Senior MEL Manager

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

Purpose of job: 

The role leads on key Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) approaches and tools that enable and collate learning across our strategic programmes and funding streams. The role will work closely with the Head of Impact and Learning to deliver key activities and tools that will operationalise Comic Relief’s Learning and Impact Framework, including supporting work on the communication of our impact. The Senior MEL manager also plays an important role in shaping and ensuring consistency of our organisational approach to MEL, enabling ongoing reflection and adaptation to drive a process of continuous improvement in our funding strategies and practices. This role will also be responsible for ensuring that Comic Relief principles of shifting power and anti-racism are applied to our MEL approaches and tools.  

Sitting within the Funding team, our MEL team has two MEL Managers that this role will work alongside to bring together the learning and evidence from both our funded partners (our grantees) and Comic Relief staff so that we are better placed to understand our impact.  

Key responsibilities:   

Strengthening monitoring, evaluation and learning

• Lead the development and maintenance of key tools and approaches that will enable MEL Managers and Portfolio Managers (who manage relationships with our Funded Partners) to log and analyse key evidence and learning in alignment with Comic Relief’s Learning and Impact Framework.  

• Lead on ad hoc and bespoke pieces of work that intend to build our knowledge base and improve our practices as a funder. This might include research, synthesis and evaluation. 

• Contribute to quality improvements in Comic Relief’s MEL approach, ensuring equitable, inclusive and consistent MEL principles, systems and processes are in place across our investment portfolios   

Leading on key learning programmes

• For specific programmes, work collectively with funded partner organisations to support their learning, leading on collective learning and supporting with organisational strengthening activities  

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

Communicating our learning and impact

• Work with Comic Relief’s communications, fundraising and partnership teams to assist work on the communication of our impact to support income generation. 

• Work with colleagues in Comic Relief across the Strategic Communications, Fundraising and Partnership functions to understand what funding monitoring and impact information is needed to support our fundraising activity, and ensure this is provided and platformed (including on our website) 

• Support the development of new funding partnerships and funding programmes by providing inputs into the overall evidence and learning needs and strategy and advising on MEL options and approaches.  

• Prepare inputs to reports, meetings, strategic planning and partner relationships, ensuring that learning is well documented and made accessible to relevant internal and external audiences

Please note, occasional Travel may be required within this role

Person Specification

Essential Criteria: 

• Technical expertise in monitoring, evaluation and organisational learning practice within philanthropy and the social change sector including informal and formal processes, approaches, tools and methodologies  

• An understanding, critical engagement with, and proven ability to apply, analysis of diversity, equity inclusion and belonging(DEIB) and power to evidence and learning  

• Experience conducting research and interpreting qualitative data 

• Excellent facilitation skills, including the ability to promote critical thinking and reflective practice and encourage learning 

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

• Experience of commissioning and managing external consultants to deliver evidence and learning outputs  

• 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    

• Great ability to plan and prioritise a diverse workload, with a good attention to detail  

Desirable: 

• Experience using evidence and learning to support communications, fundraising and partnership work  

• Proven experience of putting evidence and learning into use, with a strong ability to identify thematic or overarching learning connections across a varied portfolio of work 

• Experience using outcome harvesting or other similar qualitative methods 

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 and application questions.

We ask that candidates that wish to be considered for this scheme email [email removed - click apply for more details] to discuss further. Please do not email CV's/cover letters