Location: Office-based (currently Bethnal Green, likely to be Euston from Sept 2026) with some home working.
Salary/job band: £22,876 – annual pay rise pending in April (£39,216 FTE), NJC scales 23-25
Team: Fundraising & Communications
Contract type: Permanent
Hours: 21 hrs per week
Reports to: Stories & Impact Communications Manager
Purpose of role
To develop the communications output of QSA across all platforms, supporting delivery of the aims of QSA’s organisational and fundraising & communications strategies. To centre QSA’s communications work in an ethical storytelling approach.
Role overview
This role represents an opportunity to make a real difference to anti-poverty work at Quaker Social Action and in the UK more broadly. Communications are increasingly central to developing our impact at QSA, and our intention is to generate more high quality, moving content that showcases:
- The deep impact of the support provided by QSA to people living on a low income or experiencing homelessness. Our services are created to fill ‘niches’ – the support people tell us that they need and is not being provided elsewhere. We aim to help people find dignity, comfort, connection and peace.
- The support provided by 4in10, London’s child poverty network hosted by QSA, and the impact of its collective action.
- Our campaigning and research work – and the changes it can bring about in policy and practice, with the goal of reducing poverty and alleviating its effects.
You will be helping thousands of people to access QSA’s life-changing services; to find resonance and community in our communications; to support life-changing anti-poverty work; to get involved in campaigns that move the needle; and more.
At QSA our values guide us to deliver services with compassion and dignity, and they also guide us in our workplace. Our small team is mutually supportive, conscientious and deeply committed to the aims of our work.
This role will involve building relationships with an extremely broad range of people, with a very strong focus on the people who participate in our services. An ethical storytelling approach is at the heart of QSA’s communications. Putting this into practice will involve bringing stories forward in deep collaboration with storytellers; with empathy, integrity, authenticity, and a commitment to amplifying voices that can go unheard. We want people to feel in control of how their stories are shared, as much as we want people to be moved by content that engages and inspires.
The communications officer role also involves many of the ‘bread and butter’ tasks of an effective communications function: content production, analytics, social media management and so on. We are currently in the midst of a full-scale overhaul of the QSA website.
More important than coming with experience in every part of these duties, however, is a curiosity and enthusiasm to learn and take on healthy challenges (in which we aim to give you the support you need); as well as a flair for getting to the heart of the story – not only in the content itself, but also in understanding the bigger picture of our communications and our direction of travel together.
About Quaker Social Action (QSA)
Quaker Social Action’s mission is twofold. We enable people on low incomes to seek solutions to the issues affecting their lives. We listen and respond to the needs of communities and run practical, sustainable and collaborative projects.
Secondly, we share our learning where we see the potential to bring benefit to communities outside of our own – by running professional training, and by speaking truth to power to seek structural change.
Our services include crisis support for those unable to afford funerals; practical support for people experiencing homelessness, such as a mobile library and a community kitchen space; and free mindfulness and wellbeing programmes.
Learn more about our practical action against poverty >
QSA has a rich 150-year history with roots in the Quaker movement. Our work is still guided by Quaker values like Truth and Justice, and we value our place within the Quaker community. At the same time, there is nothing religious about our work: our services, jobs and volunteering roles are open to all.
“The advice and support was beyond beneficial. As a family we were just above the threshold for getting any financial support and at a very difficult time already, money worries was the last thing we needed.”
- Down to Earth funeral costs helpline caller. Above: Down to Earth service.
Duties & responsibilities
- To contribute to a plan and timetable for QSA’s communications work.
- To uphold clear protocols on how we gather and share stories and impact, to hold ourselves to the highest standards around ethics and wellbeing.
- To work in the community and across all QSA’s services, to get to know the people who access them, sensitively inviting people to share their stories or consent to photos.
- To compile and share ethical and compelling storytelling content across a range of media.
- To co-manage all of QSA’s communications platforms including social media (including community management), email marketing and website.
- To generate and publish regular digital communications and fundraising content (including video, audio and copy), across our owned and shared platforms, and printed materials.
- To pull together content into regular email briefings for QSA’s supporters and donors.
- To provide communications support to the wider QSA team.
- To engage with other QSA teams about website content, being responsible for adding in this content, liaising with our web agency as required.
- To follow a GEO-first approach to QSA’s web development, to promote growth in traffic and engagement.
- To actively drive growth and engagement across QSA’s social media, website and email marketing.
- To work within QSA brand guidelines to provide recognisable and reliable content, while also keeping content fresh and engaging.
- To work with third party suppliers or freelancers as required, eg. for graphic design or other communications assets.
- To undertake event marketing of QSA’s fundraising events.
- To track analytics to evaluate the impact of the content we produce and promote across all our platforms.
- To plan and create content for individual giving campaigns and digital fundraising.
- To maintain an up-to-date awareness of best and emerging practice in non-profit communications, and to share new ideas for growth.
- To work within, and actively promote, the policies and procedures of QSA.
- Any other duties, as appropriate to the role, as agreed by the QSA director.
“I feel the service from these marvellous book fans and their very committed, caring staff are an essential…I use them twice a week every week. Please may they continue.”
- Anonymous Turn a Corner library visitor. above: Turn a Corner library van for people experiencing homelessness.
Person specification
Experience
- Experience of working for or volunteering for a charity, especially if UK-based and community focussed, is highly desirable.
- Experience of communications work, in a paid or voluntary capacity, is highly desirable.
Ability
- Excellent people-facing skills, able to confidently build rapport with people, and sensitively approach difficult topics.
- Ability to build collaborative working relationships across a wide range of people, including team members, colleagues, and QSA donors.
- Ability to confidently produce and share content online, such as stories, images, videos.
- Ability to produce engaging content for social media platforms, email marketing and web.
- Ability to track and understand digital marketing analytics.
- Ability to be flexible and adapt and respond to new challenges/opportunities while maintaining attention to detail.
Knowledge
- Knowledge of social media platforms and their different audiences, and how to tailor content appropriate to each.
- Knowledge of poverty on families, households and communities in the UK and an understanding of/empathy for the impact of living on a low income.
Other
- Curiosity and enthusiasm for digital and offline communications.
- Commitment to and understanding of equity, diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
- A willingness to work within a Quaker ethos, as per the mission of QSA.
The recruitment process
Our intention is to be clear and transparent in the recruitment process. We want to be respectful of your time and are aware that applying for roles can be time-consuming.
By 10am on Tuesday 14 April, we’d like you to send to info@qsa.org.uk:
- Your CV, highlighting the areas of your experience pertinent to this role.
- Your supporting statement, explaining why you want this role and your match to the experience, skills and values we’re looking for.
- We also invite you to complete our online equity and diversity monitoring form.
Your application will be acknowledged, and we will let you know if you’ve been shortlisted or not.
We will meet shortlisted candidates for interviews on Thursday 30 April at our office in Bethnal Green. To mitigate some of the stresses of interviews, we will send you the biographies of the people you’d meet and the interview questions in advance.
We’re hoping to be able to make decisions that day and make a job offer. However, we may not be able to do this if we want to speak again with a couple of candidates.
Being a diverse and inclusive organisation is very important to us. We’re particularly focused on three elements of this: lived experience of poverty; race & heritage; and disability. We actively encourage applications from candidates of diverse cultures, perspectives, and lived experiences.
We hope you find this job pack and our recruitment process clear and welcoming. Please let us know if this is not the case, at info@qsa.org.uk. We want to do recruitment well and feedback really helps.
Main terms and conditions of employment
- QSA uses the local government pay scales for salaries. Your salary will be on NJC scale point 23-25, which starts at £39,216 (including London weighting) for a full-time/36 hours post and £22,876 for this role. All appointments are made at bottom of scale.
- This is a permanent position.
- This is a part time post of 21 hours, to be worked over 3 days per week, ideally Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to coincide with colleagues, but we can discuss other options if flexibility is needed.
- Leave entitlement for a full-time post is 25 days per year, plus 8 bank holidays, with the leave year running from January to December. This increases by 2 days after 3 years of service and a further 3 days after 5 years of service. QSA closes between Christmas and New Year and days falling within this period are not taken from your leave entitlement.
- QSA pays an additional 6% of salary into the QSA group personal pension, with a 2% staff contributory element.
- We have probationary periods of six months, and the period of notice is 1 week during the probationary period and four weeks on its completion.
- QSA has a union recognition agreement with Unite although staff are welcome to join any trade union or none.
- This is a hybrid role. We see the benefits of being in the office with colleagues on a regular basis, and consider 2 days per week in person to be ideal for this role. Please note our current office is in Bethnal Green, but relocation to Euston is likely in September.
- The successful candidate will be required to obtain a basic DBS check. The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act applies.
Thanks again for your interest in this role.
“It was what I was looking for. The way they deliver the sessions makes it feel inclusive and non-judgemental. Participating online, the energy felt tranquil.”
- Audrey, online attendee of our This Way Up mindfulness and coaching course
