Programme grants coordinator jobs

Contract: Full-time, permanent
Hours: Full-time
Reports to: Chair; Board of Directors 
Location: Hackney
Salary: £50,000-60,000 depending on experience.
Pension: HSoF participates in the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) pension scheme and contributes 3%.
Benefits: 25 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays, free onsite lunches .
Probation period: Six months.

About Hackney School of Food

Hackney School of Food is an award-winning food education hub based in the grounds of Mandeville Primary School in Clapton, East London. Through our teaching kitchen and educational garden, we help children, families and communities build the skills, confidence and knowledge to grow, cook and eat good food.

Each year, we welcome more than 10,000 visits to our kitchen and garden, delivering curriculum programmes for schools alongside community cooking courses, gardening projects, holiday clubs, corporate volunteering and public events. Since becoming a Community Interest Company (CIC) in 2023, we have expanded our facilities, strengthened our governance and built a strong reputation as a leader in food education.

We're now looking for an exceptional Managing Director to build on these strong foundations and lead Hackney School of Food through its next phase of growth and impact.

About the role

Reporting to the Board of Directors, the Managing Director (MD) will provide both strategic and operational leadership, ensuring the organisation delivers its mission while remaining financially resilient, well-governed and responsive to the needs of the communities it serves.

The Managing Director is responsible for all aspects of the organisation, including strategy, income generation, finance, governance, partnerships, programme delivery and people leadership. Working closely with a small, committed team and an engaged Board, they will build on strong foundations to grow Hackney School of Food's impact, reach and long-term sustainability.

This is a varied, hands-on leadership role for someone who enjoys balancing big-picture thinking with practical delivery. One day you may be developing a new partnership, meeting a prospective funder or working with the Board on future strategy; the next you could be supporting the team, welcoming visitors to the garden or solving day-to-day operational challenges.

Key priorities

In your first 12 months you will:

• Build on Hackney School of Food's strong foundations to deliver the next phase of our strategy and growth.

• Increase and diversify income through fundraising, partnerships and commercial opportunities to strengthen long-term sustainability.

• Lead, support and develop a small, ambitious team, fostering a positive and inclusive culture where people can thrive.

• Strengthen relationships with funders, partners and local businesses, helping Hackney School of Food deepen its impact.

• Work closely with the Board to embed strong governance, organisational systems and long-term planning for the future.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership 

• Provide overall leadership and strategic direction for Hackney School of Food, ensuring delivery of its mission, vision and long-term objectives. 

• Lead the development and implementation of Hackney School of Food's annual business plan and organisational priorities.

• Work with the Board to evolve organisational strategy, identify opportunities, manage risks and support sustainable growth.

• Monitor, report on and respond to organisational performance against agreed objectives and impact measures. 

• Champion Hackney School of Food externally, strengthening its profile and influence.
   

Financial sustainability and income generation 

• Oversee organisational budgeting, financial planning, forecasting and cashflow management, working closely with the Treasurer and accountant.

• Lead income generation across the organisation, including trusts and foundations, corporate partnerships, sponsorship and earned income.

• Build and maintain strong relationships with funders, sponsors and strategic partners.

• Ensure all funding commitments are met, including grant reporting, monitoring and evaluation requirements.

• Identify new opportunities to diversify income and strengthen long-term financial sustainability.

Partnerships & External Relations

• Act as the main point of contact for HSoF’s key partners, LEAP Federation and Chefs in Schools to ensure the partnerships are effective and positive.

• Build and maintain strong relationships with other key stakeholders, including local authorities, funders and sponsors.

• Represent Hackney School of Food at meetings, events, and public forums.

• Champion the value of food education and contribute to wider local and national conversations. 

• Ensure programmes remain responsive to community needs through ongoing engagement and consultation. 

Governance and public benefit 

• Ensure the organisation operates in line with its CIC objectives and delivers clear public benefit. 

• Support the Board of Directors to fulfil its governance responsibilities through high-quality reporting, planning and decision-making.

• Prepare Board papers, reports and agendas, ensuring timely and accurate information is available to support effective governance.

• Oversee and report on organisational performance to the Board of Directors quarterly.

• Act as the primary link between the Board and the operational team.

• Maintain effective governance, delegated authority and accountability frameworks. 

• Support the Board in meeting all statutory and regulatory obligations relating to the CIC.

People, Culture and safeguarding

• Provide leadership to a small core team (currently c.4 employees), directly managing staff and fostering a positive, inclusive culture. 

• Provide oversight and support for a wider network of approx. 15 freelance contractors to ensure consistently high-quality delivery.

• Lead recruitment, induction, performance management and professional development in line with safer recruitment and equality principles. 

• Ensure effective organisational structures, clear roles, and performance accountability.

• Oversee HR processes including appraisals, performance management, and professional development.

• Act as Designated Safeguarding Lead, embedding safeguarding throughout the organisation maintaining compliance with all relevant requirements. 

• Develop organisational systems, policies and practices that support an inclusive, high-performing workplace.

Risk Management & Compliance

• Maintain and regularly review the organisational Risk Register and report key risks and mitigations to the Board.

• Oversee organisational policies, procedures and continuous improvement, ensuring policies and legal requirements are up to date, clearly communicated and embedded across the organisation. 

• Ensure compliance with employment law, health and safety, safeguarding, GDPR and other relevant legislation. 

Personal specification

Essential experience 

• Senior leadership experience with responsibility for organisational performance and accountability. 

• Experience securing income through fundraising, partnerships and/or commercial activity.

• Experience of financial leadership, including budget setting, forecasting and cashflow oversight.

• Experience working closely with a Board, Trustees or governing body to translate strategic vision into operational delivery. 

• Experience building and managing successful partnerships with funders, businesses and community stakeholders. 

• Experience in managing and motivating a team, creating a positive and inclusive workplace culture. 

• Experience of governance, compliance and organisational risk management.

• Experience of safeguarding within an education, youth or community context.

• Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise competing demands, make sound decisions and remain resilient in a resource-constrained environment.

Essential skills and attributes

• Passion for Hackney School of Food's mission and the role of food education in improving health, wellbeing and community connection. 

• Strategic thinker who is equally comfortable with hands-on operational leadership. 

• Entrepreneurial, resourceful and committed to building long-term financial sustainability and identifying growth opportunities.

• Ability to lead a team through change with sensitivity, clarity and kindness.

• Strong communicator with excellent relationship-building skills. 

• Confident decision-maker with a high level of personal accountability. 

• Committed to equity, inclusion and community-led practice.

Desirable 

• Experience working within a Community Interest Company (CIC), social enterprise or charity.

• Knowledge of Hackney, its communities and local stakeholder landscape.

• Experience of working in food education, community food, gardening, environmental education or a related field.

• Experience reviewing and managing contracts, service agreements or other legal documentation.

An inclusive workplace

We know that diverse teams make stronger organisations and are committed to building a workforce that reflects the communities we serve. We are committed to fair and inclusive recruitment and will consider all qualified applicants regardless of age, disability, gender identity, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

We particularly encourage applications from people who are under-represented in our sector and in leadership roles, including people from the global majority and those whose lived experience brings valuable perspectives from the communities we serve. We also welcome applications from people who live in Hackney or East London.

How to apply

The deadline to apply is Monday 20 July at 9am. Please apply by filling out this application form.

You'll find the link to the application form on our Recruitment Pack which provides more information. 

Stage 1: A one-hour online interview with the Senior Team and Board (24 July) 

Stage 2: On-site interview at Hackney School of Food (30 July), including a short presentation. 

We may also invite the preferred candidate to an informal meeting with the wider team and Board before making a final appointment. 

The successful applicant will need to pass an enhanced DBS check and provide two suitable references. 

We may close the application window earlier if we are inundated with applications, so please don't wait to apply.

If you have any questions about the role or your suitability, please feel free to get in touch with us. You will find a Recruitment pack and email address to contact via our website.

Join the Cardinal Hume Centre and use your estates expertise to help create a safe, welcoming and well-managed environment for young people, children and families facing homelessness and poverty. This is a rare opportunity to lead both the long-term stewardship of a significant Central London site and the day-to-day delivery of facilities, compliance and improvement works that directly support life-changing services.

Working closely with the CEO, Head of HR and Operations and Board of Trustees, you will shape future plans for the Centre’s estate while ensuring the building remains safe, compliant, efficient and fit for purpose. If you are a strategic and practical estates professional who wants their work to make a tangible social impact, we would like to hear from you.

What you’ll do

· Lead long-term estate planning, capital works and building improvements – you’ll support our master planning for the site

· Oversee day-to-day maintenance, facilities management and contractor performance to keep the Centre running effectively

· Take organisational responsibility for health and safety, fire safety and statutory compliance

· Manage budgets, procurement and reporting, delivering value for money while supporting excellent services

· Support sustainability and environmental improvements that strengthen the Centre for the future

What we’re looking for

· A skilled estates, facilities or property professional with strong experience in building compliance, maintenance and project delivery

· A confident communicator who can work effectively with senior leaders, trustees, contractors and colleagues across the organisation

· Someone who can balance strategic thinking with hands-on operational oversight

· A values-led individual who is motivated by the opportunity to support a charity tackling youth and family homelessness

We're looking for an organised, collaborative and effective individual to join our Development Team. You'll be an excellent communicator, confident building strong internal relationships, committed to providing exceptional supporter care, able to write compelling copy, and motivated by delivering high-quality administrative support that helps maximise our impact for animals.

You will join our existing Development Team, providing valuable support to make sure we maximise returns in already successful income streams, such as major gifts and individual giving. You will also be responsible for supporting the expansion of additional income streams, such as legacies, community and corporate. You’ll help us grow our supporter base and raise essential income to support our work with animals.

This is an exciting time to join a growing team and you’ll have the opportunity to develop and test new fundraising activities and shape our income now, and for the future.

The Humane League UK (THL UK) is a charity ending the abuse of animals raised for food by influencing the policies of the world's biggest companies, demanding legislation, and empowering others to take action. 

Thanks to our effectiveness, The Humane League has been named Top Charity by the independent evaluator Animal Charity Evaluators for every rating period since 2012.

THL UK is an equal-opportunity employer. We are committed to furthering equity and inclusion, and we value diversity. We seek people from a wide range of backgrounds who will bring a fresh perspective to the team, not just because it is the right thing to do, but because it makes us stronger. 

We make employment decisions by matching our organisational needs with the skills and experience of candidates, irrespective of race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, neurodiversity, age, or veteran status.

​We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed Employer, demonstrating our commitment to recruiting, retaining, and supporting disabled people and people with health conditions, based on their skills and talent.

You can read more about how The Humane League UK is working on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on our website.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding accessibility, please contact us via our website and we will be happy to discuss, via email or telephone, reasonable adjustments that you may require throughout the process.

Who you are:

As a fundraising generalist, you will be well organised, provide strong administrative support, give excellent supporter care, write strong copy and be able to coordinate content creation.

Ideally you will have fundraising experience across a variety of relevant income streams, although we are interested to hear from candidates who have relevant transferable skills.

You will be able to ensure good collaboration between the Development Department and other teams, such as Communications and Operations, to make sure we maximise our fundraising activity.

The role:

You’ll be working alongside a Digital Fundraising Lead, Philanthropy Lead, Head of Development and wider team of friendly communicators, campaigners and change-makers. Home-based, you will enjoy collaborating, as well as being able to work independently. As a self-starter, you enjoy seeing projects through from start to end and get a buzz from the fast-paced and varied charity fundraising environment.

You’ll join us in maximising the value of Engaging Networks, a digital communications and campaigning platform, alongside our new fundraising CRM, Beacon. Experience with these specific platforms, or experience of utilising other CRMs for fundraising success, is desirable.

Primary duties:

• You will be responsible for continuing to grow our legacy programme, implementing the strategy developed by the Head of Development. This will include drafting copy and working with a designer to create evergreen legacy content, creating and maintaining content for our website, coordinating and drafting legacy communications and campaigns, managing legacy enquiries, thanking and stewarding legacy pledgers, and managing the legacy pipeline in Beacon.

• You will support our community fundraising strategy. This will mean making sure we have the tools and information for supporters to fundraise for us, whether that be in memory of a loved one, delivering their own fundraising initiatives in aid of The Humane League UK, or through peer-to-peer fundraising. This will include responding to enquiries, thanking and stewarding community fundraisers, coordinating a small amount of external-facing content, creating evergreen content, such as a toolkit that fundraisers can use, creating and updating content for the website, and responding to opportunities that arise, which could include community speaking opportunities, or stalls at events.

• You will support our corporate fundraising offering, ensuring we have the tools and information for businesses to support THL UK in a variety of ways. This will include responding to enquiries, thanking and responding to corporate donors and fundraisers, taking advantage of opportunities, promoting initiatives such as payroll giving, coordinating the creation of evergreen corporate fundraising content, such as a fundraising toolkit for businesses, and creating and updating content for the website.

• You will support our Operations Team, who respond to fundraising email enquiries, and the Development Team, as well as the wider organisation, by coordinating and maintaining FAQs of the most common fundraising queries we receive. This will help consolidate this information in one place, making sure we are consistent, streamlined and efficient in our responses. You will also work with our digital team to find a way to make sure information is accessible to supporters to minimise incoming queries wherever possible.

• You will be responsible for reviewing, investigating, reporting and responding to any fundraising complaints we receive, including escalating these where necessary.

• You will complete due diligence on donors and donations where required. This will include desktop research, completing relevant forms and information in Beacon, and making sure relevant approvals are obtained before accepting donations or approaching new donors or funders.

• You will coordinate essential thanking activities for key donors and supporters. This will include coordinating the design and printing of thanking cards, and other relevant stewardship materials or merchandise, to be utilised by those across the organisation, including to support our volunteers. You will also coordinate thanking campaigns (e.g. thanking monthly donors and major donors), which will involve collating recipient lists, getting cards designed and printed, and coordinating staff and trustees to sign and send.

• You will provide vital administrative support for events, including our annual presence at conferences such as EA Global in London, as well as our own annual supporter event. This could include collating guest lists, staff registration, coordinating invitations and RSVP’s, managing room bookings, hotels and catering, coordinating staff and trustees, and completing risk assessments.

• You will produce clear, accurate and engaging written communications, and coordinate the creation of content. This could mean drafting content for the website, drafting emails, building emails in Engaging Networks, or supporting our Digital Fundraising Lead with developing evergreen content to support our digital fundraising initiatives.

• You will support our Digital Fundraising Lead to make sure our growing pool of monthly donors are thanked and stewarded appropriately, including utilising Beacon, automations and supporter journeys to make the most efficient use of our time.

• You will support our Digital Fundraising Lead to deliver our digital fundraising strategy, by executing relevant aspects, which could include supporting specific campaigns, or building and maintaining fundraising related automations.

• You will help us deliver effective fundraising training and induction materials, such as for new staff and trustee orientations. This could also include coordinating additional training materials, how-to-guides and supporting materials, that are essential in maintaining relevant fundraising knowledge at THL UK.

In addition:

• Utilise our CRM: adding and updating supporter data, generating relevant reports, and analysing and evaluating data to inform campaigns and activities as required.

• Working with Communications and the Digital Fundraising Lead to deliver activities for our donor recruitment and retention.

• Work with the wider Development Team to input into our Development Strategy, as directed by the Head of Development, offering ideas and suggestions to help deliver the strategy and grow income across various income streams.

• Liaise with and coordinate support from third-parties / external consultants where necessary, such as providing support for specific campaigns or projects, and / or providing fundraising materials.

• Help us galvanise further support by lending your organisational skills to fundraising events.

• Attending conferences and events.

• Updating the wider team on fundraising progress.

• Participating in team meetings including note-taking and facilitation.

• Attending in-person workshops several times a year.

• Help us make THL UK an inclusive workplace where employees and supporters are proud to be members of the movement.

• Demonstrate commitment to creating a stronger and more effective animal protection movement through inclusion and belonging, recognising the need for all of us to do better for social justice on a personal and organisational level.

• Perform any other duties assigned by the Head of Development.

We will be holding a webinar on Tuesday 21st July at 7pm BST for you to find out more about the role and ask any questions you may have. The webinar will be hosted by our Development Team; Gavin Chappell-Bates, Head of Development, Emma Grant, Digital Fundraising Lead and Molly Archer-Zeff, Philanthropy Lead. If you’re interested, please register via our website by following the 'Redirect to recruiter' button.

For full details of the role, including the key competencies we see as the the most important requirements for being successful in this position, please visit our website by following the 'Redirect to recruiter' button.

Hours:

As an organisation we work a four day work week. This is a full time position of 30 hours per week over Monday to Thursday.

Good to know:

You will have access to:

• ​A fully remote work environment and team (all equipment is provided)
• A 4 day working week 
• 20 days leave plus 8 days for bank holidays that can be used at a time of your choice
• ​Flexible working hours
• ​A workplace pension
• An annual learning and development budget
• Support for mental and physical wellbeing 
• £25 per month reimbursement towards home working costs

At The Humane League UK, animal welfare is at the forefront of our everyday work and as such, many of our employees are vegan by personal choice. All of our events and workshops offer only plant-based meals. We welcome all mission-aligned candidates to apply, no matter where you are in your journey to end the abuse of animals raised for food.

We are looking to speak to a wide range of candidates with diverse backgrounds - #NonGraduatesWelcome

Our employees all work remotely but still enjoy a supportive, collaborative environment.

For our salaries to be fair, transparent and equitable we want to provide a system that delivers a competitive salary in the market and could eliminate potential biases in compensation (such as the gender pay gap). For more information about the Social Media Coordinator salary please the attached document.

All applicants need to be:

1. ​Fluent in written and spoken English.
2. ​Live and have the right to work in the UK (we are unable to consider applications from those without the right to work in the UK).
3. ​Committed to our mission to end the abuse of animals raised for food.

The Process:

All applicants will be contacted within one week of the closing date to let you know if you have been successful in reaching the next stage.

Our full interview process comprises of the following stages:

• A skills test to give us an opportunity to see your skills in action (completed remotely).
• Join an online interview (via video call) so we can learn more about each other.
• Final Interview (via video call as above)

For full details of our recruitment process please see the attached document.