The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is seeking a new combined fundraising and communications director to help nearly double the number of financial supporters to the charity by 2020.
The appointment is part of the RSPB's wider aim to double net income and the rate of core income growth by the same year as part of a restructure at the 120-year-old charity bringing communications into the heart of the operation.
The new director, who will be paid £80,000 per year and report to the CEO, will head up the newly-combined communications and marketing departments, incorporating fundraising. Targets are set high for the new recruit who will be expected to deliver an increase from 1.156 million financial supporters to 2.19 million as well as "radically shift perceptions of the RSPB" to better reflect what the charity does and how it does it.
The director will also lead the organisation's volunteer programme and increase volunteer support providing "huge benefits by enabling [RSPB] to be more responsive to local conservation needs".
'Creaky and old'
A spokesman for the charity advised that the restructure follows internal and external consultation and is necessary in order to increase engagement with politicians, the public and potential corporate supporters:
"We don't have enough political support, politicians are not considering nature when they are making their decisions enough. We don't have enough public support, we need the public on board to help us raise money and deliver on our objectives and we don't have enough corporate support.
"So we need to increase all those areas of support and we can't do that with our current structure because it's creaking and old and we don't work very well together across our departments. So we've done a lot of work with consultants and focus groups and looking at the way we work, and the result that came out was that we need this one department.
"And we need someone really forward-thinking and proactive with a good track record of driving a brand in the public sector to head it up."
The new director is likely to be appointed in early September.
