Membership Coordinator

Are you passionate about growing a community of people that can help make positive change in the world? Do you love learning about what people are doing and finding ways to get people involved? Do you have excellent communication and administrative skills and like helping find solutions when problems arise? Are you very organised and have a good eye for detail? If so, please do apply for this key role within the Permaculture Association.

At the Permaculture Association our members are at the heart of what we do. They are a diverse group of people who are making positive changes that help address the big issues of our time. They run permaculture projects at all scales, from small home gardens to large farms. Many also teach permaculture and support learners. We are committed to providing them with the best possible membership experience which is why we are now seeking a Membership Coordinator. We are looking for someone who has a solid understanding of permaculture and who will be able to support, retain and grow our membership base as well as to link them to one another and share their stories through our various communications channels. 

The Membership Coordinator will engage with our members and lead the operational delivery of all membership related tasks making sure that our members receive top quality service. It is a varied role with outward facing elements engaging with members and the wider public. This means we are looking for someone with outstanding communication skills who is confident engaging with people from all different backgrounds. The other major part of the role is internal, with hands-on operational and administrative responsibilities. This requires someone who is extremely organised and has excellent attention to detail. 

Job Purpose:

To grow and diversify the Permaculture Association’s membership base, provide members with an excellent experience, and increase retention. 

Main tasks and responsibilities (for the full list of tasks please refer to the full job description on our website)

• Develop our membership offer- reviewing and improving the current offer to grow the membership and ensuring we have an exciting ‘term-time offer’ for current and future terms (Autumn / Spring / Summer rolling)
• Lead delivery of all membership processes from joining, renewals and lapsed membership follow-up
• Serve as the primary contact for all membership enquiries, ensuring members receive timely and appropriate responses
• Manage and improve records on our membership database (CiviCRM) so data can be used for supporting membership engagement 
• Processing membership payments
• Establish and conduct a regular schedule of testing membership payments
• Build and maintain good relationships with members
• Contribute to the work on Justice, Equity, Diversity, Accessibility and Inclusion (JEDAI) , helping develop our membership to become more inclusive
• Develop processes for better tracking of data in our membership database, using data to improve membership outreach
• Tracking key membership statistics and review member feedback, and preparing quarterly reports for the Board
• Providing information for annual budget and monitor expenditure.

Person specification (for the full person specification please refer to the full job description on our website)

Essential

• Track record of growing a membership base or a wide supporter base
• Excellent communication skills, able to communicate clearly both orally and in writing
• Permaculture design course (or equivalent understanding of, or practical permaculture experience)
• Experience using a CRM platform (knowledge of CiviCRM would be an advantage)
• Highly organised, able to prioritise competing demands and good attention to detail
• Proactive approach to problem solving, applying analytical thinking
• Able to work within constraints – budget, time, website functionality.
• Excellent digital skills including use of google suite (or equivalent) and spreadsheets
• Adaptable and resilient

Desirable

• Experience in a customer-facing role 
• Experience writing content for promotional materials, web content or short articles

Key Information

Salary: £27,431 pro-rata; equivalent to £11,120 per annum 
Hours: 15 hrs per week which can be worked flexibly over a minimum of 3 days
Contract: Permanent 
Holiday: 32 days including Bank Holidays pro rata.
Responsible to: Chief Executive Officer
Location: Leeds office and/or Home working
Job sharing: This post is not suitable for job sharing.
Eligibility: Please note you must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this role.
Well-being and flexible working: 15 minutes/day of work time for meditation/being in nature; generous leave policy; supportive team culture; flexible working to support family, friends and community life; Association sick pay scheme in addition to statutory requirements.

About Us

Permaculture is used to design regenerative systems at all scales - from home and garden to community, farm, business and bioregions. Permaculture education leads to change. The Permaculture Association is a worldwide leader in permaculture education, providing high-quality, trusted and transformative education. With over 40 years of supporting schools, colleges, universities, farms, gardens and individual lives - our education making a difference. We are leaders in community led, nature-based solutions.

We are here to help more people do more permaculture, and the membership scheme is a way of keeping people in touch with current projects and events in the UK and around the world, get support for projects at home and in the community, connecting with like-minded people, and work together on common challenges and opportunities.

As an inclusive employer and membership organisation, we want our staff team to better reflect the communities in which we live and work. We are committed to making sure our organisation is inclusive, diverse and anti-racist, and one that recognises and truly values individual differences and identities. So if you are interested in the role, but are worried that you do not meet all the requirements in the person specification, we would still like to hear from you. People from communities that experience discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity or immigration status; sexuality or gender; age; socio-economic status; or disability are actively and especially encouraged to apply. 

The deadline for applications is 23:59 p.m. Sunday 5th October, 2025.