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Social Investment Relationship Manager

Job title: Social Investment Relationship Manager
Reporting to: Investment Readiness Manager
Salary: £34k to £36k + 5% pension
Hours: 35 hours per week
Based: Home working with access to our office in Edinburgh and occasional travel throughout Scotland.
Start date:  ASAP

Vacancy Deadline: 23:59, Monday 19 June 2023
Interview Date: 27th June 2023
Invitied Candidates will be notified: 21st June 2023

To apply complete the application form at the bottom of this page or tap this link to load it in a new window

About the Firstport Group

The Firstport Group is Scotland’s leading agency supporting social entrepreneurs, social enterprises, and purpose-led businesses. Encompassing Firstport for Social Entrepreneurs, FirstImpact and Impact Investment Partnership Scotland, the Group has over 15 years of experience supporting thousands of entrepreneurs to develop, start, and grow their businesses. While the Group’s footprint is primarily in Scotland, from 2023, it has expanded its reach to the North East of England.

Firstport is Scotland’s development agency for start-up social enterprise. We support early-stage social enterprises and highly motivated people to test, refine and grow their ideas into viable social businesses. Our package of support includes seed funds, business advice, training, practical tools, and connections to help social entrepreneurs make their ideas a reality.

FirstImpact works with the wider business as a force for good movement across all sectors who want to structure and grow their businesses in a way that is profitable, mission-led, and impact-focused.

Impact Investment Partnership Scotland (IIPS) focuses on providing flexible social investment for ambitious social enterprises. IIPS currently manages the Catalyst Fund, a £15m fund from the Scottish Government that invests in social enterprises through an innovative revenue-based loan programme.

In 2019 we launched our strategy, Increasing Social Impact Through Entrepreneurship, with a focus on increasing our capacity to support the growing interest in social entrepreneurship and playing a more purposeful role in shaping the wellbeing economy in Scotland. While we continue to pursue the principles outlined in the strategy, we are doing so with a renewed and refreshed focus, considering the context in which we now operate, and the need to respond to a different future.

We are committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion, and we aim to recruit and retain the best candidates from the widest pool of talent, one which reflects the communities we serve.

We strive to create an environment where everyone can be themselves and do their best work. We offer:

• A generous holiday package with 33 days annual leave entitlement and office closure the days between Christmas and New Year
• Pension scheme
• Flexible working
• An Employee Assistance Programme, which provides access to a range of support relating to work/life balance, physical, emotional, and mental health
• Bike-to-work scheme

Find out more about us on our website – www.firstport.org.uk

Job purpose:

The Social Investment Relationship Manager is responsible for directly assessing and supporting ambitious social enterprises on their journey towards investment and growth. The role is part of the LaunchMe team in Firstport. LaunchMe is an investment readiness programme designed to provide a wide range of business and leadership support, guidance, and expertise to organisations looking to scale their business and impact and take on social investment to accelerate growth.

This role is pivotal in assessing, developing, and maintaining relationships with participants of the LaunchMe programme. You will ensure participants of the programme have the right package of support in place, ensure they are on track with their development, connect them with relevant experts and content, and regularly check in to make sure they are moving forward on their journey towards investment. You will also be responsible for providing direct support to the participants in one or more key areas, see essential duties for more information. The role is fast-paced, and you will work with a sizeable caseload of social enterprises all at different stages of their journey. The ability to multi-task, prioritise, and work to tight deadlines is essential. 

This role is part of a small and passionate team, with a strong positive culture, focussed on supporting social enterprises to achieve their ambitions and widen their social/environmental impact. Our focus is on putting the participants of LaunchMe at the heart of what we do. The right candidate will have a great opportunity to join the team at an exciting time of changes to the content and delivery of the programme and will be able to help shape this new approach.

The role will also be responsible for attending certain outreach activities/events to ensure we are promoting Firstport and the LaunchMe programme as widely as possible and attracting social enterprises from across Scotland and across all business sectors.

You will also contribute to continuous improvement of the programme, as we seek to make the programme as responsive and relevant as possible to the changing needs of the businesses with whom we work. 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide high levels of relationship management to participants of the programme and assess their current position and ongoing needs as time develops.
• Assess social enterprises suitability for the LaunchMe programme.
• Support the creation of bespoke support packages for social enterprises in line with their specific needs as identified during the assessment process.
• Provide direct support to social enterprises in one or more of the following areas:
• Business development, planning, and strategy
• Social impact, planning, and measurement
• Marketing, market research
• Governance

• Attend regular LaunchMe team meetings, provide updates, and share intelligence and best practice within the LaunchMe team and more widely within Firstport.
• Support the design and delivery of the LaunchMe programme.
• Deliver workshops and create content/resources in your area(s) of expertise.
• Maintain accurate and timely records of activity with participants of the programme on the Firstport CRM database
• Attend outreach activities/events both in person and online promoting the LaunchMe and wider Firstport products and services.
• Maintain regular and effective communication with participants of LaunchMe, the LaunchMe team, Firstport colleagues, external partners, and key stakeholders.
• Contribute to the preparation of reports for senior management, Firstport board and Scottish Government.

• Identify opportunities for continuous improvement of the programme, proactively seeking out, capturing and responding to the needs of clients.
• Support the development of relationships with new and existing partners, social investors, funders, and support agencies.

To apply complete the application form at the bottom of this page or tap this link to load it in a new window

Person Specification

As an organisation, we are looking for talented people from a wide range of backgrounds and communities. Whether through lived or gained experience, or both, you will understand and share a passion for what we do.

Essential

• Experience of managing and maintaining strong relationships with organisations and individuals.
• Coaching skills, with the ability to motivate individuals and assess their current position and ongoing needs to help them progress.
• Ability to develop and maintain good working relationships with a range of colleagues, participants, stakeholders, and partners.
• Experience of social investment and the social investment and funding process.
• Experience of supporting ambitious organisations looking to scale what they do.
• Understanding of the social enterprise model and the third sector.
• High level communication skills, including experience of communicating effectively across cultures and with diverse audiences, both verbally and in writing.
• Empathetic, positive, and supportive mindset.
• Proactive and motivated, able to work autonomously.
• Digitally confident, open to using a range of tools (We use MS Office suite, Google suite, Slack, Trello and Mural/Miro).

Desirable

• Experience of working with/or for social investment/repayable finance organisations.
• Solid knowledge of and experience in monitoring and evaluation.
• Experience of supporting social enterprises with growth and investment.
• Experience of using Salesforce or other CRM.
• Experience in strengthening organisational processes and systems through continuous improvement.