Exactly what you get when you join MATFMA
No vague promises about “community”. This is the actual platform. Every part of it opens up the day your application is approved, and you can see each one below.
Membership is free for finance and operations professionals working in UK multi-academy trusts. There is no card to enter, no trial running down, and no premium version being held back from you. Suppliers fund the network by paying to be listed in the directory. Members pay nothing, ever.
What's behind the login
These are representative views of the real member screens. You won't find real member names, trusts or discussions on this page, because that privacy is the whole point.
Peer reviews of the suppliers you're about to sign
The directory lists suppliers used by trusts across the country. Members who have worked with them score them across six criteria and write up what happened. You read all of it before you commit a penny.
- Scored on quality, delivery, communication, value, professionalism and ongoing support
- Full written reviews, including the awkward ones
- Suppliers see their own scores and never a word of the text, on any tier
- Write your own named, by role only, or anonymously
- Amend a review later if your view changes, and it goes back through moderation
A confidential forum of people who do your job
Bring the question you can't put to your CEO, your board or your auditor. Members post under a job title and a region, so you can be completely specific about a problem without being identifiable.
- Members only and closed to suppliers, enforced in three layers of the platform
- Benchmarking answered with real figures from real trusts
- Pre-moderated, with a code of conduct everyone signs up to
- Mentions, reactions and a weekly digest, so you don't have to live in it
A directory of finance leaders you can actually reach
Search members by topic, trust size and region, then ask for an introduction. Contact only happens when both people say yes, so nobody gets cold-pitched and nobody ends up with an inbox to manage.
- Listed by role, trust size and region. Showing your name is your choice.
- Filter by the topics people have said they're happy to be asked about
- Introductions only, with no direct messaging
Templates and models you don't have to build twice
Working documents from members and from the MATFMA team. The things you'd otherwise rebuild from scratch at 9pm, or pay a consultant four figures to produce.
- ICFP models, risk registers, policy templates, scenario planners
- Free to download, no per-item charge and no credits
- Plus member-written insight articles, most of which never leave the network
- Contribute your own and help the person two trusts over
The Interim CFO Register
An opt-in register of members available for interim finance leadership. If you need cover at short notice, you're looking at people the network already knows rather than a recruiter's shortlist. If you're between roles or building a portfolio career, you can list yourself.
- Every listing is a verified member, approved before it goes live
- Peer endorsements from people who have actually worked with them
- Start a conversation through the same route as the directory, with consent both ways
- No agency fee, because there's no agency
And the rest of it
Executive Strategy Rooms
Closed-door, facilitated sessions for senior financial leaders, built around the decisions that actually keep you up at night.
Emerging Leaders Network
Small, confidential peer cohorts for finance professionals stepping into strategic roles. Peer challenge and practical tools, no theory.
Roundtables and Trust Talk
Free to book once you're approved, including the monthly agenda-free session where there are no slides and no fixed topic.
The members' insight library
Member stories, opinion and case studies. A few are published publicly; most stay inside the network.
A voice in how it grows
Nominate suppliers worth listing, write for the network, and shape which sessions and resources come next.
A single member dashboard
Discussions, resources, events, supplier insight and your own contributions, all in one place rather than scattered across inboxes.
Who this is for, and who it isn't
A person reads every application. The network works because of who isn't in it as much as who is.
You'll fit right in if you are
- A CFO, finance director or head of finance in a UK multi-academy trust
- A business manager or head of operations carrying financial responsibility
- A finance manager or analyst stepping up towards a strategic role
- Working in a trust of any size, from two schools to fifty
- Happy to read for months before you post a word, as most people are
This isn't the place for
- Suppliers or consultants looking for a route to members
- Recruiters sourcing candidates from the directory
- Anyone outside a UK multi-academy trust
- Marketing, pitching or selling of any kind inside the network
Ready to see it from the inside?
Free for MAT finance and operations professionals. A person reads every application, and we usually come back within three working days.
Apply free, takes 2 minutesNo card required. Members never pay.