Overview

We Include. You Belong.

Our Belonging and Inclusion Strategy aims for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background.

The National Church Institutions (NCIs) are national administrative bodies that work together to support the mission and ministry of the Church of England. Their activities are hugely varied, ranging from management of a multi-billion-pound investment fund, to a grant-giving charity, a housing service for retired clergy and the administration of four multi-employer pension schemes.

Post Introduction

The Church of England has recently agreed a significant increase in funding to support God’s mission and ministry across the country, supporting local parishes and growing many more new worshipping communities to serve the whole nation. The distributions will also help fund dioceses’ plans to serve the nation in various areas such as addressing issues of racial justice, and radically cutting the Church’s carbon footprint.

The Grants Manager role will provide the support needed by the Racial Justice Unit, the Net Zero Carbon Programme, and other new funding streams to ensure high standards on grant management from pipeline development right through to grant giving and monitoring and evaluation. They will work closely with the Finance and Vision & Strategy teams to deliver joined up processes, controls and reporting, ensuring alignment with other grant-making activity across the NCIs, particularly Strategic Mission & Ministry Investment funding.

The Racial Justice Unit has been established to support the whole Church in its embrace of and engagement with From Lament To Action (FLTA)  for the Church for the 2020s, and to support its implementation. The Racial Justice team consults on and manages the distribution of around £25 million across the 2023-25 triennium.

The Net Zero Carbon Programme has been established to help the Church of England to deliver its commitment to reaching Net Zero Carbon by 2030. The Net Zero Carbon Programme team manages the distribution of a £190 million across 2023-31 aimed at supporting and equipping dioceses,parishes and other parts of the Church to reach the milestones set out in the Routemap to Net Zero 2030.

The new Grants Manager role will join the Project Management Office team to be a key change agent in the delivery of the Church of England strategy. This new role will give central support to the setup and operation of multiple funding streams.

The Church of England is for everyone and we want to reflect the diversity of the community the Church serves across the whole country. Therefore, while of course we welcome all applications from interested and suitably experienced people, we would particularly welcome applicants from UK Minority Ethnic Backgrounds and other under-represented groups.

Role Responsibility

The main responsibilities for this role are:

Grant Operations Management

• Supporting grant management funding streams, devising, implementing and managing policies and processes to support the smooth operation of the funding programmes.
• Supporting the assessment of funding applications, particularly their financial plans and budgets, working closely with the Finance team
• Tracking the pipeline of potential future funding.
• Supporting the award making process, including preparing award letters and funding agreements
• Implementing the agreed change request process ensuring all change requests are appropriately tracked and authorised.
• Managing the development of grant funding application guidance ensuring guidance is updated, accessible and well communicated to potential applicants
• Working in partnership with the Vision & Strategy team to the development of best practice grant management processes across the NCIs.
• Supporting the development of the new Grant Management System as technical expert advising on requirements for the full grant-cycle in respect of the relevant funding streams

Finance Process Management

• Work with the Deputy Head of Financial Planning & Analysis to design and implement appropriate financial management processes which operate consistently across all funding streams enabling the accurate and timely record of grant liabilities
• Ensuring the payments process works smoothly, including by liaising with diocesan finance leads and their teams to ensure the accurate and timely submission of grant claims in line with their budget.
• Work with the Financial Planning & Analysis team to ensure the timely and accurate processing of payment claims.
• Whenever applicable, working closely with FP&A colleagues, monitor budgets and cash flow, including analysing how the funds are spent, and the overall grant scheme budgets.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Supporting the Net Zero Carbon, Racial Justice, and other relevant funding streams on:

•  Supporting the development of evaluation processes and sharing best practice.
• Building and holding relationships with a cohort of external evaluators.
• Supporting grantees to align to the programme outcome framework
• Facilitating workshops to define indicators.
• Supporting the creation and use of tools for capturing data on common outcome indicators.
• Advising on effective and efficient processes for conducting annual reviews carried out by consultants or outsourced as agreed.
• Supporting the gathering and dissemination of material evidencing the impact of funding.
• Working directly with grantees to ensure that all live projects have a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) plan in place.
• Supporting the relevant stakeholders to make sense of the evaluations emerging in terms of overall Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) strategies.

Learning

Support the Net Zero Carbon, Racial Justice, and other relevant funding streams on:

• Managing and sharing learning from end of project evaluations or within project research.
• As demand arises from evaluations covering the same theme, enabling the setting up and support of thematic learning communities.
• Supporting the dissemination of material evidencing the learning of funding.
• Supporting a culture of learning and evaluative thinking in dioceses, including learning plans.
• Providing technical support on monitoring the Net Zero Carbon, Racial Justice, and other relevant grant making initiatives

Funding Strategy and Governance support

Support the Net Zero Carbon, Racial Justice, and other relevant funding streams on:

• Advising and supporting the implementation of specific streams of funding or overseeing specific grants.
• Supporting the governance arrangements for the national Church funding, by preparing papers and inputting to papers for any relevant governance bodies.
• Providing reviews at agreed intervals on the use of existing and new funding as required.
• Help assessing the MEL Plans of funding proposals and other aspects as needed and providing clear summaries and advice to the relevant governance bodies.
• Delivering excellent governance support including supporting the arrangements for the relevant board meetings,  and on the use of the funding and reporting to any relevant governance bodies and trustee bodies on the use of the funding.
• Supporting and advising the creation of regular updates including financial and scorecard data for any relevant governance bodies and trustee bodies.
• Working with the relevant stakeholders to increase accessibility to learning from applications and projects including project summaries, case studies and good news stories from funded projects.

The Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate must have:

Essential

Experience: 

• Substantial hands-on experience in supporting the management of a large and high-profile grant-making programme or funding process, including implementing and maintaining effective grant management policies and processes. 
• Substantial hands-on experience in supporting the Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E), of a large and high-profile programme of work or funding process and developing effective M&E management policies and processes.
• Experience in monitoring and tracking substantial budgets, including the use of spreadsheets. 
• Experience of building excellent relationships and communicating effectively with staff and external stakeholders at all levels (including those at a senior level), demonstrating emotional intelligence, tact, and persuasive ability.
• Experience of reporting within a governance process to trustees and senior stakeholders, including drafting and presenting reports and financial reporting.
• Experience of disseminating the impact of and learning from substantial programmes of work or funding processes, including drafting reports, organising, and delivering webinars and face-to-face events 

Skills/Aptitudes: 

• Ability to demonstrate excellent oral and written communication skills.
• High level of attention to detail, particularly in relation to monitoring and evaluation and presentation of financial information
• Clarity of thought, analytical mindset, and ability to provide actionable insights.
• Evidence of report writing and summarising financial and qualitative information accurately, concisely, and clearly. 
• Excellent planning and organising skills with proven ability to prioritise, manage time effectively (including meeting tight deadlines when required) and use initiative as appropriate. 

Personal Attributes: 

• Highly pro-active, demonstrating resourcefulness and energy. 
• Discreet and dependable in observing confidentiality. 
• Friendly, co-operative, and diplomatic manner, with the ability to work well both on your own initiative and as part of a team.
• Highly collaborative approach, willing to work with a range of people across different teams and areas to get the job done 
• Desire and commitment to learn and develop in the role. 
• Supportive of the Church of England’s focus on growth. 

Knowledge: 

• Educated to degree level (or equivalent) or relevant equivalent experience. 
• Strong numeracy and literacy skills. 
• Highly computer literate with a comprehensive working knowledge of Microsoft Office, in particular the creation and formatting of spreadsheets.
• Knowledge of best practice in grants management processes and techniques.
• Knowledge of monitoring, evaluation and learning techniques in the grant-making sector 

Circumstances: 

• Depending on specific requirements of each funding stream, there may be a requirement to undertake visits to other sites across England and a need for flexibility to work outside office hours as and if required. 

Desirable

• Experience of reporting within a governance process to trustees and senior stakeholders, including drafting and presenting reports and financial reporting. 
• Knowledge, understanding and strong interest in resourcing mission and growth across the Church of England. 
• An understanding of the Christian faith.

About Us

In the National Church Institutions (NCIs), we support the mission and ministries of the Church of England. We work with parishes, dioceses, schools, chaplaincies and other ministries, and with national and international partners including mission agencies, and other denominations and faith groups.-.  

Find out more about working for the National Church Institutions at Careers | The Church of England

NCI values

• We strive for excellence 
• We collaborate 
• We act with integrity 
• We show compassion 
• We respect others 

We believe our commitment to belonging and inclusion fuels our progress and drives us forward.  The NCIs are a safe, inclusive workplace for people of all backgrounds and walks of life. We welcome applications from people of all faiths and of no faith. We want to encourage applications from a diverse group of people who share our values.  Even if you have never thought about working for us before, if you have the skills and experience we’re looking for then we would like to hear from you. 

If there is anything we can do to support you in your application please get in touch via email to hr.recruitment@churchofengland.org

As a Disability Confident Leader, we actively look to attract, recruit and retain those of you who are disabled.  

• We are a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, and welcome applications from those of you who have served in our Armed Forces and their families.