Corporate Partnerships Officer (Maternity Cover)

SPANA - The Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad is the global charity for working animals in low-income countries. Since 1923, we have supported the welfare of working animals, including donkeys, horses, camels and elephants, in communities that depend on working animals for water, transport, agriculture and their very survival. Today, we support working animals across 26 countries, through a series of global projects and partnerships.

We are seeking to recruit a Finance Business Partner to provide financial support and guidance to meet organisational needs. As a Finance Business Partner, you will collaborate closely with program managers, senior leadership, and other key stakeholders to ensure effective financial management, budgeting, and decision-making to drive the organisation’s mission forward. The role will be responsible for managing the purchase ledger and ensuring accurate and timely processing of invoices, payments, and expense claims. This role requires strong organisational skills, a high level of accuracy, and the ability to work effectively.

This role is offered on a temporary 12-month basis with flexible hybrid working arrangements at our London office (Borough High Street) or the option of being home-based. Our full time hours are 34.5 hours per week and we offer core working hours between 10am and 4pm. 

Key responsibilities 

• Actively participate in the implementation of the new finance system at SPANA, championing the project across the organisation and ensuring its success.
• Roll out the new system across the organisation, becoming an expert to ensure all users throughout the organisation have an internal point of contact for help and support.
• Seek opportunities to work in partnership across the charity to ensure all teams receive the support they need to manage the financial aspects of their roles.
• Support business expansion into new areas of income generation, ensuring finance processes can be adapted to meet requirements. Participate in new initiatives and clearly articulate the financial requirements to ensure they are met from the outset.
• Challenge the status quo to improve and reorganise finance processes and make the best use of opportunities, resources and systems.
• Deliver accurate, relevant, user focused financial information throughout the organisation to support decision making at all levels.
• Proactively support budget holders in the management of budgets and variance analysis.
• Uphold controls and good financial governance processes, identifying and acting quickly to correct areas of weakness.
• Ensure that the general ledger is accurate and up to date at all times, processing invoices, expenses and large volumes of income with a full audit trail.
•  Understand and actively assist in managing the cash flow to ensure obligations can always be met.
• Support overseas offices ensuring they receive funding in good time, offering the right levels of challenge and scrutiny to requests and financial returns.
• Ongoing and timely reconciliation of the charity’s bank accounts and all control accounts.
• Prepare monthly BVA’s (Budget vs Actual) for departments to help monitor their budgets.
• Support credit card and cash expense transactions. Manage cash to ensure travelling staff have access to funds.

About you 

• Confident Excel user including pivot tables, vlookups and data filtering across large volumes of data to transform and present data to key stakeholders.
• Comfortable working in a multi-currency environment with an understanding of how that impacts business.
• An innovative, collaborative, questioning and flexible attitude to work, with a desire to keep building on knowledge and skills.
• Ability to deal tactfully and confidentially with sensitive matters.
• Demonstrable ability to positively persuade and influence others.
• Collaborative in nature
• Excellent written and oral communication skills and strong interpersonal skills
• Able to work effectively on own initiative.
• Effective time management with the ability to prioritize tasks and meet deadlines
• Experience of Raiser’s Edge and integration with accounting software
• Finance related qualification is desirable

Benefits

• 26 days annual leave, plus bank holidays
• Company pension scheme (SPANA will contribute 10% of salary to a personal pension plan, if you contribute 5% of salary)
• Group Life Insurance scheme, which provides coverage at 3x your annual salary
• Group Income Protection scheme, designed to provide income if illness or injury prevents you from working for a period of time
• Hybrid working with London Head Office (Borough High Street) attendance approx. 1 day a month (travel expenses not included)
• Health Cash Plan with Medicash which includes access to virtual GP appointments and a members discount portal
• Enhanced Employee Assistance Programme including face-to-face counselling 
• Paid Volunteer Day