Relationship manager (Grant Distribution)

Quick info

Hours: Full-time, 18 month contract with potential to extend

Salary: £35,800

Location: Hybrid (London)

Reporting To: Head of Social Impact and Community

Application deadline: Monday 10th November 2025

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About The Social Change Nest

At the Social Change Nest (SCN), we’re radically transforming the funding landscape and strengthening civil society. We remove the financial and administrative barriers – like bank accounts and legal structures – that often prevent communities, grassroots groups and informal movements from accessing funding and focusing on their core mission. We also work closely with funders, providing Grant Distribution and Fund Management services, enabling them to support social action with confidence and transparency. 

We currently support over 600 groups across the UK and abroad addressing issues such as social injustice, climate, housing, wellbeing and animal rights. We are at the forefront of Fiscal Hosting in the UK and, since our inception in 2020, we have supported groups in securing over £37m in funding, helping them take advantage of opportunities that may have otherwise been unavailable.

The Social Change Nest is part of The Social Change Group. We are a Disability Confident Employer, and an accredited Living Wage Employer. In addition, we were listed as one of the top social enterprises in the UK in the SE100 for the last three years.

We work with all types of social movements and community groups, from climate to housing, wellbeing and animal rights. Read more about this here. 

How we work

You’ll be joining a close-knit team, supported and developed to be the best you can be. We believe that every member of our team brings a unique perspective from their experiences and abilities and we encourage everyone to be a curious soul about how we can improve everything we do, from how we interact as a team to how we deliver for our clients and communities. 

Underpinned by our values of collaboration, curiosity, courage, and creativity, we work closely and with care with our partners because we believe relationships are the glue that hold us all together. 

We’re a growing business and operate at pace to keep up with the challenges that the sector faces. We have established a lot, but as we grow, we’re still working some things out. The right person will thrive in this environment and feel a level of ownership to support the build out of things we need as we need them. 

The ideal person will enjoy working towards building something new and exciting for our clients, and be able to thrive when things change quickly which you need to adapt to. You’ll be the type of person that will intuitively look at the entire system and how your role and function fit into it, always looking to collaborate and make sure there’s great communication across each part of the business.

About You

We are looking for a talented person who will work closely with the Head of Service Delivery and Programmes Assistant (GD) to deliver our Grant Distribution service. You will be the lead on managing various international grant distribution contracts, along with other grant distribution projects that we deliver.

The role would suit someone who loves connecting and talking to people, and loves systems and order, alongside an interest in social justice, systems change and innovation. You will be reporting to the Head of Service Delivery and must be ready for the messy, passionate interconnected world that is social change.

Skills & Experience

You will be a detailed person, proactive, very organised and good at managing various tasks at the same time, with excellent project management skills. You will be keen to make an impact in a small team and be hungry for searching out opportunities to develop yourself and the business. We are looking for someone who is happy working on their own initiative with energy, enthusiasm and good humour. This is a client facing role so you must be comfortable with working with groups of people from varied backgrounds and excellent at client management. You will be comfortable prioritising urgent, last minute tasks. 

Person specification includes: 

  • Exceptional organisational skills
  • Demonstrable experience of project management 
  • Exceptional attention to detail 
  • Strong and creative problem-solving skills
  • Process-oriented
  • Strong interpersonal skills and experience with stakeholder management
  • Confident with numbers and finances
  • Ability to manage multiple tasks and project at the same time, and capable of managing time effectively
  • Ability to manage competing priorities  
  • Experience of working within a team, with excellent communication skills to support the team in delivery of the whole service and to support cross pollination of work across all of our projects
  • Experience with grantmaking (on an international scale would be desirable)
  • IT literate – experience of working with project management and CRM software is desirable 
  • Experience of line management is desirable
  • Ability to make strategic decisions, anticipating challenges and proactively developing solutions

 

We will give you full training on our internal systems and processes and other methodologies that will be relevant to your role. 

Key responsibilities

As the Relationship Manager, you will be responsible for delivering projects under our Grant Distribution service. You will be leading the delivery of one of our largest projects in international grant giving, as well as managing the delivery of grant distribution with several funding partners. The day to day planning and delivery will be your responsibility, with support from the Programmes Assistant (GD), Head of Service Delivery and Director of Finance to ensure that the contract is being delivered in scope, on time and within the budget. The role will involve:

 

Project management and delivery:

  • Lead on the delivery of the grant distribution arm of the SCN service, Including our international grant giving project with one of our largest clients, and manage the relationship and delivery of grant distribution with several funding partners. You will:
    • Develop and manage a detailed project schedule and work plans, updating regularly when things change;
    • Provide project updates on a consistent basis to various stakeholders and the project team about deliverables, timelines, adjustments, and progress;
    • Work with the Head of Programmes to outline resources needed to deliver the projects, manage these resources in an effective and efficient way through the duration of the project, and update the project team if/when the scope of the project changes, and ensure the contract is being fulfilled within budget;
    • Close the project – including evaluating successes and challenges to enhance learning for your next project;
    • Problem solving where issues arise with the delivery of the project;
    • Support the grant giving process, from application design with the client, support the onboarding of decision making committees, coordinating due diligence and reporting to the client, sending grant agreements and onboarding grantees, managing the payment of grants, providing continued support to grantees throughout their spending period, and tracking financial transactions, evaluation and reporting to the client.

 

Client management:

  • Relationship management of Grant Distribution partners across the service, including those involved in fiscal hosting services.
  • Communicate with the various clients and stakeholders on a regular basis, through virtual and occasional in-person meetings.
  • Identify new opportunities for work with existing clients. 

 

Finance and risk management:

  • Lead on tracking all transactions related to grant distribution, and working with the Finance Officer and SCN Programmes Assistant to ensure records are accurate and payments to grantees are made. 
  • Identify and manage risks to ensure delivery is on time, leaning on the Head of Programmes and Head of Governance and Innovation where needed.
  • Review due diligence for all grantees, and support the Operations team to identify where we need to alter our compliance framework to better serve the business needs.

 

Teamwork and collaboration:

  • Work with the rest of the SCN team to ensure there is sharing of knowledge to improve systems and practice across all services, making sure the services are aligned.  
  • Work alongside and support the full SCN team to ensure we are delivering the vision and strategy.
  • To work with colleagues in the Communications team to provide information, ideas and support for the SCN marketing strategy, related to Grant Distribution.

 

Management: 

  • Manage the Programmes Assistant (GD), overseeing their duties and responsibilities and mentoring their development in the roles and the organisation. 

Terms and benefits

Terms: The role will be full-time (37.5 hours/week) fixed term contract for 18 months – we will consider well-structured JobShare applications. As we often work with volunteers, occasional evening and weekend work will be required and compensated through TOIL. Occasional but limited UK or European travel will be required (by arrangement).

We are open to exploring flexible working arrangements and supporting you to meet commitments you may have.

Salary: £35,800

Contract duration: This is an 18 month contract with potential to extend

Location: Our office is in London, which is open to you to work from any time. If your role is Remote, your place of work will officially be your home, and the office if your role is Hybrid. If your role is Remote it can be based anywhere in the UK, but it must be within a commutable distance from the London office as you will be required to come in at least once a month. If your role is Hybrid, you will be expected to be in the office a minimum of 2 days a week.

Language skills & visa status: Candidates must be fluent in English. You must have the right to work in the UK independently, as we are unable to provide visa sponsorship.

Holiday:  28 days plus bank holidays

Employer pension contribution: We offer a 3% employer pension contribution, that you will be auto enrolled into after 3 months of employment with SCN.  

Additional Paid Time Off: We offer 2 days of paid voluntary time off, encouraging all staff to serve as trustees or any equivalent voluntary positions to contribute to their communities 

Mintago: The health and wellbeing of our staff is very important to us. We offer all of our staff access to Mintago which offers a 24 hour support line, structured counselling with external support, and a bank of online resources such as webinars and articles tailored towards health and wellbeing for both you and the members of your family, and access to some types of legal advice. You can see their website for details. They also offer access to a 24hr virtual GP. 

Financial Wellbeing: The financial wellbeing of our staff means a lot to us. We offer the following to our staff to help them reach their financial goals:

  • Salary sacrifice/exchange schemes for groceries, childcare and pensions, which provide staff with savings on National Insurance contributions, and tax where applicable. 
  • Financial wellbeing platform allows staff to check their pension dashboard, plan for retirement and search for forgotten/lost pensions. There is also a smart saver plan and we provide access to financial advisers for free.
  • Benefits app – retail discounts. Select from over 80 brands.


Start Date: January 2026, or sooner depending on availability

How to apply

To apply please fill out this application form, following the instructions on the first page.

IMPORTANT: You will need to sign in with a Google account in order to access the form. This is required to enable you to attach a CV to your form submission.

We recognise that AI tools are becoming increasingly prevalent in various aspects of professional life, including the job application process, view our AI use guidance for some points to consider.

Hiring process

We strongly encourage applicants from a wide variety of backgrounds. We are committed to our staff representing the wide variety of backgrounds represented in the communities we work with. If you are concerned that you may not fit 100% of the job specification – please throw your hat in the ring. We never put formal education requirements on any role as we value lived experiences as highly as formal education and training qualifications. 

We follow a blind recruitment process, which means that hiring managers for the role can only see your work history and cover note when deciding to progress to the interview stage. 

If you need any accessibility accommodations for this application please do not hesitate to contact us at people@thesocialchangenest.org or by calling 07958298727 and we will be happy to provide you with those accommodations.

Please visit our main vacancies page for our equal opportunities statement. 

Using AI in your application

We recognise that AI tools are becoming increasingly prevalent in various aspects of professional life, including the job application process. While we neither encourage nor discourage the use of AI in your application, we believe it’s important for candidates to be aware of both the potential benefits and drawbacks. Here are some key points to consider:

Potential Benefits of Using AI

  1. Reduces barriers: AI can help individuals with disabilities or those who are not native English speakers in the application process.
  2. Guidance: Can provide suggestions on what you might want to include in your response.
  3. Feedback: Can offer insights on how you could improve your responses.


Potential Drawbacks of Using AI

  1. Generic content: Can result in similar wording appearing across multiple applications, making them feel less unique.
  2. Inaccuracies: AI is sometimes overly creative with facts and may provide inaccurate information.
  3. Loss of personal touch: Your individual experiences and personality might not shine through if AI is relied on too heavily.
  4. Environmental impact:  AI consumes significant environmental resources with every prompt contributing to this.

Remember, the most successful applications are those that genuinely reflect your skills, experiences, and personality. Whether you choose to use AI tools or not, make sure you check your responses thoroughly and ensure that your application accurately represents you as a candidate.