The Forest of Avon Trust is the West of England’s tree and woodland charity, an independent charity and one of a national network of England’s Community Forests.

We are growing our work and impact through implementing the Forest of Avon Plan: A Tree and Woodland Strategy for the West of England launched through a wide scale partnership in June 2021, delivering a multi-million pound Defra Nature for Climate tree planting programme, as well as delivering a growing series of courses in woodland health and wellbeing.

We work across Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. 

Our main activities are based around tree planting, woodland management, delivering health and wellbeing activities, education and training.

We are looking for someone to support all of our work in overseeing many of the financial and administrative aspects. This is a role with the potential to develop and for the person in this role to take on greater responsibility into the future, if desired.

One- year fixed term contract to start as soon as possible. The intention is that the contract will be annually renewable, subject to funding.

• 3 days per week (22.5 hours)

• Flexible working hours and days

• Home based, with some meetings in person and occasional ‘office’ days across the year

• Salary of £27,500 - £30,000 per annum pro rata

• Employee Pension Scheme with 3% employer contribution

Job Description - Working to the Executive Director:

Managing the administration functions of the charity to include financial and grant accounting and processes.

Finance and Contracts

• Maintaining effective and accurate financial systems, including the timely production, inputting and  processing of orders, invoices, payroll and payments. Addressing gift aid claims, VAT issues and managing restricted funds.

• Supporting the Executive Director with reporting to the Board on budgetary projections, actuals and variance.

• Supporting and supplying information for the preparation of the Accounts and auditing, working with the appointed Auditor and Executive Director.

• Supporting the Executive Director with the oversight of all third party contracts.

Grant administration

• Maintaining the financial and administrative components of the Trees for Climate grant scheme and all other grants and funding awarded to the charity, including recording of grant agreement figures, claims processing and end of year reconciliation and reporting.

Donations and other funding

• Supporting all donor and business sponsor relationships, managing elements of the donor journey, responding to enquiries and thanking donors, recording and reporting on donations and preparing reports, sending out certificates and processing payments.

Board, Policy and Governance

• Supporting Board meetings by sending out agendas and papers, coordinating attendance, taking and circulating  minutes and reporting to the Board on the financial reports, where required.

• Supporting the Executive Director and team in inputting into staff policies and charity governance and complying with all health and safety and other legislation, to include diarising key dates.

Team and Volunteers

• Supporting the team in ordering supplies and managing grant applications.

• Supporting volunteers in undertaking administration volunteering to support this role.

Miscellaneous

• Support yearly GDPR information audits and to maintain all Trust information in an orderly manner in accordance with GDPR regulations.

• From time to time, supporting the team’s PR activities, including social media posting, newsletter, the website and events.

• Collecting post, banking cheques and general administrative tasks, as required.

Job Specification

Essential Criteria – evidenced with experience and skills

• Strong administration skills and ability to organise work and coordinate multiple tasks with a clear plan and approach.

• Ability to support the management of grant funding both as grant provider and grant recipient.

• Ability to support the management of substantial funding budgets, comprising diverse funding streams and donor and sponsor relationships.

• Ability to use Excel or an equivalent programme to clearly present budgets and financial and project management information to staff and Board members.

• Ability to use Xero or another financial management system to process and record financial transactions and to generate and track orders and invoices and ensure their timely payment and to generate financial reports, including for annual accounts and audits.

• Accounting qualification such as AAT, ACA, ACCA, CIMA or CIPFA.

• Ability to use own initiative, improve systems and work proactively to support the team.

• Accuracy and attention to detail.

• A professional manner in representing the charity and its work.

• A commitment to the Forest of Avon Trust’s goals and values.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of financial/administrative role within a charity and/or experience of related charity policy and best practice.

• Experience of audits.

• Good knowledge of grant scheme conditions and reporting requirements.

• Experience of taking and preparing minutes for Boards and working with a Board of Trustees.

• Experience of gift aid regulations and practices, GDPR compliance, VAT issues and managing restricted funds.

• Experience of administering staff payroll.

• Access to a vehicle and/or the ability to travel to meetings and other commitments in the West of England.

We Offer

• Working from home and flexible working hours.

• Home base does not need to be within the West of England border, provided the role can be fulfilled.

• Expenses paid for approved mileage or travel costs incurred within the West of England.

• Opportunity to play a key role in a growing charity with development and training potential as the charity grows.

The above overview contains the main duties and responsibilities for this position. However, in a small organisation such as The Forest of Avon Trust, staff members are expected to show flexibility in their approach to work and be willing to undertake other tasks that are reasonably proposed but which are not part of their regular job description.

Where any task becomes a regular part of an employee's responsibilities, the job description will be changed in consultation with the employee.

We encourage applications from diverse backgrounds, in particular candidates from communities and catchments in which The Forest of Avon Trust is engaged. We are pleased to be an equal opportunity employer and applications will be considered without regard to race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, veteran status or age. The Forest of Avon Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable people and expects all members of staff to share this commitment.

Please send a CV and a written statement of your experience set against the essential and desirable criteria above to alex.stone@forestofavontrust.org by 5 pm on Sunday 20th March 2022.

For more information on the Forest of Avon Trust, please go to: www.forestofavontrust.org

For more information, please call Alex Stone on 07779 787011.