Interim Communications Lead – Endowment

Role Overview

• Deliver our corporate communications strategy– spanning our work as funder, investor, corporate citizen and employer.
• Advise on property element of corporate communications strategy and tactical delivery
• Develop, deliver and evaluate annual plans for corporate communications.
• Own and update our tone of voice and narratives about the key areas of our work– how we act as a funder, investor, corporate citizen and employer.
• Draft and/or edit news stories, opinion, statements, quotes and other, liaising with key colleagues, using our tone of voice and adjusting to the different channels as required.
• Build and nurture relationships with key stakeholders and contacts in the sector, including relevant platforms, networks and trade press.
• Support communications around projects in our large property portfolio: leading specialist communications activity for planning process for large developments and reputational risk communications associated with this.
• Supporting communications activity across the endowment, including multi-million pound commercial arrangements (for example property partnerships in Central London).
• Relationship management and acting as a strategic advisor to senior stakeholders including development partners, KCL and the Trust. Collaborating and working as a strategic advisor to members of the Executive Team, including CIO and the People & Culture team to support efforts to attract best talent by building our reputation as an employer of choice.
• Sharing our progress and learnings on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work with relevant external audiences
• Collaborative working with the Corporate Communications Team and internal communications as required.
• Manage the external communications events calendar–identifying opportunities for cross-pollination of messages across our family of organisations.
• Proactively identify and manage reputational risks linked with key activities in our multiple roles including as an investor, funder, owner of property, employer and custodian of arts. This includes acting as a strategic advisor and managing internal and external escalation processes.
• Be the first point of contact for our approach to crisis and reputational management, iterating as needed. This includes an awareness of cross-cutting reputational risks, managing media with proactive and reactive approaches, and complex stakeholder management.
• Deliver significant support to endowment team across reputational, senior stakeholder and media management (inc. conversations with investors, collation groups and other senior stakeholders).
• Act as first port of call for media queries, liaising with the relevant colleagues to respond appropriately.
• Management of relevant agencies and other resources, including communications agency advisors.

Requirements

• Excellent written communications, with an eye for detail and ability to craft nuanced yet accessible messaging
• Strong ability to understand complex topics and information (e.g. financial performance)
• Strong project management skills
• Build strong relationships with colleagues across the organisation to ensure the success of our strategy
• Confident in building successful relationships with very senior colleagues and stakeholders
• Ability to flex tone and style for different audiences
• Calm and sensitive attitude in handling difficult communications
• Proactive and solutions focused
• Comfortable with emerging ways of working and committed to improvements
• Committed to embedding diversity, equity and inclusion in everything we do
• Support efforts to drive the success of the team, processes, and ways of working
• Understanding of investment and use of assets for social good (desirable)
• Experience of managing corporate communications, ideally in the non-profit sector
• Experience of developing comms strategies and plans for B2B audiences.
• Experience of property or property development communications and reputational risk associated with high value commercial activity
• Experience of successfully managing relationships with key internal and external stakeholders to deliver comms.
• Experience of acting as a confident and trusted advisor on corporate communications with colleagues and external partners, including very senior stakeholders internally and externally (Endowment CIO, property partners, and others)
• Experience of producing annual reports
• Experience of commissioning and/or producing content across a range of formats
• Trade press experience, ideally in a press office environment.
• Reputational and crisis management experience
• Investor communications experience (desirable)

Benefits

• Competitive pension
• Annual health and wellbeing personal allowance
• Enhanced maternity, paternity, and parental leave pay accessible without length of service requirements.
• Support for healthy eating via fruit bowls and onsite lunch facilities.
• Agile working, flexible hours, and supportive IT kit.
• Shower facilities and bike lock area.
• Generous annual leave (27 days + bank holidays)
• Employee Assistance Programme