Policy and Advocacy Lead

As MCF's Policy and Advocacy Lead, you will have the opportunity to bring your skills and passion for creating change at an exciting time for the sector. With a growing network and community, MCF has been the infrastructure charity to British Muslim-led charities since 2007. Join our impactful and diverse team as we support our organisations and those that rhey serve.

Job role: Policy and Advocacy Lead

Employer: Muslim Charities Forum (MCF)

Salary: £35,000 – £37,500 per annum (Dependent on experience)

Hours: Full-time, 36 hours per week, Mon – Fri, in-office

Position: 24 month Fixed Term Contract

Location: London SE1 (nearest stations Waterloo and Lambeth North) 

Closing date for applications: extended to 13th December.

Further information and to apply:

Please read the full Job Description and Person Specification 

Background: Muslim Charities Forum (MCF) is the UK network for British Muslim-led Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations. MCF seeks to support, connect, and represent these organisations so that they can all experience the blessings of the collective. Through our network we support almost 300 charities and community organisations.

We aim to collectively build a more accountable, transparent, and efficient British Muslim-led Voluntary and Community Sector, to improve our ability—both as individual organisations and as a sector—to contribute to a more just and sustainable world. With the support of our member organisations and the strategic investors of MCF, we work with a wider network of partners that includes non-member NGOs, regulatory bodies, civil society partners, academics and over key stakeholders in the sector.

Job Purpose: This post is kindly supported by City Bridge Foundation.

MCF has a small team, but our impact is far-reaching. Following a period of expansion, MCF is seeking an innovative, motivated and passionate individual to lead on its advocacy capacity building work, sector-wide advocacy work, and delivery of its strategic policy work.

The primary purpose of the role is to build capacity in Muslim-led Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations with differing scales of operating and programmatic focus areas. There will be a particular focus on those Muslim led organisations based in London.

You can expect to be leading on some of the areas as a priority in this role:

• Engaging in outreach with Muslim-led Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations.

• Producing relevant policy and advocacy capacity building materials suitable for those involved in Muslim-led Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations.

• Delivering capacity building engagements with those involved in Muslim-led Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations.

• Hosting roundtables and other group engagements to learn more about the policy and advocacy priorities of Muslim-led Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations.

• Strategically Managing a programmatic budget to outsource elements of MCF’s policy and advocacy capacity building initiatives.

• Building relationships with a range of stakeholders from across the Voluntary and Community Sector, Private Sector, and Public Sector to support capacity building initiatives with Muslim-led Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations. This is an exciting role overseeing MCF’s Policy and Advocacy Unit.

In addition to the above, you can also expect to be involved in:

• Monitoring the media for commentary relevant to the British Muslim led Voluntary and Community Sector and preparing responses on behalf of MCF.

• Engaging with parliamentarians and other key public sector stakeholders by representing MCF at a range of engagements.

• Leading MCF’s Policy and Advocacy Unit’s strategy and delivering associated outputs.

PERSON SPECIFICATION:

You will be passionate about driving positive cultural change in the Muslim led Voluntary and Community Sector by encouraging more productive engagement with public sector stakeholders.

You will be agreeing to, and working in alignment with MCF’s ethical principles, mission areas, and strategic priorities.

You will feel are energised by the prospect of becoming an expert within a small team, collaborating with a range of other skilled and talented colleagues within the sector.

You will feel comfortable with upholding a high degree of confidentiality, as the role is privy to sensitive discussions and being in environments where you have access to confidential information.

You will feel confident in fulfilling the key responsibilities listed in the sections below.

Advocacy Capacity Building:

• Directly communicating and interacting with Muslim-led Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations.

• Effectively managing relationships with Muslim-led Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations. • Proactively responding to requests for guidance and/or support on policy and advocacy related matters.

• Drafting briefings, primers, training materials and other capacity building materials to enhance understanding of policy and advocacy amongst key stakeholders.

• Scheduling and hosting roundtables and other events.

• Build and manage methods of two-way learning between British Muslim-led Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations and key public sector stakeholders.

• Building relationships with associates and other contractors focusing on matters relevant to advocacy, campaigning, political activity, political processes, research, or any other matters.

• Managing an advocacy capacity building programme.

• Managing a budget and seeing to the delivery of its associated projects.

• Representing MCF at public engagements hosted by Parliamentarians, Combined Authorities, Local Authorities, and other public sector organisations interacting directly with Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations.

• Building relationships with key stakeholders at different levels of public sector organisations. Broader advocacy, political engagement and external influencing:

• Support the CEO and the rest of the MCF team by developing policy reform suggestions supported by appropriate forms of evidence.

• Support activities to maintain MCF as a thought-leader and trusted source of guidance for policy and advocacy matters relevant to the British Muslim-led Voluntary and Community Sector.

• Identify opportunities to further develop MCF’s policy and advocacy strategy to fulfil MCF’s mission areas and strategic priorities as an infrastructure organisation.

• Coordinate activities to deliver outputs aligned with MCF’s policy and advocacy strategy.

• Monitor developments from the public and other sectors relevant to British Muslim-led Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations reported in the media, and draft appropriate responses.

• Provide guidance to MCF members and other organisations on navigating policy issues.

• Host and participate in MCF member roundtables, working groups and other events to learn more about their policy priorities and provide guidance where relevant.

• Coordinate research projects to develop bodies of evidence on matters relating to the Muslim-led Voluntary and Community Sector.

• Support the delivery of MCF’s advocacy campaigns and associated campaign activities.

• Commission external research and analysis to gather evidence to support MCF’s campaigns.

• Represent MCF in media engagement opportunities or requests for information from media stakeholders.

• Represent MCF at a range of events and other external engagements. 

Please note: This role is based in our office in London SE1 (closest Tube station Lambeth North) Monday to Friday.

We are unable to sponsor applicants for visas. Applicants must be resident in the UK and have the Right To Work.

Successful applicants will be subject to relevant reference and identification checks.

Due to the volume of applications, we may be unable to respond to all candidates. If your application is short-listed, we will get in touch. If you have not heard from our team within 8 weeks, please assume your application has not met the criteria on this occasion.

No agencies please.

Thank you for your interest in Muslim Charities Forum. We look forward to receiving your application.