The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is an independent charitable foundation established in Portugal in 1956. It is one of the largest European foundations, with headquarters in Lisbon and offices in London (the UK Branch) and Paris. The fundamental purpose of the Foundation is to improve the quality of life for all throughout art, charity, science and education. The Foundation is committed to the future, to those most vulnerable, and to the value of culture.

The Head of Advocacy and Communications will play a critical role in ensuring our work is well understood, and supported, by those we seek to influence in the UK, Portugal and, selectively, further afield. Working closely and collaboratively with our mission area leads and the director, the manager will ensure that we maximise the value of our work through learning about and amplifying the contributions of partners that the Foundation supports and telling a story of change that can galvanise responses from policy-makers, practitioners and other funders. The post-holder will line manage a communications officer within a culture that seeks to be non-hierarchical.

We are at an important time in our work, where we have three mission areas at different levels of maturity and as such each has different communications needs and opportunities. Our new work on climate change enables us to put into practice a long-held aspiration: that communications and engagement are key parts of our work from the beginning, engaging others in our work, building support, and creating the conditions for a legacy of impact after we have withdrawn our support. As our Valuing the Ocean mission area moves towards legacy, there is a story to be told to embed our impact as we move out of this space. We want to apply learning from this mission area to others as part of ensuring continuous improvement. Our mission area focused on promoting the ‘Civic Role of Arts Organisations’ is at a point when we can build on some solid achievements, including the inaugural Award for Civic Arts Organisations, and act in selected areas that maximise the impact of our work going forward. We have contributed to the shift in ways that arts organisations increasingly think of themselves – in favour of inclusivity and relevance to their communities – and seek association with the change whilst not overclaiming.

We are looking for someone who will bring experience and enthusiasm to this potentially wide brief where the ability to take initiative, navigate ambiguity and prioritise competing demands in response to a changing external context will be essential. We are seeking a strong team player willing to show how his/her skills can add value to our work and contribute to achieving organisational goals.    

For the right candidate, there is also the scope to combine this role with developing our approach to monitoring and evaluation at the Foundation. For us, evaluation is intended to drive continuous improvement and enhance accountability by telling a story that describes the value we bring to the causes on which we focus.