Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) is seeking an experienced facilitator (or facilitation team) to join us in developing foundational documents to support our long-term strategic planning, including reviewing/developing our Vision, Mission Statement, and Values, and our Theory of Change. We expect the work to involve four 1-day in person sessions, plus prep/writing up time. expect the work to involve four 1-day in person sessions, plus prep/writing up time.
Fee: up to £5,000 subject to negotiation. Workload: Estimated 16 person-days. Timeline: Aim for completion by November 2023.
Application deadline: Friday 2nd June, 16:00.
Background
CAAT is a UK-based organisation working to end the international arms trade. In seeking to end the arms trade, CAAT’s priorities are to stop the procurement or export of arms where they might: exacerbate conflict, support aggression, or increase tension, or support an oppressive regime or undermine democracy.
CAAT is a Company Limited by Guarantee, run by a small staff team (currently 8), on a non-hierarchical basis, who collectively manage the day-to-day operations of the organisation. CAAT’s work is overseen by a Steering Committee, which is the Board of Directors of the Company, and which includes all staff members and (in principle) an equal or greater number of non-staff Directors. We are currently looking at adding an Advisory Council to this structure to these structures to expand our networks and bring fresh ideas to the organisation.
For some time, CAAT has identified a need to develop a long-term strategic plan for our work, which should flow from a clear understanding of our Vision, Mission, and Values (VMV), and a Theory of Change (ToC). Of these, CAAT has an existing Mission statement, which is set out on the “About CAAT” page on our website (up to and including “CAAT values the diversity of opinion amongst its supporters and is committed to nonviolence in all its work.”). However, this may be updated as part of this process.
We started work on this planning in 2019, and made considerable progress towards deciding a Vision and Values (including broad agreement on several of the Values), and a first draft of a ToC. However, this work was interrupted, first due to Covid restrictions, and then as we decided to prioritise developing a clear short-term strategy, to guide our immediate work. This was carried out successfully in 2021, and we now have a regular process for refreshing this plan annually.
After a period of transition, including considerable staffing changes, we now feel in a much stronger position to resume work on our VMV and ToC. This will develop our understanding of ourselves as an organisation, enable us to develop a long-term strategy, and thus guide our ongoing process of producing short-term strategies/annual plans, which are used to set budgets and staff goals.
What the work will involve
Intended outputs
- Vision statement
- Updated mission statement
- Statement of values
- Theory of Change document
Facilitator’s role
The process described below is our provisional plan, but we are open to suggestions from potential facilitators/facilitation teams.
- Review existing documents on the planning process, including previous work on Vision, Mission, Values, and ToC
- One-one interviews with individual staff members, and with those non-staff members of Steering Committee that wish to. The goal of this will be to gain an understanding of current staff and director’s thinking about CAAT’s values and strategy, to prepare for the discussions.
- Preparing for, facilitating, and writing up and sharing notes of two in-person whole-day sessions for staff and Steering Committee members in summer, to discuss and agree CAAT’s Vision, Mission, and Values, and to identify work that needs to be done to develop the ToC.
- After this, staff will meet to evaluate existing Theory of Change documents and highlight areas that are not complete or require updating. There may be some issues to discuss with the Facilitator in connection with this.
- Preparing for, facilitating, and writing up and sharing notes of two in-person whole-day sessions for staff and Steering Committee members in autumn to finalise CAAT’s Theory of Change, evaluate the work done, and agree next steps.
- Following this work, CAAT staff and Steering Committee will work to produce a new long-term strategy, but this will not be part of the Facilitator’s work.
Required experience
- At least 3 years experience of facilitating strategy and culture change processes or similar, with NGO/civil society groups.
- Experience of working with small organisations, of up to 15 staff
- An understanding of the specific nature and needs of campaigning organisations, whether through experience of facilitating such organisations, personal involvement/work for them, or otherwise
- An understanding of the specific needs and issues of non-hierarchical organisations, whether gained through formal or informal experience.
- Prior knowledge of the arms trade is not needed.
Fee and estimated time for work
CAAT has budgeted £5,000 for facilitation fees, plus expenses (travel, accommodation, any necessary materials). Our standard freelance day rate is £262.06, but we are open to suitable bids based on the Facilitator’s experience and proposed plan, subject to our overall budget. It is expected that the work in total will require around 16 days work, but again, applicants are invited to send their own estimates of required time.
How to apply
Please send a CV and a covering letter, of no more than two A4 pages, setting out why you believe you would be a good fit for this work, and how you would approach the work, to our Operations Manager Jon Nott, [email protected], to whom any queries should likewise be addressed.
Applications must be sent by 16:00 (UK time, GMT+1) on Friday 2nd June. All applications sent up to this time will be considered, but interviews will be carried out on a rolling basis.
