Impact Assistant

Overview

Figurative is an independent charity dedicated to impact, investment and innovation in the cultural and creative sector. We bring together deep expertise through Arts & Culture Finance (formerly part of Nesta) and New Philanthropy for Arts & Culture to unlock new and innovative ways of funding and supporting the UK’s arts ecosystem.

Figurative manages three investment portfolios that have supported over 60 organisations and raised more than £30 million in investment capital over the last decade.

We believe arts and culture have the power to transform lives and communities. Our mission is to ensure cultural and creative organisations can thrive, test bold ideas, and build sustainable futures.

The Role

The Impact Assistant is a new role at Figurative that will primarily support work on the Arts & Culture Impact Fund (“ACIF”), an £18m social investment fund which seeks to enable enterprising arts, culture and heritage organisations to fulfil their missions through the use of flexible and risk-tolerant finance. The Impact Assistant will also contribute to Figurative’s emerging advisory work, providing impact development support to the creative and cultural sector.

Key Responsibilities

The demands of this role will be both fund (ACIF) specific and general to Figurative. You will play an important role in assessing and understanding the social impact enabled through ACIF. In particular, this includes:

• Providing administrative support in the monitoring of impact delivery and reporting requirements across a portfolio of investments to ensure requirements are met in a timely manner
• Working closely with Figurative’s Impact Lead and wider Investment team to develop new investment proposals to the ACIF investment committee
• Contributing to assessments of the expected impact of each investment proposal as part of the social impact due diligence process
• Supporting Figurative’s Impact Lead in the capacity development work of ACIF applicants and investees through a combination of desk research, face-to-face conversations and workshop facilitation to produce social impact related out outputs, including:
  • Evidence base summaries for a given intervention
  • Theories of change
  • Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks Framework for M&E
  • Development Plans outlining output, outcome, and impact management aims & KPIs
• Supporting on the collection, analysis and reporting of social impact data on fund performance for Figurative’s internal and external stakeholders

The general Figurative duties will include:

• Supporting in the undertaking of advisory work for organisations operating in the creative and cultural sector to improve impact measurement and management practice
• Collaborating on the development of internal processes to ensure the efficient and effective management of impact and investment data
• Sharing learning with the wider arts & cultural sector around social impact evidence and best practice M&E approaches from the Figurative portfolio
• Supporting the wider Figurative team on matters relating to social impact across all its funds The Person

The Person

The role requires a self-starting and curious individual, with enthusiasm and commitment to growing social impact through arts, culture, heritage and social enterprise more broadly. Specifically, with the following:

Experience

• Practical experience supporting the delivery of projects or programmes, including the co-ordination of timelines, meetings and actions
• Experience in maintaining trackers or workplans across multiple workstreams
• Exposure to data collection, cleansing and analysis through different methods, such as evaluation scales, surveys or interviews
• Desirable: Experience facilitating workshops and group discussions, particularly relating to social impact to develop and embed monitoring, evaluation and learning approaches
• Desirable: professional or lived experience of the transformative social impact of arts & culture
• Desirable: experience of working with arts & cultural sector organisations
• Desirable: experience of social impact investing, in any capacity

Knowledge

• Sound knowledge of social impact related concepts, including monitoring and evaluation and theory of change
• An understanding of the opportunities and limitations of social impact monitoring and evaluation, particularly in the arts
• Desirable: networks in the social impact and/or arts and culture sector

Skills

• Ability to prioritise tasks across multiple projects or workstreams, tracking progress against outputs, outcomes and deadlines
• Quantitative and/or qualitative analysis skills
• Internal and external stakeholder co-ordination skills, including diary management, scheduling meetings, document management and action logging
• Critical thinking skills, to support analysis, interrogation, and development of organisational theories of change
• Ability to self-motivate, prioritise within a complex workload, and deliver work to tight deadlines
• Clear and cogent writing, to a wide and diverse range of audiences
• Strong verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex issues concisely and compellingly to a wide range of audiences

Attitude

• Collaborative team-player, proactively engaging colleagues in dealing with complex challenges
• Curious and open minded critical-thinker, comfortable in providing constructive challenge
• Well organised and conscientious, able to deliver work in a timely and thoughtful manner
• Personable and supportive, willing to help internal and external colleagues to achieve their goals

What We Offer

• Salary: £30,000 FTE depending on experience
• Location: Hybrid working arrangement based at Somerset House in central London, with flexibility and some travel within the UK
• Hours: 4 days/week (0.8 FTE)
• Reports to: Impact Lead
• Benefits:
  • 25 days annual leave + bank holidays + ability to buy additional holiday  (pro rata for part time employees)       
  • Pension (Employer Contribution 8% + a further 4% where the employee contributes 4%)
  • Life Assurance 
  • Post probation - Private health and dental insurance  

Making an Application

To apply for this role, please submit your application (CV and covering letter) before midnight Sunday 22nd February 2026.

Please note that we actively screen for AI-generated applications. We are looking for authentic, personal responses that reflect your own experiences and motivations.

First interviews will be held virtually on Thursday 5th March 2026.

Second interviews will be held in person in our London offices on Thursday 12th March 2026.

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly encourage those who are underrepresented in the investment sector to apply.

I look forward to hearing from you

Nick Wilsdon

Impact Lead