This role is offered on a hybrid contract giving you the opportunity to also work from home three days a week.

Comic Relief reserves the right to close the role early if a large number of applications are received.

PURPOSE OF JOB:   

The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Manager is responsible for the delivery of monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) activities, in particular for the Nourish the Nation programme that Comic Relief is funding with Sainsbury’s. Working internally and with the partners we fund in the UK, the successful candidate will be confident developing and implementing MEL frameworks, has experience of commissioning or undertaking a variety of MEL processes and outputs, and is familiar with the challenges and opportunities of feeding evidence and learning into new phases of programmes. In addition to technical MEL experience, you will be interested in the bigger picture, keen to explore wider contexts and drivers of social change. The postholder will need to be driven and focused on delivering an ambitious MEL programme, and able to work as part of a team to deliver essential evidence and learning to our partners.  

Role Responsibilities

The postholder will be one of two MEL managers and a Senior MEL Manager in our friendly MEL team led by the Head of Impact and Learning, which sits within the wider Funding team. The team works across all of Comic Relief’s funding programmes in the UK and overseas, supporting Portfolio Managers and funded partners to deliver on MEL objectives. The role will predominantly focus on leading the MEL framework for the Sainsbury’s Nourish the Nation programme, but will be supported by the MEL team to find opportunities to feed evidence and learning into our internal MEL system. The role may involve other MEL work that comes up on other programmes and/or initiatives. 

The Nourish the Nation programme was launched in 2022 to tackle food poverty in the UK which increased during the cost of living crisis. In total, from 2022 to 2025, Nourish the Nation has committed over £12 million in funding to help address food insecurity in the UK.   

So far, there have been three main elements of the programme: 

• Creating more food secure communities 

• Providing good food for all children 

• Resolving immediate hunger 

Working with national partners, Nourish the Nation funding has been allocated to hundreds of local community groups to carry out this work around the UK. MEL is key to the success of this programme, and there are a number of key activities that need to be delivered, including regular progress reports, an evaluation and two research studies.  

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:  

• Manage and further develop monitoring, evaluation and learning activities related to the Sainsbury’s Nourish the Nation programme, and other programmes where necessary  

• Manage external consultants to deliver specific evaluation and learning projects as required  

• Collaborate with the Funding team to develop and implement learning ambitions and frameworks for the Nourish the Nation programme and use insights generated to inform strategic decision-making  

• With Portfolio Managers, support funded partners to monitor, evaluate and learn from their work through progressive, appropriate and proportionate grant reporting processes  

• Contribute to the development of our internal MEL system, ensuring that the Nourish the Nation programme feeds into our overall understanding of our progress towards social change and learning about our funding practice 

• Creatively find ways to unlock the inherent power of communities and organisations by ensuring that people with lived or learned experience are actively engaged in the way monitoring, evaluation and learning activities are designed, commissioned, implemented and disseminated 

• Contribute to internal reports, meetings and strategic planning, ensuring that learning is well documented in a variety of accessible formats, and support with ad hoc queries as they arise 

• Contribute to MEL work on initiatives and other programmes as they arise 

• Work cross-organisationally to ensure learning is widely and openly disseminated, both internally and externally, so that it meaningfully impacts our own practice and that of the wider sector 

• Support the development of new funding partnerships and funding programmes by providing inputs into the overall monitoring, evaluation and learning needs and strategy and advising on MEL  

Occasional travel may be required within this role. 

PERSON SPECIFICATION 

Essential criteria: 

• Experience of processes, approaches, tools and methodologies that facilitate formal and informal monitoring, evaluation and organisational learning practice, ideally within organisations of different scales and contexts. 

• Experience of commissioning and managing external consultants to deliver MEL initiatives, including brokering fair and equitable partnerships. 

• Excellent analysis and sense-making skills, underpinned with sound judgement under pressure, and the ability to identify solutions to address delivery risks and issues.  

• Excellent facilitation skills with an ability to promote critical thinking and reflective practice to encourage learning within a group. 

• An understanding of, critical engagement with, and commitment to applying, a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) lens to MEL. 

• Experience of successfully supporting organisations to plan and implement quality improvements, including through monitoring, evaluation and learning. 

• Effective relationship builder, with strong emotional intelligence and experience of working in collaborative, multicultural and cross sector environments alongside individuals and organisations with diverse perspectives and ways of working.  

• Strong planner with outstanding attention to detail and the ability to manage and prioritise a diverse workload in a busy environment.  

Desirable criteria: 

• Experience working on issues of poverty in the UK, such as in the food insecurity or food poverty sector in the UK 

• Demonstrable ability to be a creative thinker that can seek out opportunities to try new methods and approaches, where appropriate.  

• Experience of designing and delivering participatory learning interventions with individual, or cohorts of, funded partners.  

• Experience of working with both UK and internationally based organisations. 

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Comic Relief we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Why work at Comic Relief

There are lots of good reasons to join us at Comic Relief. You can read more about our employee benefits, such as our commitment to flexible and hybrid working. We ask staff to come to the office twice a week, normally on agreed team days, so that we can do all those things that are difficult to do online. Our office is based in Whitechapel, London, There are lots of opportunities to develop your skills and experience at Comic Relief, including opportunities to become a Mental Health First Aider or to participate in our Employee Network Groups that focus on making Comic Relief a more inclusive place to work

Disability Confident employer

As part of the Disability Confident scheme, we take positive action by providing first-round interviews to candidates who have a registered disability, provided they meet the minimum criteria for the role, as demonstrated on their CV or application scores. We ask that candidates that wish to be considered for this scheme email

Recruitment@comicrelief.com to discuss further. Please do not email CV's/cover letters.