-facing roles would be an asset.
• Highly organised with excellent attention to detail, including for numbers – can you demonstrate that you are good at juggling competing priorities and seeing projects through to completion?
• Able to create engaging written communications content for a variety of different audiences (with support from a professional freelance comms adviser).
• Digital confidence: as well as standard Microsoft programmes, you’ll be using our customer relationship management system (Donorfy) including for mail merges and exporting data to excel; updating content on the website and in Mailchimp; and organising meetings in Zoom/Teams. Training can be provided.
• Great team player: positive, proactive, and excited to help shape a growing organisation. Flexible and able to adjust your style to whatever needs doing. Work well on your own or with others, including people of different ages and backgrounds, whether staff, volunteers and members and partner organisations.

Working for us

This is a part time role, working 3 days a week (22.5 hrs plus breaks). You will need to be in the office at least 2 days a week, to help with team working and support for our volunteers. You can work from home the other day if you prefer (we will provide a laptop).

The full-time equivalent salary (37.5 hrs a week) is £28,000, so for 22.5 hrs a week will be £16,800. We offer a defined contribution pension (5% of your gross salary). We offer 23 days holiday a year plus 8 bank holidays/statutory holidays for full time staff, which is adjusted pro rata for those working part time. We provide time off in lieu if we need to ask you to work in the evenings or at weekends/bank holidays (e.g. for events).

Start date

The current role holder will retire at the end of March 2026, so we are looking for someone who can start by then if at all possible, and ideally with some time for handover before, but we are also prepared to wait for the right person.

If you would like an informal chat before applying, please email us or call the office on 01483 447540.

We value diversity and inclusion, and we want to ensure equality of opportunity in our work. We particularly welcome applications from under-represented groups. Please let us know if you would like any reasonable adjustments in the application process.