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Community Fundraising Assistant - North
Are you ready to take on a new challenge with a leading charity making a real difference in brain tumour research?
Brain Tumour Research is an exciting, innovative, and ambitious charity. We are passionate about finding a cure for brain tumours through the establishment of dedicated Brain Tumour Research Centres of Excellence around the UK.
After a successful 2025, we’re building on our momentum and looking ahead with ambition. As our work continues to expand, so does our impact. We are now looking for passionate people to join us on the next stage of our journey!
It is a fantastic time to be joining us and we are keen to share this with likeminded and talented individuals. We currently have an opening for a Community Fundraising Assistant - North, to join our Community and Digital Fundraising team.
- Do you want to make a difference in one of the most innovative and exciting medical research fundraising charities in the UK?
- Are you able to provide friendly and professional support to fundraisers and supporters?
- Do you have experience in supporting events or community activities?
- Do you live in either Scotland, North East England, North West England or the East Midlands?
Have you answered Yes to these questions?
Does this sound like the opportunity to really take the next step in your career?
Excited to learn more about this position? Then please take a read through our recruitment pack which is included within this advert.
If you have the skills and ambition that we are looking for we are excited to receive your application. We are really looking forward to welcoming a new member to our team!
We are asking for a CV as the first step but applicants may be asked to provide a targeted covering letter as part of the selection process. Interviews will be conducted during the application window as appropriate, and will consist of a first interview via MS Teams, progressing, if successful to a face to face second interview, held at our offices in Milton Keynes.
We reserve the right to close the application window early and advise candidates to apply in good time to avoid disappointment.
We are looking for people who share our passion for finding a cure for brain tumours and who have the skills and experience to make a difference. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds, cultures, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, and ages. We believe that diversity enriches our organisation and helps us achieve our mission. We are committed to providing an inclusive and supportive environment where everyone can be themselves and contribute to our vision.
To find a cure for all types of brain tumours To increase the UK investment in brain tumour research
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Role Purpose:
About Responsible Finance
Responsible Finance is the membership association for the UK’s Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs). CDFIs are community lenders, committed to delivering positive social impact, and offer fair and affordable finance to businesses, social enterprises and to people unable to access it elsewhere.
This is an exciting moment to be joining the CDFI sector. Responsible Finance and its members are focused on increasing access to fair and affordable finance for SMEs, social enterprises, people, places and communities that are underserved by mainstream finance. The Partnerships Manager will play a central role in turning that ambition into practical referral pathways, stronger partnerships and measurable growth in responsible lending.
Awareness of CDFIs remains low among many organisations that support SMEs and entrepreneurs. Many businesses that could benefit from CDFI finance are therefore not currently being directed to the sector. An increasing number seem to be turning to high interest lenders, which don’t always consider good customer outcomes.
We are therefore seeking an exceptional Partnerships Manager to develop and deliver a partnership outreach and creation strategy that raises awareness of CDFIs, increases referrals and signposting, and supports growth in CDFI SME lending. Our recent pilot with Lloyds Bank to refer declined SMEs to Responsible Finance, and our partnership with Grow London Local are just two examples.
Success in this role will mean building a prioritised partnership pipeline, converting relationships into active referral pathways, improving the quality and volume of referrals to CDFIs, and using data to learn what works.
Purpose of the Role
As Responsible Finance’s dedicated Partnerships Manager you will build strong relationships with banks, brokers and broker organisations, professional advisers, business organisations, government, local growth bodies and others to raise awareness, establish referral routes and strengthen onward pathways to finance readiness and business support.
Your work will be a driving force in delivering Responsible Finance’s ambition to unlock an additional £1bn of lending over the next five years.
Key Responsibilities:
- Leading the development of Responsible Finance’s partnership and stakeholder relationship strategy, working with our CDFI members to identify the organisations with the greatest potential to support growth in demand and referral pathways.
- Educating potential partners and referrers about what CDFIs are, the finance and support they provide, and of their role in local economic growth and community development.
- Increasing referrals and signposting to CDFIs centrally through Finding Finance and locally from organisations supporting businesses, improving access to finance and supporting lending growth.
- Managing the ongoing development and continuous improvement of the Finding Finance platform to ensure that it supports frictionless referrals and good customer outcomes – and that ongoing attribution data informs the ongoing targeting of partners.
- Developing routes for onward referrals to organisations that can support businesses with technical assistance, finance readiness and wider business support, creating a stronger future pipeline for CDFIs.
- Representing Responsible Finance at sector events, roundtables and stakeholder meetings, with a clear engagement plan, follow-up process and route for converting contacts into partnership opportunities.
This is a varied and dynamic role, working closely with our members and a range of external stakeholders. This job description is not exhaustive; it outlines the key tasks and responsibilities of the post which are subject to change. Any changes will be made in consultation with the post holder.
Role success measures and outcomes
- A prioritised partnership strategy and engagement plan agreed with Responsible Finance and informed by CDFI member needs.
- A live pipeline of target partners, with clear next actions, ownership, status and expected impact.
- New or improved referral pathways from priority partner segments, such as banks, brokers, accountants, local growth bodies, business support organisations and others.
- Improved quality, tracking and attribution of referrals through Finding Finance and local partner routes.
- Evidence of learning from pilots, including what drives referral quality, customer engagement, member value and responsible lending growth.
Skills and Experience:
Essential
We are looking for someone with experience of partnership development, stakeholder engagement or business development in a relevant environment. Experience of the finance ecosystem, SME support landscape or local economic development networks would be particularly valuable. Knowledge of CDFIs is highly desirable but not essential for the right candidate.
- Strong relationship-building skills. Must be comfortable working with stakeholders at a range of levels.
- Proven ability to build partnerships from prospecting through to implementation, including converting conversations into practical actions, pilots or agreements.
- Excellent communication and negotiation skills.
- Previous experience in a similar stakeholder / partner facing role.
- Highly self-motivated and able to drive your own work forward, but equally a team player with a collaborative working style.
- Willingness to travel regularly – this role is partner and stakeholder facing and the post holder will be required to travel frequently, up to twice a week, and sometimes at short notice.
- Strong presentational and public speaking skills and experience.
- Ability to develop compelling value propositions and engagement materials for different audiences.
- Strong project management skills, including planning, budgeting, prioritisation, delivery against milestones and managing dependencies across multiple stakeholders.
- Confidence using data, dashboards or CRM-style tools to track pipeline activity, referral performance and outcomes.
- Ability to work collaboratively with members or delivery partners, balancing different organisational priorities and capacities.
- Understanding of good customer outcomes, referral quality, consent and data-sharing considerations in a partnership or customer journey context.
- Strong judgement and political/stakeholder awareness when representing an organisation externally.
Desirable
Working as part of a small organisation, you will need to demonstrate flexibility and versatility and have opportunities to support a range of other projects and support services for our members, developing a wide range of skills and competencies.
Therefore, in addition to the essential criteria above, we are also interested in candidates with the following skills and experience:
- Experience in organising and delivering events and workshops.
- Experience of creating and delivering presentations.
- An understanding of CDFIs and/or lending helpful – particularly investor relations and social enterprises.
- Experience line managing and/or directing the work of other team members.
- Experience working with banks, brokers, accountants, business support organisations, local authorities, combined authorities, chambers of commerce, growth hubs or social investment networks.
- Experience designing referral journeys, customer pathways, partner onboarding processes or account-management frameworks.
- Experience using or improving digital referral platforms, CRM systems, forms or reporting processes.
- Understanding of SME finance, access-to-finance barriers, finance readiness, social enterprise finance or inclusive/local economic growth.
- Experience developing partnership agreements, memoranda of understanding, pilot plans or data-sharing processes.
How to Apply
Please send your CV and responses to the following questions to Careers4Change:
- What appeals to you about this job/Responsible Finance and why do you think you’ll do a great job?
- Tell us about a partnership or stakeholder relationship you developed. What was your approach, what changed as a result, and what did you learn?
- Based on what you know about Responsible Finance and CDFIs, what would your approach be to developing strong partnerships and referral pathways?
We recognise that the use of AI tools is widespread these days, and it is often obvious when it’s used. We will automatically reject applications where the use of AI without any editing or your original thoughts is evident. The ability to be thoughtful and tailor to your audience is crucial for being successful in this role.
Job title: Responsible Finance, Partnerships Manager
Location: Remote with frequent expenses-paid travel – up to 10 times /month
Reporting To: Programme Director
Contract: 18-month fixed term contract with intention to make permanent, subject to performance and funding
Salary: £40,000
Date Closes: Friday 17th July