About Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales
We’re an independent charitable trust funded by Lloyds Banking Group. We partner with small and local charities helping people overcome complex social issues such as mental health, homelessness and domestic abuse. Their size and understanding of the people and local communities they work with means they’re able to make life-changing impact where others can’t. But these charities are under-funded, under pressure and too often ignored.
That’s why we’re more than just a funder – we work in partnership with the charities we fund and others who share our vision.
We listen, understand and respond to charities, funding for core costs and providing developmental support to help them grow stronger and become more sustainable. We influence policy and practice to help charities thrive in the future and to address the causes and consequences of complex social issues.
About the Role
We’re committed to using research, evaluation and data for the Foundation and our charity partners to learn and improve.
The Research and Evaluation Officer post is key to delivering that ambition, building our capacity to evaluate and working with others to foster a learning culture across the Foundation and beyond. You will be a talented researcher, with expertise in a wide range of evaluation methods and adept at helping organisations adopt high quality evaluation plans. You’ll be naturally curious, with an aptitude for detailed quantitative or qualitative analysis – or both. You’ll be comfortable presenting complex research findings in an accessible format, so strong communication skills are essential.
For more information on our work, please see www.lloydsbankfoundation.org.uk
Core responsibilities and accountabilities
- Undertake regular and ad hoc analysis of data from the Foundation’s grants management database, reports from grantees and elsewhere, including evidence relating to the effectiveness of work funded by the Foundation
- Drafting and production of analysis, briefing materials and other content to inform learning events and outputs for public dissemination and to shape learning internally
- Undertake evaluation of Foundation projects or services including working with project leads on the design of evaluation frameworks, undertaking primary evaluation activity (survey design and delivery, depth interviews, user research) analysis and reporting
- Contribute to the delivery of the Foundation’s programme of internal and external research programmes, including leading on maintenance of the digital platform smallcharitiesdata.org
- Develop resources to improve our grantees’ capacity to evaluate their work, including producing guidance and tools, dissemination of best practice and working with external suppliers of impact measurement tools and consultants
- Support the commissioning of external evaluations of major grants and internal Foundation initiatives, management of relationships with contractors
- Undertake technical assessment of research proposals from grant applicants
- Identify and promote approaches internally to embed the use of data to inform decision making, including undertaking analysis of external data and evidence to support the Foundation’s work
- Contribute to the design and facilitation of in-person and digital workshops, webinars and other learning events for internal colleagues and external partners
- Develop and maintain close working relationships with colleagues right across the Foundation, particularly the Grant Making and Development teams
- Develop and maintain relationships with external evaluation and research networks relevant to the work of the Foundation and our priorities for influencing policy and practice
- Deputise for the Research and Learning Manager when required
Experience, skills and competencies
Essential
- Two years working in a research or evaluation role, or equivalent post-graduate qualification with strong social research element.
- Confident undertaking desk research and producing written briefings.
- Experience delivering research projects involving both quantitative and qualitative analysis, or strong experience in either quantitative or qualitative analysis.
- Knowledge of different evaluation methodologies, including design and development of approaches to tracking and measuring outcomes and evaluating programmes and projects.
- Team working and ability to work co-operatively with a range of people, including internal stakeholders, external partners and research organisations.
- A self-starter, comfortable with contributing to larger projects as part of a team and taking the lead on others with minimal supervision
- Good organisational skills and strong attention to detail with the ability to conduct and manage several different projects at once.
- Effective communications skills (writing, speaking and listening) with the ability to summarise and present data and research findings to a range of non-specialist audiences.
- Excellent IT skills, with experience in using databases, Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
- A commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in line with our EDI strategy
Desirable
- Experience of using statistical analysis software in a research project, such as R, Python or SPSS.
- Knowledge of web platforms for data analysis and visualisation, such as datawrapper.
- Knowledge of website content management systems, and in particular WordPress.
- Experience of working with small and medium-sized organisations on their approach to social impact measurement, and knowledge of common tools and approaches for applied monitoring and evaluation
- Experience of and commitment to the voluntary sector and of tackling disadvantage.
See application information here