Rare opportunity in grants administration

A rare opportunity to build a career in grants administration by learning from one of best in the business

This newly created role Project Support Officer and Executive Assistant offers an exciting opportunity to join the one of Australia’s leading Grants Management Consultants – Georgie Bailey. 

Applications

closed 6pm May 17th 2021

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Position Summary

The Project Support Officer and Executive Assistant  supporting the success of Georgie Bailey

 

About Georgie

Georgie Bailey provides end to end grants management consultancy services to grant program teams, government departments, trusts, foundations, for purpose organisations. 

Services include grants program design, grants management evaluation, business process design, SmartyGrants grants management system design, SmartyGrants specialist implementation and advanced training. Georgie assists organisation with complex grant making needs across Australia, across the world. 

You will be involved in support elements of the business, customer projects, researching and drafting reports and presentations, completing administrative workflow processes and stakeholder communication on behalf Georgie.

 

About the role

The primary objective of the role is to provide high calibre project support to assist with business development proposals, end to grants management consultancy, bespoke SmartyGrants grants management system build / implementation, bespoke training and exceptional executive assistance to Georgie.

This role encompasses the need for high level organisational skills, excellent written and verbal communication skills, the need for initiative and analytical thinking. It requires the ability to co-ordinate competing priorities. 

The role is based in Canberra but may require some domestic travel to Melbourne and other Australian cities to support the delivery of projects.

 

Flexible work arrangements

While work hours are permanent part time, they are flexible. The role would suit people who need to balance work with other commitments. If your parental or carer responsibilities need to be considered in your work hours, we can be flexible. Client meetings do need to be attended but a schedule that works can be arranged. 

A combination of work in the office and from home would be supported for the right person. You need to be self-motivated and able to operate with minimal direction. Be able to prioritise your work in order to meet multiple competing deadlines and the judgement to negotiate time frames with us and our clients to meet everyone’s needs.

The work can be fast and diverse, moving from one customer to another’s unique scenario in a day. You’ll need to be able to think on your feet and be willing to do everything from basic admin to more considered conceptual thinking to solve our customers business problems. 

We pride ourselves on customer service so great customer facing skills as well as the ability to be quick and responsive to enquiries is essential. We deal with government clients and their secure data so sound judgement, absolute confidentiality and willingness to undergo a police check is mandatory.  

You don’t need to know everything now – it’s your can-do attitude that we want to shine. For example, while experience administering a grant program is valued it is not essential. We can train you. Your interest and willingness to learn along with solid transferable skills is what we are looking for. We also expect you to take responsibility for self-education – taking the initiative to find the information you need to do your job.

In addition, the role is responsible for participating in a range of administrative activities in support of our customers projects. It is a condition of your employment that you conduct your responsibilities in line with their values, contracted deliverables, and strategic objectives.

This varied role will require your efficient and accurate attention to detail, and you will be motivated and driven to learn new things and bring a positive solution focused attitude to the workplace. 

 

Applications closed on Monday 17 May 2021.

 

Key Duties and Responsibilities

 

Tasks Initially:

  • Attend and contribute to client consultation sessions
  • Minutes and meeting records
  • Assist with planning and designing client specific business solutions for grant processes
  • Draft system implementation and grant services proposals including quoting
  • Assist with responding to requests for tender for grant systems or consulting services
  • Monitor and maintain project plans and budgets including liaising with accounts team for invoicing
  • Assist with customer enquiries including sales and service enquiries

 

Tasks when fully trained in the SmartyGrants system:

  • Assist with grant system implementations
  • Design and create online application forms (no coding skills required)
  • Creation of SmartyGrants system reporting templates (excel and word)
  • Assist with providing client training and support 
  • Assist in drafting bespoke training material for clients

 

Skills and Key Personal Attributes

We are looking for a person who not only can deliver on the duties set out above but who also:

  • Holds relevant Tertiary Qualifications, with a minimum of 4+ years demonstrated experience in a similar role.
  • Highly developed skills in all interpersonal communication requirements at an executive level with a commitment to excellence and a high attention to detail and accuracy. 
  • Highly developed organisational skills with the ability to manage time, work output and priorities and handle a range of tasks with competing priorities within tight timelines. 
  • Demonstrates professional integrity and ability to work harmoniously within a team environment and autonomously. 
  • Demonstrated ability to effectively deal with sensitive, complicated, and confidential duties with exceptional business acumen. 
  • Demonstrated ability to write reports to a High-level Stakeholders. 
  • Demonstrated ability to effectively research and analyse information.
  • Has demonstrated experience using Microsoft office suite, in particular high-level skills with Word, PowerPoint and Excel and is enthusiastic about adopting and using technology in the workplace.
  • Solutions focused and unflappable under pressure.
  • Willingness to work outside of normal business hours on those occasions required by Georgie.

 

Desirable

Experience using SmartyGrants

 

General Conditions of Employment

  • The remuneration for this position is $55 per hour including super.
  • The role is for part time hours of six hours (6) hours a day over five (5) days.
  • There may be additional or out of hours work from time to time.
  • The position may be required to travel to attend meetings and work off site.
  • Applicants must be located in and have a genuine right to work in Australia
  • This position is located in Monash, a suburb of Canberra. Georgie’s office is based in a dedicated part of her residence
  • Georgie’s office is in what was previously her art studio, a light, art filled, open plan space that operates in a fairly informal manner, shared by with Tyra the office German shorthaired pointer
  • Laptop computer and screen provided
  • This job description serves to illustrate the scope and responsibilities of the role and is not intended to be an exhaustive list of duties. You will be expected to perform other job-related tasks requested by Georgie and as necessitated by the development of this role and the development of the business.

 

Suitable applicants will be required to provide

  • Proof of identity 100-point check (details will be advised after selection).
  • Evidence of Australian Citizenship, Permanent Resident or holder of a valid work permit or visa.
  • A satisfactory Police Certificate issued by Australian federal Police
  • Will be subject to a probationary period of three (3) month

  

About your application

Applicants are required to submit:

  • a current and detailed curriculum vitae; and
  • a statement / pitch (max 2 page) that demonstrates how you could deliver on the duties described, addresses the skills and personal attributes required and tells us why we need to hire you and why you want to work with us

The selection process may include various selection tools in addition to interviews and reference checks.

 

Connection despite distance

Melody Gardot From Paris With Love
Photo: Verve/Decca

Melody Gardot Invited Musicians Around The World To Join Her Global Digital Orchestra For Her Song “From Paris With Love” To Benefit Healthcare Workers

 

“I want to contribute something unique to this new movement of ‘connection despite distance’. During this complicated time, we miss essential connections with one other. We miss hugs, we miss our family, our friends……in short we miss love. So I want to make a love project to help break the feeling of isolation between us.”

In times of great difficulty, art will always break through. Created in isolation, made with love, this project is a reflection of the strength of the human spirit. My most heartfelt thanks to the vast array of musicians and people currently confined all around the world, who made this project possible.

 

Together with Decca Records, all proceeds from the royalties of this song have been donated to a COVID charity organization to help healthcare workers during this time of unprecedented crisis.

 

Via Melody Garnot Website Link (here)

Make Good Art

“Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do.

Make good art.

I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, and eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn’t matter. Do what only you do best. Make good art.”

Make Good Art, by Neil Gaiman

How GST applies to your grant program in Australia

Ahhh I thought if the grant recipient is registered for GST I just add 10% to my grant. What do you mean its not that simple?

Are you confused about how GST applies to your grant program in Australia?  Have you trudged through the quagmire of the ATO website and emerged none the wiser. Or do you reckon you’ve got it figured out? …. are you sure?

Adult alone black and white dark resized

Photography Kat Jayne – Pexels

The GST implications of a grant actually have a lot to do with what type of agreement you enter into. There are two quite separate GST issues that are often confused. GST on the cost items in the activity budget and quite separately, whether the nature of the agreement entered into for payment of the grant results in a taxable supply.

 

The Australian Tax Office provides a good deal of information on whether the grantee will need to pay GST on the receiving of grant monies. Unfortunately, they use a lot of language that can easily get confused in the context of the grant sector.

 

We use the term ‘recipient’ to denote the recipient of a grant, but when reading the tax rulings, recipient refers to the recipient of goods or services in return for money, which might constitute a taxable supply (ie the giver of the grant).

Very long and complicated story short, whether or not GST is payable on the receipt of grant monies is dependent on whether the agreement that you enter with the grantee obligates them to do something and the payment is made to secure that obligation. This is usually the case in most grant programs where you enter an agreement with clear deliverables, milestones and payments tied to the delivering of those things.

There are, however, several ways to give money that don’t result in GST consequences that might be suitable for your objectives, but this means letting go of the need to control what the grantee does. For example, making a payment to a gallery on the understanding that it is used to acquire artwork but with no formal obligation to do so. 

What about GST on the costs for undertaking the funded activity?

GST on cost items in the activity budget is an entiely different conversation to GST on the payment of the grant itself. It is about whether they have to pay GST on the tin of paint they buy at Bunnings to paint the set with for the play you are funding. Don’t confuse these things when deciding whether to ask your applicant to budget GST inclusive or exclusive.

And think about it – if you ask a grantee to submit a GST exclusive budget that means they will need to look at each item they intend to spend the grant money on and determine whether purchasing it will attract GST.  If registed for GST they might be able claim a tax imput credit after the event – but will need to be able to bank roll the purchases in the mean time. If they are not registered  for GST they will have to pay the GST on the items.

Design of your approach to your grant application budget needs to carefully consider just how complicated and onerous you really want to make things for you grantee (and yourself).

 

A risk based approach might be to keep it super simple for very small grants and opt for a budget GST inclusive approach. particularly considering those applying for small grants may well be small organisations or individuals not able to bank roll even 10% of the project.

 

For larger more complex grants where 10% of the project represents a considerable sum – you will need to take a more forensic approach.

What ever you do make sure you explain it properly to your applicants so they don’t miss understand. You don’t want a project to fall over because you have conflated GST on the payment of the grant with GST on activity cost items resulting in the grantee being short 10% and having to wear the tax implications.

The standard you walk past

Poster by Anisa Makhoul

Powerful call to action by Anisa Makhoul

Lieutenant General David Morrison once said, “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept”.

Every time we accept the status quo of poor behaviour, harm to others, we are endorsing it. Change will take time, but can we at least start by saying that if something’s not right, it’s not right and we will no longer walk past that standard as acceptable.  It’s time to be courageous and true and move into a place, a space that will create a fairer, better society for all. 

“Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible.”

Maya Angelou

 

Georgie Bailey