Fiona Ellison Email & Phone Number

United Kingdom

The Unite Foundation delivers a unique university accommodation scholarship for care leavers and estranged students across the UK. As the Director I am responsible for ensuring that we fulfil our mission and enhance the lives of young people who are care experienced or estranged from their families to fulfil their potential whilst at University. This involves: • Advising the Board of Trustees on strategic and policy matters by identifying sector risks and opportunities relevant to the care experienced/estranged student experience• Improving the life chances of care experienced and estranged students by credibly representing the lived experience of scholars, actively supporting scholar self-advocacy and expression in the Higher Education sector and within policy influence or debate.• Meeting the Foundation`s charitable goals via operational strategy, public policy development and implementation.• Campaigning for the interests of Unite Foundation scholars and their peers within national media, Higher Education thought leadership and the policy arena.• Monitoring, evaluation and Board reporting of finances, strategic impact and charitable outcomes.• Compliance with relevant charity legislation and governance good practice including financial control, data protection, risk management and safeguarding.• Line managing the Foundation Head of Operations and empowering team members, Unite Students staff or volunteers to deliver required outputs, add value and continually improve scholar experience.• Supporting the effectiveness and professional development of the Foundation team.

The Army Families Federation (AFF) is the independent voice of Army families that works to improve the quality of life for Army families around the world - on any aspect that is affected by the Army lifestyle. I have been a Trustee since the start of 2016, joining the Board at a period of significant change with a a new CEO and having come through a period of turbulence. As a Trustee we have seen significant growth within the organisation and the status of the organisation going from strength to strength alongside ensuring a stable financial footing. I have chaired the Governance Committee since the start of 2018, ensuring that as an organisation we are fit for purpose, comply with HR & GDPR regulations as well as ensuring that our Board adheres to our constitution. In this role I oversaw the transition from unincorporated organisation to a CIO.

As a member of the Senior Leadership Team I have responsibility for: • Building on insights from data and key audiences, including young people, to build on top level strategy that further leverages leadership from across the Environment and Health & Social care sectors to enhance achievement of the campaign goals and shape the legacy of the campaign• Developing and overseeing a systematic programme of engagement in collaboration with partner organisations, to deliver inspire action and create an uplift in engagement of young people in social action. • Briefing Trustees, Advisory Council members, young people and partners to be advocates for the campaign, input meaningfully into collaborative discussions and take practical action to further the vision of the campaign. • Playing an active role in public affairs engagement with key Government bodies to help further the #iwill campaign ambitions and legacy. Working closely across Whitehall to ensure buy into the work of the campaign and supporting investment decisions to further this work. • Oversee and provide SLT support for operational functions for the organisation, including fundraising, budget oversight of c. £1m a year as well as HR and organisational policies. Especially pertinent as the organisation enters its final period.

Seconded from Step Up To Serve and the #iwill campaign, my role was to maximise the potential of the £40million investment from Government and Big Lottery Fund to support social action opportunities for young people across the UK. In this role I: • Built the investment – secured the initial £40m investment from The National Lottery Community Fund & DCMS, building a unique funding model to test new ways of working at the Lottery, and create more investment to reach young people across the UK• Developed match funding - I secured £31m of additional match funding (with a further £3m in the pipeline when I left). Using my relationship building skills to create new partnerships with other funders, identifying mutually beneficial opportunities for match funding, utilising #iwill Fund principles and criteria alongside intelligence from the learning hub and broader #iwill campaign knowledge to develop a high quality funding programme. • Supported knowledge development - support the development and implementation of the Learning Hub, to utilise impact and evaluation data from funded activity to feed into future investment decisions as well as broader #iwill campaign activity. • Ensuring great relationships - Creating excellent relationships across funders, #iwill campaign partners, applicants and governance teams to build a new fund from scratch that was well received, impactful and led to a number of funders coming back in to do more joint investment with the team.

I was responsible for leading the work to enable more high quality youth social action opportunities for young people across the UK. I led on our work to engage the wider voluntary and public sector to understand the potential of young people to add value to their work and therefore create more opportunities for them. Main areas of responsibility:* Develop and deliver the campaign’s strategy for enabling more high quality youth social action opportunities, with an initial focus on the health and social care sectors* Manage the campaign’s steering group focused on this area of work, planning and running the group’s meetings and all communications* Ensure key stakeholders are engaged from the voluntary and public sectors across the four nations of the UK* Manage the campaign’s existing pledges from the voluntary and public sectors and lead the drive to secure additional pledges of support that contribute to the campaign’s strategy* Plan and lead effective delivery of stakeholder meetings and events relevant to the delivery of this strand of the campaign

Moving into a close knit team as a short term maternity cover I had to quickly get up to speed to turn around a programme that was under-delivering and work with organisations who weren't engaged. We overchieved on all our demanding measures of success by the end of my contract. My role included: * Delivery of a regular supply of fresh, innovative work skills and experience opportunities for young people from parent companies O2 and Bauer Media that are meaningful, useful, professional and fun * Scheduling, planning, budgeting and delivering of GoThinkBig events across the UK, engaging over 1,000 young people and utilising high profile speakers to drive engagement * Develop and lead on a new strategy to engage public and voluntary sector organisations to enable us to maximise our reach and ensure opportunities are accessible to those most in need Key achievements included increasing opportunity targets from 62% of target to 102% of target, reaching opportunity targets 1 month in advance of the original timeline.

Create and maintain an overarching student opportunities strategy, instigating work that will be ground breaking to NUS and our member unions. Generating high quality, well researched resource hub, providing practical resources to practitioners in students’ unions and the wider voluntary sector to grow capacity in student activities across the UK.Develop and sustain relationships with key national organisations, putting NUS at the leading edge of student activities and employability work ensuring the organisation reaches its full potential

Managing a £300,000 externally funded, UK wide project working balancing corporate and public sector funders to deliver a project utilising the inspiration of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic GamesTaking a basic project plan and successfully delivering against ambitious targets, including setting up projects in over 80 students’ union, accrediting almost 50 students’ union for their workLiaising with stakeholders involved in the Games from LOCOG, to corporate sponsors, universities and charities, balancing their needs for student support against capacity of studentsExcellent project and financial management, specifically praised in external evaluation of the projectCreating a ground breaking legacy plan to capitalise on the impact that the project has had to develop a new strategic direction for the organisation that creates a five year vision for activity.

Through my role I have had experience of managing the merger of two organisations, as well as developed a high level of competencies in strategic planning, brand working, governance and working to tight deadlines whilst fulfilling legal requirements. I supported a governance review of the organisation considering financial planning, auditing and reporting requirements to the board. I chaired the organisations nominations panel, considering new Trustees and the role of our Patrons and President, something that carrids huge responsibility to build a board that has an balanced level of variety of skills and experience.

Selected as one of 20 emerging leaders within the voluntary sector to lead consultation on the future of leadership in civil society. My role was to plan strategy for consultation, engage with current inspiring leaders across all three sectors to determine areas for the sector to invest in around pathways for development for future emerging leaders. I frequently liaised with, and created network opportunities to work with, leaders from all sectors and have become adept at having high level conversations with those we seek to influence.

Responsibilities included:Development of robust new strategic relationships to fill gaps in service provision with organisations including DCLG, LOCOG, Sport England and UK Online CentresLeading on new partnership development across public and third sectors, increasing the number of Do-it partners by 150 – a 30% increase in just a yearProject management of externally funded projects and consultations, including government funded workExcellent line management of two members of staff and episodic volunteers Preparing and producing detailed reports to funders and stakeholders on project developments

Responsibilities included:Project management of multiple externally funded work streamsDevelopment of work plans to match funding criteria, primarily taking a high level agreement with v – the young volunteers service, and turning it into practical actions for which we were highly praisedStrategic planning to address key organisational priorities through the development of a youth volunteering strategy that was presented to the board for implementation.Management of relationships with key partners and content providers

Responsibilities included:Charity and budget management of £100,000 as sole employee of the organisationVolunteer management of both full and part time volunteers a team over 120.Liaising with high level stakeholders to raise awareness of the awards schemeProduce two high level events, a launch and award ceremony, for over 300 peopleStrategic and operational planning. Turning the vision of the Trustees into real and practical action

Whilst still a student I had a very hands on role as a Trustee, representing the organisation at national events putting forward the view of student volunteers. This included using my skills in networking to engage individuals at all levels, including MPs, Chief Execs and corporate sponsors, to ensure that SVE was in the best possible position for future development. As a result of my success on the board when SVE and VE merged I was asked to move to the VE board to bring my skills and expertise to the organisation.

Bsc Hons; Sport And Leisure Management

Core modules included: Human Resources Strategic Management Financial management and accounting Sports Policy Dissertation.

Clore6, Youth

Activities and Societies: Clore6 was designed and delivered by Clore Social Leadership and leading youth organisations to address.