Are you looking for an opportunity to bring your own creative flair and experience to a new challenge, to build a team and to make a genuine impact on an organisation’s future?
Would you like to work for an organisation that is ambitious but puts people first with a supportive culture that can enable you to balance work and home life?
And above all, are you motivated by their vision of a world where everyone can experience the power of literature to help us survive and live well?
The Reader’s volunteers and staff bring people together in places around the country from libraries to prisons to read great stories and poems aloud, creating powerful moments of connection. In an increasingly divided world, and with more pressures on our mental health, Shared Reading offers us all the time and space to share what matters to us.
The Communications and Marketing team plays a vital role in our work to bring about our vision. They are looking for a Head of Communications and Marketing to provide leadership and direction to grow and engage audiences across their activities.
The scope of the team’s work is broad and varied – whether it’s telling the wonderful stories that come up in our volunteer-powered Shared Reading movement, inspiring more people to join a Shared Reading group or to volunteer, helping make the case to expand Shared Reading in mental health and care services, or growing the customer base for revenue-generating activities in our social enterprises and participants in our programme at our home in Calderstones Park.
If you would relish the opportunity to bring your passion, skills and experience to enable them to bring the power of Shared Reading to more people in tough times, they would love to hear from you – do find out more by visiting https://www.thereader.org.uk/job/associate-director-of-communications-and-marketing/.
If you’d like to discuss the role before applying, please email laurakershaw@thereader.org.uk
Essential Criteria
• Senior level experience in a communications and marketing role.
• A passion for The Reader’s mission and an understanding of the power of Shared Reading
• Demonstrable experience of how you’ve helped to shape organisational strategy
• Experience of developing an integrated communications and marketing strategy and overseeing its delivery.
• Outstanding copy writing capabilities – able to write engaging copy for a diverse B2B as well as B2C audience. You might be writing for an audience of NHS CEOs or a world-wide community of Literature Professors, or for the Mirror’s World Book Day feature, overseeing the tone of our Café’s menu board or our Christmas Card message.
• Experience working closely with fundraising, business development or membership teams to grow income.
• Experience of media management.
• A track record of delivering measurable, impactful communications and marketing collateral.
• Excellent project management skills, attention to detail and deadlines.
• High degree of creativity in approach and delivery.
• Engaging and credible – you’ll bring staff with you and be able to interact with a range of people, from Shared Reading group members to Parliamentarians in a professional, confident manner.
• Resilient and able to work in a fast-paced environment.
• Flexible and adaptable – you can embrace change, thrive on working on a diverse range of tasks and are happy mucking in.
• Motivated; you are driven and ambitious about what you can achieve and set high standards for yourself and your team.
• Collaborative – you enjoy working in and across teams.
• Strong influencing skills – you’ll be able to live our value Kind but Bold in how you work with other teams to shape ideas and prioritise work
Desirable Criteria
• Marketing degree, CIM Diploma or qualified by experience in marketing delivery
• Literature degree or demonstrable interest in, or practice of, Shared Reading.
• Experience of leading communications and marketing at a ‘venue’.
• Experience of working in the arts or third sector
• Communications/Marketing qualification (e.g. CIM, IPPR).
• Experience of working within an integrated Communications and fundraising department.
• Event management experience.
• Photo, video and audio editing skills.