Admin/Finance Team Lead

We are Sanctuary, and we’re looking for a full time Financial and HR Team Lead to join our team. This job is perfect for someone who has a background in finance and human resources; has a passion for supporting marginalized communities; and a love of people and Jesus.

About Sanctuary

At Sanctuary, we are becoming a healthy, welcoming community where people who are poor or excluded are particularly valued. This community is an expression of the good news embodied in Jesus Christ.

Our faith and relationship with God inform us in identifying the following as some of our core values:

• Dignity: We believe that each person is created in the image of God and, as such, has the right to be treated with the utmost dignity.
• Mutuality: We come to our relationships recognizing that each person has gifts to be shared and gifts to be received.
• Inclusivity: We intend that our community at Sanctuary will be as inclusive as Jesus was in his life.

This is also a community that puts you at risk for trauma, compassion fatigue, burnout, and compound grief. You will witness traumatic events both directly and indirectly. It’s essential that you are someone who regularly accesses a personal support network and strives to maintain health through activities and resources that ground and inspire you.

The Role: Financial and HR Team Lead

The Financial and HR Team Lead’s role is to assist the Executive Director to oversee our finances, provide leadership to our administrative team, and provide human resources support to our small staff team.

Team Lead for Administrative Team

• Provide leadership and support for our administrative team, both donor relations and bookkeeping
• Assist with communication to donors through our newsletter and social media
• Assist with grant writing and administration
• Assist the donor relations team with special events
• Provide support to staff as a member of the Operations Team, dealing with day to day issues

Support to Executive Director

• Assist the Executive Director with financial planning, analysis, and budgeting
• Provide updates on donations and donor information
• Oversee the yearly audit
• Assist with human resources support for the staff team
• Assist with creating connections with neighbours

Experience in the following areas are an asset:

• Working with marginalized communities
• Full-cycle bookkeeping, the audit process for charities, budgeting,
• Donor relations, communications and social media, and grant writing
• Managing a small staff team
• Canadian HR standards for hiring, evaluation, and releasing employees
• Quickbooks online, BrightHR, Salesforce, CanadaHelps, and Zeffy

Additional expectations for all staff members:

• Participation in community drop-in meals (Tuesday lunch and Thursday dinner)
• Walking outreach (where schedule allows)
• Community care (e.g. helping clean someone’s apartment, where schedule allows)
• Engagement in regular self-care practices and trauma-informed therapy
• Participation in weekly all-staff meetings and two annual staff retreats (typically offsite)
• Participating in training on anti-racism, anti-oppressive practices, and non-violent de-escalation required
• Participation in training for overdose prevention and response and first aid and BLS required (not a prerequisite for the role)
• Professional development (e.g. regularly meeting with mentors)
• Occasional church duty (e.g. provide support to Sunday Team to monitor front-door)

Hours and Compensation

• Full Time and salary range is $63,000 to $72,500 depending on experience
• Benefits package, including LTD (both financial and other benefits)
• 20 days of paid vacation per year (prorated depending on the length of contract)

You’ll succeed in this role if you have these characteristics:

• Your Christian faith informs, motivates and inspires all facets of your life.
• You are comfortable with tension and ambiguity. This community includes a wide range of people. We don’t always agree, but we always care for one another. Sanctuary tends towards being a harm-reduction community, and the tension of wanting the best for people while supporting them where they’re at is part of our reality.
• You are a strong communicator. You listen more than you talk, and you want to understand other people’s viewpoints. You are able to convey empathy and conviction.
• You are resourceful. When something goes wrong, you know how to bring together resources on hand to make it right, whether the challenge is logistical or interpersonal.
• You are flexible. Schedules around here are written in pencil, and you’ll probably be asked to do things you’ve never done before. You can change plans when the need arises.
• You engage intentionally with self-care. This is a community that puts you at risk for trauma, compassion fatigue, burnout, and compound grief. It’s essential that you are someone who regularly accesses a personal support network and strives to maintain health through activities and resources that ground and inspire you.

Application Process

To apply for the position, please send your resume and cover letter to gilc@sanctuarytoronto.ca. The posting will be closed on December 1, 2025.

Eligible candidates will be contacted the first week of December for an interview in mid December. After the interview, short-listed candidates will be asked to attend at least one Sanctuary worship service (Sunday afternoons between 5:00 and approximately 7:15), and a Sanctuary drop-in for a minimum of one hour. The drop-in times are Tuesday between 10:30 am – 3:00 pm and Thursday between 4:30 pm – 9:00 pm. Prior to attending the drop-in, the candidate should contact the team to ensure arrangements can be made to provide an orientation to the drop-in setting at Sanctuary. No such arrangements need to be made for the worship service. These experiences may provide an opportunity for the candidate to talk with some of our team and will offer them a valuable opportunity to get a first-hand sense of the Sanctuary community.

After the interview and visits are completed, a successful candidate will be selected and your references will be contacted.

The target start date for the position is January 2026.