Grant funding trustee lead - Volunteer in Arlesey

Seeking a trustee with proven experience in funding and grant applications to support The How2Hub, a fully inclusive education-to-employment platform. You will lead funding strategy, secure grants, and help scale early careers access for young people from Year 6 onwards.

This role will directly influence our ability to move from early-stage pilots into a sustainable, scalable model that can reach more young people. The How2Hub already has active collaborations with schools, colleges and universities, delivering real-world, curriculum-linked experiences. The limiting factor is not demand or engagement, but the ability to secure consistent funding to support and grow this activity.

By leading on funding and grant applications, the trustee will help convert existing momentum into long-term stability. Their work will enable us to expand access to workplace experiences, support more schools, and deepen partnerships across education and industry. This has a direct impact on young people, particularly those who would not otherwise have access to meaningful early exposure to the world of work.

The role will also strengthen the board’s decision-making. With a clearer funding pipeline and better alignment between delivery and income, the organisation can plan with more confidence, prioritise effectively, and avoid short-term or reactive approaches. This creates the conditions for more consistent delivery and better outcomes for students.

There is also a structural impact. Establishing a clear funding strategy at this stage will shape how the organisation grows, ensuring that funding is aligned with inclusion, accessibility and long-term impact rather than short-term opportunity. The trustee will help embed this discipline early, influencing how future partnerships and programmes are developed.

Ultimately, the impact of this role is twofold: enabling the organisation to grow in a stable and intentional way, and increasing the number of young people who can access meaningful, early career experiences. The work done at board level will translate directly into more opportunities on the ground, supporting better-informed choices, improved engagement, and clearer pathways from education into employment.

What are we looking for?

We are looking for a trustee with practical, hands-on experience in securing funding, particularly through grant writing and funding strategy development. This experience is central to the role, as the organisation is at a stage where consistent and well-targeted funding will directly influence its ability to grow and sustain delivery.

The ideal candidate will have a track record of identifying relevant funding opportunities, writing successful grant applications, and managing relationships with funders. Experience working with charitable organisations, education programmes, or community-based initiatives would be beneficial, particularly where funding has supported early-stage growth or pilot programmes.

We are particularly interested in someone who understands how to translate real-world activity into strong funding narratives. This includes the ability to clearly articulate impact, demonstrate need, and align projects with current priorities in education, skills, social mobility and inclusion. Experience of working with multiple stakeholders—such as schools, colleges, universities, employers or local authorities—would be valuable in shaping credible and relevant applications.

The role would suit someone who can think strategically as well as operate practically. Beyond writing applications, we are looking for a trustee who can help the board prioritise funding opportunities, build a pipeline of potential income, and contribute to a longer-term funding approach that supports sustainable growth. Experience of monitoring and reporting against funding outcomes would also be useful, particularly in ensuring that funded activity is evidenced effectively and can be used to support future applications.

We welcome applicants who bring lived experience aligned to our mission, including those who understand barriers to accessing education, careers or employment. Insight into the challenges faced by young people—particularly those from disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds—would strengthen the board’s perspective and help ensure that funding activity remains focused on inclusion and impact.

Most importantly, we are looking for someone who is motivated by the opportunity to help build something at an early stage. The organisation already has active collaborations with schools, colleges and universities and is delivering real-world experiences for young people. The right trustee will help turn that momentum into a sustainable funding base, enabling the work to reach more students and have a greater long-term impact.

What will you be doing?

The How2Hub is building a fully inclusive, early careers platform that connects schools, employers, colleges and universities, starting from Year 6 through to post-education pathways. We are already working in collaboration with schools, further education colleges and universities to pilot real-world projects, site visits and curriculum-linked experiences that give young people meaningful exposure to the world of work.

Our trustee board is currently being established and will bring together experience from education, employer engagement and finance. The immediate focus is on moving from early-stage delivery and pilots into a more structured, scalable model that can be adopted by schools and partners more widely. This creates both an opportunity and a challenge: strong early engagement and proof of concept, but a need to secure consistent funding to stabilise and expand delivery.

We are seeking a trustee to take a lead role in shaping and driving our funding strategy. This includes identifying and writing grant applications, building a pipeline of funding opportunities, and helping the board prioritise where funding effort should be focused. You will play a central role in ensuring that our work with schools, colleges and universities is supported by sustainable income, enabling us to extend access to more young people.

A key part of the role will be working closely with the board to align funding bids with delivery activity on the ground. This includes translating pilot activity, partnerships and outcomes into compelling funding narratives, and ensuring that applications clearly demonstrate impact, inclusion and alignment with current education and skills priorities.

There is also scope to shape how funding is embedded into the organisation’s wider strategy, including supporting the development of a funding sub-group or taking a lead role in coordinating funding activity across the board. This is an important point in our development. We have active collaborations, early traction and a clear direction, but the ability to secure funding will directly determine the pace and scale of our growth.

This role offers the opportunity to help build something from the ground up, influencing how a new model of careers education is funded and delivered, and contributing to a long-term system that supports young people to better understand and access the world of work.