Senior Finance Manager

You'll bring energy and enthusiasm to the team, ensuring financial functions are carried out efficiently, effectively, accurately and in a timely way to enable us to focus on achieving our charitable mission.

The focus of the role will be on managing and improving financial processes, ensuring that the Senior Leadership Team have up-to-date and accurate records for reporting to the Board, supporting the programmes and philanthropy teams with accurate fund reports and preparing the accounts for audit each year. You will work closely with the whole team of staff and volunteers, but you will work most closely with the Operations Director and the Finance Manager.

You'll be provided with training on our CRM and IT systems. The successful applicant will always be expected to observe our values and policies and to actively engage with continuous professional development.

Key Areas of Responsibility

1. Treasury and Investment Management

· Monitor endowment investments and provide calculations and support in relation to total return

· Prepare quarterly investment management report

· Treasury management to maximise our investment returns

2. Bookkeeping and Management Accounts

· Work with the Finance Manager to ensure donations are properly recorded on our CRM and in Sage

· Work with the Finance Manager to reconcile bank accounts monthly

· Preparing monthly management reports, noting significant variances with forecasts

· Monitor outstanding debtors, and with line manager approval, chase overdue debtors

· Prepare fund balances when required by the programmes team to support grant-making

· Presentation of management accounts to board and engagement with board members as required

3. Annual Accounts

· Prepare statutory accounts, working with the Operations Director and CEO to ensure income and costs are allocated accurately across SORP categories

· Participate in the Audit process, engaging with auditors and prepare information for audit and liaise with auditors in the conduct of the annual audit process

· Prepare annual fundholder statements

· Support the Senior Leadership Team in the preparation of the annual budget and cash flow forecast

4. Other Work Required

· Support the Finance Manager and provide cross cover when required

· Attend SCF events as requested, including very occasionally, evenings

· Any other reasonable duties as requested

· Ideally at least five years' experience in a similar role

· Minimum of AAT Level 4, preferably ACA/ACCA or equivalent

· Experience of accounting software, especially Sage Line 50

· Experience of working with databases and Microsoft Office, including Office 365

· Knowledge of charity finance

· Excellent interpersonal and communication skills

· Able to work under own initiative but also able to request support when necessary

· Confident managing a busy and varied workload and able to prioritise effectively

· Good problem-solving competencies

· Please note that our office is in a rural location and that access to a car and a clean UK driving licence are required.

Desirable

· Supervision or line management of other team members

· Understanding of the role of local charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises, and the people they help

· Experience presenting at board level

We're 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 £4 million of funding to local groups every year. Our turnover in 2024 was nearly £6 million, and we're building an endowment for long-term investment into our communities, which is currently valued at about £8 million.

By inspiring local giving and funding social action, we support local communities to drive change and realise their dreams.