Big Hearts Community Trust is welcoming applications to join the charity’s Board of Trustees in 2025.

There are two Trustee positions:

• One to be filled by an experienced finance professional or accountant ideally with some charity knowledge.
• The other to be filled by an individual who has an interest or experience in charity governance and may be interested in being a future Chair for Big Hearts.

This is a fantastic opportunity for two individuals to join the Board of Heart of Midlothian FC’s official charity and play a part in supporting local communities through the power of the beautiful game.

Big Hearts is an award-winning charity changing lives through football since 2015. With projects including Memories, Kinship Care, Welcome Through Football and School’s Out, we are considered one of the leading football charities in Scotland and recognised for the high standard of our free support services around mental health, equality and social connections. The charity currently runs over 15 projects and employs a core team of 17 staff.

Key-information

• Big Hearts Trustees are appointed for an initial term of 3 years.
• These non-Executive roles are non-paid positions.
• All Trustees are expected to uphold and represent Big Hearts’ purpose, vision, values and mission in a personal and professional capacity.
• Being a Heart of Midlothian FC supporter is desired, but not essential.

The Ripple Project is seeking a chair to help the community of Restalrig, Lochend and Craigentinny to flourish.

We are a company limited by guarantee and charity that both serves and works with its local community to tackle poverty and inequality by responding to local priorities, circumstances and needs in a sustainable way.

The Ripple is looking forward over the next 5 years to build our capacity to respond to the increasing needs within our community. This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced chair to help make a genuine difference in a community that is struggling but strong.

We are looking for someone with a deep knowledge of the third sector with good influencing and networking skills.

If you share our ambition and vision for better lives for local people and their communities we would love to hear from you.

About the Natural Capital Partnerships team

Community Land Scotland is recruiting a Manager to set up and manage our Natural Capital Partnerships project.

Our Natural Capital Partnerships team is part of a new project created to work across Scotland’s community, private and public sectors, supporting the transition to net zero. As investment increases in nature-based solutions to address the climate and biodiversity crises, it is important that the opportunity to engage communities appropriately is embraced, to secure greater community benefits from natural capital developments, support community wealth building objectives and reduce the risk of communities being marginalised.

The Scottish Government’s recently published Natural Capital Market Framework sets out its ambition to attract greater responsible private investment into values-led, high-integrity natural capital projects, by promoting its Principles for Responsible Investment in Natural Capital. These principles highlight the need for shared public, private, and community benefits.

However, challenges like language, power dynamics, and expertise can hinder collaboration between communities, investors and developers. This new team will bridge these gaps, developing partnerships that will support delivery of the SG Natural Capital Market Framework and ensure meaningful community involvement and alignment with the Just Transition Commission’s 2021 report, which advocates for fair land management and wider benefit distribution in the shift to net zero.

The posts and the project are funded with the support of Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Foundation Scotland, Scottish Forestry, South of Scotland Enterprise and others.

Other project supporters include the Scottish Land Commission, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Cairngorm National Park Authority and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park.

The team will be supported by a Partnership Board comprising a range of organisations but will sit within Community Land Scotland.

About Community Land Scotland

Community Land Scotland (CLS) was established in 2010 to provide a collective national voice for community landowners in Scotland. We have over 130 member organisations across Scotland, ranging from large crofting estates in the Western Isles to inner city community hubs. Collectively, members own and manage over 550,000 acres of land and a wide range of buildings in rural and urban areas.

Community Land Scotland is a small organisation with a big impact. It works to: be a collective voice for community owners; encourage more community ownership of land and buildings; facilitate mutual support and knowledge exchange between community landowners and collaborate with other organisations to ensure community landowners get the support they need.

Community ownership has shaped Scottish land reform and played a key role in the Community Empowerment Act. Over 500 community organisations now own land or buildings across rural and urban Scotland. Further information about Community Land Scotland and community ownership can be found at: communitylandscotland.org.uk

Natural Capital Partnerships

The Scottish Government has emphasised that natural capital investment should be “values-led” and “high-integrity,” as outlined in its Principles for Responsible Investment in Natural Capital. These principles highlight the need for shared public, private, and community benefits.

However, there are a range of challenges that can hinder collaboration between communities, landowners, investors, and developers. This new team will bridge these gaps, supporting partnerships to develop that will ensure meaningful community involvement and alignment with the Just Transition Commission’s 2021 report, which advocates for fair land management and wider benefit distribution in the shift to net zero.

The new team will:

• Develop relationships and productive collaboration between local communities, landowners, developers and nature finance investors to deliver socially just natural capital investments across Scotland. It is expected this will lead to individual agreements between landowners, developers and communities to share the benefits of Scotland’s natural capital more equitably.
• Strengthen relationships among funders, stakeholders, community intermediaries, government bodies, landowners, and the nature finance sector to support project development.
• Develop, test and share learning from case studies that seek to increase community benefits and community wealth building outcomes from natural capital developments and nature finance, guided by Scottish Government’s Natural Capital Market Framework and the Scottish Land Commission’s good practice protocol and Guidance on Delivering Community Benefits from Land.
• Cover all forms of natural capital projects, be they land or marine based, be they focused on climate change mitigation, climate change adaption or biodiversity, they will be within the scope of the project. We are looking to appoint team members with an understanding of land and marine natural capital developments, nature finance and community engagement and empowerment

About the role

The role of the Manager will be to lead a small, distributed team across Scotland to support the delivery of the strategy and objectives of the Natural Capital Partnerships Project. The role will require travel around Scotland and some evening and weekend work.

• Lead and support the Natural Capital Partnership team to achieve the agreed strategic and operational objectives
• Line manage and provide guidance and support to team members to deliver their specific objectives
• Lead the delivery of a programme of awareness-raising opportunities and good practice in delivering community benefits from natural capital projects
• Support and guide team members in their collaborative activities and agreements between communities, landowners and those involved in nature finance to deliver meaningful community benefits and support community wealth building through natural capital developments
• Support and guide team members to promote the use of shared governance and asset ownership arrangements where appropriate, to increase community agency in decision making over land use change arising from natural capital developments
• Act as part of the senior management team in Community Land Scotland
• Work with the Community Land Scotland Policy Manager to help inform the development of national policy on community benefits from nature finance and other natural capital policy developmen
• Develop effective relationships with stakeholders to support the delivery of the team’s objectives and increase the impact of the project
• Represent Community Land Scotland and the project at national level meetings and public facing events
• Look for communication opportunities to increase the impact of and reach of the project and representing the project and Community Land Scotland in the media
• Any other tasks as required by Community Land Scotland

We are recruiting an Adviser: Finance to work on our Natural Capital Partnerships project.

Our Natural Capital Partnerships team is part of a new project created to work across Scotland’s community, private and public sectors, supporting the transition to net zero. As investment increases in nature-based solutions to address the climate and biodiversity crises, it is important that the opportunity to engage communities appropriately is embraced, to secure greater community benefits from natural capital developments, support community wealth building objectives and reduce the risk of communities being marginalised.

The Scottish Government’s recently published Natural Capital Market Framework sets out its ambition to attract greater responsible private investment into values-led, high-integrity natural capital projects, by promoting its Principles for Responsible Investment in Natural Capital. These principles highlight the need for shared public, private, and community benefits.

However, challenges like language, power dynamics, and expertise can hinder collaboration between communities, investors and developers. This new team will bridge these gaps, developing partnerships that will support delivery of the SG Natural Capital Market Framework and ensure meaningful community involvement and alignment with the Just Transition Commission’s 2021 report, which advocates for fair land management and wider benefit distribution in the shift to net zero.

The posts and the project are funded with the support of Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Foundation Scotland, Scottish Forestry, South of Scotland Enterprise and others.

Other project supporters include the Scottish Land Commission, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Cairngorm National Park Authority and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park.

The team will be supported by a Partnership Board comprising a range of organisations but will sit within Community Land Scotland.

About Community Land Scotland

Community Land Scotland (CLS) was established in 2010 to provide a collective national voice for community landowners in Scotland. We have over 130 member organisations across Scotland, ranging from large crofting estates in the Western Isles to inner city community hubs. Collectively, members own and manage over 550,000 acres of land and a wide range of buildings in rural and urban areas.

Community Land Scotland is a small organisation with a big impact. It works to: be a collective voice for community owners; encourage more community ownership of land and buildings; facilitate mutual support and knowledge exchange between community landowners and collaborate with other organisations to ensure community landowners get the support they need.

Community ownership has shaped Scottish land reform and played a key role in the Community Empowerment Act. Over 500 community organisations now own land or buildings across rural and urban Scotland. Further information about Community Land Scotland and community ownership can be found at: communitylandscotland.org.uk

Natural Capital Partnerships

The Scottish Government has emphasised that natural capital investment should be “values-led” and “high-integrity,” as outlined in its Principles for Responsible Investment in Natural Capital. These principles highlight the need for shared public, private, and community benefits.

However, there are a range of challenges that can hinder collaboration between communities, landowners, investors, and developers. This new team will bridge these gaps, supporting partnerships to develop that will ensure meaningful community involvement and alignment with the Just Transition Commission’s 2021 report, which advocates for fair land management and wider benefit distribution in the shift to net zero.

The new team will:

• Develop relationships and productive collaboration between local communities, landowners, developers and nature finance investors to deliver socially just natural capital investments across Scotland. It is expected this will lead to individual agreements between landowners, developers and communities to share the benefits of Scotland’s natural capital more equitably
• Strengthen relationships among funders, stakeholders, community intermediaries, government bodies, landowners, and the nature finance sector to support project development
• Develop and share case studies to enhance community benefits and wealth building from natural capital developments, following Scottish Government's principles for responsible investment, as set out in the Natural Capital Market Framework, alongside best practice protocols.
• Cover all forms of natural capital projects, be they land or marine based, be they focused on climate change mitigation, climate change adaption or biodiversity, they will be within the scope of the project. We are looking to appoint team members with an understanding of land and marine natural capital developments, nature finance and community engagement and empowerment

About the role

The Adviser: Finance will have three principal responsibilities in the Team: 1) as part of the NCPT, support communities, landowners, developers and investors to develop partnership projects; 2) As part of the NCPT, provide support and guidance to colleagues in the Team around financial, investment and funding issues and complexities in partnership projects; 3) Within Community Land Scotland, lead on overall financial management of the project’s finances including management reports for the Board and grant claims.

Each team member within the Team will have responsibility for a region but will also bring thematic expertise. The Finance role will have a caseload of their own clients in a particular region of Scotland (Highlands and Islands, Central Belt or South of Scotland) but will also work with colleagues in the rest of the team to ensure that communities have access to financial expertise.

The key responsibilities for this post are:

• Set up financial management processes and be responsible for budgeting, claims and reporting for the project. This postholder will also stay on for a short period after the rest of the project has ended to ensure the project to manage any final claims and financial reporting.
• Sit on and report to Community Land Scotland’s Finance Sub-Group and work with Community Land Scotland Treasurer and Finance and Administration Officer to help prepare the organisation for audit
• Provide support to colleagues in the NCP team to ensure that communities across Scotland are able to access financial expertise
• Raise awareness and generate good practice in delivering community benefits from natural capital projects within a selected region of Scotland
• Actively promote the use of shared governance and asset ownership arrangements where appropriate to increase community agency in decision making over land use change arising from natural capital developments
• Contribute to the development of national policy on community benefits from nature finance
• Develop effective relationships with local and specialist stakeholders, including third sector intermediaries, to support the delivery of the team’s objectives that will result in an increased impact of the project, looking for communication opportunities to increase the impact of and reach of the project
• Develop and share financial models, case studies and best practice protocols.
• Work collaboratively with Community Land Scotland colleagues to ensure the work of the Nature Capital Team contributes to the policy and operational objectives of the organisation
• Help to build relationships with the media and identify appropriate stories for media coverage in your region
• Work with NCP team members to strengthen relationships among funders, stakeholders, community intermediaries, government bodies, landowners, and the nature finance sector across Scotland
• Any other tasks as identified by Community Land Scotland