3 Careers advisor jobs in Belfast

Please note - this role is homebased in Scotland, with some travel througout Scotland and to London required.

Independent Age is the national charity working towards ending financial hardship in later life.  

Our Helpline and expert advisers offer free information and advice to older people without enough money to live on, while our external training equips professionals with the information they need to support older people on low incomes. Through our grants programme, we fund and support hundreds of local charities working with older people across the UK.  We use the knowledge and insight gained from our support services and partnerships to highlight the issues experienced by older people in poverty and campaign for change.  

We believe no one should face financial hardship in later life. We would love to find individuals from all walks of life and diverse backgrounds to join us on this journey.

Responsibilities and Person Specification:

This new role is an integral part of the day-to-day delivery of our Advice and Support Service. The service is targeted at older people in or facing financial hardship, and provides information, advice and follow up support relating to a range of issues, including Welfare Benefits, Social Care and Housing. 

As an Adviser (Scotland) you will be responsible for providing specialist support to older people, their families and carers through our advice service with their enquiries relating to housing and welfare benefits in Scotland as well as providing generalist level support on a range of issues through our duty service.

You should have in depth, specialist level knowledge of Housing or Welfare Benefits in Scotland as they relate to older people. Experience of working within a high-volume advice setting and advice supervision framework such as the AQS framework.

We plan to further develop our advice offer in Scotland to cover advice around charging for Social Care, so whilst not essential, knowledge of this area, or a desire to develop will be beneficial.

For full details on the role and requirements, please review the job description and person specification.  If your experience doesn’t align perfectly with all the criteria in the person specification but you do meet most of them and are excited about the role, we encourage you to apply anyway. 

This is a full-time role, 35 hours per week, which you can choose to work over five days or a 9-day fortnight. We also are open to this role being worked on a part-time basis on a minimum of 21 hours per week.

What it’s like to work at Independent Age:

We celebrate diversity at Independent Age and champion the differences that make each of us unique. We actively support and encourage people from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and skill sets to join us and help shape what we do. We aim to attract and retain a wide range of talent and create an environment where everyone can feel safe, protected, welcome and included.

We offer great benefits including 28 days annual leave plus public holidays, a generous pension scheme with life assurance, and fantastic learning and development opportunities. We also offer a number of enhanced leave provisions and benefits.

We know that a good work life balance helps us perform at our best and supports wellbeing. Flexible working hours and hybrid working is standard for all. But if you need a different form of flexibility, we are always happy to talk flexible working. 

With an employee engagement score of 98%, colleagues say Independent Age is a great place to work. You can find out more about what it’s like to work at Independent Age by visiting the Careers page on our website.

Application Process:

To apply, please visit our website to submit a CV and a Supporting Statement, detailing how your skills and experience meet the criteria within the Job Description and Person Specification. 

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. If you require any specific arrangements or adjustments to enable you to fully participate in the recruitment process, such as having the job description in a larger text format or to apply in an alternative format, please get in touch with us via the email address on the ‘Contact Us’ page on our jobs site. 

To support our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion our hiring managers use anonymous shortlisting. Please don’t include your name, photo, or any information that could indicate your gender or age in your CV and supporting statement, and don’t include your name in the title of any documents that you upload. However, please do include all dates of employment.  

Independent Age is committed to safeguarding and follows Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding those we work with. We therefore ask that you supply your full work history with explanations for any gaps in the application documents you submit and, if offered the post, we will require a minimum of two employment references including your current or most recent employer. A Level 1 (Basic) Disclosure check will be carried out for the successful candidate.

Closing Date: Sunday 4th October 2026 11:59pm

Interview Dates: 

First round of interviews will take place online on Tuesday 13th & Wednesday 14th October

Second round of interviews will be held in person, in Glasgow, on Wednesday 21st October

This is a unique opportunity to lead fundraising for a charity at the cusp of substantial growth, with an exceptional track record of recent fundraising success, an engaged base of supporters and significant untapped potential across multiple channels.

Overview
As Director of Fundraising and Development for Plum Village UK, you will provide strategic leadership of the charity’s fundraising at this critical juncture. Building on the successful campaigns that brought our new Being Peace Practice Centre into being, you will lead the development of a sustainable, diversified fundraising operation across donor stewardship, trusts and foundations, regular giving, legacies, and partnerships, to deepen relationships of trust and gratitude with our supporters.

This role is ideal for a fundraising leader, whether from a career fundraising background or another field, who brings strategic capability alongside deep alignment with the Plum Village tradition, where fundraising itself becomes a form of engaged practice in service of mindfulness and community transformation.

Fundraising in the Plum Village tradition is fundamentally relational. It is not a matter of extracting income from a base of supporters, but of deepening the relationships of trust, gratitude and shared purpose with those who make our work possible, in ways that embody the values of the tradition. Done well, fundraising is itself a form of engaged practice. The Director will be expected to lead the function in this spirit.

The role comes with a high level of strategic ownership. An initial fundraising strategy has been developed and shared with trustees, providing a framework of priority channels, governance arrangements and resourcing for the next phase. The new Director will inherit this as a starting frame, and will then be empowered and expected to develop, refine and bring forward a fundraising strategy on their own authority, working closely with the Lead Trustee for Fundraising and presenting proposals to the board as appropriate. The role also carries operational ownership of the fundraising mechanics, including the choice and management of supporting systems, databases and tools.
 

Key Responsibilities

Strategic leadership of fundraising

• Lead PVUK's fundraising strategy, developing and refining the strategic direction, and presenting proposals to the Board for approval and resourcing.

• Set, monitor, and report on fundraising targets across all income channels, in agreement with the Lead Trustee for Fundraising and the Board.

• Provide regular substantive updates on fundraising at quarterly board meetings, working with the Lead Trustee on the preparation of board-level reporting.

• Bring forward analysis and proposals to support the Board in setting wider strategic priorities, including realistic income potential by channel and the investment required to secure it.

• Identify and manage risk in the fundraising portfolio, including channel concentration, donor over-reliance, and the sustainability of resourcing.

Donor stewardship and relationship development

• Lead the stewardship of PVUK’s existing donors, lenders, and supporters with the depth of care that this base deserves, recognising it as the most precious resource of the fundraising function.

• Cultivate and deepen relationships with major donors, including through personal contact, site visits, and tailored communication of impact.

• Work with the Chair of Trustees, the Centre Director, and other senior figures on key relationships that require their involvement.

• Steward the friendly lender base throughout the lifetime of their loans, maintaining trust and keeping them informed of the charity’s progress.

• Build and maintain a culture of gratitude and recognition that appropriately honours the contributions of all supporters.

Income channel development

• Lead delivery and growth across PVUK’s priority fundraising channels: donor stewardship, trust and foundation fundraising, regular giving, legacies and Gifts in Wills, and partnerships with values-aligned organisations and networks.

• Develop trust and foundation fundraising as a substantial new income stream, including scoping aligned funders, building peer-to-peer introductions, constructing tailored funding propositions, and overseeing high-quality application writing and reporting.

• Design and grow a regular giving programme that converts members, retreatants and supporters into ongoing monthly donors.

• Develop a structured legacy and Gifts in Wills programme that normalises legacy giving across PVUK’s communications and supports those who wish to leave a Gift in their Will.

• Develop partnerships with values-aligned organisations and networks where these support both income generation and the wider reach of PVUK’s work, in close consultation with monastics and trustees.

Operations, systems and budget ownership

• Own the operational mechanics of fundraising for PVUK, including the choice, configuration and ongoing management of databases, donor management systems, online giving platforms, and integration with communications tools.

• Manage the fundraising budget, including a discretionary supplementary budget for consultancy, training, materials creation, contracted support and light administrative resource, deployed at the Director’s judgement to develop the function effectively.

• Maintain accurate, GDPR-compliant supporter records and ensure sound data practices throughout the fundraising operation.

• Provide accurate financial reporting on fundraising performance, working with PVUK’s finance function and external accountants as required.

• Make the case for additional resourcing where evidence of need supports it, including the possible recruitment of a Fundraising Officer in due course.

Communications and storytelling

• Lead the development of compelling fundraising narratives that authentically convey the work of PVUK and the Being Peace Centre to multiple audiences, including major donors, institutional funders, individual supporters and the wider public.

• Work closely with the PVUK Communications team on the integration of fundraising communications with the wider communications strategy.

• Commission and oversee the production of fundraising materials, including written content, graphic design, video and digital assets, drawing on contracted specialists where appropriate.

• Ensure that all fundraising messaging about the Being Peace Practice Centre is agreed with the Centre Director before publication.

Working partnerships across PVUK

• Work in close partnership with the Centre Director on all matters relating to Being Peace, with agreed ways of working on messaging, external representation, and any programming commitments made to funders.

• Work with the Lead Trustee for Fundraising as primary day-to-day point of contact at board level, supporting the Lead Trustee to hold strategic oversight of fundraising on behalf of the Board.

• Work with colleagues across PVUK’s communications, dharma programming, sangha-building and partnership functions, with these working relationships developing naturally in the first months of the role.

• Draw on external advisors and specialists as needed for support and assurance, both in technical fundraising disciplines and in sector-specific knowledge.

• Engage volunteer capacity from within the community where this can valuably supplement the fundraising operation.