About the Literacy for Life Foundation
Literacy for Life Foundation is a First Nations organisation supporting adults to improve reading, writing and digital skills through grassroots community-led education.
Boosting adult literacy is a catalyst for systemic change, driving progress in education, employment, justice, and health while fostering greater self-determination. The Foundation currently operates in 10 communities across the country.
Our innovative, evidence-based Campaign approach has a proven track record of success.
This work has gained national media attention and is the subject of the powerful SBS/NITV documentary, In My Own Words. You can view the film below.
The Opportunity
Be part of community-led change!
Are you an excellent communicator who can bring community impact and formal reporting requirements together?
The Strategic Funding and Impact Lead will oversee government and major donor funding proposals and reporting, with a focus on empowering communities to advocate directly for ways that work for them.
This is a role for a high achiever ready to join a dynamic organisation that is making a difference every day. We are seeking someone who possesses the technical precision to manage complex financial acquittals and compliance, but also the creative flair to draft compelling, highstakes proposals and reports.
You will take the grassroots reality of our community-led adult literacy work and effectively articulate it to meet our rigorous reporting standards.
Details:
Position title: Strategic Funding and Impact Lead
Position location: Work From Home (WFH), with occasional travel as required
Employment load: Full time
Reports to: Deputy CEO
Direct reports: None
Application deadline: 12 April, 2026
Position start date: ASAP
Base salary range: $95,000-$100,000 per annum (plus superannuation, phone allowance, and NFP fringe benefit/salary sacrifice benefits)
Position Brief
The Strategic Funding and Impact Lead is responsible for oversight of the Literacy for Life Foundation’s funding contract coordination, submissions, proposals, and reporting. This role acts as a link between our First Nations community education teams and our funding partners. The primary objective is to ensure reporting excellence—providing our funders with high-quality, compliant data and case studies that reflect our impact, while ensuring that the administrative process remains efficient, aligned and supports our community-led delivery model.
Key Responsibilities
1. Submissions & Strategic Growth
- Coordinate and draft high-level submissions, tenders, and proposals for government and philanthropic bodies.
- Explore and pursue opportunities for ongoing or expanded funding.
- Support communities to share their results, voices and views as evidence-based cases for continued and increased support.
2. Contract Management & Reporting Excellence
- Own the reporting calendar, ensuring all milestones are met proactively.
- Act as the lead writer for progress reports, ensuring they are accurate, professional, and satisfy all contract/selection criteria.
- Serve as a primary point of contact for funding body representatives, maintaining transparent and professional relationships.
3. Quality Assurance & Collaboration
- Partner with The Foundation’s external accountants and wider team to generate proposal budgets and to facilitate the financial acquittal process, proactively working to ensure expenditure aligns with contractual budgets.
- Work across the organisation to collate information for reporting, ensuring this process is streamlined and elevates the voices of communities.
- Maintain elite attention to detail, implementing rigorous peer-review or proofreading workflows for major external documents to ensure they are free of errors.
- Provide early-warning oversight on contract compliance, ensuring any delivery variances are managed and communicated professionally.
4. Strategic Approach
- We view compliance as a tool for sustainability. You will find ways to satisfy requirements that are robust while ensuring they are also fit-for-purpose for a community-led organisation.
- You will help to advocate for improved approaches to funding and reporting, in particular approaches that ensure community is truly in the driver’s seat.
- You will navigate the tension between rigid reporting frameworks and flexible community delivery with tact, ensuring all stakeholders feel heard and respected.
Candidate Profile
- You are a relationship builder: You gather data by collaborating with workmates and community members, ensuring internal reporting processes are a joint effort. You understand that when deadlines are tight, relationships are the gold that gets everyone through together.
- You are an organised, efficient problem solver: You believe reporting should support delivery, not the other way around. You look for streamlined, effective ways to meet deadlines and goals, ensuring community remains in the lead. You are an expert at simplifying complexity, with strong project management skills.
- You know numbers: You are comfortable working with budgets and accountants to ensure financial acquittals are accurate and timely.
- You take initiative and have pride in producing high-quality, accurate communications to deadline: You are proactive and implement systems and processes for proofing your own work, generating error-free communications in a range of styles for different audiences.
Selection Criteria
Essential
- Proven experience reporting on Government Grants, Tenders, or Contracts within a social impact or community environment.
- Exceptional written communication skills, with elite attention to detail and a commitment to the production of error-free professional documentation across various formats.
- Cross-cultural awareness and understanding.
- Demonstrated financial literacy, including the ability to interpret P&Ls, assist in producing budgets for proposals, and monitor project expenditure.
- High-level interpersonal skills, with a track record of gathering information and influencing outcomes through collaboration and a friendly approach.
- Proven resourcefulness and initiative, with strong project management skills and the ability to juggle competing deadlines while working remotely.
- Ability to undertake occasional travel to literacy Campaign communities, including remote locations.
- Hold a current National Police Check or WWCC or have the ability to obtain both.
Desirable
- Tertiary qualifications in Communications, Journalism, Public Policy, or a related field (or equivalent professional experience).
- Experience working within a First Nations organisation or a deep understanding of the challenges facing First Nations communities.
- Experience using Salesforce.
- Canva skills.
How to Apply
To apply for this role, please provide:
- A current resume.
- A cover letter (maximum 3 pages) addressing the Selection Criteria. In the cover letter, please include a reference to a time you produced a case study for a funding report, outlining some of the details of the task and how you communicated impact.
Applications will be reviewed on receipt. We may proceed with interviewing applicants prior to the closing date and appoint someone from these interviews. Otherwise, closing date for applications is 12/4/26.
Note on the Use of AI: At the Literacy for Life Foundation, we value the use of modern tools to improve efficiency. However, for this role, the ability to engage genuinely with community voices and to produce original, nuanced work is essential. Applications that appear to be AI-generated without evidence of personal engagement and specific, real-world examples will not be progressed.
Please submit your application to Literacy for Life Foundation via: info@lflf.org.au
For further information on the role phone: 02 9322 2120
Download the above information as a PDF.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are strongly encouraged to apply.
Our innovative, evidence-based Campaign approach has a proven track record of success.
This work has gained national media attention and is the subject of the powerful SBS/NITV documentary, In My Own Words. You can view the film here.