In 2024, Void Art Centre will commence a living practice of socio-permaculture. The concept of social permaculture is the application of permaculture principles to human relationships, communities, social systems and organisational models. Social permaculture is about connection between people, economies, and governing structures – creating the conditions for humans to flourish on a societal level, thus to develop beneficial relationships with the ecosystems which sustain us.
Void’s organisational structure will be based on co-existence and co-creation as well as sustainable use of local resources (both monetary and non-monetary) such as public grants, voluntary commitments, mutual aid, commercial arrangement, and private sponsorship. By taking this view of our financial well-being, we aim to enrich and negotiate our model in relation to an increasingly financialized world. In an era when making sense of our place in the world has to be an act of imagination, art is a necessity of life. The role of Void is to act as a local lifeline.
HEAD OF SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
Salary: £ 25,006 per annum
Location: Void Art Centre, 10 Waterloo Place, Derry. (Some remote working may be possible)
Working hours: 30 hours per week
Contract type: Part-time (3 months probationary period)
Reports to: The Director & Board of Trustees
Essential criteria: Candidate must have a minimum of 2 years fundraising experience and a third level finance qualification or equivalent professional qualification.
Desirable criteria: experience with Sage accounts and day to day bookkeeping for an organisation. Experience of devising and delivering successful fundraising (over £50k) in an arts, culture or not for profit settings
JOB DESCRIPTION
Overview:
This is a fundraising and financial management role based on permaculture principles. We are interested in exploring how our organisation, through its financial structure and income generation strategy, can become more eco-sustainable.
The Head of Sustainable Growth is a new socio-permaculture driven role at the heart of Void Art Centre’s financial and strategic development. Void Art Centre is looking for a highly organised and motivated person with experience in fundraising and financial management who is interested in testing out this new approach. In this role, the candidate will oversee operations in Void Art Centre in order to support the institution’s viability, and actively stimulate its healthy enrichment to facilitate the smooth running of the institution’s activities in cooperation with the rest of the team and in collaboration with the city of Derry.
Working closely with the Void team, the Head of Sustainable Growth will play a crucial role in developing and delivering Void’s future Strategic Plan 2024–28. The candidate will lead on the redevelopment and maintenance of Void’s partnerships, its financial management, income generation and fundraising in ways that embody their collective values of socio-permaculture.
This is a key role within the organisation reporting to the Director and the Board of Trustees. The Head of Sustainable Growth will provide specialist skills in accounts, payroll, financial reporting and fundraising.
Key Objectives:
- Taking care of the institution’s sustainable growth. This includes budgeting, bookkeeping, financing and managing the expectations, needs, and mutual responsibilities of different actors and stakeholders (non-monetary);
- Create new collaborative and in-kind solutions to achieve a sustainable environment both for Void Art Centre and the community it serves.
- Design strategies and practices of enriching the local exchanges and collaborations
- Develop funding sources to support the growth of the organisation as well as the public programmes.
JOB SPECIFICATION
- To perform and assist with fundraising and to provide data and budgets for fundraising projects.
- Assisting the Director and other staff as necessary to prepare financial information required for funding applications to local authority and other funding bodies.
- Working with the Director and relevant staff to evolve Void Art Centre’s socio-permaculture approach & contributing to the thinking of new, relevant areas for artistic research and investigation
- Completing financial monitoring reports and ongoing funding claims as required.
- Producing regular financial monitoring reports for meetings.
- Working with relevant staff to consider how public programme activities can be strategically utilised for development purposes.
- Supporting the development of programmes and co-commissioning partners for the public programme, where there are opportunities for in-kind or matched support.
- Ensuring that Void Art Centre carries out its commitments with funders, co-commissioners, and partners, including reporting and appropriate acknowledgements across all printed and online platforms.
- Developing earned income streams.
- Overseeing the management of funding databases.
- Attending local authority meetings and community forums with a view to strategic development.
- Representing the organisation at in-house and external events with may involve public speaking.
- Supporting the evaluation progress to reflect on impact, feeding these results into a continuous learning and improvement processes.
- Carrying out all duties related to wages, salaries & employment matters including monthly returns and payments to HMRC, pension providers and banks.
- Using software packages like Sage Accounts and Bright Pay payroll.
- Carrying out all day-to-day bookkeeping, reporting and reconciliation tasks.
- Documenting, overseeing and authorising the payment of suppliers.
- Monitoring bank accounts and liaising with the bank.
- Drafting accounts, preparing for audit and liaising with auditors.
- Working in collaboration with the director to prepare budgets and forecasts.
- Working on grant applications & supplying financial information for funders.
We appreciate this is an unusual role and encourage anyone who feels they have good financial management and fundraising experience to apply.
Please send your CV and cover letter to hello@derryvoid.com
Acknowledgements
Void Gallery is supported using public funding from Arts Council Northern Ireland, Arts Council National Lottery Fund, All Island Fund, Austin and Hope Pilkington Foundation, Arnold Clarke Foundation, Bank of Ireland Begin Together Arts Fund, Community Foundation Ireland, Derry City and Strabane District Council, Enkalon Foundation, National Lottery Community Fund, The Ireland Funds, Ragdoll Foundation.
