site stats

Role description

Job title: Marketing & Income Generation Director
Reports to: Chief Executive Officer
Department: Marketing & Income Generation/Senior Leadership team
Directorate: Marketing & Income Generation
Pay Band: Individual

 

About the role

  • As a key member of the Senior Leadership Team, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future direction of the charity. As Marketing & Income Generation Director, you will lead the development and execution of a bold, integrated strategy that drives income growth, deepens customer understanding and engagement, and strengthens the Cats Protection brand. Your leadership will ensure that awareness, reach, and revenue are maximised to deliver the organisation’s long-term ambitions, securing significant and sustainable growth across income streams, brand equity, and customer experience
  • You will have strategic accountability for all fundraising, brand and marketing, digital communications, retail operations, and customer experience functions within the Marketing and Income Generation Directorate. Through visionary leadership and cross-functional collaboration, you will ensure these teams deliver cohesive, insight-driven programmes that elevate our profile, activate supporter loyalty, and unlock new commercial opportunities
  • Your direction will be instrumental in realising our ambition to be a charity powered by customer insight ensuring that our influence, communications, and engagement strategies are targeted, evidence-led, and optimised for impact
  • As a senior leader and Senior Leadership Team member, you will champion organisation-wide strategic thinking, role-model collaborative leadership, and foster a culture that embodies “we work as one,” ensuring alignment, shared accountability, and collective success

Key responsibilities

Strategy and Change

  • Provide visionary leadership to deliver the 10-year organisational strategy, championing innovation, continuous improvement and cultural transformation
  • Develop and embed a compelling, multi-channel UK Marketing & Income Generation strategy that unites the organisation behind a customer-driven approach and strengthens Cats Protection market position
  • Ensure all functions deliver aligned strategic and operational plans with clear outcomes, performance measures and accountability
  • Lead a cycle of strategic performance review, ensuring resources and activity are prioritised for maximum impact, and risks and opportunities are proactively managed
  • Build a high-performing, inclusive directorate with shared goals, strong collaboration and an adaptive mindset that thrives through change
  • Develop a unified organisational understanding of Cats Protection audiences, enabling more targeted communication and supporting cat welfare and advocacy goals
  • Work with the Advocacy & Influence Director to reposition Cats Protection’s role, visibility and influence across the UK animal welfare landscape
  • Lead clear, outcome-focused objective setting, evaluation and reporting across all Marketing & Income Generation activities

Mass Fundraising, High Value Fundraising, Retail and Ecommerce

  • Provide strategic oversight of the full fundraising portfolio, ensuring diversification, innovation and sustainable long-term income growth
  • Deliver strategies to grow Cats Protection’s reach across wider public audiences and improve market penetration
  • Continually evolve the Income Generation Strategy in response to sector trends, economic conditions and supporter behaviour
  • Maximise long-term net income through a balanced funding mix and evidence-driven investment choices
  • Foster long-term strategic partnerships (£100k+) that advance Cats Protection’s brand, influence and income
  • Scale community and mass-participation fundraising, strengthening both digital and local presence
  • Lead a distinctive legacy strategy that leverages Cats Protection’s niche and delivers exceptional supporter stewardship
  • Set clear evaluation frameworks to support learning, accountability and strategic decision-making
  • Guide the retail estate’s strategic direction to maximise social impact, customer lifetime value and community presence
  • Expand ecommerce capabilities to future-proof income against retail volatility and capture online growth

Brand and Digital Marketing

  • Strengthen brand insight and performance measurement to drive awareness, reputation and supporter action
  • Lead development of a modern, engaging brand that resonates with supporters, partners, employees and volunteers
  • Ensure Cats Protection’s purpose, mission and values are embedded across all brand and communication activity, deepening trust and credibility
  • Deliver an integrated marketing approach so the public experience a unified and compelling Cats Protections’ narrative, voice and tone
  • Lead the brand redevelopment (visual identity, tone of voice, architecture) to reflect strategic priorities and future ambition
  • Ensure consistent, organisation-wide adoption of Cats Protection brand standards

Marketing & Income Generation Operations – Customer & Supporter Experience, Data, Digital, Compliance and Governance

  • Lead the customer and supporter experience strategy, embedding customer-centric design across Cats Protection’s operations and culture
  • Drive the creation of a Single Customer View and customer relationship management capability that powers deeper engagement and lifetime value
  • Oversee high-quality, compliant data management, insight and analytics to support strategic decisions
  • Champion digital innovation and data-driven journey design to improve supporter and customer experiences
  • Strengthen and expand the central customer contact and experience centre, ensuring excellence in frontline services and helping embed a customer-first ethos organisation-wide

Finance, Governance, Risk and Resource Management

  • Lead a robust, transparent Directorate budget aligned to strategic priorities and long-term financial sustainability
  • Ensure effective resource planning, performance management and delivery against targets
  • Maintain strong risk management, compliance and ethical governance across all activities and external partners
  • Protect Cats Protection’s reputation through responsible oversight, rigorous standards and proactive issue management
  • Ensure our customer data and governance is robust, reporting issues and concerns as arise and to the Fundraising Regulator and or Charity commission as appropriate

People Leadership

  • Champion the experience, value and involvement of volunteers across all strategic activity
  • Lead, coach and develop the Directorate leadership team to deliver excellence, empowerment and accountability
  • Foster an inclusive, purpose-driven culture where all employees and volunteers feel connected to Cats Protection’s mission and impact
  • Promote cross-organisational collaboration to strengthen a “one charity” culture
  • Attract, retain and motivate talent by creating an environment that encourages innovation, teamwork and professional growth
  • Role-model strategic thinking, constructive risk-taking and strong organisational behaviour, setting clear expectations for the directorate

Stakeholder Relations

  • Act as a visible, inspiring ambassador for Cats Protection across the charity, corporate and animal welfare sectors
  • Represent the charity to external audiences, strengthening Cats Protection’s profile, influence and brand
  • Ensure Cats Protection is recognised as a sector-leading voice by driving strong reputation and advocacy strategies
  • Build productive relationships with key stakeholders, funders, partners and decision-makers
  • Work collaboratively with Senior Leadership Team and the Board to align strategy, business planning and financial stewardship, and to manage major risks and crises effectively
  • Ensure strong engagement of Cats Protection Senior Management Team in Directorate plans and cross-organisational dependencies

Other and Ad-hoc

  • Ensure compliance with all Cats Protection’s policies, legislative requirements and sector best practice
  • Uphold Cats Protection’s commitment to safeguarding and the protection of children and adults at risk
  • Undertake additional duties as reasonably required

Role dimensions

People accountability

Direct reports: Six

Team size: Associate Director of Brand & Marketing, Associate Director of Individual Giving & Legacies, Associate Director of Community & Retail, Associate Director of Customer, Head of Philanthropy & Partnerships, Head of Strategy, Knowledge & Product Development.

Volunteers: This role requires an understanding of Cats Protection volunteering strategy and will promote the volunteering partnership to promote inclusion, togetherness, celebration, and involvement. Specifically, it will create an environment where the views and experience of our circa 8,000 volunteers is valued and encouraged, leading to co- creation and a broadening of our knowledge and expertise.

Financial accountability

Budget: Gross income for 2026 is £104m, with £40m expenditure
Direct/Indirect/Shared accountability: Direct accountability

Values and behaviours

Our shared values act as a guiding compass to shape our behaviour and the decisions we make at work. They are a call to action for every one of us and the benchmark against which we measure ourselves, both current and future colleagues.

Through our values and behaviours we help people see the world through cats’ eyes. Together we can make a difference.

Safeguarding

At Cats Protection, we are dedicated to safeguarding both children and vulnerable adults, ensuring the safety of everyone who interacts with us. We expect all our employees and volunteers to share this commitment. For certain roles, a Criminal Record Check through the Disclosure and Barring Service, Disclosure Scotland, or Access NI may be required before an offer of employment is made.

This role will not require a Criminal Record Check.