Grant Programmes Manager – The London Community Foundation

 

Recruitment Pack 2022

 

 

Welcome

 

Thank you for your interest in joining The London Community Foundation (LCF). Our mission is to tackle inequality by supporting a diverse civil society serving London’s communities. We do this by amplifying the needs of London and inspiring donors to support them. Our work spans across company and individual philanthropy as well as public sector funds – supporting charities working to reduce problems such as violence against women and girls, homelessness, food poverty and young people at risk of gang violence.

 

Every role at LCF is critical to our mission, including this job. Inside this pack you will find information about the Grant Programmes Manager role and more about our work.

 

To represent London in all its glorious diversity, our people must reflect our work. At LCF we are committed to challenging ourselves to be more inclusive and diverse in how we operate. This includes our recruitment experience. We have a series of commitments to help us attract diverse talent and throughout our recruitment process, we will:

 

         Ensure a diverse interview panel wherever possible

         Provide additional accessibility support for applicants, where requested

         Share first-stage interview questions with candidates beforehand

         Never ask for your current salary or degree level education

         Provide an opportunity to meet members of the team

         Always advertise the salary for our vacancies (#ShowtheSalary)

         Seek active feedback from you on the recruitment experience

 

With my thanks and best of luck with your application,

 

Kate Markey
CEO, The London Community Foundation



About LCF

 

 

Our Vision

A strong and diverse civil society that tackles disadvantage and creates greater equity in London.

 

Our Purpose

Through good philanthropy, our knowledge and expertise, we convene donors to invest in charitable organisations working to overcome the issues affecting London.

 

Our People

Our Team and Board come from diverse backgrounds, with different skills, experience, and perspective, but unified by their ambition for London.

 

Our Values

We are Equitable, Accountable, Responsive, Collaborative and Impactful.

 

Our Behaviours

We aspire to be Inclusive, Adaptable, Trustworthy, Enterprising, Pragmatic, Respectful.


 

Background

 


Our experience has shown us that communities often characterised as poor, and disadvantaged are rich with ideas and assets. Charities, social enterprises, and community groups that spring from the communities they are trying to help often have a deep understanding of the gaps that need filling. They know what works, how to gain trust and build lasting relationships.

 

LCF was founded in 1995 and we have made grant awards totalling over £100m. Our annual grant-making has grown to circa £9m (pre-COVID).

 

Our grant awards are typically made to small charities and community groups who understand issues at a local level, but whose existence is generally below the public radar. The grant awards can address a range of community- related issues such as child poverty, unemployment, isolation, homelessness, domestic abuse and violence affecting young people.

 

LCF is one of 47 community foundations in the UK. Last year the UKCF network made £175m in grants, making it the fourth largest grant maker in the UK, and holds endowments valued at over £700m. During COVID, the network has been privileged to be the preferred delivery partner of the National Emergencies Trust which has deployed almost £100m.



 

Role description

Grant Programmes Manager

 


Reporting to:

Head of Grants and Impact

 

Job family:

Grants and Impact

 

Direct reports:

None

 

Contract:

Permanent

Full time (35 hours per week, 9am-5pm, flexible hours available)

Brixton, London (hybrid working available)

 

Start date: from October 2022

 

Salary

£32,000 - £34,000

 

LCF is proud to be affiliated to and support:  

-        Show The Salary

-        Living Wage Employer

-        UK Community Foundations

-        Fundraising Regulator

 

Role purpose:

·       Manage a portfolio of grant-making programmes

·       Support applicants and grantees through the grant-making process from application to final reporting

·       Ensure grant programmes are compliant and in accordance with LCF grant-making policy and Standard Operating Procedures

·       Contribute to LCF’s understanding and evidence of impact and the design of programmes to support London’s communities

·       Promote the values of LCF as a community foundation

 

Key roles and responsibilities



Job description:

 

Grant-making:

·       Manage grant-making programmes, including design, fund set-up, shortlisting, assessments, decision-making processes, payments, monitoring, donor reporting

·       Ensure programmes are delivered to a high standard, according to contractual and donor requirements and in line with LCF’s approach, procedures and values

·       Support grantees and assess grant applications from a wide range of civil society organisations

·       Manage a variety of programmes, including independently leading on lower complexity programmes and working on some high-value, complex funds with support from the Head of Grants and Impact

·       Ensure all relevant data is accurately collected and analysed to be able to fulfil our monitoring and reporting requirements 

·       Ensure that work is proportionate and within LCF’s operating model as a community foundation

·       Support other colleagues as required

 

Promoting LCF’s impact as a community foundation:

·       Contribute to programme design and donor influencing as appropriate  

·       Write high-quality donor reports, including data and impact analysis, and highlighting opportunities to promote LCF’s impact more widely

 

General:

·       Champion and advocate for LCF’s vision, mission, values and approach internally and externally

·       Embed learning and feed into continuous improvement and development of LCF’s grant-making

·       Identify and flag learning, success and impact as well as issues and risks to Head of Grants and Impact, with suggested solutions

·       Manage workloads effectively, using Salesforce dashboards and other tools

·       Attend occasional work or events in the evening/out of regular working hours

 

Skills, experience & knowledge


 

Essential:

·       Experience of managing end-to-end grant programmes

·       Experience of assessing grant applications with a good understanding of key elements: financial, governance, safeguarding, organisational capacity to deliver and impact

·       Experience of reviewing monitoring reports to identify progress, learning, successes, impact, risks and challenges

·       Enthusiastic, proactive, adaptable and pragmatic with the ability to work in a fast-paced environment

·       Able to write concise, high-quality donor reports, analysing and summarising complex information

·       Good verbal and written communication and presentation skills, and the ability to adapt to different audiences

·       Proficiency with IT, including customer relationship management (CRM) systems

·       Excellent time management, organisation and able to manage different projects concurrently

·       Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work well in a team

·       Commitment to LCF’s vision, mission, values and behaviours

 

Desirable

·       Experience of assessing capital or core funding applications

·       Experience of working with donors, including statutory donors, to deliver grant-making programmes

·       A working knowledge of social impact, including Theories of Change, developing and reporting metrics 

·       Experience managing grant programmes with additional elements such as external evaluations or organisational development components

·       Understanding of social issues, civil society and need in London

 

 

Being part of the team

 

At The London Community Foundation, we want people to grow and succeed.

 

Alongside our values, we expect everyone to display the behaviours needed to contribute to our vision and purpose. See 6 behaviours below:

·       Pragmatic

·       Enterprising

·       Trustworthy

·       Adaptable

·       Respectful

·       Inclusive

 

In return we seek to offer an inclusive, rewarding, and collaborative environment and several benefits.

 

Key highlights include:

 

Stay and grow

·       25 days holiday (33 incl. bank holidays) pro rata with incremental rises of 1 extra day a year after the first two full years of service, up to a max of five extra days.

·       Mid and annual performance review with development plans

·       Team training and development opportunities

·       Up to 10% employer match contribution pension scheme

·       0% loans for continuing education

·       Death in service insurance (Ts&Cs apply)

Keeping healthy

·       Employee assistance programme

·       Flexible working

·       3 x ‘close-down’ days over Christmas

·       Buy and sell holiday allowance

·       0% loans for bike purchase

Great environment

·       Hybrid working is supported

·       Quarterly full team sessions

·       Opportunities to engage with Board
of Trustees

·       2 x volunteering days per annum

 



How to apply


 

To apply, please submit your CV and cover letter to jointheteam@londoncf.org.uk by Sunday 2 October 2022 at 23:59. Please clearly outline your experience and how you meet the requirements of the role by addressing each point in the Person Specification within your cover letter.

 

Please let us know if you will require any special provision because of any disability or other accessibility needs, should you be called for interview.

 

At LCF, we are committed to ensuring that how we are governed, our team and our partnerships all reflect the true diversity of London. We need to challenge ourselves and be challenged. We will fall short at times, but we will continue to learn.  

 

We are committed to increasing accessibility for people from diverse backgrounds to join our team. We seek to collect equalities data at the first stage of application so we can analyse and challenge where and how we recruit. We encourage candidates to complete our diversity monitoring form for this reason. Equalities data is collected and stored separately to applications to adhere to data regulations. We aim to appoint the most suitable candidate at all times, and welcome applications from people from all different backgrounds.

 

Staff from a Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) background are currently under-represented within the Grants and Impact Team, therefore we actively encourage, and will commit to interview, all applicants from a BAME background who meet the minimum essential person specification. We invite any candidates who identify themselves as from a BAME background to state this as part of their cover letter, alongside addressing each point in the person specification.

 

Recruitment Timetable

·   Deadline for applications: 23:59 on Sunday 2 October 2022

·       First Interview:

Thursday 6 Oct 2022

·       Second Interview:  

Tuesday 11 Oct 2022

 

First interview: This interview will focus on skills and experience for the role. In line with our commitment to supporting candidates, you will receive the questions 24 hours before the interview, along with details of joining an interview.

 

Second Interview: Candidates who score the highest in the skills and competencies of the role will be invited back for a second interview. The second interview will focus on values and culture at LCF. We are planning for second interviews to be held in person at our offices in Brixton.

 

Queries

If you have queries on any aspect of the appointment process, need additional information or would like to have an informal discussion about the role, please contact Sam Fox, Head of Grants and Impact via email: jointheteam@londoncf.org.uk