About us

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join Pro Bono Economics (PBE), an organisation that prides itself on its flexible working environment, culture of learning, focus on employee wellbeing and the strength of our employee relationships. PBE offers a strong benefits package, opportunities for development and a team working at the top of their game.

PBE’s mission is to end low personal wellbeing in the UK. We do this by helping charities and social enterprises understand their economic and social impact, so they can improve their overall effectiveness. We enable professional economists from the private and public sectors as well as academia to volunteer their skills to tackle some of the most pressing issues in society. We have worked with over 500 charities since our inception in 2009.

Having successfully delivered a major programme of ground-breaking work on the condition of the charity sector in the form of the Law Family Commission on Civil Society at the start of 2023, PBE is entering a new phase in its development. Building on its growing research and policy expertise and its strong association with the social sector, the organisation is taking a bottom-up and top-down approach to exploring, understanding, and tackling the causes and consequences of low personal wellbeing in the UK that uses the insights and perspectives of charities and community groups as a unique jumping off point. PBE is focused on delivering high quality research that both translates into real policy and practice impacts for people with low wellbeing and supports a more effective social sector to help deliver that change.

About the role

Reporting directly to Pro Bono Economics’ Director of Policy and Communications, you will be responsible for the external communications activity of the organisation, including digital communications and public affairs but with an emphasis on media activity. You will supervise the work of PBE’s Communications team, which consists presently of a Digital Communications Officer and an External Affairs Manager. Ultimately, you will be responsible for ensuring that PBE’s audiences of policymakers, charities, academics, businesses and funders hear our messages on the importance of tackling low wellbeing in the UK, and the ways of doing so.

This is a brilliant time to be joining PBE. Our team is growing, and so is our impact. We have a new strategy in place that focuses us on our mission to use economic analysis and the unique insight provided by our connection to the social sector to help charities, funders, firms and policymakers to collectively tackle the causes and consequences of low personal wellbeing in the UK. We are ambitious about the change we can make in the world, and you will be key to growing and strengthening our network of partners to amplify our impact and reaching new audiences within all relevant sectors.

This is a varied and exciting role requiring an agile individual who is responsive to the ever-changing circumstances of current affairs, and has a strong awareness of political audience, the media landscape, and the charity sector. The successful candidate should have a genuine interest in current affairs and the role of charities in tackling social issues. This role puts a premium on having excellent communication skills, relationship building skills, management skills, and media strategies.

Key Accountabilities

• Implementing an integrated external communications strategy that raises the awareness of PBE as a charity and a think tank, and ensure PBE secures increasing, deeper impact.
• Delivering media activity, including by developing and maintaining strong relationships with journalists.
• Managing and developing the Communications team so that all individuals within it thrive.

Main Duties & Responsibilities

Leadership

• Oversee the communications functions, line-managing two direct reports (a Digital Communications Officer and an External Affairs Manager) to foster PBE’s values of collaboration, rigour and determination, our inquisitive, generous, respectful and honest culture, and to further our mission of using economic analysis and the unique insight provided by our connection to the social sector to help charities, funders, firms and policymakers to collectively tackle the causes and consequences of low personal wellbeing in the UK.
• Coordinate PBE’s output schedule, identifying opportunities to land stories for maximum impact and working with research colleagues to develop strategies for influence.
• Work with the Director on strategic communications, messaging, thought leadership pieces and profile-building for PBE’s spokespeople.
• Protect PBE’s reputation as an independent, authoritative, non-partisan and credible thinktank.
• Develop and maintain a culture of feedback, evaluation and improvement across the team.

Media

• Secure impactful media coverage in national, regional and specialist media.
• Develop and manage relationships with key target journalists.
• Develop and execute communications strategies for reports, publications and public events (where relevant).
• Support PBE to build its profile and networks through relationships with journalists, social media and via opinion pieces, blogs and commentary in the media.
• Maintain a full press office function in-house, including planning and distribution, managing relationships with service providers, and a commitment to continuous improvement based on data-led insights.
• Be the main point of contact for all PBE media and press requests and be on-call for out of hour requests/opportunities.

External Communications

• Ensure PBE’s external communications are of the highest standard and performance, including social media, newsletters, and all other outputs.
• Ensure PBE’s key messaging, tone of voice, accessibility of content and style guide are adhered to.
• Provide communications and strategic advice on messaging across the external affairs function, including events and stakeholder engagement.
• Oversee the publication process for PBE’s outputs, including those which serve charities and other external clients, both paid and pro bono.
• Work closely with the External Affairs Manager and co-lead the design and implementation of PBE’s policy influence strategy.
• Support the Research and Policy, and Development teams to develop their communications skills.

Other Duties

• Miscellaneous – Pro Bono Economics is a fast growing and dynamic organisation, so there may be tasks that fall outside of these core responsibilities that the Head of Communications would be expected to support.

About you

The Head of Communications will report directly to the Director of Policy and Communications and will be responsible for the organisation’s external communications efforts, media relations, and management of the Communications team

Ideal characteristics include:

• Proven track record of securing coverage in national, regional and specialist media, including opinion pieces.
• Experience working on communications related to UK public policy.
• Excellent writing and editing skills with the ability to shift styles and messaging for different audiences.
• Strong relationships with journalists relevant to the work of PBE.
• Demonstrable ability to translate complex research findings and recommendations into accessible content.
• Very organised with the ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously.
• Strategically minded with the ability to plan and deliver impact.
• Strong teamworking skills with a commitment to the PBE’s mission, values and culture.
• Line management experience.

PBE is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. We encourage applications from all parts of the community, and we give all applicants and employees fair and equal treatment, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or nationality. We also guarantee an invitation to interview for all applicants with disabilities who show evidence that they can meet the role’s ideal criteria.

Please note that PBE does not hold a sponsorship licence and is therefore unable to provide work sponsorship visas for this role.

For details of our applicant’s privacy policy, please see https://www.probonoeconomics.com/policies