Grants Administrator (Internship)

Somerset Community Foundation (SCF) is a grant-making charity that helps build strong communities where everyone can thrive. We do this by funding local charities and facilitating local giving. We provide simple, rewarding and impactful ways for donors to give locally, guided by research and our unrivalled local knowledge. For small, local charities, community groups and social enterprises, we provide vital funding and support to help their organisations flourish. We provide around £5 million of funding to local groups every year. By inspiring local giving and funding social action, we support local communities to drive change and realise their dreams. 

This is an important role within our team, ensuring that essential funding reaches Somerset’s local charities. Whether you are an experienced administrator looking for an opportunity to make a positive difference or someone looking for their first step into a career in the charity sector this role offers a great opportunity.

The focus of the role will be on supporting our grants administration processes, which includes importing applications into our CRM, responding to and triaging applicant enquiries, and working with Programmes Managers to ensure that all necessary information and supporting documentation is provided and correct. You will also lead on administrating the monitoring of the grants we award.

You will work closely with the whole Programmes Team as well as other colleagues in the Foundation including the Finance Administrator and Office Administrator. You will be provided with training on the Foundation’s IT systems. In addition, to help you understand the value of the Foundation, you may occasionally visit projects we have funded.

Key Areas of Responsibility

1. Grants Administration

• Answering the phone and responding to enquiries from community groups and organisations who are interested in accessing our funding
• Importing online (and occasional paper) grant applications and carrying out basic due diligence tasks
• Supporting Programmes Managers in the assessment process and preparation of panel papers
• Working with Programmes Managers and the Office and Finance Administrators to process grants once they have been awarded

2. Administration of Meetings

• Schedule and send out invitations to meetings and panels as requested
• Take notes at programmes team meetings, infrastructure group meetings, panel meetings and other forums when requested.
• Take minutes at grants panels, secure authorisations, issue grant awards, and raise payments.

3. Monitoring of grants

• Administer the monitoring of our grants programmes, requesting and reviewing reports and processing their content on our database

4. General support for the Foundation

• Work with the team to deliver publications such as Hidden Somerset, which highlight the challenges faced in our communities and the ways in which the groups we fund and meeting them
• Take responsibility for the phones and general inbox
• Occasionally, you may be required to take on other duties other than described above to support the delivery of the Foundation’s work.

Skills, Knowledge and Experience (essential unless otherwise noted)

• Excellent literacy and numeracy skills, ideally with experience of writing a wide range of documents from emails to meeting minutes.
• Experience of working with databases or CRMs and Microsoft Office
• Strong office administration skills with attention to detail and good time management
• Working knowledge of the charity sector and small community groups in particular (desirable)
• Previous administration experience (desirable)
• More about working for us

Our values: We’re a values-driven team and organisation, and they underpin our culture, identity and everything we do.

Diversity, equity and inclusion: Together we’re creating a culture where everyone, from any background, can do their best work and bring their whole self to work. We’re also working to ensure the voices of those we support inform everything we do. We would especially welcome applications from minority ethnic people, people with disabilities, younger people, LGBTQ+ people and people with ‘lived experience’ relevant to our work.

Flexible working: Our work is really important to us, but so is the rest of your life. We offer flexible working that means you can choose hours that work for you and choose a blend of working in the office, at home, or out and about.

Pension: We’ll match your pension contributions up to 5% to help you save for your future.

Enhanced Family Leave policies: We offer an enhanced family leave policy for all employees, including Enhanced Maternity, Paternity, Shared Parental and Adoption Leave.