Communications and external relations officer jobs in South woodford, greater london

THE ROLE

Job Title: Head of CRM

Reports To: Chief Executive

Location: Remote and hybrid working (occasional travel to SportsAid Head Office)

Salary: £60,000 per annum FTE; pro-rated to £36,000 per annum for 3 days/week

Contract: Permanent; part-time

Hours of work: Part-time position, approx. 21 working hours a week (3 days per week), some evening work may be required from time to time, reasonable flexible work options are available.

CONTEXT & PURPOSE OF ROLE

SportsAid is currently implementing Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud as our new organisation-wide CRM platform to strengthen engagement with athletes and their parents/care-givers, supporters and funders, partners, alumni, volunteers and other key stakeholders.  The Head of CRM will provide strategic and operational leadership for the charity’s CRM function.  

Initially the focus of the role will be to realise the value of the implementation, including adoption, embedding ways of working and processes across teams, improving data quality, refining reporting, ensuring good system governance and optimising organisation-wide usage. 

Longer term, the role will develop and lead a CRM roadmap, identifying priorities and enhancements for future development and planning the strategic evolution of our new CRM ecosystem and long-term sustainability of our Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud platform.

You will lead organisational change, embed best practice CRM processes, ensure high-quality data governance and maximise the value of CRM insights to support fundraising, programme delivery, marketing, partnerships and impact reporting.

BACKGROUND

Founded in 1976, SportsAid is a national charity that provides recognition and financial help to emerging young talented sports people – the next generation of British sporting heroes and heroines – often at a crucial time in their personal and sporting development. 

SportsAid’s Mission is to champion and support the next generation of athletes to fulfil their potential in sport and life.

We put athletes first.  We champion fairness and inclusion.  We work together.  We are ambitious and accountable. 

We bring together partners, supporters and alumni to provide financial help, trusted guidance and belief – particularly at the moments when staying in sport becomes hardest.  For decades, we have been side by side with Britain’s greatest emerging sporting talent, from Mo Farah to Jessica Ennis-Hill to Ade Adepitan, Paula Radcliffe and so many others to give them vital support before they became Olympian and Paralympian stars. 

SportsAid manages and delivers several programmes of support including SportsAid Athlete Awards, the Talented Athlete Support Scheme (TASS), the Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE) and Backing The Best.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

 CRM Strategy & Leadership

• Champion CRM adoption across all function areas.
• Serve as the internal subject matter expert on CRM best practice.
• Lead continuous improvement and optimisation of the platform.
• Develop and deliver a multi-year CRM roadmap aligned to organisational strategy.
• Act as Product Owner for Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud.

 Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud Implementation & Optimisation

• Lead final configuration, rollout and optimisation of:

• • Constituent management
  • Fundraising and donation management
  • Grants management
  • Beneficiary engagement
  • Programme and impact tracking

• Configure and manage:

• • Custom objects, fields, page layouts, record types
  • Validation rules and automation
  • Reports and dashboards
  • Permission sets and role hierarchy

• Oversee integrations (eg website forms, email marketing platforms, finance systems, payment gateways).
• Manage sandbox environments, release cycles and change control.
• Liaise with external Salesforce implementation partners where required.

 Data Governance & Compliance

• Develop and enforce data governance policies and procedures.
• Ensure compliance with:

• • UK GDPR
  • Fundraising Regulator guidance
  • Charity Commission reporting requirements

• Maintain data integrity, security and role-based access controls.
• Implement duplicate management, data cleansing and quality assurance processes.
• Develop data retention and archival policies.

 Reporting, Insight & Impact Measurement

• Develop organisation-wide reporting frameworks.
• Build dashboards to support:

• • Fundraising performance
  • Beneficiary progression
  • Partner engagement
  • Impact reporting

• Ensure reliable KPI tracking aligned to Board reporting requirements.
• Support data-driven decision making at SMT and Board level.

 User Adoption & Training

• Develop and deliver a CRM training strategy for all staff.
• Create user guides, process documentation and onboarding materials.
• Provide ongoing support and troubleshooting.
• Establish and support CRM ‘champions’ (super-users) across function teams.
• Monitor adoption metrics and address any resistance to change.

 Supplier & Stakeholder Management

• Manage relationships with Salesforce partners and third-party vendors.
• Oversee licence management and budget control.
• Contribute to digital transformation projects across the charity.

ESSENTIAL SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

 Experience

• Substantial experience of a similar role within a UK charity (essential).
• Experience with:

• • Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot)
  • Experience Cloud
  • Payment integrations (eg Stripe, FinDock)
  • Grants management workflows

• Experience managing small CRM or data teams.
• Understanding of impact measurement frameworks in sport or social change.

Salesforce & Technical Expertise

• Significant experience administering Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud (or NPSP).
• Salesforce Administrator certification (ADM-201); ideally Salesforce Advanced Administrator certification.
• Strong understanding of:

• • Data model architecture
  • Schema design and object relationships
  • Flow automation (Salesforce Flow)
  • Validation rules and approval processes
  • Reports and dashboard development

• Familiarity with managing integrations using APIs, middleware or tools such as:

• • REST/SOAP APIs, Zapier or similar
  • Marketing automation integrations

• Experience in implementing and managing Salesforce Applications.
• Experience managing CRM data migrations.
• Understanding of role hierarchy, profiles and permission sets.

 CRM Leadership Experience (ideally involving Salesforce)

• Proven experience leading CRM implementation or major system transformation.
• Experience developing CRM strategies in a UK charity, membership or sport organisation.
• Experience driving organisational adoption and behavioural change.
• Demonstrable success improving CRM data quality and insight capability.

 Data & Governance

• Strong understanding of:

• • UK GDPR and data protection principles
  • Data governance frameworks
  • Information security best practice

• Experience implementing data quality monitoring processes.

Project & Change Management

• Experience managing system rollouts and phased releases.
• Familiarity with Agile or iterative delivery approaches.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills across technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to translate operational needs into technical CRM solutions.

 Communication & Leadership

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to influence senior leaders and Board members.
• Strong facilitation and training capability.
• Collaborative, solutions-focused and pragmatic approach.

 Personal Attributes

• Strategic thinker with strong operational delivery capability.
• Highly organised with attention to detail.
• Comfortable working in a growing and evolving organisation; happy to be ‘hands on’.
• Passionate about the power of sport to change lives.
• Committed to inclusion, diversity and safeguarding principles.

WHAT WE OFFER

• The opportunity to lead SportsAid’s digital transformation to ensure the charity is enabled to make a lasting impact on the lives of young athletes and their families.

• A collaborative, supportive working environment where your ideas and contributions are valued.

• Professional development opportunities to enhance your skills and grow within the role.

• Flexible working: reasonable flexible, remote and hybrid working options are available.

• Salary: a FTE salary of £60,000 per annum; pro-rated to £36,000 for 3 days/week.

• Pension: SportsAid makes a contribution of 3%, and the employee makes a minimum contribution of 5%.

• Healthcare: membership of the SportsAid private health insurance scheme is available for the employee with premiums paid by SportsAid.

• Cycle to Work Scheme: available to all staff. 

• Death in Service Benefit: inclusion in company scheme. 

• Season ticket loan: an interest free loan is available to all staff.

• Holidays: 25 days per year, plus Bank Holidays, increasing by 1 day for each year of service, up to 30 days (pro-rated for part-time roles). 

APPLICATION PROCESS

Please apply with your CV and a one page cover note on how you meet the essential criteria – the application deadline is by 5pm on Friday 17th April 2026.

On receipt of your application, you will be sent a confidential equal opportunities form, which all applicants will be asked to complete.  Shortlisted applicants will be notified by Wednesday 22nd April 2026 to have a preliminary online conversation with the recruiting panel (including the Chief Executive and the database implementation consultant).

Interviews will be held in person on Thursday 30th April 2026 at the SportsAid office in London.

SportsAid recognises that certain sections of the community have been affected by structural inequities and may be denied the opportunity to participate equally and fully in sport at all levels. SportsAid as an organisation believes our role is to remove the barriers that our most under-served, at risk and minoritised groups of young people experience when trying to access sport and physical activities.

SportsAid therefore positively welcomes, and seeks to achieve, diversity in our workforce and that all job applicants, volunteers and employees receive equal and fair treatment. We positively encourage applications from all candidates regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, marriage and civil partnership status, gender identity, background, religion, faith, sexual orientation, maternity status, pregnancy, belief or nationality.

NOTES:

The SportsAid office is in London, but this role can be based remotely.

As the role may involve indirect, online contact with young people, the appointee will be required to undergo an enhanced DBS check in relation to the post.