Research and Evaluations Officer

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 predominantly charities and non-profits across the UK. We are looking for a team member to work up to 21 hours per week. Salary £30,000-35,000 FTE.

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. We help charities 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.

In 2023 and 2024 we completed evaluations across a range of sectors including for STEM Learning, the Royal Osteoporosis Society, Wintercomfort for the Homeless, Spear London and others. Continuing into 2024, we have many exciting projects already commissioned and continue to expand our portfolio.

We are a small and collaborative team with four members of staff in addition to this role: the Director, our Business Support Officer, Research and Evaluations Officer and Senior Trust Fundraiser. Where additional expertise or capacity is required, we have a network of charity professionals who we work with on a project-by-project basis.

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. 

What you’ll be doing:

Evaluation

• Lead, and support on, evaluation projects for clients across the charity and non-profit sector
• Developing evaluation frameworks, including clear indicators, data collection methods, and reporting mechanisms for projects.
•  Conducting quantitative and qualitative research and analysis for clients, including but not limited to: 

Evaluation design using appropriate mixed-methodology approaches which may include:

• Facilitating co-production. 
•  Survey development, set up and management.
• Survey analysis – developing tables and charts, providing commentary and reporting.
• Conducting qualitative interviews and focus groups. 
• Thematic analysis of consultation and survey responses.
• Economic assessment to support evaluation and project appraisal. 
• Desk-based research across the sector including literature reviews of published research, gathering comparator data etc.

Reporting to clients:

• Preparing reports for clients and other stakeholders, highlighting key findings, lessons learned, and recommendations for future action.
• Liaising with project team including but not limited to, freelance project support, designer, proof-reader.

Project Management:

• Meeting organisation, preparation and research.
• Management of project timelines. 
• Ensuring data protection legislation is adhered to.
• Keeping track of new business contacts and ensuring they are recorded in the CRM. 

• Providing training and support to partners on evaluation concepts, tools, and techniques, building their capacity to effectively monitor and evaluate programs and services

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 the submission of bids and proposals for new work including responses to tenders.

You’ll have:

Essential

• Curiosity and passion about making a difference in the world around you.
• 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. We expect this to be 3 or more years, however we are open to speaking with candidates who have less professional experience and are well suited in other ways.
• The 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.
• The ability to work independently and plan your workload to meet deadlines.
• The ability to manage multiple projects at once, work independently and as part of a small team
• A desire to work with, and support, others.

Desirable

• Qualitative research expertise with co-production experience.
• 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. 
• A desire for every day to be a bit different.
• An entrepreneurial spirit – we are a small growing business led by our founder.
• A desire to work for a business with a strong social mission. 
• A growth mindset.

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. ‍

Although this is mostly a remote role, we do require the position holder to be able to visit clients on a fairly frequent bases within the UK. While we are able to cover the costs of travel within the UK we are not able to cover these costs from abroad, therefore we ask for applicants to be residing in the UK.