Change Please
Volunteer Executive Director (Foundation)
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Volunteer Opportunity | Part-Time Executive Director – Change Please Foundation
This is a voluntary leadership opportunity for an experienced senior leader who wants to use their skills, knowledge and network to help end homelessness.
While this role is unpaid, it offers the opportunity to shape the future of the Change Please Foundation at an exciting stage of its development, working alongside an experienced Board of Trustees and senior leadership team to create lasting social impact.
We understand volunteers have other professional and personal commitments and are happy to discuss a flexible approach to the role.
Change Please Foundation is the charitable heart of Change Please, an award-winning social enterprise. Guided by a shared board with Change Please CIC, the Foundation channels every penny of the CIC's profits into life-changing support for people experiencing homelessness.
Since Change Please launched from a single cart in Covent Garden in 2015, it has grown into an international business operating across four countries. Through the sale of its coffee to large national and global organisations, Change Please CIC generates profit, all of which is donated to the Foundation to fund barista training, living wage employment and holistic support for people experiencing homelessness. Our work enables individuals to access housing, therapy, financial wellbeing support and onward employment opportunities.
We exist to do business better, partnering with organisations to turn social value commitments into measurable impact.
Role Objective
This is a senior leadership role created as the Change Please Foundation moves to operate as an independent entity within the Change Please Group.
The postholder is accountable to the Foundation's Board of Trustees for its strategy, fundraising performance, financial sustainability and impact outcomes, and works closely with the Change Please Group Board on operational alignment with the CIC.
We anticipate this role will require approximately two days per week, although this can be delivered flexibly by agreement and may vary depending on organisational priorities and the volunteer's availability.
Day to day delivery and increasing operational responsibility including leadership of the regional impact model, sits with the Head of Impact, who continues to lead day to day delivery of the Barista Training and Driving For Change programmes.
The role is externally facing and requires credible leadership with funders, corporate partners and the wider social sector.
Reporting
The Volunteer Executive Director works closely with the Group Executive Team and is accountable to the Foundation Board of Trustees. The postholder will work collaboratively with colleagues across the Impact and Support Teams, the wider CIC and CIO, external partners, statutory agencies and other stakeholders.
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Key Responsibilities
- Provide strategic leadership to the Foundation, working closely with the Board of Trustees.
- Lead fundraising strategy and build relationships with major funders, partners and commissioners.
- Represent the Foundation externally with corporate partners, funders and stakeholders.
- Support the Foundation's transition as an independent charity.
- Develop and mentor the Head of Impact.
- Champion strong governance, safeguarding and risk management.
- Support delivery of the Foundation's impact strategy and long-term sustainability.
- Promote a positive, collaborative culture aligned with Change Please's values.
Key Relationships
Internal
- Board of Trustees: Strategy, governance and performance
- Change Please Group Board and Managing Director, Change Please CIC: Operational alignment and shared brand
- Head of Impact: Direct report, structured development, leads the regional impact model with Executive Director sign-off
- Group Head of Support: Collaboration on the beneficiary pathway
- Fundraising, Brand & Partnerships teams: Income generation and external positioning
External
- Trusts, foundations and statutory funders: Income and mission relationships
- Sector networks and membership bodies: Profile and influence
- Media and communications contacts: Spokesperson relationships
Leadership Competencies
- Strategic leadership: Sets clear direction for the Foundation, holds priorities firmly and adjusts course when needed
- Fundraising acumen: Understands income diversification and makes confident, commercially sound funding decisions
- External influence: Builds trust and credibility with funders, corporate partners and sector stakeholders at the most senior levels
- Governance literacy: Operates effectively with a Board of Trustees, understands charity governance and accountability
- People development: Grows the capability, confidence and external profile of direct reports in a structured, deliberate way
- Impact literacy: Understands how social impact is measured and evidenced, including the trade offs between volume and depth, and can review and quality assure a model built by others rather than needing to build it personally
- Mission alignment: Deeply committed to ending homelessness, and to the Foundation's role within the wider Change Please movement
Person Specification
Essential
- Significant senior leadership experience in the charity, social enterprise or non-profit sector, ideally at Director or CEO level or equivalent
- A strong track record of successful fundraising and income diversification across trusts, corporate, major donor or statutory sources
- Experience building and sustaining high value partnerships with corporates, funders or commissioners
- Experience operating effectively with, and reporting to, a Board of Trustees
- Confident, credible external representation skills, comfortable as a public face of an organisation with media, funders and partners
- Experience developing a direct report's capability and responsibility over time, including bringing them into more senior external relationships in a structured way
- Strong strategic thinking, with the ability to translate strategy into deliverable plans for an operational team
- Genuine passion for and alignment with Change Please's mission to end homelessness
- Comfortable working part time or flexibly while maintaining a strong, visible leadership presence
- A genuine desire to use your leadership experience to create lasting social impact through volunteering.
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Desirable
- Experience leading an organisation through structural or governance change, such as a spin out or entity separation
- Understanding of the charity and CIC dual structure model and the governance considerations this brings
- Experience developing or overseeing an impact measurement model across multiple sites or regions
- Direct experience of employment, training or beneficiary support programmes for marginalised groups
- Existing network within the homelessness, social enterprise or corporate social value sectors
Commitment
- Role Type: Voluntary
- Time Commitment: Approximately two days (or around 16 hours) per week, delivered flexibly.
- Location: Hybrid, London-based with flexibility
- Expenses: Reasonable travel and other agreed out-of-pocket expenses will be reimbursed in accordance with the Change Please Expenses Policy.
Equal Opportunities
Change Please is committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued, respected and able to thrive. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, experiences and identities and are particularly keen to hear from individuals from underrepresented communities.
Safeguarding Statement
Change Please is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all clients, many of whom may be adults at risk.
All employees are expected to share this commitment and to uphold safe, professional and responsible working practices at all times.
The successful candidate will be required to undergo appropriate pre-employment checks, including references, right to work verification and an Enhanced DBS check.
This role involves working with adults who may be at risk, and the successful candidate will be expected to always maintain the highest standards of safeguarding practice.
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