Access – the Foundation for Social Investment works to make sure that charities and social enterprises can access the finance they need to sustain or grow their impact.

Working closely with the CEO and the Director of Partnerships and Advocacy and the wider staff team you play a vital role in fostering important relationships and networks that are vital to the success of our blended finance and enterprise development initiatives.

About Access:

Designed to ‘disrupt’ the existing social investment market and widen its reach into places and communities that were previously excluded, we target those most in need of patient and flexible investment through:

• Funding blended finance and enterprise development programmes in England.

• Sharing knowledge and data and translating it into practical insight that others can use.

• Mobilising others who share our goal of making capital work for communities.

Our programmes are all delivered by our partners, we don’t provide finance or support direct to charities and social enterprises ourselves.

Find out more about our work here.

Role purpose:

The role will extend from representing Access in existing networks to facilitating and co-creating new networks that will support our ambitions to grow the Blended Finance market, extend the engagement of foundations in enterprise grant-making and grow responsible investment practices.

The role will balance responsibilities including assisting with the organisation and delivery of meetings and events, including peer learning events and conferences, supporting content creation and online spaces for collaboration, managing a pipeline of relevant case studies, co-ordinating and drafting relevant communications such as newsletters and social media, and desk research on topics and stakeholders.

Access is a small but connected team that takes a flexible and collaborative approach, and this role offers an opportunity to be exposed to a variety of different disciplines, with significant potential for personal learning and growth.

Core responsibilities and accountabilities:

Partnerships and stakeholder management

• Represent Access at various stakeholder meetings, conferences, and events.

• Foster strong productive and collaborative working relationships with key partners.   

• Identifying and establishing partnerships with relevant organisations and networks.

• Maintain comprehensive and clear records of relationship status and ongoing challenges or issues.

Events

• Using your knowledge of blended finance and enterprise development you will tailor events to a range of audiences including private investors, foundations, and social investment intermediaries.

• You will take the lead on planning and coordinating events, conferences, and meetings that facilitate and foster strong relationships with stakeholders and partners. These will range from all-day conferences to ad hoc learning events such as webinars and roundtables.

Content creation and communications

• Based on a good understanding of audience needs, you will develop engaging and accessible content as necessary (including web content, case studies, newsletters, and social media content).

Finance:

• You will efficiently manage budgets for events and networks.

What skills and experience you will bring

Essential

• Experience of developing effective partnerships and stakeholder management.

• Experience of building networks, organising events and curating content – both online and in real life.

• Strong people and networking skills.

• Ability to work closely as part of a small team with very good influencing and interpersonal skills.

• Strong communication skills, especially in clear writing around complex technical topics and an ability to synthesise and simplify complex information without losing important nuance and detail.

• Proven project management experience.

• Organised with attention to detail.

• Flexibility to take on and manage a variety of projects with different working styles and deadlines.

• Collaborative.

• A passion for supporting charities and social enterprises.

Desirable

• Understanding of Social Investment.

• Understanding of Blended Finance and Enterprise Development specifically.

• Experience of strategic oversight and management of a wide range of organisational relationships, including at senior levels, and engage with people with diverse viewpoints.

• Understanding of how to forge and sustain relationships with a variety of key strategic partners and maximising opportunities for partnership working.

• Ability to build on existing relationships by complementing and supplementing current approaches.

Terms and Conditions:

• 28 days annual leave

• Contributory pension, income protection and life assurance

• Other benefits include cycle to work and travel loan, and a contribution to personal mobile phone usage

• Probationary period six months

• Notice period two months (on completion of probationary period)