Finance director jobs in staines upon thames, surrey

Purpose of role: To support the Head of Partnerships in managing and retaining the charity’s existing donor base and in establishing new major donor partnerships to secure significant income for the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN): an impactful fundraising and grant-giving wildlife conservation NGO focused on supporting grassroots projects across the Global South.

Reports to: Head of Partnerships

Contract: Full-time, permanent contract, working 5 days p/w

Deadline to apply: Friday 23rd May (but please apply at your earliest convenience). Initial interviews will be targeted for end of May.

Whitley Fund for Nature

Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) is a UK charity supporting grassroots conservation leaders across the Global South. Through project funding (Awards), training, and media profile, we support local solutions to the planet’s most pressing conservation challenges. Our winners are courageous changemakers, working alongside communities to save species and protect ecosystems. Established in 1993, we have channeled £24 million to +220 conservation leaders in 80 countries, benefitting wildlife, landscapes, and people. WFN is governed by a committed trustee board. Our team is dynamic, passionate about our mission, and ambitious. The charity benefits from high profile support from Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, and Ambassador Sir David Attenborough. Our funding is raised each year, mainly from family trusts and foundations, as well as from individuals, corporates, and international NGOs, with a current annual income of around £2.6m/year. We raise funds based on winner need, and in the coming years are seeking to steadily grow what we provide in support to winners, actively pursuing new partnerships to support our mission.

The Opportunity

We are looking for a motivated and detail-oriented Partnerships Manager to join our small and dynamic team. This new role will support the Head of Partnerships and wider WFN team in delivering our fundraising strategy, stewarding high-value donor relationships, and unlocking new opportunities for income growth. 

The Partnerships Manager will work directly with some of WFN’s existing portfolio of 30 Major Donors made up primarily of Trusts, Family Foundations and High-Net-Worth Individual (HNWI) supporters, with some Corporates. The Partnerships Manager will maintain close professional relationships with supporters that are bespoke and require excellent interpersonal skills, with most meetings taking place in-person, in central London. 

This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to a highly respected conservation organisation making a real difference on the ground.

PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER - PERSONAL SPECIFICATION

Essential

• A proven track record of fundraising, donor management, and/or building relationships with stakeholders in the non-profit or philanthropic sector.
• Excellent writing and communication skills, with experience drafting donor materials and reports.
• A proven track record in the development of grant applications, including drafting objectives, activities, timelines, indicators, and budgets, as well as coordinating narrative content and inputs from across the team.
• Past experience coordinating and delivering fundraising and engagement events.
• Experience coordinating volunteer committees.
• Exceptional interpersonal qualities, and comfortable liaising with high-profile individuals and senior stakeholders.
• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail.
• Proactive, dependable, and able to manage multiple priorities.
• A flexible ‘can do’ approach with the ability to chase opportunities, while remaining resilient and positive
• An open and collaborative working style, with a willingness to share information, communicate clearly, and contribute to a supportive small team environment.
• A genuine interest in conservation and/or passion for social and environmental equity through a grassroots approach. 

Desirable

• Experience working with donor databases or Salesforce. 
• Familiarity with trusts and foundations, HNWI fundraising, or corporate partnerships.
• Previous work in a small, agile team or start-up-style organisation.

Additional details and benefits

• Attractive holiday package totaling 30 days p.a. plus bank holidays.
• Training and professional development opportunities provided.
• Hybrid working opportunities
• The charity operates a Pension Scheme and a Life Assurance Scheme.

This role is not eligible for UK Visa Sponsorship. Only applicants who have the right to work in the UK at the time of application will be considered for this role.

Regrettably, due to limited resources and the high number of applications we receive, we are only able to contact short-listed candidates. If you do not hear from us within four weeks of the closing date, please assume that you have not been successful on this occasion.

Diversity and Inclusion

At WFN we are committed to developing an inclusive and diverse organisation, in which everyone feels supported, valued, and able to be their full selves. We celebrate and respect diversity in nature and among the people and partners with whom we work. We need more people and diversity across the environment sector, and to achieve our vision. We are therefore particularly keen to receive applications from Black, Asian or minority ethnic; disabled; LGBTQ+; or from lower socio-economic backgrounds. As a small organisation we are committed to progressing and continuing development across DE&I. Please contact us to discuss any additional support you may need to complete your application. Applications are considered solely on your demonstrated suitability 

Unifrog’s mission

We’re on a mission to level the playing field when it comes to young people finding and applying for their next step after school. We're achieving this by bringing all the available information into one single, impartial, user-friendly platform that helps students to make the best choices, and submit the strongest applications. We also empower teachers and counselors to manage the progression process effectively.
 

Our outlook is global - we work with schools and universities all over the world, from the US to New Zealand, and from Italy to Hong Kong. We want to make it so that young people can compare every opportunity taught in English, wherever it is in the world, and have all the support they need to make successful applications.
 

We have a clear social purpose, and we’re hugely ambitious. We already work with over half of UK secondary schools, and over a thousand international schools. We are growing rapidly in terms of the number of our customers, in terms of how much they use our platform, and in terms of the breadth of products we offer (check out this video to hear more about the Unifrog platform). 

Our next exciting step is to start working with primary schools, helping them to deliver careers and the PSHE curriculum across all year groups in primary school. Together, we’ll work to break down barriers, challenge stereotypes, and inspire children - especially those who may feel certain pathways are out of reach - when it comes to what their future might hold.

Our team is at the heart of our business and is integral to our success. We work hard to foster a culture of openness, happiness and innovation, and we commit to helping every individual learn and grow so that they can reach their full potential. We want to hire talented people, whatever their background. If you are excited by our mission and are ready to work hard, please don’t hesitate to apply. We look forward to hearing from you!
 

We believe in the power of diversity. If you are from an ethnic minority background, we would like to strongly encourage you to apply. In advance of applying, if you have any questions about working at Unifrog, please contact Mhairi (details on our website).

 

What you’ll do

As one of our first Primary Schools Partnership Managers, you’ll play a key role growing our newest partner base and supporting primary school partners to make the most of the Unifrog platform and resources. Excellent customer service is at the heart of what we do, and you’ll make sure that all interactions with Unifrog are positive and successful. 

Your key responsibilities:

Sell Unifrog subscriptions to primary schools

• Design and deliver impactful prospecting campaigns and marketing collateral aimed at engaging potential new partners, tracking campaign performance and continually improving your approach to secure demonstrations and drive partnership growth.

• Meet with potential partners on video calls (and sometimes in-person). Understand their priorities, demonstrate the Unifrog platform and resources, and secure their subscription.

• Identify and attend conferences and events to promote Unifrog to primary school audiences, while networking and cultivating relationships for future partnership opportunities.

• Develop a sound awareness of Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) and the PSHE Association Framework within the UK. You’ll need this to confidently navigate conversations with relevant contacts at primary schools.

 

Support primary school partners to make the most of Unifrog

• Set up new partner schools for success. Help them to embed Unifrog across their staff, student and parent community. You’ll deliver an initial staff training session then provide ad-hoc support.

• Proactively work to foster a sense of community amongst our primary school partners and think of ways to promote the sharing and embedding of Unifrog best practice across between partners.

• Achieve sky-high resubscription rates by securing partner renewals when their subscriptions come to an end.

 

What we’re looking for

• Resilient, and motivated to exceed targets: Our sales and resubscription targets are achievable but ambitious. You’ll need to be determined to meet and exceed them.

• Sales experience: You’ll be responsible for meeting sales targets so sales experience is desirable but not essential.

• Strong communication skills: You’ll be in frequent communication with lots of different people, both within Unifrog and externally – this will be in person, written, over the phone and via video call. You’ll need to be an outstanding communicator.

• Strategic and innovative: You’ll be strategic in your approach to driving growth within the newest team at Unifrog, and be innovative and creative in your solutions to any barriers along the way.

• Personable, with a track record of excellent relationship management: At Unifrog we’re known for our excellent customer service. You’ll need to provide fantastic support for your partner schools.

• Sector insight: You will be working with schools that have different contexts and priorities; you’ll need to be quick to understand how we can support them.

• Attention to detail: It’s important you have the skills and discipline to carefully check your communications to schools, your prospects and contacts in your network.

• Proactive attitude and willingness to get stuck in: You need to be excited about going beyond the core responsibilities detailed above to improve what we do and make it a success.

You will be one of the first members of our newest team at Unifrog, with the opportunity to be at the forefront of building an exciting and impactful offering for primary schools across the UK. If this excites you and you’re an energetic person who is willing to learn, we’d love to hear from you.

 

Working together

You’ll work alongside one other Primary Schools Partnership Manager and be line managed by our Partnerships Director (UK schools and Employers). You will also have daily contact with the wider Unifrog team, including our Marketing, Content and Finance teams.

 

Key benefits

Head to our jobs page for a full list of the excellent benefits we offer our team.

• Join one of ‘the best organisations to escape to’ and help transform careers and destinations in schools. 

• Become part of a committed, dynamic, and growing company. We want to build our team for the long term: if you do well, we will do our best to make sure you want to stay at the company for a long time.

• Professional development is important at Unifrog. You will define your own 6-month objectives and will be supported by your line manager and the rest of the team to achieve them. You will have an annual training allowance to spend on what you need to grow and progress.

• Influence the company’s direction: we love to promote great ideas, wherever they come from.

 

Key details

• £37,485 per annum (Grade B), plus:

  • Unlimited commission, OTE of £50,000.

  • Bonuses linked to strong performance against KPIs.

• Full-time

• 28 days paid holiday per year (plus bank holidays). 

• Working hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Thursday, and 9am to 4:30pm on Friday – some days you may need to start earlier but you can finish earlier as a result.

• All travel expenses covered and car allowance paid.

• Full UK driving licence is essential.

• The role is remote (or hybrid for candidates in London or Edinburgh).

• Start date: as soon as possible (but no later than August 2025).

• We can only consider candidates who have the right to work in the UK.

• To discuss reasonable adjustments or any details about the role before applying, please contact Mhairi (details on our website).

 

Application process

Deadline: 10:00am (BST) Monday 19th May 2025.

Stage 1: Application form (~1 hour) ✍️

• Visit our website to upload your CV and complete the questions and tasks below. Please note that we do not review CVs at this stage of the application process so please be as specific as possible about your experience.

i. With reference to examples of your recent experience, what would make you an excellent candidate for this role? (250 words)

ii. A school we are hoping to partner with have concerns about the budget available for Unifrog. What would be your approach to securing a partnership with them for this academic year? (250 words)

iii. Tell us about a time when you had to manage conflicting priorities whilst meeting targets. What was your approach? (250 words)

Stage 2: Phone task (15 minutes) ��

• A short role play task over the phone. We will schedule these tasks throughout the application window so we encourage you to apply early.

Stage 3: Video call interview (45 minutes hour) ��

• Short pre-prepared presentation (15 mins) 

• Standard Q&A from a panel of three, including questions about your experiences and how these relate to the role, and scenario questions based on common situations you might face (plus time for your questions) (30 mins).

• Video call interviews will be held w/c 26th May 2025.

Your answers are an opportunity to let us know more about your motivations and experience. While we understand that candidates might want to use AI to improve parts of their application, we strongly encourage you to write your answers independently. 

Please note, we compare all answers to an AI generated answer. Where we suspect AI has been used to write the majority of the answer, this will be taken into consideration when scoring

 

Inclusion and diversity at Unifrog

• Within the company we try to foster a culture of innovation, and a happy working environment, both because this is the right thing to do, and because we think this results in the most effective team. To this end we believe in open communication, celebrating successes, supporting each other, not being afraid to be wrong or to fail, and promoting good ideas wherever they come from.

• As a platform that supports teachers and students from a huge variety of backgrounds it’s important that our team and leadership reflects this diversity. This is something we are actively working towards and prioritising. We want to embed diversity, equity and inclusion across everything we do, continually evaluating policies and practices to make sure they are inclusive and equitable.

• To make sure everyone’s voice is heard and people have the opportunities to learn to be better allies in the workplace, we encourage the team to share what they’re celebrating, facilitate training and group discussions, and seek regular feedback about what more the company could do to help people feel included.

• To ensure that our recruitment process is consistent and fair, we anonymise your application and therefore do not see your name, personal, educational or professional background. We also randomise the order of responses so that it’s less likely that a candidate is advantaged or disadvantaged by where their answers appear compared to other candidates.

We are looking for an experienced and passionate Membership Officer to work as part of our Fundraising Team, in our Office in London.

Imagine being part of an organisation whose common purpose is to help those who are severely impacted by mental illness. We believe that everyone should be treated with respect and dignity – and that’s why equity is one of our core values. We draw on the expertise, unique perspectives and lived experience of our people – regardless of who they are or their background – to help us become inclusive and anti-racist employer, campaigning organisation and service provider that reflect the diverse communities we support as a mental health charity.

The objectives of the fundraising team are to generate additional income for the charity so that they can continue to provide and develop services to those severely affected by mental illness. We operate under the guidelines from the Fundraising Regulator and abide by the Fundraising Code of Practice.

How you will make a difference

Our members are central to our past and our future. Formed by carers of people living with a diagnosis of schizophrenia in 1972, our first members laid the foundations for the Charity that exists today, which now helps thousands of people severely affected by mental illness.

Our many thousands of campaigners, supporters and donors, along with our members, give Rethink Mental Illness its mandate. Members are an important source of volunteers for our governance and peer support groups. They help shape the direction of our work through our Annual General Meeting (AGM) and the work of the Board of Trustees and other committees. Membership also provides people with a sense of community and belonging to our organisation that helps them to cope with the demands of living with severe mental illness, whether they have direct experience, or are a carer, relative or friend.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion 

Diversity is important to us and we appreciate difference through difference, inclusiveness and belonging. It gives us a deeper understanding of the world, our society and the diverse communities we’re working with. By including everyone, we are able to draw on the unique experiences and expertise of our people to help shape and enrich our workplace and improve our services. One way we are doing is through our valued staff networks which play a critical and highly valued role in keeping us focused on creating a diverse, inclusive and engaged employer.  We recognise and support staff networks and support groups for our ethnically diverse and LGBTQIA+ colleagues. We are also proud to have been awarded Disability Confident Employer status and are a signatory to the Business in the Community Race at Work Charter. 

We aim for our workforce to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve; for those who work for us to feel heard, valued and feel they belong; and for our work to help tackle wider mental health inequalities. We therefore actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including applicants with lived experience of mental illness, those who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual and any other gender identity not expressed here (LGBTQIA+); people who are neurodiverse, have a health condition, or a disability or hidden disability and people from an ethnically diverse background - regardless of your age, religious or spiritual belief, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, political view or socio-economic status.

Becoming a truly anti-racist organisation 

We have an ambition of become a truly anti-racist employer, campaigning organisation and service provider - and in our efforts to influence policy and wider societal factors impacting on mental health set out in our anti-racist statement . We have designed a multi-year anti-racist programme of work contained in our Race Equality Action Plan which demonstrates our intention to hold ourselves accountable and be judged on our progress on becoming a truly anti-racist organisation. You can read more about our progress here. 

At Ambitious about Autism, we're currently looking for an Online Communities Manager to join our National Services team.

We work together with autistic children and young people, their parents and carers, and our partners to create a world where every autistic child and young person can thrive. Our online communities play a vital role in this vision, helping autistic young people explore their autistic identity, connect with others, and take part in meaningful projects and campaigns. We also provide parents and carers with a safe, supportive space to share experiences, access information, and find solidarity with others.

We're looking for a passionate and creative individual to join us at an exciting time of growth. You'll help us expand our reach, increase diversity, and develop engaging digital content that speaks to the experiences and ambitions of autistic young people and their families.

In this role, you will:

• Lead and develop our online communities to ensure they are safe, inclusive, and empowering spaces
• Create and curate digital content that informs, inspires, and engages our audiences
• Develop partnerships to drive the growth, diversity and reach of our online communities
• Work closely with our participation team to elevate the voices of autistic young people
• Collaborate with marketing and communications to deliver our National Services strategy

We'd love to hear from you if you're committed to inclusion, excited by digital engagement, and motivated to make a difference.

In return, we offer great benefits including a generous holiday allowance and commitment to continued professional development (CPD) and more!

This is a fantastic opportunity for an ambitious individual who would like to work for a forward-thinking, open and honest organisation and make a real impact to the young people we work with. Please find our full recruitment pack on the link below.

If you have any questions about the role or would like to have a confidential chat, please contact James Axford, Recruitment Officer.

Ambitious about Autism is committed to fostering equity, diversity, and inclusion at every level of our organisation. We warmly welcome applications from all qualified candidates, valuing the diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives they bring. We encourage applications from individuals regardless of race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy or parental status, disability, or age.

Our recruitment process promotes equal opportunities, and we are committed to providing reasonable adjustments for candidates with disabilities or additional needs throughout the recruitment process. Please contact our Recruitment Team for accommodations. We recognise disability as a physical or mental impairment that significantly and long-term affects a person's ability to perform day-to-day activities, as defined by the UK Equality Act 2010. All applications will be considered solely on merit, aligned with our mission to support autistic children and young people.

Ambitious about Autism is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and successful candidates will be subject to an Enhanced DBS check. As part of our Safer Recruitment checks, an online search maybe carried out in line with Keeping Children Safe in Education.

The Safeguarding responsibilities of the post as per the job description and personal specification.
Whether the post is exempt from the rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the amendment to the Exceptions Order 1975, 2013 and 2021. This means that when applying for certain jobs and activities certain spent convictions and cautions are ‘protected', so they do not need to be disclosed to employers, and if they are disclosed, employers cannot take them into account. Further information about filtering offences can be found in the DBS Filter Guidance.