The Wheel: Advocacy & Campaigns Manager
Advocacy & Campaigns Manager
Location: Dublin 2 & Hybrid
Contract: Full-time, permanent
Salary: €46,098 - €62,368,
About The Wheel
The Wheel is Ireland’s national association of community and voluntary organisations, charities and social enterprises. As a representative voice, we provide leadership to the charity and community sector and we advocate on behalf of our growing community of members. As a supportive resource, we offer advice, training and other opportunities to people working or volunteering in the charity and community sector. Learn more about who we are and what we do https://www.wheel.ie/about-us
The Opportunity
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a passionate and enthusiastic professional to join The Wheel’s Advocacy team. This role will work directly with the Director of Advocacy and will manage the Advocacy and Campaigns operations of The Wheel and provide support to members of The Wheel, and the wider Community and Voluntary sector.
The post holder will work closely with the wider Advocacy and Campaigns team and the wider staff team.
The successful candidate will maintain a positive and responsive attitude towards collaborative working that encourages the best from, and supports the efforts of, others.
The Purpose of the Role
The overall purpose of the work will be to advocate for positive change for organisations and society generally. To positively influence public opinion in support of the community and voluntary sector whilst maximising member mobilisation and engagement in campaigning.
Working Relationships
The Advocacy and Campaigns Manager will be line managed by the Director of Advocacy and will work alongside other Directors and managers contributing to the general management of the work of The Wheel.
The post holder will be expected to develop and maintain positive professional relationships with colleagues, board and subgroup members and a range of external stakeholders, commercial and other organisations including community and voluntary organisations in pursuit of the interests of The Wheel.
As The Wheel is a membership organisation, all post-holders are expected to provide leadership and support to members.
Duties and Responsibilities
The primary focus of the work will be to identify and drive The Wheel’s advocacy objectives and deliver strategic campaigns that achieve these objectives, and which maximise member mobilisation and engagement.
The responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:
Advocacy:
- Develop advocacy positions for The Wheel in consultation with members.
- Oversee the development papers / member survey analysis and reports and maintain and update same.
- Provide in depth analysis of public policy in areas relevant to members of The Wheel
- Ensure a continuous feedback loop to members on our advocacy and campaigning outputs and impacts.
- Supporting the organisation’s research aims and capacity, as well as supporting engaged research among our members.
- Oversee the preparation of official submissions from The Wheel to various calls for input.
- Support the work of the Policy Sub-committee of the board through preparation of materials as needed, attendance at meetings and minute-taking.
- Line manage the Policy Officer and any other officers assigned.
- Represent The Wheel at Community & Voluntary Pillar meetings and bi-lateral Departmental meetings as required
- Deputise, as appropriate, for the Director of Advocacy at national fora such as the Health Dialogue Forum, National Economic Dialogue, and others.
- Engage effectively with Government Ministers, senior policymakers and civil servants to further The Wheel’s advocacy profile.
- Work collaboratively with the Member Engagement Manager to engage with members on their advocacy priorities.
Campaigns:
- Lead and manage public-policy, media and event campaigning, including public awareness campaigns; pre-budget campaigns; election-related-campaigns (local, general, European, Seanad, and Presidential), and other campaigns
- Mobilise and engage with The Wheel’s members in advancing shared objectives through campaigns while ensuring synchronisation with associated public affairs activity
- Build strong and proactive relationships with media and key media figures
- Collaborate with The Wheel’s Communications Manager around media engagement, production of campaign materials and collateral, and develop and deploy campaign messaging across multiple communications channels and coherent with The Wheel’s brand positioning
- Draft opinion pieces, reports and briefings, ensuring a regular stream of advocacy and campaigning-related comment and opinion that engages key target audiences and enhances member engagement.
- Develop and implement a social media strategy for The Wheel’s advocacy work, taking responsibility for social media content, and ensuring that social media messaging is delivered in a timely fashion.
- Manage and keep up to date content in the advocacy and news pages of The Wheel’s website
- With the Director of Advocacy, develop & manage campaigning coalitions to include relevant members and external stakeholders as necessary
- Support the CEO and Director of Advocacy in their public-policy spokesperson roles for The Wheel, in particular drafting regular member-updates and communications.
- With the support of the Development & Member Services team, lead in identifying and securing funding opportunities that will support the advocacy, campaigning, and research work of The Wheel.
- Link The Wheel’s Managers and other team members into an effective internal campaigning team to assist in identifying opportunities for increased impact.
- Undertake any other tasks that are needed, and which are aligned with The Wheel’s purpose and mission, to support the delivery of the advocacy and communications objectives
Full Job Description & Person Specification is attached below
Successfully shortlisted applicants will be provided with the Behavioural Competency Framework prior to interview.
A complete list of all the terms and conditions will be made available to the candidate offered the role through The Wheel’s Staff Handbook. The Wheel is an equal opportunities employer.