About the organisation
Heal Rewilding is a registered charity working on nature recovery, climate action and wellbeing. We are raising money to buy land and rewild it – giving land back to nature, forever. We are taking direct action to tackle the climate and ecological crises and reconnect people with nature, which we achieve through the rebuilding of wildlife populations, community involvement and storytelling. We believe there is hope for nature recovery. For us, rewilding represents that hope.
We launched in March 2020 as the UK’s first charity dedicated to being a rewilding landowner and acquired our 460-acre foundation site, Heal Somerset, in December 2022. Our goal is a Heal site in every English county, 48 in total over time, with our second site planned in the north. Sites also bring economic benefit to communities, creating new jobs and attracting investment into the locality.
The UK is among the most nature-depleted countries in the world, with significantly reduced biodiversity. Healthy, biodiverse ecosystems help regulate water flow, store carbon and maintain soil structure, all of which increase resilience to climate extremes like flooding and heatwaves. When biodiversity declines, soils lose organic matter and stability, reducing their ability to absorb water and support crops – ultimately weakening both climate adaptation and food production. While these challenges are often considered separately, improving the health of nature can address multiple environmental issues simultaneously.
We manage the land following established rewilding principles and aim to be an exemplar site. Our approach to ecological interventions is rooted in a nature-led ethos – we believe in giving land back to nature and allowing natural processes to lead recovery. Any interventions we instigate are to aid the recovery of fully functioning natural processes that have been severely disrupted by human activity.
We believe that rewilding should benefit both people and planet, and are dedicated to ensuring that the work we do involves and benefits our communities. It is a human right that everyone should be able to access natural spaces – but for many people this is a privilege. Our aim is to identify and overcome both visible and invisible challenges to spending time in nature, and through doing so, improve people’s health and wellbeing.
Community involvement is therefore central to our work as a charity. At Heal Somerset, we have 15 community partners and have supported 616 engagements with people from underserved groups, as well as supporting school visits. We have 262 volunteers who contribute on site and virtually, with a significant input to our ecological monitoring programme.
Everything we do begins with fundraising – without this, we cannot exist. We’ve created different ways for people to donate, including sponsoring a 3x3m square of land which enables us to bring it back to life through rewilding. We provide the sponsor with a What3Words address so that they can visit, see how their square is transforming and form a connection with the land.
About the role
Heal urgently needs a new volunteer accountant to help with the preparation of our monthly management accounts, our annual audit and annual filing with Companies House. Our wonderful volunteer accountant Amy, who has helped us with this work for over five years, has to step down in May because of her new job.
The role can be done from home. We also welcome visits from time to time from our volunteer accountant to the charity HQ to see the team and our work.
The time commitment is relatively small: preparing the monthly management accounts takes between 4-7 hours a month (we use Xero). We also need help with two annual tasks: our audit, which takes around 5-7 hours a year, and filing with Companies House, which takes 1-2 hours a year. Our turnover is around £600,000 a year, comprising donations, grants, events income and corporate sponsorships.
Our ideal candidate
Our ideal candidate is very familiar with the preparation of management accounts for a small organisation, with supporting an audit process and with filing routine annual paperwork with Companies House.
You will be familiar with accounting software (in our case, Xero). You will be able to support us each month and with small queries a few times a month. You will also be able to help us prepare cashflows for specific grant requests (normally no more than 1-2 times a year). You could be an accountant currently in practice or a retired accountant who retains these skills. If you have an interest in nature, that would make the work even more meaningful.
You don't need to have experience working for a charity before but this experience would be helpful.
What’s in it for you
You will be supporting a young, dynamic charity which has already made a significant input to the nature recovery sector nationally and to community involvement in environmental work. If you don't yet know much about the state of nature and the way in which our sector is helping to reverse national declines, you would find this an inspiring and motivating volunteering opportunity.
There are now over 1,000 projects like Heal Somerset nationally and we are proud that Heal Somerset is a national exemplar for nature recovery work. We have been a national pilot for our sector lead organisation, Rewilding Britain, and have received major government and private sector grants to support our work.
If you have not volunteered for a charity before, we can arrange for you to have training in charity financial operations.
Apply for the role
Please provide a short cover note setting out your motivations for volunteering for the organisation, any relevant skills/experience and why you think you might be a suitable candidate.
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