Community Funds for Gender Equity Alliance Lead - Remote / Work From Home

OVERVIEW 

Across Australia and around the world, communities are responding to growing inequality and increasingly complex social challenges by creating stronger community-led structures for collective action. There is growing recognition that lasting progress depends not only on better programs, but on stronger communities with the capacity to organise, lead and invest in their own futures.  

Community foundations and other forms of community-led philanthropy are part of this response. They are enduring civic institutions through which communities mobilise local leadership, grow and steward community resources, and work collaboratively towards long-term change. Increasingly, they are helping communities respond to systemic challenges – including gender inequity – in ways that are shaped by local context, relationships and lived experience.   

THE ORGANISATION 

Community Foundations Australia (CFAus) is the national organisation supporting the growth of community foundations and community philanthropy in Australia.

CFAus is a field catalyst: an organisation that works across a growing movement to strengthen connections, unlock resources and opportunities, and build the collective capability of the field. 

Our work takes many forms: we connect practitioners and communities to learn and act together; mobilise resources towards emerging opportunities; build partnerships across philanthropy, government and other sectors; strengthen the capability of new and established community foundations; and create the conditions for greater collaboration, shared learning and collective action across the field. 

A key part of our strategy involves resourcing the development of impact communities: practitioner-led, networked groups of community foundations working together on shared opportunities. These communities are a key mechanism through which we build the community philanthropy field, strengthening organisational and collective capacity, growing aligned narratives and practice, and deepening network relationships and collaborations – all in service of transformative impact at the community level.  

COMMUNITY FUNDS FOR GENDER EQUITY ALLIANCE 

Community Funds for Gender Equity (CFGE) is one of Community Foundations Australia’s emerging impact communities. It is an alliance of women's funds, giving circles and Indigenous- and community-led philanthropic initiatives working together to strengthen community-led responses to gender inequity across Australia.

The Alliance recognises that lasting progress on gender equity requires more than individual organisations acting alone. By connecting practitioners, communities and funders across a distributed national network, it strengthens connected practice and learning, grows the flow of capital towards community-led gender equity initiatives, enables coordinated national stewardship, and creates opportunities for collective action, field-building and systems change. 

Community Foundations Australia provides backbone support for the Alliance, working alongside a Stewardship Group drawn from participating organisations. The Alliance operates as a distributed network of local nodes - including women's funds, Indigenous- and community-led funds, regional networks and giving circles - that pursue community-determined priorities while contributing to a shared national agenda. 

THE ROLE 

The Community Funds for Gender Equity Alliance Lead stewards the Alliance as a connected, participatory and member-led network, creating the conditions for collaboration, shared leadership and collective action. Working as the Alliance's backbone function, the role provides the coordination, facilitation and enabling infrastructure that supports participating organisations to pursue community-determined priorities while collaborating around shared goals, strengthening the field and contributing to long-term systems change. 

The role also supports the Alliance's long-term sustainability by building relationships, developing leadership from within the network, and stewarding the structures, partnerships and shared resources that enable the Alliance to evolve over time.

This is a part-time role (between 0.6 - 0.8 FTE) and is open to candidates from all locations across Australia. 

TASKS & RESPONSIBILITIES 

The key tasks and responsibilities of the CFGE Alliance Lead role are: 

Stewarding the Alliance 

• Steward the Alliance as a connected, participatory and member-led community of practice, supporting trust, shared purpose and distributed leadership.
• Support the Alliance's governance through coordination of the Stewardship Group, Action Groups and other collaborative structures that emerge over time.
• Create opportunities for members to shape priorities, initiate work, convene others and contribute leadership according to their interests and capabilities.
• Coordinate delivery of the Alliance's shared workplan, Theory of Change, operational systems, budgeting, reporting and day-to-day operational systems, providing the reliable backbone infrastructure that enables collaborative work to flourish.
• Foster equitable, culturally safe and accessible participation, with particular attention to enabling meaningful leadership by First Nations people, Women of Colour, LGBTQIA+ communities, rural and regional communities, and others whose perspectives are essential to advancing gender equity. 

Enabling collaboration and collective action 

• Weave relationships across the Alliance by connecting people, organisations, ideas and opportunities in ways that strengthen trust, reciprocity and collaboration.
• Create the conditions for members to work together by facilitating communication, shared decision-making, peer learning and collaborative problem-solving.
• Surface shared challenges, emerging opportunities and complementary capabilities that can catalyse new initiatives and partnerships.
• Support Action Groups and other collaborative initiatives to progress shared priorities, mobilise resources and deliver collective work.
• Support the development of shared funding architecture that enables philanthropic and other resources to flow towards community-led gender equity initiatives, in ways that reflect the diversity of communities and place-based contexts across Australia.
• Coordinate the development of collaboration tools and other enabling systems that strengthens the Alliance's long-term capacity and impact.
• Build relationships with other impact communities, aligned organisations, funders, governments and sector partners that expand opportunities for collaboration and resource mobilisation. 

 Learning, strategy and collective influence 

• Steward participatory learning and collective sense-making processes that help Alliance members understand what is changing across gender equity and community philanthropy, why it matters, and what it calls for next.
• Capture, synthesise and translate learning, stories and emerging practice from across the Alliance into shared insights, resources and narratives.
• Identify opportunities for collective influence by connecting community-level experience with broader policy, practice and systems change conversations.
• Support communications, publications and other shared storytelling that strengthen the visibility, legitimacy and contribution of community-led approaches to gender equity.
• Work alongside Alliance members to identify emerging priorities, partnerships and opportunities that strengthen the Alliance's long-term sustainability and contribution. 

EDUCATION 

Bachelor’s degree or higher in Nonprofit Management, Business Administration, Social Sciences, or a related field. 

EXPERIENCE 

Minimum 4 years’ experience in related roles. 

Minimum 2 years’ experience in leadership roles (formal people management experience desired but not essential). 

CAPABILITIES 

• Demonstrated ability to work in distributed networks and collaborative governance models, and in environments where influence is achieved through collaboration, trust, relationships and facilitation.
• Experience coordinating multi-stakeholder initiatives, alliances or collaborative networks.
• Strong facilitation, relationship-building and communication skills, with a focus on cultural and psychological safety.
• Sound project coordination, budgeting and reporting skills.
• Demonstrated commitment to and understanding of gender equity, intersectionality and community-led approaches.
• Understanding of the Australian community philanthropy sector. 

ATTRIBUTES 

• Passionate about community development and philanthropy.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and a dynamic environment.
• Attention to detail.
• Strong relational leadership skills. 
• Self-starter that embraces a mix of independent leadership and working with others. 

WELLBEING & CULTURE 

How we work as a team reflects how we seek to work in the field. As a field catalyst, our work depends on trust, strong relationships, shared leadership and the ability to respond with agility to emerging opportunities.  

We foster a self-managing and relational culture in which leadership and responsibility are distributed across the team, people are trusted to exercise autonomy and initiative, and information, learning and feedback are shared openly. We care about doing meaningful work at a sustainable pace, prioritising wellbeing and supporting one another when circumstances change. We encourage curiosity, experimentation and continuous learning, and believe that creating the conditions for people to do their best work is a shared responsibility. 

Community Foundations Australia is an equal opportunity employer; we celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. 

Some travel may be required to engage with the community philanthropy network across Australia and globally. 

next steps

To submit your application, please click ‘Apply Now’ by the closing date.

For any enquiries regarding this position, please contact Rosie Funder via email at rosie@cfaustralia.org.au using the subject line: Community Funds for Gender Equity Alliance Lead - Remote / Work From Home enquiry via EthicalJobs.