Assistant director jobs in belfast, northern ireland

Do you have experience in generating and sustaining charitable giving from individuals and nurturing a Friends scheme in the Arts education sector? Are you passionate about choral singing and its power to change the lives of children and young people and can you successfully advocate on our behalf to potential major donors?

The primary focus for the new role is to generate sustainable charitable giving from individuals, maintaining and growing our Friends memberships and developing significant income from major donors. We will also welcome input on stewardship of trusts and foundations if this is also your area of expertise.

We are a leading choral singing organisation and run residential summer courses for children and young people. Our artistic director, Ralph Allwood, founded the organisation 45 years ago, since when over 10,000 young people have benefited from our life-changing courses. Nowadays, around one third of students receive generous bursary support to attend a course and we also work with a range of partner organisations to encourage even more young people from diverse backgrounds to take part in our choral singing courses. We want to secure the future of the organisation and increase the number of students we can support by significantly growing our individual  giving.

We are looking for an experienced fundraiser to work up to 2 days per week on a freelance basis to help us move up a gear or two in terms of our fundraising, specifically to develop private giving from our extensive alumni network and the many successful individuals who feel music education at a young age made them the person they are today.

We have an office in central London but the job can be done remotely with occasional meetings with the General Manager, either in person or virtually.

Key information

Position: Head of Development, Friends and Major Donors

Reports to: General Manager

Key relationships: Artistic Director, Operations Manager, Assistant Director Rodolfus Choir, Communications Manager & Artistic Adviser, Chairman and Trustees

Location: Working from home with occasional visits to the office at King’s Place, London and meetings with donors c. weekly

Main goal: To launch our 45th anniversary year development appeal and manage fund raising through individual giving, Friends memberships and legacy donations and pledges, growing our charitable income in line with our strategy. 

About this role:

The main duties and responsibilities for the Heads of Development role are as follows:

INDIVIDUAL GIVING

· Maintain and build relationships with our donors, and identify new individuals who would like to see the Rodolfus Choral Foundation thrive

· Use our extensive alumni list to source and maintain donors

· Use contacts from the artistic director and trustees to generate new donors

·  Ensure that our top and potential donors are well looked after and researched, passing on key information to the Artistic Director and, where appropriate, arranging meetings between him and our donors

· Organise and co-host special donor events in unique venues

· Plan and help organise membership events for donors

· Help establish a legacy giving scheme for Rodolfus

· Have overall responsibility for reaching individual giving targets

· Ensure that data is accurately kept in our database in line with GDPR, and is harnessed to support our fundraising efforts

STRATEGIC PLANNING & REPORTING

· Develop a five-year Fundraising Strategy

· Set ambitious but achievable targets for each year, within the overall Rodolfus budget

· Contribute new ideas and find new opportunities for fundraising

· Produce quarterly fundraising updates for the Trustees

· Produce a fundraising report for the annual accounts, identifying strengths, weaknesses and areas for development in the Fundraising Strategy

TRUSTS AND GRANT-MAKING BODIES

· Liaise with the General Manager to ensure a coordinated fundraising plan and targets, in keeping with the artistic vision for Rodolfus

· Proof and submit applications and be the point of contact for Trusts and Foundations (this work is currently supported by the General Manager and a fundraising consultant)

GENERAL

· Attend Team and Board meetings as required

· Be a passionate advocate at all times for Rodolfus

· Adhere to all legal requirements relating to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as well as all other company policies and procedures

· Create a positive work environment, underpinned by the organisation’s values

· The list of responsibilities is not exhaustive and may be reviewed from time to time by the Trustees.

· The appointee may be required to perform duties outside of this as operationally required and at the discretion of the Board.

ABOUT YOU

We are looking for someone who:

· Is able to foster excellent relationships with major donors

· is positive, proactive, hard-working, innovative and ambitious

· is numerate, analytical, organised and has attention to detail

· is friendly, approachable and collaborative

· happy working in a small but dedicated team

· happy to travel regularly when required for donor and team meetings

Essential Criteria:

· excellent interpersonal skills

· experience of developing positive relationships with donors

· proven success in securing major donations

· experience of prospective donor identification and initial approach

· outstanding communication skills, both spoken and written

· experience in budget management

· good attention to detail

· excellent personal organisation and time management

· experience of working efficiently and effectively on their own as well as in a team

· understands the arts sector

Closing date: Midday on 23rd June 2025

Interviews: First round interviews will be held online on w/c 30th June 2025

Second round interviews will be held w/c 7th July 2025

Do you have experience supporting Boards and senior leadership in a governance role, ensuring smooth operations and alignment? Join Shelter as a Governance Officer, where you will coordinate Board and Committee activities, manage Board papers, and facilitate effective communication across the organisation. You will support Directors, Assistant Directors and Executive Assistants with agendas and papers, track key decisions, maintain accurate records, and ensure compliance with governance standards.

About the role

The Governance Officer plays a crucial role in ensuring that Shelter's governance framework operates effectively and in line with legal requirements, and best practice.

The postholder will act as the administrative liaison between the Board, Committees, and Executive Leadership Team (ELT), ensuring that Board meetings remain strategically focused while operational matters are effectively delegated.

Role specifics

We are seeking a proactive individual to manage Board and Committee activities, acting as the primary point of contact for all Board-related matters. You will coordinate Board meetings, develop and track governance calendars, and ensure that agendas, minutes, and key decisions are communicated effectively to the Board, ELT, and the wider organisation. Additionally, you will work closely with Directors and Executive Assistants (EAs) to support the management of committee agendas and papers, ensuring a focus on strategic issues.

The role also involves overseeing the preparation, review, and quality control of Board papers, ensuring accuracy, clarity, and timeliness. You will streamline governance processes, provide logistical support for meetings, maintain records, and track actions to ensure compliance with governance standards. Moreover, you will facilitate Board engagement by developing feedback mechanisms and supporting Trustee development, ensuring alignment with Shelter's strategic goals.

Apply to be part of our team and be the change you want to see in society.

Benefits 

We offer a wide range of benefits, including 30 days of annual leave, enhanced family friendly policies, pension and interest free travel loans. Our employees also have access to a tenancy deposit loan, payroll giving, cycle to work scheme and an employee assistance programme.

Shelter helps millions of people every year struggling with bad housing or homelessness through our advice, support and legal services. And we campaign to make sure that, one day, no one will have to turn to us for help. We’re here so no one has to fight bad housing or homelessness on their own.

We are happy to talk about flexible working, personal growth, and to promote a workplace where you can be yourself and achieve success based only on your merit.

About the team

The Strategy Enablement Directorate brings together our core support functions of HR Delivery, Finance, Tech & Data, Governance, Planning and Property, and is led by the Director of Strategy Enablement and four Assistant Directors.

At Shelter, we do not see our support functions as merely transactional - we are both enablers and keepers of Shelter’s strategic objectives. Striving to be a centre of excellence, we work with colleagues to ensure organisational objectives are clear and strategically aligned, whilst supporting with the removal of any internal obstacles that emerge on the way. 

About Shelter

Home is a human right. It’s our foundation and where we thrive. Yet everyday millions of people are being devastated by the housing emergency.

We exist to defend the right to a safe home. Because home is everything.

We need ambitious, passionate people to join us. This is your chance to play a part in the fundamental change we are striving to achieve.

Our enemy is the social injustice at the core of the escalating housing emergency. To win this fight, we must be representative of the people we are here to help and those who support our movement. In all our people decisions, we take pride in being inclusive, equitable and transparent. We are committed to combating racism both within and outside Shelter. We welcome you on our journey to becoming truly anti-racist.

Safeguarding statement 

Safeguarding is everyone's business. Shelter is committed to protecting the health, wellbeing and human rights of those we support, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect. All our staff will be expected to observe professional standards of behaviour and conduct their work in line with our Safeguarding Policies.

Shelter does not accept unsolicited CVs from external recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.

Legacy Manager (Maternity Cover)

Role Summary:

As part of the Major Gifts and Planned Giving team, this role is responsible for managing a caseload of approximately 80 legacy estates, including pecuniary, specific, residuary and life interest estates. The Legacy Manager will also assist the team with legacy enquiries and pledges, supporting donors on their legacy journey, as well as managing PETA’s free will services.

Position Objective:

• Ensure that gifts in wills to PETA are handled appropriately, sensitively and efficiently, maximising legacy income to support PETA’s mission to protect animals.
• Effectively communicate PETA’s mission to potential legacy supporters, and deal with enquiries from supporters in a timely manner.

Term of Employment:

Fixed-term, maternity cover

Hours of work:

Full-time (part-time hours considered)

Reports To:

Director, Major Gifts and Gift Planning

Salary:

£29,000 - £34,000

Location:

Remote in mainland UK

Primary Responsibilities and Duties:

Augustus Club

• Administer legacies in a professional and approachable manner, to include correspondence with solicitors and other interested parties
• Maintain departmental information, files, and records related to legacy estates
• Act as the point of contact and grow and mature relationships with stakeholders and external groups in order to attain information needed to carry out the role
• Work with various stakeholders on contested legacies, collaborating with other charities where needed
• Be able to communicate to supporters how important and desirable legacies are to PETA
• Respond to enquiries and requests for assistance from Augustus Club members and planned-giving prospects
• Document pertinent information about planned-giving members for the purpose of enhancing and building relationships
• Remain current on estate-planning practices as well as fundraising techniques and methods used in the non-profit sector, attending professional training seminars as needed
• Keep up to date on probate and tax laws, informing the team of any changes

Other

• Maintain a clear understanding of – and the ability to articulate – PETA's objectives as well as details about specific global PETA programmes
• Assist in the training of new major gifts and/or planned giving assistants
• Maintain and expand knowledge of relevant departmental software (e.g. Revolution Online, ResearchPoint, Raiser's Edge, and Convio) in order to improve communication with donors
• Assist with the preparation and proofreading of mailings
• Perform any other tasks assigned by the supervisor
• Maintain strict confidentiality at all times

Qualifications:

• Minimum of one year of planned-giving or other development experience
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Thorough knowledge of animal rights issues and PETA campaigns
• Demonstrated exceptional attention to detail
• Demonstrated ability to prepare professional business communications
• Proven ability to organise and manage multiple projects simultaneously and effectively
• Proven ability to use initiative and work independently
• Proven experience in legacy fundraising and administration
• Ability to insert files into databases using high levels of precision and attention to detail while maintaining confidentiality
• Commitment to PETA's objectives
• Adherence to a vegan lifestyle strongly preferred

Job Profile

CAFOD’s mission in the Catholic community of England and Wales is to inspire and equip Catholics to actively engage in the Church’s efforts to overcome poverty and injustice. Our regional teams focus on recruiting and supporting a dedicated group of volunteers within parish and school communities, empowering them to educate, engage, and inspire others to act in solidarity for the common good. Regional teams also collaborate with clergy and other representatives across the Catholic community to ensure CAFOD’s volunteer programme is aligned with faith life.

The primary purpose of this role is to provide administrative and communications support to the Community Participation Coordinators across England and Wales, with a focus on the West & Wales region as the first point of contact. This includes coordinating administrative tasks performed by office volunteers and identifying opportunities for process improvements. The role also involves volunteer recruitment administration, overseeing and training Office Volunteers, and ensuring effective database management.

This role can be based anywhere in the UK including our head office in London, working from home, from one of CAFOD’s Volunteer Centres, or a combination of both. The role requires occasional travel to London and other areas within the East & West side of the country. Travel expenses will be reimbursed, and time off in lieu will be granted for travel beyond normal working hours.

This is a full-time position (35 hours per week) and reports to the Volunteer Support and Development Coordinator.

Key Responsibilities Overview
The post holder will play a key role in driving smooth, efficient operations across CAFOD’s West & Wales region. As the go-to person for admin excellence and volunteer support, you’ll work closely with your line manager and colleagues in the East to streamline processes, improve systems, and keep everything running like clockwork.

You’ll lead on volunteer recruitment and engagement—welcoming new volunteers, managing onboarding, and ensuring everyone feels valued, equipped, and inspired to support CAFOD’s work. Your people skills and attention to detail will shine as you manage applications, data entry, and training coordination.

Communications will be at the heart of your role. You’ll create engaging e-bulletins and social media content that keeps our community informed and motivated, while ensuring messages are clear, consistent, and aligned with CAFOD’s wider goals.

You’ll be the guardian of accurate data, working with office volunteers to maintain up-to-date records that support smarter outreach and efficient workflows. Your collaborative spirit will help strengthen connections across teams, share best practices, and contribute to creative new approaches for engaging communities.

This is a role for a proactive, organised, and people-focused individual who’s excited to innovate, solve problems, and make a tangible impact in a supportive, values-led organisation.

Safeguarding

All CAFOD staff share responsibility to promote and maintain a strong safeguarding culture, including identifying the key actions they should take given their role and responsibilities.

Person Specification

Understanding our context

1. Understanding Catholic identity: sympathetic knowledge of the life, culture and structure of the Catholic Church in England and Wales and an ability to work effectively within it and especially an understanding of parish community life.
2. Understanding CAFOD: ability to express what motivates people to volunteer for, and support, CAFOD and the main activities in which Catholic community primarily participate. Being informed about, supportive of, and actively promoting our anti-racism work.

Working together

1. Managing ourselves: strong interpersonal skills including an ability to develop personal relationships quickly and to convince others.  Ability to be self-motivated and able to work in isolation linking with different people in a variety of contexts; confident with articulating support required for you to work well.
2. Working with others: builds positive and fruitful partnerships, particularly with volunteers; works effectively as part of a team which may work at a distance to ensure sharing of good practice and shared workload; being willing and able to help other team members and be helped to achieve delivery of shared objectives.
3. Communicating: ability to identify how best to communicate instructions and processes clearly and how this helps achieve the objectives CAFOD seeks to deliver and how to share knowledge and information across teams.

Making change happen

1. Managing resources: confident with processing data for planning, monitoring and reporting:  proven time-management, data-management and organisational skills/experience of delegating tasks clearly and making improvements to processes.
2. Achieving results: ability and willingness to focus on achieving efficiencies, especially in support of regional plans for community participation and income growth.
3. Managing our performance: ability and willingness to work to targets and achieve results.

Job-Specific Competencies

Administrative Process Improvement:

Proven ability to assess, streamline, and document administrative processes. Strong organisational skills are required to manage a variety of tasks and ensure efficient delegation to volunteers. Ability to identify inefficiencies and propose practical solutions to enhance office operations.

Volunteer Recruitment & Engagement:

Expertise in recruiting, onboarding, and maintaining volunteer engagement. You will build strong relationships with volunteers, ensuring their experience is positive and aligned with CAFOD’s mission. Experience in using volunteer management systems and managing volunteer data is essential.

Communication & Content Creation: Strong written and verbal communication skills, with experience in producing engaging content for e-bulletins, newsletters, and other media resources. Ability to tailor messaging to different audiences, ensuring clarity and consistency in CAFOD’s communications.

Data Management & Accuracy:

Attention to detail is crucial for maintaining accurate records. Experience with databases, data segmentation, and ensuring data integrity is essential. A strong understanding of data protection standards, including GDPR, will be necessary.

Collaboration & Team Communication:

Effective communicator with internal teams, ensuring smooth communication and alignment across various regions. Ability to foster positive working relationships and collaborate across teams, both virtually and in person. Proficiency with communication tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom is required.

Training & Support:

Experience in delivering training to volunteers and staff, ensuring they have the necessary skills and knowledge. Ability to provide ongoing support to regional office volunteers, helping them succeed and contribute effectively to the team.

Adaptability & Problem-solving:

Flexible and resourceful, able to adapt to changing priorities. You will be expected to identify challenges and propose solutions to keep operations running smoothly.

Commitment to CAFOD’s Mission & Values:

A deep understanding of CAFOD’s mission and Catholic social teaching, with the ability to align volunteer engagement and administrative activities with the organization’s goals of addressing poverty and injustice.

Use of Digital Tools & Systems:

Competence in using databases, Microsoft Office Suite, and collaboration tools. Ability to train volunteers in these systems to ensure smooth operations across teams.

Project Management & Accountability:

Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring tasks are completed within deadlines and to a high standard. You will be responsible for delivering results aligned with CAFOD’s objectives.

Safeguarding for Children and Vulnerable Adults

CAFOD recognises the personal dignity and rights of children and vulnerable adults, towards whom it has a special responsibility and a duty of care and respect.  CAFOD, and all its staff and volunteers, undertake to do all in our power to create a safe environment for children, young people and vulnerable adults and to prevent their physical, sexual or emotional abuse.  CAFOD is committed to acting at all times in the best interests of children and vulnerable adults, seeing these interests as paramount.  Any candidate offered a job with CAFOD will be expected to adhere to CAFOD’s Safeguarding policy and sign CAFOD’s Code of Behaviour as an appendix to their contract of employment and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these documents. This post involves contact with children, young people and vulnerable adults, or has responsibility for people who will do, and applicants will be subject to specific checks related to safeguarding issues.  If based in the UK the post holder is required to present or obtain a Disclosure from the DBS (Disclosure & Barring Service).  If the post is based outside the UK the post holder will be subject to a different checking process.

All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references, and appropriate screening checks can include criminal records and terrorism finance checks. CAFOD also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this Scheme, we will request information from job applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of, and consent to, these recruitment procedures.

Please click here for a full list of CAFOD’s Staff Benefits

Come and join us and help make a real difference in the lives of the world’s poorest communities.

CAFOD is an equal opportunities employer. Recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.

Location: Homebased

Contract: Full time, fixed term 1 year contract.

Salary: Salary £34,000 per annum

Closing Date: 26 June 2025

If you have the creativity and skills to develop engaging and accessible elearning content that supports youth development, then joining Sea Cadets as a Senior Virtual Learning Officer could be a good move for you!

The Marine Society & Sea Cadets (MSSC) is a vibrant and growing charity delivering life changing nautical adventure for young people through the Sea Cadets to give them the best possible head start in life. We also provide personal and professional development opportunities for seafarers with the Marine Society. Working with our staff, cadets, and volunteers, we have built a vision and five-year strategy to take us forward and further improve the astounding contribution already made through our work to the lives of thousands of young people and seafarers, while fully supporting our volunteers who are vital to our success.

We are currently looking for a Senior Virtual Learning Officer to join our learning development team.

This role will be involved in the development of training covering subjects such as:

• Safeguarding
• EDI topics such as Autism and Gender Diversity
• Health and Safety
• Onboarding new adult volunteers to Sea Cadets

If you enjoy eLearning development this could be the role for you.

Responsibilities

• Work with course designers to develop new, and maintain existing, elearning and media content.
• Translate storyboards into interactive learning content, creating activities, graphics, animations, audio and videos, using tools such as Articulate (Storyline and Rise), Canva, H5P, Murf and Adobe.
• Ensure learning meets development guidelines, and is accessible, functional and engaging.
• Integrate learning content to create courses on our learning management system (Moodle).
• Test learning content, including using screen readers and other accessibility software.
• Help to maintain the guidelines for course development.
• Support the day-to-day administration of the Sea Cadets learning management environment
• Cultivate strong working relationships across multiple teams (internal and external)
• Stay up to date with latest system upgrades and advise on their potential impact on existing or new courses

Requirements

• eLearning development experience ( e.g. tools such as Articulate Storyline and Rise, or similar)
• Experience in media creation for graphics, sound and video editing.
• Good MS Office skills

Desirable

• Experience using Teams and SharePoint
• Knowledge of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
• LMS Administration experience (our platform is based on Moodle, Mahara and Alfresco but other LMS skills will be transferable)
• Subject matter knowledge in one of the following areas:
  • Supporting Autistic young people
  • Specialised educational needs
  • Other Equity, Diversity and Inclusion subjects
  • Safeguarding
  • Onboarding new people

For further information, please download the Recruitment Pack.

Benefits

• Some hybrid working opportunities
• Cycle to work scheme and Season Ticket Loan
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Life assurance (4x salary) for those that join the pension
• Private medical insurance
• Pension (employer contribution up to 10%)
• Wellbeing portal and EAP with 121 counselling
• Employee development: We are investing in our employees' development and have an annual calendar of learning and development opportunities, designed to support employees to develop into their roles and stretch them to achieve their full potential.
• National staff conference: All employees come together once a year to reflect on the past year and celebrate success at our staff conference. This is a great opportunity to listen to employees' views, and for employees to network, share information and socialise.

Additional Information

MSSC positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates from all backgrounds. Equity, diversity, and inclusion really matters to us, so we can best serve our beneficiaries from every community. We work to ensure a fair and consistent recruitment process and aim to be a charity where diversity of experience, identity and skills are valued and welcomed. MSSC is an equal opportunities employer.

We recognise our responsibilities to safeguard and protect the young people and vulnerable adults with whom we work. We do all we can to promote their health, safety and wellbeing, and we expect our staff to share this commitment and work in line with safeguarding policy, the MSSC’s values and ethos of inclusivity. We adhere to safer recruitment practices and therefore employment is subject to detailed pre-employment checks for successful candidates, including references and criminal disclosure checks and the completion of a disclosure questionnaire.

All successful applicants are required to attend safeguarding training and undergo a criminal record check, and successfully acquire MoD security clearance.