Grant officer jobs in London, greater london

The Grants Officer is a new and integral role within Southwark Charities, created to support the growth and development of our grant-making activity. Working collaboratively with the charity’s Grants Manager, the successful candidate will play a central role in supporting the delivery of our grants programmes, at all stages of the grant-making process for community organisations and individuals, from application and assessment through to monitoring, reporting and relationship-building.

We are seeking an organised, proactive and detail-orientated individual, who is able to take the initiative, with experience of managing grants or comparable projects within the voluntary or public sector. The ideal candidate will demonstrate a strong alignment with our organisational values, excellent communication and administrative skills, and a solution-focused approach to their work.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a small and committed team at an exciting time in the charity’s development. The role offers the chance to help shape new ways of working, contribute meaningfully to our impact, and make a real difference to the people of Southwark.

Location: St Mary Newington Close, Surrey Square, London, SE17 2LP until 2028, then Edward Edwards’ House, Nicholson Street, SE1 0XL.

The post will involve regular travel across Southwark for external meetings and events, including occasional evening and weekend working, and up to 2 days per week remote working.,

Contract: Permanent, full-time

Probation period: Six months

Reporting to: Grants Manager

Salary: £36,000-£38,000 p/a

Additional benefits: 25 days’ annual leave plus public holidays; 8% employer’s pension contribution; Death in Service benefit of 3x gross salary

Deadline for applications: Monday 16th March 2026, 9am

Liberty is looking for a Grants Officer to join our Philanthropy Team.

This is an exciting and varied delivery role which reports to our Fundraising Manager and is responsible for grant administration and reporting across our portfolio of grant funders, and co-ordinating, as well as administering a series of events aimed at donors and funders.

The successful candidate will be organised and self-motivated, with a focus on partnership working and building strong relationships. You will balance an enjoyment of events co-ordination with being a skilled writer, who enjoys producing applications and reports.

With experience in a similar role, you will be used to gathering a range of data and detail on the teams’ work, and comfortable with end-to end delivery and working to deadlines. You will be a keen team player with a commitment to, and passion for, Liberty’s work.

You will have a strong commitment to Liberty’s anti-oppression values and strategy.

Liberty fully embraces flexible working and is committed to employee development. We aim to encourage people from all backgrounds to work with us and are particularly interested in hearing from people from minority backgrounds and all socio-economic sections of society. Liberty supports hybrid working, with a minimum office attendance of between one and two days per week in the Westminster office, depending on contracted hours.

The deadline for applications is 9am Monday 16 March 2026

Applications received after this deadline will not be considered.

Please be aware that we do not accept CVs for this role. All applicants must complete the application form to apply.

First round interviews will be held online on Wednesday 25th March

Second round interview will be held in person on Wednesday 1st April

Apply via the job board on our website. 

About the Role

The primary focus of the Grants Officer is to support schools and youth organisations to operate the Jack Petchey Achievement Award Scheme effectively and to promote, grow and deliver this and other Jack Petchey Foundation (JPF) grant programmes across London and Essex. This role will be largely responsible for London Boroughs across Central and South-West London, and act as the lead for specific uniform groups who deliver their activities cross-borough. Our work continually evolves, so we ask all Grants Officers to be flexible to allow us to rework geographical areas, as needed.

The Achievement Award Scheme is the Jack Petchey Foundation’s flagship programme, with more than 2,000 schemes being operated in more than 1,400 schools, colleges and youth organisations across London and Essex. Through the programme, we invest millions of pounds each year to support young people and youth work. This is an amazing chance for you to have a big impact across a large number of organisations.

The Achievement Award Scheme enables schools, colleges and youth organisations to recognise, reward and celebrate young people’s achievements. At the Jack Petchey Foundation, we are passionate about encouraging young people to raise their aspirations, believe in themselves and make a positive contribution to society. Our Achievement Awards are designed to recognise a wide range of achievement, not just those achieving academically but are also aimed at young people who are ‘doing their best’ or demonstrating leadership skills, resilience and determination.

The post holder will manage delivery of the scheme and associated small grants in an assigned area of London. They will be responsible for maintaining and developing positive relationships with schools and youth organisations. The role will involve significant travel to visit schools and youth organisations, as well as outreach and community engagement work to identify and support new groups to apply to join our scheme. This work will also require evenings and occasional weekend work, especially to carry out assessment and review visits with youth organisations and to participate in our Achievement Award celebration events.

The successful candidate would therefore be someone who has flexibility to travel, work out-of-office hours, enjoys building relationships and public speaking, as well as navigating a busy grants and assessment caseload (desk-based processing, telephone calls/emails, and daily use of a database). You will need to be happy to travel regularly around Central and South-West London, and to our office in Canary Wharf.

The Jack Petchey Foundation is an Equal Opportunities Employer and we seek to build a team that reflects the diverse communities we serve. We particularly welcome applications from black and minority ethnic candidates as they are currently under-represented in our team.

Key Priorities of the Role:

• To promote and strengthen the Jack Petchey Achievement Award Scheme and associated programmes (Leader Award Grants, Educational Visits and Learning Experiences, Environmental Awards and Partnership Programmes) in schools and youth organisations.

• To support schools and youth organisations to administer the Jack Petchey Achievement Award Scheme to a high standard and maximise the positive impact it has on young people.

• To ensure that schools and youth organisations make maximum use of the small programmes and partnership programmes associated with the Jack Petchey Achievement Award Scheme.

• To ensure that accurate data is recorded on all Jack Petchey Foundation systems.

• To support programme growth, impact and reach by building stakeholder relationships in your assigned local area.

• To assess new applications and monitor the impact of the Achievement Award Scheme and small grants awarded.

• To work with your colleagues in the Grants Team to deliver excellent grant making, review and improve processes, and strengthen relationships with all Jack Petchey Foundation stakeholders.

About You

This is an exciting time to join us as we grow our work as a charitable Foundation. You will have an opportunity to use and develop a wide range of skills in a friendly, dynamic and supportive team that is committed to growing our positive impact on young people.

The Grants Officer role demands a wide range of skills and a high degree of autonomy, reliability and flexibility. You will need to be an efficient, highly organised team member with excellent communication skills and a passion for our work. You will need to be able to manage your own workload within agreed targets and maintain a programme of planned visits, while creating new development opportunities.

You will possess an eye for detail, good administration skills and the ability to communicate confidently and present a positive external profile for the charity. Evening and weekend work is a requirement to meet the demands of this role. This is a busy and satisfying role, with each Grants Officer leading relationships with between 350-400 organisations. You will have strong planning skills and the ability to deal efficiently with regular grant applications, and with busy grant reporting periods twice a year.

Evening and weekend work is a requirement of this role, which on occasion can require up to two to three out-of-hours events in one week, depending on the event schedule. These are seasonal events, primarily during term-time and time off in lieu will be granted for additional hours worked. We aim for our Grants Officers to be working in the office two-three days/week, depending on their visits and events schedule.

This is a perfect time to join the Foundation to support us to deliver our strategic plan – while we also streamline our processes, improve our support to our grantees, and review our grant-making criteria and guidance. This is your chance to make your mark within a motivated and ambitious team and help us to reach even more young people with our funding.

Main Areas of Responsibility

1. Develop, manage and promote the Jack Petchey Achievement Award Scheme and other JPF opportunities

1.1. Identify schools and youth organisations not currently running the scheme and proactively promote the Achievement Award (AA) scheme to them, following up as required.

1.2 Receive, assess and process all grant applications to join the AA scheme, in accordance with Jack Petchey Foundation policies and procedures.

1.3 Attend, participate and assist with delivery of Achievement Award celebration events (usually evenings with some weekend events), including making a speech to congratulate the young people.

2. Quality Assurance for the Jack Petchey Achievement Award Scheme

2.1 Develop relationships with and support schools, alternative provision, and youth organisations on the Jack Petchey Achievement Award (AA) scheme to operate the scheme to the highest possible standard.

2.2 Provide timely support to such organisations to enable them to run the AA scheme effectively.

2.3 Implement a strategic approach to conducting face-to-face and digital assessment and monitoring visits to schools and youth organisations in your area on the Jack Petchey Achievement Award scheme, to ensure our funding is well spent and to identify opportunities to improve delivery.

2.4 Organise and deliver digital and in-person training and/or sessions to support schools and youth organisations to operate the Jack Petchey Achievement Award scheme effectively.

3. Administer the Jack Petchey Foundation grant making process

3.1 Ensure accurate records are kept on the Foundation’s database (Salesforce), including up-to-date contact details and records of communication with groups in receipt of or applying for grants.

3.2 Approve/authorise payment of AA grants and related programmes in accordance with our policies.

3.3 Ensure appropriate grant reporting by schools and youth organisations and negotiate return of funds where a grant has not been used in accordance with conditions.

3.4 Proactively manage risk, being alert to potential fraud.

3.5 Ensure that clubs and groups receive all necessary materials to operate the Achievement Award scheme effectively.

3.6 Assess and approve Leader Awards and Environmental Awards in accordance with our policy.

3.7 Assess applications for Leader Award Grants, Educational Visits and Learning Experiences Grants and Environmental Award Grants in accordance with our policy, with recommendations put forward to senior staff.

3.8 Provide regular updates on your work and Grants Officer patch during monthly one-to-ones. 

4. Promote the wider work of the Jack Petchey Foundation to schools and youth groups

4.1 Identify case studies and other stories and material that can be used for our communications, supporting communications team colleagues to raise awareness of our opportunities and impact.

4.2 Represent the Foundation at digital and physical events, local networks, funders’ fairs, and community or young people’s forums to help promote our Grant Programmes and other opportunities.

4.3 Assist with digital and face-to-face monitoring and reporting in relation to groups that have received a Jack Petchey Foundation Project Grant or other funding.

5. Other Responsibilities

5.1 Actively contribute to Grants team and Jack Petchey Foundation team meetings

5.2 Take a lead on specific projects and undertake other tasks as agreed with Director of Grants and Partnerships or Grants Manager

5.3 Contribute to the assessment of other small grant programmes as requested by the Director of Grants and Partnerships

5.4 Work with Director of Grants and Partnerships to present deep dives to Board on agreed small grant programmes, as requested

5.5 Provide telephone/email support and advice about our funding streams to existing grantees or potential applicants as part of the Grants Officer Duty Rota once/week

Please note these are the normal duties which the charity requires from the position. However, it is necessary for all staff to be flexible and all employees will be required from time to time to perform other duties as may be required by JPF.

Work at all times within the policies, procedures and values of the Jack Petchey Foundation, in particular safeguarding, health and safety, and data protection and consent policies.

Please complete the application form and return it to Nadia Jones by 9am on Monday 23rd February 2026.

Please also complete the diversity monitoring form that can be found in the pack.

Stage 1: First stage online interviews (20-30 minutes) will be held on Thursday 26th February and Friday 27th February 2026.

Stage 2: Candidates who progress to the next stage will be invited to attend an in-person interview on Monday 2nd March 2026. These will be held in person at the Jack Petchey Foundation (Dockmaster’s House, 1 Hertsmere Road, London, E14 8JJ).

Please note that these dates are fixed, and we encourage applicants to ensure availability if shortlisted.

This is a vacant post and we would be looking to start the successful candidate as soon as possible.

• Salary: £38,341

• Location: London

• Contract Type: Indefinite

• Hours: Full Time

• Closing Date: 3 March 2026

• First Interview Dates: Week beginning 16 March 2026

About the role

We are hiring in our Grants team which is part of the wider Development Department at ClientEarth. This department is responsible for raising and managing funds to enable the organisation to deliver its mission using the power of the law to bring about systemic change that protects the earth for, and with its inhabitants. As Grants Officer you will work in our Grants Team to manage a portfolio of grants that fund our organisation’s work, with a focus on managing a portfolio of grants from trusts, foundations, and other statutory and institutional funders.

Meet your Manager

In this role, you will be managed by Emma Franklin. Emma is a Grants Manager at ClientEarth, where she oversees a dynamic portfolio of grants related to supporting the Resources, Energy and Mobility system of legal work across Europe and Asia. Emma has worked in grant management and philanthropy roles since 2017 at several major environmental not-for-profits. She’s extremely passionate about climate and environmental issues, and believes deeply in ClientEarth’s mission – using the lasting power of the law to protect our fragile planet. Emma moved to London in May 2024, hailing originally from her hometown of Sydney, Australia.

Main Duties

• Manage a portfolio of grants, ensuring compliance with grant requirements and timelines
• Coordinate key grant management processes including: Go/No-Go, due diligence, funding agreement review, grant kick off and grant management meetings, narrative and financial reporting and renewals. 
• Deliver compelling, impactful and timely proposals and reports, and broker the relationship between programmes and the funder
• Maintain excellent relationships with funders through timely communications in relation to the work they support
• Effectively manage reporting and the grant renewal process from start to completion - including working with multiple teams across ClientEarth’s International offices to ensure input from all relevant stakeholders, to complete proposals and reports in a timely and high-quality manner

See the job description (below) for a full list of duties for this role.

Role requirements

• Experience in a grant or project management role within the non-profit or public sectors (essential)
• Proven track record in drafting successful proposals, delivering timely and accurate reports and managing funder relationships (essential);
• Experience of managing six figure gifts (essential);
• Knowledge of and/or interest in environmental issues (such as climate change, energy, plastics, chemicals, air pollution, and biodiversity issues), policy and law, litigation, courts and/or environmental justice (desirable)

See the job description (below) for a full list of requirements for this role.

Note to candidates: We know that long lists of criteria can be daunting and that some candidates will not apply for a role unless they feel they are 100% qualified. If you feel you meet at least some of the essential criteria, we still encourage you to apply.

Further Information

Have a question about this job? Please visit our Careers site for advice on applying, FAQs, and more.

Flexible working:  We are proud to be a Flexa accredited Employer. Visit our Flexa Employer page for more information on our approach to flexible working. Our flexible working policy allows our people the choice to decide to work from home/another location in the country where their contract of employment is issued for 80% of their month, with the other 20% of their month being office-based  See our Benefits page for more as well as our flexible working FAQ.

ClientEarth values diversity and inclusion and the benefits this brings. We aim to appoint the most suitable candidate at all times and welcome applications from people from all different backgrounds. See our equity, diversity and inclusion journey page for more.

Please note that ClientEarth is only able to employ those who have the pre-existing legal right to work in the UK.

ClientEarth is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services to third parties.