Special Projects Manager

Job Summary

The salary for this permanent, full time role is circa £40,000 per annum

We are a multi-award winning, creative and innovative organisation and the Creative Industries team is as the heart of the fundraising we do. Working on critical cross-department projects, campaigns and initiatives, you will help to drive strategic planning and delivery across War Child’s highly ambitious and successful fundraising operations by being highly effective and managing end to end projects to achieve their desired results. You will maximise our ability to raise money by overseeing and implementing professional project delivery across the organisation, supporting colleagues to deliver activations and achieve results.

If you share our values and believe that children’s lives should not be torn apart by war, we want to hear from you.

Your Role

At War Child UK we react to ever changing environments, unique opportunities and exciting projects with one clear mission, to support children in conflict around the globe. Whilst your remit is wide, as Special Projects Manager, your role is all about being ‘the glue’ connecting all the strands together to deliver successful campaigns, bringing together experts and optimising opportunities with transformative potential for War Child UK.

Previous examples include The Guardian’s 2024 winter appeal, which profiled inspirational people working with and at War Child in a national scale appeal; a creative partnership with a world renowned, but equally top secret, immersive theatre production and; Red Line For Gaza, a mass movement and campaign coordinating collective action to demand MPs to end the inhumanity we are currently witnessing in Gaza.

You will bring experiences from a diverse range of activities and previous projects to develop opportunities into fully grown public facing campaigns and initiatives, often with multiple stakeholders, complex timelines and ambitious creative direction.

With support and collaboration from your colleagues, you will manage internal toolkits to grow organisational wide ways of working across KPI’s, project management & planning. You will bring an innovative and creative approach to defining processes that support all teams to assess opportunities, deliver activity and evaluate.

Your Responsibilities

Project manage a range of agreed projects and approach with diligence, creativity and ambition.
Consistently assess internal and external resource, fundraising benefit and the risks that any given project may present, regularly communicating and presenting your recommendations with leadership.
Confidently coordinate input from different teams, helping colleagues share their expertise in a way that complements rather than conflicts with their other commitments.
Demonstrate a flexible and solution-focused approach, maximising all opportunities from a fundraising and brand awareness perspectives whilst setting realistic milestones for cross-team work.
With support from Senior Creative Industries Manager, implement a plan for the use of KPI’s and set of recommendations for further developing a culture of using KPIs organisation wide.
Work closely with department Heads in Supporter Engagement to action and facilitate the internal coordination of fundraising and communications during emergencies, when they take place in the countries we work in.
Refresh the existing project management toolkits to improve efficiencies and bring best practice from within and outside of War Child UK. The toolkit currently consists of project assessment forms, project management and evaluation frameworks.
Drive forward a number of internal projects designed to streamline, improve and expand our ability to work cross-departmentally.
You will be the champion of an organisation wide planning initiative, supported by Senior Creative Industries Manager. You will manage the delivery as well as driving forward the vision to help inspire all teams to contribute.
Maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current activities of War Child and be an advocate of the War Child brand.
Contribute to creating a culture committed to the safeguarding of children and adults and compliant to War Child’s Safeguarding and PSEAH (Protection from Sexual Exploitation, Abuse & Harassment) Policies.
We are committed to building an inclusive and equitable workplace. All staff are expected to actively contribute to this by embedding principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging into their day-to-day work, decision-making, and interactions with colleagues, partners, and supporters.

These duties provide a framework for the role and should not be regarded as a definitive list. Other reasonable duties may be required consistent with the grade of the role.

You Are

Someone who can bring experience and best practice from a dynamic range of projects or campaigns to date.
Someone with strong inter-personal skills and able to confidently build relationships across different stakeholders, departments and teams.
Able to model excellent end to end project management and provide methodical ways of working that should maximise opportunities and efficiencies.
Driven by compelling storytelling and working in a creative environment.
Highly resilient, with the ability to bring clarity when working in ambiguous circumstances, managing multiple workflows at any one time.
Familiar with a range of project management methodologies and tools.
An excellent communicator and confident providing regular updates and recommendations.
Highly organised and able to create high quality project documentation across timelines, budgets and presentations.
Well versed in trends in the fundraising industry with the willingness to stay up to date on the latest developments that could create opportunities for War Child.
Able to effectively delegate across teams to meet deadlines, manage priorities and hit ambitious targets.

About Us

At War Child we are driven by a single goal – ensuring a safe future for every child affected by war.

Using our 30 years of experience and proven methodologies, we aim to reach children as quickly as possible when conflict breaks out and stay long after the cameras have gone to support them through their recovery. We work with local communities and governments to help protect and educate children, and support them to heal and learn, for a safer, brighter future.

We understand children’s needs, respect and stand up for their rights, and put them at the centre of everything we do – because one child caught up in conflict is one child too many.

Every day, our local teams are in communities and in refugee camps creating safe spaces for children to play, learn and access psychological support, and we specialise in responding rapidly to emergency crisis situations to deliver immediate and critical care impartially to help to those who need us most, when they need us most.

Because no child should be part of war. Ever.

Our Values

Bold:We use our passion and creativity to deliver high quality evidence-based work designed to maximise our beneficial impact for children in conflict.
Accountable to children:Children can rely on us to respond to their voices and to treat them with respect and dignity.
Anti-racism:Anti-racism is not merely a belief. It includes actions that we mainstream throughout our work to change and challenge policies and behaviours that perpetuate racism.
Transparent:We expect to be held to account by our supporters and participants and we respond with openness and honesty.
Supportive of each other:We support each other to achieve ambitious goals and be the best we can be. We are honest and open, sharing our successes & confronting our challenges.

Our Benefits

Flexible working- we recognise the considerable benefits that flexible working can bring and are happy to discuss any possible flexible working options with our employees from hiring. For most roles, the following types of flexibility are usually possible: flexible hours, occasional working from home and compressed hours.
Annual leave– 28 days per year (full-time) rising to 33 days with service, plus bank holidays
Pension- all eligible employees automatically enrolled into a Group Personal Pension Plan with a 5% employer contribution, with minimum employee contribution on a salary sacrifice basis. This increases to 6% after one year's service.
Family leave– we offer enhanced Maternity, Partner/Co-Parent/Paternity Leave, Adoption & Shared Parental Leave
Health & wellbeing- employees may take advantage of a healthcare cash plan and a range of wellbeing initiatives and training. In addition, all employees have access to free, confidential one-to-one wellbeing consultations with trained counsellors.
Learning & development- dedicated to the investment in learning and continuing professional development for all our employees
Workplace Nursery Benefit– employees make tax and NI savings on nursery costs for children up to the age of 5
Flexible public holidays- up to two standard UK public holidays can be exchanged for those that have cultural or religious significance.
Voluntary contributions can be made through payroll allowing employees to claim back on a range of cancer treatments.Cancer Cover:

GP 24/7 Helpline:A GP helpline is be available to all UK employees providing access to a qualified GP, 24/7 via a telephone or webcam consultation, and offers diagnosis, advice and reassurance on a range of medical matters, as well as authorisation of private electronic prescriptions.

Welcome Bag for new starters:A War Child Tote bag, War Child T-shirt and some other practical things to welcome new colleagues to War Child.

Discounts on War Child Merchandise: 25% discount on full price War Child merchandise, available to all employees, sold through Shop for Good.

Range of flexible benefits such a Cycle to Work scheme and season ticket loans.

Flexible Working

We positively support flexible working arrangements. These currently include: office working, homeworking, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexi-time, flexi-place (hybrid working) and job shares. We would be happy to discuss individual flexible working requests during the interview process.

How to Apply

To apply, simply submit an application through our Current Vacancies page and attach a copy of your CV.

On occasion, we might close a vacancy early due to a high number of applications being received. Interested candidates are encouraged to submit their application as early as possible.

If you have any questions about reasonable adjustments before or during your application, we welcome the opportunity to talk about what we can do to fairly adapt our process for you. Please share what you’re comfortable with to help us put the right support in place, by emailing careers@warchild.org.uk. Anything you tell us will be kept completely confidential by our HR team.

We are unable to provide sponsorship for this post. In order to apply, you must be able to demonstrate your eligibility to work in the country where this role is based.

Safeguarding

Our work with children and at-risk adults to ensure their safety is our top priority. We are committed to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults in all aspects of our work. We maintain a zero-tolerance policy for any behavior or practices that put children and/or vulnerable adults at risk of abuse or harm.

Successful applicants will be required to comply with and sign our Safeguarding Policy, Code of Conduct, and PSEAH Policy. You can find the Safeguarding and Integrity policies here:https://warchild.sharepoint.com/sites/Integrity

Diversity and Inclusion

We value diversity and inclusion and are committed to ensuring that all our people and job applicants are treated fairly, irrespective of where, what or whom they were born, or of other characteristics. We want to offer a safe and inclusive workplace where all our people, especially those who are currently marginalised or underrepresented, can be themselves at work. You can read our Diversity and Inclusion policy on our website, and if you have any questions about our commitment to diversity and inclusion do get in touch: https://www.warchild.org.uk/our-work/policies-and-reports/diversity-and-inclusion

Pre-employment Checks

Employment with War Child will be subject to the following checks prior to your start date:

a satisfactory police record check to include a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and/or an International/National Criminal Record Check

a clear vetting and Due Diligence check

receipt of two professional satisfactory references