Grassroots development officer jobs in chichester, west sussex

Location: Remote, North of England with some requirement to travel (UK) and to spend time in London 

The Organisation

The CSJ Foundation was born out of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) an independent think tank, established in 2004 that studies the root causes of Britain’s social problems and seeks to address these through innovative policy recommendations to government. The CSJ has changed the landscape of our political conversation by putting social justice at the heart of British politics. This has led to some of the biggest welfare reforms in a generation. The CSJ Foundation is committed to ensuring the voices of grassroots charities are elevated to national decision makers. Our aim is to bring much-needed frontline experience into national policymaking. Utilising local networks and a philanthropic platform to guide investment, the CSJ Foundation will ensure that charities who are fighting the root causes of poverty receive the right support – both in policymaking and funding. The CSJ Foundation was established to magnify and amplify the crucial role played by grassroots charities and social enterprises around the country. These organisations are on the frontline in the fight against poverty and do incredible work, day-in-day-out. Despite this fantastic work, these organisations remain largely unseen and underfunded. The CSJ Foundation seeks to change that.

The Role 

The CSJ Foundation is looking for a Regional Portfolio Manager (North) to join its Portfolio team to help grow and professionalise it’s offering to charities and donors alike. The CSJF has big ambitions for its work with small charities over the next 3 years, central to this work is our Portfolio team. Based in the north of England (ideally north of Sheffield), the post-holder will be responsible for delivering first-rate charity due diligence on some of the best small charities in the UK. In this role you will use tech solutions to drive insights and understanding about CSJF’s work with charities, in addition, the post-holder will gather intel from frontline charities to create insights to inform the CSJ’s policy work. The post-holder will also seek to generate interesting media stories. The post holder will help to generate new income for the CSJF through multiple streams. The post-holder will work towards pre-agreed targets to grow the CSJF’s work, fully supported by the Managing Director and other colleagues. The Regional Portfolio Manager will hold responsibility for building and maintaining relationships with multiple charities based in the North of England, engaging in conversations with local organisations and individuals, to ensure that the CSJF’s work is driven forward effectively. 

The Person 

• Possessing the skills and aptitude to develop new policies and practices for delivering charity/portfolio services
• Interest in developing relationships with charity leaders, understanding their work and impact
• Proficiency for using and interpreting data, creating meaningful insights from gathered data about charities, philanthropy and the voluntary sector
• Understanding of systems and technology that can be used to interpret, analyse and present data
• Some proficiency with presenting information effectively using tools like Canva
• The ability to engage with stakeholders including business leaders, researchers, HNWs, and CEOs
• The ability to work independently and plan programmes of work and manage agreed timelines
• Ability to analyse, understand and synthesise complex information, and to present this in a concise and engaging way
• Ability to communicate well with colleagues and explain complex information simply
• A strong appreciation of the need for accuracy, quality control and process control
• An understanding of the economic and political environment of the day
• Ability to build relationships, utilising a high degree of social intelligence
• An interest in managing processes, driving business change, and developing the use of new technologies in business practice
• Strong understanding of UK charities, the issues faced by the sector, and the policy landscape that affects the voluntary sector.
• A commitment to the CSJF & CSJ’s vision, mission and values
• An interest in current affairs, politics and the social justice agenda
• Meticulous attention to detail and calm under pressure
• A collaborative team player with initiative and a positive “can do” attitude
• Highly organised, discrete, and with a high degree of personal integrity

Main Responsibilities 

Responsibilities for this post include:

• Be a leading member of the CSJF’s portfolio team helping to professionalise and enhance our charity due diligence work
• Helping generate insights from charities to contribute to recommendations in CSJ policy reports
• Work with colleagues to develop a first-class data-input and reporting platform (or database) of charities to monitor their impact and activities
• Use this data to generate insights and presentations to showcase our work
• Interpret data to create insights about charities, philanthropy and the voluntary sector
• Use tech solutions to enhance our data analysis and presentation ability
• Use of presentational tools like Canva (and others) to create information packs for internal and external stakeholders
• Work alongside the Comms team to deliver mainstream media stories generated from frontline insights from the Northern charities
• Responsibility to generate new income for the CSJ Foundation
• Become the internal expert and ‘go-to’ person for 2-3 policy areas connected to CSJ’s research
• Streamline and maintain network of charity contacts across all pathways and then connect the best charities to the CSJ policy team
• Grow and maintain network of regional funders and supporters
• Steward relationship with CSJF Founders Club
• Host visits, events and forums to glean insights from frontline charities based in the North of England
• Support the CSJ Awards application process and judging
• Use the Awards process to onboard new charities
• Manage annual review of Portfolio charities for on/off boarding