The Executive Director: Impact and Investment will lead Comic Relief’s Social Change strategy. This includes having overall responsibility for the organisation’s global philanthropic funding as well as management of relationships with institutional and civil society organisations.

As part of the Executive Leadership Team the postholder will ensure that the projects and organisations Comic Relief funds, and the partnerships we form to leverage publicly raised income, align with our Social Change strategy and values. Specifically the ED:I&I will also be responsible for ensuring that the portfolio of funded work is emotive and communicable and can generate both future income for Comic Relief and also changes in hearts and minds within the UK general public.                                                              

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Leadership and Strategic Management

• Overseeing CR’s global philanthropic funding, making £50-£100m of awards a year and managing an active portfolio of £250 - £300m

• Working collaboratively with the Executive Leadership Team to lead and deliver the organisation’s strategy, performance and goals

• Specifically overseeing delivery of CR’s social change strategy

• Setting and delivering Departmental fundraising targets from all institutional forms of income (trusts, foundations, government), and leading the department in establishing and managing these funding partnerships

• Being the executive level safeguarding lead for Comic Relief, championing the wellbeing of children and vulnerable adults across the organisation

• Publicly representing CR with informed audiences and speak about our social change work as required

Team Management

• Growing and developing the leadership team and ensuring the I&I teams are structured and staffed effectively to achieve the goals

• Ensuring high quality staff are hired, motivated, developed, and managed

• Enabling and maintaining a positive, productive and supportive work environment driven by core values

• Providing timely performance feedback to ensure continuous improvement with timely annual performance reviews that address goals, accomplishments, strengths, development needs, and have regular one-to-one line management discussions

• Ensuring CR is compliant with all workplace/employment laws

Executive Leadership Team and Board Relations

• Playing a proactive role in the management of the organisation such as organisational strategic planning and development, income and expenditure budget planning and management

• Attending the relevant board and committee meetings to report and give advice on fundraising matters

Financial Management

• Producing cost-effective budgets to achieve action plans

• Developing and maintaining income and expenditure tracking and evaluation systems

• Ensuring the I&I directorate is kept within budget

ESSENTIAL SKILLS AND COMPETENCES

• Proven leadership, heading up a function of significant scale

• Significant experience in or closely associated with the not for profit sector combined with exposure to fundraising and communications

• Experience of inspiring and developing strategies and teams to deliver exceptional outcomes

• Significant experience of managing complex and large budgets

• Confident decision maker, with high resilience that can motivate teams and thrives in cross-functional and collaborative working

• Effective relationship builder with strong emotional intelligence and political awareness to persuade and manage senior stakeholders and partners

• Dynamic professional with a positive, solution orientated and fun approach

COMIC RELIEF VALUES

Walk the walk

• Lead by example – actions are stronger than words

• Treat others how you would expect to be treated

• Promote attitudes and make decisions that foster diversity

Share the stage

• Create space for and acknowledge the contributions of others, whether audiences, grantees, partners or colleagues

• Foster a sense of team spirit

• Celebrate team wins

Have a sense of humour, always

• Keep things in perspective

• Try to look for positives or solutions

• Take the work seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously

• Remember it’s ok to have fun

Make it personal

• Get to know your colleagues and partners

• Consider your colleagues and how you can make each person feel included

• Be open-minded and understanding with different approaches

Inspire (a culture of) generosity

• Give colleagues the benefit of the doubt – we’re all working towards the same thing

• Be generous with your time when you can

• Learn from your experiences and seek to share your knowledge and expertise to help others

• Be open-minded and understanding with different approaches

Make meaningful change

• Be bold and brave to bring about the changes you seek

• Take personal responsibility - know that you can make a positive difference to how things work

• Have the courage to have difficult conversations in pursuit of a bigger goal

Break down barriers

• Reach beyond your immediate team - get to know people across the organisation

• Collaborate when it’ll make the opportunity stronger and better

• Gather input from others when making significant decisions

Inclusivity at Comic Relief

We recognise diversity and inclusion are a source of strength in achieving our mission. We therefore welcome everyone, trusting what makes us different brings creativity, styles and experiences to help us collectively do our best work. That’s regardless of your gender, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, and cultural identity. We especially welcome those from under-represented groups in modern grant-making and fundraising. We are on a journey, but if you join our team you will be part of a community that is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment where we want you to:

• Be valued for being yourself

• Do your best work, and be supported to break down barriers so you can succeed

• Be heard, respected, and treated as an equal, whatever your level, experience or background

• Be part of a team that is committed to making this happen – with our colleagues, partners, and contributors.

For full time roles, if you'd prefer to work part-time or as a job-share for a good work/life balance or to help you meet other commitments, as long as we can make it work with our business needs, we'll make this happen. If you need adjustments to your schedule or our office environment, to allow you to perform to your best – please let us know.

Comic Relief is committed to preventing and protecting all people from harm in their interactions with us. We expect all those that act in our name to uphold our approach to doing no harm.