About the organisation
Queer Britain is a charity working to establish and operate the UK’s first and only dedicated LGBTQ+ Museum, for all. We work to Reclaim and Preserve queer people’s stories and objects and Inspire by celebrating and educating about LGBTQ+ lives, impact and culture.
The Museum opened the doors to its “meanwhile home” in spring 2022, in Kings Cross, London. In our first year, we welcomed over 50,000 visitors, rescued important LGBTQ+ artefacts and stories, held numerous workshops and panel talks and won the prestigious “Best Small Museum Project'' award from the Museums Association for our first exhibition. Now is an exciting time to volunteer with the charity to help us match our financial operations to the scale of our ambitions.
About the role
The Queer Britain operations team (Max and Lynne) have been managing the day-to-day finance administration, using accounting software (Xero), over a year of growth and evolution for the charity. We now need support from a passionate and experienced volunteer to evolve and rationalise our operating practices and governance; help us to take best advantage of the rules surrounding charity finance whilst ensuring compliance; and support continual improvement.
We are looking for an initial engagement of 3-6 months, with the possibility of maintaining an ongoing relationship. The work will focus on three areas. We would prefer an initial commitment of 1 2 hours every fortnight in the first phase of work, although we can be relatively flexible - so please get in touch if you are interested but cannot meet the exact time specified.
Help us rationalise our financial operations, empowering the team to maintain high bookkeeping standards on an ongoing basis and automating where possible. This will require a hands-on approach to accounting and bookkeeping, from someone who has knowledge of Xero or similar software. The objective is to release the administrative burden on our small team while improving our reporting capabilities. We would like someone to assist us in setting up the systems and processes we need for the future, but who also has a passion for sharing their expertise to up-skill our team
Help us to navigate the options available to the charity to take best advantage of the rules around charity finance, whilst ensuring compliance with our obligations
Support the team on a more ad hoc basis with our finance questions, queries and frustrations
Our ideal candidate
- Qualified accountant with good accounting experience who is willing to dive into a ledger and understand the accounting at a transactional level.
- Knowledge or experience of charity accounting standards and rules, especially the rules around charity trading and Trading Subsidiaries OR a willingness to research these areas and advise the charity
- Non-profit experience would be great but not essential.
- Tech-savvy person who understands how finance/accounting integrates with ecommerce, payments, CRM systems, donations platforms, and who can help to automate finance management and reporting systems.
- Xero experience (desirable)
- Knowledge of charity law (desirable)
- A passion for Museums, galleries and / or supporting the LGBTQ+ Community
What’s in it for you
- By joining us at this stage in our journey, your involvement will be key in helping a small but groundbreaking organisation grow and evolve through its next stage of development
- Your input will inform key decisions on how we structure our financial operations in the medium term.
- You will develop your skills in charity accounting, and in the application of Xero accounting software to real-world situations
- You will get to work alongside a small, dynamic and diverse team passionate about bringing LGBTQ+ histories to the forefront of the heritage sector. There may be opportunities to network beyond the charity sector
- In short, you will make an important difference to how we position the charity going forward and have opportunities to develop professionally.
Apply for the role
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