Racial Justice Unit Grant Manager
Please Note: The application deadline for this post has now passed.
Post Introduction
This is an exciting time to join the Racial Justice Unit (RJU). Established in 2023, the RJU is starting early work to capture grant impact data from the first cohort of grantees whilst continuing to develop an exciting and varied portfolio of grants to dioceses, parishes, and grassroots organisations and networks across the country.
The Racial Justice Unit Grants Manager will manage the RJU’s day-to-day grants operations and play a vital role in the assessment of proposals; pipeline and caseload management; monitoring and evaluation; grantee and stakeholder engagement, and continuous improvement support.
Please note, this is a 24-month fixed term contract.
About the Department
The Church of England has recently agreed a significant increase in funding to support God’s mission and ministry across the country, supporting dioceses and local parishes, growing new worshipping communities, and delivering grant-making programmes against several thematic areas.
The Racial Justice Unit was established in 2023 to support the whole church in its embrace of, and engagement with, the principles in the report From Lament to Action (FLTA) , which sets out the Church of England’s mandate for cultural and structural change on issues of racial justice within the Church. August 2024 The Racial Justice Unit is responsible for implementing the FLTA mandate and manages the distribution of a £20 million budget to support this work which includes a significant and growing portfolio of grants to dioceses, churches, and faith-based networks. This role will support the grant-giving work of the Racial Justice Unit (RJU).
What you'll be doing
The Racial Justice Unit Grants Manager will hold key relationships with the RJU Director and the RJU Grants Administrator. They will report directly to the RJU Director and hold line management responsibility for the RJU Grants Administrator.
The role will include:
- Implement, manage, and maintain processes to enable the smooth operation of the funding programme.
- Support the RJU Director in managing the RJU budget. This includes forecasting and budget planning by providing regular updates on pipeline and live budget spend status.
- Manage the award-making process, including the preparation of award letters, funding agreements, payment release, and monitoring schedules, ensuring paperwork is accurate and processed promptly.
- Oversee the preparation of documents to support with grant governance and reporting as advised by the RJU Director.
- Ownership of case management of applications entering the RJU pipeline. This will include the review of all applications for coherence, completion, delivery plans, integrity of the budget and initial due diligence.
About You
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 Minoritised Ethnicities (UKME)/Global Majority Heritage (GMH) and other under-represented groups. As a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to recruiting disabled people. We offer interviews to disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the role.
To be successful in this role, you will need to have:
- Substantial hands-on experience in the management of a large or high-profile grant making programme or funding process and maintaining effective grant management policies and processes.
- Experience in understanding principles of, monitoring and tracking budgets.
- Experience of building successful stakeholder and grantee relationships and in communicating with internal and external stakeholders at all levels.
- Strong spoken and written communication skills.
- Excellent planning and organisation skills, with proven ability to prioritise, manage time effectively and use initiative as appropriate.
- An understanding of the Christian faith and the structures and workings of the Church of England.
- Experience working on programmes or projects with a primary focus on racial justice or equity, diversity, and inclusion.
For a detailed person specification, please see attached job description.
What we offer
Our benefits include:
- A salary of £46,577 per annum plus age-related pension contributions between 8-15% of salary. We will also match any pension contributions you make up to an additional 3% of salary.
- 25 days annual leave (increasing to 30 days within 5 years) plus three additional days
- Flexible working hours and location, with an expectation of just 2-3 days per week in our office in Westminster
- Structured induction programme and access to a range of development opportunities including apprenticeships
- Access to Occupational Health, and an Employee Assistance Programme
- Opportunity to the Civil Service Sports & Social Club, and get involved in a range of staff networks, groups and societies
We try to be as flexible as we can in your work pattern to support you with other commitments, and to give a good work-life balance.
The National Church Institutions comprises a wide variety of teams, professions and functions that support the mission and ministries of the Church of England in its vision to be a church, centred on Jesus Christ, for the whole nation - a church that is simpler, humbler, bolder.
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.
Living out our values in all that we do, we:
- Strive for Excellence
- Show Compassion
- Respect others
- Collaborate
- Act with Integrity
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.
