External relations manager jobs in belfast

Location: Home based

Contract: Fixed term until 31 March 2026 – Full time 35hrs per week

Salary: £27,250 gross per annum

Closing Date: 21 July 2025

Assessment Day: 5 August 2025

Are you looking for a new opportunity?

The Marine Society & Sea Cadets (MSSC) is a vibrant and growing charity delivering life changing nautical adventure for young people through the Sea Cadets to give them the best possible head start in life. We also provide personal and professional development opportunities for seafarers with the Marine Society. Working with our staff, cadets, and volunteers, we have built a vision and five-year strategy to take us forward and further improve the astounding contribution already made through our work to the lives of thousands of young people and seafarers, while fully supporting our volunteers who are vital to our success.

We are currently looking for a Growth and Development Worker based in England to join our team. This is an externally funded post which will be focused on opening new provision and supporting existing provision in order to reduce waiting lists within specific funding areas. This is a very varied and rewarding role that requires someone who is self-motivated, organised, creative, tenacious, positive, IT competent and with a real interest in people. You need to be able to coach, empower and inspire our volunteers and cadets, both in person and remotely, to grow the Sea Cadets.

Responsibilities

• Delivering a variety of training sessions on, for example, recruitment of cadets and volunteers
• Developing new growth and recruitment tools and ideas
• Promoting flexible volunteering and the volunteer strategy
• Assisting with running our social media accounts
• Working with and empowering our volunteers to develop plans for growth
• Planning and setting up Juniors Sections in new and existing locations/units
• Delivering assemblies in schools
• Forming part of various working groups with colleagues to develop the tools, resources and processes needed to increase the positive impact of the Growth and Development team.
• Supporting the delivery of funded outreach projects

Requirements

• Previous experience of working with volunteers
• Experience delivering on multiple project plans simultaneously
• Ability to build and maintain excellent relationships with a variety of stakeholders remotely and face-to-face
• Experience delivering workshops and/or training
• Self-motivated and able to manage your time and workload effectively
• Flexible and enthusiastic
• Able to work as a team player with creative ideas and solutions who will empower our volunteers to make a difference to the lives of even more young people across the UK

For further information, please download the attached Recruitment Pack.

Benefits

• Flexible Working hours and a hybrid culture
• Cycle to work scheme and Season Ticket Loan
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Life assurance (4x salary) for those that join the pension
• Private medical insurance
• Pension (employer contribution up to 10%)
• Wellbeing portal and EAP with 121 counselling
• Employee development: We are investing in our employees' development and have an annual calendar of learning and development opportunities, designed to support employees to develop into their roles and stretch them to achieve their full potential.
• National staff conference: All employees come together once a year to reflect on the past year and celebrate success at our offsite staff conference. This is a great opportunity to listen to employees' views, and for employees to network, share information and socialise.

If you are interested in this Growth and Development vacancy, please apply now!

Additional Information

MSSC positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates from all backgrounds. Equity, diversity, and inclusion really matters to us, so we can best serve our beneficiaries from every community. We work to ensure a fair and consistent recruitment process and aim to be a charity where diversity of experience, identity and skills are valued and welcomed. MSSC is an equal opportunities employer.

We recognise our responsibilities to safeguard and protect the young people and vulnerable adults with whom we work. We do all we can to promote their health, safety and wellbeing, and we expect our staff to share this commitment and work in line with safeguarding policy, the MSSC’s values and ethos of inclusivity. We adhere to safer recruitment practices and therefore employment is subject to detailed pre-employment checks for successful candidates, including references and criminal disclosure checks and the completion of a disclosure questionnaire.

All successful applicants are required to attend safeguarding training and undergo a criminal record check.

First Steps ED are looking for a passionate and strategic Head of Fundraising and Communications to join our team and help make a difference in the lives of those we support. First Steps ED provide person-centred support to our service users for a range of disordered eating and eating disorder presentations.

The Head of Fundraising and Communications will lead on the development and implementation of strategies to diversify and grow our income streams, strengthen our brand, and increase engagement with key audiences. Reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer, the postholder will be responsible for building and maintaining relationships across trusts and foundations, corporate partners, individual donors, and community supporters. This role will also oversee all aspects of external communications and marketing, ensuring a consistent and compelling voice for the organisation across digital, print, media, and stakeholder channels.

The Head of Fundraising and Communications will provide line management and strategic direction to the fundraising and communications team, with accountability for delivering income targets and enhancing the charity’s profile and impact.

Role Overview:
This position requires a strategic leader who will be a proactive engagement lead and support the charities overall strategy and mission. You will have a proven background of successful fundraising activities, diversifying engagement and income and cultivating key relationships through communication strategies.

Key Responsibilities:
This is an opportunity to develop and shape the fundraising and communications strategy for a growing charity, in an are that is getting more and more attention. The role will require an agile mind to adapt to the ever changing environment, and in return the charity leadership promises flexibility and understanding, as we test learn and adapt these strategies.

Some of the area you are expected to work on are the following, and the rest can be defined by you:

• Budgets and Targets: You are directly responsible for the budgets, and income targets attached to Fundraising and Communications.
• Engagement and Income Diversification: Develop and implement strategies to diversify income streams, including legacy giving, corporate partnerships, individual donations, and major donors.
• Marketing and Communications Strategy: Create and implement strategies to reach a wider audience through innovative marketing and communications channels.
• NHS and Private Sector Opportunities: Identify and pursue new business opportunities within the NHS and private sector.
• Relationship Management: Manage key relationships with donors, partners, and stakeholders.
• Team Leadership: Manage and support Fundraising, Marketing and Communications officers, ensuring alignment with fundraising goals and charity objectives overall.
• Lead our flagship campaigns: This year we are developing an online campaign, currently called Scroll Safe, to tackle the issues with online safety, we are included in the parliamentary act, and we wish this to be a multi-year campaign. It is in development for 2025, and you are expected to hit the ground running. Other campaigns include Eating Disorder Awareness Week, and Christmas.
• Digital Agency and PR Management: Oversee the work of digital agencies and PR consultant to enhance online presence and engagement with public relations and media outreach.
• Ambassadors and Patrons Management: Engage and manage relationships with ambassadors and patrons to leverage their support and influence.
• Web Development Leadership: Lead the development and maintenance of the charity's website to ensure it effectively supports fundraising and communication efforts as well as providing clear and concise support to our service users, carers and professionals.
• Manage our portfolio of events: We have an emerging trend in challenge events, and we manage these carefully and mindfully especially long-distance sporting events. This requires key insights in trends and work with our marketing team on key insights.
• Working with the CEO: You will identify opportunities for strategic communications and growth. You will network with likeminded individuals from other charities and build sector connections.
• Senior Leadership Team: You will be an integral part of our Senior Leadership Team, which means working across the whole charity on tasks that may pop up, and planning with the team our Organisational Development.

Qualifications:

• Experience: Minimum of 5 years in a senior fundraising and communications role, preferably within the charity sector.
• Education: Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Relationship Management, or a related field.

Skills:

• Strong strategic planning and implementation skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Proven ability to manage multiple projects and meet deadlines.
• Proficiency in fundraising software and CRM systems.
• Strong leadership and team management skills.

What we offer

• 28 days annual leave (pro rata for part time)
• Enhanced sick pay
• Company events
• Blue Light Card
• Access to our Employee Assistance Program + Wellbeing App
• Company pension - 5% employee, 3% employer
• On-site parking
• Referral programme
• Work from home (depending on role)
• Accredited training programme towards CPD

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Should we met our target number of applications we reserve the right to close the advert earlier than the closing date.

Position: Senior Events Fundraiser (Third Party Events)
Hours: Full-time (35 hours a week)
Contract: Permanent
Location: Office-based from one of our national offices (London, Cardiff, Belfast, or Edinburgh) with flexibility to work remotely
Salary: Starting from £33,044 per annum plus excellent benefits
Salary Band and Job Family: Band 2, Charity
*you’ll start at our entry point salary of £33,044 per annum, increasing to £35,109 after 6 months service and satisfactory performance and to £37,174 after a further 6 months.

About us

We make sure people living with MS are at the centre of everything we do. And it’s this commitment that unites us across the UK.

Our strategy is based on what people affected by MS have told us is important to them. It gives us a clear and determined focus.

Our work is based on the hopes and aspirations of our MS community. Together we campaign at all levels, fund ground-breaking research and provide award winning support and information.

Our people are our greatest asset and the key to our success. We offer a vibrant, progressive working environment where you'll be able to make a difference.

About this job

We’re looking for a Senior Events Fundraiser to join our Community, Events, and Retail Fundraising team, leading on the delivery of our third party events activities.

You’ll plan, develop, and promote a well-established portfolio of third party challenge events, working to achieve set income targets, while ensuring an outstanding supporter experience for our event participants.

You’ll also be responsible for developing our third party events portfolio; monitoring and evaluating products, as well as innovating, to create opportunities for future growth.  

Closing date for applications: 9:00 on Monday 14 July 2025

Interested?

PLEASE PRESS THE 'HOW TO APPLY' BUTTON FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Equal Opportunities 
We particularly welcome applications from people with disabilities and or from ethnic minority backgrounds.

We’d be grateful if you downloaded and completed the equality and diversity monitoring form and submit it with your application. 

Disability Confident Employer 
We’re a Disability Confident Employer and we’re committed to promoting equality and diversity.

You can ask for reasonable adjustments as part of both our recruitment and new starter on-boarding processes.

If you need any help or adjustments to apply for this role, please contact us. You can also ask for the application materials to be sent to you in a different format. Such as for them to be sent to you by email or in a larger word format.

More about our employee benefits:
We have a wide range of employee benefits including (but not limited to): 

Encouraging work life balance

• 38 days paid annual leave (including bank holidays), pro-rata for part-time
• More annual leave entitlement, based on length of employment
• Smart working options (with the opportunity to work remotely and find a smart working pattern that suits both you and us) 
• Flexible working options 

Caring for you and your family 

• Generous sick pay entitlement
• More sick pay entitlement, based on length of employment 
• Opportunity to buy and sell annual leave in each calendar year 
• Free access to a GP virtually 24 hours a day/7 days a week allowing you unlimited advice, reassurance and where appropriate diagnosis 
• Enhanced leave for new parents 
• Free access to a confidential 24 hours a day/7 days a week helpline service for both you and your family with a specialist range of support and information
• Special leave options (such as up to 5 days paid leave for domestic or personal emergencies a year)
• 10 days paid disability leave a year, pro-rata for part-time 
• 10 days paid carers’ leave a year, pro-rata for part-time 
• Cycle to work scheme 
• Death in service scheme
• New family-friendly benefits, including paid leave:
  • In the event of miscarriage or still birth 
  • To support fertility treatments
  • For antenatal appointments for both parents

Thinking about your finances 

• Enhanced salary sacrifice pension scheme
• Discounted season ticket loan and interest-free emergency loans
• Give as you earn to support other charities of your choice before tax
• New employee portal including lifestyle savings vouchers and personal wellbeing

Enriching your life at work

• Personalised development plans with a wide range of training courses and opportunities to source additional training options with your line manager
• Yearly internal apprenticeship opportunities
• New, modern offices that embrace working together both in-person and remotely 
• Various opportunities to influence how we internally operate (including surveys, and focus and committee groups) 
• Active and supportive internal employee networking groups for collaboration and peer support 
• 2 days paid leave a year for volunteering for MS Society activities during normal working hours (such as fundraising events, or campaigning in the local community) 
• 2 days paid leave a year for volunteering with other charities during normal

Safeguarding 
We’re committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of everyone who uses our services and we come into contact with.

This is regardless of Gender, Race, Disability, Sexual orientation, Religion or belief, Pregnancy, Gender reassignment.

We recognise our particular responsibility to make sure vulnerable adults and children are protected.

We have measures in place to protect everyone we come into contact with from abuse and maltreatment of all kinds.

Your right to work in the UK 
You must have the right to work in the UK to work in paid employment with us. You’ll need to share documents showing you’re eligible to work in the UK if we offer you employment.

You can find the UK visas and permits granting you the right to work in the UK on the UK Government website. We currently don’t have a Sponsor Licence agreement with the Home Office and aren’t able to support you with your visa applications.

No agencies please.

The Training Coordinator plays a key role in supporting delivery of training for the Award network.
Working closely with internal teams and external partners, the Coordinator ensures training content is
relevant, accessible, and effectively delivered across various platforms.

Key Responsibilities

• Assist in the development, scheduling, and coordination of the organisation’s training offer to our various operators.
• Coordinate logistics for instructor-led online workshops including setting the schedule, identifying and preparing trainers and Foundation Representatives.
• Ensuring learning related operational procedures are understood and implemented across training.
• Provide administrative support to our Global Training Panel, including communications,
• scheduling, and tracking participation.
• Assist in sharing and promoting training content through established communication channels.
• Collect and compile feedback from training participants to support continuous improvement.
• Upload and maintain training content on the delivery platform in collaboration with the Digital Programmes team.
• Help track and report on training participation, outcomes, and budget utilisation as required.
• Maintain records of training sessions, attendance, and evaluation results.
• Use translation software to maintain and update translated materials as required.
• Use course creation software to maintain, update and create content as required.
• Coordinate training for our Global Training Panel and Operator trainers through the Trainer
• Development pathway.
• Assist with coordinating executive training programmes.
• Build effective working relationships with staff, volunteers, and partners to support a culture of learning and capacity development.
• Contribute to the ongoing improvement of training processes and documentation.
• Perform other related duties as needed to support the success of training initiatives and the broader goals of the organisation.

This is a key leadership role within the CSA Centre, central to our ambition to raise awareness of the true scale and nature of sexual abuse and to drive evidence-informed improvements in policy and practice.

About the role:

The CSA Centre aims to reduce the impact of child sexual abuse through improved prevention and better response, and effective internal and external communication is absolutely central to that mission.

Leading our Communications Team, you will play a key role in developing and delivering the CSA Centre's communication plans over the immediate and longer term, helping us to ensure that our evidence, learning and resources have the widest possible reach into policy and practice at both local and national level.

As a member of the CSA Centre's Senior Management Team, you will work closely with the CSA Centre's multi-agency, multi-disciplinary team, enabling you to draw on expertise from a wide range of different professional backgrounds. You will lead our engagement with communications colleagues from across Government departments and key stakeholder groups.

We are looking for a highly motivated leader with strong skills and significant experience in communication roles, and the ability to manage an extensive and varied workload to deliver multiple objectives. Communication activity at the CSA Centre is extremely diverse; in any given week you might find yourself developing a new strategic approach to disseminating CSA Centre resources throughout practice, leading a briefing session on new research findings for prominent national media outlets, advising senior Government leads on plans for a new awareness raising campaign, working with expert stakeholders to develop national media guidelines for the reporting of child sexual abuse… No two days are the same!

As Assistant Director, Communications, you will play a role tackling child sexual abuse alongside the work of our colleagues across practice, research, policy and training. This is important work - the CSA Centre conservatively estimates that one in ten children will experience some form of child sexual abuse before age of 16, and our ambitious programme seeks to improve the knowledge, skills and confidence of professionals (social workers, teachers, social workers, nurses etc.) in identifying and responding to child sexual abuse. We have already made great progress, but there is much more to be done – and we need your leadership to help us do it!

CSA Centre roles are currently funded until 31 March 2026, in line with our current grant funding arrangements. This will be reviewed in late 2025, as future funding for the CSA Centre from 2026/27 onwards is confirmed.

About us

We are the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (CSA Centre). Our aim is to reduce the impact of child sexual abuse through improved prevention and better response. To tackle child sexual abuse we must better understand its causes, scope, scale and impact.

Established since 2017, we are a multi-disciplinary team that is funded by the Home Office, hosted by Barnardo's and we work closely with key partners from academic institutions, local authorities, health, education, police and the voluntary sector. We're proudly independent and our team will challenge any barriers, assumptions, taboos and ways of working that prevent us from increasing our understanding and improving our approach to child sexual abuse.

We bring about change by:

• Collating and analysing existing research, policy, practice and the real experiences of those affected, and filling the gaps we identify with new research, insights and analysis;
• Using that evidence and insight to challenge and improve existing policy and practice, develop new approaches and increase everyone's knowledge and confidence to more effectively tackle the issue.

This role is home based with regular travel required, usually to London.

Salary:

The CSA Centre acknowledges that tackling child sexual abuse can feel challenging but is incredibly rewarding and positive when actively making change. Our open working environment ensures that there is support for all employees, across the team and with access to a therapist, if needed. Please do get in touch if you would like to discuss any aspect of this further.

We believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore are open to offering flexible working arrangements.

The CSA Centre is committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce. We actively encourage applications from disabled candidates and candidates from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, as they are currently under-represented at the CSA Centre.

When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification and Job Description.

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.