Head of Consumer Marketing and Fundraising

The South African Guide-Dogs Association for the Blind provides services to enhance the lives of visually and physically impaired individuals, and children with autism.

Based in Johannesburg, the Guide Dogs Association seeks to appoint a

HEAD OF CONSUMER MARKETING AND FUNDRAISING

The incumbent will be responsible for developing and executing GDA’s National marketing and fundraising strategy, plans and income growth, and raising the profile of SA Guide-Dogs Association amongst key external audiences. He/she will need strong, inspirational leadership skills to manage and motivate the marketing and call centre teams to deliver activities and campaigns, to increase brand awareness and deliver fundraising goals.

The Head of Consumer Marketing and Fundraising will be responsible for the following duties:

- Overseeing all areas of the Consumer Marketing and Fundraising Department. This includes digital marketing, direct marketing, print marketing, media marketing, social media marketing, market research and call centre performance analysis and optimisation.
- Designing the marketing and fundraising strategy to drive the business forward.
- Determining, and overseeing the management of, marketing and call centre budgets and KPIs.
- Overseeing the development of all marketing and call centre plans, ensuring the implementation of effective programmes that drive engagement and raise funds.
- Identifying new fundraising opportunities and providing actionable plans to the marketing and call centre teams, ensuring the continuous improvement of GDA’s marketing and fundraising efforts.
- Analysing overall execution and performance of marketing and call centre plans and financials.
- Co-editing the GDA biannual magazine, Friend and Harness, and writing the monthly newsletter.
- Giving advice and direction where needed on work priorities, budgets, and resources.
- Providing professional advice to support Managers with any challenges.
- Providing support and development opportunities to the marketing and call centre teams. Increasing their knowledge and sharing best practices.
- Providing strong leadership to the team and demonstrating GDA’s values.
- Building strong relationships with Managers in other departments within GDA.
- Maintaining and enhancing relationships with strategic partners, and growing the partner base.
- Promoting a culture of high-performance with a focus on successful outcomes.
- Taking responsibility for ensuring the Association complies with current marketing and copyright regulations as well as accepted professional standards, policies, procedures, and legislation.

The Head of Consumer Marketing and Fundraising must meet the following criteria:

- Minimum 8 years’ experience in a marketing role.
- Minimum 5 years’ experience in a management role.
- Excellent knowledge of all aspects of marketing. E.g., digital marketing, content marketing, copywriting, print marketing, multi-media campaigns, social media marketing, direct marketing, brand, and reputation management.
- High-level experience in leading strategic marketing programmes.
- A proven track record in driving multi-channel marketing programmes.
- Proven project management success.
- Adept at creating new, innovative marketing approaches to maintain brand awareness, consumer/donor loyalty and actively raise funds in a changing environment.
- Fluent level of both spoken and written English.
- The ability to develop strong relationships with other departments within the company, and with external partners in a variety of disciplines to build a trusted talent pool for use on projects as required.
- Comfortable interacting with dogs including, but not limited to, looking after dogs in office, taking a dog to talks, schools, events, film/photo shoots etc.

Must be legally eligible to work full time in South Africa and work full-time in office.