Are you passionate about making a difference to the climate crisis by inspiring parents to take action on air pollution, fossil fuels and creating systemic change? Do you have experience of writing funding bids and community fundraising? Then this role could be for you!

We are particularly keen to hear from people who experience marginalisation and minoritisation or who are often excluded from decision-making processes. For example, people of colour; people from working-class backgrounds; people from LGBTQ and migrant communities; care-experienced young people and people with disabilities.

Background

Parents for Future Scotland began as a grassroots group of parents seeking to make climate action the norm among all parents in Scotland. We became a charity 2 years ago. We are in the midst of a big step change, increasing our influence and reach across the country, and we need you to help us in doing that. This post is based in Glasgow, therefore the ability to commute to Glasgow at least once per week is essential

We currently have 12 self-employed staff across Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. We have around 12 funders, each of whom fund us for a 1 year span. We have one multi-year funder, from which this post is paid. In the next 2 years we want to move from a self-employed team to a staff team and must secure large multi-year funds to do this. We would also like to build our reserves to 3 years’ running costs in approximately 5 years time. We do not plan to expand into other geographical locales or pilot new schemes until our existing posts are secure, however we may choose to increase the time key team members have to work on programmes and your role will be essential to realising this.

The expectation is that the postholder will lead on fundraising for the organisation, supporting and advising the CEO, Admin Manager and Programme Manager on the fundraising strategy and devising the best approach for the organisation.

Main tasks

Fundraising

• Alongside the CEO create a robust fundraising strategy.
• Support the organisation to implement an evaluation framework across all its programmes which captures key information in order to write high quality bids
• Identify small and large funders which are a good fit for the organisation through research and phone calls, ensuring that every bid we write has the highest chance of success that we can achieve.
• Hook into key networks; Foundation Scotland, Environmental Funders, TSI’s etc. and, alongside the CEO, utilise networks to create a relationship with potential funders.
• Work with the programme staff and the CEO to ensure that our programmes are visible to key decision makers, making continuation funding more likely.
• Maintain relationships with existing funders alongside the Programme Manager and the Programme Team. Ensure that high quality reports are submitted and that communication with funders is on point.
• Support existing funders to visit our programmes in order to support understanding of the work taking place and the need for the work where appropriate/helpful.
• Alongside the Admin Manager, support with forecasting and ensure contingency plans are in place in order to continue existing contracts within the organisation.
• Write high quality, large funding bids that will support us in securing multi-year funding, providing more security for the organisation
• In accordance with the fundraising strategy create a portfolio of community fundraising events in the year for our movement members, schools and other audiences to take part in
• If appropriate create a fundraising working group with members from the movement
• Ensure that people signing up to become members with us have every opportunity to become regular donors. Maintain communication with all regular donors to thank them and inspire them appropriately.
• Work with the whole team to support the creation of a fundraising culture within the orgnaisation so that every team member thinks about fundraising opportunities in everything they do.
• Support our comms both on the website, socials and WhatsApp channel to ensure that these are effective fundraising tools.

Essential Experience

• A knowledge of the funding landscape in at least Scotland and the UK
• At least 3 years in a senior fundraising role
• Experience of writing funding bids and being responsible for a portfolio of funders worth £300,000 or more
• Experience of leading on and securing large multi-year funding bids
• Experience of creating and executing a fundraising strategy successfully within a growing organisation.
• Ideally experience of community fundraising and building a portfolio of events which are worth £10K or above
• An ability to package a varied portfolio of work to speak to different audiences including funders, donors and community members.
• Proven ability to strategise

Essential personal attributes

• Passion, drive and enthusiasm in our ability to tackle the climate crisis through system change and an understanding of what this might require.
• The ability to work well in a team and to make connections with trusts, donors, supporters, volunteers etc and understand what each want/need
• Ability to work with the self-employed staff team and support/empower them to support fundraising appropriately.
• Flexibility to work in a changing landscape in a small charity.
• Strategy - to bring ideas and creativity and to understand how these fit within the wider strategic goals of PfFS
• An ability to take instruction and to work independently/take self-responsibility

What we offer

• 4 days per week for 2 years (46 weeks per year at £200 per day.) Total per annum is £36,800. Total contract amount is £73,600.
• We offer a flexible working environment
• Working from home (we are in the process of finding an office in the next few months. Due to the role working so closely with colleagues we would recommend that this role spend time at the Glasgow office once established)
• We are a fledgling organisation so your skills/expertise will help shape our direction
• You will work closely with the CEO, who has a fundraising background and can support where needed
• Many fundraising roles are burn-out and unsustainable. This is a role where your creativity, passion and skills can shine and you will not be used like a commodity!

Are you passionate about empowering communities who are most affected by the climate crisis but whose voices are least often heard to take action? We support communities most affected by air pollution, increasing temperatures in the Global South and the transition away from fossil fuels to ask for systems change through community organising techniques. Do you understand the theory of Community Organising and have you had experience of educating, skilling up and supporting communities to campaign for change? If so we’d love to hear from you!

We are particularly keen to hear from people who experience marginalisation and minoritisation or who are often excluded from decision-making processes. For example, people of colour; people from working-class backgrounds; people from LGBTQ and migrant communities; care-experienced young people and people with disabilities.

Background

Parents for Future Scotland is a grassroots group of parents seeking to make climate action the norm among all parents in Scotland. We are in the midst of a big step change, increasing our influence and reach across the country, and we need you to help us in doing that. This post is based in Glasgow and will operate mainly in Glasgow and Edinburgh. It is open to anyone who can commute.

We run programmes in schools and in partnership with other charities to reach communities who are most affected by climate change and to support them to take local action. This work is delivered by our programme team. This role will build on the programme work taking place by joining people up, on-boarding them into our movement and skilling them up to mobilise and campaign. Through this process we hope to create local groups within our movement who are skilled and able to take action on climate change to realise our vision of a climate-safe future for every child and our goal of a just transition away from fossil fuels in Scotland.

We operate in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. We have a Community Organiser in Aberdeen, therefore this role will support the growth of volunteers and movement members in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

It will require availability at weekends and in evenings.

The role:

Develop existing movement members to become an inter-connected, powerful movement of skilled individuals supporting each other

• Refine the on-boarding process and look at the viability of it becoming volunteer-run and/or having a buddy system for new members.
• Create materials on how movement members gather other families in their locale in order to create a local group and pilot this.
• Support the Parents For Future Scotland team to utilise volunteers within their roles in order to improve capacity and increase buy-in within the movement.
• Posting on our WhatsApp channel regularly to our members to create discussion about current events relating to climate or intersectional topics which provoke discussion around members’ thoughts/feelings which may lead to people taking action and create an atmosphere of community.
• Host at least 2 events in the year which support members to meet in-person and get to know each other. Look at whether these events could be organised more regularly through volunteers.
• Post regularly on socials and implement a newsletter for members.
• Keep our membership database up-to-date in line with GDPR alongside the Admin Manager.
• Alongside the Fundraiser, Programme Manager and CEO, feed into the implementation of a new CRM system which will track movement members’ journeys.

Broadening participation within the movement space, centering the voices of those least often heard

• Work closely with our Programme Manager to center the voices of Global Majority communities within the movement.
• Working with the Air Pollution team in Glasgow to set up community events in 5 communities where we have been successful in establishing bike and walking buses. Events will invite participants in these schemes, plus the surrounding community, to identify what concerns them regarding climate and support them to create a group to take action.
• Building the skills/capacity of groups formed; supporting power mapping, delivering training to skill-up key community members to take effective action and build and grow power.
• Maintaining fantastic relationships with groups and keeping them informed of PfFS’ actions / asking for support from them at key times.
• Deliver our workshop training to new self-employed staff team members

Developing and implementing our new campaign on retrofit and community energy

• Implement an action plan for our new campaign which will work effectively with partners, mobilise our movement and challenge decision makers.
• Work with the Programme Manager and the rest of the team to ensure that our campaign messaging/actions are being publicised within our Air Pollution and Climate Voices programmes.

Essential experience

• You will have had a substantial career building communities’ capacities and centering voices of those least often heard
• You will have a good understanding on the intersectionality of the systems that perpetuate climate change and an understanding of the changes needed to tackle this
• You will have a proven track record of creating trusting relationships that result in transformational and change
• You will have had experience of identifying skills-gaps and creating training which bridges these gaps which effectively inspire the confidence and abilities of trainees.
• You will have proven experience of creating strategy and tactics which add value to the organisations in which you have worked.
• It would be desirable if you have worked in an organisation which campaigns.
• It would be desirable if you have a qualification in or have received training in community organising techniques.

Essential personal attributes

• Passion, drive and enthusiasm in our ability to tackle the climate crisis through system change and an understanding of what this might require.
• Excellent collaborative skills and good emotional intelligence. You will be required to work collaboratively across the team, therefore insight into how teams work, their pressures and how to get the best out of everyone is essential. You will also need to build trusting, motivating and inspiring relationships with movement members and have excellent collaboration with partners.
• Flexibility to work in a changing landscape in a small charity.
• Strategy - to bring ideas and creativity and to understand how these fit within the wider strategic goals of PfFS
• An ability to take instruction and to work independently/take self-responsibility

What we offer

• 3 days per week for 46 weeks at £200 per day at £27,600 for the year. We are hoping to move to a staffing model within two years, therefore the likelihood of extension for the successful candidate is very high.
• We offer a flexible working environment
• Working from home (we are in the process of finding an office in the next few months. Due to the role working so closely with colleagues we would recommend that this role spend time at the Glasgow office once established)
• We are a fledgling organisation so your skills/expertise will help shape our direction
• You will work closely with the CEO, who will support you throughout
• The role will entail travelling across the Central Belt. The bulk of work will take place in Glasgow therefore being able to travel to Glasgow regularly is essential.