Bid Writer

We are looking for a skilled and values-driven writer who understands how strong funding and tender submissions can help charities grow, adapt and make a lasting difference. You will be able to write clearly and persuasively, with strong attention to detail and an ability to adapt your style for different funders, commissioners and audiences. You will be confident taking complex information and shaping it into accessible, well-structured responses that demonstrate need, impact, outcomes and value.

Who we are

People First is an independent charitable organisation that has served people in communities across the North of England for over 35 years. Beginning in 2024, we have formed a mutually beneficial partnership with fellow third sector organisation The Well Communities, a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, led by people in recovery from substance misuse.

This role will work across both People First and The Well Communities and our wider growing family of partners.

We are passionate about our values of equality, respect, and inclusion. We provide a wide range of support and information services across Cumbria, Lancashire, and Teesside, all aimed at helping people to live informed, respected, healthy and fulfilled.

Purpose of job

Are you a confident and persuasive writer who can turn ideas, evidence and lived experience into strong funding applications and tender submissions?

We’re looking for a Bid Writer to help us secure the resources, contracts and partnerships we need to grow our impact and strengthen the long-term sustainability of our organisations.

This is an exciting role within our Development and Innovation Team. You will write compelling, high-quality bids, tenders, funding applications and supporting documents that clearly show who we are, what we do, why our work matters and the difference we make in people’s lives.

You will work closely with colleagues across People First, The Well Communities and our wider partner organisations to gather information, understand services, shape ideas and translate complex information into clear, accessible and persuasive written responses.

The role will support a wide range of income generation activity, including public sector tenders, grant applications, partnership bids, community funding opportunities and service development proposals. You will help ensure our submissions are evidence-based, values-led, compliant, well-structured and submitted on time.

You will play an important part in helping us tell the story of our work - drawing on data, local need, service insight, customer voice, lived experience and examples of impact to show funders and commissioners why our services are needed and why People First and our partners are well placed to deliver them.

About the Team

This position sits within our newly launched Development and Innovation Team. Connected by common purpose and dynamic ideas, the team includes a mix of development functions including Marketing and Communications, Bid Writing, Income Generation, Fundraising, Partnerships and Research.

The Development Team is tasked by our Board of Trustees to push People First and The Well Communities to think differently about their services, innovate our approaches, ensure strong and diverse financial security and hold a future-focused view on the organisation’s growth and development.

Structured around a trio of Big Picture Principles: 

• Strong Foundation: we’ll ensure financial security and sustainable service design
• Radical Thinking: we’ll look outward to examples of great practice, push beyond the status quo and challenge ourselves and our colleagues to explore new ideas and approaches
• Bold Change: we’ll be change-makers both internally and externally, championing transformation in systems, communities, services and lives

The Team is fast-paced, highly collaborative and made up of workstream leads who own their work, think big and support each other to be the best we can be.

The person

We are looking for a skilled and values-driven writer who understands how strong funding and tender submissions can help charities grow, adapt and make a lasting difference.

You will be able to write clearly and persuasively, with strong attention to detail and an ability to adapt your style for different funders, commissioners and audiences. You will be confident taking complex information and shaping it into accessible, well-structured responses that demonstrate need, impact, outcomes and value.

You will have experience writing bids, tenders, funding applications, service proposals or other structured submissions. You will be highly organised and comfortable working to deadlines. Bid work often involves balancing multiple priorities, responding quickly to new opportunities and working with colleagues to gather information at pace. You will be calm under pressure, able to plan your workload and willing to be flexible when priorities shift.

You will be a natural collaborator who enjoys working across teams. You will build positive relationships with operational colleagues, finance, communications, senior leaders, partners and people with lived experience to develop bids that are realistic, grounded and meaningful.

You will be curious and evidence-led, with the ability to research local need, understand funder priorities and use data, insight and stories to strengthen our proposals.

You will understand that good bid writing is not just about writing well - it is about listening, asking the right questions, understanding services and helping to shape ideas into deliverable projects.

Skills, knowledge, and experience

Essential 

• Experience of leading/writing high-quality bids, tenders, and applications
• A track record of securing income for third sector organisations
• Strong written communication skills, with the ability to produce clear, engaging, persuasive and accessible content
• Established relationships with values-led funders
• Experience writing submissions for local authority procurement processes
• Excellent editing and proofreading skills, with strong attention to detail
• Understanding of social value requirements and reporting
• Ability to understand complex information and present it clearly and concisely
• Strong organisational skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities
• Ability to work collaboratively across teams and build effective relationships
• Confidence gathering information and shaping structured written responses
• Ability to use evidence, research, data and examples of impact
• Commitment to equality, inclusion and amplifying the voices of people

Desirable 

• Experience working in the charity, voluntary, public or social impact sector
• Experience of public sector commissioning or competitive tendering
• Experience supporting the development of service models, project plans or partnership proposals
• Understanding of health, social care, advocacy, recovery, community development or related service areas
• Experience creating supporting content such as case studies, impact summaries, service descriptions or evaluation narratives
• Understanding of co-production approaches and involving people with lived experience in project design
• Experience maintaining bid libraries, funding trackers, evidence banks or similar
• Familiarity with online tender portals, grant applications and procurement platforms

Duties will likely include:

Bid Writing and Content Development

• Write, edit and develop high-quality bids, tenders and funding applications
• Produce clear, persuasive and values-led content that demonstrates need, outcomes, impact and social value
• Translate operational information into strong written responses
• Create supporting materials such as case studies, impact summaries, project descriptions and evidence statements
• Adapt writing style and tone to suit different opportunities

Research, Evidence and Insight

• Research funders, commissioners, local needs, policy priorities and service context
• Gather and summarise evidence to support service design, funding need and proposed outcomes
• Use data, lived experience, feedback and service insight to strengthen bids
• Support the development of reusable evidence, statistics, case studies and organisational information
• Keep up to date with relevant funding trends, commissioning priorities and opportunities across our areas of work

Bid Coordination and Submission

• Support the coordination of bid timelines, deadlines, tasks and submission
• Help ensure applications are compliant with funder or commissioner instructions
• Upload and submit bids, tenders and supporting documentation through relevant portals or application systems
• Maintain accurate records of opportunities, submissions, outcomes and feedback
• Support the development and maintenance of funding trackers
• Identify risks or gaps in bid development and raise these in a timely way

Service Development and Continuous Improvement

• Support the shaping of new project ideas, service models and development proposals
• Learn from feedback on successful and unsuccessful submissions to improve future bids
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of bid writing processes
• Help develop a stronger shared understanding of income generation across teams
• Support the Development and Innovation Team to identify opportunities for growth, sustainability and partnership working

Reporting and Communication

• Provide updates on bid progress, deadlines and outcomes as required
• Contribute to internal reports on funding activity, opportunity pipelines and submission outcomes
• Support the team to communicate the impact of funded services to funders, commissioners and internal audiences
• Work with marketing and communications colleagues where needed to align bid content with wider organisational messaging
• Ensure written materials are professional, accurate, accessible and consistent with organisational tone and brand

Other duties

Evening and weekend work may be required.

• The duties outlined above are not intended to be exhaustive and may change as the needs of the organisation alter in line with current agendas. Due to the developing nature of our organisation, we require staff to remain highly flexible in their approach, and work to meet the changing needs of the organisations
• Please note that the successful candidate will be required to subscribe to the DBS update service which requires all People First staff to pay an annual subscription fee.

Driving

A current driving licence and access to own transport is required for this role.

This post requires you to have the appropriate ‘business use’ insurance in place as occasional business use of your car is required to carry out tasks, such as (but not limited to) the following:

Travel to customer or business meetings

Running business errands during the day

Travel between different People First business sites

• Transporting colleagues/volunteers/members/customers or business contacts, for example, to business meetings or self-advocacy groups
• Making deliveries or collections

Carrying extra equipment

For more information

If you’d like any further information about the role or if you have any questions, please contact our Assistant Director of Development and Innovation: [email protected]

To apply

If you’re interested in the role and think you’d be a good fit, we’d like to hear from you.

To apply for this position, please email a copy of your CV (including two references) and a one-page cover letter to [email protected] or alternatively, you can post for the attention of Barry to People First Conference Centre, Milbourne Street, Carlisle, CA2 5XB

All applications should be clearly marked: Confidential – Bid Writer

To arrive no later than 5.00 pm on 19^th August (this date may change depending on the volume of applications).