CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST
Deadline: 5pm, Monday 3 August 2026
Contract: August - mid October 2026 (freelance/consultancy, c.18- 20 days) Reporting to: Helen Meech, Executive Director Location: Remote/UK-wide, with in-person attendance required at the August development workshop, the conference on 17 September, and the CEO sign-off on 12–13 October (travel expenses reimbursed by agreement)
About The Climate Coalition
The Climate Coalition (TCC) is the UK's largest civil society coalition on climate and nature. Our 130+ member organisations, from faith and health groups to nature, development and community organisations, together represent around 20 million supporters. Our flagship campaign, Great Big Green Week, reached 1.6 million people across 10,000 events in 2026.
About the Role
Through 2026, TCC has been working with anchor organisations across the sector, including Green Alliance, Wildlife and Countryside Link and ECIU, through the New Politics Strategy Network (NPSN). The shared diagnosis from that work is that the movement is not short of ideas, but its impact is limited by fragmentation: lots of parallel campaigns, few coordinated enough to win.
One of the recommendations of the NPSN process was investment in national campaigning: aligning the sector behind a small number of highly coordinated campaigns, with shared priorities and coordinated moments. TCC is taking this workstream forward, working closely with the other NPSN anchors, and brings to it our reach across the climate, nature, development, faith and health sectors and our track record of mass public mobilisation.
The first step is already underway. Green Alliance is convening a one-day political strategy workshop (date tbc, expected early August) to answer the question: what are the key things the sector needs to campaign for and win in the next three years? The workshop is expected to agree a small number of priority wins, led by political strategy.
This commission starts where that workshop ends. We are looking for an excellent campaign strategist and facilitator to take the agreed wins and develop them, with TCC members and the wider movement, into a campaign proposition designed to win. There is good material to build on: the NPSN outputs (sprint working papers, a public engagement mapping survey and a funder roundtable) set out the diagnosis, and a small set of straw campaign propositions has emerged from that work. We will share all of this, along with the political strategy workshop output, at inception. The straw propositions are starting points, and may be refined, combined or replaced by something stronger.
The process has a fixed arc: the political strategy workshop convened by Green Alliance (date tbc), a development workshop in August, testing at a conference on 17 September, and presentation of the final strategy to CEOs on 12–13 October.
Job Description
Inception and Discovery (August)
- Review the output of the political strategy workshop (attending as an observer if timing allows), the NPSN outputs and straw propositions, alongside relevant audience research.
- Carry out a small number of interviews with key members and stakeholders, including Green Alliance and ECIU, to map existing campaign plans, appetite and red lines.
- Design the August development workshop.
Member Workshop (August, date tbc, following the political strategy workshop)
- Design and facilitate a workshop with TCC members and the wider movement to develop the agreed wins into campaign proposition options, testing the straw propositions and any stronger alternatives that emerge against them.
- Turn the workshop outputs into one or more refined propositions, each with a clear theory of change: the central goal, the wins that add up to it, the argument, the audiences and messengers, and what alignment across the sector would look like in practice.
Testing at Conference (by 17 September)
- Refine the proposition(s).
- Design and facilitate a testing session at a conference on 17 September to test the proposition(s) with the wider movement, working within the wider conference programme.
- Capture and write up feedback.
Refinement and Sign-off (late September – 13 October)
- Produce the final agreed campaign proposition.
- Prepare materials for, and support, the CEO sign-off session on 12–13 October, including presenting the proposition and facilitating decisions as needed.
Throughout
- Work closely with TCC's Executive Director and staff team, coordinating with Green Alliance so that the campaign builds directly on the political strategy, with a short check-in at the end of each phase.
Deliverables: an inception note covering approach, workshop design and interview findings; the August development workshop (design, facilitation and a short synthesis paper of refined proposition options); the 17 September testing session (design, facilitation and feedback write-up); and the final campaign proposition, theory of change and supporting materials for CEO sign-off on 12–13 October.
Person Specification
Essential
- A track record of developing winning campaign strategy at national scale, ideally including coalition or multi-organisation campaigns.
- The ability to build campaign strategy from an agreed political strategy: finding the asks, audiences and stories that add up to a central goal.
- Excellent facilitation skills, with experience of designing and running high-stakes workshops and decision-making processes with senior stakeholders.
- The ability to move a diverse group from options to a decision: comfortable holding disagreement, surfacing trade-offs and landing an agreed position to a fixed deadline.
- Strong synthesis and writing skills, able to turn workshop outputs into sharp, decision-ready propositions.
- A good understanding of the UK political and public opinion context for climate and nature.
- Availability across August to October 2026, including in-person facilitation at the August development workshop, the conference on 17 September, and the sign-off on 12–13 October.
Desirable
- Experience of working with coalitions or membership bodies, and sensitivity to the dynamics between large and small organisations.
- Familiarity with audience segmentation and narrative testing, for example More in Common's Seven Segments of Britain.
- Networks across the climate, nature, development, faith or health sectors.
Budget
We expect this work to require in the region of 18–20 days across the phases above. This is an indicative guide rather than a fixed allocation, and we welcome your view on the right level of input to deliver the brief well. We will reimburse reasonable travel expenses separately, by agreement.
How to Apply
Please send a short written proposal, no more than two sides, to Helen Meech, Executive Director, at helen@theclimatecoalition, by 5pm on Monday 3 August 2026, covering:
- Your approach to the brief, including how you would run the development workshop and the conference testing session.
- Relevant experience, with one or two examples of similar work.
- Your day rate, proposed allocation of days across the phases, and total fee.
- Confirmation of your availability for the fixed dates: the August development workshop, the conference on 17 September, and the CEO sign-off on 12–13 October.
- A short CV.
We plan to hold short conversations with shortlisted candidates in the week commencing 3 August 2026, with the aim of appointing shortly afterwards so that inception work can begin as early as possible in August.