At a glance

Skills

Campaigning
Copywriting / Journalism
Public relations
Financial management
Fundraising research / Bid writing
Fundraising strategy

Where

Staines-upon-Thames, TW18 1LY

Remote opportunity

Time

Either in or out of office hours Estimate of time needed:
0-5 hours / month, 1-3 hours / week, 3-7 hours / week or 7-15 hours / week Role can be completely remote, if contactable by phone/email/Zoom. Must be willing to attend funders meetings, workshops & forums, where necessary.

Visitors from Fifth Day

Welcome to Reach Volunteering. We are a community and registered charity that connects people, skills and good causes.

To apply for this role, and any other on our platform, you need to be based in the UK, have at least three years of experience using the skills you wish to volunteer in a professional capacity or have lived experience (for trustee roles). Read more about our criteria.

Get involved in our therapeutic service, and you’ll gain satisfaction from knowing that you’re helping children, young people, and their families to continue to safely explore their experiences by making a real difference to our sustainability.

What will you be doing?

This is a fantastic opportunity to get involved in the ongoing development of Cocoon Kids - Creative Counselling and Play Therapy CIC. Our vital not-for-profit therapeutic service for priority children and young people, and their families depends on our financial resilience. By volunteering as Grants Officer you can help our CIC grow and develop to our next stage by ensuring that we have the funds to sustain and develop the service, and help us to realise our ambition of being a service for our community and beyond.

We’re urgently looking for a volunteer who helps us to successfully fundraise for our community interest company. We need help to:

Researching, registering and applying for appropriate sources of funding
Planning Funding Projects and matching these to available funding opportunities that match our aims
Ensure that proposed projects are in line with Cocoon Kids CIC’s overall development plans
Building and maintaining good working relationships with funders, grant and award makers, and our Directors and volunteers, in readiness for making grant applications
Gathering copies of all the key documents needed for making grant applications, for example, governing documents, CIC structure, annual accounts, letters of recommendation etc.
Completing and submitting grant monitoring & evaluation forms in a timely manner.
Prepare grant use and any update reports ready for submitting to funders in a timely manner
Attending workshops, information sessions, seminars etc. to build knowledge and experience of available grants and good practice
Creating newsletters to broadcast any funding we receive.

Make this role your own - we're a responsive organisation, we'll be glad to listen to your great ideas

What are we looking for?

Why apply?

Join us, and you’ll be part of our small, friendly team. You’ll be able to organise your time around your own schedule, whilst making a real and immediate difference to children, young people and families in difficult times.

What are we looking for in a volunteer?

We would love a volunteer who:

Has the ability to quickly understand the needs and challenges faced by our organisation
Can quickly understand our financial set up/main concerns
Has accurate and up to date knowledge and experience of community interest company, charity finance (as we’re looking to convert to a CIO), SORP and other relevant frameworks
Is aware of/is willing to inform themself of the latest government support packages, e.g. post Covid-19. pupil premium/ catch-up program
Can help us get to grips with relevant options, approaches and strategies, and discuss next steps
Will follow up with any further questions or outcomes.

Skills

Self-motivated and able to work on your own initiative
Knowledge of funders and how to match project plans with potential funds
Experience of completing grant applications, monitoring and evaluating projects and preparing reports
Good, clear communication skills, with ability to write in a way that matches funding brief
Experience of working to deadlines
Grant and funding accounting and/or financial management knowledge
Ideally, be committed to being involved in a grant application/project from start to finish.

Specific skills and experience

We expect all of our team to have knowledge and experience in the following areas:

Mental health and wellbeing challenges and its impact.
Living with or have experience of socio-economic deprivation and/or marginalised communities
Understanding of the impact that housing insecurity may bring to a child, young person and their family’s mental health and wellbeing.

What difference will you make?

You’ll have the opportunity to make a real and tangible difference to the lives of priority children, young people and families. You’ll make sure families can access fully-funded and appropriate longer-term sessions- for as long as is therapeutically right for them, providing long-term positive mental health equity and outcomes and improved social mobility. Ultimately, you'll be ensuring our long-term sustainability beyond the challenges of Covid-19 and the cost of living crisis, growing our service from local, to regional and beyond.

Before you apply

Please apply through Reach in the first instance, by detailing why you are interested in this role and your relevant experience.

Please contact us via Reach with any questions. Interviews will be an informal Zoom chat with our Directors.

We look forward to hearing from you, Helene and the Cocoon Kids CIC team.

About Cocoon Kids - Creative Counselling and Play Therapy CIC

Causes

Children / families

Counselling / advice

Education

Financial inclusion

Health and well being / research and care

Housing and homelessness

Local / community

Men

Mental health

Social care

Women

Young people

Organisation type:

Not for profit

'A calm, caring cocoon where every child and young person reaches their true potential' - children and young people aged 3-19 years, and their families use Cocoon Kids -...

Grants and Fundraising Volunteer