Job Description
Volunteer Co-ordinator
Two part-time regional roles or one full-time national role
Friends of Friendless Churches (FoFC) is a small charity with a big task. For the past 66 years, we’ve been rescuing, repairing, and campaigning for redundant historic places of worship all across England and Wales.
In this position, you will be responsible for recruiting, enthusing, and organising volunteers at our churches and chapels. This includes establishing volunteer groups where none currently exist, and strengthening relationships with existing groups. It also includes developing induction and training processes for volunteers. You will be the main point of contact for our volunteers, you will help individuals and groups to organise events and activities in our buildings, and you will support them in caring for their local FoFC church on a daily basis. You will also work with our Director to organise specific project-focused events including community consultations and open days.
The Friends of Friendless Churches is keen that our churches are well-cared for and used by local people in appropriate ways. Local support is essential as our small charity is not equipped to provide day-to-day on-site care from our head office. This role is vital in supporting our volunteers, encouraging, and enabling greater use of our buildings, and helping to raise awareness of and interest in our work.
Your normal place of work will be from home, but you will be expected to travel to our London office
(in historic and lively Farringdon) for occasional team meetings, and you will need to travel to our churches across England and Wales (see our website for our geographical spread). You will also be required to attend our annual Trustees’ Tour and AGM.
This role is advertised as two part-time roles given the extensive geographical area to be covered, however, we would consider making this a single full-time role for the right candidate (with regard to geographical base).
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To apply for this job, please send your CV and cover letter (max. two pages) to [email protected] by
5pm on Friday 30 June 2023. Interviews will be held in July at 70 Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6EJ.
If you have any questions about the role, please get in touch with our Director, Rachel Morley, at the email address above.
70 Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6EJ | office@frie ndsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk | 0204 520 4458
President The Most Honourable The Marquess of Salisbury KG KCVO PC DL.
Chairman Roger Evans M.A.
Director Rachel Morley BEng
Friends of Friendless Churches is a company limited by guarantee. Charity no.: 1113097; Company no.: 1119137;
Registered in England and Wales.
About the Friends of Friendless Churches
We are an independent, non-denominational charity which receives no government funding in
England, and a modest grant in Wales. We have 60 buildings in our care, and we acquire more each year when they close.
We believe that an ancient and beautiful church fulfils its primary function merely by existing. It is, in itself, an act of worship. These buildings are our greatest architectural and cultural legacy, shaping landscapes and lives for hundreds of years. They are the spiritual and artistic investment of generations, and they should survive for the benefit of future generations.
To find out more visit: www.friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk
Job Description
Job title: Volunteer Co-ordinator
Location: Blended working arrangements (mainly home-based and visits to individual churches across England and Wales, occasional attendance at our office in
London for meetings)
Salary: £18,000 (£30,000 FTE) +6% pension contribution
Travel expenses will be reimbursed.
Hours: 21 hours per week; Permanent.
Once a year, you will be required to work additional hours for our Trustees’
Tour and AGM. Potential for occasional weekend and evening work which can be claimed back in lieu or as over time.
Holidays: 16.8 days per annum, in addition to all public holidays normally observed in
England
Reports to: Director of the Friends of Friendless Churches
Job purpose: To engage, support and grow our network of local volunteers. To encourage and enable appropriate uses of their local church. To be an excellent and sympathetic communicator. To help increase hire of our churches to aid income generation.
Community & Volunteer Support
- To meet local volunteers and Friends groups and assess skills, enthusiasm, and ideas. From this, develop a plan to optimise use of church based on resources.
- To recruit new local supporters by organising events, open days, community consultations, etc.
- To meet local stakeholders and interested parties such as members of the PCC, local businesses, and the local incumbent.
- To encourage Friends Groups to adopt the FoFC Friends Group constitution.
- Where appropriate encourage an open-door policy – i.e. to leave their church open for visitors and FoFC supporters.
- To ensure a good stock of FoFC literature (membership leaflets, church guides, etc) in all churches.
- To ensure that all our volunteers feel heard, supported, and appreciated.
Communications & Administration
- To contribute to our members’ e-newsletter and magazine, and social media digital channels from time-to-time.
- To help ensure our CRM database is up to date, i.e., adding or amending supporter details on our CRM database, and upholding our privacy policy.
- To prepare a short quarterly summary of activities for our Trustees’ meeting.
- To represent FoFC and network within the heritage sector by attending relevant meetings or briefings.
Events & Hire
- Having visited churches, develop and implement a plan for feasible and appropriate uses of our buildings as filming locations, wedding venues and other events. (Noting that these buildings remain consecrated for worship and are highly listed, and should be duly respected.)
- This plan would include recording facilities (electricity, parking, special features, capacity, etc)
- To work with our freelance digital content creator to add this information to our website.
Working party
- Work with the Director to help develop plans for working parties at our churches. The working party would be a multi-day event undertaking simple repairs under the supervision of a contractor or craftsperson. The event would be open to our membership and help to recruit sporadic supporters/volunteers.
What we’re looking for
Training, experience & personal qualities
- Experience of engaging and supporting people and local communities.
- Experience of developing and delivering a successful volunteering programme.
- An understanding of and enthusiasm for FoFC’s ethos, and the role of volunteers within the organisation.
- Full, clean driving licence, and a willingness to travel to our sites across England and Wales.
- Willingness to travel to remote locations.
- Comfortable with hybrid working environments, including lone working.
- Capacity to undertake occasional overnight stays.
- Resilience: not all volunteer initiatives will succeed.
- Tact: For example, not all initiatives and uses proposed by volunteers will be appropriate or feasible for a particular church; there may be local conflicts to resolve.
- Experience of organising events.
- Excellent and efficient oral and written communication skills.
- Self-motivation, and the ability to work on one’s own initiative, without direct supervision.
- Good team-working skills: you will need to build and work with teams of volunteers, but also work with the FoFC team.
- Interest in the historic environment.
Owing to the nature of this role, an offer of employment is subject to a satisfactory report from the
Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
Job Type: Part-time
Salary: £18,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company pension
- Work from home
Schedule:
- Monday to Friday
- Weekend availability
Work Location: In person
Application deadline: 30/06/2023
Reference ID: FoFC Vol Co-ord