Director – Ariadne

Director – Ariadne
January 20, 2016 Lori Stanciu

After seven anMazed half very happy years, the Ariadne Director, Jo Andrews is moving on, so the network is looking for a new director. See full details and a statement from Jo below. 

Global Dialogue is looking for a new Director for Ariadne. Ariadne is a successful and active funders’ affinity group for European grant-makers and donors of all kinds and sizes who invest broadly in the fields of social change and human rights. It currently has over 530 individual participants from 189 organisations in 29 countries. It has pioneered a model both online and in real time, and in the process has built a successful private online community.

Ariadne was set up seven years ago as a project of Global Dialogue to create a well-informed and lively network, with the skills and information to foster social change and human rights, and to advance a vision of society that ensures dignity, opportunity and justice for all.

Its aims are to:

  • Build trust amongst funders
  • Provide opportunities and a platform to enable grant-makers to share knowledge and research
  • Provide concrete tools to support funders in this field and to reduce the time and costs of scoping and research
  • Improve the skills of European donors from diverse backgrounds and geographies
  • Reflect openly and honestly on grant-making practice
  • Make it simpler and cheaper to act co-operatively, if funders wish to do that
  • And overall, to enable all participants to achieve more by taking part in Ariadne than they can individually

The Founding Director, Jo Andrews, is now moving on and the Trustees of Global Dialogue and the Advisory Board of Ariadne are looking for a new Director who has the vision and leadership skills to take Ariadne into the next phase of its development and expansion.


Job Description

This is a leadership role on one of Global Dialogue’s most prominent projects.  As such it requires someone with leadership, vision and practical skills and who is willing to work collaboratively within the Global Dialogue structure.  More specifically, we are looking for someone who can:

  • Deepen and broaden the network, drawing in a wider section of European based grant-makers in relevant fields and deepening the support offered to existing members
  • Draw up a new fluid strategic plan, in consultation with the Ariadne membership, the Ariadne Advisory Board, and the Trustees of Global Dialogue, to guide Ariadne going forward
  • Be confident in raising an annual budget of over £400,000 from participants and donors, overseeing grant application processes and ensuring timely reporting
  • Manage the Ariadne budget and oversee its financial processes
  • Nurture a peer-to-peer network of grant-makers and donors and with knowledge and understanding of the diverse needs of grant-makers and donors
  • Oversee the renewal of and extend range of the concrete tools available to grant-makers
  • Show thought leadership in this sector
  • Carry out planned travel and work across Europe
  • Show they are comfortable with social media tools and online databases
  • Work constructively with a number of other networks, especially those that Ariadne already has strong links with, such as the International Human Rights Funders Network and the European Foundation Centre
  • Manage staff based in London, the Netherlands, US and partially in Brussels
  • Report regularly to the members of Ariadne, the Ariadne Advisory Board and the Trustees of Global Dialogue

 

Person Specification

The successful candidate will have most of these attributes:

Important:

  • Knowledge and understanding of the private philanthropy sector in Europe
  • An understanding of Ariadne and how modern fluid networks thrive online and offline
  • An ability to command respect in the private philanthropy and grant-making sectors
  • Excellence in strategic thinking and clear planning, demonstrating an entrepreneurial sense
  • Previous management experience, in a role that demanded leadership both within and beyond traditional organisational boundaries
  • Warmth of character, excellent networking skills, honed diplomatic skills, able to encourage and facilitate collaboration at every level
  • A willingness and interest in working within Global Dialogue’s collaborative organizational structure
  • Proven ability to raise funds from a variety of sources
  • Excellent written and spoken English, with expert communication and presentational skills
  • Informed passion for human rights and social change
  • Permission to live and work in the UK

Desirable:

  • Other European languages

 

Other Details

The Ariadne staff team is located in London with consultants in the Netherlands and the US. This job can be done in a variety of ways – full time or part time. The current director works 3.5 days a week. Global Dialogue would encourage a variety of applications, for instance from candidates:

  • Who want to work full time
  • Who want us to consider a job share with two co-Directors with complementary skills
  • Who want to work partly from a second European location as well as London – although for employment purposes this will be UK based role
  • Who might like to split their current role and the Directorship of Ariadne
  • Who might like to run Ariadne on leave of absence from their own current role for a specified period of time

Ariadne is a project of Global Dialogue, a human rights charity registered in England and Wales. Global Dialogue promotes human rights and social change around the world by making grants and supporting grant-makers through Ariadne and other programmes.  Ariadne is based in London and virtually. The Ariadne team is based at the  Global Dialogue offices at The Foundry building in Vauxhall, south London.  The Ariadne Director is required to undertake regular travel across Europe to attend meetings and events, with travel taking up to 25% of a full time role.  Global Dialogue offers 25 days holiday annually pro rata.  The salary for this role is by negotiation.

 

Statement from the Current Director, Jo Andrews

“This job has been great fun and a real learning experience for me over the past seven years. I owe it a great deal and I am sorry to be leaving, but the time is right as I believe that founders of organisations shouldn’t hang around when their fledglings mature. Ariadne has a huge amount going for it,  a strong, committed and experienced  staff team, a mixed business model that works, a strong core of committed participants, a set of tools that are valued and widely used, a name for itself as a flexible, honest, informal and warm community, and one of the most successful private portals currently in use, with more than a 1000 users, both grant-makers and civil society participants increasingly using it to collaborate, store information and connect safely. What Ariadne needs now is someone who can take a small, stable organisation and turn it into the powerhouse underpinning really effective European social change and human rights philanthropy that it has the potential to become. If anyone would like to talk to me in more depth about the role and what it involves please get in touch”.

 

Application Instructions

To apply please submit a letter outlining why you want the role and how your experience and skills make you a good candidate, with a short two page CV, to jobs@ariadne-network.eu. The closing date for applications is 1200 GMT on Thursday 11th February 2016. Initial interviews will be held in London on 17th and 18th February, with Skype interviews available for candidates who are not based in the UK.

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