Individual Giving and Communications Officer

(Temporary Replacement)

Individual giving and communications officer

SOS Children’s Villages takes action for children as an independent non-governmental social development organization. We build families for children in need, we help them shape the development of their communities, we respect varying religions and cultures, and we work in countries and communities where our mission can contribute to development.

SOS Children’s Villages-Palestine started its operation in 1966 with the first SOS-Children’s Village in Bethlehem and is currently searching for experienced Individual Giving (IG) and Communications Officer to join the team of SOS Palestine National Office in Bethlehem. The Individual Giving (IG) and Communications Officer will report directly to Fundraising Development and Communications Director (FDC).

Child Safeguarding Commitment:

SOS Children’s Villages works with children’s and youth. Any applicant he/she should act in a way that safeguards children and youth from all forms of discrimination, abuse, mistreatment and neglect, and will keep data about the children and youth in SOS Children’s Villages programmes confidential. He/she will report all concerns regarding actual or potential child abuse, mistreatment or any other violation of the Child Protection Policy according to our reporting and responding system. For sure, He/she would be protected and supported by the organization.

PSEA Standards:

SOS Children’s Villages, has a zero tolerance to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of beneficiaries.  Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) is everyone’s responsibility and all staff are required to adhere to the Code of Conduct, that enshrines principles of PSEA, at all times (both during work hours and outside work hours).  Familiarization with, and adherence to, the Code of Conduct is an essential requirement of all staff, in addition to related mandatory training.  All staff must ensure that they understand and act in accordance with this clause. 

Equal Opportunity Employer:

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our organization. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Position summary and main aims:

The main aim of the Individual Giving (IG) and Communications Officer role is to pursue new opportunities with & fundraise from potential individuals and initiatives to fund the relevant programmes, investments and costs of the Member Association and to Increase public recognition, foster a positive image of the member association, and strengthen brand awareness, credibility and acceptance. Through supporting fundraising activities by pursuing opportunities to externally promote SOS Children’s Villages Palestine fundraising campaigns and activities. The role aims to assist the MA and FDC Director in decision making process through providing monitoring, evaluating and analysing the external communication activities. Moreover, the aim is to strongly network and position SOS Children’s Villages brand according to the brand vision, mission and values and to develop an annual external communications strategy in alignment with the overall MA national strategy. And provide communications expertise to the fundraising team. The IG & Communication officer should be creative and capable of developing and maintaining strong network of journalists, media experts and media key figures in the country.

Location:  Bethlehem

Contract: 3 months Limited Contract (Temporary Replacement)

Direct Supervisor: Fund Development and Communications (FDC) Director

Key performance areas and main responsibilities:

Individual Giving:

·       Responsible for coordination and monitoring of all Individual Giving activities implemented by partners (e.g: small groups, initiatives, students…etc,.) for the purposes of collecting IG local funds for SOS Palestine in close cooperation with digital fundraiser and retention officer when needed.

·       Support in Developing, implementing, and reviewing of acquisition strategy to maximise life-time value based on KPI’s provided by FDC Director and team

·       Responsible for innovating, creating, coordinating and monitoring new agreed acquisition Individual Giving activities for the purposes of raising funds from individuals, initiatives and encouraging committed giving

• Drives fundraising innovation in agreed individual giving activities, tools and methods - products, channels and target groups. Ex: Partner’s employees project, Student’s union project, individual groups initiatives.

·       Support in expanding the IG activities and campaigns reach to new markets and audience to grow varied and sustainable base of IG donors

• Liaise with FDC team colleagues on individual giving initiatives conducted in cooperation with corporates or IPD partners
• Adheres to all official manuals, guidelines, minutes of Fund Development & Communication Workshops and standards issued by the SOS Children’s Villages or the Fund Development & Communications Department EUCM as well as to the legal requirements in the country.

Acts as part of and attends the Fund Development & Communications EUCM ALL related network meetings and co-operates and supports IG & Communications officers and fundraisers of other countries in the region, and encourages sharing good practices.

Communications and brand:

• Develop overall annual communications strategy, with special focus on donor acquisition & retention.
• Develop and plan outreach activities & uses all available media platforms, social media channels and media relations to promote the work and impact of SOS Children’s Villages Palestine.
• Define, implement and fulfil the individual fundraising and communications strategies in collaboration with the Director of FDC and FDC team as reflected in the National Strategic Plan
• Provide communications expertise to the FDC team, and accompany all fundraising campaigns and on-going content management and improvement of the Website and social media
• Collect and support in producing compelling and engaging content (Stories, articles, PR, photos, videos, interviews) across several media outlets including social media, website, and newsletter that increase engagement, awareness and improve the fundraising leads.
• Collect and support in producing ERP & IPD projects content and coverage

• Liaise with and manage the relationship with external related agencies, governmental parties and service providers i.e. PR, Advertising, printing, banks, developers etc.
• Identify key media and key journalists and foster the relationship with them to proactively position the organisation´s topics and messages in the national news agenda
• Improve the position of the organization in different earned media, through facilitating articles, interviews and TV and Radio reports
• Organise crisis communications in close cooperation with the national crisis management team and the Director of FDC, act as an information hub to regional and international offices

• Closely cooperate with the National Director, the FDC Director, the National Programme Development Director, and the National advisors to pursue a consistent message about the organisation and its mission and activities
• Positions the MA as a strong and consistent brand among potential and existing supporters based on the model, vision, mission and values. And maintain on-going brand integrity via consistent application of the brand guidelines.
• Facilitate brand orientation, training, workshops, dialogues and support definition, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of brand projects.
• Contribute to anchoring the brand in all main processes and activities in all working fields
• Provide recommendations and guidance on brand matters and brand compliance during the implementation of main activities.
• Liaise and ensure alignment of donor communications plan with communications and fundraising plans developed for IG campaigns, ERP and IPD projects
• Liaise with FDC team colleagues for donor visibility, compliances and events preparations.
• Prepare and provide monthly media monitoring reports
• Draft and alignment of a concept and plan of external communication measures based on a thorough analysis of the status quo of external communication, of the public perception of the organisation in Palestine, and in alignment with the FDC strategy and the MA strategy. Implementation, evaluation and if needed quick adaptation of the plans.
• Lead, plan, implement and evaluate Awareness campaigns in opened market and expanded markets 
• Lead the Website content development to reflect the quality work of SOS, with continues update on news, stories, testimonials and high-quality visuals  
• Responsible for all MA printing materials, content revision, brand alignment and final execution

• Responsible for crisis communication process in CS incidents if reached external media

·       Responsible for verification, management, and sustainability of online channels (accounts) social media channels and website

Digital Media and support in Digital Fundraising

·       Support to recruits and upgrades of committed givers directly via online channels to ensure sustainable income, including (Email Marketing via Mailchimp, FB Leads, LinkedIn Ads, WhatsApp messages, Google Ads and Instagram ads) upon alignment with FDC Director, Retention Officer and Digital Fundraiser

·       Support to Improve employing digital media platforms and tools in implementing and development of fundraising campaigns

·       Responsible for online content published on website and all awareness and engagement content on social media

Strategic Relationship and Financial Management

·       Source, evaluate, establish and manage related supplier relationships in the best interest of the organisation.

·       Providing timely information and reporting for management decision-making.

·       Train related programmes team on storytelling, branding and visuals productions

·       Provide input into the annual budget through feasibility calculations based on KPI’s.

·       Manage actual versus forecasted budgets monthly and analyse variances between income and expenses monthly.

·       Manage agreed individual targets and activities monthly.

Assist in compiling and submitting donors fundraising reports timely and accurately

Child rights & advocacy

• Ensures child safeguarding issues and knowledge of media policy procedures to remain key in all actions and decision with all partners and FDC service providers.

·       Child rights & advocacy: the fundraiser ensures that communication for fundraising follows a child-rights terminology and approach (incl. respect of the children’s right to privacy) and is co-ordinated and consistent with communication and messages pursuing advocacy objectives. She/he meets regularly with MA staff in charge for advocacy activities to share information and co-ordinate the timing and the content of their activities.

Child Safeguarding (CS)

• Responsible within own area of work to raise awareness of the SOS Child Protection Policy principles and to prevent and protect children from all forms of abuse, abandonment, exploitation, violence and discrimination.
• Responsible to report any CS suspicion, concern, allegation or incident immediately, following Child Safeguarding reporting procedures. CS reports should be made to the IOR CS focal person and/or to the respective line manager. 

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Key skills and qualifications for the position:

Must criteria

• A proven track record of at least 3 to 5 years in media and communications, online fundraising, digital marketing - depending on the educational background 
• University degree in media, public relations, marketing, or any related field.
• Understanding for the specific position of Communications towards Fundraising
• Can identify with the vision, mission and values of SOS Children’s Villages 
• Ability to support in online fundraising campaigns in-house; awareness campaigns, hands-on creating and publishing campaign ads, setting up all relevant tracking tools, monitor and optimize online campaigns continuously in-house based on data analysis
• Fundraising approach - optimistic person; creative and result oriented; attitude of never-give-up and try-again  
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• The person must have technical knowledge for briefing web developers and defining requirements regarding development of website and online fundraising tools, such as campaign landing pages and online donation forms
• Working experience with image editing apps such as Adobe Photoshop Elements and video editing software such as Adobe Premiere Elements is a clear asset.

Competencies – knowledge, skills, abilities

• Experience in planning, executing and analysing awareness campaigns via mass marketing and direct marketing channels and tools 
• Excellent networking skills (mainly with professional field of journalists, mediaagencies, printing agencies)
• Self-motivated, determined, innovative, pro-active and with a “can do” mentality, i.e. ability to identify and take advantage of fundraising opportunities 
• Optimistic person; creative and result oriented; interdisciplinary thinking regarding individual and corporate fundraising; familiar with competitor monitoring; attitude of never-give-up and try-again.
• Good written and spoken English skills 
• Good MS Office commands (Word, Power Point, especially Access and Excel)  

Able to manage own time and to work under high pressure

Preferred Additional Criteria

• Good at relationship-building with different layers of the organization
• Able to work with or within a virtual team
• Feeling for design and layout
• Conveys written information in a well organized, accurate and concise manner that can be easily understood by others (e.g. target group)
• Good contacts to media and agencies (advertising, communication, telemarketing, direct marketing)

Interested candidates must send their Cover Letter including related job achievements, CV, and three traceable references to:

Recruitment@sos-palestine.org by Tuesday 12th of November 2024.

Indicating in the subject line: IG & Communications Officer

Only short listed candidates will be contacted. Applications after deadline will be excluded. Applications not conforming to the conditions will not be considered.

Certificate of Good Conduct/Police Clearance is mandatory to be submit in case of selection.