Youth music jobs in cardiff, wales
At Young Sounds UK our mission is to help musically talented young people from low-income families fulfil their potential. We're seeking our first Evaluation Director to join a small, thriving organisation and lead our evaluation strategy. Working collaboratively with colleagues, you will generate insights that strengthen programme delivery, and how we understand and share our impact.
For full information on this role, including key responsibilities and person specification, please view the job pack.
The closing date for applications is Monday 14 July 2025 at 12 noon.
About Young Sounds UK
Young Sounds UK exists because musical talent is everywhere but opportunity isn’t: family finances and other obstacles too often get in the way. We’re here to change this in two key ways:
- We support young musicians from low-income families with funding and other help
- We support music education through training, advocacy and research.
Established in 1998 we work across genres and across the UK. Our four programme areas are:
- Discover: training teachers in how to spot young people’s musical potential
- Connect: targeting and sustaining young people’s emerging talent through strategic support
- Thrive: funding young talent UK wide through annual grants and tailor-made help for individual musicians
- Innovate: leading new thinking and action on talent development
Role overview
Young Sounds is a reflective organisation. We’ve always invested time and effort in seeking out, understanding and demonstrating the difference our programmes are making. We believe in learning from experience. This is what we mean by evaluation.
We have recently secured funding to build on our evaluation work to date, and it is a priority for us to more fully embed evaluation throughout our work – the Evaluation Director will be critical to us achieving this. The Evaluation Director is a new role and will lead the development and implementation of Young Sounds’ evaluation strategy, ensuring that our work is evidence-based and impactful.
Key areas of responsibility
- Evaluation strategy and organisational learning
- Programme evaluation
- Organisational capacity and culture
- Research and policy engagement
- Quality assurance and reporting
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Do you have experience in generating and sustaining charitable giving from individuals and nurturing a Friends scheme in the Arts education sector? Are you passionate about choral singing and its power to change the lives of children and young people and can you successfully advocate on our behalf to potential major donors?
The primary focus for the new role is to generate sustainable charitable giving from individuals, maintaining and growing our Friends memberships and developing significant income from major donors. We will also welcome input on stewardship of trusts and foundations if this is also your area of expertise.
We are a leading choral singing organisation and run residential summer courses for children and young people. Our artistic director, Ralph Allwood, founded the organisation 45 years ago, since when over 10,000 young people have benefited from our life-changing courses. Nowadays, around one third of students receive generous bursary support to attend a course and we also work with a range of partner organisations to encourage even more young people from diverse backgrounds to take part in our choral singing courses. We want to secure the future of the organisation and increase the number of students we can support by significantly growing our individual giving.
We are looking for an experienced fundraiser to work up to 2 days per week on a freelance basis to help us move up a gear or two in terms of our fundraising, specifically to develop private giving from our extensive alumni network and the many successful individuals who feel music education at a young age made them the person they are today.
We have an office in central London but the job can be done remotely with occasional meetings with the General Manager, either in person or virtually.
Key information
Position: Head of Development, Friends and Major Donors
Reports to: General Manager
Key relationships: Artistic Director, Operations Manager, Assistant Director Rodolfus Choir, Communications Manager & Artistic Adviser, Chairman and Trustees
Location: Working from home with occasional visits to the office at King’s Place, London and meetings with donors c. weekly
Main goal: To launch our 45th anniversary year development appeal and manage fund raising through individual giving, Friends memberships and legacy donations and pledges, growing our charitable income in line with our strategy.
About this role:
The main duties and responsibilities for the Heads of Development role are as follows:
INDIVIDUAL GIVING
· Maintain and build relationships with our donors, and identify new individuals who would like to see the Rodolfus Choral Foundation thrive
· Use our extensive alumni list to source and maintain donors
· Use contacts from the artistic director and trustees to generate new donors
· Ensure that our top and potential donors are well looked after and researched, passing on key information to the Artistic Director and, where appropriate, arranging meetings between him and our donors
· Organise and co-host special donor events in unique venues
· Plan and help organise membership events for donors
· Help establish a legacy giving scheme for Rodolfus
· Have overall responsibility for reaching individual giving targets
· Ensure that data is accurately kept in our database in line with GDPR, and is harnessed to support our fundraising efforts
STRATEGIC PLANNING & REPORTING
· Develop a five-year Fundraising Strategy
· Set ambitious but achievable targets for each year, within the overall Rodolfus budget
· Contribute new ideas and find new opportunities for fundraising
· Produce quarterly fundraising updates for the Trustees
· Produce a fundraising report for the annual accounts, identifying strengths, weaknesses and areas for development in the Fundraising Strategy
TRUSTS AND GRANT-MAKING BODIES
· Liaise with the General Manager to ensure a coordinated fundraising plan and targets, in keeping with the artistic vision for Rodolfus
· Proof and submit applications and be the point of contact for Trusts and Foundations (this work is currently supported by the General Manager and a fundraising consultant)
GENERAL
· Attend Team and Board meetings as required
· Be a passionate advocate at all times for Rodolfus
· Adhere to all legal requirements relating to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as well as all other company policies and procedures
· Create a positive work environment, underpinned by the organisation’s values
· The list of responsibilities is not exhaustive and may be reviewed from time to time by the Trustees.
· The appointee may be required to perform duties outside of this as operationally required and at the discretion of the Board.
ABOUT YOU
We are looking for someone who:
· Is able to foster excellent relationships with major donors
· is positive, proactive, hard-working, innovative and ambitious
· is numerate, analytical, organised and has attention to detail
· is friendly, approachable and collaborative
· happy working in a small but dedicated team
· happy to travel regularly when required for donor and team meetings
Essential Criteria:
· excellent interpersonal skills
· experience of developing positive relationships with donors
· proven success in securing major donations
· experience of prospective donor identification and initial approach
· outstanding communication skills, both spoken and written
· experience in budget management
· good attention to detail
· excellent personal organisation and time management
· experience of working efficiently and effectively on their own as well as in a team
· understands the arts sector
Closing date: Midday on 23rd June 2025
Interviews: First round interviews will be held online on w/c 30th June 2025
Second round interviews will be held w/c 7th July 2025
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
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Two Rhythms is seeking a dynamic Business Manager to spearhead their operational and financial success, ensuring the charity's sustainability and growth. This pivotal role involves driving earned income, managing financial health, and expanding the reach of their therapeutic arts programs across South Wales and the UK.
The Business Manager will oversee the operational and financial management of the charity, ensuring the organisation is efficient, sustainable, and aligned with its mission. They will focus on earned income generation and working to increase it in line with the business plan. They will be outward-facing, generating new business with local authorities, care providers, schools, hospitals and hospices. They will work closely with the CEO, and Head of Programme to introduce the 2R programme to new guests across South Wales, and with the Membership Officer to extend our membership programme across the UK.
The Business Manager will play a crucial role in managing the charity's financial health, ensuring resources are effectively utilised to support its mission and goals. This hands-on role involves overseeing financial planning, budgeting, reporting, and compliance while supporting their leadership team colleagues with financial insights and strategies.
They will prepare reports for the management team, CEO and Trustees as required and they will liaise with our external accountants, helping to prepare annual accounts and other statutory documents.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
OPERATIONAL
1. Business and Operational Management:
- Oversee daily operations, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness across departments.
- Design and implement new processes to monitor trading performance.
- To act a responsible point of contact for managing day-to-day facilities and building issues.
- Management of external contracts relating to facilities and running of the organisation.
- Review environmental considerations of the organisation in-line with the requirements and policies of our funders, landlords and partner organisations.
- Support the administration of session bookings, liaising with finance and management colleagues.
2. Compliance and Governance:
- Working as part of the charity’s Safeguarding team helping to ensure best practice across the charity’s activities and operations. (Appropriate training will be provided)
- Ensure the charity complies with relevant financial regulations and reporting requirements.
- Manage risk and protect the charity’s financial reputation and assets.
- Maintain accurate records and policies, working closely with trustees or board members.
FINANCE
3. Financial Management and Planning:
- Prepare and manage budgets in collaboration with the leadership team.
- Monitor and control income and expenditure to ensure financial sustainability.
- Develop financial forecasts and plans to support strategic decision-making.
- Manage invoicing, liaising with external clients and contractors with respect to debt management, reviewing and improving booking processes where necessary.
4. Accounting and Reporting:
- Maintain accurate financial records and oversee day-to-day bookkeeping.
- Prepare monthly management accounts, including variance analysis.
- Produce annual financial statements and manage the year-end accounting process.
5. Donor and Grant Management:
- Track restricted and unrestricted funding, ensuring proper allocation and reporting.
- Provide financial reports and updates for donors and grant applications.
PEOPLE
6. Supporting Stakeholders:
- Work closely with trustees and the senior leadership team, providing clear insights.
- Contribute to the charity's overall strategic planning and growth.
- Attend board meetings, ensuring accurate minutes and record keeping.
7. Leadership and Team Support:
- Work closely with Senior Management colleagues to provide strategic advice and insights.
- Manage and support staff, fostering a positive and productive work environment.
- Lead by example, promoting the charity’s values and mission in all actions.
COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY
- Work with the team to drive sales, pursue new clients and increase the charity’s earned income, collaborating with Programme, Membership and Marketing colleagues and the CEO to further the charity’s work.
- Lead on our engagement with the health and social care sector, including private and public organisations.
- Assist the CEO in submitting reports to funders, regulatory bodies, and trustees.
- Support the development of funding proposals with accurate financial input.
- Assist the CEO in building relationships with external partners and stakeholders, including corporate and commercial clients.
Utilising our unique, therapeutic arts programmes, we deliver long-lasting health and wellbeing benefits, enabling expression, connection and joy.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.