Salary:
£35,805 full time (open to part-time) 18 months FTC
Location:
London (Hybrid Working Environment) or remote (must be in the UK)
Reporting To:
Head of Community & Impact
About SCN
At The Social Change Nest (SCN), we’re radically transforming the funding landscape and strengthening civil society. We remove the financial and administrative barriers – like bank accounts and legal structures – that often prevent communities, grassroots groups and informal movements from accessing funding and focusing on their core mission. We also work closely with funders, providing Grant Distribution and Fund Management services, 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 racial justice. We are at the forefront of Fiscal Hosting in the UK and, since our inception in 2021, we have supported groups in securing over £37m in funding, helping them take advantage of opportunities that may have otherwise been unavailable.
The Social Change Nest is part of The Social Change Group. We are a Disability Confident Employer, and an accredited Living Wage Employer.
About The Community Nest
Built of changemakers and allies offering their support and solidarity, The Community Nest is a place for groups to share skills, strengths, challenges, and resources — to lend a helping hand, grow a strong network and feel the power and hope that collaboration provides. The Community Nest supports grassroots unincorporated groups and networks to overcome the barriers they face by ensuring the tools, resources and skills needed to make social change happen are within reach. We provide opportunities for help with admin, training, capacity building, networking and more. We’re on a mission to facilitate a community of learning, kindness, solidarity and respect, creating a space to power change from the ground up.
We’re at an exciting point in the design iteration of The Community Nest. One year into delivery and equipped with a year of learning, we are growing and expanding our movement and community building work to best support our ecosystem and strengthen our offer. This will include building out our Participatory Grantmaking function and organising more in‑person convenings to foster greater collectivity and knowledge sharing across our ecosystem.
Alongside this Community & Knowledge Lead role, we are also investing in a new Network Organiser role who you will work with closely to ensure that everything we do is shaped by insights and learnings from our groups.
As such, the ideal candidate should be comfortable taking a test and learn approach, in building out new processes and in taking ownership of specific components of a project. You should be highly organised, able to manage multiple deadlines and show a real eagerness to fuse creativity and systems to move a piece of work forward.
As part of the wider delivery and programmes team at SCN – this Community & Knowledge Lead role is embedded in the tight‑knit Community Nest team alongside the Network Organiser and Head of Community & Impact.
About the role
We are looking for a highly organised, creative and solutions‑focused Community & Knowledge Lead with excellent attention to detail, who is able to balance processes and systems with iterative design shaped by community insights. Someone who is passionate about optimising The Community Nest to reach its potential and increase its impact.
This is a unique opportunity to support the largest network of unincorporated community groups in the U.K and a growing network of groups and movements based in the global majority. We have some exciting opportunities on the horizon and are looking for someone to support with this scaling.
This role also represents a great opportunity to work directly alongside our partners who are a range of social change networks including Civic Power Fund, Practical Governance, Small Axe and more. Through this role you will benefit from the extensive knowledge of community building, network management and communication from all these sources.
There may be occasional evening and weekend work and we are committed to making this job an interesting and worthwhile opportunity.
Job Description
- Develop and implement systems and processes for connectivity, knowledge exchange, community and self‑organising to thrive within The Community Nest.
- With support, build out knowledge management processes to ensure that programme design is shaped by insights.
- Carry out in‑depth audits of our eco‑system using in‑house AI tools to understand the learning needs and knowledge within the ecosystem.
- Alongside our Head of Community & Impact, co‑curate the content and lead the delivery of a multi‑faced learning and community building strategy (workshops, webinars, peer learning sessions, expert testimonials, 1:1 surgery sessions and more).
- Oversee logistics (both in‑person and digital) for events e.g. venue booking, catering, event sign‑up platforms, online webinar hosting etc.
- Build and maintain a wide network of trusted allies and consultants with multiple social movements and justice specialities to deliver learning strategy.
- Working closely with our Network Organiser, spot opportunities for skill sharing and knowledge exchange amongst our ecosystem.
- Input into the design of a monitoring and evaluation framework and ensure that it is embedded throughout The Community Nest.
- Support the Head of Community & Impact with grant reports as and when needed and further potential funding opportunities.
- Manage outreach to groups for specific in‑person events such as our September conference for changemakers.
- Provide insights and trend reports from the grassroots community with the wider team to facilitate dialogue with funders.
- Ensure excellent accessibility practice across the entire Community Nest ecosystem.
Stakeholder Management and Process Systems
- Manage the design and delivery process of the new Community Nest digital resources, working closely with contractors, partners and the Marcomms team.
- Identify and manage online tools and platforms that enable quick communication and knowledge sharing across the ecosystem.
- Work closely with the Head of Community & Impact to build out a Community Panel/Advisory Group and manage quarterly meetings accordingly, e.g. agenda setting, minute taking and capturing agreed action points etc.
- With oversight from the Head of Community & Impact and colleagues from Finance, support to build out processes for our Participatory Grantmaking offer and manage the disbursement process alongside Finance.
About you
The ideal candidate will be highly organised, have a strong eye for detail and be able to multi‑task and prioritise your workload with ease. You should have a systems‑mindset and be able to design/optimise learning processes, and synthesise high amounts of data into concise project reports. While working as part of a highly collaborative team, you should be able to take clear ownership of certain deliverables with confidence.
Skills & Experience
- Experience managing a multi‑dimensional programme with diverse stakeholders.
- Honed event management skills for both online and in‑person convenings.
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to build out and maintain large and complex amounts of qualitative and quantitative data from community groups.
- Comfortable holding relationships with a variety of stakeholders from external delivery consultants to grassroot Community Panel members.
- Ability to work both as part of a collaborative team but also independently when needed.
- Experience working in the community organising or social justice space.
- Experience of either taking part in or running a Participatory Grantmaking Process.
- Strong writing skills, preferably with experience in helping to prepare grant reports for funders.
- Awareness of trauma‑informed approaches and how to embed these in knowledge and programme management.
- Familiarity with different programme management activities, processes, and systems.
For full terms and benefits, our hiring process and our equal opportunities statement, please visit our main vacancies page or the full JD here: https://thesocialchangenest.org/scn-vacancies/community-knowledge-lead-the-community-nest/