Head of Charity Partnerships - Volunteer

Head of Charity Partnerships - Volunteer

Join to apply for the Head of Charity Partnerships role at The Safety Net Foundation
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To source, assess and develop relationships with non‑profits and charities, triage their needs, conduct risk and compliance checks, and build a strong pipeline of organisations that SNF can support with pro bono or low‑cost mentoring, projects or ongoing solutions.

What difference will you make? This role is critical to SNF’s mission. We rely on a steady stream of meaningful, appropriately scoped opportunities for our mentees to gain valuable experience while providing much‑needed support to non‑profits and charities. The Head of Charity Partnerships creates and manages that pipeline.

Because SNF serves charities with pro bono or low‑cost support, we must partner with organisations that genuinely need help, are aligned with our values, and have suitable compliance and H&S standards in place. This role ensures those checks happen consistently and professionally. The ability to understand what good looks like in governance, safeguarding, H&S and organisational readiness helps SNF avoid risks and deliver effective support.

• Bringing in a steady flow of new charity partners for project work, mentoring, assessments and ongoing support
• Ensuring each charity is properly triaged, risk‑profiled and matched to the right level of SNF involvement
• Maintaining relationships with sector networks, umbrella bodies and other non‑profit organisations
• Spotting opportunities to deliver impactful work that helps both the charity and SNF’s mentees
• Supporting SNF’s reputation as a credible, structured organisation offering real value to the non‑profit community
• Creating a clear, organised pipeline that keeps mentees engaged and learning through real‑world contributions

Strong charity partnerships also feed directly into SNF’s wider ecosystem – they help mentees develop confidence and skills, support our volunteering model, and increase SNF’s visibility and impact across the sector.

This volunteer will work closely with the Associate Director for Mentoring to ensure smooth handovers, aligned expectations and consistent workflow. That coordination ensures charities get the right support quickly and mentees have meaningful, well‑prepared opportunities.

In short, this role underpins the “opportunity engine” at the heart of SNF – without strong charity partnerships, the organisation can’t deliver its mission effectively.

We need someone well‑connected or experienced within the non‑profit/charity sector who understands how charities operate and what they need to run safely and compliantly. Knowledge of H&S, safeguarding, governance or basic compliance expectations for charities will be extremely valuable.

You’ll be speaking with charity leaders, trustees, operations staff and volunteer coordinators, so strong communication skills are essential. You must be comfortable asking direct questions, identifying gaps, and assessing whether an organisation is ready for SNF support.

Ideally at least 3 years of experience in partnerships, community engagement, charity development, compliance, H&S or organisational assessments would be beneficial, though not strictly required if you have strong sector understanding and practical instincts.

You’ll need to be organised and proactive – this role involves lead generation, follow‑up calls, sense‑check discussions, maintaining a pipeline and documenting outcomes clearly. Reliability is key. Charities need confidence that the process is structured and consistent.

Being comfortable with short triage calls is important. Sometimes you’ll conduct the initial gap‑analysis sense check yourself; other times you’ll coordinate with the SNF management team. Either way, you must be confident assessing risk indicators, resource needs and suitability quickly and professionally.

A strategic mindset helps. You’ll need to judge which organisations are the right fit, which have realistic expectations, and which align with SNF’s mission and capacity. You must be able to filter low‑value or high‑risk leads and prioritise opportunities…