Summary:  

Comic Relief is seeking to recruit five consultants with relevant experience (lived, volunteer, sector and thematic), who collectively, will form a Fund Reference Group (FRG) to guide a closed Comic Relief funding call due to be launched in late March/April 2025. The FRG will shape the funding call criteria, application process and play a critical role in leading investment decisions.   

Application to be submitted via Beapplied by: Wednesday 15 January 2025 at 10am

Shortlisted applicants will be notified by:          Monday 20 January 2025 

Interviews will take place online:                         Tuesday 21 - Thursday 23 January 2025  

Background:   

Comic Relief has a vision of: ‘A Just World Free from Poverty’. We believe this is possible and one way we do this is through ‘tackling root causes’; that is allocating resources and providing support to communities at the forefront of addressing social injustice and inequality.  We seek to fund the issues that can lead to poverty and injustice early on, using proven and innovative approaches to address relevant issues and disrupt systems and behaviour patterns. 

In July 2024 Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) was declared a national emergency in the UK.  In light of this, Comic Relief intends to launch an ambitious funding call to work with children and young people to ‘address the harmful norms and values which drive VAWG’, and in part we are looking to use a sport for change approach to do this.  We hope to fund organisations and partnerships who understand:

• The complexities of the VAWG space, and the relevance of intersectionality, particularly racial justice 

• The sport for change approach and how this may be useful to address VAWG, particularly with children and young people 

• Have relevant experience of working with children and/or young people to undertake educative/ preventive work e.g. change attitudes and behaviours. 

• Have experience of working with boys and young men.

NB: Not all organisations will need to use a sport for change approach.

We intend to launch a funding call in April 2025, and ahead of this are seeking to engage a number of consultants who will form a FRG

Fund Reference Group Member: 

Comic Relief is proactively working to bring a wider variety of perspectives into our funding practices and processes. We recognise that those with lived and/ or learnt experience offer unique understanding and insights into the issues we seek to address. Therefore, we are looking for people with relevant experience (lived, sector and thematic) to help refine the funding call, shortlisting and assessment criteria and method. We are keen to work with people who have lived and/ or professional experience of issues related to VAWG and/ or sport for change, particularly with in a UK context. We are also committed to building a diverse team, with a particular focus on gender and racial representation.

The funding call we plan to launch seeks to offer flexible, core funding (and/or project-based funding where needed), to organisations or partnerships with a strong track record and established practices (particularly in safeguarding and working with children and young people), whilst being agile in their culture – therefore open to learning from others, through self-reflection and emerging evidence.  Following the funding call and successful investments, we hope to have a strong learning programme/team to support funded organisations, who can help to strengthen practice, produce a strong body of evidence and help partners (and the wider sector) to share learning and grow.  

Working alongside an FRG enables us to strengthen programme design and ensure strong investment decisions that will lead to the most impactful outcomes. 

As a Fund Reference Group member, you will be responsible for the following:  

1.      Reviewing and contributing to the funding call principles, aims and objectives.  

2.     Developing and reviewing shortlisting criteria 

3.     Developing and reviewing assessment criteria.  

4.     Leading shortlisting decisions, decision making of final organisations to be funded,  making clear recommendations, and contributing to wider discussions.  

5.     Attending a feedback session led by Comic Relief and/ or complete a survey to critically reflect on the process of grant making including shortlisting, assessment and decision making.     

Person Specification

Essential Experience:

• Experience with the voluntary sector or within local authority/ government in which has involved consultation/ liaison with the voluntary/ community sector (as a staff member, volunteer or service user).

• An understanding of violence against women and girls and/ or a sport for change approach.

• An understanding of intersectionality and how this impacts individual experience of violence and abuse

Desirable Experience

• Experience of knowledge of working with children and young people and/or the UK education system

• An understanding of how different communities can be disproportionately impacted by VAWG, and why interventions need to actively consider this - particularly in relation to racial justice.

Skills:

• The ability to express personal views and opinions in a respectful way in a professional environment.

• An understanding of safeguarding, inclusion, diversity and participation as it relates to organisations.

• Self-awareness - ability to identify when extra support is required in order to complete a task to deadline.

• Ability to read and understand lengthy documents in English.

• Ability to analyse and make judgements based on information provided in papers and applications.

• Time management skills – the ability to be on time and work to deadlines.

• Fluency in English, strong verbal communication skills and confidence, in order to actively participate in panel meetings, justifying why you feel applications should/ shouldn’t be funded.

• Good written communication skills – in order to justify the scoring of applications and communicate with Comic Relief staff via email.

• A confident user of Microsoft Word, Email and Zoom.

• A willingness and ability to learn new IT systems – Training will be provided.

Qualities:

• The confidence to ask for support if needed.

• Ability to empathise with others.

• A commitment to Comic Relief’s values of promoting social justice and tackling the root causes and effects of poverty.

Key dates:   

Below are the key dates and deliverables for the Fund Reference Group, please note that these dates may be subject to change and pre-reading will be required for some meetings:   

Tuesday 4 February 2025  (10.30am – 12.30pm)

Online Meeting: Introduction

Opportunity to meet team members. Briefing session on the funding call journey to date and opportunity for discussion.

Tuesday 11 February 2025 (10am - 12.30pm)

Online Meeting: Review and Refine Funding Design

Decision making meeting on the fundamental elements of the call. How should we advertise the opportunity? What are the parameters of the call?

Monday 17 – Friday 21 February 2025  (2 hours)

Desk Review: Application and Shortlisting Criteria Review

Critically review assessment criteria questions suggested.  

Tuesday 25 February 2025 (10am – 12.30pm)

Online/ In person  Meeting (TBC): Application and Shortlisting Feedback Meeting

Feedback discussion and finalised

Date TBC

Assessment Reviews  

Read assessors reports and recommendations, raising questions where necessary.  

 Date TBC

Decision Making Panel Meeting   

Summarise organisations assessed, providing a clear outline of strengths and limitations. Respond to panel members questions and contribute to wider decision-making process.   

Date TBC   

Feedback/ Debrief   

Reflect on and critically review the grant making and decision-making process.  

Remuneration: 

Panel members will be paid according to Comic Relief’s hourly rate for external assessors, which is £51 per hour.   

The Fund Reference Group members will be briefed on their roles and will be supported throughout the process.  

Application process:  

To apply for the role as a Fund Reference Group member, we kindly ask you complete the short application form and submit their CV to Beapplied.

Closing date:                                                            Wednesday 15 January 2025 at 10am

Shortlisted applicants will be notified by:          Monday 20 January 2025 

Interviews will take place online:                         Tuesday 21 - Thursday 23 January 2025  

Conflicts of interest:  

If you are selected for this opportunity and an organisation that you are associated with wishes to apply to the funding programme you must declare a conflict of interest to Comic Relief. Loyalty conflicts are not about money or other benefits, but where a decision could be influenced by a person or organisation linked to them. For example, this could arise from:  

A. trustee’s employer;  

B. another charity where the individual is a trustee;  

C. their relatives or friends; and  

D. the employer of their relatives or friends.  

You must declare your conflict of interest early, before discussions or decisions happen. You must also make a declaration and register it as soon as any new conflict situation arises or when you become aware of an interest in an arrangement or transaction that has already taken place. We ask that all personal interests are declared for any matter relating to Comic Relief business that may directly or indirectly give rise to a potential, perceived or actual conflict. Please err on the side of caution in your declarations. Examples could include any trusteeships, membership of committees of charities and other voluntary and public sector organisations, company directorships, commercial partnerships and other involvements.  

Safeguarding and Complaints:  

The selected consultant will be expected to read and comply with Comic Relief’s Safeguarding Framework and Code of Conduct.  

Should any Fund Reference Group members have any grievances with the key roles supporting this space, you are invited to submit an informal or formal complaint using Comic Relief’s Complaints Process.   

Processing your data:  

Please let us know if you would like us to keep your personal details in our database for future reference. We will process your personal data according to the UK data protection law (the General Data Protection Regulation). If you want to know more about how we will use it, please refer to our Privacy Notice on our website.