Project Support Officer

Role Purpose

Responsible Finance is the membership association for the UK’s Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs). CDFIs are community lenders, committed to delivering positive social impact, and offer fair and affordable finance to businesses, social enterprises and to people unable to access it elsewhere.

This is a pivotal moment to be joining the CDFI sector. Responsible Finance and CDFIs are poised for exciting growth following two record-breaking funding announcements in late 2024 which has seen the sector backed by Government and leading financial institutions including the British Business Bank and JPMorgan Chase. This follows Lloyds Banking Group becoming the first mainstream lender to invest in the CDFI sector earlier in the year.

This new funding will enable business-lending CDFIs to scale their reach and impact, supporting economic growth and financial inclusion across the UK. Successful candidates will play a vital role in helping to make sure that CDFIs are supported to build their operational capacity and maximise the opportunity this brings.

We are seeking an exceptional candidate to help us to deliver an ambitious Capacity Building programme for our business-lending CDFIs and support our wider and growing member base. You will support Programme Managers to effectively deliver key projects within both the Capacity Building programme and more broadly support our small team to deliver outstanding service to CDFIs across the personal, micro, business and social enterprise lending sectors. The role requires some working with our members and stakeholders and strong levels of versatility and flexibility to deliver outstanding results.

No prior knowledge about CDFIs is required so long as you have a keen interest to learn about the sector and are passionate about increasing access to fair finance for businesses, underserved communities and people. Do not be discouraged from applying if you do not meet all the criteria listed in this job description. If you know how to deliver results, overcome challenges and obstacles, and are a committed team player, with a can-do attitude, we want to hear from you!

The Project Support Officer will assist in the delivery of key projects and support the Programme Director and Programme Managers in ensuring the smooth running of a Programme Management Office (PMO) at Responsible Finance.

The role holder will support the timely and quality delivery of projects and programmes, including playing a key role in producing timely information and reports, and ensuring the smooth running of programme meetings and boards.

Just as importantly the role-holder will also support the wider Responsible Finance team to deliver key projects and ongoing support to our members and provide high quality administrative support where required.

The role-holder will also be responsible for ensuring that Responsible Finance’s onboarding process is followed for all new CDFIs, to ensure that they receive high quality and timely support at the start of their membership.

Key Responsibilities

• Assisting in the delivery of key work streams and projects, including the award and monitoring of grants to support capacity building and Requests for Proposal (RFPs) for training delivery.
• Supporting Programme Managers to monitor project progress, identify issues and solutions, produce and maintain high-quality project documentation (plans, risk and issues registers, etc.) to support effective delivery.
• Supporting the effective and smooth running of project and programme board meeting and meetings across Responsible Finance, including schedule and arranging, developing papers, and effective minute taking.
• Supporting aspects of Responsible Finance’s communications activity including updating and generating content for the website, surveys, member and stakeholder newsletters and social media channels and supporting the effective delivery of events.
• Supporting aspects of Responsible Finance’s operational and policy function including; record keeping updating of the CRM system, supporting policy consultation responses and, assisting with the collection, analysis and presentation of data from multiple sources as required. (For example, to support our annual impact reporting exercise).
• Supporting the Programme Director and Programme Manager with the collation and development of reports for grant funders, and Responsible Finance boards.

This is a varied and dynamic role, working closely with our members and a range of high-profile external stakeholders. This job description is not exhaustive; it outlines the key tasks and responsibilities of the post which are subject to change. Any changes will be made in consultation with the post holder.

Skills and Experience

Essential:

• Strong and proven experience as a project support officer/co-ordinator providing high quality support across multiple projects at once.
• Experience of using project management tools (e.g. Microsoft Project, Clickup) and techniques, and of developing and maintaining project and programme documentation.
• Experience in the generation and updating of online content using tools such as WordPress, Canva, SurveyMonkey etc to develop high quality web and social media content.
• Strong all-round administrative support skills, fluent with standard Office applications such as Word, Excel, Teams with an ability to quickly learn new technologies and applications.
• Experience supporting and co-ordinating the delivery of online and face to face events.
• Able to work with minimum supervision in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong communication skills including concise writing skills and ability to synthesise information into an easy to comprehend format/narrative (both written and verbal).
• Strong interpersonal skills and comfortable dealing with members and stakeholders with a proven ability to manage multiple stakeholders and get information needed from busy people.

Desirable:

Working as part of a small organisation, you will need to demonstrate flexibility and versatility and have opportunities to support a range of other projects and support services for our members, developing a wide range of skills and competencies.

Therefore, in addition to the essential criteria above, we are also interested in candidates with the following skills and experience:

• Experience of creating and delivering presentations.
• Experience in developing graphics/infographics using apps such as Canva.
• Experience supporting research, monitoring and evaluation.
• An understanding of CDFIs and/or lending helpful.

How to Apply

Equity and fairness are at the core of our organisation and we are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone can be their best.

Please send your CV and responses to the following questions to Careers4Change using the upload boxes below.

• What appeals to you about this job/Responsible Finance and why do you think you’ll do a great job?.
• You need to organise a programme board meeting, develop the agenda, and take minutes. However, several key stakeholders have conflicting schedules. How would you ensure the meeting is effectively scheduled and all necessary information is captured and communicated?
• You are tasked with gathering regular programme reporting information from a group of Responsible Finance’s CDFI members. You will need to turn this into a report for the funder. Please describe how you would go about collecting the information, synthesising it, and writing up a report.
• You are assisting in the delivery of a key project that involves awarding and monitoring grants for capacity building. Midway through the project, you notice that one of the grant recipients is not meeting their milestones. How would you address this issue to ensure the project stays on track and the grant recipient meets their obligations?