Head of Membership and Marketing

Association of Charitable Foundations

Hours
35 hours per week

About the Organisation

Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF) is the leading membership association for foundations and independent grant-makers in the UK. Foundations are a vital source for social good. They excel at getting money to where it is needed, being nimble in a crisis, funding overlooked causes, backing brilliant ideas, and taking risks for long-term impact.

Our 430 members collectively hold around £75bn in assets and give over £4.4bn annually to a wide range of charities, institutions, and individuals. Our members are at the heart of our work. We organise a wide-ranging programme of events and learning, provide research and information, and advocate for an enabling environment for foundations.

• Vision: diverse, vibrant, and effective foundations, working together for social good
• Purpose: we strengthen trusts and foundations so they can rise to the challenges of our times
• Values: we care, we are open, we are evidence-based, we are ambitious

About the role

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, you will lead ACF’s membership and marketing function. You will shape how members experience ACF throughout their membership, from joining and onboarding to engagement and renewal, while strengthening recruitment, retention and the visibility of ACF’s offer. You will bring together member insight, marketing activity, brand and CRM. Working across the organisation, you will help colleagues build strong member relationships and use evidence to improve services, communications and decisions. This is a strategic role with a practical focus: you will develop approaches and see them through.

To lead ACF's membership and marketing function, developing and delivering strategies that strengthen member engagement, increase member retention and recruitment, and enhance ACF's reputation and value proposition. The role will ensure members receive an excellent experience throughout the membership lifecycle and that organisational decisions are informed by robust member insight and data. Responsible for ensuring that ACF builds effective and lasting relationships with members.

You will make our members feel valued, with a segmented approach to relationship management that ensures members recognise ACF as responsive to their needs and delivers value for money on their membership fee. This is a strategic role combining high-level thinking with a strong focus on execution. requiring someone who can both come up with ideas and carry them out, working in collaboration with others from across ACF.

Responsibilities

Stewarding Member Relationships:

• Overseeing all membership interactions and leading our member engagement, stewardship, recruitment, and retention.
• Lead a coordinated approach to member stewardship across ACF, acting as the senior relationship lead for key members while enabling and supporting colleagues to build meaningful relationships with members through a structured account management approach.
• In collaboration with colleagues, create segmented engagement strategies that deliver personalised member experiences throughout the membership lifecycle, from onboarding to renewal and long-term retention.
• Ensure ACF's events programme and opportunities to meet in person with members are used strategically to strengthen member relationships, generate engagement opportunities and support recruitment and retention, coordinating targeted marketing and follow-up activity across the organisation.
• Provide direction as the key point of reference for member queries or complaints about our offer and services, providing information and responding to members directly as appropriate in a timely, helpful and professional manner

Marketing Strategy and Execution:

• Lead the development and delivery of ACF’s membership marketing strategy, ensuring it supports organisational priorities and the evolving needs of current and prospective members.
• Lead delivery of membership recruitment, retention, engagement and subscription income targets, developing strategies that maintain ACF’s strong member satisfaction while supporting sustainable organisational growth.
• Design and execute marketing approaches that showcase the member offer and value proposition to existing members, driving awareness and use of relevant services, as well as new and existing member benefits that drive utilisation, perceived value, satisfaction and renewal rates across membership.
• Ensure that communication of our member offer includes the expertise and support offered by our commercial partners and meets the requirements of our partnership agreements.
• Identify and cultivate prospective member foundations and trusts with the greatest strategic fit and potential long-term value to ACF.
• Lead the co-ordination of ACF’s engagement with external funder networks, building relationships and promoting ACF’s products, services and membership to deliver value to their members. 

Managing the full member Lifecycle:

• Lead, manage and develop member journeys/life cycles, taking a segmented approach and including retention and acquisition activities to meet organisational strategic and commercial needs
• Lead our annual subscription renewal cycle, in collaboration with the head of finance and operations
• Assess membership applications against ACF’s criteria, where necessary seeking advice from ACF’s trustees
• Administer the outcome of the application process, ensuring that new members are set up with everything they need for a successful membership.
• Work with the membership and operations officer to ensure that ACF’s membership records are kept up to date.

Member Insight, Data and Innovation:

• Provide strategic leadership for ACF's CRM as the principal tool for managing member relationships and insight. Set priorities for CRM development, reporting and data utilisation, working with the Senior Digital and Data Manager to ensure systems and processes support membership growth, retention and engagement goals.
• Establish marketing analytics frameworks to measure effectiveness of marketing strategies, member behaviour, and ROI, using insights to optimise approaches and demonstrate value.
• Produce regular reporting and analysis on membership trends, engagement, recruitment, retention and member satisfaction for the Executive Leadership Team and Board.
• Ensure detailed analysis of membership profiles and trends are available, and that ‘intelligence’ on member attitudes and views about the association overall are regularly obtained, analysed and up to date to reflect and direct member engagement strategy, workplans and the association’s wider strategic plan.
• Stay informed about emerging trends, technologies and best practice across the membership, charity and association sectors, using sound judgement to identify scalable, cost-effective approaches that strengthen member engagement and
• organisational effectiveness within ACF's resources and operating context.
• Lead the development and implementation of regular member surveys and a range of member satisfaction and loyalty measures, including Net Promoter Score (or equivalent metrics), to assess member needs, engagement and experience, ensuring member feedback is systematically collected and analysed to generate actionable insights, inform membership strategy and drive continuous improvement across ACF.
• Conduct regular competitor analysis, keeping under review what new and established competitors offer, and consider new opportunities to work in partnership with external bodies to the benefit of members.
• Conduct market research on new segments and categories of membership
• Ensure detailed analysis of membership profiles and trends are available, and that member insight and intelligence in all forms is captured and used to provide quantifiable evidence and analysis to reflect and direct ACF’s membership strategy, engagement activity, workplans and inform ACF’s wider strategy.

Brand, Culture and Collaboration:

• Manage ACF’s brand identity, ensuring consistent messaging across all marketing touchpoints and elevating ACF’s visibility among target audiences and stakeholders.
• Working in close partnership with the Head of Policy and Communications, lead membership marketing and member engagement activities, while ensuring alignment with ACF's wider communications strategy.
• Build strong cross-functional relationships to influence marketing priorities and ensure alignment between strategic marketing initiatives and ACF’s wider goals.
• Champion a member-focused culture across ACF, ensuring member insight and evidence are embedded in organisational decision-making, service design and strategic planning.

Internally:

• Head of policy and communications
• Membership and operations officer
• Senior digital and data manager
• Head of finance and operations
• Head of practice and learning
• Head of investment practice and partnerships
• Senior events manager
• Executive Leadership Team

Externally:

• ACF members
• Potential ACF members
• Key stakeholders and partners
• Other membership bodies
• Official Partners and other commercial supporters

Health & Safety:

• Ensure that health and safety guidelines and fire regulations are strictly adhered to
• Comply with safe working practices as defined by ACF
• Complete mandatory training as and when required
• Take reasonable care for your own health and safety and that of others who may be affected by acts or omissions at work
• Report any accidents, incidents or near misses as soon as reasonably practicable

General:

• Be aware of and adhere to ACF’s policies at all times
• Commitment to follow and implement ACF diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) values
• Take part in progress/performance reviews throughout the year
• Cooperate with other departments
• Attend training courses and complete online training modules as required to meet the requirements of the post
• Take responsibility for own personal development, seeking out opportunities to learn new skills
• Undertake any other duties as requested by the chief executive, chief operating officer or executive leadership team which are reasonably deemed to be within the scope of the role

Other:

• Apply ACF’s values and behaviours to every aspect of the role at all times
• Promote and maintain the brand standards of ACF

Skills, Competencies, Experience & Attributes

Experience:

• Significant experience of membership marketing, including within a strategic marketing role.
• Hands-on experience managing multichannel marketing campaigns from concept to execution, including digital marketing, email marketing and evaluation analytics.
• Leading membership growth, retention and engagement strategies that improve renewal rates and members' satisfaction.
• Using data and insight to inform strategic decisions.
• Building senior stakeholder relationships
• Influencing organisational strategy

Knowledge:

• Understand customer or member lifecycle marketing, including onboarding, engagement, retention and renewal strategies
• Strong knowledge of digital marketing channels, tactics and best practices across email, social media, content marketing and paid advertising
• Significant experience in using CRM to support data analysis and member strategy
• Understanding of marketing analytics and measurement frameworks to assess strategic performance and inform strategic decisions

Skills:

• Exceptional communication and presentation skills
• Skilled networker with the ability to build relationships, collaborate effectively, and build credibility with members and potential members
• Strategic thinking with the ability to translate organisational objectives into actionable marketing plans
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret data, draw insights, and make data-driven recommendations

Personal Attributes:

• Self-motivated with excellent project management skills and the ability to manage multiple initiatives simultaneously.
• Self-starter who can work autonomously and take initiative without requiring close supervision
• Able to balance strong attention to detail and effective administrative management with strategic thinking.
• Collaborative team player who thrives on building relationships and working across organisational boundaries
• Adaptable and resourceful, able to find creative solutions when working with limited resources or competing priorities

Additional Requirements:

• Ability to travel occasionally within the UK

Desirable:

• Professional qualification or certification in communications, marketing, or a related field
• Experience working collaboratively across departments and influencing stakeholders without direct authority to achieve shared goals.
• Managing marketing budgets and supplier relationships. 
• Knowledge of UK charitable trusts and foundations
• Knowledge of data segmentation, personalisation techniques and customer/ member journey mapping
• Proficiency with specific marketing technology platforms including
• CRM systems, marketing automation tools and analytics software
• Intellectually curious with a passion for understanding member needs
• Strong motivation to stay current with marketing and membership trends and best practices
• Results-oriented with a commitment to continuous improvement and data-driven decision-making
• Diplomatic and persuasive, able to build consensus and influence without direct authority.

Compensation & Benefits

• Annual Leave: The Association's holiday year is the calendar year. Full-time employees are entitled to 25 working days' holiday with pay in each full holiday year, plus public holidays. Part-time employees have pro-rated entitlement depending on the days and hours they work. Employees are allowed additional paid holiday on any weekdays that are not public holidays between 27 and 31 December (inclusive), on 24 December when it falls on a Monday, and on 2 January when it falls on a Friday.
• Subsidised café: Our modern offices in the Nest58 co-working space include access to a subsidised café offering breakfast and lunch at a very reasonable price every day of the week
• Pension: ACF uses Aviva as its pension provider and will contribute 10% of your salary into your pension. No employee contributions will be deducted from salaries, but employees may choose to make additional contributions if they wish.
• Flu vaccination vouchers: ACF offers free flu vaccination vouchers to staff. This will take the form of an e-voucher that you can use at your nearest participating Superdrug outlet.
• Eye tests: All staff are entitled to a free eye test and a contribution towards the cost of glasses for computer use for Specsavers
• Tickets for Good: Tickets for Good are an organisation that provides free and discounted tickets for a wide range of events (theatre, concerts, comedy, visitor attractions) to charity staff, NHS workers and teachers. As an ACF employee, you are entitled to register with them.
• EAP (Employee Assistance Programme): All staff have access to our employee assistance programme provided by BHSF; includes counselling, legal and financial advice and support. They also provide lots of online health and wellbeing resources

Conditions of employment

• You must have the right to work in the UK

Working locations

• Hybrid model, working in the London office and remotely

How to apply

• Apply online
• Should you like to have an informal conversation, you can email your advisor consultant at Peridot Partners: Polly Mortimer at [email protected] or James Hunt at [email protected]

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