Venture Capital Lead Facilitator, for Not for Profit in Slough

Our client is a not for profit which is working in the area of systems and societal change. They are looking for a senior professional with deep experience working within major (£1bn+ AUM) VC funds in the UK. They need someone ready for a bold challenge to harness the insights and energy of senior professionals who are committed to their employers and their industries and also realise that their industry needs to change. This is a part time role which is 1-2 days a week. Your job will be to lead our work with senior insiders in the UK VC as well as support the wider growth and development of the organisation.

OVERVIEW

This is an exciting opportunity to join and help shape a new organisation that is working to train, support and mobilise corporate ‘Insiders’ to help them transform their industries to support a more just and regenerative world. If you are someone happy to take initiative, act as a service provider to our insiders, lend your hand to anything/everything with regard to building the organisation and are drawn to the idea of helping bring to life an ambitious new nonprofit organisation, then we hope you will consider applying.

They are looking for a self-starter who will flourish as a talent scout and facilitator of their VC insider group, with the potential to also work in other parts of finance in the future. You will work as a recruiter of Insiders, as an advocate and sector-builder for the insider community and as someone who can put the building blocks in place for an organisation that is set to grow and flourish.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

They are looking for someone with professional experience in Venture Capital who is:

• Confident in supporting bold movement building and encouraging people towards action;
• Able to work delicately in high trust environments;
• Able to work collaboratively with partners;
• Able to scout and facilitate senior executives (1-2 runs below Partner level) from the UK’s largest VC funds to be a part of this work;
• Able to help build the ecosystem which we are a part of.

They will be looking for people who have had to build things from scratch and are used to working with diverse stakeholder groups and holding a strong sense of purpose.

The essentials:

Firstly, you need to have a trusted network within the VC sector from whom you are able to recruit senior insiders into this work. Beyond that:

• You care deeply about the social and environmental challenges the world is facing and can see how industry can play a critical role in impacting these issues;
• You are a confident project manager - you must have a knack of keeping things organised and on track, being able to write clearly and distil information;
• You are a keen researcher who likes learning about new topics and presenting information back in written documents and briefings;
• You are committed to facilitating and organising in ways that support diversity, equity and inclusion;
• You have some facilitation experience and are comfortable building trust with individuals as well as holding space for confidential and sensitive conversations in groups. You have experience of supporting people to work through challenges and differing opinions to get to points of agreement and action;
• You are happy researching and approaching potential partners, Insiders, etc. without warm introductions and building a new community around this work;
• You are able to work independently with only light-touch support, self-start and manage competing priorities and multiple groups of stakeholders.

Helpful but not essential experience/skills:

• Experience of movement building, community organising, facilitation and/or advocacy;
• Experience of working in and pushing for change in large organisations.

You will have a few key aspects to your work:

• Own and organise the VC Insider group. This will include seeking new members to expand our Insider group, while retaining current members by ensuring meetings and work are relevant, interesting and beneficial for members;
• Work with partners to turn insider insights into campaigns to influence change within the sector;
• Seed and support new insider groups;
• Help develop the methodology for insider group development;
• Build relationships with potential funders and pitch for further core or project-related funding;
• Project-manage external agencies that are conducting delivery work for each project, from conception through to delivery and dissemination with civil society organisations, government, media and/or investors.