Executive Coordinator and Fundraiser

 Executive Coordinator and Fundraiser

About the role

This is an unusual role and we are looking for an unusual combination of skills.

You will work directly alongside CARE’s Chief Executive, Anne Bickerstaffe, across fundraising, strategic projects, communications, organisational development and whatever needs to be progressed to help CARE move forward.

This is not a traditional Executive Assistant role.

It is a role for someone who can write exceptionally well, think clearly, organise complex work, build good systems, research unfamiliar subjects quickly and use AI with intelligence and discernment.

At times you may be writing a £500,000 funding application. At another point you could be researching a new opportunity, preparing a Board paper, working towards an application to become a social landlord, drafting an email to a national partner, writing a social media post, analysing a set of documents or working alongside a director to develop a new organisational process.

You therefore need to be comfortable moving between detailed operational work and much bigger strategic pieces of work.

Over time, you will become a trusted and highly capable support to the Chief Executive, someone who understands CARE deeply, knows what is happening across the organisation and can take substantial pieces of work away, manage them independently and bring them back completed to a very high standard.

There are four major parts to the role:

1. Writing, fundraising and donor relationships
2. Executive coordination and strategic projects
3. Registered Provider development and organisational systems
4. Communications, digital content and social media

Writing sits at the heart of all four. This is also why we are willing for this role to be fully remote.

1.    Writing, fundraising and donor relationships

CARE has developed a strong record of securing charitable funding. We now want to substantially increase our fundraising capacity while also strengthening the relationships we have with people and organisations that already support us.

At present the Chief Executive, Anne is the sole fundraiser for the charity, and Anne has built an extensive pipeline of funding, as well as working on a major capital project. Your job will be to work alongside Anne and take some of this responsibility and workload. You will work closely with her initially, learning CARE’s approach to fundraising and its distinctive written voice, before progressively taking greater responsibility for the fundraising programme.

Your work will include:

Trusts and Foundations

 ·         Researching potential funders and identifying strong opportunities for CARE.

·         Maintaining a structured fundraising pipeline.

·         Writing high-quality funding applications to charitable trusts and foundations.

·         Researching funders in depth before applications are made.

·         Gathering the evidence, statistics, budgets, stories and supporting information needed for applications.

·         Managing application deadlines and submission requirements.

·         Maintaining accurate records of applications, decisions and future opportunities.

·         Writing reports and updates to funders.

·         Ensuring funding conditions and reporting deadlines are followed through.

 Wider fundraising development

 The role will also support the Chief Executive to develop CARE's fundraising in other areas, including:

·         Statutory funding: supporting applications and identifying relevant opportunities from government, local authorities, NHS organisations and other statutory funders.

·         Major donors: supporting CARE to identify, develop and maintain relationships with major donors and philanthropists.

·         Individual giving: helping develop regular giving, donor communications, appeals and other ways for individuals to support CARE.

·         Legacy giving: supporting the development of CARE's approach to gifts in wills and in-memory giving.

·         Community and digital fundraising: helping explore appropriate community fundraising, online campaigns and other opportunities as CARE grows.

 Donor relationships

The role will help manage CARE's relationships with existing funders and donors, ensuring people are thanked properly, kept informed about what their support has achieved, and have regular and meaningful communication from CARE.

Over time, we would expect the postholder to take increasing responsibility for CARE's donor stewardship and fundraising systems.

2. Executive coordination and strategic projects

You will work very closely with the Chief Executive.

This means the role cannot be completely defined by a fixed list of tasks. CARE is developing quickly and priorities change.

You will need to be someone who can hear:

“Can you take this away and sort it?”

and be comfortable working out what needs to happen next.

Your work may include:

·         Preparing briefing papers, Board papers, reports and presentations.

·         Researching new opportunities, organisations, partners and areas of work.

·         Reviewing guidance, consultations, contracts and other key documents.

·         Drafting strategic correspondence and supporting the Chief Executive to prepare for important meetings.

·         Developing project plans, tracking actions and keeping complex pieces of work moving.

·         Following up decisions, deadlines and agreed actions.

·         Maintaining organised digital records, systems and other executive work.

·         Undertaking other duties and areas of work reasonably required to support the Chief Executive and the wider organisation as CARE's needs and priorities develop.

You will not be expected to know everything at the outset.

You will be expected to learn quickly, be very good at finding things out, and use AI confidently to speed up research, improve processes and help you ask the right questions.

3. Registered Provider development and organisational systems

One area of work during the first stage of this role will be helping CARE explore and develop a new structure for its supported housing work. This may include CARE becoming a Registered Provider of Social Housing, working through an existing Registered Provider, or developing another suitable arrangement.

You will work closely with CARE’s Director of Services, Vicky Parker, and the Chief Executive to help research the options, organise the work and keep the process moving.

This is likely to involve:

·         researching regulatory requirements and different Registered Provider models;

·         understanding relevant standards, guidance and governance requirements;

·         helping map CARE’s existing policies and procedures against what may be required;

·         identifying gaps and areas needing further work;

·         creating project plans, trackers and clear action lists;

·         organising supporting evidence and maintaining an accessible evidence base;

·         monitoring actions, deadlines and dependencies;

·         preparing information and papers for senior leaders and trustees;

·         coordinating meetings, research and follow-up work; and

·         if a particular route is agreed, helping coordinate the work needed to take it forward.

Previous social housing regulation experience would be useful but is certainly not essential.

What matters much more is whether you are exceptionally good at taking a large and complicated piece of work, understanding what needs to happen, creating order around it and making sure actions are followed through. Vicky Parker, Director of Services, brings the operational knowledge and experience of CARE’s housing work; your role would be to work alongside her and help turn that knowledge into an organised programme of research, decision-making and delivery.

4. Communications, digital content and social media

You will help shape how CARE communicates with supporters, funders, partners and the wider community.

This will include:

·         Writing and scheduling social media content across CARE's channels.

·         Finding and developing strong stories from across CARE, including photographs, quotes and first-hand experiences.

·         Writing supporter newsletters, donor updates, website content and other external communications.

·         Supporting digital fundraising campaigns and communications around the CARE Hub and CARE's wider work.

·         Helping maintain CARE's distinctive written voice and finding new ways to tell our story to wider audiences.

CARE’s communications should tell people what is actually happening.

CARE's staff will often be the people who know the stories, quotes and details from our work.

You will need to be able to draw that information out, recognise what is powerful or important, ask the right follow-up questions, and turn it into strong, quality writing that helps people understand why CARE's work matters.

AI and technology

AI is already an important part of how the Chief Executive researches, writes, analyses information and develops new work.

Over the past three years, Anne has spent considerable time training AI to understand her voice, judgement and writing style, so that it supports her writing without producing generic, formulaic or obviously AI-generated content.

It will be an important part of this role too.

We are therefore particularly interested in candidates who are already highly skilled users of generative AI, or who can demonstrate that they learn new technology exceptionally quickly.

We are not looking for somebody who asks AI for a generic first draft and then copies it into a document.

We want somebody who understands how to use AI as a serious working tool: to research, test ideas, analyse information, interrogate documents, improve systems, speed up processes and strengthen their own thinking.

They must also know when AI is wrong, weak, repetitive or producing poor writing, and have the judgement and writing ability to correct it.

The strongest candidate will understand that good AI use still depends on good questions, good source material, strong critical thinking and excellent editing.

They will also need to learn CARE's established way of using AI, including its tone, language, values and writing style, and be able to build on that rather than replacing it with their own default style.

AI cannot compensate for weak writing skills in this role. However, it can be used to speed up work, strengthen research, organise complex information, test ideas, improve processes and help produce better work more efficiently.

The person we are looking for

There are three abilities we consider particularly important.

You must take ownership and finish things

 This role is intended to increase the Chief Executive's capacity, not create another layer of work for her to manage.

We need somebody who actively looks for ways to take work off Anne's desk, carries it through properly and brings it back completed wherever possible.

That means:

·         taking responsibility for a piece of work from start to finish;

·         solving problems rather than simply identifying them;

·         finding missing information yourself wherever you reasonably can;

·         following up other people without waiting to be reminded;

·         knowing when to make a sensible decision and when something genuinely needs escalating;

·         checking your own work carefully before handing it back;

·         not returning unfinished work simply because you have reached an obstacle; and

·         thinking ahead about what Anne is likely to need next.

There will of course be times when you need guidance or a decision from the Chief Executive. The difference is that we want somebody who comes back having done as much as they can, with the issue clearly understood and sensible options already thought through.

The right person will take real satisfaction from making the Chief Executive's workload lighter, keeping things moving and making sure important work gets finished.

You must be an exceptional writer

This is an important requirement for the role.

You should be able to take complicated information and turn it into clear, persuasive and engaging writing.

You should be able to:

·         tell a compelling story;

·         understand what makes writing persuasive;

·         make a strong argument without exaggeration;

·         write with warmth without becoming sentimental;

·         adapt your writing for very different audiences;

·         absorb large amounts of background information, with the help of AI;

·         maintain accuracy while making information easy to understand;

·         edit your own work ruthlessly; and

·         recognise excellent writing from average writing.

 

You may currently work in fundraising.

You may equally be a journalist, executive assistant, communications professional, researcher, policy writer, bid writer, senior administrator or work in another field entirely.

Previous charity fundraising experience is not essential if your underlying writing and research ability is exceptional.

We can teach fundraising.

We cannot teach somebody to become a great writer during their first few months in the role.

You must be exceptional at organisation, systems and procedures

You will also need a highly organised mind.

CARE does not need somebody who merely keeps a to-do list.

We need somebody who naturally looks at a complicated piece of work and thinks:

·         What needs doing?

·         What information do we need?

·         Who owns each part?

·         What is the deadline?

·         What are we waiting for?

·         Where should this information be stored?

·         How do we make sure nothing gets missed?

·         Can we create a better system for doing this next time?

You should enjoy creating order.

You should be able to build trackers, processes, filing structures, templates and ways of working that other people can understand and use.

You will need excellent attention to detail.

You will probably thrive in this role if you:

·         are intellectually curious and enjoy learning about unfamiliar subjects;

·         are a very strong researcher;

·         write exceptionally well;

·         enjoy technology and use AI confidently;

·         are highly organised;

·         notice details other people miss;

·         like making complicated things work better;

·         can manage several completely different pieces of work at once;

·         can work independently without needing constant direction;

·         are comfortable making sensible decisions yourself;

·         know when something needs escalating;

·         take ownership of work;

·         follow things through to completion;

·         are comfortable working directly with senior leaders;

·         can challenge constructively when you think something has been missed;

·         are discreet and trustworthy;

·         are comfortable with change; and

·         want to become deeply involved in one organisation rather than work remotely at arm’s length.

Working remotely

This role is fully remote.

You must be based permanently in the UK and have the right to work in the UK.

Remote working does not mean working at arm’s length from the organisation. You will work closely with the Chief Executive throughout the week and regularly with other members of CARE’s senior team.

We are looking for somebody who wants to become deeply involved in CARE’s work, understands the organisation and its local context, and becomes a trusted member of the team. Developing a strong understanding of Grimsby, the communities we work with and the local organisations around us will be important.

We would therefore expect you to come to Grimsby from time to time, visiting CARE’s services, meeting staff and partners, and being involved in our work first-hand. In practice, this is likely to mean around one visit each month, with occasional additional visits for important meetings, events or other times when your presence would be particularly helpful.

Essential criteria

Candidates must be able to demonstrate:

·         exceptional written English;

·         evidence of producing substantial high-quality written work;

·         very strong organisation and attention to detail;

·         the ability to create and manage systems and procedures;

·         confidence using digital technology;

·         strong practical experience of generative AI, or clear evidence of advanced digital aptitude;

·         the ability to work independently;

·         the ability to manage competing priorities;

·         excellent judgement;

·         the ability to handle confidential information;

·         a proactive approach to problem solving; and

·         the ability to work collaboratively with senior colleagues.

·         Sympathetic to CARE's Christian ethos and values, and comfortable working within an organisation founded on the Christian faith.

Desirable criteria

It would be helpful, but is not essential, to have experience of one or more of the following:

·         executive coordination;

·         fundraising;

·         trust and foundation applications;

·         communications;

·         social media;

·         project management;

·         regulation or compliance;

·         donor relationship management;

·         developing systems and procedures.

What we offer

·         Salary of £35,000-£40,000 per annum.

·         A permanent, full-time role.

·         Fully remote working.

·         Workplace pension.

·         6 weeks annual leave plus BH

·         Training in charity fundraising and areas of CARE’s work where you do not already have experience.

·         The opportunity to become involved in a wide range of significant projects as CARE continues to develop.

This is a role with considerable scope. You will be part of a charity making a real difference in an area of extreme deprivation.

We are not recruiting somebody to sit at the edge of the organisation completing tasks.

We are looking for somebody who can become deeply involved in CARE’s work, develop an extraordinary understanding of the organisation and, over time, take ownership of substantial areas of work alongside the Chief Executive.