DESCRIPTION 

Communications Manager, UK Branch (Maternity Cover) 

The opportunity 

We are looking for an experienced communications professional to join our team and add value to our work: contributing to meeting ambitious, long-term goals by helping us disseminate insight from our Culture and Climate grant-making programmes and engage key audiences. This is a fixed term, one-year maternity cover post. The individual will have a strong track record in developing and operationalising advocacy and communications activity, ideally with particular expertise in corporate communications, copywriting, media engagement and project management at a senior level.  The successful candidate will bring creativity, the ability to take initiative leading projects, and to originate quality written and other materials.  

The successful candidate will contribute to exciting and impactful work and will steer our communications approach. 2024-25 are important years for our communications – our grant-making programmes will be two years into a five-year strategy, and this is a critical time to showcase lessons and outcomes. This period will include our team facilitating large-scale events, publishing results from our grant projects, and participating in major multilateral summits including COP16 Biodiversity Summit for the first time, and the UN Ocean Conference 2025. 

This post reports into the Director of Sustainability and UK Branch. You will work closely with  our diverse, friendly team split between the UK and Portugal. Key internal stakeholders include grant-making Directors and project leads in London and Lisbon, senior leaders in our Head Office Marketing and Communications team, communications leads in other grant-making departments, other colleagues in the UK Branch, and the Foundation’s Executive Trustee for grant-making. External stakeholders include our grant partners (such as non-profit organisations), other funders and multilateral civil society networks.  

This a unique opportunity for someone with a strong background in communications to further develop their portfolio and work on important projects in the environment, culture and social impact sectors. 

About the Foundation 

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 Foundation’s mission is to promote the development of individuals and organisations, through art, science, education, and charity, for a more equitable and sustainable society. 

The Foundation focuses its resources and activities where there is the greatest need and where it is best able to make a difference. We develop multi-year programmes that align with our twin strategic priorities of sustainability and equity. In this 2023-27 strategic cycle, we are focusing on specific areas of action: Access to Culture, Access to Care, Access to Education, Climate and Ocean, Democracy and Civil Society, Armenian Communities, and Partnerships with Africa. Based in London, the UK Branch works on the Climate and Ocean and Access to Culture programmes. 

Our funding approach incorporates international grant-making best practices and builds on the Foundation’s relative strengths: 

• Long-term thinking: We set long-term goals, address root causes, and invest in the enablers of change rather than just alleviating symptoms. Like most large independent foundations, we are fortunate in being able to take a long-term view, look over the horizon, and seek impact beyond political cycles and market uncertainties. 

• International impact: Our founder wanted the Foundation to benefit “all of humanity”. We are well-positioned to deliver impact at national and international levels through our physical presence in three countries on the west coast of Europe and long-standing relationships with funders in these and other countries. 

• Acting systemically: We seek transformational change and recognise that we operate in a complex ecosystem. Systems—and their associated problems and solutions—tend to cross national borders and traditional disciplinary lines. We position ourselves to act systemically by operating in a broad range of disciplines and promoting collaborative, cross-sector approaches to solving problems. 

• Cultural and scientific heritage: We are fortunate in having an Arts Centre and a Science Centre. We are experienced at putting our ideas into practice through cultural and scientific programmes. We recognise both the arts and science in improving societies and enhancing people’s lives, promoting the intersectional value of culture and knowledge. 

• Convening power and partnerships: We have developed a strong track record of bringing together partners and working closely with communities in the geographies and areas in which we have acted, along with foundations in other countries, to share approaches and learning. This enables us to “think global, act local”. 

The role 

The Communications Manager plays a critical role in ensuring our work is well understood, and supported, by those we seek to influence in the UK, Portugal and beyond. Working closely and collaboratively with our grant-making leads and directors, in this position you 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 practitioners, policy-makers, other funders and internal audiences. The post-holder will work closely with a UK-based Communications Officer.  

You will manage communications strategies and design and implement engagement plans for work in the two main programmes the UK Branch contributes towards – Access to Culture and Climate and Ocean. More information about these programmes can be found on our website. 

 Key Responsibilities 

The following list is intended to provide a flavour of the role and is not exclusive. We are an agile team and we welcome individuals shaping their roles depending on skillsets and professional interests. 

Communications Strategy and Planning   

• Work alongside Directors and team members to develop and deliver communications, advocacy and influencing strategies. In particular, creating a new Access to Culture (Equity) communications strategy; and implementation of the Climate and Ocean (Sustainability) strategy, including identifying opportunities for communicating impact. 

• Develop core communications materials, such as key messages and narratives for our programmes and key projects. 

• Oversee and maintain systems needed to implement the plan(s), including the communications calendar, social media (primarily Twitter), newsletters and websites.  

• Deliver aspects of the communications plans, including drafting regular articles, newsletters and mailings and producing content for the UK Branch and main Foundation website. 

• On occasion, review or commission external content in the form of video, audio, podcasts, audio slideshows and animation.

• Monitor and report on communications activity to demonstrate its contribution to meeting our objectives. 

  Media and Profiling  

• Manage external media agencies for key projects, in particular the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity (including design and management of contracts, relationship management, overseeing content production and delivery). 

• Help align our grant-making programmes’ ambitions with opportunities for engaging with other funders, senior policy-makers and opinion formers. 

• Identify opportunities for presenting our work at national and international levels. 

• Help develop angles for presentations, prepare briefing documents, and draft speeches. 

Corporate Communications  

• Oversee all aspects of the UK Branch’s digital presence and champion its use. 

• Lead or contribute to the production of corporate publications (including annual reports, strategy documents) or materials designed to communicate impact from our programmes (such as learning or outcome reports). 

• Oversee ​proofreading​​ ​and organising of design and print of UK Branch corporate communication materials​. ​ 

• Act as guardian of our brand identity in the UK, providing advice to colleagues and external partners based on corporate guidance . 

Management, Reporting and Evaluation  

• Help foster a strong collaborative relationship with colleagues in the UK and Portugal.  

• Participate in the development of grant-making and organisational strategies and plans, including the 2025 UK Branch operational plan.  

• Contribute actively to regular team meetings by providing communications updates and taking responsibility for collective decisions. 

• Oversee contractors providing communications services, ensuring that they offer a consistently reliable, high quality and cost-effective service. 

• Contribute to the development of a high-performing team, in particular supporting junior communications colleagues with mentorship and guidance. 

• Provide reports on our communications and influencing work and its effectiveness.  

• Contribute to tasks that enable us to comply with policies on archiving, evaluation and monitoring. 

  EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS 

Part One: Knowledge and Experience 

At least 6 years of experience (gained in paid work) of the following: 

• Using communications and advocacy to drive social change. 

• Developing creative, effective campaign and advocacy plans to communicate complex issues to diverse audiences with intercultural sensitivity.

• Delivering a  range of communications activities using traditional, social and digital media, and other channels, and understanding how an organisation like ours can best deploy them.

• Developing relationships with selected stakeholders to learn from, collaborate with and influence.

• Writing for a range of different media (articles, blogs, briefings, press releases, etc.).

• Organising and facilitating events, both online and in-person, such as launches, roundtables, panel events. 

• Using digital communications software, ideally Mailchimp and WordPress (or equivalent).

• ​​​​Commissioning and managing third party contractors (e.g. designers or printers)​.

• ​Working in one or more of our areas of focus e.g. arts or environment (desirable).

• ​Knowledge of (or ideally experience working within) the third sector.

• ​Knowledge of the philanthropic sector (desirable).

• Experience in an international organisation or working with different cultures.​​ 

Part Two: Skills, abilities and personal style

The successful candidate will: 

• Have excellent communications skills (written and verbal).

• Have strong analytical capability.

• Influence with impact.

• Work collaboratively, with great team-working skills and cultural awareness.

• Think strategically.

• Promote innovation.

• Deliver results.

• Demonstrate a passion for our role and work.

• Have a commitment to promoting diversity equity and inclusion. 

TERMS OF APPOINTMENT 

Contract 

The role is offered as a fixed one-year, full-time position. There will be a probationary period of two months. 

Location 

This post will be located at the UK Branch’s headquarters in Hoxton Square, London. The postholder must be eligible to work in the UK. 

This role may require some national and international travel, including to our Head Office in Lisbon, and occasional work out-of-hours around events. 

This position is based in our London office, but with some flexibility for home working 1-2 days a week.  

Working hours 

Standard hours are 35 per week. However, we would be open to considering applications for 4 days per week/28 hours. Some flexibility and occasional out of hours working will be required to fulfil the responsibilities of the role. 

Salary and Pension 

A competitive salary dependent on experience. After completion of the probationary period, the UK Branch offers a workplace scheme with a minimum employer contribution of 4% rising to a maximum of 10% matched by the employee. 

Holidays 

Leave entitlement is at the rate of 28 days per annum pro rata in addition to the statutory and Bank Holidays.

Benefits 

We take the welfare of our employees seriously. The UK Branch provides all employees with access to an employee assistance programme, including access to mental health first aiders. 

There is a generous budget for employee training. We also offer benefits including access to the cycle to work scheme and an HR portal with employee discounts.  

Diversity, equity and inclusion 

We value diversity in the workplace and all aspects of life. We particularly welcome applications from disabled and BAME candidates as disabled and BAME people are currently under-represented in our workforce. The UK Branch has an equal opportunity policy and implements a programme of positive action to make this policy fully effective by ensuring that no job applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds ​​of age, colour, culture, disability, ethnicity, gender or gender expression, HIV status, marital status, nationality, religion or sexual orientation. The principle applies to recruitment, pay, terms and conditions of employment, promotion, training, career opportunities and service delivery.