Head of Volunteering

At Bookmark, we have a simple vision: we want every child to read. As the Head of Volunteering, you will be accountable for the strategy of recruitment, retention, and engagement of volunteers to Bookmark's programme(s). You will grow our base of exceptional, committed volunteers from 2,000 to 4,000 by July 2027. This role would suit a driven, proactive leader with talent acquisition, volume recruitment, membership attraction and engagement, or customer service operations. The candidate will be seeking to make a real impact and deliver a tangible difference in a growing organisation. You will already have 3+ years' experience in a relevant commercial role, as well as a proven track record of leading a team to meet ambitious KPI targets.

The role is a catalyst to support high growth and impact, increase capacity, and enable velocity. To lead and deliver our talent acquisition strategy, build our operational capacity, and work closely with our community as well as to attract and support an exceptional pool of volunteers.

The successful candidate will benefit from a solid operational base to develop an existing pool of 2,000 motivated volunteers. We are now looking to build on these foundations and build talent acquisition, operational and community support, building scalability within the organisation. By doing this, we will be able to support more children learn to read - genuine social impact.

Outcomes and Responsibilities

• Growing and nurturing our volunteer community, increasing our base from 2,000 to 4,000 by July 2027.
• Implementation of a three-year strategy that recruits and retains active volunteers, meeting our ambitious targets so that Bookmark can support more children.
• Accountable for the development and maintenance of a comprehensive working database of volunteers that records key data and agreed performance metrics. Using this database to drive intelligence for volunteer personas, which informs our attraction and retention approach.
• Lead and drive activity - with the support of the Volunteer Management Team and Marketing Team - to create a focused recruitment plan for each academic year to meet our in-year targets, identifying growth opportunities.
• Own and shape the volunteer journey, using analytics to understand and improve this journey.
• To be accountable for the development and management of key strategic relationships e.g. Learning Management Systems, volunteering organisations such as Duke of Edinburgh.
• To work in collaboration with the Marketing team to ensure that volunteer attraction campaigns are delivered on time, to brand standard and meet the charity's ROI objective.
• Responsible for setting and meeting operational targets, revenue reporting, and forecasting for the volunteer pipeline.

General Responsibilities

• Proactively identify opportunities to improve Bookmark's processes across the volunteer area ensuring we can meet our targets on recruitment, engagement, and retention.
• Accountable for setting and delivering key performance indicators relating to volunteer growth, onboarding, satisfaction, and retention.
• To identify and lead on collaborations and partnerships with other organisations that align with our vision and values to support more children and support us to achieve our aims.
• Ensure accurate and up-to-date information on our systems, including Salesforce CRM and SharePoint.
• Line manage Bookmark's Volunteer Management Team, ensuring clear objectives are set and that the team is motivated, engaged, supported, and developed to achieve their objectives.
• Work closely with the Head of School Delivery and Chief Finance & Operations Officer to ensure the charity has a sufficient supply of volunteers to meet our partner school needs.

Person Specification

• Experienced people manager with a background in talent acquisition, volume recruitment, membership attraction, and engagement or customer service operations.
• Able to lead and motivate a team whilst strengthening our operational capacity.
• Commercially astute, technically strong, hands-on, dynamic, insightful, and an influential leader with the ability to operate at both strategic and operational levels.
• Experience of building and managing high-performing, target-driven teams. Creating KPIs that move our services forward while balancing the needs of the organisation. Lead by example.
• Creative thinker - using technology and AI to enhance volunteer acquisition, engagement, and retention.
• Robust understanding of using data to drive talent acquisition and engagement. The candidate needs to be able to demonstrate skills to develop and use CRM platforms to deliver business intelligence and insights and be able to develop our target operating models.
• Proficient in pipeline management and conversion.
• Proficient in understanding and developing process maps and highly skilled in delivering continuous improvement programmes.
• Superb organisational and interpersonal skills with the ability to develop and nurture open, positive and collaborative relationships across our key stakeholders.
• Flexible, adaptable, tenacious, and enjoys working in a fast-paced growth environment.
• Structured problem-solving approach with excellent attention to detail.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office suite (particularly Word, PowerPoint, and Excel).
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, including strong presentational skills.
• Passionate about our vision and mission.
• Willingness and suitability to work with children and young adults.

Contract type: Permanent
Salary: £60,000 dependent on experience
Reporting to: Chief Executive Officer
Location: Hybrid with a minimum of two days in the office. Bookmark Reading Charity, Charles House, 5-11 Regent Street, Saint James's, London SW1Y 4LR.
Hours: 37.5 hours (Monday to Friday)
Deadline: 13 January 2025, 11:59pm

How to apply: Please complete and upload the application form via Breathe HR portal. Your application will be rejected without a completed application form (Please see vacancy documents at the bottom to download the form)
OR
Application form (please open in word):

PLEASE DO NOT UPLOAD A CV OR A COVER LETTER AS THESE ARE NOT ACCEPTED.

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Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Pay: £60,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Additional leave
• Casual dress
• Company events
• Company pension
• Employee mentoring programme
• Free fitness classes
• Health & wellbeing programme
• Sabbatical
• Store discount
• Work from home

Schedule:

• Monday to Friday

Work Location: Hybrid remote in London SW1Y 4LR