About the role
The Role
As a member of the Fair Agenda Board, we envisage our Treasurer would take on the key responsibilities of:
- Reviewing the annual budget and monthly financial reports prepared by the Executive Director,
- Reporting at Board meetings on the financial position and performance of the organisation
- Chairing finance sub-committee meetings of the Board (likely to be monthly or every other month),
- Identifying relevant accounting and tax compliance matters and ensuring these are addressed by the Executive Director,
- Informing the Board of any accounting and financial implications of Board decisions to promote fiscal responsibility,
- Acting as a resource to the Board and staff team,
- Where possible providing technical accounting assistance and feedback to management, Board, and finance sub-committee,
- Presenting audited financial statements to the Board and at the AGM (noting we have an established relationships with an independent auditor we are happy with).
- Providing oversight of the finances of the organisation.
Support for the Role
The Executive Director (CEO) of Fair Agenda has well established financial forecast and cash flow management processes. At each monthly Board meeting the Board are presented with a balance sheet, and a forecast that covers our overall financial year position as well as month-by-month projected and expected cash flow. The Executive Director also reports against a EOFY reserve goal and 3 month cash flow requirement.
Fair Agenda’s day-to-day finances are maintained by a paid, independent bookkeeper who is a Chartered Accountant with a specialty in tax accounting. The bookkeeper maintains financial records, prepares the financial statements monthly, manages ATO and other regulatory obligations and manages the auditor Collins & Co. Fair Agenda’s financial statements in the year to 30 June 2021 have been independently reviewed.
In terms of scale, Fair Agenda’s annual revenue is of the order of $500,000 p.a. and we have 4 employees. We believe our impact and profile far exceed our absolute scale.
The Treasurer would join an overall Board team that bring a wealth of expertise across all areas of operation, including in fundraising. As a whole the Board team are collectively responsive for:
- Upholding the mission of the organisation and ensuring the organisation is in the best position to foster a bold and inclusive movement of Australians taking action for a gender equal future,
- Reviewing and advising on organisational strategy to accelerate progress to a gender equal future,
- Organisational oversight, including approving major strategic and financial decisions,
- Ensuring the organisation remains compliant to relevant regulatory bodies,
- Driving organisation review and risk review processes,
- Ensuring the organisation uses its finances in an impactful and sustainable way,
- Assisting with fundraising where possible, including contributing personally in line with their capacity (for most board members this is a modest monthly donation),
- Selecting, supporting and reviewing the performance of the Executive Director, and
- Providing expert and strategic advice and mentoring, to Executive Director as required.
Attributes of our Treasurer
We are looking for an individual who is:
- Passionate about a fair, just and equitable future, tackling structural gender inequality, and campaigning for a future where we can all be safe, secure and have agency over our lives – no matter our gender.
- Has experience in financial management and oversight, accounting, risk management and reporting, ideally a CA or CPA.
- Aware of Board function and responsibilities, including the ability to provide input on organisational strategy.
- Is prepared to commit between 6-8 hours per month to the task
Fair Agenda recognises that issues of gender discrimination differently and disproportionately affect people who also experience intersecting discrimination. We are working towards ensuring our board and staff team reflects the diversity of lived experiences of the community we seek to serve. We particularly encourage those who bring additional expertise from their lived experience to apply for this and other roles on the Fair Agenda team. Please note that this role is not restricted to a particular physical location, so we encourage people based outside of metropolitan areas to apply.
About the organisation
How we work, and our impact
Fair Agenda’s 4 staff members support our 43,000 members to strategically mobilise on issues in key moments and to win changes that bring us closer to a fair and equal future.
We leverage online, social and media campaigning tactics to put issues on the agenda for decision-makers; working in partnership with service providers, policy experts, and people with lived experience to change the policies that change people’s lives.
In recent years Fair Agenda has driven national impact, including:
- Helped win the decriminalisation of abortion in South Australia, Queensland & NSW,
- Kept a media spotlight on the federal government’s decision to leave thousands of women without access to family violence services they need to be safe – and helping push the government to announce an additional $150 million for family violence response.
- Stopped almost a billion of scheduled cuts to working parents’ time to care for their newborns that would have hurt 79,000 working families per year, slashing the time they could afford to care for their new baby,
- Pushed more than a dozen universities to improve the transparency and quality around their training to prevent sexual violence; and established the first public record of the training policies of Australia’s university residences.
- Worked with partners to secure a change the laws that allow perpetrators of family violence to cross-examine their victim-survivors in Family Court.
The values that determine how we approach our work are:
- We are impact focused – dedicated to a future where we can all be equal, safe, secure and have agency over our lives - regardless of our gender.
- We adopt a feminist approach - for Fair Agenda a feminist approach means actively challenging the ideologies, structures and cultural components of patriarchy. It means:
- Challenging patriarchal power structures and norms,
- Recognising that oppressions intersect and interact, and our approach to challenging them must account for this – including addressing the impact of gender discrimination on trans and gender diverse people,
- Working with integrity and being responsible in our use of power.
- We are bold and strategic, building a force to be reckoned with - we fight for what’s needed, not just what’s possible. We keep an eye on the big picture vision and goal, while still focusing on winning incremental change that makes a difference to people’s lives in the short and medium term.
- We are collaborative - We combine powers with allies when it’s strategic and values-aligned, to enable the most impact with our limited resources.
- We value our people - We’re a people powered movement. We respect the time, experience and safety of our community. This includes the health, happiness, wellbeing and sustainability of our staff.
- We’re constantly evolving our work – we engaging critically with whether what we’re doing and how we’re doing it is helping to create a fairer future.
How to apply
Applications not allowed for this volunteering opportunity.
Please quote in application: Board Treasurer via Pro Bono Australia.
