2 Careers advisor starting out jobs in Bristol
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Location: Bristol Office
Salary: £27,950 per annum (Band C), rising to £29,095 per annum after successful completion of a 5-month probationary period
Job Type: Fixed Term (12 months, with possibility of extension), Full time (37.5 hours per week), part time considered (minimum 30 hours per week)
The role:
Working within our Household Energy Services (HES) team, the Trainee Energy Advisor role is for those who would like to learn the skills and gain experience of providing energy advice to households.
You’ll be providing energy advice on our advice line and through a range of related projects, supporting low income and vulnerable households with billing queries, applications for grants and referrals to contractors for insulation and heating improvements. There may also be the opportunity to staff events and give advice to clients in person.
As part of the role you’ll complete our HES Training Programme, including a City & Guilds qualification in Energy Awareness. Successful completion of your probationary period will lead to a change of role to Energy Advisor for the remainder of the contract.
Specific responsibilities
An applicant appointed to the role will be expected to:
- Work on the advice line and other telephone advice projects, making and receiving calls from people who may need help with energy-related issues.
- Record client details accurately and use your own knowledge to assess the help and support needed.
- Refer clients to other support organisations in their area as appropriate.
- Identify energy improvements that can be made to clients’ properties and refer them to installers who can carry out the work.
- Help vulnerable clients make applications for grants and switch energy tariffs where appropriate.
- Listen attentively to callers, some of whom may be angry or in distress, and respond to their needs in an empathetic way.
- Follow advice line processes and procedures.
- Maintain accurate records on our client database, including handling sensitive data appropriately and in compliance with GDPR guidance.
- Remain vigilant for safeguarding concerns during client interactions and report promptly to the designated Safeguarding Officer.
- Undertake the HES Training Programme, including the City & Guilds Level 3 Energy Awareness and Level 2 Fuel Debt Advice in the Community courses.
To see a more detailed list of responsibilities please see the supporting documents attached. These documents are also available to download from our website.
About you:
Essential attributes for this role include:
- Ability to respond to clients in a respectful and engaging manner.
- Ability to communicate effectively with people, both verbally and in writing.
- Ability to work well in a team and identify how your skills complement others.
- Ability to maintain admin systems independently and accurately.
- Highly organised, with strong time and workload management.
- Empathy and compassion, with an awareness of the need to maintain your own wellbeing.
- A commitment to CSE’s aims and values of collaboration, conscientiousness and initiative.
- Skilled in the use of MS Office applications including Word, Excel and Outlook.
- Understanding of safeguarding principles and the importance of protecting vulnerable individuals.
Please note, the above is an overview of the skills required for this role. To see the full list of essential and desirable skills please see the attached job description.
Benefits:
CSE offer a range of other benefits including:
- Company pension scheme (8% employer, 6% employee contributions)
- You will be entitled to 25 days' paid holiday, pro rata for part-time hours (plus statutory holidays)
- Subsidised bike purchase and Tech Scheme
- Life Assurance
- Health Cash plan
- Retail discounts
- Discounted breakdown cover and many more.
- We will pay fees and expenses on relevant training courses.
- We are flexible with the working hours of this role and will discuss this openly if you are invited to interview.
How to apply
To apply, please download and complete the application form available from our website and send it to our Jobs email. Your application should demonstrate your suitability for the role against the criteria outlined in the person specification and job description.
The closing date for applications is 5pm on Wednesday 30 September 2026.
Interviews are expected to take place Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 October 2026 (in person at our Bristol office), though this is subject to change.
If invited to interview, we will ask you to provide evidence of eligibility to work in the UK.
#LI-DNI
Registered Charity
101 - 500
Our mission is to support people and organisations across the UK to tackle the climate emergency and end the suffering caused by cold homes.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
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
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Lead PVUK's fundraising strategy, developing and refining the strategic direction, and presenting proposals to the Board for approval and resourcing.
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Set, monitor, and report on fundraising targets across all income channels, in agreement with the Lead Trustee for Fundraising and the Board.
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Provide regular substantive updates on fundraising at quarterly board meetings, working with the Lead Trustee on the preparation of board-level reporting.
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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.
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Identify and manage risk in the fundraising portfolio, including channel concentration, donor over-reliance, and the sustainability of resourcing.
Donor stewardship and relationship development
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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.
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Cultivate and deepen relationships with major donors, including through personal contact, site visits, and tailored communication of impact.
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Work with the Chair of Trustees, the Centre Director, and other senior figures on key relationships that require their involvement.
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Steward the friendly lender base throughout the lifetime of their loans, maintaining trust and keeping them informed of the charity’s progress.
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Build and maintain a culture of gratitude and recognition that appropriately honours the contributions of all supporters.
Income channel development
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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.
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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.
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Design and grow a regular giving programme that converts members, retreatants and supporters into ongoing monthly donors.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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Maintain accurate, GDPR-compliant supporter records and ensure sound data practices throughout the fundraising operation.
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Provide accurate financial reporting on fundraising performance, working with PVUK’s finance function and external accountants as required.
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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
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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.
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Work closely with the PVUK Communications team on the integration of fundraising communications with the wider communications strategy.
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Commission and oversee the production of fundraising materials, including written content, graphic design, video and digital assets, drawing on contracted specialists where appropriate.
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Ensure that all fundraising messaging about the Being Peace Practice Centre is agreed with the Centre Director before publication.
Working partnerships across PVUK
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Draw on external advisors and specialists as needed for support and assurance, both in technical fundraising disciplines and in sector-specific knowledge.
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Engage volunteer capacity from within the community where this can valuably supplement the fundraising operation.
Registered Charity
11 - 20
We build mindful communities in the UK inspired by the teachings of ‘Father of Mindfulness’ Thich Nhat Hanh.
