CHILDHOOD EYE CANCER TRUST

Communications Manager (part time/maternity cover)

Post: Communications Manager

Reports to: Chief Executive

Place of work: Whitechapel, London

Hours:Part time – 22.5 hours per week

Salary: Full time – £33,000-£35,000 (£19,800 - £21,000 pro-rata)

Terms of employment: Maternity cover – 9-12 months

Holiday entitlement: 25 days plus public holidays (pro-rata)

Start Date: Early April 2017

Purpose of the role:

Reporting to the Chief Executive, you will be responsible fordeveloping and implementing an effective communications and marketing strategy, to raise levels of public and professional awareness of retinoblastoma (Rb) and the work of the charity. You will ensure excellent standards of communication with supporters, stakeholders, healthcare professionals and the general public.The role will support the strategic objectives of all the charity’s projects with timely, engaging and consistent communications across print, web and social media.

Main responsibilities:

Media

  • Act as press officer for the charity and respond to allmedia enquiries in a professional and timely manner.
  • Proactively generate media coverage in order to raise awareness of Rb and the profile of the charity.
  • Developspecific media campaigns to align with significant dates and events, including: Rb Awareness Week, National Eye Health Week, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and Rare Disease Day.

Digital

  • Take overall responsibility for the development, maintenance and editorial content of the charity’s website and social networks.
  • Maintainthe blog and ensure it is updated regularly with accurate and engaging content. Produce a monthly blog update e-newsletter.
  • Continuously evaluate performance and monitor against KPIs, using tools such as Google Analytics to measure success and adjust strategy accordingly.
  • Manage the charity’s Google Adwords account (grant account), monitoring and improving ad performance and conversions.

Resources

  • Work with other members of the team to plan, produce and edit the charity’s InFocus newsletter.
  • Work with the Information and Research Manager to produce information leaflets and awareness literature, using programmes such as InDesign and Photoshop. Provide oversight when these projects are commissioned externally.
  • Develop and maintain a comprehensive bank of case studies, a library of photos, videos and written case studies for use in the media, ensuring these are used appropriately and in accordance with best practice and project guidelines.
  • Review performance of the charity’s resources to monitor, improve impact of content and recognise areas for expansion.

Marketing

  • Ensure that the charity is promoted externally through high quality on and offline marketing communications.
  • Oversee all external communications and ensure consistency and compliance with CHECT’s branding, values, key messages and style guidelines.

Other

  • Provide line management and associated responsibilities for the Information and Research Manager.
  • Manage the communications budget.
  • Take the lead on planning major membership events, such as our 30th anniversary members’ weekend in autumn 2017.
  • Work closely with our corporate partner Vision Express, arranging for charity ambassadors to attend store events throughout the year.
  • Support and communicate fundraising activities and events.
  • Work in an integrated way with all staff members and volunteers, maintaining good communications with the team, advising on communication issues and working alongside them to advance the aims of the charity.
  • Be self-supporting in administration, maintaining the CRM database with data entry, retrieval and analysis to develop and schedule consistent targeted, segmented and timely communications.
  • Keep abreast of relevant news and developments by monitoring a range of print, online and social media. Show creativity and leadership in responding to these developments to benefit the organisation’s strategic objectives.
  • Act as an ambassador for the organisation, establishing and maintaining excellent working relationships with key stakeholders including professional bodies and media representatives.
  • Initiate and drive forward campaigns for change in policies. Support and encourage members of the trust to do the same and provide the tools and expertise to achieve this.
  • Occasional weekend and evening work

This job description is not an exhaustive list of duties, but it is intended to be a guide to the role. The post holder may also be asked to undertake other appropriate duties to help fulfil the aims of the charity as it develops.

Person Specification

Essential criteria:

Experience and skills

  • Proven experience in personally developing, implementing and evaluating media campaigns, ideally in the not-for-profit sector.
  • Experience of working in a communications or marketing environment and comprehensive understanding of branding principles and application in communications work.
  • Excellent verbal communication and interpersonal skills that are used sensitively and effectively with a wide range of people that may have different styles, beliefs or agendas.
  • Confident in making strategy, style and content decisions and providing reasons for doing so to colleagues and stakeholders.
  • Experience of writing and editing high-quality, clear, persuasive,highly engaging copy for different audiences and formats, and to proofread to an excellent standard.
  • Confident in working alone or in a very small teamand the ability to develop media campaigns and materials from scratch.
  • Experience in staff management.
  • Experience in updating, monitoring and managing social media sites.
  • Knowledge of using content management systems and writing for the web.
  • Proven experience in building and improving professional relationships and recognising and acting on opportunities for further engagement.
  • Highly organised and able to work with senior colleagues and stakeholders to produce work and materials to strict deadlines.
  • Excellent IT skills and adaptable to new technology.
  • An excellent working knowledge of MS Office.

Desirable criteria

  • Ideally three or more years experience in a relevant role.
  • Ability to use Photoshop and InDesign at a basic level.
  • Understanding of SEO, Google Analytics and Google Adwords.
  • Understanding of the voluntary sector.
  • Degree level qualification in a relevant discipline.

To apply, please email your CV and covering letter to or post it to: The Childhood Eye Cancer Trust, Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel Road, London E1 1BB. The deadline for applications is Sunday 29 January 2017.