Head of Finance

Leeds Community Foundation; West Yorkshire; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 55,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

25 days annual leave

Pension 5% employer

Group life assurance

Wellbeing days

Volunteer time

Discretionary leave at year-end

Employee Assistance Programme

Personal development support

Team away days

Mental health support

Job summary

Leeds Community Foundation seeks a fully qualified accountant to lead finance across four entities, including GiveBradford. You’ll shape strategy, produce timely management and statutory accounts, and drive robust governance while managing a small team.

You’ll join the Senior Leadership Team in a part-time but high-impact role, blending strategic leadership with hands-on financial management in a charity setting.

Qualifications

• Fully qualified accountant with depth in financial leadership (ACA/ACCA/CIMA or equivalent).
• Experience in charity finance and fund accounting.
• Ability to translate complex numbers into clear, actionable advice for non-finance colleagues.
• Willingness to provide constructive challenge to senior colleagues and trustees.

Responsibilities

• Leads budgeting, forecasting, cashflow and long-term financial planning across all four entities, enabling sound leadership decisions.
• Owns the production of management accounts, statutory accounts and external audit, with robust fund accounting.
• Delivers reporting and assurance to boards, committees and the treasurer, maintaining controls and risk management.
• Oversees investment and treasury arrangements, coordinating with investment managers and banks.
• Drives technology adoption to improve workflows alongside the Digital & Data Lead within a live transformation.
• Leads, supports and develops the finance team, fostering collaboration and improvement.

Skills

Financial leadership

Budgeting

Strategic reporting

Education

ACA/ACCA/CIMA or equivalent

Job description

LEEDS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION | GIVEBRADFORD

Head of Finance £50,000-£55,000 FTE

• 28 hours a week, working pattern to be agreed
• Leeds, with hybrid working Permanent
• Mondays in our Leeds office
• the rest of your week worked flexibly

A senior finance role that not only gives a good work-life balance, but a compelling reason to care about the numbers. Many Head of Finance roles demand five days and give you spreadsheets and deadlines. This one asks for the equivalent of four, sits you on our Senior Leadership Team, and puts your finance skills to work for real social purpose across hundreds of community organisations in Leeds and Bradford. If you’ve reached the point in your career where your time and making a positive difference to the world matter as much as your title, keep reading.

Who we are

We’re Leeds Community Foundation, and together with GiveBradford we’ve spent the last twenty years connecting people and businesses who want to give with the communities and causes that need it most. Since 2005 we’ve helped donors invest more than £72 million back into our region, funding the grassroots organisations that are, quite simply, the backbone of these two cities. We do that across four related charities: Leeds Community Foundation itself, GiveBradford, the Old Fire Station community hub in Gipton, and the BG Campbell Trust Fund. Four sets of accounts, four boards, one finance team and a real need for someone to deliver order, insight and confidence across all of it.

The role

You’ll be our number one in finance, the person the Chief Executive, the trustees and the leadership team turn to for a clear, honest view of where we stand financially. It’s a genuine leadership role, but it’s also hands‑on: with a full‑ time Finance Manager and Finance Officer to lead, you’ll know when to train and delegate and when to roll your sleeves up where it counts.

• Leads budgeting, forecasting, cashflow and long-term financial planning across all four entities, and helps the leadership team make sound decisions with the full picture in front of them;
• Owns the quality and timeliness of our management accounts, statutory accounts and external audit, and the fund accounting that sits at the heart of what a community foundation does;
• Gives our boards, the finance and investment subcommittee and our Treasurer the reporting and assurance they need, and keeps our controls, compliance and risk management genuinely robust;
• Leads our investment and treasury arrangements, working with our investment managers, advisers and banks;
• Embraces technology to help us continually improve how we work, simplifying and automating alongside our Digital & Data Lead as part of a live transformation programme;
• Leads, supports and develops the finance team, building a collaborative and improvement-minded culture.

Who we’re hoping to meet

You’re a fully qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent) with real depth in financial leadership. You’ll be someone who’s equally comfortable shaping strategy and getting into the detail when it’s needed. You know charity finance and fund accounting well, or you’re close enough to it that you can be credible in the sector from day one.

Just as importantly, you can turn complicated numbers into plain, useful advice for people who don’t live in finance, and you’ve the confidence to offer constructive challenge to senior colleagues and trustees when it matters.

If you’ve worked across multiple entities, overseen investments or treasury, or led a finance system improvement before, so much the better, but none of these is a dealbreaker. What is important is that you have the professional judgement to be our finance lead, and a genuine alignment with our values what we’re here to deliver across the community.

What’s in it for you

• £50,000-£55,000 FTE which equates to £40,000 - £44,000 Pro Rata for the 28 hours per week
• Hybrid working, with Mondays in our central Leeds office and the rest from home or wherever you work best
• 25 days’ annual leave, rising with service, plus statutory days and your birthday off
• 5% employer pension contribution, alongside a 4% employee contribution
• Group life assurance paying twice your annual salary
• Two wellbeing days and 14 hours of volunteering time a year, taken when you need them
• Discretionary leave over Christmas and New Year, and a faith-based bank holiday swap scheme
• An Employee Assistance Programme, including access to counselling and legal and financial advice
• A genuine commitment to your personal development and training
• Regular full-team away days
• An internal wellbeing initiative and access to mental health first aiders

How we work

Monday is our one fixed day together in the Leeds office, the rest of your hours are yours to shape around your life. We actively encourage our team, finance included, to spend time out in the community, at places like the Old Fire Station, seeing exactly where the money goes and why it matters.

Closing date: Sunday 27 September 2026.

We’ll be reviewing applications as they come in, so you don’t need to leave it to the last minute if this feels like you.

Leeds Community Foundation is committed to building a team that reflects the communities we serve. We warmly welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, and we’re happy to make reasonable adjustments at any stage of the process — just let Lucy know.