Impact & Learning Lead in Bournemouth

Job title: Impact & Learning Lead

Job purpose: To deepen the impact of the charity’s grant programmes for public benefit.

Contract: Part-time, 28 hours per week

Salary: £35,000–£40,000 per annum pro rata (FTE=35 hours per week), depending on skills and experience

Reports to: Head of Grants and Engagement

Location: Bournemouth, Dorset

BENEFITS

29 days’ holiday entitlement pro rata

Hybrid and flexible working arrangements

JOB DESCRIPTION

Talbot Village Trust (TVT) is one of Dorset’s largest place-based funders. Guided by the social purpose of our founders, we support people and communities across south‑east Dorset to live well. Over the past decade, we have awarded more than £10 million through over 650 grants to charities and local impact organisations operating across Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch, Purbeck, and East Dorset.

Alongside grant‑making, we manage a diverse estate that includes the historic Talbot Village, residential, agricultural and commercial lettings, woodland, and an urban heath.

We aim to strengthen learning, insight, and impact, and this new role is central to achieving that goal. We seek to develop a longer‑term, more evidence‑informed and preventative approach to transform the Trust’s grant‑giving. We want to better understand the impact of our grants and our wider work ‘beyond the money’. You will design and establish an evaluation framework to help us do this across our operations. Guided by the needs of communities in our area of benefit, you will also gather insights and support our learning across the Trust so that our grants are as impactful as possible.

As part of our strategic aims, we are expanding a recent pilot of our Strategic Partnership programme. This will enable the Trust to move from purely reactive grant‑giving to include a more proactive and relational approach that transforms lives and opportunities with local communities over the longer term. Your arrival at this key time will help us create a framework for understanding the programme’s development and longer‑term impact.

Much of our work goes ‘beyond the money’: in addition to making grants, we seek to increase the effectiveness of the local sector by sharing skills and non‑financial resources, convening organisations and making introductions. Your role will help us understand the impact of this wider work. You will also work directly with some of our grantees, helping them to better understand the impact of their work. By working with our Digital Engagement Creative and our Communications Officer, you will also help charities share their successes and enable us to amplify their voices.

Role Purpose

The Impact & Learning Lead will help us understand, deepen and communicate the difference our funding and wider engagement work makes. You will lead on impact measurement, evaluation and organisational learning, ensuring that decisions are evidence‑informed and that funding delivers the greatest possible benefit. You will have experience in social value measurement and facilitating knowledge exchange to bridge grassroots action and strategic philanthropy.

This is a new and pivotal role within TVT, offering the opportunity to shape our approach to learning from grant‑making, support grantees, and enable more effective, preventative, place‑based change.

Key responsibilities

Impact Strategy & Framework

• Coordinate the design, delivery and refinement of the Trust’s impact and learning strategy.
• Translate insights from grant‑giving programmes and sector research into strategic recommendations for the Trust’s Board.
• Work with grantees to develop practical, sustainable impact frameworks, monitoring processes and data quality.
• Lead TVT’s own impact measurement initiatives, establishing frameworks based on well‑tested tools and models. This will include developing an understanding of our impact over long timeframes and tracking the deep, lasting effects experienced by individuals and communities.

Learning Culture & Facilitation

• Facilitate and contribute to internal and external learning processes, including reflection sessions, learning events, communities of practice, and peer learning.
• Promote a culture in which insights, including learning from failures, are openly shared and used to shape future decisions.
• Commission and manage external evaluations where appropriate.
• Translate complex evidence into accessible insights for trustees, staff, and partners.
• Develop and implement learning frameworks rooted in participatory and developmental evaluation.

Data, Systems & Reporting

• Produce high‑quality insights from across our sector and area of benefit to identify and support high‑need areas or groups, and drawing on our understanding of our own impact, create accessible reports and presentations that inform decision‑making at all levels.
• Create engaging materials to ‘inspire and stimulate’ without compromising the quality of data or integrity of insight.
• Oversee data quality, monitoring and analysis, and the development of impact dashboards or summaries.
• Review and improve systems to capture, store and analyse impact data.
• Contribute to sector research networks (e.g., ACF, IVAR) to strengthen internal and sector‑wide learning, particularly on equitable funding, community‑led innovation, and relational philanthropy.

Supporting Grant‑making & Engagement

• Promote our various grant programmes particularly to organisations addressing diverse community needs.
• Support the development of new initiatives and funding partnerships.
• Use data‑driven approaches to identify and support high‑need areas or groups.
• Contribute to events, training sessions, stakeholder engagement and strategic reviews.
• Connect grantees with useful opportunities for networking, training and development.
• Support the Trust’s staff team in developing new sustainable and proportionate practices that increase understanding of our impact.
• Support the Trust’s Philanthropy Committee and Board with evidence‑based reporting.

Stakeholder Relationships

• Prepare content, reports and other key communications, tailoring messages for diverse stakeholders at local, regional and national levels.
• Contribute to internal and external communications and campaigns to highlight the impact of the Trust’s work.
• Maintain strong relationships with other funders, impact specialists, and statutory partners to share learning and improve sector support.
• Work collaboratively across Trust staff teams to deepen impact practices and communications.
• Represent the Trust in external networks, working groups or collaborations.

General

• Attend occasional events outside of office hours.
• Undertake any other duties reasonably required to support the charity’s activities.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

This role will suit someone who enjoys building trusted relationships and meaningful collaborations, investigating data and engaging in reflective learning – someone who can translate complexity into meaningful action and bring others together around learning. You do not need to come from a traditional grant evaluation background; many routes into learning and impact work are valued. However, you will bring:

Essential

• Experience of designing and leading impact enquiries.
• Experience of co‑designed approaches, such as community‑engaged participatory research.
• Strong written and verbal communication and relationship‑building skills, with the ability to engage a diverse range of partners and potential beneficiaries.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to translate complex information into actionable insights.
• Strong IT skills and knowledge of key datasets used by charities and the public sector.
• Self‑organised, proactive, and collaborative approach.
• Understanding of charitable organisations and the impact of their work.
• Commercial awareness regarding organisational sustainability, ideally in the charity sector.
• Experience of operating within the sector, whether as a volunteer, trustee, employee or consultant.
• Commitment to TVT’s mission, vision, and values.
• A full, valid driving licence and access to a car. The role will involve site visits to communities across south‑east Dorset.

Desirable

• Experience of working in a grant‑giving environment.
• Competence in using and configuring Power BI or a similar platform.
• Familiarity with data available about communities within our area of benefit.
• Experience of working with statutory partners.
• Familiarity with place‑based, community‑led or systems‑change work.
• Understanding of UK charity law and governance.

This is a part‑time role, working 28 hours per week. This role will require significant face to face work with partners, grantees and colleagues. However, flexible working is available as the business needs allow.

The deadline for applications is 9am on Monday 19 October 2026.

Interviews are likely to be held on 3rd, 4th, or 6th of November 2026. However, we reserve the right to interview shortlisted candidates before the closing deadline.

We warmly welcome applicants from all parts of our diverse community.

Thank you for showing an interest in the opportunity.