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About Climate Catalyst

Climate Catalyst is a new international organisation seeking to make a distinct and important contribution to tackling climate change — the greatest challenge facing humanity.  

Their analysis to overcome this challenge is to generate the political and societal will to take the specific actions needed to rapidly reduce emissions from different sectors. While an incredible array of organisations is building pressure to achieve this and winning many battles, Climate Catalyst believes it is necessary to deepen the trust and collaboration among these organisations and to expand this community in order to accelerate progress and increase collective impact. Their aim is to make a significant contribution to these efforts.

As a strategic convenor, Climate Catalyst will bring together civil society, business and new champions for climate action. They will enable high-impact international and national coalitions to secure decisive action by governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — likely focusing on two to four issues annually. 

In addition to convening campaigns, Climate Catalyst also aims to deliver wider and lasting benefits to the climate struggle, by enhancing connections and learning on how to achieve shared goals among a diverse network of allies including the private sector. 

The organisation will be governed by a small Advisory Board of individuals playing leadership roles in the climate community, and personally committed to enhancing collaboration. A Strategic Council of senior figures from a wide range of organisations will also be established.

Climate Catalyst is currently housed by fiscal sponsor Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, who are responsible for issuing contracts. 

Their starting point is a commitment to practice four core values:

1. Courage: being highly ambitious for the desired impact, and determined about being open-minded and innovative in the development of strategies to achieve this.
2. Collaboration: working with others in all activities.
3. Diversity: reflecting diversity, scale and complexity of the climate struggle in recruitment, geography, and external relationships.
4. Learning: listening and learning from leaders driving change on climate, and actively learning from own experience.

About the Role

The Head of Campaign Networks understands the power of networks and knows how to create, nurture and expand networks on behalf of an organisation. The Head of Campaign Networks will develop the culture, systems and processes to enable the Climate Catalyst team to be a trustworthy, reliable and inspiring collaboration partner. They will support staff across the organisation to connect with partners and allies on possible campaigns and maintain overall responsibility for tracking and leveraging these networking activities.

This is a new organisation, highly ambitious but also determined to learn and adapt as Climate Catalyst move forward. The Head of Campaign Networks will play a key role in this process and shaping the organisation. The nature of the role will evolve as Climate Catalyst grows. 

The Head of Campaign Networks will report to the Director of International Campaigns.

Purpose of the Role

The core purpose of this role is to establish and maintain the strong networks of trust with the diverse range of partners and allies that Climate Catalyst needs in order to develop and deliver high-impact coalition campaigns.

The Head of Campaign Networks will work with the network to create a pipeline of strong campaign options to be considered for implementation, ensuring that the processes of ideation, exploration and decision-making are effective, efficient and transparent. These options will be identified and assessed by reference to a set of clear campaign criteria. These will be refined by the postholder, and the Director of International Campaigns.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead the development of a strategy for the identification of high impact campaign convening opportunities, and put this into practice, adapting this as needed. 
• Provide support and guidance to all Climate Catalyst staff, to ensure the whole organisation is open to ideas for significant campaign convening opportunities.
• Build personal relationships with a strong network of allies in civil society, the private sector and elsewhere, and support other Climate Catalyst staff to do the same, in order to identify potential campaign opportunities.
• Make recommendations to the Director of International Campaigns in relation to potential campaigns.
• Lead the collaborative development of campaign strategies, for some short-listed campaigns. 
• Recommend changes to campaign criteria, as needed.
• Using the strong relationships created with a wide network of allies, continually scan for and be alert to rapid response campaign opportunities.

Skills and Experience

Essential

Experience

• At least five years’ experience developing and implementing successful campaign strategies, including from the inception stage
• At least five years strategising and campaigning at regional or international level
• Demonstrates understanding of how to build high trust networks at organisational as well as personal level

Competencies

• Collaborative and inclusive leadership
• Strong interpersonal skills, ability to inspire and keep trustful relationships with a diverse range of counterparts 
• Strategic thinking and acting
• Desire and ability to engage people and organisations with access and power
• Pays equal attention to relationship/ network-building and campaign strategy and delivery–knowing how to manage tensions between the two
• Open, transparent and generous
• Strong people-management skills, including self-awareness and ability to delegate.
• Strong communication skills and a high level of fluency in written and spoken English

Qualifications

• Bringing a deep and wide existing network in the climate field.
• Demonstrable commitment to the Climate Catalyst values of courage, collaboration, diversity and learning
• Willing and able to travel internationally, should this be necessary and possible

Desirable

• Fluency in a second language, other than English 

Diversity is a matter of principle for Climate Catalyst. It is also critical to their long-term success. Climate Catalyst aims to recruit leaders with different experiences, networks and perspectives, to help design strategies that can be highly effective in many different national contexts and with different stakeholders.