Job description
Job Title: Research Consultant (NE LGBT+ Organisations)
Hours: Consultancy, £1,000
Reports to: Chief Executive
Remuneration: £1,000 consultancy fee
Based: Home-based, but preferably in the North East
Terms: See consultancy brief, Apr-June
Deadline: Wednesday 29th March 2023
Background and role purpose
Consortium continues its journey of being a grant funder, running alongside its core work as the umbrella body for LGBT+ voluntary and community organisations. The latest grant funding programme came thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund and provided £465,000 of onward grants which were open to targeted and intersectional LGBT+ organisations across the England, and the Devolved Nations thanks to additional funds from Comic Relief.
Despite active attempts to make the funding more accessible to targeted communities across the entire country, application levels from the North East region were low, and ultimately led to no awards being made in this area. This may suggest there are barriers we’re not aware of that need to be addressed, and that is the purpose of this piece of work. For context, we undertook community outreach work, used our comms processes to reach out directly to relevant organisations and provided routes for those organisations to discuss ideas and seek support with applications.
We are passionate about ensuring all organisations eligible for our Funds can access them. We need to understand what the landscape for LGBT+ organisations, and the intersectional/targeted work within this looks like, what we can do to improve outreach/communication channels to orgs in the North East, and what else might be needed to increase resourcing in the region.
What we are Seeking
We are seeking a consultant to work alongside Consortium to help us better understand:
- What LGBT+ organisations exist across the North East, including their governance structure, size, thematic / geographical focus, etc.
- Where key gaps might exist in provision for intersectional and targeted communities, or where there is provision why this isn’t being grant funded.
- What might be preventing organisations from applying for LGBT+ specific funding (and also mainstream funding).
- What funders, particularly Consortium, can put in place to ensure there is fair and equal access to future grant funds.
We are seeking someone to lead this community research who can demonstrate an understanding of, and experience of working with, communities in the North East. Skills which we will be looking for are:
- Experience of community research
- Excellent communication skills
- Excellent report writing skills
- Ability to identify common themes and trends
- Interactive and engaging style
- Understanding of the context in which diverse and intersectional LGBT+ Charities operate in.
- Wider understanding of the voluntary sector funding landscape.
Required Outputs
The consultant would be expected to:
- Undertake desk research, and community outreach, to identify and map LGBT+ voluntary and community organisations across the North East.
- Liaise closely with Equity Fund team at Consortium, to share insight, knowledge and intelligence gathered.
- Input into a database details of organisations for future outreach and engagement by Consortium (this will be linked to Consortium’s existing secure CRM).Build a picture of the funding environment from conversations with some LGBT+ organisations in the North East.
- Produce a Research Briefing to:
- Identify the state of the LGBT+ sector in the North East.
- Highlight any key gaps and needs of those organisations.
- Highlight where existing provision operates and how this is achieved.
- Articulate what barriers prevent organisations in the North East from applying for grant funds.
- Produce recommendations for what Consortium and other funders can put in place regarding their funding.
📑 Research Consultant Briefing
Application Process
Please note that the budget for this piece of work is a maximum of £1,000. We estimated this to be across 4 days (costed at £250 per day).
We recognise the limitations this might have on the level of output under each output area.
Interested parties should email [email protected] a C.V and covering letter/email (no more than 2 pages equiv) which outlines your suitability for this role and how you would approach this work, by 29th March 2023.