Investment Manager – Social Impact Investment

Role Purpose

This is an exciting opportunity to support the Head of Social Impact Investment in shaping the Programme’s remaining commitments, managing the portfolio of existing investments, communicating the impact of the current £25m allocation, and building the track record for future additional potential capital allocations.

About the Social Impact investment Programme

The Social Impact Investment Programme is a £25m allocation of investment capital to make investments that seek to tackle deep rooted social challenges in the UK in line with the mission of the Church of England. The programme sits within the Archbishops’ Council and was established in 2021 by means of a grant from the Church Commissioners.

The Programme has clear impact and financial goals aiming to address housing need, enable communities to thrive and accelerate a just energy transition while preserving the value of capital invested for the Church to recycle into future investments. The Programme focuses first on the positive impact that can be achieved through its investments and aims to seed, scale and sustain innovative investment approaches to difficult challenges.

The Programme has committed approximately 60% of the current £25m capital allocation over the last 5 years. Details of the Programme’s investments to date can be found in its first two Impact Reports 2021-22 ; 2023-24

About the Church of England and the National Church Institutions (NCIs)

The National Church Institutions comprises a wide variety of teams, professions and functions that support the mission and ministries of the Church of England in its vision to be a church, centred on Jesus Christ, for the whole nation – a church that is simpler, humbler, bolder.

There are seven national administrative bodies that work together to support the mission and ministries of the Church including the Archbishops’ Council.

We include. You Belong.

Our Belonging and Inclusion Strategy aims for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background.

Living out our values in all that we do, we:

• Strive for Excellence
• Show Compassion
• Respect others
• Collaborate
• Act with Integrity

We believe our commitment to belonging and inclusion fuels our progress and drives us forward. The NCIs are a safe, inclusive workplace for people of all backgrounds and walks of life. We welcome applications from people of all faiths and of no faith.

We want to encourage applications from a diverse group of people who share our values. Even if you have never thought about working for us before, if you have the skills and experience we’re looking for then we would like to hear from you.

Key Responsibilities

Portfolio Management

• Monitoring the impact and financial performance of the Programme and its investments.
• Liaising with internal departments to manage the operational functions of the Programme including investment drawdowns and receipts, contracting with external advisors and know your customer requirements.

Deal Origination, Due Diligence and Execution

• Sourcing new opportunities that meet the Programme’s financial and impact goals.
• Carrying out financial and impact due diligence on investment opportunities.
• Supporting the negotiation of term sheets, legal documents and processes through to deal completion.

Investment Committee Preparation and Support

• Preparation of quarterly Investment Committee papers on both current portfolio performance and new investment opportunities.

Liaison across other functions within the National Church Institutions

• Liaising with National Policy Advisers and the Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG) to assess key areas of mission alignment in investment opportunities.
• Liaising with the Church Commissioners Responsible Investment Team to share and benefit from best practice in Responsible and Sustainable investment.

Stakeholder Engagement and Market Engagement

• Communicating the impact of the Programme to key internal and external stakeholders including publishing biannual impact reports.
• Further developing relationships across the social investment and faith-based investment communities to share opportunities and learnings.

About You

The position is ideally suited to someone who is a self-starter, who has a desire for continued learning and development, particularly in the field of impact investing, and who is ambitious for the role that the Church can play in the UK social investment sector.

Essential Knowledge/Experience:

• A good understanding of and commitment to addressing social and environmental challenges in the UK.
• 3- 5 years Relevant work experience in investment, finance, accountancy, business consultancy or another analytical field.

Essential Skills & Abilities:

• Strong financial analysis skills, including the ability to evaluate financial statements and business plans and develop and assess financial models using Excel.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills including the ability to support the production of investment papers and impact reports.
• Proven interpersonal skills including the ability to build good working relationships and an interest in attending relevant sector events as an ambassador for the Church’s Social Impact Investment Programme.

Desirable:

• Experience in impact investing and impact measurement.
• Experience of the main impact themes targeted by the Programme: addressing housing need, enabling communities to thrive and accelerating a just energy transition.
• Good understanding of a variety of financial products and structures e.g. grants, equity and debt investments, blended finance structures and private fund structures.

How to Apply

Please send your CV and Cover Letter (up to one A4 page) to Careers4Change – see below

The Church of England is for everyone, and we want to reflect the diversity of the community the Church serves across the whole country. Therefore, while of course we welcome all applications from interested and suitably experienced people, we would particularly welcome applicants from UK Minoritised Ethnicities (UKME)/Global Majority Heritage (GMH) and other under-represented groups. As a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to recruiting disabled people. We offer interviews to disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the role.