Communications officer volunteer roles for the Environment sector

Position Overview

This is an exciting opportunity for an early-career development professional to build hands-on experience in community fundraising and operational support. Based in the coastal town of Fort Dauphin, the Junior Fundraising and Operational Support Officer will play a key role in strengthening SEED’s community fundraising and supporting crowdfunding campaigns.

A core part of the role will be providing exceptional care to SEED’s community fundraisers, incoming staff and volunteers ensuring timely and professional communication. The postholder will lead volunteer and staff onboarding, supporting smooth and well-prepared arrivals in country, enhance communications and digital content, and assist with operational systems that underpin SEED’s work. 

The role will build strong relationships with schools, workplaces, running clubs, and community organisations in donor countries, supporting them to raise vital funds and awareness for SEED’s work. This will include identifying and researching new fundraising opportunities, stewarding community fundraising activities (such as bake sales and seasonal campaigns), and supporting fundraisers and volunteers to use third-party platforms effectively. 

Working within a collaborative national and international team, this is an office-based role with occasional field visits with opportunities to gain experience across fundraising, operations, and the realities of working in international development practice in a dynamic, cross-cultural environment. 

Title: Junior Fundraising and Operational Support Officer

Location: Fort Dauphin, Madagascar

Commitment: 12 months; Monday to Friday (35 hours a week)

Salary: Voluntary position, with local monthly stipend towards accommodation and a contribution of £650 towards insurance

About Us

Earthwatch Europe works to create a world where we live in balance with nature.

We help people to protect the nature around them. We build meaningful nature connections and give people the tools they need to fight for our planet.

Working alongside communities and organisations, we build an understanding and a love of nature and help everyone to protect the natural world. Guided by science and powered by people, we create change through connection.

People are the heart of everything we do. From the classroom to the boardroom and the field to the laboratory, we bring everyone together with the shared goal to protect our planet. We work where we can have the most impact, creating knowledge and inspiring action. We fight for our fragile planet with passion and with science – with our hearts and our minds.

About the Role

Our Board of Trustees provides strategic leadership and strong governance, helping to shape Earthwatch’s direction and impact. Trustees act as ambassadors for our mission, bringing diverse perspectives and expertise to guide our work

The Board meets four times a year, usually for full-day meetings on a Friday, held either in person or online via Microsoft Teams. Meetings usually take place in London or Oxford. Two standing committees — Finance (meets quarterly) and Nominations (meets twice a year) — provide additional oversight. We also form ad-hoc working groups as needed, typically involving staff and trustees, to support strategic priorities or to manage the organisation through a challenging process

Earthwatch Europe has a board of 12 trustees. Trustees come from a wide variety of backgrounds and have a wide range of skills and experience, including governance, science, communications and finance. The Chair of the board is supported by two Vice Chairs and an Honorary Treasurer

Role Purpose

To lead the Board of Trustees in providing strategic direction, excellent governance and effective support-and-challenge to the executive team, ensuring Earthwatch Europe delivers maximum impact and builds long-term sustainability. 

Key Responsibilities

• Board leadership: Set the tone for a high-performing, inclusive Board that is focused, constructive and appropriately challenging

• Governance: Ensure robust governance, effective decision-making and oversight of risk and compliance

• Strategy: Lead the Board’s contribution to strategy, priorities and impact; maintain focus on the big questions

• CEO relationship: Build an effective partnership with the CEO; ensure clarity of delegation and accountability.

• Income and sustainability: Help steer the organisation’s approach to income growth and long-term sustainability, using experience and networks where appropriate.

• Representation: Act as an ambassador for Earthwatch Europe, supporting profile, partnerships and credibility.

• Board effectiveness: Support succession planning, Board development and continuous improvement.

Please find attached the full job description and person specification.

Position Overview

This is an exciting opportunity for an early-career development professional to gain practical experience in operations and administration while supporting impactful community and conservation programmes in southeast Madagascar. Based in the coastal town of Fort Dauphin, the Junior Operations and Support Officer will play an important role in supporting the systems and processes that enable SEED Madagascar’s projects to run effectively.

SEED Madagascar is a UK registered charity dedicated to creating long-term, sustainable change in partnership with communities in the southeast of Madagascar. Our programmes integrate community health, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), education, rural livelihoods and environmental conservation initiatives, while contributing to international best practice through research and publications.

Working within a collaborative team of national and international staff, the Junior Operations and Support Officer will contribute to the day-to-day operations that underpin SEED’s work. This office-based role provides a wide range of responsibilities, offering valuable experience across administration, organisational systems and programme support. The role will also involve occasional interaction with SEED’s Conservation Research Team in the field, providing orientations and pastoral care to the volunteers on their programme.

The position sits at the heart of SEED’s operations and offers broad exposure to the practical realities of working within an international development organisation. The successful candidate will support organisational policies and procedures, assist with the recruitment of international staff and volunteers, coordinate onboarding processes for new team members, and contribute to the management and promotion of SEED’s short-term conservation volunteer programme.

This role is ideal for someone who is organised, proactive and motivated to support a diverse team. It offers an excellent opportunity for an early-career professional who is interested in building skills in operations, administration and organisational support within the international development sector, while contributing to programmes that support both communities and ecosystems in Madagascar.

Title: Junior Operations and Support Officer

Location: Fort Dauphin, Madagascar

Commitment: 12 months; Monday to Friday (35 hours a week)

Salary: Voluntary for 12 months, with stipend of 800,000 MGA per month towards accommodation and a contribution of £650 towards insurance

Position Overview

Based in the coastal town of Fort Dauphin in the southeast of Madagascar, this post will provide support to our Environment and Conservation projects implemented by the NGO. The successful candidate will work within a combined national and international team to assist in the development of projects, from initial planning stages to final evaluations. Primary responsibilities include the writing of donor reports and proposals, providing additional support to the project team surrounding project management and monitoring and evaluation. The role is predominantly office-based with some bush travel. The diversity of activities undertaken will provide a wide-ranging experience for an early career development professional who can effectively and efficiently deal with a comprehensive range of tasks related to the complex world of overseas development.

Location: Fort Dauphin, Anosy Region, Madagascar
Timeframe: 1 year, extendable
Terms and conditions: Voluntary with local monthly stipend towards accommodation and contribution to insurance of £650

Second Life

We partner with communities to collect, trace, and recycle plastic, creating jobs and preventing pollution.​

Our growth so far has been powered by corporate partnerships.
But there's significant catalytic and concessional funding available for organizations doing exactly what we do, and right now we're not capturing it. We need the help of a Grant Writer & Institutional Funding Lead to change that. 

This is a high-leverage role for an experienced development professional who knows the climate, ocean, and circular economy funding landscape, and who can turn that knowledge into successful proposals. You'll own the full grant lifecycle from prospecting to reporting, working directly with the CEO and Program Director.

What you'll do:
- Map the global funding landscape relevant to Second Life: bilateral aid agencies, multilateral institutions, climate funds, major foundations, corporate foundations, impact investors offering grant capital, and prize-based funders.
- Build and maintain a prioritized funder pipeline with clear fit assessment, ticket sizes, timelines, and decision-maker contacts.
- Recommend which opportunities to pursue and which to pass on.
- Read and critically review our in-progress and recently submitted grant applications; provide structured written feedback and proposed edits.
- Lead the writing of concept notes, letters of inquiry, and full proposals.
- Translate field reality (collection sites, collector incomes, recycling pathways) into the language funders use (outputs, outcomes, impact, theory of change, MEL frameworks).
- Own grant reporting timelines and deliverables across all active grants
- Partner with marketing on funder-facing communications, impact stories, and thought leadership that strengthens grant competitiveness
- Build internal systems: proposal templates, internal library of strong language, proof points and reusable section, AI usage etc. so this function can scale.

Minimum Hours per Week:

4-6 hours per week

Duration:

6+ months

About CSE

The Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) supports people and organisations across the UK to tackle the climate emergency and end the suffering caused by cold homes. We undertake practical work to support households and communities to act on energy, alongside original research and analysis to inform local and national policy.

We are one of the UK’s leading sustainable energy charities, with a 45-year track record of award-winning impact, innovation and influence, as most recently detailed in our 2024–25 Impact Report available on our website.

About the role

Our Board of Trustees is critical to our continuing success. Trustees work collaboratively, providing support, insight and constructive challenge to help shape CSE’s strategy and ambition, and enhance our effectiveness and charitable impact.

Due to the planned stepping down of some of our board members, we are recruiting up to four new trustees to join the board and provide effective governance and support in the next phase of CSE’s development.

Who we’re looking for

All applicants should be able to demonstrate a strong interest in and commitment to CSE’s work and charitable objectives.

We are particularly seeking new trustees who bring expertise in at least one of the following areas:

• Knowledge and understanding of the community energy sector, including the challenges and opportunities of delivering local or community energy projects, and how these connect to national policy
• Expertise in organisational development, with a good appreciation of issues associated with employment law
• Experience of finance, accounting and audit, for example through holding a role with financial responsibility in an organisation or from having set up, grown or led a business
• Strong knowledge of voluntary and community sector (VCS) networks, including practical experience of community organising and an understanding of the role grassroots organisations play in affecting social change

We would also welcome applicants who bring:

• Broader expertise directly associated with at least one of CSE’s work programmes (fuel poverty advice and support, housing energy retrofit, community action on energy, local net zero delivery, future generations, or fairness in the energy system)
• Understanding of the causes and impacts of fuel poverty, and the solutions required to tackle it
• Knowledge of the UK energy system, including the policy and regulatory environment, and the transition to a fairer, more flexible, decarbonised energy system
• An understanding of the national policy environment underpinning CSE’s work, including experience of influencing national energy policy

We are keen to widen the range of perspectives represented on the board and welcome applications from young people, people from under-represented groups, disabled people, and people with lived experience of CSE’s work.

If you are interested but unsure whether you meet all of the criteria, we would encourage you to apply or get in touch for an informal conversation.

Find out more and apply

For more information on the role, including the full person specification and how to apply, please see the trustee candidate pack on our website. 

Closing date: Midday on Wednesday 10 June 2026.