About the organisation
Greener and Cleaner is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation registered in October 2021. Prior to our charitable status, we had operated as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company since 2019.
Greener and Cleaner delivers locally but thinks, and influences, nationally. Our vision is greener, healthier, better connected communities across the UK. We seek to achieve this through normalising 360-degree sustainable living, bringing the community together to make changes that can deliver a big impact. We have a non-judgemental peer-to-peer approach, so that all elements of the community feel empowered to take action in how they live, work, and play and in how they use their voice to push for change.
At the heart of our work, we are seeking to:
- Ensure that sustainable living is popularised and normalised for all groups and demographics, not just some, and all understand the benefits for them.
- Engage in outreach, co-design, and research to ensure that all groups understand and have the skills needed to engage with sustainable living and its wellbeing, cost saving, and community building co-benefits.
- Ensure that all groups, including hard-to-reach or marginalised groups, are empowered to use their voices as well as those choices.
We are an ambitious group determined to make measurable and lasting impacts. For more information, please check out:
- Our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/greenerandcleaneruk
- The launch of our community support hub (March 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6VT8paw1Gc
- Our Greener and Cleaner website: https://www.greenerandcleaner.co.uk/
A recent study by the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations outlined our success: two-thirds of our community Hub users have reduced how much stuff they buy. At home, 46% have reduced energy use, 44% reduced food waste, and 37% reduced meat consumption. And 56% said their awareness of environmental issues had increased ‘significantly’ or ‘very much’ since engaging with us.
Our impact reaches further than London: We have an online community of 7,000 people, the charity’s leadership speak at conferences and on national media outlets, and we work closely with government departments and academics to improve the impact of community-based sustainability around the UK.
About the role
The primary role is to ensure alongside other Trustees that they accept ultimate responsibility for the affairs of Greener and Cleaner and ensure that it is solvent, well run, and delivering the charitable outcomes for which it has been set up. As well as fulfilling the duties of a Trustee, the Treasurer ensures that effective and appropriate financial measures, controls, and procedures are put in place and reports to the Board at regular intervals about the financial health of the organisation.
- Overseeing the presentation of budgets, internal management accounts, and annual financial statements, as produced by the finance team or others where appropriate, to the Board of Trustees.
- Ensuring that proper accounting records are kept, and that appropriate accounting procedures and controls are in place.
- Liaising with any paid staff about financial matters, as appropriate.
- Ensuring that robust and comprehensive financial policies are in place and being implemented, and supporting the development of policies covering financial reserves, and cost management.
- Overseeing financial controls and adherence to systems.
- Drawing any major financial concerns to the attention of the trustee and the management team.
- Ensuring that the charity has appropriate reserves in line with its reserves policy, and monitoring and advising on the financial viability of the charity.
- Advising on the financial implications of the charity’s strategic plan, including overseeing the charity’s financial risk-management process.
- Ensuring that the charity has an appropriate investment policy and that investments and assets are maximised.
- Leading on the appointment of and liaison with external auditors.
- Overseeing the development and implementation of systems for appraising, mitigating, and reporting corporate risk.
- Ensuring that the accounts are prepared and disclosed in the form required by relevant statutory bodies – for example, the Charity Commission and/or the Registrar of Companies.
- Keeping the board informed about its financial duties and responsibilities.
- Supporting other Trustees in understanding the charity’s financial position and decision making.
- Contributing to the fundraising strategy of the charity and its ethical fundraising policy.
- Making a formal presentation of the accounts at the Annual General Meeting and drawing attention to important points in a coherent and easily understandable way.
The Board holds 4–5 evening meetings per year that last around 2 hours and may require on average 2 hours of reading and preparation work. In addition, various ad-hoc/sub-group meetings may be held where one or more Trustee’s participation is required. Trustees are also encouraged to participate in charity activities when they can. On average, Trustees can expect to spend at least 3 hours each month on trustee duties.
Our ideal candidate
- A finance professional with a firm understanding of charity finance and some experience of fundraising and pension schemes.
- Knowledge of charity fundraising, bid writing, and/or other income generation and/or securing funding through creation or leveraging of partnerships and networks (at a national or local level).
- A strategic thinker with an ability to balance risk and opportunity and the skills to analyse proposals and examine their financial consequences.
- Clear communicator with the ability to explain financial information to members of the Board and other stakeholders.
- Willing to play an active role in areas such as forecasting, setting budgets, and liaising with auditors.
In addition, the Treasurer will also have the responsibilities and qualities of all Trustees.
Responsibilities of all Trustees:
- Demonstrating a commitment to Greener and Cleaner’s objectives.
- Contributing to setting the strategic goals and monitoring performance by active participation in Board discussions and decision-making.
- Actively assisting the charity to build their connections and partnerships for the purposes of most effectively delivering their goals and fundraising.
- Ensuring that Greener and Cleaner complies with its governing documents, the law, and all other relevant documentation.
- Helping to identify risks and ensuring appropriate controls are in place.
- Helping the Board to make sound decisions by making available their own personal knowledge and experience.
- Assisting the Chair to appoint and appraise the performance of the Senior Leadership Team members.
- Sharing relevant skills and expertise with the Senior Leadership Team members.
- Making all reasonable efforts to attend Board meetings, away days, development meetings, publicity events, and other such public functions as requested by the Chair.
- Ensuring the charity’s focus on equality, diversity, and inclusion remains at the heart of its strategy and delivery.
Trustee person specification:
In addition to the Treasurer role specific above, our Trustees will ideally also demonstrate the following:
- A commitment to the objectives and activities of Greener and Cleaner.
- A willingness to devote time and effort to Greener and Cleaner beyond attending board meetings.
- Have strategic vision, an ability to think creatively, and an appropriate level of financial literacy.
- Understanding of and acceptance of the legal duties, responsibilities, and liabilities of their position.
- Have good independent judgement.
- Be willing to effectively act as part of a team.
- Adhere to the Nolan Principles of public office: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, and leadership.
- A willingness to allow the Employee/s to make reasonable decisions and to act within the limits prescribed by the Board.
What’s in it for you
Our Trustees play a key role in supporting the charity with strategy and growth in terms of the charity itself and its current strategic aims:
- Educate: Upskill the entire spectrum of our local population(s) with sustainable living knowledge and skills through a peer-to-peer led events programme, focusing on sequencing and leading our community towards the most impactful actions, in our spaces and out and about.
- Enable: Provide services enabling greener living, and lead powerful local campaigns, particularly around the election; teaching our communities how to engage on sustainability issues, and supporting them to do so, showing them where and how their voices can be powerful.
- Encourage: Help all demographics understand the scale of the sustainability challenge, how we are all connected with nature, how their own actions can affect change and improve their own lives, and that everyone has a place in a positive shared vision of the future, using a wider spectrum of activities and displays to prompt discussion.
- Engage All: Widen the diversity of our volunteers and event attendees through reviewing existing operations including the spaces we operate from, trialling different approaches to engaging specific demographics including a local community advisory council; sharing our learning with others through an open-learning approach.
- Empower: Work in a collegiate, collaborative, and social way that helps build a tribe, giving staff, volunteers, and local people and businesses a sense of belonging, support, and shared purpose and signposting and develop a strategic approach to working in collaboration with others.
- Expand: Co-create a vision for the future with our community and work with a broad range of partners from local community organisations and businesses to national policymakers, bringing together networks to share our learnings, discuss, and take action.
- Exemplify: Make the sustainable choice in decision-making; be transparent and visible in what we are doing and how it is working; and showcase others doing great things throughout all our activities.
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