About the Association of Charitable Foundations

ACF is the leading membership association for foundations and independent grant-makers in the UK.  

We strengthen trusts and foundations so they can rise to the challenges of our time.  

Our vision is diverse, vibrant and effective foundations working together for social good.  

You can read our new five year strategy here. 

Our values are:  

We care 

We are open 

We are evidence-based 

We are ambitious 

About our members 

We have 440 members who together hold one third of the assets of the charity sector and make over 40 per cent of the grants given by UK foundations. Together they cover the full range of foundations, from small to large and operating in many different fields of grant-making, including social change, the environment, research, education, across the UK and overseas. 

Job details

Job Title: Head of investment practice and partnerships 

Hours: Part time, circa 3 days a week  

Location: London, Head Office 

 Responsible To: Director of membership 

 Responsible For: None 

Purpose and scope of the role 

Reporting to the director of membership, the head of investment practice and partnerships will lead a programme of work that supports foundations to aspire to and achieve excellent practice in the stewardship of their endowment and assets.  

This role will lead a programme of work that develops the knowledge of ACF’s members regarding effective and responsible stewardship of their endowment and assets. In particular, the programme will focus on issues relating to intentional, responsible, and social impact investing, through effective sharing of the expertise of ACF’s members, ACF's official partners and appropriate external partners.   

The role will manage the relationships with our Official Partners and oversee the delivery of our Official Partner Programme to ensure connection between this and ACFs investment learning programme, ensuring the aims of partners and ACF, and contractual obligations, are met and reported on. 

Key responsibilities: 

Partnerships 

Manage the relationships with our Official Partners and key investment stakeholders across ACF’s membership and beyond 

Oversee the delivery of an Official Partner Programme to ensure connection between this and ACFs investment learning programme, ensuring the aims of partners and ACF, and contractual obligations, are met and reported on. 

Investment practice 

Working with ACF’s membership to develop and share our thought leadership on endowments and investments 

Build ACF’s reputation for providing cutting edge activities, in the field of social impact investing 

Develop and refine the content for our investments seminars series for senior foundation leaders 

Collaborate with the head of learning and networks to shape our programme of investment events and networks in line with ACFs wider offer  

Develop and deliver the SIIG membership offer for ACF members, managing the programme budget, ensuring the programme is sustainable and on target, with sufficient resources, reporting regularly to the Executive Leadership Team to ensure ACF strategy is met. 

Provide secretariat for special interest networks including Social Impact Investors Group and Finance, Investment and Resources Management network including project management, governance and budgets 

Collaborate with the policy team to inform on investment policies to develop ACF into a centre of expertise into excellent, innovative, and effective investment strategy and management.   

Act as a representative of ACF, including speaking at events, chairing meetings, and writing blogs and articles, to promote the ACF’s positive reputation and drive ACF’s mission, aims and objectives. 

Experience, knowledge and skills

• Experience of corporate partnerships, relationship, or account management

• Significant experience of delivering face to face and online events 

• Demonstrable experience of providing secretariat to networks of senior leaders

• Demonstrable experience of senior stakeholder engagement

• Significant experience of online events, methods, and digital channels

• Some knowledge of investments and financial assets

• Substantial knowledge of philanthropy, trusts and foundations

• Strong financial literacy

• Advanced stakeholder management and negotiation skills

• Chairing and facilitating

• Discrete and scrupulously fair

• Highly organised

• Ability to develop expertise and credibility in new subject areas quickly

• Developed IT Skills including Office 365

• Highly developed communication and presentation skills

• Developed analytical ability

Useful information 

Special interest groups (acf.org.uk) 

• The Social Impact Investors Group (SIIG) is designed for foundations currently undertaking or interested in exploring social impact investing 

• The Finance, investment and resources management group shares good practice among senior foundation staff of larger foundations, typically those in a head of finance, finance director or COO role, in a friendly and confidential environment 

Key external stakeholders 

Official Partners  

SIIG steering group 

SIIG members 

FIRM steering group 

FIRM members 

ACF members  

Key investment stakeholders 

Membership and infrastructure bodies 

Our commitment 

 We embrace diversity and understand that being an inclusive organisation, recognising different perspectives, will enable us to provide excellent services. We are committed to ensuring all our employees are treated fairly and equitably at work and promoting equity in physical and mental health for all. 

 We welcome all applicants and are keen to ensure our team reflects the diversity of the UK and the members we serve. We would like to encourage applications from disadvantaged socio-economic, disabled, LGBTQ+ and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. 

Benefits

ACF has developed a range of benefits to enable staff to perform and be supported in times where personal situations change.  Annual leave is 25 days per year, plus all the bank holidays, as well as time off during Christmas and New Year which does not affect the leave above.  We will also make a pension contribution of 10% of base salary on your behalf.

We have a generous sick leave policy to support staff in the event of illness or accident, and a Parental, Maternity and adoption leave policy designed to support staff significantly above our legal obligations.

ACF is currently using hybrid working, with staff able to work from home some of the working week, and we will ensure that any working from home is supported by appropriate equipment.  ACF is also open to flexible working arrangements.

The open application process

ACF uses Be Applied https://www.beapplied.com/ as its recruitment platform to remove as much bias as possible during the recruitment process.  Candidates will complete questions on the platform, which are scored for every candidate who completes an application by a suitably trained and qualified panel. Those selected to be interviewed are as a result of these scores; we do not take CVs into account at this point in the process.

Interview questions will be shared in advance to enable candidates to prepare thoroughly. The Panel will independently score each candidate’s responses with a review of candidates’ summary scores only when all interviews are completed. 

Communication will be via email through the platform and managed independently by ACF’s HR team. Any support a candidate needs can be directed to recruitment@acf.org.uk which will not impact their application, negatively or positively.

All candidates who apply for the position will receive feedback from the panellists at the conclusion of the process to support your future applications.

 Application deadline: 11.59 pm 20 February 2023