Reports To: Head of HR

Salary Band: 5

Contract Type: Full time

Salary: GBP 29,084 – 36,355 per annum (gross)

About Lively Minds

We are on a mission to get quality early childhood development (ECD) to millions of rural preschoolers by activating the power of parents. There's no debate: the early childhood years are critical for a child's lifelong success and well-being. But a staggering 250 million children globally miss out, the majority of whom live in rural communities in the Global South. Current solutions donʼt offer the quality, affordability, urgency or scale needed.

Our big idea: parents are the “sleeping giant" of early learning. Children spend most of their early years at home, yet rural parents particularly mothers often lack the information, confidence, and support to provide nurturing care and early learning. Current solutions don't offer the quality, affordability, urgency, or scale needed.

We provide technical advisory support to governments to enable them to integrate proven, evidence-based, practical ECD solutions into their existing systems, adapting to their context, resources and priorities. This enables them to be the doer and the payer from the start and at scale.

Our parent-powered model gets simple, practical, play-based activities into the hands of parents through existing pre-primary and community systems, ensuring it is low-cost, scalable, and sustainable. Governments deliver and fund the programme themselves, using their own resources and staff, while we provide technical advisory support, tools, and implementation guidance to ensure quality and scalability. We complement this with innovative mass-reach solutions, including radio programming in local languages, equipping millions of parents with practical tools and ideas to support their childrenʼs development.

We are an award-winning, ambitious and fast-moving organisation, now piloting new approaches in Ethiopia and The Gambia, and exploring further country partnerships.

Our ambition is bold: to lead a global paradigm shift and make parent-powered ECD the norm.

To find out more about our programme, please visit www.livelyminds.org.

About the Role

The HR Manager will have a strong focus on learning & development, leading Lively Mindsʼ approach to learning, talent development and succession planning to build the skills, leadership capability and talent pipeline needed to deliver our organisational priorities and support future growth. The role will design and deliver practical, high-impact learning initiatives, identify current and future capability gaps, strengthen succession readiness for critical roles, and proactively manage key people risks.

As a senior member of the HR team, the HR Manager will also provide high-level operational and strategic HR support across the organisationand deputise for the Head of HR when required, ensuring continuity in the delivery of key people priorities and contributing to a high-performing, learning-focused and positive workplace culture.

Key Responsibilities

Learning & Development Strategy and Delivery

• Develop and implement a forward-looking L&D strategy and annual learning plan that builds the capabilities required to deliver organizational priorities, support scale and strengthen performance.
•  Use organisational priorities, performance data, and skills/behavioral gap analysis to identify critical capability gaps and translate these into targeted development priorities.
• Develop practical, cost-effective learning interventions, including leadership programmes, bootcamps, cultural briefings, and other development initiatives, using an appropriate blend of internal expertise, peer learning and external providers.
• Facilitate training sessions and learning activities, coordinate the development and adaptation of learning content and materials, and ensure sessions are appropriately documented and accessible for future use.
• Promote continuous learning, knowledge sharing, and accountability for development, while building external peer networks and identifying relevant practices and innovations that can strengthen organisational capability.
• Establish appropriate quality assurance and evaluation mechanisms, including learner feedback, trainer evaluations, and impact assessments, to determine whether learning interventions are improving capability and performance and to continuously strengthen programme quality.

Succession Planning & People Risk Management

• Partner with the Senior Management Team (SMT) to identify critical and vulnerable roles, assess succession risk and maintain a robust organisation-wide succession plan that strengthens leadership, buildsstrong talent pipeline and ensures organisational continuity.
• Develop and monitor targeted development plans for identified successors, using learning, coaching, mentoring, stretchassignments and cross-functional exposure to progressively build readiness forfuture roles.
• Develop structured leadership and career development pathways that build the capabilities required for current and emerging leadership roles and strengthen the organisation's internal talent pipeline.
• Use performance, competency and talent data to identify high-potential employees, development needs and readiness for progression, ensuring development investment is targeted where it will have the greatest organisational impact.
• Proactively identify roles and talent where loss could significantly affect organisational delivery and work with managers to develop appropriate retention, knowledge-transfer and risk-mitigation actions.

HR Insights, Reward & Organisational Effectiveness

• Analyse key workforce metrics, including turnover, absence, retention, recruitment and learning effectiveness, and provide the Head of HR with actionable insights to inform workforce decisions and priorities.
• Undertake periodic salary benchmarking and pay equity reviews and provide recommendations that support internal equity, external competitiveness, career progression and retention.
• Champion agreed diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, monitor progress and use relevant workforce data to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Supervise and develop the HR Coordinator, setting clear expectations and ensuring HR administration/operations, systems and services are delivered accurately, efficiently and to a consistently highstandard.

Broader HR Management Responsibilities

Support the Head of HR to:

• Implement HR priorities aligned with organisational goals, including organisational development, change management, culture-building and workforce initiatives.
• Support end-to-end recruitment and ensure new employees receive consistent, high-quality onboarding and induction that enables them to become effective quickly.
• Support the fair, timely, and consistent management of disciplinary, grievance and other employee relations matters in accordance with organisational policies and applicable legislation.
• Ensure consultants and contractors, including those engaged in new-entry countries, receive appropriate onboarding and understand the organisation's expectations, values and behaviours.
• Design and implement practical initiatives that strengthen employee motivation, trust, wellbeing, connection and retention.
• Review, update and support the effective implementation of HR policies and procedures, ensuring they remain relevant, legally compliant and aligned with organisational needs and good practice.

Person Specification

To succeed in this role, you must:

• Be passionate about developing others and love to find creative and fun ways to enable others to learn and thrive.
• Have a solid background in more generalized HR management but a spike in L+D.
• Be an excellent planner, facilitater and communicator; you thrive when organising practical learning opportunities for others whether this is in virtual or formal classroom settings, or by finding clear opportunities in day-to-day activities.
• Be able to coach and deliver feedback to trainers so that they improve the quality of their work.
• Are a great trainer yourself who can flex your style and approach to fit different audience types.
• Be flexible to travel to Uganda, Ghana and other countries that the organisation is expanding to.
• Be able to work on multiple tasks while maintaining high quality standards.
• Bring external best practice and learning to Lively Minds by networking, attending conferences, and having a large appetite for learning and continuous development.

Essential

• At least 2-3 years in a similar role with an additional 4-6 year background in a more generalized HR position.
• Deep understanding and application of learning concepts, frameworks, theories, instructional design, and organizational needs.
• Experience in conducting job evaluation and development of salary structure based on salary benchmarking and localization across multiple countries.
• Experience in succession plan development and talent development.
• Experience in creating and implementing L&D strategies for an organisation that spans multiple countries (preferably within the Global South).
• Experience in developing and delivering training programs and achieving proven results.
• Ability to develop practical approaches that support employees to apply and embed learning in their day-to-day work.
• Ability to conduct post-training evaluations anduse feedback to reinforce learning and address gaps.
• Good understanding of the labour laws in Ghana, Uganda, and UK.
• Ability to manage a complex and varied workload and to work under pressure.

Desirable

• Ability to analyse training data, participant feedback, and performance outcomes to identify trends and continuously improve L&D interventions.
• Experience coaching others, a coaching certification is desirable.
• Experience in change management.
• Behaviour-change experience.
• Worked in a charity or NGO operating within or across the Global South

What We Offer

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience
• 25 days annual leave
• Health insurance
• Pension contribution
• Learning and development opportunities

Application Instructions

Interested candidates are encouraged to read the job description carefully before applying to ensure they understand the role and meet the required criteria.

To apply, please complete the pre-screening questions and submit your updated CV using the link below:

Apply Here

PLEASE NOTE: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Timeline

Closing Date: by midnight GMT on 15th September 2026.

Our Stance

Lively Minds operates a strict safeguarding policy and is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of children and vulnerable people. As part of our recruitment process, the suitability of successful candidates will be verified through appropriate background checks, including professional references and police checks.

Lively Minds is fully committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion and to providing equal opportunities throughout our recruitment process. We want this commitment to be reflected in the diversity of the people who work for us, and we welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, identities, experiences and perspectives.

We are committed to ensuring that recruitment decisions are based on merit, skills, experience, and suitability for the role, and that all candidates are treated fairly and with respect throughout the recruitment process.

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‍Role Overview

Help build the governance foundations for early childhood development at scale

Over 250million children under five across the Global South miss out on the care, play and stimulation they need duringthe most important years of their lives. Governments increasinglyrecognise the importance of early childhood development, but many struggle tofind approaches that are affordable, scalable and sustainable.

Lively Mindsbelieves the solution is hiding in plain sight: parents.

For almost twenty years we have worked alongside governments and communities to develop and test a parent-powered approach thatenables families- regardless of their incomeor level of education -to give childrenthe best possible start in life. We have shown thatthis approach can be successfully integrated into government systemsand delivered at scale. In Ghana alone, our model has been adopted nationally, reaching more than 700,000 childrenand supporting over 130,000parents. Independent research found participatingchildren made developmental gains equivalent to an additional year of schooling.

 Having demonstrated whatis possible, we are now entering an exciting new phase.

Rather than operating as atraditional programme delivery organisation, Lively Minds has evolved into aspecialist technical assistance partner. We work alongside governments todesign, test and scale parent-powered early childhood development withinnational education systems - building the capability, evidence andimplementation approaches that enable governments to lead sustainable,long-term change.

Today we support governments in Ghana, Uganda,Ethiopia and The Gambia, with partnerships in development in Togo and Senegal. Our ambition is to help many moregovernments transform early childhood development over the coming decade.

We realise that our strategyrequires an organisation that is not onlyambitious and effective, but well-governed. We are looking for a GovernanceTrustee who can help ensure we have the structures, standards andaccountability needed to operate with confidence at scale

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The Opportunity

This is not a traditional governance trustee role

Lively Minds is at an important strategic inflection point. As we expand our technical assistance model across multiple countries, we are asking new questions about scale, innovative partnerships, and operating with complexity and uncertainty.

We are looking for someone who enjoys helping ambitious organisations navigate those questions.

Lively Minds has recently undertaken a significant governance reset, developing a new governance framework, decision-making and delegation policy, committee structures and trustee role expectations. We are now looking for a Governance Trustee to help embed and champion that work, ensuring it translates into practice and evolves as the organisation grows.

As Governance Trustee, you will bring expertise, independent judgement and constructive challenge to the Board on governance matters. You will act as a trusted sounding board for the Chair and CEO, help the Board meet its legal and regulatory obligations, and ensure that the processes and structures that underpin good governance are understood, followed and kept current.

You will join a Board that believes its role is to help the organisation realise its potential. That means asking difficult questions, opening doors, sharing expertise, encouraging innovation and supporting the executive team to succeed - while respecting the principle that the Board governs and management manages.

To find out more about our programme, please visit www.livelyminds.org.

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Key Responsibilities

As Governance Trustee you will help the Board to

Champion good governance

• Champion good governance practice across the Board, ensuring it is meeting its legal and regulatory obligations
• Ensure the Board Governance Framework, Code of Conduct and committee Terms of Reference are understood, followed and kept current 
• Act as a sounding board for the CEO and Chair on governance questions and emerging governance and legal risks

Strengthen board effectiveness

• Lead or support the annual board performance review process
• Support trustee recruitment, induction and tenure processes, including the skills audit and succession planning
• Help ensure the Board has the right composition, culture and working practices to govern effectively

Oversee complaints and dispute resolution

• Oversee the Complaints, Disputes and Escalation Policy, ensuring it is fit for purpose and followed when triggered
• Provide independent governance oversight when complaints or disputes are activated

Contribute as a Trustee

Like all trustees, you will contribute to the overall leadership and governance of Lively Minds, participating fully in Board discussions on strategy, organizational performance, risk, people, and governance. We also expect trustees to champion the organisation actively - using their networks, credibility and relationships to open doors, support fundraising, strengthen partnerships and increase Lively Minds' visibility in the spaces where it matters most. The Board governs rigorously and champions energetically; we are looking for trustees who are ready to do both.

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Candidate Profile

Who we are looking for

We're looking for someone who combines deep governance expertise with practical judgement and a commitment to our mission.

You will probably have:

• strong knowledge of charity governance and UK Charity Commission requirements
• experience as a senior governance professional or senior lawyer
• familiarity with board effectiveness, trustee duties and regulatory compliance
• the confidence to provide constructive challenge while building positive relationships
• an understanding of the respective roles of trustees and management
• the ability to translate governance principles into practical, proportionate action

Desirable Experience

Experience in one or more of the following would be particularly valuable:

•  supporting governance reform or board development in a scaling organisation
•  international development or cross-jurisdictional governance environments
• complaints handling, dispute resolution or employment law
• trustee recruitment and board succession planning

Most importantly, we're looking for someone who is excited by our mission and motivated by the opportunity to help build an organisation capable of transforming early childhood development at scale.

Time commitment

The expected commitment is approximately one to two days per month.

This includes:

•   four Board meetings each year
•  preparation for meetings, including reviewing governance compliance ahead of each meeting
• the annual board performance review process
• annual reviewand update of governance documents
• occasional availability as a sounding board for the Chair and CEO on governance questions and emerging risks
• oversight of complaints or dispute resolution processes when triggered

Meetings are primarily held remotely, with occasional in-person meetings.

The role is voluntary and unpaid, although reasonable expenses will be reimbursed.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

We believe stronger boards are built through diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds.

We particularly welcome applications from people with lived or professional experience in the countries and regions where we work, and from groups currently underrepresented on charity boards.

We are committed to making our recruitment process accessible and will make reasonable adjustments wherever needed

Application Instruction

If you are motivated by using your governance expertise to help governments transform the lives of millions of children, we would love to hear from you.

 Please send:

• Your CV (or short professional biography)
• A covering letter explaining why you are interested in joining the Board of Lively Minds and what you would bring to the role.

Applications should be sent to jobs@livelyminds.org

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Timeline:

Closing Date: 5th September 2026

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Role: Director of Fundraising & Communications

Location: Remote, with regular travel to international conferences and events. Must be within UK/African time zones

Reports To: Chief Executive Officer

Manages: Advocacy Lead, Development Manager and Communications Officer

Contract Type: Full-time, permanent

Salary: £70,000 - £80,000

About Lively Minds

Lively Minds is an award-winning NGO with nearly 20 years of experience designing, testing and scaling early childhood development (ECD) solutions across the Global South. Our core idea is simple but radical: parents are the sleeping giants of ECD. Governments and donors have long overlooked parents, assuming that poverty and low literacy make them unable or unwilling to support their childrenʼs development. We have spent two decades proving otherwise. With RCT-backed evidence and a national-scale proof point in Ghana, we have demonstrated that parent-powered approaches, delivered through government systems, can achieve meaningful child development outcomes at scale.

Our 2026–2028 strategy marks a pivotal shift. Having demonstrated what is possible, we are now helping pioneer an innovative model of country-led sustainable scale. Rather than delivering programmes ourselves, we provide lean, time-limited technical advisory support to governments to help them integrate parent-powered ECD into their own systems, budgets and institutions. We are currently working with the governments of Ghana, Uganda, Oromia state (Ethiopia) and The Gambia in 2026, growing to six or more country engagements by 2028. Our ambition is to catalyse a sector-wide shift, positioning Lively Minds as the definitive partner for governments seeking to strengthen their ECD systems.

Our scale strategy rests on three interdependent pillars: fixed-term Technical Advisory partnerships with governments; the development of a modular radio model simple and affordable enough for governments to adopt and fund independently; and an advocacy and sector influence agenda designed to make parent-powered ECD the norm globally.

Purpose of the Role

Lively Minds is at a critical inflection point. We have the evidence, the model and the momentum. We now need the funding, profile and sector influence to match our ambition. The Director of Fundraising and Communications is a priority hire, created to provide the dedicated, experienced leadership that this moment demands.

The Director will own and drive Lively Mindsʼ income generation, building new funder relationships, managing and deepening existing ones, and ensuring the organisation has the pipeline, discipline and quality of engagement to meet and exceed its fundraising targets. Working in close partnership with the Founding CEO, who retains ownership of a small number of long-standing strategic relationships, the Director will take primary responsibility for securing the funding that makes the 2026–2028 strategy deliverable, and that opens the door to greater scale beyond it. We need to raise approximately £3.4m over the next 3 years to deliver our strategy. But our ambition is to exceed that target so we can support additional governments.

Alongside fundraising, the Director will provide strategic leadership to Lively Mindsʼ communications and advocacy work, ensuring that the organisationʼs external voice is compelling and that we are building credibility in the spaces where funding decisions are made. The Director will lead and provide strategic coherence to a small but outward-facing team, including Head of Partnerships and Advocacy Lead who are active on the international stage. Lively Minds is committed to thought-leadership and active external engagement, but equally committed to ensuring that communications resource is deployed with discipline and rigour. The Director will set a clear strategic filter for where the organisation shows up, what it publishes and who it engages: prioritising focus and quality over volume, and always asking whether external activity is building the relationships and reputation that ultimately drive income and/or systems change.

Lively Minds is a dispersed, remote organisation. The Directorʼs team the Advocacy Lead, Development Manager and Communications Officer - are internationally distributed. The ability to lead, develop and maintain high standards across a dispersed team is essential. The role requires regular travel to international conferences and events.

Key Responsibilities

Fundraising Strategy & Income Generation

• Own and deliver the multi-year fundraising strategy with clear priorities, targets, income streams and a disciplined pipeline to support the 2026–2028 strategy and future scale
• Steward existing funder relationships, turning strong partnerships into long-term supporters, advocates and connectors to new funding opportunities.
• Lead the shift towards Big Bet and catalytic funding, personally cultivating and negotiating high-value, multi-year partnerships and positioning Lively Minds for system-level scale
• Maintain a high standard of fundraising quality, pipeline management and forecasting, while coaching the team to produce compelling, sophisticated fundraising materials
• Build and continuously strengthen a diverse funding pipeline, identifying emerging opportunities, new funding markets and strategic partnerships that reduce concentration risk and support long-term financial sustainability

Communications, Brand & Advocacy

• Own and deliver Lively Mindsʼ communications and marketing strategy, balancing visibility and sector influence with the need to strengthen fundraising and systems-change objectives
• Partner closely with the CEO to shape and steward a coherent external narrative, brand and messaging framework across all audiences and channels
• Oversee high-quality core communications and fundraising materials, including cases for support, pitch decks, website content, proposals and donor reports
• Provide strategic communications expertise to Advocacy, Partnerships and MEL, ensuring evidence and learning are translated into compelling narratives and consistent external messaging
• Lead efforts to strengthen Lively Mindsʼ profile and thought leadership in the ECD sector, identifying opportunities for strategic media, events, publications and external platforms that reinforce its positioning and influence

Organizational Leadership&TeamDevelopment

• Contribute actively to SMT and organisational strategy, bringing funder intelligence, external perspective and communications expertise to strategic decision-making.
• Work closely with Finance and MEL to align fundraising targets, forecasting, budgets and evidence, ensuring proposals are credible, accurately costed and evidence-led
• Act as the organisationʼs communications subject matter expert, providing guidance and challenge to ensure high-quality, consistent external communications
• Lead and develop the Advocacy Lead, Development Manager and Communications Officer, fostering a team culture of quality, accountability, strategic clarity and continuous improvement
• Build strong cross-organisational collaboration, ensuring teams understand how fundraising, communications, advocacy and evidence work together to advance Lively Mindsʼ strategic priorities

Person Specification

Essential Experience & Skills

• 10+ years of significant senior-level fundraising experience within international development, education, philanthropy or a comparable sector
• Proven track record of securing major grants from foundations, institutional donors and high-net-worth individuals, alongside demonstrated experience securing or meaningfully progressing large-scale, catalytic funding from Big Bet philanthropy programmes such as the Audacious Project, Skoll Foundation or comparable funders. A strong understanding of what these funders look for and how to position an organisation compellingly within their processes is essential
• Exceptional fundraising writing skills, with the ability to personally develop compelling cases for support, funding proposals, award applications and pitch decks tailored to sophisticated impact funders. This is a hands-on role requiring both strong writing capability and the ability to coach others to consistently produce high-quality fundraising content
• Experienced in developing and owning a marketing and communications strategy, with a strong understanding of how to balance organisational visibility, thought leadership and sector influence with coherence, strategic focus and income generation
• Demonstrated ability to work closely with a Founding CEO to shape and steward the organisationʼs external narrative and brand. Comfortable working in a founder-led environment, providing expertise and constructive challenge while ensuring the organisation maintains a clear, consistent and coherent external voice

Desirable Experience

• Experienced fundraising for a technical advisory, systems change or government-facing organisation
• Knowledge of the ECD, education or early childhood sector and its funding landscape
• Familiarity with the Big Bang Philanthropy network or equivalent impact-focused funder communities
• Experience working alongside advocacy and partnerships teams, providing communications expertise and strategic coherence to their external activity
• Familiarity with the funding landscape for organisations operating in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Experience working remotely across multiple countries and effectively collaborating with cross-cultural teams

Behaviours & Ways of Working

• A doer, equally comfortable in strategic conversations and writing a funding proposal
• Sets a high bar for quality and clarity in all external communications and holds it consistently
• Builds a strong, trust-based partnership with the Founding CEO, provides honest challenge and operates effectively within a founder-led dynamic without losing their own voice or judgement
• Collaborative and cross-organisational. Invests in strong relationships with programme, MEL and finance colleagues, understanding that the best fundraising is grounded in organisational reality
• Calm and focused under pressure - able to manage competing priorities and maintain quality when the stakes are high

What We Offer

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience
• 25 days annual leave
• Health insurance
• Pension contribution
• Generous learning and development budget
• Flexible, remote working

Application Instruction

Interested candidates are encouraged to read the Job Description carefully before applying to ensure they understand the role and meet the required criteria.

To apply, please complete the pre-screening questions and submit your updated CV using the link Here

PLEASE NOTE - Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Timeline

Closing Date: 3rd September 2026

Our Stance

Lively Minds operates a strict safeguarding policy and is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of children and vulnerable people. As part of our recruitment process, the suitability of successful candidates will be verified through appropriate background checks including professional references and police checks.

Lively Minds is fully committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and to providing equal opportunities throughout our recruitment process. We want this commitment to be reflected in the diversity of the people who work for us, and we welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, identities, experiences and perspectives.

We are committed to ensuring that recruitment decisions are based on merit, skills, experience and suitability for the role, and that all candidates are treated fairly and with respect throughout the recruitment process.

‍

‍Role Overview

‍

250 million children under 5 years old across the Global South miss out on the care, play and stimulation they need during the most important years of their lives. Governments increasingly recognise the importance of early childhood development, but many struggle to find approaches that are affordable, scalable, and sustainable.

Lively Minds believes the solution is hiding in plain sight: parents.

For almost twenty years we have worked alongside governments and communities to develop and test a parent-powered approach that enables families, regardless of their income or level of education, to give children the best possible start in life. We have shown that this approach can be successfully integrated into government systems and delivered at scale. In Ghana alone, our model has been adopted nationally, reaching more than 700,000 children and supporting over 130,000 parents. Independent research found participating children made developmental gains equivalent to an additional year of schooling.

Having demonstrated what is possible, we are now entering an exciting new phase.

Rather than operating as a traditional programme delivery organization, Lively Minds has evolved into a specialist technical assistance partner. We work alongside governments to design, test, and scale parent-powered early childhood development within national education systems, building the capability, evidence, and implementation approaches that enable governments to lead sustainable, long-term change.

Today we support governments in Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia, and the Gambia, with partnerships in development in Togo and Senegal. Our ambition is to help many more governments transform early childhood development over the coming decade.

This is an opportunity to help shape not only the future of Lively Minds but also how governments across the Global South deliver early childhood development for generations to come.

We are looking for a finance trustee who shares that ambition and can help ensure we have the financial stewardship, strategic judgment, and governance needed to achieve it.

The Opportunity

This is not a traditional finance trustee role

Lively Minds is at an important strategic inflection point. As we expand our technical assistance model across multiple countries, we are asking new questions about organisational sustainability, financial resilience, growth, risk, and investment. We are looking for someone who enjoys helping ambitious organisations navigate those questions.

As finance trustee, you will bring independent judgment, financial expertise, and constructive challenge to the Board. You will help ensure we remain financially strong while enabling the organisation to pursue ambitious goals responsibly.

Working closely with the chair, CEO, COO, and finance director and chairing the finance & audit committee, you will help the board make confident, well-informed decisions about the organisation's future.

You will join a board that believes its role is to help the organisation realise its potential. That means asking difficult questions, opening doors, sharing expertise, encouraging innovation and supporting the executive team to succeed, while respecting the principle that the Board governs and management manages.

To find out more about our programme, please visit www.livelyminds.org.

‍

Key Responsibilities

As Finance Trustee you will help the Board to

Provide financial stewardship

• Act as a trusted sounding board to the FinanceDirector
• Help strengthen financial reporting and governance where appropriate
• Share expertise and experience that builds organisational capability
• Chair the Finance & Audit Committee and oversee the charity's financial health and long-term sustainability
• Review financial performance, budgets and forecasts
• Oversee the annual audit and approval of statutory accounts
• Monitor reserves, financial controls and risk management
• Ensure resources are used effectively and deliver value for money

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Strengthen strategic decision-making

• Bring financial insight to discussions on strategy, growth and organisational development
• Help assess the financialimplications of major strategic decisions and investments
• Support the Board in balancing ambition with affordability and risk
• Contribute to discussions on the long-term financial model needed to support international growth

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Support organisational capability

• Act as a trusted sounding board to the FinanceDirector
• Help strengthen financial reporting and governance where appropriate
• Share expertise and experience that builds organisational capability

Contribute as a Trustee

Like all trustees, you will contribute to the overall leadership and governance of Lively Minds, participating fully in board discussions on strategy, organisational performance, risk, people, and governance. We also expect trustees to champion the organisation actively, using their networks, credibility, and relationships to open doors, support fundraising, strengthen partnerships, and increase Lively Minds' visibility in the spaces where it matters most. The Board governs rigorously and champions energetically; we are looking for trustees who are ready to do both.

‍

Candidate Profile

Who we are looking for

We are looking for someone who combines strong financial expertise with strategic curiosity and a commitment to our mission.

You will probably have:

• A recognised accounting qualification (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, or equivalent)
• Senior financial leadership experience
• Excellent financial and commercial judgement
• Experience of financial planning, audit, controls and risk management
• The confidence to provide constructive challenge while building positive relationships
• An understanding of good governance and the respective roles of trustees and management
• The ability to think strategically beyond finance alone

Desirable Experience

Experience in one or more of the following would be particularly valuable:

• Charities or social purpose organisations
• International development
• Technical assistance or advisory organisations
• Scale-ups
• Institutional funding or grant finance
• Working with governments or public sector organisations

Most importantly, we are looking for someone who is excited by our mission and motivated by the opportunity to help build an organisation capable of transforming early childhood development at scale.

Time commitment

The expected commitment is approximately one to two days per month.

This includes:

• Four Board meetings each year
• Four Finance & Audit Committee meetings each year
• Preparation for meetings
• Participation in the annual budget and audit cycle
• Occasional advice and support between meetings

Meetings are primarily held remotely, with occasional in-person meetings.

The role is voluntary and unpaid, although reasonable expenses will be reimbursed.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

We believe stronger boards are built through diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds.

We particularly welcome applications from people with lived or professional experience in the countries and regions where we work, and from groups currently underrepresented on charity boards.

We are committed to making our recruitment process accessible and will make reasonable adjustments wherever needed

Application Instruction

Why become a trustee at Lively Mind

‍ If  are motivated by using your financial expertise to help governments transform the lives of millions of children, we would love to hear from you.

 Please send:

• Your CV (or short professional biography)
• A covering letter explaining why you are interested in joining the Board of Lively Minds and what you would bring to the role.

Applications should be sent to jobs@livelyminds.org

‍

Timeline:

Closing Date: 15 August 2026

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