Grants and Partnerships Officer in Bristol

Green Schools Project is looking for a part-time Grants and Partnerships Officer to work 3 days per week to drive forward our fundraising strategy and manage our expanding pipeline of trusts, foundations, and corporate partners. This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing team in a successful and ambitious social enterprise that is helping schools and young people tackle the climate and nature crisis.

As we pass our 10-year milestone, we have developed a model that transforms a school’s response to the climate crisis while providing high-impact social value for the private sector. We are now expanding our team to build the operational capacity required to turn this momentum into long-term, sustainable national scale.

You’ll be working with our Head of Development to implement our fundraising strategy, research and write grant applications, and develop new opportunities with corporates, local authorities, and academy trusts. Alongside, you’ll work closely with our Communications Manager and Programme Delivery Team to design and deliver high-quality funder reports, ensuring our project and programme successes are communicated effectively.

The role would suit someone with grant fundraising and business development experience who is looking for more responsibility and experience across these areas.

We believe that tackling the climate and nature crisis is the most urgent issue facing society and that schools need to educate young people about the situation and involve them in addressing it. Young people bear no responsibility for causing the climate crisis, yet they will have to live through this issue which will define their future. We believe that, given the opportunity, they have the energy, enthusiasm, and determination to change attitudes and behaviour on a local and global scale.

Our values that we do our best to embody at all times are to be enthusiastic, innovative, environmentally responsible, ethical, collaborative, and fun. We exist to help young people learn about and get actively involved with tackling the climate and nature crisis. We support schools to provide opportunities for their pupils to learn about the individual actions and systemic responses required.

We are keen to attract applicants from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences but particularly interested to hear from applicants where the environmental education sector is currently underrepresented (ethnicity, disability, LGBT+, living in areas of low social mobility). We use blind recruitment to ensure a fairer hiring process. Your name, contact details, and other identifying information will be hidden from the hiring team during the initial screening stage. We score your application solely on your skills and experience.

What you’ll do:

• Manage the core grant process: Research grant funding opportunities, manage small-to-medium trusts and foundations (typically up to £15k), and write tailored applications alongside the Head of Development.
• Maintain our funding pipeline: Keep our records up to date, track fund deadlines and ensure that our bid writing is planned to meet internal capacity.
• Lead on funder reporting: Work closely with our Communications Manager to design, write, and deliver high-quality progress and impact reports for funders to demonstrate compliance and cultivate long-term support.
• Field partner enquiries: Act as the first point of contact for corporate social value enquiries, turning initial interest into structured proposals alongside the Communications Manager.
• Manage entry-level partnerships: Account-manage corporate social value partners, local authority, and academy trust partnerships.
• Research new business opportunities: Identify and pursue new avenues to sell our climate education programmes, workshops, and teacher training.

We need you to have:

• Experience of fundraising and business development and a desire to develop your skills in these above areas.
• Strong written communication skills that can be adapted to fundraising, business development, and proposal writing.
• Confidence in speaking and selling to potential corporate partners and school networks with the ability to inspire others.
• Attention to detail and an ability to keep accurate and up to date records.
• Strong organisational skills with an ability to prioritise while working on a variety of tasks with multiple deadlines.
• Strong relationship building skills with the ability to enthuse.
• A resilient attitude that sees setbacks as a chance to learn and thrives in challenging situations.
• An enthusiasm for working in a small organisation with an ability to be agile around the tasks required and an ability to thrive when offered flexibility and autonomy in your work.

It would be useful if you have:

• Experience working in or with schools, or to have worked with young people and a strong belief in their potential.
• Passion for environmental issues and a commitment to help tackle the climate and nature crisis.
• Experience working with Local Authorities, Academy Trusts, or corporate social responsibility and social value teams.

What you’ll get from us:

• An opportunity to work within an award-winning social enterprise that is working to change the way schools respond to the climate and nature crisis.
• A supportive and encouraging environment in which to grow your skills and knowledge.
• £35,020 per year pro rata, 3 days per week.
• 33 days annual leave per year including bank holidays pro rata.
• Flexible working hours.
• Location: Flexible / home-based, with occasional team days in London or Bristol. If located in Bristol we have access to a shared workspace in Clifton, Bristol.

Timeline:

• Deadline for applications: Sunday 28th June, 5pm
• First interviews (informal phone call): Week commencing 29th June
• Second interview (via zoom): Week commencing 6th July
• Notification of decision: Friday 10th July
• Provisional job start date: Monday 3rd August (we can be flexible depending on notice period required)

If you have any questions before you make an application, please get in touch with Cathy Wentworth, Head of Development: Cathy Wentworth at greenschoolsproject.org.uk