Research grants manager jobs in edinburgh, scotland

Position: Policy and Public Affairs Officer
Type: Full Time (35 hours a week) Permanent
Location: Office-based in Scotland with flexibility to work remotely  
Salary: £26,384* per annum plus excellent benefits
Salary Band and Job Family: Band 1, Charity

*you will start at our entry point salary of £26,384 per annum, increasing to £28,033 after 6 months service and satisfactory performance and to £29,682 after a further 6 months.

About us

We make sure people living with MS are at the centre of everything we do. And it’s this commitment that unites us across the UK.

Our strategy is based on what people affected by MS have told us is important to them. It gives us a clear and determined focus.

Our work is based on the hopes and aspirations of our MS community. Together we campaign at all levels, fund ground-breaking research and provide award winning support and information.

Our people are our greatest asset and the key to our success. We offer a vibrant, progressive working environment where you'll be able to make a difference.

About this job

We’re looking for an enthusiastic and talented policy and public affairs professional to join our team. You should have experience of working to develop policy and have the ability to communicate our position to a wide range of audiences across Scotland.

In this exciting role you will work with the MS community to influence change in public policy, continuing to make the case for improvements in the treatment, care and support of people affected by MS.

This is a fantastic opportunity for someone who understands the political and policy environment in Scotland, who has experience in external facing influencing roles,  who is outcome-focused and delivers tangible results. The successful candidate will work closely with the MS community, the Scottish Policy and Communications team as well as key external partners such as MSPs and their teams.

Closing date for applications: 9:00 on Friday 30 May 2025

Interested?

PLEASE PRESS THE 'HOW TO APPLY' BUTTON FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Equal Opportunities 
We particularly welcome applications from people with disabilities and or from ethnic minority backgrounds.

We’d be grateful if you downloaded and completed the equality and diversity monitoring form and submit it with your application. 

Disability Confident Employer 
We’re a Disability Confident Employer and we’re committed to promoting equality and diversity.

You can ask for reasonable adjustments as part of both our recruitment and new starter on-boarding processes.

If you need any help or adjustments to apply for this role, please contact us. You can also ask for the application materials to be sent to you in a different format. Such as for them to be sent to you by email or in a larger word format.

More about our employee benefits:
We have a wide range of employee benefits including (but not limited to): 

Encouraging work life balance

• 38 days paid annual leave (including bank holidays), pro-rata for part-time
• More annual leave entitlement, based on length of employment
• Smart working options (with the opportunity to work remotely and find a smart working pattern that suits both you and us) 
• Flexible working options 

Caring for you and your family 

• Generous sick pay entitlement
• More sick pay entitlement, based on length of employment 
• Opportunity to buy and sell annual leave in each calendar year 
• Free access to a GP virtually 24 hours a day/7 days a week allowing you unlimited advice, reassurance and where appropriate diagnosis 
• Enhanced leave for new parents 
• Free access to a confidential 24 hours a day/7 days a week helpline service for both you and your family with a specialist range of support and information
• Special leave options (such as up to 5 days paid leave for domestic or personal emergencies a year)
• 10 days paid disability leave a year, pro-rata for part-time 
• 10 days paid carers’ leave a year, pro-rata for part-time 
• Cycle to work scheme 
• Death in service scheme
• New family-friendly benefits, including paid leave:
  • In the event of miscarriage or still birth 
  • To support fertility treatments
  • For antenatal appointments for both parents

Thinking about your finances 

• Enhanced salary sacrifice pension scheme
• Discounted season ticket loan and interest-free emergency loans
• Give as you earn to support other charities of your choice before tax
• New employee portal including lifestyle savings vouchers and personal wellbeing

Enriching your life at work

• Personalised development plans with a wide range of training courses and opportunities to source additional training options with your line manager
• Yearly internal apprenticeship opportunities
• New, modern offices that embrace working together both in-person and remotely 
• Various opportunities to influence how we internally operate (including surveys, and focus and committee groups) 
• Active and supportive internal employee networking groups for collaboration and peer support 
• 2 days paid leave a year for volunteering for MS Society activities during normal working hours (such as fundraising events, or campaigning in the local community) 
• 2 days paid leave a year for volunteering with other charities during normal

Safeguarding 
We’re committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of everyone who uses our services and we come into contact with.

This is regardless of Gender, Race, Disability, Sexual orientation, Religion or belief, Pregnancy, Gender reassignment.

We recognise our particular responsibility to make sure vulnerable adults and children are protected.

We have measures in place to protect everyone we come into contact with from abuse and maltreatment of all kinds.

Your right to work in the UK 
You must have the right to work in the UK to work in paid employment with us. You’ll need to share documents showing you’re eligible to work in the UK if we offer you employment.

You can find the UK visas and permits granting you the right to work in the UK on the UK Government website. We currently don’t have a Sponsor Licence agreement with the Home Office and aren’t able to support you with your visa applications.

No agencies please.

This role supports AvMA’s Seven Pillars of Fundraising:

Supporter Care – Ensuring digital donors and fundraisers have an engaging, meaningful experience.

Organisational Commitment – Aligning digital fundraising efforts with AvMA’s strategic vision.

Responsibility – Maintaining ethical and transparent fundraising practices.

Growing Value – Increasing digital income through optimised supporter journeys and engagement. Strength – Building a scalable and sustainable digital fundraising model.

Leadership and Self-Leadership – Supporting volunteers and fundraisers in their digital engagement.

Diversification – Exploring new approaches to engage supporters and increase income.

Key responsibilities:

• Develop and implement a corporate and trusts fundraising plan that builds on AvMA’s existing pipeline.
• Utilise AI and digital tools to streamline prospect research, prioritise funders, and optimise fundraising efficiency.
• Identify and cultivate relationships with prospective corporate partners and trusts that align with AvMA’s mission.
• Write compelling funding applications and partnership proposals to secure financial support.
• Manage and steward relationships with corporate donors, grant-giving trusts, and foundations.
• Deliver high-quality stewardship, ensuring funders receive timely impact reports and updates.
• Provide insights and recommendations on long-term corporate and trust fundraising strategies.

Other:

• To undertake other duties as required commensurate with this post. To travel as necessary for events and fundraising activities

Person Specification

Essential:

• An experienced corporate or trust fundraiser, with a strong track record of securing funding.
• A confident relationship-builder, able to engage with potential funders and partners.
• Strategic and data-driven, with experience in using AI or digital tools to prioritise and streamline fundraising activities.
• A persuasive communicator, with excellent proposal writing and pitching skills. Results-driven, with a proactive and self-motivated approach to achieving income targets.
• Passion, commitment and drive to promote patient rights and follow the aims of AvMA.
• IT literate and confident with technological change. 
• Able to identify opportunities to improve our data collection systems; an awareness of the power of social media and how to use it to promote AvMA’s work.
• Committed to principles of equal opportunities and diversity and inclusion.

About: All Ways Network (AWN) is a second-tier support organisation dedicated to empowering charities/not-for-profits (NFPs) that work with Muslim communities across the UK to become more fundable. We aim to enhance their capacity, sustainability, and impact through tailored support, resources, and strategic partnerships. 

Position Overview: The Funder & Engagement Officer will play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between funders and the charities we support. This position is responsible for enhancing funding awareness, establishing and nurturing strategic partnerships, and providing comprehensive support to our network of organisations. As this is a new position at AWN, we encourage applications from individuals who are confident in navigating new ground and keen to help define the role’s impact.

Key Responsibilities: 

Fundraising Support: 

• Provide personalised consultations to charities/NFPs we work with to develop and refine their grants and trusts strategies. 

• Assist charities in identifying funding opportunities and preparing compelling grant applications. 

• Organise and conduct workshops and training sessions on fundraising best practices, funder engagement, monitoring and evaluation, and grant writing. 

Relationship Building: 

• Establish and maintain strong relationships with a diverse range of grant funders 

• Facilitate strategic partnerships between member charities, infrastructure groups, and funders. 

• Represent AWN at relevant networking events, conferences, and meetings to promote the interests of our member organisations.

Resource Development: 

• Create and disseminate practical resources, toolkits, and guides to support charities. 

• Develop materials that highlight successful case studies and best practices within the sector. 

Monitoring and Evaluation: 

• Implement a robust monitoring and evaluation framework to assess the effectiveness of fundraising efforts and support provided. 

• Collect and analyse data to track progress and make informed recommendations for improvement. 

Communication and Reporting: 

• Prepare regular reports on activities, outcomes, and impacts for internal and external stakeholders. 

• Maintain clear and consistent communication with a network of service users/charities to ensure their needs are met and feedback is integrated. 

Any other duties reasonably expected within the scope of the role

Qualifications and Experience: 

• At least 3-5 years of experience in fundraising, grant management or not-for-profit management. 

• Proven track record or strong knowledge of successful grant writing and fundraising initiatives. 

• Strong understanding of the funding landscape and the unique challenges faced by charities serving Muslim communities. 

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to build and maintain relationships with diverse stakeholders. 

• Demonstrated ability to develop and deliver effective training and capacity-building programs. 

• Proficiency in using digital tools for remote work and virtual collaboration. 

• Commitment to AWN’s mission and values, with a proactive and results-oriented approach. 

• Excellent written skills. 

• Comfortable in public speaking. 

• Proactive in creating and developing this role. Can confidently work independently. 

• Ideally the person should live in or the surrounding areas of London. We currently don't have an office space but we are forming a London team.

Benefits: Pension + 30 days holidays (including bank holidays and x2 days for Eid)

How to Apply: Interested candidates should submit a CV and a cover letter outlining their qualifications and experience by Monday 9th June 2025 at 5pm.

Interviews to be held in-person on w/c Monday 16th June 2025, based in a London Office. Successful candidates will be notified. 

If you have any queries about the role, salary, remote work etc, please contact us.

We are looking for a driven and ambitious fundraiser to join our small but mighty fundraising team at a crucial period for the organisation as we find ourselves in the midpoint of our strategy period.

Since 2020 we have grown our income by 35%, refined our theory of change, invested in our digital and evaluation capabilities, secured multi-year funding and support from a series of well-respected funders and partners. This has laid solid foundations for future growth as we seek to revise our programmes, reaching the most vulnerable young people across London and Greater Manchester.  

Khulisa’s work continues to be known for putting well-being at the heart of positive change, transforming the lives of some of the UK's most vulnerable young people and supporting them to increase their wellbeing, self-esteem, enable educational inclusion. The highlights of the last year, include: 

• Supporting over 480 young people and adults 

• Surpassing £1.2 million in income 

• Significant improvements in Wellbeing being reported by 61% of our young people 

• 91% of our young people reporting feeling safe and not judged during our programmes 

We very much look forward to hearing from you and good luck! 

**********

Key Responsibilities 

• Trust Fundraising
• Prospecting – researching new trust and foundation opportunities
• Writing five-figure applications
• Managing a portfolio of 25-30 Trusts and Foundations
• Thanking – writing thank you letters, notes and confirmation receipts
• Banking – liaising with our colleagues in finance and supporters, to support receipt of funding
• Supporting the design of new thanking materials and a schedule of keeping supporters updated - thank you cards, seasonal messaging, reporting templates 
• Reporting – annually to donors, managing reporting schedule with Senior Fundraising Manager and colleagues in finance.
• Small trusts outreach and mailings.
• CRM: Updating our database on a weekly basis, data entry, updating current funders, payment schedules, agreements, building dashboards
• Monthly review of fundraising pipelines and opportunities, supporting the team with forecasting and their own pipeline management 
• Participating in cross team meetings with fundraising agenda’s - bid kick off meetings,  delivery/funders meetings, E&I, programmes.
• Finance – monthly reconciliation meeting.
• Logistics support for donor engagement days/meetings
• Managing case study bank and securing new case studies from the Programmes Team. 
• Team work and Administration
• Cross-team working – connecting with the programmes team on a regular basis
• Responding to all cross-organisational needs, including wellbeing surveys, attending team meetings and collaboration sessions
• Minute taking on a rolling basis across the team
• Preparing external meeting briefs
• Representing the organisation externally – conferences, networking etc.
• Contributing into fundraising reporting to Khulisa’s Board of Trustees 

Skills  

• Experience of writing clearly to communicate complex issues in a compelling manner 

• Strong ability to summarise text and key points, tailored to different audiences. 

• Strong written and verbal communication skills  

• Excellent eye for detail, strong systems and processes management skills 

• Ability to write reports in a concise, engaging and accessible manner 

• Strong people skills and willingness to work as part of a wider team 

• Ability to work independently using own initiative 

• Strong levels of comfort with using new, complex technology 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion We are actively looking to recruit a diversity of talent. We embrace, respect and value the difference in our employees and believe that we and our work is better for it. We are committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive environment that consists of fairness, dignity, and caring for everyone, and one that enables every employee to flourish and realise their potential

Position: Corporate Partnerships Senior Executive
Hours: Full-time, 35 hours a week
Contract: Permanent
Location: Office-based from any of our Four UK National Offices, with flexibility to work remotely
Salary: Starting from £33,044 per annum plus excellent benefits
Salary Band and Job Family: Band 2*, Charity
*you’ll start at our entry point salary of £33,044 per annum, increasing to £35,109 after 6 months service and satisfactory performance and to £37,174 after a further 6 months.

About us

We make sure people living with MS are at the centre of everything we do. And it’s this commitment that unites us across the UK.

Our strategy is based on what people affected by MS have told us is important to them. It gives us a clear and determined focus.

Our work is based on the hopes and aspirations of our MS community. Together we campaign at all levels, fund ground-breaking research and provide award winning support and information.

Our people are our greatest asset and the key to our success. We offer a vibrant, progressive working environment where you'll be able to make a difference.

About this job

This is an exciting opportunity to join our Corporate Partnerships team, based in London, with flexibility to work from home. You’ll be part of a growing, supportive and ambitious team, raising significant income to support people living with and affected by MS.

You’ll work collaboratively with the Corporate Partnerships team, internal and external stakeholders, to identify mutually beneficial new business opportunities building a healthy and robust prospect pipeline.

You will be leading on the successful delivery of these partnerships to maximise their life-time potential and ensure they are delivering against financial and non-financial objectives. These partnerships will generate income for our Services and Support projects as well as our exciting Stop MS Appeal; the MS Society’s ten year research-focused national appeal.

You’ll have an affinity for building strong relationships and successful partnerships, great attention to detail and strong interpersonal skills. With a creative, logical and enthusiastic approach, you’ll have the opportunity to work on exciting events, develop compelling proposals and innovative fundraising initiatives.

This is a great opportunity to build on your existing experience within corporate fundraising.

Your key responsibilities include (but are not limited to):

• Delivering income at or above the agreed budget level from corporate relationships and activities as agreed within the annual budget and business plan
• To lead on identifying and securing new business and establish a strong pipeline of prospective corporate partners, that will deliver six figure income targets year on year
• Maximise the fundraising potential of high value existing partnerships through taking responsibility for specific projects.
• Relationship management and pipeline development of corporate partners, delivering agreed objectives and expectations
• To contribute to the overall income generation and implementation of the Corporate Partnership team’s objectives
• To contribute to a positive working environment in which equality and diversity are valued and staff are enabled to do their best
• Accurate and timely reporting on key activities, income and expenditure

Closing date for applications: 9:00 on Thursday 29th May 2025

Interested?

PLEASE PRESS THE 'HOW TO APPLY' BUTTON FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Equal Opportunities 
We particularly welcome applications from people with disabilities and or from ethnic minority backgrounds.

We’d be grateful if you downloaded and completed the equality and diversity monitoring form and submit it with your application. 

Disability Confident Employer 
We’re a Disability Confident Employer and we’re committed to promoting equality and diversity.

You can ask for reasonable adjustments as part of both our recruitment and new starter on-boarding processes.

If you need any help or adjustments to apply for this role, please contact us. You can also ask for the application materials to be sent to you in a different format. Such as for them to be sent to you by email or in a larger word format.

More about our employee benefits:
We have a wide range of employee benefits including (but not limited to): 

Encouraging work life balance

• 38 days paid annual leave (including bank holidays), pro-rata for part-time
• More annual leave entitlement, based on length of employment
• Smart working options (with the opportunity to work remotely and find a smart working pattern that suits both you and us) 
• Flexible working options 

Caring for you and your family 

• Generous sick pay entitlement
• More sick pay entitlement, based on length of employment 
• Opportunity to buy and sell annual leave in each calendar year 
• Free access to a GP virtually 24 hours a day/7 days a week allowing you unlimited advice, reassurance and where appropriate diagnosis 
• Enhanced leave for new parents 
• Free access to a confidential 24 hours a day/7 days a week helpline service for both you and your family with a specialist range of support and information
• Special leave options (such as up to 5 days paid leave for domestic or personal emergencies a year)
• 10 days paid disability leave a year, pro-rata for part-time 
• 10 days paid carers’ leave a year, pro-rata for part-time 
• Cycle to work scheme 
• Death in service scheme
• New family-friendly benefits, including paid leave:
  • In the event of miscarriage or still birth 
  • To support fertility treatments
  • For antenatal appointments for both parents

Thinking about your finances 

• Enhanced salary sacrifice pension scheme
• Discounted season ticket loan and interest-free emergency loans
• Give as you earn to support other charities of your choice before tax
• New employee portal including lifestyle savings vouchers and personal wellbeing

Enriching your life at work

• Personalised development plans with a wide range of training courses and opportunities to source additional training options with your line manager
• Yearly internal apprenticeship opportunities
• New, modern offices that embrace working together both in-person and remotely 
• Various opportunities to influence how we internally operate (including surveys, and focus and committee groups) 
• Active and supportive internal employee networking groups for collaboration and peer support 
• 2 days paid leave a year for volunteering for MS Society activities during normal working hours (such as fundraising events, or campaigning in the local community) 
• 2 days paid leave a year for volunteering with other charities during normal

Safeguarding 
We’re committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of everyone who uses our services and we come into contact with.

This is regardless of Gender, Race, Disability, Sexual orientation, Religion or belief, Pregnancy, Gender reassignment.

We recognise our particular responsibility to make sure vulnerable adults and children are protected.

We have measures in place to protect everyone we come into contact with from abuse and maltreatment of all kinds.

Your right to work in the UK 
You must have the right to work in the UK to work in paid employment with us. You’ll need to share documents showing you’re eligible to work in the UK if we offer you employment.

You can find the UK visas and permits granting you the right to work in the UK on the UK Government website. We currently don’t have a Sponsor Licence agreement with the Home Office and aren’t able to support you with your visa applications.

No agencies please.

RISE is a collaborative effort with the goal of delivering a unified approach to women’s empowerment in global supply chains. Bringing together the world’s four largest women’s empowerment programs in the global supply chains - BSR’s HERproject, CARE International, Gap Inc.’s P.A.C.E. Program and ILO-IFC Better Work, RISE will leverage the combined experience in over 21 countries to achieve transformative change for the millions of women who work within supply chains globally. 

RISE will focus on three interrelated pillars of action to tackle both immediate barriers and medium/long term structural improvements for women workers. These include increased agency, confidence, and communication, increased access to and control over financial products, services and resources, enhancement of the capabilities of unions and industry organizations, and implementation of policies at the workplace level, but also regional and national levels that promote gender equality.

Pillar 1: Capacity Strengthening: Working in factories in key countries, RISE will achieve impact with a network of local civil society partners and organizations working on gender equality to deliver worker capacity building programs.  There are four options available (i) Foundation – a 13 month needs based worker training program (ii) Digital – an 8-month tablet-based learning on health, financial literacy and stress management, (iii) Respect - one year program on gender-based Violence prevention and remediation and (iv) Financial Health – a one-year program on financial capability, resilience and inclusion​.

Pillar 2: Market Transformation: RISE will work with and encourage leadership from industry actors (brands, buyers, suppliers, and worker representatives) to improve operating practices at all levels in global value chains to support greater gender equality outcomes. 

Pillar 3: Influencing: RISE will leverage the founding partners’ existing relationships and identify opportunities to work in partnership to influence employer/company/factory policies, programs, and budgets, as well as government policies that impact workers, in particular women workers.

PURPOSE OF THE CONTRACT

The consultant will lead the implementation of RISE’s MEL framework to ensure that data and insights inform the organization’s work and effectively demonstrate our impact.

The consultant will embed MEL systems across the organization, provide technical support and guide the teams. In addition, the consultant will lead on evaluation, develop data collection tools, analyze data and share reports and learning to improve program effectiveness.

The consultant will also demonstrate RISE’s impact to internal and external stakeholders.

Scope of Work

MEL Management and Implementation

• Implement MEL frameworks, including Theories of Change, Logical Frameworks, KPIs, and outcome indicators, ensuring they remain up-to-date and aligned with RISE values.
• Systematically integrate MEL across all programs and organizational processes to drive continuous improvement.
• Build teams’ MEL capacities and capabilities through direct technical support and guidance on MEL systems, data use, and strategic alignment.
• Foster a culture of learning through strategic reviews with the teams, gathering evidence and learning: key insights, impact narratives and lessons learnt.
• Lead quality assurance of MEL processes to improve rigor and integrity. Assess their strengths and weaknesses and recommend improvements.
• Provide strategic MEL input to support organizational planning, grant reporting, and decision-making, providing insights that support RISE’s aim of multistakeholder action.

Program Evaluation

• Design and implement robust evaluation methodologies. Refine measurement indicators and develop tools for data collection (quantitative and qualitative).

• Develop and oversee data collection tools such as surveys, focus group protocols, and interview guides.
• Lead baseline, midline, and endline evaluations, including analysis and reporting.
• Lead on impact assessments for RISE’s program areas

Data Management, Analysis & Reporting

• Manage data collection, cleaning, analysis, and visualization using appropriate software tools.
• Ensure data integrity, consistency and compliance with ethical standards and GDPR.
• Produce high-quality, accessible impact reports for internal and external audiences.
• Develop key learning products to improve internal and external communications.
• Proactively explore innovative ways to analyze data, including the use of A.I., to support more efficient analysis.

Communications

· Demonstrate RISE’s impact through a variety of channels like external publications, reports and insights, communicating value to stakeholders.

• Engage internal and external stakeholders by showcasing social impact stories and deliverables.

Note: This Scope of Work is not exhaustive but reflects a range of duties the consultant will perform. The job description will be reviewed regularly and may be changed based on experience and in consultation with the consultant.

Person specification

Essential criteria:

• Minimum8+ years of experience in MEL roles within sustainability, development, or impact-focused organizations.
• Proven experience designing and leading MEL strategies and frameworks, preferably across multi-country or cross-sectoral programs.
• Strong background in both qualitative and quantitative methods and tools.
• Knowledge of leading global best practice and emerging trends in the collection, measurement, management and reporting of social impact data.
• Excellent analytical and research skills, including the ability to process large amounts of information, distribute it appropriately and extract critical analysis from it.
• Advanced proficiency in data analysis tools and visualization platforms.
• Demonstrated experience translating complex data into strategic insights and engaging reports.
• Strong project management, research, reporting writing and presentation skills.
• Excellent communication skills – verbal and written.

· Excellent relationship management internally and externally.

· Able to manage multiple diverse projects and prioritize workload.

· Excellent team-working and cross-team collaboration and influencing skills.

· Ability to review proposals and contribute to the development of project designs, evaluation methods, logic models, performance indicators, and monitoring and evaluation frameworks.

Desirable criteria:

· Excellent understanding of measuring women's empowerment and social impact programs on a global scale, and in emerging markets.

· Excellent understanding of programs that focus on workers employed in global supply chains.

· Experience designing and implementing gender equality approaches to MEL.

· Experience in technical advisory roles or equivalent.

· Flexibility to undertake overseas travel.

 Reporting and Location

The consultant will report to the RISE Program Director.  This is a remote part-time (2-3 days) role, with preference for UK-based consultants. The initial contract will be for a period of six months, at which point it will be reviewed for extension.

Job Profile

CAFOD’s mission in the Catholic community of England and Wales is to inspire and equip Catholics to actively engage in the Church’s efforts to overcome poverty and injustice. Our regional teams focus on recruiting and supporting a dedicated group of volunteers within parish and school communities, empowering them to educate, engage, and inspire others to act in solidarity for the common good. Regional teams also collaborate with clergy and other representatives across the Catholic community to ensure CAFOD’s volunteer programme is aligned with faith life.

The primary purpose of this role is to provide administrative and communications support to the Community Participation Coordinators across England and Wales, with a focus on the West & Wales region as the first point of contact. This includes coordinating administrative tasks performed by office volunteers and identifying opportunities for process improvements. The role also involves volunteer recruitment administration, overseeing and training Office Volunteers, and ensuring effective database management.

This role can be based anywhere in the UK including our head office in London, working from home, from one of CAFOD’s Volunteer Centres, or a combination of both. The role requires occasional travel to London and other areas within the East & West side of the country. Travel expenses will be reimbursed, and time off in lieu will be granted for travel beyond normal working hours.

This is a full-time position (35 hours per week) and reports to the Volunteer Support and Development Coordinator.

Key Responsibilities Overview
The post holder will play a key role in driving smooth, efficient operations across CAFOD’s West & Wales region. As the go-to person for admin excellence and volunteer support, you’ll work closely with your line manager and colleagues in the East to streamline processes, improve systems, and keep everything running like clockwork.

You’ll lead on volunteer recruitment and engagement—welcoming new volunteers, managing onboarding, and ensuring everyone feels valued, equipped, and inspired to support CAFOD’s work. Your people skills and attention to detail will shine as you manage applications, data entry, and training coordination.

Communications will be at the heart of your role. You’ll create engaging e-bulletins and social media content that keeps our community informed and motivated, while ensuring messages are clear, consistent, and aligned with CAFOD’s wider goals.

You’ll be the guardian of accurate data, working with office volunteers to maintain up-to-date records that support smarter outreach and efficient workflows. Your collaborative spirit will help strengthen connections across teams, share best practices, and contribute to creative new approaches for engaging communities.

This is a role for a proactive, organised, and people-focused individual who’s excited to innovate, solve problems, and make a tangible impact in a supportive, values-led organisation.

Safeguarding

All CAFOD staff share responsibility to promote and maintain a strong safeguarding culture, including identifying the key actions they should take given their role and responsibilities.

Person Specification

Understanding our context

1. Understanding Catholic identity: sympathetic knowledge of the life, culture and structure of the Catholic Church in England and Wales and an ability to work effectively within it and especially an understanding of parish community life.
2. Understanding CAFOD: ability to express what motivates people to volunteer for, and support, CAFOD and the main activities in which Catholic community primarily participate. Being informed about, supportive of, and actively promoting our anti-racism work.

Working together

1. Managing ourselves: strong interpersonal skills including an ability to develop personal relationships quickly and to convince others.  Ability to be self-motivated and able to work in isolation linking with different people in a variety of contexts; confident with articulating support required for you to work well.
2. Working with others: builds positive and fruitful partnerships, particularly with volunteers; works effectively as part of a team which may work at a distance to ensure sharing of good practice and shared workload; being willing and able to help other team members and be helped to achieve delivery of shared objectives.
3. Communicating: ability to identify how best to communicate instructions and processes clearly and how this helps achieve the objectives CAFOD seeks to deliver and how to share knowledge and information across teams.

Making change happen

1. Managing resources: confident with processing data for planning, monitoring and reporting:  proven time-management, data-management and organisational skills/experience of delegating tasks clearly and making improvements to processes.
2. Achieving results: ability and willingness to focus on achieving efficiencies, especially in support of regional plans for community participation and income growth.
3. Managing our performance: ability and willingness to work to targets and achieve results.

Job-Specific Competencies

Administrative Process Improvement:

Proven ability to assess, streamline, and document administrative processes. Strong organisational skills are required to manage a variety of tasks and ensure efficient delegation to volunteers. Ability to identify inefficiencies and propose practical solutions to enhance office operations.

Volunteer Recruitment & Engagement:

Expertise in recruiting, onboarding, and maintaining volunteer engagement. You will build strong relationships with volunteers, ensuring their experience is positive and aligned with CAFOD’s mission. Experience in using volunteer management systems and managing volunteer data is essential.

Communication & Content Creation: Strong written and verbal communication skills, with experience in producing engaging content for e-bulletins, newsletters, and other media resources. Ability to tailor messaging to different audiences, ensuring clarity and consistency in CAFOD’s communications.

Data Management & Accuracy:

Attention to detail is crucial for maintaining accurate records. Experience with databases, data segmentation, and ensuring data integrity is essential. A strong understanding of data protection standards, including GDPR, will be necessary.

Collaboration & Team Communication:

Effective communicator with internal teams, ensuring smooth communication and alignment across various regions. Ability to foster positive working relationships and collaborate across teams, both virtually and in person. Proficiency with communication tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom is required.

Training & Support:

Experience in delivering training to volunteers and staff, ensuring they have the necessary skills and knowledge. Ability to provide ongoing support to regional office volunteers, helping them succeed and contribute effectively to the team.

Adaptability & Problem-solving:

Flexible and resourceful, able to adapt to changing priorities. You will be expected to identify challenges and propose solutions to keep operations running smoothly.

Commitment to CAFOD’s Mission & Values:

A deep understanding of CAFOD’s mission and Catholic social teaching, with the ability to align volunteer engagement and administrative activities with the organization’s goals of addressing poverty and injustice.

Use of Digital Tools & Systems:

Competence in using databases, Microsoft Office Suite, and collaboration tools. Ability to train volunteers in these systems to ensure smooth operations across teams.

Project Management & Accountability:

Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring tasks are completed within deadlines and to a high standard. You will be responsible for delivering results aligned with CAFOD’s objectives.

Safeguarding for Children and Vulnerable Adults

CAFOD recognises the personal dignity and rights of children and vulnerable adults, towards whom it has a special responsibility and a duty of care and respect.  CAFOD, and all its staff and volunteers, undertake to do all in our power to create a safe environment for children, young people and vulnerable adults and to prevent their physical, sexual or emotional abuse.  CAFOD is committed to acting at all times in the best interests of children and vulnerable adults, seeing these interests as paramount.  Any candidate offered a job with CAFOD will be expected to adhere to CAFOD’s Safeguarding policy and sign CAFOD’s Code of Behaviour as an appendix to their contract of employment and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these documents. This post involves contact with children, young people and vulnerable adults, or has responsibility for people who will do, and applicants will be subject to specific checks related to safeguarding issues.  If based in the UK the post holder is required to present or obtain a Disclosure from the DBS (Disclosure & Barring Service).  If the post is based outside the UK the post holder will be subject to a different checking process.

All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references, and appropriate screening checks can include criminal records and terrorism finance checks. CAFOD also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this Scheme, we will request information from job applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of, and consent to, these recruitment procedures.

Please click here for a full list of CAFOD’s Staff Benefits

Come and join us and help make a real difference in the lives of the world’s poorest communities.

CAFOD is an equal opportunities employer. Recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.

Community Based/Home Working – West Midlands

Permanent, Full Time

Circa £30,000 plus competitive benefits

Do you want to make a difference?

The RAF Benevolent Fund is the leading welfare charity for the RAF. Every year we make a real difference to over 40,000 people who benefit from our services. Working at the Fund is more than sitting at your desk ad in this role you will have the opportunity to be part of our RAF Family.  Alongside helping our beneficiaries, we also get to hang out with Spitfires and Typhoons, take part in a Dambusters bike ride, attend events like Royal Ascot, the Chelsea Flower Show, and the Bomber Command Memorial Service. Every day you will make a difference and play your part in changing the lives of others and helping people in the RAF Family get through the toughest of times.

It doesn’t matter how long someone served or when. If they were part of the RAF, they and their family are part of our RAF Family. We will always be here to support them when they need it most.

Join the RAF Family and play your part in making a difference.

Do you want to play a part in what we do?

People are at the heart of what we do. Together we:

· Help reduce social isolation and loneliness among veterans. 

· We support ill or injured men and women to have a safe place to call home, a home that meets their specific needs.

· We fund youth services on stations to provide clubs and activities for the children of serving personnel who move every few years.

· We provide grants to help with the cost of living. But this is just a few of the ways we help.

We are seeking an individual to raise awareness of the Fund’s welfare offer amongst social welfare agencies across the West Midlands but also, crucially, to help address the issue of social isolation and feelings of loneliness experienced by some members of the RAF Family.

The post holder will be working with socially isolated individuals to identify meaningfully enriching opportunities to reduce feelings of loneliness, some of whom may have complex and challenging welfare needs, to develop actions plans and coordinate support to overcome any barriers preventing successful connection into these enriching opportunities, assisting them by identifying appropriate support from within the RAF Benevolent Fund and the wider statutory and military charity sector.

The successful candidate will have experience of working in a social welfare role supporting individuals, have strong people and relationship-building skills, as well as empathy with or understanding of the issues affecting the Armed Forces community.  Individuals with a social prescribing or working aged veteran support background are encouraged to apply.

This is a community-based position working from home covering the West Midlands, delivering both remote and face to face support, ideally you will be based in Staffordshire or Shropshire.  The candidate must have their own vehicle to use to travel around these regions.  Occasional travel to London will be required.  The successful candidate for this role will need to be Enhanced DBS checked and prove they have the right to work in the UK.

To apply, please click on this link and send your CV, together with a cover letter detailing why you believe you are suitable for this role, providing examples of how you meet the job profile when you apply through our recruitment portal.

The closing date for applications is Friday 23rd May 2025, 5.00pm.  Interviews will be held on 9th – 10th June 2025.

A copy of the Fund’s Candidate Privacy Notice can be found on our website. As an equal opportunities employer, the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund is committed to the equal treatment of all current and prospective employees and does not condone discrimination on the basis of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, or marriage and civil partnership. The Fund takes safeguarding seriously, and appropriate background checks will be completed. You can find out more about our commitment to safeguarding on our website. This role requires an Enhanced DBS check. We aspire to have a diverse and inclusive workplace and strongly encourage suitably qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply and join the Fund.

The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund is a Registered Charity (No. 1081009).