Director of Fundraising and Communications 

Salary: €83,366.00 per annum

35 hour working week 

Location: Depaul's main office is in Dublin 8. The role will involve regular travel to Belfast, to projects and other locations on the island of Ireland as required. Whilst hybrid working is possible there will be an expectation that a consistent physical presence will be required in the office as required and demanded by the role.

Role:

The successful candidate will be a member of the Executive Leadership Team, who along with 4 other Directors support the CEO in the overall leadership and alignment of all Depaul's legal entities: Depaul ROI and Depaul NI and also Depaul Housing Association (DHA) as per the Intra Group Agreement. This involves a broad set of general responsibilities.

All general and functional responsibilities are aligned with the Depaul strategy, currently Leading the Way Home to cover 2024 to 2026. Responsibilities will evolve to align with future organisational strategies. Performance of both general and functional responsibilities is in line with the Depaul Ireland Leadership Ethos, which reflects the Depaul mission, vision and values and includes collaboration across the homeless and housing sectors in ROI and NI, along with the international Depaul organisation. This way of working forms part of the role job description.

Key Areas of Responsibility: 

Role Functional Responsibilities

The purpose of this role is to hold shared responsibility for leading the organisation and specific functional responsibility and strategic leadership for developing income streams from all available sources and for providing strategic leadership on advocacy, communications, PR and marketing.

The assigned functional leadership responsibilities include:

• Driving the achievement of the strategic target to raise significant income from non-statutory (corporate, individual and legacy) sources, in addition to increasing fundraising capacity from statutory sources. This includes building partnerships and leveraging volunteer resources.
• Driving the external communications strategy to build, promote and safeguard Depaul's reputation and brand recognition as a leading organisation combating homelessness, advancing awareness and enhancing trust.
• Increasing the general public's awareness of disadvantage at the core of homelessness and enabling a more compassionate understanding of homelessness through the lens of people with lived experience.
• Influencing government policy and legislation on housing and homelessness through an evidence-based (research) model of advocacy and direct political and media engagement.
• Supporting the planning and delivery of key Depaul events.
• Ensuring respect for service users and PWLE of homelessness in all Depaul communications.

As with all ELT roles, this role also includes:

• Developing functional area strategies and operational / service plans aligned with the overall strategic plan, in collaboration with the CEO and ELT.
• Setting and continually monitoring achievement of KPIs relevant to the function and within the context of the overall strategic plan, functional area strategies and operational / service plans, in collaboration with the CEO and ELT.
• Developing a culture of high performance and continual improvement in resource management in assigned functional areas, including making appropriate use of data analytics and AI.
• Ensuring functional area risk is managed in a proactive, innovative and solution focused manner, aligned with the Enterprise-Wide Risk Management Framework.
• Safeguarding the Depaul reputation in all that is done, underpinned by the highest standards of governance and compliance.
• Supporting business continuity, both immediate crisis responses and long term sustainability planning.
• Project directing key change initiatives, including digital and operational transformation projects and service mergers, as requested by the CEO.
• Managing the operational budget for assigned functions, including assisting with functional area budget planning and reporting.
• Leading the development and supervision of all staff within the assigned functions, according to team management structures.
• Ensuring all statutory returns and required statutory notifications relating to assigned functional area(s) are completed in full and on time.
• Participating in regular supervision and annual performance appraisal and helping identify own job-related development and training needs 

The following documents are also applicable to this role and considered part of the job description:

• Reporting, Collaboration and Supervision Lines as per the Organisational Chart

• Functional Collaboration Grid (combined with the organisational chart in one document)

• Board Committee Structure

General ELT Responsibilities

• All ELT roles include:
• Championing and protecting the Vision, Mission and Values of Depaul Ireland, supporting the aim of ending homelessness and changing lives. This includes developing understanding and encouraging adoption and alignment amongst staff and volunteers.
• Contributing to overall strategic planning.
• Performing a key role in the wider decision making of the organisation, as part of the ELT and Senior Leadership Group (SLG)
• As a collective, ensuring that all Depaul policies and procedures in ROI and NI are being adhered to, including but not limited to financial regulations, health and safety, Code of Conduct and that all records are maintained in a confidential manner and in line with GDPR regulations.
• Attending board meetings, board subcommittee meetings, strategy days, executive leadership team meetings and Depaul international group meetings as required, along with internal management and staff meetings, as appropriate.
• Representing Depaul externally in appropriate networking events and forums that support the work of the organisation, generally and as relevant to the area of functional responsibility.
• Deputising for the CEO where required, potentially shared between one or more ELT roles for a duration or assigned to one role for one specific purpose, as needed.
• Prioritising handling of any emergency situation which may arise at any time (whether relevant to functional area or not), as requested by the CEO, including being 'on call' as senior emergency cover when appropriate.

The Depaul Ireland Leadership Ethos

• All ELT members are required to:
• Ensure that the vision, mission and values of Depaul are delivered through a strategic and common approach. This includes driving values-led culture and a trauma-informed philosophy in all Depaul does to support our people and their wellbeing, alongside that of our service users.
• Ensure that all Depaul subsidiaries are effectively governed in step with the Depaul Ireland systems and processes, as relevant to their functional areas.
• Ensure effective reporting to the Board of Trustees and the committee structure of the Board of Trustees, with specific committee reporting as assigned by the CEO.
• Support other ELT members and senior leadership roles in their professional responsibilities, which can include collaborating on functional responsibilities assigned to other ELT members as relevant and covering for other ELT members in their absence.
• Model and advocate the Depaul identity as a national, cross-border, and international body, consistently striving to attain the highest standards, pursuing our culture of transparency, while being an impactful and authentic leader in our sector. This includes complying with all Depaul International group agreement requirements as applicable to assigned functions. It also includes respond proactively to a changing Ireland and Northern Ireland, ensuring support for the diversity of people.
• Identify opportunities to support people with lived experience of homelessness to take a leading role in Depaul.
• Pursue sustainable housing and service development approaches to meet environmental objectives and in line with Depaul Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) policies.
• Promote the links between Depaul Ireland and Depaul International, wherever possible.
• Promote partnerships with other Vincentian organisations where it strengthens the Vincentian Family.
• Perform the role in a professional and development focused manner, consistently maintaining a high quality standard of work, committing to continuing professional development and membership of professional associations as relevant.

Listings of general and functional responsibilities are not exhaustive; additional areas of responsibility and activities commensurate with the role may be added as they arise over time. Flexibility to cover for other staff roles (ELT or functional reports) is required from time to time.

Terms of employment including salary, benefits, hours of work, location of work, cross border travel and attendance at evening meetings are as per individual contracts of employment and associated documents, including provisions as listed in previously issued job descriptions which covered hours and location of work.

While a level of hybrid working will be accommodated, the expectation is that the greater proportion of time in ELT roles needs to be onsite to meet work requirements.

Person Specification

All ELT roles require the following qualifications, experience, knowledge and personal skills:

• Third level educational qualification or equivalent.
• Significant experience working at a senior management level, to include staff and budget responsibility and experience contributing to overall strategic planning.
• In-depth knowledge of the charity sector, gained from working in the sector or volunteering at a sufficiently senior level over a number of years, i.e. management or board level.
• Understanding of the broader environment within which Depaul operates, including the homeless sector and the housing and supported accommodation sector.
• Understanding and respect for the values and ethos of Depaul and genuine interest in and commitment to promoting high standards of services for people who are homeless.
• Demonstrable experience of operating successfully within a multi-stakeholder environment, developing effective partnerships with others.
• Proven experience of representing an organisation at senior management level in sectoral networks and/or public fora.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to positively influence and support others.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment working across multiple projects managing a complex workload and managing time pressures effectively and apply sound decision-making skills.
• Be a proven self-starter, using initiative.
• Sound financial literacy and commercial acumen.
• Openness to new technologies to enable digital transformation of support processes in addition to competence in using a broad range of IT packages, not limited to MS Office and Google Professional.
• Ability to lead through the 'Vincentian Values'.

Additionally, functional specific qualifications, experience and knowledge is required as relevant to the position. The role of Director of Fundraising and Communications additionally requires:

• Third level educational background ideally in Journalism, PR, Business or Community Work with at least a certificate or diploma level further qualification in fundraising.
• At least eight years' experience in a senior level charity fundraising role, with proven ability to build, manage and develop key stakeholder, client and donor relationships through excellent inter-personal and networking skills.
• Proven track record of growing income and a knowledge of the fundraising environment, and of a range of techniques which will support the cost-effective generation of fundraising income across all income streams.
• Strong influencing skills to communicate and internal and external stakeholder approval and buy-in for fundraising and communications strategies in addition to overall business strategy.
• Experience leading a fundraising and communications team, bringing innovative creative thinking and fresh ideas along with motivating staff to achieve ambitious targets.
• Experience of developing and managing an organisational communications and PR strategy.
• Competence in social media management and mainstream media relations.
• Competence in using fundraising and communications software packages to include media work.