About us

We are an independent charity that makes grants and uses our endowment towards a fair, resilient and sustainable economic system that serves people and planet. We connect, fund, support and invest in new thinking to shape a future economy that works for everyone.

About the role

We are looking for volunteer programme advisory group members with diverse knowledge and experience of different aspects of the economy to support our grant making and make objective assessments of first stage applications for funding. We are particularly interested in people with the following knowledge and expertise:

· ‘Lived experience’ of being marginalised in economic policy issues and/or of addressing systemic structural inequalities. This means a special focus on those with social identities across racialisation, class, gender, disability, age, faith, sexuality, age, class and geographic location.

· Communications or journalistic understanding of creating narratives, story-telling and public messaging about complex issues

· Non-mainstream perspectives on the economy (e.g. decolonial; ecological; feminist)

· Local economic perspectives, from a Local Authority, community coalitions or another funder

· Experience from within a community that will be directly affected by the transition of industry/energy (e.g changing to renewables, or automisation)

· The transition to a low carbon economy

· Democratising land-based assets, and the link between local economies/communities and land use and national policy

We would particularly welcome applications from people based in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Our developing a fairer economy programme is split into two categories: system change and local economies. We ask applicants to specify which one they wish to contribute to. Our advisory group is split to mirror these outcomes.

Our Systems Change strand is about ‘disruptive innovation’. This focuses on changing the economic system – exploring and informing changes to the regulatory, policy or other systemic levels that would develop innovations with the potential to deliver our aims.

Our Local Economies strand focuses on testing and reviewing local or small- scale initiatives that build better local economies. This might include creating community assets or new approaches to local finance.

We have a two-stage process, designed to offer feedback at an early stage to potential applicants and to limit further work with proposals that do not meet our criteria. The PAG advises on the first stage applications only, which comprise of a brief overview of around 1.5 A4 pages on proposed projects.

Following a probation period of two meetings, PAG members serve for 3 years, which may be renewed for a further 3.

Commitment

2 – 3 hours per meeting

2 – 3 hours preparation work (this varies depending on number of applications)

Location

Currently online. In the future there will be one physical meeting a year, in London, with the remainder held online. If getting to London would be problematic, an online only presence would be considered.

In 2021 the PAG group meets on:

19th July, 18th October (Local economies)

20th July, 19th October (Systems change)

About us

We are an independent charity that makes grants and uses our endowment towards a fair, resilient and sustainable economic system that serves people and planet. We connect, fund, support and invest in new thinking to shape a future economy that works for everyone.

About the role

We are looking for part-time freelance assessors with diverse knowledge and experience of different aspects of the economy to support our grant application processes and make objective assessments of full (second stage) applications for funding.

We are particularly interested in people with the following knowledge and expertise:

· ‘Lived experience’ of being marginalised in economic policy issues and/or of addressing systemic structural inequalities. This means a special focus on those who hold social identities across racialisation, class, gender, disability, and others.

· Non-mainstream perspectives on the economy e.g. decolonial; ecological; feminist

· In-depth knowledge about corporate and investor behaviour change

· Local economic perspectives from a Local Authority, community coalitions that take on wider projects, or another funder

· Democratising land-based assets, and the link between local economies/communities and land use and national policy

We are also keen to recruit Assessors from across the four nations of the UK and would particularly encourage applications from people based in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

In this role you will be asked to undertake a review of application documents followed by either a telephone or face-to-face interview with the applicant so you can really get a feel for what they are proposing. From this a written report is produced and you will work with us to finalise recommendations. Grant applications are submitted quarterly but we cannot guarantee work every quarter.

You will be paid a flat fee of £200 per assessment, plus travel expenses when accompanied by receipts, as well we will ask you to attend a half day application review meeting which will be paid at £50. We estimate that the time required per assessment is likely to be 1-2 days.

The Foundation has four funding rounds per year, but we will only contact you on occasions when we have many applications. We also understand that you may not be available every quarter. We will provide applications for assessment to you as soon as possible after the submission deadline, electronically. You will need to be responsive and flexible in arranging assessments with the proposed grantee. Experience of assessing is desirable as well as having a legal understanding of charitable activities. You will need to be able to identify issues that we would need to investigate and if the proposed project meets the Foundation’s objectives.

Location

Assessors are expected to work remotely. In the future the option of working from the Foundation’s office in York may be available if desirable. Assessors will be required to attend a meeting with staff and fellow assessors once per grant round. These are currently held online but may involve face to face meetings in the future.