Head of Public Engagement - Clean Cities Campaign

Are you concerned about the impacts of climate change and air pollution? Do you want to lend your leadership and public relations experience to help grow a pan-European movement for sustainable urban mobility?

The Clean Cities Campaign is catalysing transformational change to help drive down emissions and pollution from transport in European cities, and we’re looking for a dynamic and experienced communicator and fundraiser to be our Head of Public Engagement.

As Head of Public Engagement, you will lead on the Clean Cities Campaign’s communications and public engagement work, fostering a proactive and strategic approach across the entire Clean Cities team and network. You will lead on the pan-European communications strategy and manage a communications team of 3-4 people. Your work will support strategic communication interventions at the local level, while helping to connect the dots for partners and supporters at the European level.

In alignment with the Director, you will also be key in driving fundraising efforts to make our ambitious campaigns a reality, ensuring the necessary systems and processes are in place to manage and monitor engagement with donors. This role will involve engaging with new and existing donors, producing proposals for core funds while also supporting the efforts of our campaigners to fund local projects. You may also represent the team in pitches to funders and discussions around prospective partnerships.

As well as your communication, interpersonal skills and diplomacy, this role will test your ability to organise, improvise and juggle different priorities. You will also need sound news judgement, and a good sense of what could play well in various media markets and with different target audiences.

If you are keen to help bring about political change by influencing public debates at the local, national and European levels; have the experience and the attitude to quickly grasp the issues, identify opportunities and reach for maximum impact; and have the ability to think on your feet and immediately find ways to connect with different audiences, funders and experts; this is the role for you.

About Us

The Clean Cities Campaign, hosted by Transport & Environment, is a network of almost 100 organisations across 20 countries aiming to create liveable and healthy cities by hastening the phase-out of the internal combustion engine and promoting clean alternatives.

The network is united by the vision of achieving zero-emission urban mobility by the 2030s, and promotes measures such as Low and Zero Emission Zones, school streets, and better enabling conditions for more active, shared and electric mobility.

We are committed to the professional development of our colleagues and invest in training from your first day with the organisation. Our people work across Europe: colleagues in Brussels, Rome, Paris, Madrid, London, Warsaw and beyond collaborate with our partner organisations to achieve our mission.

Job requirements

Specific Duties and Responsibilities

This role will develop the Clean Cities Campaign’s communications, fundraising and public engagement strategies. 

This will include:

• Lead the development of the Clean Cities Campaign’s digital and communications strategy, while managing a team of 3-4 people.
• Follow the media debate in Europe and support the communications team and partners in designing strategic communications interventions, turning their local campaigns into successful media stories.
• Enable the efficient and effective delivery of the communications strategy within agreed budgets.
• Produce content around a variety of different mediums — this could be a funding proposal, writing an op-ed, a blog, copyediting a newsletter or providing writing support to reports.
• Deliver financial growth by engaging with new and existing funders across Europe and the UK. Devise a fundraising strategy, write funding proposals, while introducing processes and policies that ensure the financial sustainability of the Clean Cities Campaign.
• Represent the Clean Cities Campaign externally, particularly with regards to our fundraising efforts and relationships with stakeholders, including partners across the Clean Cities network.
• Manage relationships with external consultants, ensuring delivery of various project needs in relation to our communications and fundraising goals.
• Identify new opportunities for external engagement, partnership building and collaboration

Requirements

The successful candidate should have at least 7+ years of relevant professional experience and the following skills:

• A minimum of 7+ years experience working in the NGO/not-for-profit sector, fundraising, business development or public relations.
• Native or near-native English skills. Strong public speaking and writing proficiency. Any additional European language is going to be a plus.
• Excellent communication skills, including both written and interpersonal, with an ability to build strong relationships.
• A track record of devising and overseeing complex communications strategies across multiple markets.
• Successful track record in raising funds from small and large foundations. Experience with setting up and managing direct fundraising programmes is going to be a plus.
• People and team management experience.
• Ability to balance multiple priorities at once, including producing and finalising a fundraising proposal while supporting the comms team with various projects during the year.
• Keen judgement about what will work with key audiences, media outlets and organisational capacity.
• Willingness to try new things and innovate whilst maintaining our core work.
• Experience working with a remote and diverse team across various geographies, and willingness to travel across Europe.

This is a full-time or 0.8 FTE position. A flexible working schedule can be discussed. The location of the position is flexible within Europe or the UK, with a preference for London or Brussels.

The closing date for applications is 13th February 2024.