Community Funding Coordinator

Our mission is to ensure that people and organisations have the knowledge, access and power they need to drive positive change in the places they choose and on the issues that affect them. We work with partners in philanthropy, local government and business, who want to connect, collaborate and reimagine solutions to ensure people can thrive in their communities.

In our Consultancy Partnership, we offer participatory, inclusive approaches to research issues, evaluate services, and co-design services that support organisations to learn, develop, challenge power structures, and drive equitable change.

In June 2023, we launched our brand-new Social Innovation Lab. This is a dedicated place within TSIP where we co-design, support and host funds and grassroots initiatives with local communities and people with lived experience of social issues, providing them with possibilities and opportunities to lead and accelerate their own social change.

https://www.tsip.co.uk/strategy

We are seeking a Community Funding Coordinator to act as the funding lead and fiscal host lead for our community-led funding initiatives. This role will sit within our Innovation Lab and will be a community-facing role.

The Giving Lab

The Social Innovation Partnership has been hosting The Giving Lab on behalf of the community since 2020 after codesigning and testing community-led funding approaches with the local community in Walworth, Southwark. Funded by two health foundations - Impact on Urban Health and Wellcome Trust, The Giving Lab (TGL) is about people and organisations working together to fund local health solutions.

TGL is an experimental pilot that represents a totally new approach to funding, and a developmental learning approach is embedded into the model. Our guiding approach involves five key areas of work:

• Piloting funding processes
• Evaluation
• Replicating the models

The key learning question The Giving Lab is exploring is how to widen public access and engagement in health through this pilot.

As Community Funding Coordinator you will support innovative participatory programmes from ideation and codesign to delivery and impact measurement, coordinating these and providing tailored support for our community grants. At the heart of your approach will be developing deep and meaningful relationships built on trust, understanding, empathy and humility with community members. A deep understanding and track record of how to build and maintain trusting relationships within communities is essential. You will need to be comfortable being led by, or working in partnership with, community members.

Fiscal hosting

TSIP has identified the need to become a fiscal host. As a fiscal host we will hold money on behalf of a community group, social movement or project that doesn't have the capacity or desire to register as a formal legal entity. Our fiscal hosting offer will be tailored to meet community’s needs, and we are keen to expand this offer to other organisations as we expand the number of funds’ we host that are led by and for local communities.

You will provide tailored support to community members/group who are in receipt of grants, to access their funds on behalf of TSIP and external partners. This will include delivering group or one-to-one onboarding sessions, providing dedicated one-to-one support to those who are less digitally confident, and creating accessible materials and resources to help community members/groups access the service. You will actively capture feedback to continuously inform and shape our fiscal hosting offer, so that it continues to meet communities evolving needs.

Championing better ways of funding

We believe that how socially-focused work is funded is incredibly important. There is potential to enable much greater impact if we can find ways of funding that are more accessible, inclusive and equitable. Piloting and demonstrating the potential for community-led funds is one way in which we want to champion better ways of funding - from co-design of community-led funding models, to piloting and experimenting with radically different funding models, to hosting new funding models on behalf of funders and the community.

You will draw on learning from our community-led initiatives to champion better funding, pilot new approaches and advise funders on their approach. Building on your track record of working within philanthropy to inform and shape innovative ideas to fund more equitably, you will work with the team to secure and deliver these initiatives in the lab.

You will represent TSIP externally and help to raise our profile, contributing to thought leadership and communications.

Our ideal candidate

The ideal candidate will bring a passionate interest in social issues and an understanding of how funding can be done better using participatory approaches. You will be passionate about enabling community leadership, demonstrate a track record of supporting communities’ personal development and progression and have experience of working in a community-facing role, in inner London Cities. You will have excellent project coordination and management skills. Experience of working for a funder and/or administering a fund is essential. Knowledge or understanding of fiscal hosting would be beneficial but is not essential.

Responsibilities

Project coordination (70%):

• Developing relationships with our community members, building trust and mutual understanding and respect.

• Coordinating initiatives within the Social Innovation Lab, in a front-facing community role, providing a range of tailored support as required by community members.

• Coordinating and overseeing resources and activities to meet contractual requirements and project brief.

• Producing accessible resources to support community members to access the service, including authentically sharing the mission, vision and values of the lab.

• Organising grant giving activities with all relevant stakeholders, including TSIP team, community team and partners.

• Setting team deadlines and coordinating activities to time, offering hands on support across the team, where required.

• Acting as front facing community fiscal host coordinator, tailoring the service to meet communities needs, and capturing feedback to continuously inform and shape the service, so it continues to meet community needs.

• Coordinating contracts, invoices and payments with community members and relevant department leads, e.g. Office Manager, Head of Funding, Bookkeeper.

• Managing and refining fund delivery processes, ensuring they uphold the values of our equitable funding ethos, and are streamlined and efficient.

• Coordinating funder reports, and feedback reports, contributing to producing interactive and accessible updates to relevant stakeholders.

• Maintaining effective communication with all project stakeholders, providing verbal and written updates on your work for team members and clients.

• Identifying and managing project risks.

• Working with the TSIP team to develop the sustainable legacy of The Giving Lab.

• Keep records and timesheets about your work and project progress.
  

Business development (20%):

• Develop communications assets including creating content (e.g. blogs and videos) to showcase TSIPs work and support understanding externally.
• Represent TSIP externally and help to raise our profile.
• Contribute to thought leadership in community facing practices to inform new business development opportunities.
• Work with others to identify and assess sales opportunities, helping to draft sales proposals across all service areas within TSIP.
• Develop and build client relationships identifying new opportunities.
• Create proposals and offers that are tailored to specific funders / communities needs.

Internals (10%):

• Attend and contribute to team meetings, CPD sessions, training and business development
• Complete timesheets and comply with all organisational protocols and processes.
• Provide support to other team members, where required.
  

The time allocated to project coordination, business development and internals may need to flex to match the number and complexity of projects in the lab, and the demands to prioritise business development to secure new opportunities in the lab.

Requirements

Essential

• Deep understanding and track record of how to build and maintain trusting relationships within communities.
• Experience of, and comfortable, being led by, or working in partnership with, community members.
• Lived experience or first-hand/front-line knowledge of social issues
• Prior experience of managing and delivering community focused/community-led projects
• Prior experience of working within philanthropy and being involved in grant giving with an understanding of the processes involved.
• An understanding of the challenges of traditional grant making
• Highly organised with excellent project coordination and management skills
• Understanding of and deep interest in social issues
• Great team player with a natural ability to build relationships with diverse individuals
• Passion for sharing skills and helping others to learn and develop
• Ability to multi-task, balancing competing priorities in a fast-paced environment
• Expertise in one or more of the following service areas – participatory approaches, equitable funding models, impact evaluation, facilitating workshops
• Great attention to detail
• Excellent report writing and presentation skills – able to create engaging presentations
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Able to work independently with minimal supervision
• Interested in learning new skills
• Willing to get stuck in and help where needed

Desirable

• Understanding of business development with experience in writing proposals and building client relationships
• Understanding of the social investment /social enterprise sector(s)
• Prior consulting experience
• Health research/health sector experience

Benefits

• Salary: £30,000 pro rata
• Full time (37.5 hours per week), will consider 0.8 FTE (30 hours per week)
• Generous holidays (total 33 days, including bank holidays)
• Personal wellbeing budget
• Wellbeing benefits
• Employer pension
• Home based, with up to 3 days in London-based offices and occasional travel in the UK