About the role

BSCA is seeking a passionate all-rounder who can help keep the organisation running smoothly, and provide support to BSCA’s President, Jo Dodds. This is a broad managerial and administrative role in a small, effective organisation building support for climate action in Australia.

You'll need to be self-motivated, goal-focussed and enjoy working in our small, highly motivated team.

The position is FTE 0.8 on a six month contract with likely extension pending funding.

$60,000 - $70,000 per annum, plus superannuation depending on experience

Key team members work from home in regional NSW (Bega). You'll have similar flexibility in location, working from home.

We strongly encourage applications from Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people, people of colour, women, people with disability and members of the LGBTIQA+ Community.

Key Responsibilities

• Triage incoming phone calls and emails, including from donors and supporters, and requests related to the President’s time such as speaking opportunities or events.
• Build and maintain authentic relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders, including members and donors
• Work with BSCA’s bookkeepers to ensure financial records are accurate and complete
• Provide administration support including managing the organisation’s shared inbox and calendars
• Prepare grant applications and collate reports for BSCA’s donors
• Manage BSCA’s website and social media profiles with support from key partners.
• Provide other, high level administrative and project support to support the President and Committee as required
• Oversee management of BSCA’s membership database and transition to CRM/other platform as we grow

About us

Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action (BSCA) has a vision for a renewables-led economy where all Australians can live safely from climate-fuelled bushfires.

As bushfire-impacted people we use our lived experience to highlight the links between climate change and increasingly dangerous bushfires. We demand an urgent and just transition to renewable energy.

Our community spokespeople build relationships with decision-makers that ensure bushfire survivors are perceived as authentic, non-partisan representatives of people impacted by climate change. We use our credibility and personal stories of loss and trauma to ensure that the cost to ordinary Australians, of unabated greenhouse gas emissions, is understood, acknowledged, and centred in all decision-making about climate action. We focus particularly on elected representatives in the federal government, but also seek to influence state and local government members, business leaders and other climate, economy and community stakeholders.

Our wide supporter/member base reflects community diversity as we are linked only by the lived experience of climate damage. This and the very personal and affecting nature of our stories of bushfire allow us to sidestep toxic political debates and focus on real people and the climate impacts we all face.

Our team

We are a rapidly expanding group of people who’ve been impacted by bushfires and are speaking out to demand urgent action on climate-damaging emissions. We are students, nurses, teachers, retired people, fire fighters, parents, artists, and more.

We live in rural, remote, urban and town communities. We are united by our lived experience of bushfires, whether we fought the flames, breathed the smoke, evacuated our homes or saw loved ones go through bushfire trauma and loss. And we are dedicated to preventing the even hotter and more frequent fires that are forecast because of unchecked climate heating.

Our superpower is storytelling. We tell stories about our experiences that cut through the politics of climate change and put the impacts on ordinary people front and centre. This means we’re not your average NGO but a very broad range of people determined to hold political leaders to account for their action on climate.

Our achievements

• We recently won a groundbreaking case in the NSW Land and Environment Court compelling the NSW EPA to develop specific policies on climate damage.
• We attended Glasgow’s COP26, addressed the Loss and Damage session, met with the Australian Ambassador for the Environment, and exposed the Morrison Government’s shameful climate record to a global audience
• We have met with federal and state politicians to demand stronger targets for emissions reductions, and have gained support and agreement
• We have met with energy, insurance and investment industry executives to bring the very personal cost of bushfires into the discussion about the ‘costs of climate action’
• We’ve addressed company AGMs and shamed their inaction on divestment from polluting industries

SELECTION CRITERIA

Skills and Attributes:

• Passion to work on climate and make a difference
• Empathy and ability to centre other people’s experience in the work you do
• Strategic thinker, solution and goal-focused
• Lived experience — how you identify as bushfire-affected may range from having fought fires or lost a home to breathing smoke for days to feeling anxious when the wind is hot and dry. Or you may not identify as bushfire-impacted. We don’t judge anyone’s experience and choice to identify as being impacted

Core Competencies:

• Planning and organising - you have excellent organisational skills and can plan, organise and deliver multiple tasks and projects to tight deadlines.
• Attention to detail - you never let things slip through the cracks and always double-check the small details whilst still keeping the big picture in mind.
• Flexibility - you are always flexible in your approach with the ability to manage balance competing priorities
• Initiative - you see opportunities that others don’t and propose ways forward without being prompted. You look beyond business as usual to find better ways of doing things.
• Strategic - you understand and direct resources towards achieving the big goals, even when smaller goals are demanding attention
• Technical - familiarity with Squarespace, Google Workspace and Agorapulse, Slack and/or the ability to learn these quickly!

Why work with BSCA?

Because we know how urgent action on climate is, and we know how to change the conversation, avoid the toxic politics, and put the human cost of inaction at the centre of all considerations. Our voices are powerful. Your work with BSCA will make a difference!

We are focussed on making change happen quickly but knowing it must be done by bringing community with us. Our people-centred approach is based on caring about all humans and other beings who are harmed by climate damage. We work turning trauma and rage into compassionate action because we’ve lived through some hugely traumatic events and know how much healing and change comes through action. Bringing our whole selves to this work is very rewarding.

While our mission is critical we also know you have to stop and smell the roses. Our work is demanding but we are flexible and we care about each other.

At BSCA we know when it’s time to have a break, go for a walk, sing, laugh, and feel supported if you need it — because climate work is hard work. We know you can only make real change happen by living it.

Interested? To submit your application, click Apply Now. 

A complete Position Description is attached below.