At a glance

Skills

Advice / Advocacy
Mentoring / Coaching
Social care / Counselling
Teaching / Education
Training

Where

London, SE1 3GN

Mainly at home

Travel limit? Must be a UK resident able to travel to London for Trustee meetings 5 times per year.

Time

Mostly during office hours Estimate of time needed:
0-5 hours / month Trustee meetings and our Grant Partners’ Workshop are held as face-to-face meetings in London. All other meetings are usually virtual.

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.

Would you like to improve the educational outcomes and life chances of care experienced young people by using your experience to improve our grant giving?

What will you be doing?

We are a grant giving charity and work towards our vison of educational opportunity for all by awarding grants of around £700,000 per annum to not-for-profit organisations to address educational disadvantage in the UK and internationally.

We are committed to awarding at least 30% of our grants to UK projects which provide the following:

Improve access to educational opportunity – including support for care experienced young people to attend and engage in mainstream school life; increasing the number of education professionals able to understand their needs; engaging with trauma-informed support; improving access to out of school support and educational activities.
Improve educational outcomes – including enabling care experienced young people to learn in ways that works for them; supporting a broad range of activities that develop confidence and mental health in order to improve educational outcomes.
Improve life chances – including improving support for care experienced young people (aged 16-25) to access further education, employment or training opportunities and improving support for them to remain engaged with these opportunities.

We seek to attract Trustees from diverse backgrounds, social identities, or perspectives. Previous Trustee experience is not necessary, but a commitment to the right of children and young people to be able to access high quality education and training as a driver for equality of opportunity, personal development and wellbeing is essential, whilst also appreciating that as a funder we have a responsibility to take action against the climate crisis.

What are we looking for?

Direct experience of living in care or a thorough understanding of the UK care system.
A strong interest in Educational Opportunity Foundation, its purpose and its work.
A good understanding of UK charity law and the Charity Commission regulations which the Foundation must adhere to.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
Good analytical ability.
Integrity, good judgement and independence of mind.
Capacity for clear, creative and strategic thinking and vision.
Understanding and acceptance of the role of a charity Trustee.
A willingness and ability to be an ambassador for the Educational Opportunity Foundation and to promote its activities.
Ability and commitment to give the necessary time (see below).
UK resident.

What difference will you make?

Our Trustees play an important role, working collaboratively to support the professional staff team to deliver our strategic plan, scrutinise our investments and spending, and make decisions on grant applications.

Before you apply

In the first instance please contact us via REACH before 23 January 2025 and we will then invite to you complete an expression of interest form by 30 January 2025.

If you are not already an Educational Opportunity Foundation Member, the form will ask you to apply for Membership as part of the process of expressing your interest. Only individuals who are a Member of Educational Opportunity Foundation on 1 February 2025 are eligible to be nominated for the 2025 Trustee vacancies. Membership is entirely free and can be cancelled at any time.

If you have any queries please message us via REACH.

EOF Trustee Recruitment Pack 2025 REACH.pdf

About Educational Opportunity Foundation

Causes

Education

International development

Young people

Organisation type:

Charity

We believe in the right of children and young people to education as a driver for personal development, well-being, and equality of opportunity.

We seek to achieve our vision by...

Trustee with lived or professional experience of the care system