Programme and Delivery Assistant

At The Social Change Nest (SCN), we’re radically transforming the funding landscape and strengthening civil society. We remove the financial and administrative barriers that often prevent communities, grassroots groups and informal movements from accessing funding and focusing on their core mission. We also work closely with funders, enabling them to support social action with confidence and transparency. We currently support over 700 groups across the UK and abroad addressing issues such as social injustice, climate, housing, wellbeing and animal rights.

We are at the forefront of fiscal hosting in Europe and, since our inception in 2020, we have supported groups in securing over £50 million in funding, helping them take advantage of opportunities that may have otherwise been unavailable. We work with all types of social movements and community groups, from climate to housing, wellbeing and animal rights.

The Social Change Nest is part of The Social Change Group. We are a Disability Confident Employer, and an accredited Living Wage Employer.

How We Work

You’ll be joining a close‑knit team, supported and developed to be the best you can be. We believe that every member of our team brings a unique perspective from their experiences and abilities and we encourage everyone to be curious about how we can improve everything we do, from how we interact as a team to how we deliver for our clients and communities. Underpinned by our values of collaboration, curiosity, courage, and creativity, we work closely and with care with our partners because we believe relationships are the glue that hold us all together. We’re a growing business and operate at pace to keep up with the challenges that the sector faces. We have established a lot, but as we grow, we’re still working some things out. The right person will thrive in this environment and feel a level of ownership to support the build out of things we need as we need them.

The ideal candidate will enjoy working within a fast‑paced and evolving organisation, and have a natural curiosity about how their role fits into the bigger picture. You’ll thrive on problem‑solving and will feel comfortable handling multiple priorities at once, always seeking collaborative solutions. You’ll be adaptable and able to shift focus quickly when things change, ensuring strong communication across the team and with clients to keep everything aligned.

About you

We are looking for a talented person who will work closely with the Programme Delivery team to provide support across services, primarily Grant Management and Grantmaking administration. You will help complete due diligence, draft grant agreements and make payments. This role also involves interacting with and managing a portfolio of early‑stage groups under the Grant Management service. You will ensure we understand their needs, find practical solutions to support them to achieve their goals, ensure contracts are delivered in line with agreements, support them with budgeting, and advise where financial decisions need to be made. This role will be an integral part of the business, and your understanding of the services and what is important for our clients will support the growth of our business.

You will also need to be familiar with CRM systems and assist in uploading vital grant information on behalf of our groups and the Programme Delivery team. The role would suit someone who is very proactive, extremely organised, understands the intricacies of grantmaking, is process‑oriented and enjoys problem‑solving. You will have excellent attention to detail and coordination and will have confidence in developing and strengthening complex workflows. The ideal candidate would also have an interest in social justice and innovation. You will be reporting to the Head of Programmes and must be ready for the complex, passionate, interconnected world that is social change.

Skills & Experience

• You will be a detail oriented person, proactive, very organised, an excellent communicator, have good time management, and be good at managing various tasks at the same time.
• You will be keen to make an impact in a small team and be hungry for searching out opportunities to develop yourself and the business.
• We are looking for someone who is happy working on their own initiative with energy, enthusiasm and good humour.
• The role involves customer facing work so you must be comfortable with working with groups of people from varied backgrounds along with your work colleagues, and comfortable prioritising urgent, last minute tasks.

Person specification includes:

• Experience of working with clients or partners in a collaborative and flexible way.
• Exceptional organisational skills and the ability to be proactive.
• Understanding of managing budgets.
• An exceptional attention to detail.
• Ability to manage various tasks at the same time, and capable of managing your time effectively.
• Ability to manage competing priorities.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.
• Confident to communicate externally to community grassroots groups, with support from other team members.
• Proficient using Google suite, Gmail, online booking and meeting systems.
• Experience of working within a team.
• Understanding of grantmaking and grant administration.
• An interest in social change, innovation and current affairs.
• Experience of supporting or working at startups, early‑stage ventures, or growing community groups.
• Experience of managing projects and emerging risks.
• An understanding and/or experience of working with project management software and CRMs.
• Basic understanding of payment systems and financial processes is desirable.
• Some experience in compliance or research.
• Fluency in Arabic would be highly desirable.

We will give you full training on our internal systems, processes and other methodologies that will be relevant to your role.

Key responsibilities

• Complete due diligence on groups and work closely with the Relationship Managers to communicate any issues with the relevant funders.
• Draft grant agreements and share for signing.
• Coordinate with the Finance Assistant to ensure payments are made smoothly via various payment platforms and ensure accurate tracking.
• Respond to ad‑hoc queries and hold the relationships with groups/individuals receiving subgrants.
• Support the Relationship Managers and Head of Programmes with ad‑hoc projects designed to streamline processes, build new tools, and strengthen foundations.

Grants Portfolio Management (Small Community Groups) (45%):

• Manage a small portfolio of community group accounts, working directly with them to understand their needs and find solutions that help them to strengthen their capacity in ways that work for them. This will often require creative problem solving and working collaboratively with clients to respond to challenges as they come up.
• Monthly 1‑1 meetings with clients to build relationships, discuss emerging needs, and track progress on contracts with funders.
• Track grant budgets.
• Risk management of the contracts, ensuring budgets are not overspent and are in line with expected deliverables.
• Ensure partner’s contractual obligations are met (including reporting).
• Nurture relationships to help build positive, long‑term partnerships.

Support the Programme Delivery and broader SCN team (20%):

• Support internal activities and the development of the wider team that contribute to The Social Change Nest’s overall mission and strategy.
• Collaborate with the team and bring new ideas that work towards team success.
• Schedule and coordinate client and project meetings.
• Build and help populate new tools, trackers, and templates using the google suite and CRM.
• Track and follow up on action points with our groups and our internal processes.
• Help coordinate actions from the groups across our delivery team and help coordinate action between the delivery team and the rest of SCN.
• Maintain and organise digital filing systems for key documents for groups and across the teams, including keeping our CRM and project management systems up to date.
• Support with general administrative tasks, ensuring efficiency across teams.
• Assist in the smooth running of internal processes and communication.
• Work with the rest of the SCN team to ensure there is sharing of knowledge to improve systems and practices across all services, making sure the services are aligned.

Other Important Information

Terms: The role will be full‑time (37.5 hours/week) on a fixed term contract for 1 year. As we often work with volunteers, occasional evening and weekend work may be required and compensated through TOIL. Occasional but limited UK or European travel may be required (by arrangement). We are open to exploring flexible working arrangements and supporting you to meet commitments you may have. All pay and benefits, holiday etc will be pro‑rated with the length of your contract.

Location: We are happy to consider remote candidates, but you must be based inside the UK. We have an office in central London, which London‑based staff go to 2 -3 times a week. We hold quarterly all‑staff strategy meetings and annual away days, which you will be required to attend in person and for which we will cover the cost of your travel.

Language skills & visa status: Candidates must be fluent in English. You must have the right to work in the UK independently, as we are unable to provide visa sponsorship.

Holiday: 28 days plus bank holidays (including 3 days between Christmas and New Years).

Employer pension contribution: We offer a 3% employer pension contribution, that you will be auto enrolled into after 3 months of employment with SCN.

Additional Paid Time Off: We offer 2 days of paid voluntary time off, encouraging all staff to serve as trustees or any equivalent voluntary positions to contribute to their communities.

Mintago: The health and wellbeing of our staff is very important to us. We offer all of our staff access to Mintago which offers a 24 hour support line, structured counselling with external support, and a bank of online resources such as webinars and articles tailored towards health and wellbeing for both you and the members of your family, and access to some types of legal advice.

Financial Wellbeing: The financial wellbeing of our staff means a lot to us. We offer the following to our staff to help them reach their financial goals: Financial wellbeing platform allows staff to check their pension dashboard, plan for retirement and search for forgotten/lost pensions. There is also a smart saver plan and we provide access to financial advisers for free. Benefits app – retail discounts. Select from over 80 brands.

Hiring process: We strongly encourage applicants from a wide variety of backgrounds. We are committed to our staff representing the wide variety of backgrounds represented in the communities we work with. If you are concerned that you may not fit 100% of the job specification – please throw your hat in the ring. We never put formal education requirements on any role as we value lived experiences as highly as formal education and training qualifications. We follow a blind recruitment process, which means that hiring managers for the role can only see your work history and cover note when deciding to progress to the interview stage. If you need any accessibility accommodations for this application please do not hesitate to contact us at people@thesocialchangenest.org or by calling 07958298727 and we will be happy to provide you with those accommodations.