Funding Officer

Location: Home Based

The National Lottery Community Fund has flexible roles that enable our people to give their best, broaden their skills and manage their career path. This job profile isn’t intended to be an exhaustive list of your duties, rather it gives you an outline of what your role will involve. It will be for you to work with your colleagues to develop and shape your work in line with our strategic objectives and the objectives of your team.

As a funding officer you will assess requests for funding and manage grants using local knowledge, best practice, thematic expertise, and the experience of customers and stakeholders to improve our grant making and inform our decision making. By working closely with people and communities for a defined geographical area, you will understand what matters to them and where our funding can make the biggest difference.

Being responsible for supporting local people and communities you will have a strong understanding of our vision and funding products being able to adapt your approach to the wishes of the people you are working with. You’ll also need to support our stakeholders, helping them to make connections that will help them achieve their goals.

Being responsible for the pipeline of projects you will need to understand and respond to the different needs of our customers by providing advice and considered feedback and be willing to have challenging but constructive conversations. Funding Officers will ensure our grant management and assessment play an effective part in contributing to the Fund’s knowledge and learning as a grant maker. You will manage your own caseload, liaise with grant recipients, undertake project visits, identify and manage risk, supporting organisations to deliver their projects and measure their impact.

You’ll also need to work within the Fund’s policies and procedures and the necessary legislation, and in a way that is in line with our vision and principles. If the role is based in Wales, or supports customers or colleagues in Wales, an understanding of Welsh language legislation and the Welsh Language Standards of the Fund is required.

As an officer, you may have been promoted through our internal career paths, having demonstrated your skills and leadership abilities or alternatively you may come from an external field. Either way, you’ll need to demonstrate your experience and qualifications in these areas:

• Understanding of and curiosity about our work
• Understanding of great customer service
• Knowledge of wider funding context
• Understanding of financial planning and business plans, ability to analyse accounts and numerical data, and to identify and manage risk
• Understanding of strengths-based approaches to working with people and communities to overcome challenges
• Knowledge of the social policy environment and the role of the third sector
• Confident in presenting to external audiences
• Ability to learn from our funded projects and share that learning for the benefit of the wider organisation

You will be able to:

LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT

• Be engaged and enthusiastic in working towards shared goals, and encourage others to do the same
• Be committed to the Fund’s vision and principles, and encourage others to do the same
• Take ownership of your own personal development by identifying your strengths and areas for development, using available resources to support this
• Be a supportive team player who shows interest in others, and develops a range of contacts outside own team to help get the job done

BUILDING GREAT RELATIONSHIPS
• Network internally and externally, putting yourself in the position of customers and acting on the things that matter to people
• Communicate in a honest and engaging manner, with the ability to Influence and negotiate using good arguments and a range of strategies to convince others
• Listen actively, and respond to others in an informed way, recognising the contribution and value of diverse viewpoints

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
• Continually seek and act on feedback to evaluate and improve your own performance
• Remain calm under pressure and handle multiple and competing priorities, supporting others when needed
• Take ownership and be accountable for your own work, and encourage colleagues to do the same
Actively use the systems and data at your disposal to complete your own work effectively and improve the work of your team
• Actively seek out and analyse available information, using it to inform your judgement and complete your work effectively
• Be responsive to emerging issues and trends which impact on your work, the work of your team, or the Fund
• Understand the requirements of good governance and provide solutions to risks and issues

Our mindset:

• I am passionate about the potential of making excellent grants
• I am committed to effective networking across and beyond the Fund
• I value the diversity and aspirations of communities and colleagues recognising the need to provide equality of opportunity
• I am curious and actively seek new ways of doing things
• I will listen, learn, provide and encourage feedback and challenge
• I am responsible and accountable for the work that I do
• I work flexibly and collaboratively to meet the needs of others
• I apply knowledge and experience to share my learning
• I want to make the Fund a great place to work

For further information or to express interest, please get in touch with the Employment & Education team via this email address or on 023 9298 1920.