Our vision is for Church of England Birmingham to be a generous community where everybody where everybody gives as an expression of worship and to serve the flourishing of this community. The Generous Giving lead will support parishes in our vibrant, intercultural city region to focus on generosity within their own context. This will include supporting parishes to create a generous culture, by responding to individual parish context, and helping them generate giving to take forward their plans to sustain ministry and grow mission for the long term. They will also lead on developing diocese wide communication (in conjunction with the Communications team) and tools (where needed and not available elsewhere) to share best practice in giving and continue to encourage a culture of generosity.

A background in finance is not essential but the role holder will be financially literate and know their way round a spreadsheet.' The role holder will collaborate with colleagues to inspire and lead change in giving practice and generosity to help us fulfill our vision to ‘Grow church at the heart of each community’. The right person will be motivated to play their part in the Kingdom of God and able to connect with and inspire the wide range of people that make up Church of England Birmingham. They will become a member of a national network of colleagues across the CofE with mentoring and training support available from the National Giving Team.

This is a role for an engaging, facilitator who understands giving, generosity, discipleship and the challenges faced by local church in a diverse range of contexts.

This will involve:

• Working with the Church of England Birmingham Finance Team, Mission Support Team, Archdeacons, Area Deans, Oversight Ministers, Communications Team, Directors and all other relevant stakeholders to engage parishes around their generosity and giving.
• Working with clergy, lay leaders, treasurers, church wardens and other key parish stakeholders in assessing their current situation and developing a generous giving strategy. Then helping them launch and embed this strategy with their church family.
• Disseminating, and where needed adapting, national tools and resources that can be used across wide contexts to support giving strategies.
• Keeping generosity as a regular theme in the life of Church of England Birmingham by creating content for the different communication channels.
• Leading on creating a generous giving section of the Church of England Birmingham website with resources for parishes and clergy as well as links into how generosity and giving can be developed as part of a discipleship journey.
• Signposting parishes to the Enabler of Learning for Discipleship and Mission to enable them to access the whole church ‘Way of Discipleship’ generous giving module.
• Support the introduction of the Parish Giving Scheme at parish level.
• Support the uptake in digital giving and help churches incorporate the technology that is most appropriate to them and their context.

• Input into the monitoring of the giving programme by keeping accurate records and providing full and accurate reporting to agreed deadlines

The ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate the following qualities:

Essential

• A committed Christian with a good understanding of the concepts of generosity, giving and discipleship. This is an occupational requirement for the post holder to be a committed Christian in accordance with the Equality Act 2010.
• Good written and verbal communications skills, including the ability to summarise complex information, and give clear and concise information to a range of audiences.
• An ability to handle and present financial data in clear and engaging ways to non-finance audiences; to draw out the story that the data tells.
• Enthusiastic, approachable and professional; able to work creatively and collaboratively with a range of colleagues.
• An ability to identify and engage the influencers in a variety of situations, and to deploy and guide them in implementation activity.
• Self-motivated and well-organised; able to work efficiently and effectively in meeting deadlines.
• Be a person of integrity.
• Good IT skills, including Microsoft Office applications.
• Experience of working in a sensitive environment and handling confidential matters with tact and diplomacy.
• Have an ability to plan, design and lead training sessions aimed at a variety of different levels.
• A friendly and warm persona with the ability to relate and quickly build trust with a diverse range of people.
• Have the ability to empathise and also to challenge behaviours or perceptions appropriately.
• Commitment to promote and model best practice in Safeguarding.
• The ability to travel across the diocese frequently.
• The role is primarily Monday to Friday however evening and weekend work will be required.
• Willing to live out our values and to inspire others to do the same. Our values are:
  • Collaborative
  • Supportive
  • Generous
  • Inspirational
  • Committed to a Common Purpose

Desirable

• An understanding of the Church of England, its character and organisation structures, and the ability to work with its culture and mission, and an affinity with the work of – and challenges faced by – clergy and lay leaders at parish and oversight area level.
• Experience of public speaking.
• Have an understanding of fundraising and direct giving, preferably in a Christian context.
• An understanding of fundraising including Gift Aid and tax efficient planned giving as well as raising funds from trusts and foundations.

Terms and Conditions

• Salary in the region of £29,500
• Hours of work: This is a full-time role of 35 hours per week. The role is primarily Monday to Friday however evening and weekend work will be required.
• This is a fixed term role, subject to funding, for two and a half years.
• Pension 12% contribution into the Church Workers Pension Fund
• Holiday 25 days per annum, plus 8 Bank Holidays, plus 3 discretionary days
• The employer is the Birmingham Diocesan Board of Finance (BDBF)
• Reports to the Finance Manager – Parish Services & Outsourcing

INTERVIEWS WILL TAKE PLACE ON MONDAY 6TH NOVEMBER

The Church of England Birmingham is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive community - a place where all can be themselves and bring their unique identity to their ministry and/or work.

We welcome applications from any individuals who feel that they meet the person specification for any post, in particular from those who are currently under-represented in or staff teams such as those from Global Majority Heritage or UK Minority Ethnic backgrounds, those with visible or invisible disabilities and those who identify as LGBTQI+.

We offer a range of inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements and other services to our staff teams.

The Church of England Birmingham is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All post holders are expected to share this commitment.