The Urban Movement Innovation Fund (UMI Fund) works to connect, align, and strengthen people-power for a more socially just, zero carbon future. Drawing together and amplifying the efforts of NGOs working on technical solutions, or working with policy makers, with those of campaign or grassroots groups and movements working to increase citizen engagement and activity. UMIF´s goal is to dramatically accelerate humanity’s transition to a zero-carbon world. UMIF is a convenor of the field, an advisor to philanthropy, and a grant maker.

UMI Fund believes that people-powered movements are critical to creating a zero-carbon world, generating the drive and popular support necessary for huge political, cultural and technological shifts. In order to grow in our set direction and meet our strategic plan, we are in urgent need to build a team to help us strategically reach our goals.

The UMI Fund team is small with a large portfolio of grants. As part of the team, led by the Co-Executive Directors, the Senior Programme Officer will make and manage a portion of these grants. The successful candidate will be an excellent strategist and a seasoned and successful change maker. They will have the opportunity to explore various climate change linked issues and to work with truly inspirational partners from all over the world. This position is full-time and home-based; being part of a fully remote working and internationally distributed team.

Primary Responsibilities

UMI Fund has a small team that operates collaboratively and flexibly with sometimes overlapping responsibilities. Team members have specialisms, but we avoid being siloed in work delivery. Within the team the Senior Programme Officer will primarily be in a grant making role, and have a particular focus on the following:

• Establishing and maintaining good relationships with applicants/grantees and other partners.
• Networking, landscape scanning and mapping, conducting research and performing due diligence on grants and partnerships that fall within UMI Fund’s theory of change and current strategy. The Fund strategy encompasses movement building for action on climate change with a focus on ending the internal combustion engine, supporting the youth climate movement and fairer, more socially just climate solutions.
• Co-creating and supporting grantee projects and clusters of projects.
• Creating collaboration spaces for the UMI Fund community.
• Writing recommendations for funding, and monitoring and reporting on the progress of open grants which may sometimes involve travel to conduct site visits (depending on Covid-19 related travel restrictions).
• Supporting grantees with capacity building and the development of child safeguarding policies as needed.
• Assisting grantees with challenges during the grant period and drawing out lessons learned in ‘end-of-grant’ reports and evaluations when grants close.
• Working collaboratively with the full team at UMI Fund, ensuring there is cross-programme resonance, synergy, communication and learning where there are programmatic areas of overlap.
• Working collaboratively with other Grantmakers and funder initiatives as required.
• Contributing to internal reports, UMI Fund’s annual report, and board presentations as required;
• Representing the programme in a variety of settings both internally and externally.

Experience and Qualifications

The following list offers an aspirational view of our ideal candidate profile; however, we encourage applications from candidates with a wide range of experiences and backgrounds, especially those from underrepresented groups.

• A proven change maker with demonstrated success in international campaigning and/or movement building.
• Proven commitment to action on climate change and social justice with at least seven years’ experience of working in the not-for-profit sector and/or in philanthropy, including experience in project and budget management (whether from the implementation or donor side).
• Proven knowledge and work experience in the climate mitigation, social justice and/or movement building fields as a grant-maker, advocate and/or practitioner.
• Experience of working in diverse and international teams.

Skills and Attributes

The following offers an aspirational view of our ideal candidate profile; however, we encourage applications from candidates with a wide range of experiences and backgrounds, especially those from underrepresented groups

• Tact, humility, flexibility, openness, and a good sense of humour,
• Proven experience in building and maintaining positive work relationships and partnerships.
• Excellent collaborative and facilitation skills.
• Strong analytical, negotiation, and communication skills.
• An understanding of intersectionality and inclusive approaches to grant-making.
• Ability to work independently but also flexibly and collaboratively, as part of a small team.
• Excellent workload and time management skills with the ability to manage a busy workload delivering high quality work to deadline and under pressure.
• Fluent in English; additional languages could be an advantage.
• Excellent writing and editing skills, and ability to write quickly to meet deadlines.
• A demonstrated commitment to the values of inclusion, equity and social justice.

The following skills/experience will strengthen candidacy for this role:

• Knowledge and work experience in grant making.
• Knowledge and work experience in collective action or movement building.
• Knowledge and experience working on the agency, voice and power of women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, frontline communities, or other disadvantaged groups; particularly in the context of climate mitigation.
• A demonstrated ability to link local to global action to safeguard people and the environment.

Location: Flexible global location, remote working from home.

Salary: £60,000 - £65,000 GBP for UK location, adjusted based on the cost of labour for the country in which the candidate resides. Salary will be determined based on experience and qualifications. Candidates must have the right to work in the country they are applying from.

Reports to: Executive Director

Contract Type: Permanent employment contract