Reception assistant jobs in birmingham

Reporting to: Director of Fundraising and Development 

Location of work: Remote with ad hoc time in the office for team days, events, campaigns and organisation away days.

Contract type:  Ideally full-time, 35 hours per week, 28 hours / flexible hours will also be considered. The role may require occasional evening and weekend work.   

Contract Length: Permanent

Salary: £31,500

BACKGROUND

Our work has never been more needed. The latest research suggesting that the number of children and young people at risk of hunger has rocketed to 2.6 million* means that one in five children don't have enough to eat.When a child is too hungry to learn, when they’re aching for something to eat, they can’t concentrate. They can’t absorb information. Big feelings and worries can be impossible to control. They fall behind in their studies.

Magic Breakfast provide a nutritious and filling breakfast to over 300,000 children and young people every school day. We work with schools in areas of high disadvantage, helping staff target the children most in need without barrier or stigma.  Magic Breakfast are ambitious to grow our impact to remove hunger as a barrier to learning for all children and young people in the UK.

 This is an exciting time to join Magic Breakfast if you wish to make a difference to the lives of children as we work to influence both policy implementation, with the national rollout of primary-aged universal school breakfast, and legislative change, through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. There has also been commitment from the Scottish Government for a national breakfast scheme and we are seeking to expand our advocacy work into Wales. Magic Breakfast’s influence will be instrumental to ensuring school breakfasts are implemented in a way that is hunger-focused and barrier free.

 In addition, thousands of secondary school children are at risk of losing their free school breakfasts from September next year. For many of these students, this is their only opportunity to have a nutritious meal before facing a demanding school day, including taking exams.  And for the very youngest, we know that the disadvantage gap begins before they even reach reception. With the Government commitment to another 100,000 places in school-based nurseries, early years is also a critical part of our advocacy work.

 Being part of the work of Magic Breakfast is your chance, together with parents, teachers and people across the UK, to demonstrate the power of school breakfasts and to shape the way forward to end morning hunger for good.

*Food Foundation Insecurity Tracker Jan 2025

JOB PURPOSE  

The Fundraising and Development department is responsible for ensuring Magic Breakfast’s on-going sustainability through the generation of income and other critical non-financial support. The Department Coordinator will work closely with the Director of Fundraising and Development and other members of the Fundraising Leadership to facilitate closer alignment across the department, help unlock and enable income growth, whilst also providing administrative and coordination support to the team more broadly. The successful candidate will also play a critical role in developing and delivering the department-wide calendar of stewardship events, working with colleagues from across the major gifts team to identify opportunities to connect our supporters even further with the impact of our work 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:  

Department Coordination  

• Work closely with the Director of Fundraising to coordinate effective planning and management of the Fundraising & Development (F&D) strategy by coordinating quarterly review and monthly Core Management Group (CMG) meetings and managing all aspects of the monthly F&D team meetings ensuring they have maximum impact for all individuals and the organisation. This includes managing actions, minutes and agendas

• Support with the planning, coordination and diary management for any department away days, planning or reflection sessions  

• Lead efforts to enhance synergies within and across the F&D and other departments, identifying and enabling opportunities to add value, enhance efficiencies and reduce siloed working, for example through reviewing current systems and facilitating opportunities for collaboration and support  

• Provide project management support for significant team level projects, including developing project timelines and plans using Asana (e.g., for the Magic Morning webinars process and the department’s involvement in giving campaigns or annual reports) 

• Work across the department to identify any gaps or updates required for process/ ‘how-to’ documents  

• Act as the department representative for Asana, systems and process champion, providing training to colleagues where necessary  

• Act as the department lead for other key internal groups such as the all staff away day.

Supporter Care  

• Support the Fundraising Officer where necessary to act as the key welcome point to people reaching out to support Magic Breakfast, responding to enquiries received on the phone, escalating and triaging queries where necessary.   

• With support from across the Department, develop and deliver a calendar of department wide engagement events, including group school visits, stakeholder events, thought leadership dinners, and our online ‘Magic Mornings’ - a speaker series where we invite funders to hear more about our work. 

• Lead on the planning, review and learning capture/ sharing for all events, and more broadly the stewardship calendar across the department.

• Work across the department to review cross-departmental stewardship and identify opportunities for improvement, collaboration and alignment to key objectives, either through events or other activities.  

• Ensure that all confidential donor data is stored and handled in accordance with data protection regulations and all records retained on Salesforce where required.  

Fundraising Administration  

• Provide general administration support to the Fundraising & Development department, working in collaboration with the admin network across the organisation. Potential tasks may include but are not limited to meeting logistics, booking venues for away days and accommodation/travel bookings 

• Develop and maintain accurate and efficient administration systems and tools to support the department, for example our intranet section  

• Manage the Department’s resources and order supplies  

• Assist the Gifts Officer with gift processing when required, including the processing of cheques, sending acknowledgements, and adding gifts to our CRM, Salesforce  

• Administrative support to the Director of Fundraising and Development as required, including pulling reports and occasional diary management   

• Ad-hoc support to other team members.   

• Support the department with scoping and research for new fundraising products or initiatives  

• Make purchases on behalf of the Fundraising and Development department in adherence with internal budget approval processes and delegation of authority  

General:   

• Support the Fundraising & Development team by attending events and working on collaborative initiatives  

• Attend meetings and cross-team working groups to represent the Fundraising and Development Department and its interests  

• As requested, provide regular updates to key stakeholders  

• Ensure compliance with data protection regulations  

• Occasional work outside of regular office hours and at weekends  

• Exemplifying through behaviour our values-led culture that encourages curiosity, engagement, positivity and continuous improvement underpinned by a commitment to social impact, ensuring that children and young people are at the heart of everything we do.   

• Working collaboratively across the organisation to build good working relationships.    

• Actively contributing to team meetings and supporting team members where necessary.   

• Participating in occasional work-related events at external venues.   

• Undertaking any other duties commensurate with the role.   

• Adhering to all Magic Breakfast policies and procedures.   

PERSON SPECIFICATION  

Skills and abilities   

• Ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously and work to deadlines.  

• Strong interpersonal skills to build effective working relationships with a range of stakeholders, a collaborative team player.   

• High level of competency in the use of Microsoft.  

• Confidence in using Microsoft Word IT packages.   

Knowledge and experience   

• Experience planning and organising online and in person events.  

• Experience of working for a charity desirable but not essential.  

• Experience or knowledge of administration within fundraising desirable but not essential.   

• Experience using Salesforce / similar CRM or an aptitude for learning new software quickly.    

• Experience using Asana or an aptitude for learning new software quickly.    

• High level of competency in the use of Microsoft.  

• Experience of working in an administrative role.   

• Share Magic Breakfast’s commitment to Diversity, Equality and Inclusion within the workplace.  

• Experience of working well collaboratively within a team.  

Other : 

• Passion for Magic Breakfast’s mission of ensuring that no child is too hungry to learn.  

• Enthusiasm for delivery a high standard of supporter care.  

• Shared commitment to our values and active contributor to our enabled and empowered culture 

• Experience of working for a charity desirable but not essential.  

• Experience or knowledge of administration within fundraising desirable but not essential.  

WHAT WE OFFER

At Magic Breakfast we value our employees and work hard to develop offer a supportive, respectful culture which enables everyone to bring their whole self to work.

Please find attached our job pack. 

APPLICATION PROCCESS

Should you wish to discuss the role before applying please email our People and Culture Team, recruitment @magicbreakfast. com

Shortlisting - 19th - 20th May

Interview 1 - 26th and 27th May

Interview 2 and informal interview - 2nd and 3rd June