Background information

The Welcoming Association is a charity that works with asylum seekers, refugees and migrants in Edinburgh. We won the 2021 Ashden Award for Greener Communities, and three of our volunteers also won prestigious prizes at the Inspiring Volunteer Awards 2021.

Purpose of the role

This post aims to work closely with the CEO and the two Leads and support the Welcoming staff by providing efficient and effective administration and HR and managing the part-time caretaker.

Additional information

Please note that you must already be eligible to work in the UK to be employed by The Welcoming Association.

The post holder will work from The Welcoming’s office on 20/1 Westfield Avenue, Edinburgh, EH11 2TT.

Equality, diversity and inclusion are at the heart of The Welcoming. We welcome applications from BAME people, applicants with lived experience as refugees, or working with refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable adults.

Line Management Responsibilities: Part-time caretaker /cleaner

• Are you a confident communicator who enjoys working with people?

• Do you see the potential in ideas as well as the challenges?

• Are you passionate about the power of communities to change things for the better?

We have six Funding Officer opportunities in our Scotland Directorate.

One permanent and five fixed term contract opportunities. Please state what is of interest in your statement, this can be all.

You’ll be part of a team of Funding Officers, led by a Funding Manager, responsible for our grant-making activity in a geographical area. There are eight Funding teams in Scotland each covering a different geographical region with between 4 and 8 Funding Officers in each team.

Funding Officers usually work on grant-making activity within one local authority area and are the main point of contact for all grant-holders and applicants in that area.

Role Responsibilities include:

• You will provide advice to prospective applicants, assess applications and will be in regular contact with grant-holders as they progress with their projects. Your recommendations will guide decisions on awarding grants and how we support grant-holders.

• You will contribute to learning and evaluation of our work, outreach and stakeholder engagement in your area. You will ensure that our funding responds to the local context and our commitment to equity and inclusion. You will be expected to challenge yourself and colleagues to continually improve the way we work.

• You will be responsible for understanding how an organisation’s ideas align with our funding priorities and making good judgements about when to take an application further or when to signpost to alternative opportunities. You will be able to communicate clearly and concisely your recommendations about who and what we fund. Your natural curiosity combined with a genuine interest in people and projects in your area will enable you to try new approaches and develop your understanding of what works.

During your first few weeks with the Fund, in person training will be delivered in Glasgow, you can expect to be office based on most working days. After the initial training period work patterns are more flexible. In a typical week most full-time Funding Officers would be likely to spend one day in our Glasgow office, one or two days out for meetings and project visits in their assigned area, and will work from home on other days. There can be occasional weekend and evening working, but most of our work takes place on week days in normal working hours.

About You

We are looking for talented people from a wide range of backgrounds, cultures and experiences who share our values and are passionate about making a difference through our funding. Whether through lived or gained experience you will really understand the communities we work with.

We are very open to flexible working both full time and part time applications, minimum 2 days a week.

Queens Cross Housing Association has a vacancy for a Community and Growing Spaces Development Worker. This excellent opportunity is a challenging and rewarding role within our Social Regeneration Team and is key to delivering our progamme of activities which are key to our commitment to challenging poverty and creating vibrant communities. This fixed term role will run for 36 months from March 2025.

Job Purpose:

The successful candidate will be tasked with leading our community growing activities. The purpose of this role is to support local community members to maximise their engagement with our community gardens and growing spaces including allotments. The job will involve engaging with the local community, providing horticultural support at gardening sessions and helping with the upkeep of the associations growing spaces.

The role will involve managing the effective use of a newly created allotment site in Woodside, including managing the waiting list and being the main point of contact for allotment holders. The role will also involve allocating raised beds at Woodside garden and coordinating effective use of community raised beds at all garden sites. The post holder will be a member of the social regeneration team and will work with the team on a range of interconnected projects.

You will:

• develop and deliver growing themed activities through a combination of direct delivery and partnership working. The post will also involve identifying, accessing funding opportunities to support this work, with the assistance of the Social Regeneration Manager.
• be experienced in assessing and managing risks associated with the delivery of outdoor community work and should also be comfortable problem solving in a fast-moving environment, in community settings. You must also be comfortable working in partnership with external organisations including schools, community organisations and members of the community.
• be fully aware of GDPR and commit to upholding these regulations in the interests of growers, children, parents and Queens Cross Housing Association. The successful candidate will also be fully aware of the Child Protection system in Scotland and the reporting mechanisms in place locally.

Essential Criteria:

Applicants should have a minimum of two years’ experience in community-based growing activities and should have excellent horticultural knowledge and expertise. Proven experience of delivering services and activities is essential. Experience of supporting sessional staff is desirable. Experience of working in a Housing Association environment is also desirable, but not essential. The post will require occasional evening and weekend working.

Please find the full job description/ person specification on our website for further information on the role.

We will:

Provide a generous pay and reward package, including 40 days leave per year, 7% or 4% employer pension contribution, agile working options, green initiatives, family friendly policies, health & wellbeing commitment and much more. Read all about our benefits and commitments here.

Job Purpose

Provide administrative, events and communications support to assist in the delivery of legacy and trust fundraising including the management of legacy gifts and the management of relationships with donors’ families, executors and legacy pledgers.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

1. Secure and schedule appointments with legacy pledgers, prospective pledgers, Trustees and Trust Administrators for all members of the Legacies and Trust teams. Draft meeting plans where necessary, book and arrange travel, and prepare and compile briefing packs with meeting locations, directions etc. Use own judgment to resolve any problems because of last-minute changes to appointments and travel arrangements. This will involve dealing with influential people external to the University including prospective and existing donors.

2. Use Raiser’s Edge to maintain accurate records and manage data relating to legacy pledgers and donors and their gifts, ensuring that all information is up-to-date and correct. Make judgements on the best way to reflect meetings and relevant information on the database, ensuring a complete record of the relationship with the University is maintained and that privacy regulations are complied with. Use expertise to suggest improvements to procedures.

3. Assist in the process of identifying and managing segments of the alumni/donor database from which potential legacy pledgers could be drawn. Interrogate databases and spreadsheets to support stewardship, events and fundraising and run legacy activity reports in liaison with Planning & Development Operations staff to monitor progress.

4. Maintain an action timeline to ensure all legacy administration and stewardship activity is completed efficiently and ensure legacy fundraisers maintain efficient contact and follow up, “managing up” where required to ensure actions are completed.

5. Work with gift management staff to ensure legacy gifts are correctly allocated to the appropriate fund.

6. Co-ordinate arrangements for events for the 1451 Society of legacy pledgers, including drafting invitations, liaising with guests and venues, compiling materials such as information packs, presentations, signage and badges. Ensure the correct people receive the correct invitation and that an accurate picture of invitations and attendees is maintained and recorded on Raiser’s Edge database.

7. Support the delivery of selected follow up actions for legacy pledgers or prospective pledgers, for example co-ordinating campus visits involving academic departments and the University’s Senior Management Team, liaising across the University and with donors to compile schedules.

8. Support the communication strategy for legacy fundraising and stewardship by writing and editing communication materials, sourcing quotes and content and liaising with bequest pledgers and executors. With guidance, draft, upload and ensure the maintenance of content for the University’s web pages on legacy giving in liaison with Development & Alumni and Marketing colleagues. (CMS T4, training will be given).

9. Act as liaison with the Regular Giving Team and Digital team to provide legacy information to support mass mailings, telephone fundraising and legacy communications on social media.

10. Act as first point of contact for enquiries related to legacies and, when appropriate, act in the place of the Legacy Gift Manager / Philanthropy Officer - Legacies when they are absent or unavailable by responding to queries in a timely and efficient manner to maintain the smooth running of the operations.

11. Provide the Strategic Philanthropy Manager (Legacies and Trusts), Trusts and Foundations Manager and Philanthropy Officer-Trusts with administrative support as and when required to maximise income from Trusts and Foundations. This may include producing gift acknowledgements, proof reading of applications, formatting of applications, coordinating information and assisting in the submission of applications to Trusts and Foundations as and when appropriate .

12. Keep general administrative procedures up to date, including drafting correspondence, opening mail, photocopying and filing as well as arranging catering and supporting visits with donors.

13. Act as a purchasing officer as required.

14. Participate fully as a member of the Development & Alumni and External Relations teams, ensuring strong links and good working relationships.

15. Be prepared to undertake projects appropriate to the grade of the role but that might fall outside its direct remit of as the line manager, Director and/or Vice Principal External Relations may advise. This will include providing administrative support in other areas of the Development and Alumni team and External Relations directorate from time to time.