The Charity Spark is looking to appoint a Research and Evaluations Officer to support us in delivering transformational evaluations and research for our clients who are charities and non-profits across the UK.
Overview
£30000 - £35000
Winchester / Southampton / London / Remote
Expires 08-3-23 - Applications reviewed after this date
The Charity Spark is looking to appoint a Research and Evaluations Officer to support us in delivering transformational evaluations and research for our clients who are charities and non-profits across the UK.
In 2022 we completed evaluations for STEM Learning, Cambridge City Foodbank, Covid Aid, Winchester Science Centre and others. In 2023, we have many exciting projects already commissioned and we are now expanding the team to support this growth.
We are a tiny and collaborative team. This is our second employed role and historically has been fulfilled by external freelancers. It is now time to bring this role ‘in house’ to ensure brilliant outcomes for our clients as well as stability for our team. Our other employee works in business development and support alongside the Director.
You will work with other members of The Charity Spark network as we have a group of charity professionals who we work with on a project-by-project basis. We call these people our Associates and they are all on freelance contracts.
The Charity Spark are a consultancy for the non-profit and charity sector. We work with clients from across the charity sector and help them do more good daily through excellent fundraising and transformative impact measurement. That is, we help them prove they do what they say they do and then use that proof to raise more money, so they can continue the work that they do.
We are committed to tackling inequalities and to making The Charity Spark an inclusive and diverse workspace. The Charity Spark is a pending B-corp and our purpose is core to every part of our business.
We’re keen to find the right people for the future of The Charity Spark and so we’d love to talk to you if you’re interested in us or this role but want to know a bit more before applying or want to chat about flexibility in the role.
What you’ll be doing:
1. Evaluation
· Lead, and support on, evaluation projects for clients across the charity and non-profit sector.
· Conducting quantitative and qualitative data research and analysis for clients, including but not limited to:
o Evaluation design using appropriate mixed-methodology approaches
o Survey development, set up and management
o Survey analysis – developing tables and charts, providing commentary and reporting
o Conducting qualitative interviews and focus groups
o Thematic analysis of consultation and survey responses
o Economic assessment to support evaluation and project appraisal
o Desk-based research across the sector including literature reviews of published research, gathering comparator data etc
o Report writing and presentation of findings to clients
o Liaising with project team including but not limited to, freelance project support, designer, proof-reader
o Meeting organisation, prep and research
o Keeping track of new business contacts and ensuring they are recorded in the CRM
· Deliver training on evaluation topics and tools
2. Business Development
· Deal with client enquiries in an efficient and timely manner.
· Supporting the Director with onboarding new clients
· Liaise with the clients to gain testimonials and write client case studies.
· Research opportunities for new business products and/or clients.
· Support with B Corp certification process and improving The Charity Spark’s impact as a company
· Assist on the organisation of team events and away days alongside the Director
You’ll have:
· Curiosity and passion about making a difference in the world around you.
- 3 or more years’ research and/or evaluation experience in a relevant field. This may be in-house impact measurement and evaluation, social or community research, academic research or as an external evaluator.
- A talent for using words powerfully. This may be through excellent written and/or verbal communication. We want to encourage those with a disability or neurodiversity who may experience difficulties with some forms of communication to apply and tell us how we could help you be the best version of you in the workplace.
- Ability to clearly bring together evidence from a range of sources about complex issues, resulting in a creative and robust description of an issue or project.
- Experience in analysing data (qual and quant) and can present it accessibly.
- Confidence in leading on projects including liaising with the client, stakeholders and evaluation participants both on the phone, in-person and virtually.
- A desire for every day being a bit different and you will enjoy working on multiple projects at any one time.
- The ability to work independently and plan your workload to meet deadlines.
- A creative growth mindset.
- An entrepreneurial spirit – we are a small growing business led by our founder.
- Passion for working with a business with a strong social mission and looking for a positive purpose in the company they work for
- Comfort with multi-tasking, and working both independently and as part of a small team
- A desire to work with, and support, others.
Our commitment to you:
It takes a diverse and inclusive community of passionate, talented and committed people to create change in the charity sector and beyond. We’re an equal opportunity employer, so we welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, with different outlooks and experiences.