About the Youth Investment Fund

The Youth Investment Fund (YIF) is a £368 million fund created by the UK government to create, expand and improve youth facilities and services in England to drive positive outcomes for young people.

YIF is being delivered by a partnership between Social Investment Business, The Key Fund, National Youth Agency and Resonance.

Together, we aim to deliver grants for up to 300 facilities in selected eligible areas across England by 2025 that represent positive value for money, are environmentally sustainable and enable positive activities for young people aged 11–18 (up to 25 for young people with SEND).

This funding will drive value-for-money facilities that youth organisations can afford to sustain. Using innovative construction techniques, as well as supporting redevelopment projects that expand youth service provision, the YIF will achieve savings on facility running costs, so that resources can focus on activities that enrich young people’s lives.

It will support projects to level up youth provision, assessing and distributing grants so that local youth facilities and services can be the best they can be.

 www.youthinvestmentfund.org.uk

About this role:

Fixed term contract for 2 years.

There is a requirement to attend assigned office a minimum of one day per week, and with an overall expectation of 2-3 days per week in the offices as per line managers guidance. There is also a requirement to travel as part of grant project management and Partnership engagement.

Resonance is a leader in social impact investing and a growing company, so you’ll need to enjoy working in a fast-paced work environment with a friendly and supportive team.

Our values are:

• We are a bridge, not an institution

• We believe there is always a solution

• We build trusting and transparent relationships, one investment at a time

• When we strive for mutual profit, all of society benefits

To find out more about what we do: https://resonance.ltd.uk/

Reporting to a Senior Relationship Manager (Youth Investment Fund) this role plays an important part in the provision of capital grants to our charity and social enterprise customers working in the youth sector as part of the Youth Investment Fund (YIF).

We are looking for someone who has previous experience of funding of property / real estate / asset acquisition or redevelopment, (which could be in the form of capital grants or lending) relationship management and managing a portfolio of business/organisation grant or loan customers. This is a great opportunity for someone to be involved in making a difference to young people.  We need someone who is passionate, proactive, can work well autonomously and as part of a team and is flexible, adaptable and can manage competing priorities.

Key responsibilities

1.       Responsible for managing a portfolio of capital grant investments as part of the Youth Investment Fund (YIF) and acting as the primary point of contact for all communications with those customers.

2.       Undertake detailed assessments of new grants, managing the process of collating information for a full application from across the ‘three pillars’ of the YIF: organisational resilience, construction/redevelopment project viability and supported activities for young people. This may include coordinating support for an applicant from experts and the wider YIF partnership.

3.       Undertake AML/KYC, eligibility and fraud checks on new grantees.

4.       Drawing up grant and security documentation where required.

5.       Arrange drawdown and disbursements of funding.

6.       Build and maintain strong working relationships with all potential and actual grantees within your portfolio.

7.       Collect, review and report on monitoring information from grant recipients which is predominantly financial information (management accounts, annual accounts and forecasts) and construction progress reports focused on organisational resilience and the status of the build over the lifetime of a capital project and after its completion.

8.       Ensure scheduled grant drawdowns due to grantees are received in line with agreed schedules and take action if schedules are subject to change.

9.       Proactively identify emerging support needs and recommend methods to address these, including sources of external advice/support.

10.    Discuss potential variations to the terms of grants with grantees and prepare and submit loan variation recommendations to internal committees including the YIF’s independent Assessment Panel and the YIF Grants Committee, including challenging situations where the grantee is not able to bring a significant capital project in on time and on budget, or is otherwise in financial distress.

11.    Support and/or lead on relevant YIF projects as and when required.

12.     To work within Resonance’s mission, vision, values, and processes to achieve operational excellence.

13. To adopt our continuous improvement and learning ethos.

 14. To support and embed equality, diversity and inclusion into day-to-day behaviours and activities within your role as well as contributing more widely across Resonance’s commitment to E, D & I.

 15. To support and contribute to the implementation and delivery of Resonance’s strategy.

 16. In agreement with line manager to undertake other tasks and work on cross team projects that support the objectives of Resonance as required.

 Core competencies

• Commitment to quality, equality, diversity & inclusion, and customers

• Excellent communication skills that can be adapted to a variety of audiences

• Team player who can work collaboratively with others as well as the ability to work independently

• Experience of managing or working with a portfolio of business/organisation capital grant or loan customers.

• Ability to analyse and make objective judgements based upon complex written and financial information.

• Previous experience of assessing capital grant applications, or loan applications.

• Experience of interpreting and understanding data on Microsoft Excel.

• Credit assessment training or a good understanding of company financial accounts.

• Good negotiating, influencing and problem-solving skills.

• Ability to work using own initiative, manage own workload, be a self-motivator and work remotely.

• A passion to help financially viable charities and social enterprises access funding

Desirable competencies

• Knowledge of the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector, particularly the youth sector.

• Experience of construction projects, real estate or property.