Organisation : Fair Agenda
Location : Australia
Time required : 6 hours
Duration of project : 2 years
Sector : Law, Justice & Human Rights, Women
Application closing date : 9 Sep, 2024
About the role
The Role of the Fair Agenda Board
Collectively, the Board of Directors of Fair Agenda are responsible for:
- Upholding the mission of the organisation and ensuring the organisation is in the best position to foster a bold and inclusive campaigning movement
- Organisational oversight, including approving major strategic and financial decisions,
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- Ensuring long term strategy is in place – including approving, evaluating and refining strategic planning,
- Helping maintain the values of the organisation to achieve our vision,
- Driving organisation and risk review processes,
- Ensuring the organisation uses its finances in a sustainable way,
- Ensuring the organisation remains compliant to relevant regulatory bodies,
- Assisting with fundraising where possible, as part of the Board’s role in ensuring the organisation’s financial sustainability,
- Selecting, supporting and reviewing the performance of the Executive Director, and
- Providing expert and strategic advice and mentoring to Executive Director as required.
At Fair Agenda’s small team size, Board members also play an important ambassadorial role for the organisation, and are expected to help build relationships with organisations, individuals and potential donors where possible and relevant.
The Treasurer 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.
Fair Agenda’s accounts 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 2023 have been independently reviewed, and financial statements for the past financial year are already submitted for review.
At each monthly Board meeting the Executive Director presents the Board with a balance sheet, profit & loss report (with notes on variance), cash forecast (based on committed donations), and fundraising forecast (laying out projected income). The Executive Director also reports against a EOFY reserve goal and 3 month cash flow requirement.
In terms of scale, Fair Agenda’s annual revenue is of the order of $600,000 p.a. We have existing cash reserves, and a strategy to continue building these in 2024/25. Fair Agenda’s staff team is 3.4 FTE, though we believe our impact and profile far exceed our absolute scale.
Fair Agenda is a registered not-for-profit organisation with the legal structure of a company limited by guarantee. Fair Agenda has a range of pro bono legal relationships that we rely on to ensure our legal compliance and risk management.
The Treasurer would join an overall Board team that bring a wealth of expertise across all areas of operation, including in fundraising.
Attributes of our Treasurer
We are looking for a Treasurer who is:
- Passionate about a fair, just and gender equitable future where we can all be safe, secure and have agency over our lives – no matter our gender.
- Excited about the role of campaigning and movement building in driving structural change to secure a more fair and gender just future
- Has experience in financial management and oversight, accounting, risk management and reporting, ideally a CA or CPA.
- Aware of Board function and responsibilities,
- Able to provide input on Fair Agenda’s organisational strategy.
- Is prepared to commit between 6-8 hours per month to the role.
Fair Agenda is committed to building a diverse team and are working towards ensuring our board and staff team reflects the diversity of those 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.
*Please note that the intention to stand as a candidate for public office is considered a conflict of interest incompatible with holding the position of Director at Fair Agenda.
About the organisation
Fair Agenda is a feminist campaigning movement working to transform the systems that perpetuate gender injustice. We’re made up of more than 41,000 people around the country using our collective people-power to campaign for a fair and gender equal future - where we can all live with safety, security and agency no matter our gender.
Our dedicated Board of Directors supports our small but mighty staff team and our movement members to affect that change – contributing their expertise in strategy, governance, campaigning and management.
The Fair Agenda Board are recruited against a skills matrix that focuses on ensuring our Board collectively contributes expertise across a range of areas needed to enable the organisation’s mission. This matrix also focuses on bolstering expertise across the Board in key areas of focus for the organisation at any point in time.
As we seek to scale the organisation, and mature our financial forecasting processes, we’re looking to bring on more Board members who can bring expertise in financial management and oversight to the Board team.
How we work, and our impact
The founding team launched Fair Agenda in 2013 to fill a gap in the feminist infrastructure in Australia: with a focus on adding moment-driven campaigning capacity, and to harness community energy to pressure decision-makers.
Fair Agenda’s 4 staff members support our 41,000 members to strategically mobilise on issues in key moments and to win changes that bring us closer to a fair and equal future; working in partnership with service providers, policy experts and people with lived experience to change the policies that change people’s lives.
Our campaigns keep a spotlight on problems that need solving, build momentum behind solutions, exert pressure on decision-makers, and mobilise community pressure when and where it can have the most impact.
In recent years Fair Agenda has driven national impact, including:
- Securing commitments from Education Ministers to address sexual violence in universities by mandating national oversight, monitoring, transparency and accountability.
- Playing a critical role in securing the decriminalisation of abortion in South Australia, Queensland & NSW,
- Keeping 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 federal government to commit an additional $150 million to address family violence
- Stopping 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,
- Pushing 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.
The values that determine how Fair Agenda approaches our work are:
- We are impact focused
- 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 are collaborative
- We value our people
- We’re constantly evolving our work
How to apply
Applications not allowed for this volunteering opportunity.
Please quote in application: Board Treasurer via Pro Bono Australia.
