ShareAction and the global system of finance

It is said that “money makes the world go around” but the global financial system in its current form is in danger of making our world a very inhospitable place indeed for future generations.

Though it has lifted many out of poverty, today the global financial system has an oversized impact on many of the existential challenges we face. Biodiversity loss is such an example, as is climate change and the growing gap between rich and poor in terms of both income and health. Investment, lending and insuring decisions can enable destructive and exploitative industries or they can support a transition to a more sustainable way of living and use of precious resources. The latter approach is known as responsible or ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investment.

ShareAction’s vision is of a world where the financial system serves our planet and its people. Our mission is to define the highest standards of responsible investment and to drive change until these standards are adopted worldwide. We work towards our mission by:

• advocating for change in the investment industry using our research and rankings
• campaigning with allies to strengthen investor stewardship and change corporate behaviour
• pushing for public policy reform to transform the financial system

You will be joining us at an exciting time, when there is rising interest in how banks are addressing climate change risks and fostering the transition to a fairer, cleaner and safer world. This is a rapidly evolving field and we are looking for someone with excellent organisational, research, and interpersonal skills and a passion to make a difference to join our team. ShareAction’s Banking Standards team seeks to work with banks, investors, and savers to make sure to the banking industry take responsibility for their impact on people and planet.

You will be responsible for developing and implementing the AGM strategy of ShareAction’s Banking Standards team, supporting the filing of shareholder resolutions at banks, contributing to research briefings, helping the team respond quickly to external events and press queries, supporting external engagement activities, and providing project management support.

Key responsibilities

Together with our Senior Campaign Manager, responsible for developing the AGM strategy of the Banking Standards team and for its implementation

• Responsible for undertaking research for and drafting AGM questions and briefing packs for AGM activists & other stakeholders;

• Provides support and liaises with AGM activists, together with our AGM Coordinator, and other external stakeholders;

• Responsible for planning and co-ordinating AGM actions;

• Support AGM Coordinator to deliver AGM activists trainings on Banking topics; present on topics and company asks;

• Share campaign updates on relevant channels;

• Write blog articles, social media posts, and opeds.

Responsible for coordinating resolution logistics

• Helping the Networks and Campaign teams promote the shareholder proposal(s) to our existing supporter base and other individuals and secure the necessary co-filers to ensure our shareholder proposal(s) are successfully filed;

• Assisting with operational tasks, including, but not limited to, reviewing resolution paperwork submitted by supporters to ensure compliance;

• Maintaining centralised record-keeping, using our Salesforce database;

• Providing content input to content being produced about the shareholder resolution(s) being filed;

• Building relationships with any new individual supporters to engage them in ShareAction’s wider campaign work.

Supporting the team with research

• Support the Financial Sector Research (in charge of ShareAction’s survey work) & the Banking Standards teams in the delivery of its biannual banking survey through conducting research, supporting with questionnaire design, data auditing, analysis and report writing;

• Contribute to investor briefings, reports, blog articles that support the successful delivery of the Banking Standards programme.

Helping the team respond quickly to external events and press queries

• Working with others in the team, responsible for responding to external events which might require a quick turnaround. This can include writing a short briefing, blog article, press release, template emails or sample tweets;

• Help draft quotes in response to ad hoc press queries;

• Help the Communications team amplify the work of the Banking Standards team.

Supporting external engagement activities

• Support external engagement activities with banks, investors and other stakeholders, such as by writing pre-meeting briefings, taking notes, conducting expert ad-hoc verbal briefings, webinars and presentations;

• Manage the logistics for events, including room bookings, catering, liaison with external speakers and attendees.

Providing project management support

• Lead on improvements to our network operational systems (Salesforce, Sharepoint), to ensure that we have strong systems underpinning project delivery;

• Overall responsibility for campaign monitoring and reporting, including reviewing monitoring and evaluation reports and processes on Salesforce, running reports and logging progress, and coordinating trimonthly internal newsletters.

Developing self and team's knowledge and skills

• Keeping abreast of latest developments and leading practice relating to the banking sector and use the information to inform the continuous improvement of banks’ climate and responsible investment practices;

• Responsible for collecting and archiving relevant news stories and reports as a bank of resources for the Banking Standards team;

• Takes the initiative in identifying personal development opportunities.

Please note that this list is not exhaustive and the role might change slightly from time to time.

Essential

• Excellent organisational, project and time management skills with the ability to work under pressure, plan and prioritise work effectively and meet deadlines;

• Experience campaigning for change, ideally on climate change and/or banks;

• Excellent research skills and a keen attention to detail;

• Experience using social media to further campaign goals and contributing to press releases;

• Willingness to handle multiple tasks, changing priorities, and an ability to meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment;

• Strong interpersonal skills with ability to work as part of a team and across teams;

• Ability to communicate and build good relationships with external stakeholders with a high level of professionalism;

• Excellent written and oral communication skills;

• Excellent analytical skills – the ability to quickly get to grips with new and complex subject areas, assimilate information, pull out the relevant points and communicate them to internal and external audiences;

• Great team player, who is happy to take advice and direction from colleagues working in other work programmes, such as supporter network/grassroots organising;

• Experience of working with CRM systems, ideally Salesforce.

Desirable

• Experience of working with Microsoft Office 365, particularly SharePoint;

• Knowledge and interest in biodiversity and/or other ESG topics that are relevant to banks;

• Basic knowledge of data protection regulations / GDPR.

Hours: Full-time, but with some flexibility possible

Contract type: Permanent

Salary: £27,000- £33,000 + 8% pension (non-contributory) and benefits including a healthcare scheme

Deadline for applications: We are considering applications on a rolling basis until the role is filled. Candidates will be notified of the outcome of their application within two weeks of submission.

ShareAction values and respects all differences in people (seen and unseen). One of the ways we do this is by actively encouraging staff to work in ways that best suit their needs and our flexible working policy outlines many of the options available- such as part-time and term-time working, job sharing, home working and working compressed hours. Please talk to us at the interview about the flexibility you need. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want, but we do promise not to judge you for asking..

Due to Covid-19 all interviews will take place online, you will also be expected to work from home for the foreseeable future.

Please note that to be considered for this post you must be legally eligible to work in the UK. Due to current restrictions we are unable to hire anyone that isn’t already living in the UK.
Due to our size we are unable to sponsor visas.