Vice-President, Public Engagement

About this position

The Canadian Women’s Foundation is Canada’s public foundation for women and girls. Women-centred, feminist, and national in scope, its vision is for a country where gender equity is realized for all women and girls. As one of the ten largest women’s foundations in the world, the Canadian Women’s Foundation has raised more than $90 million to fulfill its mission of being a catalyst for the most innovative programs, policies, and public engagement efforts that create transformative change in the lives of women and girls in Canada. As the Foundation continues to grow and evolve, it seeks the leadership of a Vice-President, Public Engagement, to help advance gender equity in Canada. Working closely with the Foundation’s Senior Leadership team, the Vice-President, Public Engagement, will contribute to building capacity of the non-profit sector to support women and girls and will provide strategic advice and direction to support the Foundation’s focus areas and strategic priorities.

Key responsibilities include:
The Vice-President, Public Engagement, is responsible for the development and implementation of the public engagement and awareness strategy for the Canadian Women’s Foundation. The key goals of this strategy are to increase public awareness of the Foundation, and the critical issues affecting women and girls in Canada; to position the Canadian Women’s Foundation as a thought-leader and go-to media source on gender equity; to amplify the voices of women and girls; to communicate our strategic priorities and the impact of our work; and to develop effective public engagement opportunities that inspire people to take action. In supporting the Foundation’s initiatives, the Vice-President, Public Engagement, will serve on the Senior Leadership team and, in addition to public engagement, will play a critical role in supporting the Foundation’s philanthropy, advocacy, and programming activities. This position will provide operational leadership for a team of six public engagement, communications and marketing professionals and oversee departmental planning, budgeting, and staffing.

Strategic planning:
• Oversees the development of Foundation public engagement strategies for campaigns, marketing, brand management, public relations, corporate partnerships, and online engagement
• Provides strategic support on donor relations and communications, advocacy, community initiatives, and sector capacity-building
• Plays a key role in implementing the strategic plan and provides direction on goal-setting and work planning
• Provides strategic advice and recommendations to the President and CEO and other members of the Senior Leadership team on public engagement priorities, approaches, risk management, and positioning
• Oversees departmental planning, staffing, impact measurement, and budgeting

Engagement & Collaboration:
• Provides oversight on all departmental and cross-departmental projects and initiatives
• Supports relationships with corporate and community partners/donors and works collaboratively and synergistically with Foundation colleagues to execute the strategic plan and to ensure that the department’s activities are appropriately aligned with the plan
• Acts as a Foundation spokesperson, in addition to identifying and preparing other Foundation spokespeople for media interviews and public engagement opportunities

Staffing/Human Resource Management:
• Provides leadership to three direct reports: Director, Marketing & Communications, Manager, PR & Online Engagement, and Senior Writer
• Oversees Public Engagement department of six, ensuring effective training, mentoring and professional development of staff

Relationship Management:
• Identifies, establishes, and maintains relationships that support the awareness and engagement mandate of the organization
• Recommends strategies to enhance cross-departmental collaboration internally
• Provides oversight of relevant partner, donor and vendor relationships, externally
• Manages key Foundation relationships and identifies within those, opportunities for public engagement

Qualifications/Knowledge:
The Canadian Women’s Foundation seeks a passionate and committed candidate with a strong record of accomplishment in public engagement, communications and marketing. A self-starter, the successful candidate will possess demonstrated experience in developing effective strategies to engage internal and external key stakeholders, in support of the Foundation’s key goal of advancing gender equity in Canada.

The candidate will bring strong strategic planning experience and a background in marketing, media relations, and internal communications. As a key member of the Senior Leadership team, the candidate will demonstrate strong strategic, advisory, analytical, and communications skills that support the Foundation’s areas of focus and strategic priorities. The ideal candidate is respected for their ability to engage in authentic and sincere ways. The Vice-President, Public Engagement, will be a natural champion of gender equity issues and will have a reputation for effectively collaborating to deliver results for maximum impact.

The ideal candidate possesses post-secondary education, preferably at the Master’s level, with a degree in business, marketing, communications, or equivalent relevant experience and education.

Experience:
The Foundation seeks a candidate with 10 to 15 years’ experience, ideally in the not-for-profit sector. The candidate should have a strong understanding of gender equity and diversity and the key issues affecting marginalized communities.

The candidate will possess expert knowledge and direct experience in public engagement, communications, media relations, marketing, relationship building, human resource management and team building. A background in developing and/or overseeing departmental and inter-departmental strategies is desired. The successful candidate will be an experienced leader with an effective approach to managing highly effective teams, overseeing planning and budgeting. You will possess exceptional presentation and communications skills and will model leading practices in public engagement.

We’re proud to offer a diverse, collaborative, and flexible work environment and strongly believe this approach enhances our work. The Canadian Women’s Foundation is committed to equity in employment and seeks to attract, select, and hire a diverse team with a high level of professional skills, passion for and belief in our vision and mission. Canadian Women’s Foundation is committed to offering a fair, competitive salary. In addition, a benefits package is provided which features health and dental coverage and retirement savings plan.

If you’re interested in making a difference in the lives of women and girls and want to contribute your knowledge, skills and experience to advancing our Foundation’s goals, we invite you to submit your resume, cover letter quoting reference #VPPE-002, and salary expectations to: humanresources@canadianwomens.org on or before January 10, 2019.

We thank all who have expressed interest in this position, but only those selected for an interview will be contacted.