Grassroots development officer jobs in Southwark, greater london
Employer: Community Rail Network
Salary: £43k-£51.5k pa, full time
Location: Home based / flexible or Huddersfield
We are seeking a dynamic director of policy and communications, to lead and develop our increasingly impactful external affairs activity. You’ll be sharing community insights and evidence with policy and decision-makers at national and devolved level, supporting a shift towards more inclusive and sustainable transport and mobility, while overseeing high-quality, inspiring member communications and thought-leadership, drawing on grassroots experiences.
About us
Community Rail Network is a national not-for-profit organisation supporting a growing ‘community rail’ movement, which helps communities get the most from their railways, promotes sustainable and inclusive travel, coordinates volunteering and place-making, and brings people together.
Community rail is made up of 76 community-based partnership organisations, and c.1,300 station friends volunteer groups and other community-led initiatives around Britain. Their activities range from creative projects for young people, to advising train operators on service improvements, to building travel confidence among marginalised groups, to biodiversity projects at stations, to promoting greener tourism by rail.
Our enthusiastic team of 24 works from home in different locations, but we come together regularly in person and online. We work collaboratively to support our members, provide training, events and resources, run campaigns, and champion community rail and its insights. We believe in developing our team and helping everyone reach their potential while having a good work-life balance.
About this role
This role is crucial for us, our members and their communities, especially at the current time, with our need to seize on the opportunities of rail reform and devolution, promote wider use of sustainable transport, and bring communities together. You will spearhead our external affairs strategy and plans, building political relationships, influencing decision-making and raising awareness of community rail and its insights, while ensuring effective communications with our members and helping them to have a voice locally and regionally. You’ll be striving to put community rail at the forefront of a shift towards more inclusive and sustainable mobility.
As a member of our senior leadership team, reporting to and working closely with our chief executive, you will manage a passionate team of four, ensuring collaboration with our other teams, partners and funders, and drawing on members’ insights.
Main responsibilities
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Lead the review, development and delivery of our communications, policy and insights strategy, working to position the community rail movement effectively, use its insights to influence policy change, and ensure our members are well-informed and have a voice;
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Further strengthen our advisory and influencing work with national, devolved and regional government, transport bodies, parliamentarians and other decision-makers, especially around rail reform, transport devolution and integrated, inclusive, sustainable transport;
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Ensure we’re engaging effectively with policy developments and opportunities, taking forward a programme of relationship-building, and identifying and engaging in relevant consultations, events and speaking opportunities, enabling community rail’s insights and experiences to be shared;
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Collaborate with partners in rail, government and the third sector to feed in our expertise on community engagement with rail, amplify our campaigns, and build opportunities for joined-up communications and policy work;
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Continually develop and disseminate our evidence base and insights on the social, environmental and economic value community rail delivers, and opportunities to create greater benefits for communities from rail and transport;
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Oversee high-quality, coherent and inspiring communications with our members and partners, promoting our work, and sharing news, opportunities, and good practice across the movement;
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Manage production of high-quality resources, case studies and reports that our members can use to enhance their impact and which showcase community rail’s impact;
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Lead and develop our media relations and awareness-raising PR, championing community rail and its messages on sustainable, inclusive travel and communities at national and regional level, while supporting members on local PR;
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Develop our online presence and reach, making full use of our website, social media, our Scenic Rail Britain campaign, and partners’ channels to celebrate and position community rail and grow its reach and impact;
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Oversee a calendar of creative and impactful campaigns that involve and empower our members, creating PR and engagement opportunities, including Community Rail Week;
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Play a key role in collective leadership, strategic focus and organisational development as a member of our senior leadership team, including through internal communications and cross-team working, annual planning, funder liaison and reporting, upholding our strategies and policies, and pursuing opportunities for continuous improvement.
Skills and competencies
- Strong leadership and management skills, including experience managing, developing and drawing on a multi-faceted team delivering complex campaigns or projects, and budget management;
- Excellent communication and external leadership skills; articulate, assertive, and with the ability to work diplomatically and persuasively with stakeholders at all levels;
- An understanding of public affairs, ideally in relation to community development, sustainability and/or transport, and a demonstrable ability to identify influencing opportunities, deliver thought-leadership, and engage with policy-makers, including sharing community insights;
- Politically astute, with awareness of and commitment to social inclusion, social justice and sustainability, and a good grasp of the importance of public transport sustainable travel, and community-led action, to these agendas;
- Understanding of political processes and experience of engaging with policy and decision-making, ideally at national, devolved and local levels;
- Sound knowledge of communication and marketing methods and channels, and ability to oversee messaging and targeting of public and professional audiences, and to align content across multiple channels;
- A demonstrable ability to think analytically and draw on statistical and qualitative research to construct robust, evidence-based arguments;
- Experience of working with the media and achieving coverage at national, regional and local level;
- Experience working collaboratively with partners and ideally funders to deliver communications and policy activity and forming professional networks;
- Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines while dealing with competing priorities, and to support team members to do so;
- IT literate with a good working knowledge of Office, the internet and social media;
- Appropriate qualifications and professional development demonstrating knowledge and skills in line with the above, and a commitment to ongoing learning and development.
Other information
As you will be home-based, we are flexible about your location. However, you will be expected to travel to in-person full team meetings quarterly (usually in West Yorkshire), and you will need to bring your team together (currently all West Yorkshire based) with similar regularity in between. Attendance at in-person events and meetings is also important. We therefore welcome applications from those with decent public transport links, not too far from a railway station, to enable journeys to be made sustainably.
This is a full-time position, 37 hours per week. We use a flexi-time system with core hours 10am-3pm, and are committed to being a flexible, supportive and understanding employer. This is a permanent position with a probationary period of six months.
Community Rail Network is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from disabled people and Black, Asian and other minoritised groups, who meet with the skills and competencies for this role. We will provide reasonable adjustments for interviews as required.
Non Charity Employer
21 - 50
Championing the community rail movement | Connecting people and their railways | Creating inclusive, empowered, sustainable and healthy communities
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
The Hunger Project UK Marketing & Relationships Manager
Are you looking for a role that really makes a difference? Well, how about joining a global organisation helping to empower women and men to end their own hunger and poverty? If this sounds exciting, we might have the perfect role just for you!
Role: Marketing & Relationships Manager
Reports to: CEO
Salary: FTE £35,000 - £40,000 (Negotiable based on skills, experience and fit)
Contract type:Permanent
Hours: 35 hours per week
Location:The role is remote at present with occasional travel to London
About The Hunger Project
The Hunger Project UK is a registered charity in the UK committed to the sustainable end of world hunger. Our vision is a world without hunger. Our mission is to facilitate individual and collective action to transform the systems of inequity that create hunger and cause it to persist. We do this by pioneering sustainable, grassroots, women-centred strategies and advocating for their widespread adoption worldwide.
We believe people living in hunger are key to ending hunger. We work to solve the root causes of hunger by supporting the communities experiencing them. As we adapt to meet local challenges and opportunities wherever we work, our programmes have a wide range of objectives. These include ending child marriage, empowering women leaders, increasing girls in education, engaging local governments, entrepreneurism and employability, climate resilient farming and maternal health.
In 2024, we reached nearly 12 million people in Africa, South Asia and Latin America. More than 1 million people are now living in self-reliant communities following investment from The Hunger Project. Our team is a mighty force of changemakers living around the world, including in our partner countries USA, Australia and across Europe.
Here in the UK, we work in collaboration with our global colleagues, to raise funds for our overseas programmes and amplify the voices of those affected by hunger. We are a small but awesome team, with big ambitions to grow and scale our fundraising efforts significantly over the next three years. So, if you’re up for the challenge... come and join us.
The role
This is a hands-on role: you’ll be directly creating content, running campaigns, and managing our operations.
This role is for you if you are…
- Passionate about social justice and motivated to make a positive impact on the world.
- Experienced, with at least eight years in communications or marketing and a proven ability to deliver meaningful results.
- A creative storyteller who produces engaging, high-quality content across multiple platforms and understands how to use digital marketing to drive social change.
- An exceptional communicator with excellent written and verbal skills, strong attention to detail, and pride in accuracy and quality.
- Highly organised and efficient, able to manage multiple projects, meet deadlines, and maintain focus in a fast-paced environment.
- Proactive, persistent, and solutions focused, approaching challenges with creativity, determination, and a positive attitude.
- Technically confident and quick to learn new tools or software, with the ability to help others solve technical problems and use technology effectively.
- A collaborative team player who works well independently while keeping the broader mission and shared goals in sight.
- Energised by the variety, pace, and purpose of a small, dynamic, globally minded charity where every contribution makes a difference.
Key responsibilities
Marketing and Communications
- Plan, coordinate and deliver integrated marketing and fundraising campaigns and events to achieve income targets, ensure consistent messaging and strengthen supporter engagement across all channels.
- Work closely with the global communications team to deliver the organisation’s marketing and communications strategy in alignment with global objectives.
- Manage website content in WordPress, ensuring it is accurate, engaging, and regularly updated.
- Oversee the social media strategy, creating and scheduling high-quality content (using Canva and Later) to grow brand awareness and supporter engagement.
- Manage ambassador and influencer relationships to support campaigns, storytelling, and reach.
- Design and deliver email campaigns and supporter newsletters through Mailchimp, ensuring timely and effective communication.
- Stay up to date with trends, world events, and digital innovations to keep content and messaging relevant and impactful.
Fundraising
- Create and deliver engaging donor experiences, content and supporter journeys to maintain and grow long-term investor support and ensure a high-quality experience for all supporters.
- Collaborate with the CEO and global team to identify and develop new fundraising opportunities and audiences.
Unleashed Women – Community & Investor Stewardship
- Act as the primary staff relationship lead for the Unleashed Women community.
- Support the recruitment, onboarding and ongoing stewardship of Unleashed Women members.
- Coordinate the planning, promotion and delivery of monthly virtual forums and quarterly in-person gatherings, working closely with the Executive & Operations VA on all logistics.
- Maintain regular communication and engagement with members through WhatsApp groups, email updates and event communications, ensuring consistent tone, warmth and responsiveness.
- Act as a key link between Unleashed Women and THP’s global country teams, ensuring meaningful programme engagement and feedback.
- Support retention and thoughtful growth of the community through relationship-led follow-up and investor care.
- Ensure all Unleashed Women activity is accurately reflected in Beacon and associated supporter systems.
Data Management and Reporting
- Maintain and manage the Beacon CRM database, ensuring accurate data capture, segmentation, and analysis to support effective fundraising, stewardship, and communications.
- Ensure all new and lapsed investors are correctly tagged and updated in Mailchimp, Beacon and other relevant systems.
- Evaluate and report on the performance of fundraising and marketing campaigns, interpreting data from CRM and digital platforms to measure impact and inform strategy.
Operations
- Establish, maintain, and continuously improve key operational systems and processes to ensure efficiency and smooth day-to-day functioning.
- Coordinate and maintain fundraising platforms such as Benevity and JustGiving, ensuring campaign pages are accurate, up to date, and performing effectively.
Line Management
- Oversee the recruitment, coordination, and management of volunteers, ensuring they are well-supported, effectively deployed, and aligned with the organisation’s goals.
Preferred requirements
Experience
- At least eight years’ experience in marketing, communications, or a related field.
- Proven success delivering multi-channel marketing and fundraising campaigns that meet or exceed targets.
- Confident in using and maintaining CRM systems (preferably Beacon) to manage supporter relationships and analyse data.
- Experience managing digital platforms, including social media, email marketing, and websites.
- Experience managing and developing team members, including supporting volunteers and junior staff.
Skills and Abilities
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to tailor messages for diverse audiences.
- Strong relationship-building and stakeholder engagement skills.
- Highly organised, with excellent planning and project management abilities.
- Proficient in digital marketing tools such as WordPress, Mailchimp, Canva, and social media scheduling platforms.
- Skilled in interpreting data and insights to evaluate and improve marketing performance.
Personal Qualities and Attributes
- Enthusiastic, proactive, and self-motivated, with a positive and solution-focused approach.
- Collaborative and supportive, fostering strong teamwork and shared purpose.
- Creative and adaptable, comfortable working in a fast-paced and changing environment.
- An effective and empathetic team leader who inspires and empowers others.
Other Requirements
- Commitment to the aims and values of The Hunger Project UK and its mission to end hunger and poverty.
- Commitment to equality, diversity, inclusion, and anti-discriminatory practice.
- Understanding of the collaborative, hands-on nature of working within a small charity.
- Passion for using marketing and communications to create positive social impact.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
The Beyond Food Foundation is looking for a Head Training and Events Chef.
Do you have the skills to train groups of young people and vulnerable adults to achieve amazing things in the kitchen?
Do you want to be part of helping to change people's lives?
We are looking for someone inspirational to lead on our in-kitchen skills training and drive high standards of food production across all training and events.
You will bring industry insights and experience to the role, leveraging these to support trainees into further training, work or volunteering roles in hospitality.
Our programmes are built around the kitchen and dining table, you will work closely with a Food Engagement Lead to craft sessions and experiences to leverage the power of food for changing lives.
£40,000 - £44,000 experience dependant - 40hrs per week - Generally Monday - Friday.
The Foundry, E6 5NX and across London as required.
28 Days annual leave + bank holidays.
Please provide a covering letter no longer than two pages, outlining your experience and explaining why you feel you meet the criteria set out in the job description
Registered Charity
11 - 20
At Beyond Food, we support individuals whose lives have unravelled to rebuild with purpose, pride, and community.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
The Beyond Food Foundation is looking for a Programmes assistant.
Do you have the skills to support groups of young people and adults to achieve their full potential?
Do you want to be part of helping to change people's lives?
We are looking for someone to support the delivery of our life changing programmes.
Ideally you will have some experience in working with young people, vulnerable adults or assisting with education / training programmes.
Our programmes are built around the kitchen and dining table, you will work closely with a Chef trainer and Food Engagement Lead to make the sessions run smoothly. An understanding of food or the hospitality industry is a bonus.
£29,000 - 35,000 per annum, experience dependant - 40hrs per week - Monday - Friday.
The Foundry, E6 5NX and across London as required.
28 Days annual leave + bank holidays
Please provide a covering letter no longer than two pages, outlining your experience and explaining why you feel you meet the criteria set out in the job description
Registered Charity
11 - 20
At Beyond Food, we support individuals whose lives have unravelled to rebuild with purpose, pride, and community.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Job Purpose:
To support the delivery of WIPs housing programme for unsentenced women, providing trauma-informed specialist support to women in HMP Bronzefield, and going through court processes, with a focus on improving housing outcomes for women affected by the criminal justice system.
Key Responsibility Areas
- To deliver an effective housing intervention for women impacted by the criminal justice system.
- To develop effective relationships with key stakeholders, such as housing departments, court-based and prison teams, to ensure a collaborative approach to women’s accommodation needs.
- To provide expert advice and support to colleagues, including upskilling through information and training sessions, and supporting system change activities.
For the full list of responsibilities, please download the recruitment pack.
Terms & Conditions:
Start date: 2nd February 2026
Salary:£30,640 per annum (including £3,990 London weighting)
Location: Primarily based in HMP Bronzefield with some travel to South London.
Working hours: 35 hours per week
Contract: Permanent
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The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.