Are you a people-person who connects with people from all walks of life and loves collaboration and teamwork?

Do you have a creative, problem-solving mindset, the ability to spot a story, and a gift for writing that’s capable of changing hearts, minds and behaviour? Are you interested in correcting the power imbalances that can occur in the storytelling process, working in new and collaborative ways with people with experience of financial insecurity, so their voices are heard, and their words are acted upon? Do you have a passion for social justice, a collaborative yet strategic approach, and a portfolio full of stand-out campaigns which show meaningful impact and results?

In return we offer the opportunity to work with some similarly committed and creative people, to steward a cast of celebrity supporters, and work in an environment where we are committed to trying new things, listening, learning and improving.

Turn2us is a national charity tackling poverty and the structural causes of poverty. We work with co-producers and partners to provide people in financial crisis with the means and agency to get back on their feet, build resilience, move forward with their lives and thrive.

We offer flexible working patterns, both in terms of hours and remote working. Please note that all employees are contractually required to work from the office a minimum of 4 days a month.

Some roles may be required to be in the office more often than others and this will be agreed with the hiring manager upon starting at Turn2us. This can be removed and is always something discussed at a later date.

Please note that all job offers are subject to 2 – 3 satisfactory references and a disclosure satisfactory to Turn2us from the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS).

Job Description

Job Title: PR & Storytelling Manager 

Department: Income & External Affairs Directorate

Reports to: Head of Brand & Communications

Direct Reports: Press & PR Officer

Location: Hybrid: Turn2us London Hub (Hammersmith) & homeworking

Type of role: Full-time, permanent (35 hours). Open to candidates who would like to work part-time as part of a job share.

                                                                                                            Purpose of the Role:            

To create, plan, lead and deliver PR strategies that are led by the voices of people with lived experience, and integrated within the policy, fundraising and information areas of the charity. To lead on media relations as a whole, and ensure we are in a good position to be part of the media conversation about poverty, advocating for a values-led response to solving financial insecurity. This role will lead on all proactive and reactive media activity to raise awareness and understanding of the charity’s work among people who we offer support to, partners, and influencers, as well as identifying, developing and risk assessing people stories and campaigns.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

1. Help shape and implement our proactive and reactive PR and media strategy to increase awareness of Turn2us so we can help more people struggling to get by, and build collaborative partnerships, especially in areas where our work is new (e.g. our place-based and systems-change work).

2. Lead on the development and delivery of our storytelling, ensuring wherever possible, communications are co-created with or led by the voices of people with lived experience of financial insecurity.

3. Build and manage stakeholder relationships with Turn2us celebrity ambassadors and work in coalition with other charities to raise awareness of the impact of financial insecurity.

Duties:

1. Help shape and implement our proactive and reactive PR and media strategy to increase awareness of Turn2us so we can help more people struggling to get by, and build collaborative partnerships, especially in areas where our work is new (e.g. our place-based and systems-change work).

• Create a PR and media strategy, proactively promote the charity among people who may be able to benefit from the support we offer, potential fundraising supporters, political influencers and sector partners – ensuring appropriate alignment of messaging and active campaign engagement, where appropriate.

• Draft and distribute press releases, statements, features and letters to editors, while ensuring all media activity is also shared on our website, social channels and other places, as appropriate.

• Monitor, anticipate and harness the news agenda maximising exposure of Turn2us, its positions and calls and the support it offers, on key issues we cover.

• Support the Fundraising and Programme teams with targeted media support for campaigns, activity and partnerships.  

• ·As part of the wider team, help develop compelling campaigns that resonate with target audiences across paid, owned and earned media, using data and insights.

• Understand policy areas such as financial inclusion, personal finance and regulated financial services to support our policy work and ensure our integrated campaigns seek to tackle the problems faced by people directly affected by poverty.

• Brief staff on media interviews and activity in a timely and accessible manner, ensuring all messages and data are accurate.

• Manage the out-of-hours press phone as and when required.

• Identify, maintain and build relationships with a range of media stakeholders and ensure the contact database is kept updated at all times.

• Act as a spokesperson when needed; and ensure all other spokespeople are well briefed and prepared ahead of media interviews.

• Analyse, report and present on analytics data and social listening to inform our ongoing PR activity and programme of work.

2. Lead on the development and delivery of our storytelling, ensuring wherever possible, communications are co-created with or led by the voices of people with lived experience of financial insecurity.

• Actively source and gather people stories (including travel when appropriate) for use across multiple communications platforms that communicate the impact of Turn2us’s work and support fundraising and supporter engagement, media and policy, brand awareness and volunteer recruitment.

• Create opportunities for advocacy and outreach on behalf of the lived experts for whom we exist, ensuring we amplify the voices of people with lived experience.

• Provide meaningful stewardship and aftercare of people stories and ensure compliance with our safeguarding and informed consent policies.

• Ensure all lived experts who act as spokespeople receive appropriate media training and that they are properly briefed and supported ahead of media interviews.

• Create, update and maintain a ‘story planner’ and a ‘stories database’ and ensure all approved case stories are saved and accessible in the asset management drive.

• Proactively communicate about available people stories to other teams across the charity as part of a regular bulletin and work closely with stakeholder teams to sign off story content and track how the stories are used, evaluate the impact of stories, and share impact across all key stakeholders and with the storytellers.

• Stay up-to-date on best practice around story gathering processes, including informed consent, co-production and data asset management (input and curation) and data governance procedures to internal colleagues.

• Support the development, and roll out, of story gathering best practice tools, guidelines and training, and work closely with the regional media team, services and ops colleagues to extend story gathering capability across the organisation.

3. Build and manage stakeholder relationships with Turn2us celebrity ambassadors and work in coalition with other charities to raise awareness of the impact of financial insecurity.

• Develop and manage the Turn2us celebrity strategy to ensure the charity’s activities are supported by high-profile individuals where appropriate.

• Identify partnerships and ambassadors to promote the work of Turn2us, carrying out appropriate safeguarding and risk assessments prior to establishing a relationship.

• Build celebrity and ambassador relationships into our programme of PR, with a particular focus on helping to generate greater awareness and fundraising income.

• Develop ideas and run projects to engage and collaborate with charities and organisations.

• Lead and support relationships with external partners, including the ACO and the End Child Poverty coalition and identify new opportunities.

These are the normal duties, which the Charity requires from the position. However, it is necessary for all staff to be flexible and all employees will be required from time to time to perform other duties as may be required by the Charity for the efficient running of the charity.  This Job Description is non-contractual. It will be reviewed from time to time and may be subject to change. The post holder will be expected to ensure that their work complies with contractual terms and conditions, the Charity’s policies and procedures and key legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and charity law.

Person Specification

Skills  

Necessary:

• Exceptional writer with experience of producing copy for a variety of audiences. 

• Experience in editing and managing the production of copy from others, either in a press office, newsroom or communications team context.

• Comfortable with being able to publish on a range of platforms and CRM and CMS systems.

• Project management with specific experience in managing advocacy and awareness campaigns.

• Strong attention to detail.

Knowledge 

Necessary:

• Awareness of the issues relating to poverty in the UK.

• Awareness and strong working knowledge of the sector with specific experience with similar charities desirable.

• Strong understanding of and contacts with journalists, editors and producers across all mediums including print, online and broadcast.

• Understanding of Data Protection legislation/GDPR and implications for managing stakeholder data.

Desirable:

• Understanding of the political landscape in the UK including Westminster, the devolved parliaments and local authorities. 

Experience

Necessary:

• Experience of planning and developing PR and media campaigns.

• Experience of managing large scale, national, public communication campaigns.

• Working knowledge and experience of setting up systems to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of communication activities.

• Ability to manage project related budgets.

• Experience of managing third party suppliers.

Personal Attributes

• Strong leadership skills with the ability to work with other departments to achieve objectives.

• Ability to manage workload and delegate when required.

• Ability to plan, prioritise and deliver multiple projects and a work programme to agreed deadlines.

• Interpersonal skills and the ability to build effective and collaborative partnerships.

• A positive and energetic approach to problem solving.

• Highly motivated with an ability to work on own initiative and work proactively in key areas of responsibility.

• To travel to meetings across the UK when needed.

• A commitment to embodying the charity’s values of:

  • Financial Security for All.

  • Listen, Learn, Improve.

  • Together We Succeed.

  • Impatient [for change].

Turn2us is fully committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion in our sector. We want this to be reflected in the diversity of the people who work for us and we are particularly interested in applications from people from all backgrounds.  

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