Title: Head of Campaigns
Salary: £60,000
Contract: Temporary
Hours: 37.5 per week (Monday to Friday)
Holiday: 25 days per year plus bank holidays
Location: Home based with regular across the UK
Probationary Period: 3 months
Reports to: Chief Executive
Benefits: An additional 3 days holiday between Christmas and New Year
Flexitime policy
5% pension contribution
Anticipated contract duration: 9th November 2026 - February 2028
We are River Action
We are a small and agile campaigning organisation on a mission to rescue the UK’s rivers from a toxic cocktail of agricultural, sewage and industrial pollution and water shortages. We support community action, galvanise and mobilise public opinion, influence government policy, take legal actions and call out destructive industrial practices to incentivise changes that end river pollution and secure freshwater.
We are a talented team of positive disrupters and stakeholder mobilisers delivering our strategy to urgently protect and restore our rivers for the benefit of communities, rivers and wildlife.
Our rivers are our life support system and they are dying. We need urgent action to bring them back to life.
Who we are looking for
We're looking for an exceptional campaigner to lead an ambitious environmental campaigning programme for just over a year to cover maternity leave. This is an exciting opportunity for an inspiring leader who can develop bold, strategic campaigns that shift public debate, influence decision-makers and deliver tangible environmental outcomes.
You'll be an experienced campaign strategist who understands that lasting change rarely comes from a single tactic. You'll know how to bring together compelling communications, evidence and investigations, grassroots mobilisation, political engagement, legal interventions and partnerships into integrated campaigns capable of changing policy, behaviour and corporate practice.
We're looking for someone who combines strategic vision with practical delivery. Someone who is comfortable making decisions in a fast-moving environment, spotting opportunities as they emerge and adapting campaigns to maximise impact.
Experience in environmental campaigning would be highly valuable, but above all we're looking for someone with an outstanding track record of leading successful campaigns that have shifted opinion, influenced policy or held powerful institutions to account.
We’re looking for someone who brings energy, creativity and courageous leadership. Someone who is excited by building campaigns that challenge the status quo, comfortable navigating complexity and able to combine bold thinking with sound judgement. You'll know when to disrupt, when to collaborate and how to inspire others to believe that together we can restore the UK’s rivers.
If you're motivated by creating change, thrive in a dynamic environment and want to lead campaigns that make a genuine difference to one of the UK's greatest environmental challenges, we'd love to hear from you.
What you’ll be doing:
As Head of Campaigns, you will be developing and delivering bold, integrated campaigns that drive lasting change for the UK's rivers. You'll lead and inspire a talented team of campaigners, helping them to develop innovative, impactful campaigns while fostering a collaborative, ambitious and supportive culture. You'll work closely with colleagues across communications, policy, legal, fundraising and research, ensuring our work is strategically aligned and greater than the sum of its parts.
Leading River Action's Campaigns Team, you will shape the organisation's campaigning strategy, ensuring our work is innovative, evidence-led and designed to influence public opinion, hold polluters to account and secure meaningful political and systemic change. You'll create campaigns that connect compelling storytelling with community mobilisation, strategic communications, political advocacy, legal action and partnerships, ensuring every part of our work contributes towards our mission to rescue the UK’s rivers.
You'll provide strategic leadership across the full campaign lifecycle, overseeing campaign planning, delivery, budgeting, resourcing and evaluation. You'll ensure our campaigns are informed by robust evidence, guided by clear objectives and measured against meaningful outcomes, using insight and learning to continually strengthen our impact.
You will lead River Action's communications and public profile, ensuring our campaigns cut through the national conversation, inspire public action and strengthen our reputation as one of the UK's leading environmental campaigning organisations. You’ll oversee media, messaging and campaign communications that amplify our voice and build public support for change.
Internally, you'll work in close partnership with the Head of Public Affairs to ensure our public campaigns reinforce and accelerate our political influencing work, while ensuring community campaigns and grassroots action inform our national priorities. You'll also work alongside the Head of Legal to develop campaigns involving strategic litigation to achieve change within and outside of court and legal processes, using legal action as a catalyst for wider public awareness, policy change and industry accountability.
As a member of River Action's Senior Management Team, you'll help shape the strategic direction of the organisation and contribute to organisational leadership beyond your own department. You'll work alongside the CEO and fellow Heads of Department to deliver our organisational strategy, embedding collaboration, innovation and impact across all areas of our work.
You'll also play a key role in securing the resources needed to deliver our ambitions. Working with the Head of Development, you'll help develop compelling funding proposals, inspire funders with our vision and demonstrate the impact of our work through robust monitoring, evaluation and reporting. Working with the Finance and Operations Manager, you'll oversee campaign budgets, ensuring resources are managed effectively and strategically.
Main Duties
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Provide strategic leadership as a member of the Senior Management Team, supporting the CEO to deliver River Action's organisational strategy, theory of change and long-term vision.
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Lead the development and delivery of River Action's integrated campaigning strategy, ensuring our public campaigns drive measurable environmental, political and societal change.
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Develop and oversee a portfolio of ambitious national campaigns, identifying opportunities to influence public opinion, policy, regulation and industry practice through innovative and impactful campaigning.
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Lead River Action's communications, media and public engagement strategy, ensuring compelling storytelling, strong brand visibility and effective use of traditional, digital and social media to grow our influence and supporter base.
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Lead the planning and delivery of River Action’s creative interventions and actions, from polling, petitions and shareholder actions to public protests and high-profile actions.
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Serve as a senior public representative and spokesperson for River Action, building the organisation's profile and influence through media engagement, public speaking, stakeholder engagement and high-profile external events.
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Oversee River Action's digital campaigning platforms, including the strategic development of our website and digital engagement tools.
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Work closely with the Head of Public Affairs to ensure campaigns and political advocacy are fully integrated, maximising opportunities to influence government, regulators and decision-makers.
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Work closely with the Head of Public Affairs to ensure grassroots action informs national campaigns, and national campaigns empower and amplify community action.
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Work with the Head of Legal to identify, develop and deliver strategic legal interventions that strengthen campaigns, increase accountability and drive systemic change beyond the courtroom.
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Build and maintain influential relationships with campaign partners, coalitions, NGOs, academics, community organisations, funders and other key stakeholders to maximise collective impact.
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Lead campaign planning, governance and delivery, ensuring campaigns are effectively resourced, managed and evaluated against agreed objectives, budgets and monitoring, evaluation and reporting (MER) frameworks.
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Lead, inspire and develop the Campaigns Team, fostering a collaborative, creative and high-performing culture that enables colleagues to thrive and deliver exceptional work.
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Work with the CEO, Head of Development and senior colleagues to secure funding for campaign activities, contributing to funding proposals, donor engagement and impact reporting.
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Work with the Finance and Operations Manager to develop, monitor and manage campaign budgets, ensuring resources are used effectively and strategically.
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Support organisational reporting by contributing to Board papers, quarterly and annual reports, organisational planning and performance monitoring.
Other Duties & Responsibilities
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Adopt a positive approach to personal and professional development; engaging in one to one meetings and relevant training.
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Be aware of, and act on, relevant health and safety responsibilities as an employee of River Action and adhere to these wherever you are working.
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To maintain confidentiality in all areas of work at River Action.
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UK travel will be required. Training & operational activities may require overnight stays away from home, in which case standard River Action procedures apply.
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Demonstrate a strong commitment to creating an inclusive, equal and diverse workplace and a positive organisational culture.
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Work collaboratively with colleagues across River Action to collectively deliver our ethos and mission.
What you’ll bring
The position will suit a strategic, well organised, energetic, passionate and dedicated person. The ideal person will be an excellent leader, a people person, and thrive within a dynamic and fast-paced environment. The person will have a passion to protect and restore our waterways and hold those responsible for environmental destruction to account.
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Ability to think strategically to deliver campaigns that are positively disruptive and meet River Action values.
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Line management experience of highly experienced professionals, bringing out the best in your team.
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Creative attitude and skills for solving problems and raising awareness of problems and solutions.
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A head for organisation and excellent time management, bringing others along with you in planning and delivering interventions and projects at short notice and under pressure.
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Experience in public and/or political campaigning either within or outside the environmental sector.
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Experience and contacts in communications and PR.
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An understanding of the issues that are impacting our rivers, and their solutions.
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The ability to establish and maintain effective contacts and relationships with senior and influential external individuals and bodies.
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The ability to communicate effectively and appropriately with a wide range of people both verbally and in writing including the media, community groups, other NGO representatives, government, industry leaders, supporters and followers on social media.
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Exceptional IT literacy and a head for figures and budgeting.
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Ability to work independently and take initiative to solve problems.
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Ability to work flexible hours as necessary.
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A good team player with a willingness to muck in as and where required.
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Ability to think clearly even when working under pressure.
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A passion for River Action’s mission and vision.
Diversity and Inclusion
Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies show that women and people of colour are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet every single criteria. We are committed to building a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace. So if you like the look of this role but your past experience does not align perfectly with everything in the job description, we would still like to hear from you. You may be just the right person for this or other roles.
How to apply
To apply, please submit to jobs at riveractionuk dot com with the subject ‘Head of Campaigns’’:
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your CV (2 pages max),
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a cover letter (2 pages max) explaining why you want to work for River Action and how your skills and experience meet the requirements of the role, and
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a written submission (2 pages) as described below.
Only applications including all three documents will be accepted. Please provide your documents in pdf format.
Written submission
River Action is looking to develop a campaign around water security in the UK to launch in 2027. Please put together a campaign brief setting out the challenges faced, how we would develop and deliver this campaign including campaign asks; campaign outcomes; public, political and legal tactics; routes for funding and resource requirements.
Your campaign brief should be no longer than 2 sides of A4.
Application process
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until 23:59 on 19th July.
Should your application be shortlisted, the next stage will involve an initial 30 minute interview on 28th July via video conference. You may then be invited to attend a second interview with a panel on 3rd August.
Please indicate in your covering letter or in a covering email your availability for interviews on these dates.
If you have any questions about the role or your application, please contact us on jobs at riveractionuk dot com.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Using Anonymous Recruitment
This organisation is using Anonymous Recruitment to reduce bias in the first stages of the hiring process. Submit your application as normal and our system will anonymise it for you. Your personal information will be hidden until the recruiter contacts you.
We’re looking for an enthusiastic and passionate Head of Fundraising to play a significant role in the growth of Bags of Taste.
This is an exciting opportunity for a motivated and proactive individual who is keen to make a tangible difference. The issues of health and well-being across the population and food insecurity are urgent and our work directly addresses these critical issues.
You’ll be responsible for fundraising and delivering a plan to raise funds from a variety of sources - including trusts and foundations, digital fundraising and individual giving. You’ll work with our corporate and community fundraiser to raise income through corporate partnerships and community fundraising. We expect that trusts and foundations funding will form a large part of this role and this includes securing larger and multi year grants.
Bags of Taste is a small and ambitious charity and you’ll be an integral part of our growth and be able to make this your own role. Working closely with our CEO and being part of the management team, you’ll be involved in organisation wide decision making and strategy.
We’re looking for someone with a track record in fundraising and income generation within the charity sector, who shares our commitment to empowering local people and creating happier and healthier communities for life.
Key responsibilities
Whilst we appreciate that many fundraising skills can be transferable, we’re looking specifically for someone with charity fundraising experience for this role.
Income generation
- Develop and implement a fundraising strategy to raise funds from a variety of sources(trusts and foundations,companies, individuals, digital fundraising, the community and events).
- Research funding opportunities and develop and approach a pipeline of prospects
- Implement systems across Bags of Taste to ensure all funding is maximised
- Achieve agreed income targets
- Prepare budgets and track income and forecasts
- Develop persuasive funding proposals,cases for support and reports
- Develop new funding or partnership opportunities through presentations, applications, pitches and proposals
- Create awareness of fundraising at Bags of Taste
- Attend networking events
Relationship Development and Stewardship
- Build and maintain relationships with funders, partners, donors, trustees and key stakeholders
- Ensure excellent stewardship for all funders and donors in order to build strong, long term relationships.
Management
- Manage the Corporate and Community Fundraiser
- Manage any other fundraising team members if the team grows
- Manage and support any volunteers and work with external agencies/partners.
General
- Maintain accurate records across all fundraising income streams including contact and relationship and financial data
- Ensure all activity complies with all fundraising regulations, GDPR and all relevant legal requirements
- Prepare reports and data for the Board of Trustees/management team
- Support finance staff with preparation of the annual accounts and financial recording
- Monitor and manage fundraising risks
- Attend and support networking events or other events or fundraising activity as required to represent Bags of Taste, including occasional working outside of normal office hours, including some evenings or weekend
Person specification
Essential
- A minimum of 3 years’ experience managing a number of fundraising streams in a charity
- Experience of successfully securing large/multi-year grants from trusts and foundations
- Track record of reaching income targets.
- Experience of developing fundraising strategies and plans
- Experience of managing staff
- Exceptional interpersonal and presentation skills
- Excellent written skills - you’ll need to be able to write compelling presentations, proposals, applications and reports
- Excellent relationship builder and ability to network, build, and nurture relationships with a wide variety of people
- Strong negotiation skills
- Excellent organisation and project management skills and ability to work to tight deadlines
- Proactive, self motivated and tenacious
- Self starter with the ability to set your own workload
- Strong attention to detail
- Strong IT skills including all word packages
- Good knowledge of all social media channels including relationship building on Linked in
- Good understanding of the relevant fundraising codes of practice and GDPR/data protection
- Passion for the work of Bags of Taste
- Flexible and able to attend networking events/events occasionally out of work hours as part of the role.
Desirable
- A relevant professional qualification eg Institute of Fundraising Certificate or Diploma in Fundraising
- Experience of charity communications
- Good understanding of CANVA and WordPress
- Good understanding and knowledge of food insecurity and health issues
We recommend you read the full job pack before applying.
Why join Bags of Taste?
● You’ll be part of a small, ambitious organisation with a big vision and a strong sense of purpose. The issues around health inequalities and poor diets and the need for solutions are critical. There are lots of opportunites to raise funds.
● This is a hugely flexible role in a supportive organisation.
About Bags of Taste
The work of Bags of Taste and the issues that we tackle are highly topical and relevant so there's lots of opportunities and scope to raise funds. Our vision that everyone should be able to access and cook good food has never been more important.
We address dietary related health inequalities and food insecurity - both these issues have been exacerbated by the current cost of living crisis and public health challenges. There is recognition now that food banks are not a sustainable solution and Bags of Taste works across a number of high need communities enabling people to be happier, healthier and more resilient.
Applications will only be accepted with a cover letter outlining how you meet all the essential details in the person specification.
Non Charity Employer
11 - 20
Bags of Taste transforms the lives of people with multiple disadvantages by providing support so they can enjoy tasty, healthy and affordable food.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Join Generate at a pivotal moment in our journey and help shape the future of a growing charity supporting transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse people across North Yorkshire. This is an opportunity to combine strategic leadership, fundraising and organisational development with meaningful impact in a values-driven organisation.
Generate is looking for an inspiring and collaborative Charity Director to lead our next chapter. We work to improve wellbeing, resilience and connection for transgender, non-binary, gender-diverse and gender-questioning adults through peer support, counselling, mentoring, outreach and more.
Since beginning as a volunteer-led initiative in York in 2011, Generate has grown into an established charity delivering a range of services across North Yorkshire. We are now looking for a leader who can build on this strong foundation, strengthen our sustainability and support the organisation's continued development.
As Charity Director, you will provide both strategic and operational leadership across the organisation. Working closely with our Board of Trustees, staff team, freelancers, volunteers and external partners, you will lead the delivery of our strategic vision and ensure Generate continues to be effective, sustainable and responsive.
This is a varied and rewarding role that offers the opportunity to:
• Shape the future direction and development of Generate
• Lead fundraising and develop sustainable income streams
• Build and strengthen strategic partnerships and stakeholder relationships
• Drive organisational development and improve systems and processes
• Support and develop a committed and motivated team
• Ensure strong governance, financial oversight and operational effectiveness
We're looking for someone who can think strategically while also being comfortable with the practical realities of leading a small organisation. You will be a confident relationship-builder and effective communicator, with a strong commitment to delivering positive outcomes for the people we support.
Role details
Salary: £36,000–£40,000 FTE (pro rata based on a 35-hour week), depending on experience
Hours: 21–28 hours per week
Contract: Permanent
Location: Home-based, with regular travel into York and occasional travel across North Yorkshire
If you are looking for an opportunity to lead an organisation through its next stage of development, we would love to hear from you.
If you’d like to have an informal conversation about the role, please get in touch and we will be happy to arrange a call with our current Charity Director.
Registered Charity
1 - 5
To connect and empower transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse individuals by improving wellbeing, self-confidence and resilience.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.