Communications & Influence Manager at BFA (Bankable Frontier Associates)

About the Role 

Are you passionate about storytelling and communication, and looking to have an impact on creating a more sustainable and equitable world? Do you have a vision for ways to bring together different communication channels to amplify and promote the change you want to see? Do you want to support cutting-edge innovators around the globe to develop solutions that help the underserved?

BFA Global is looking for an accomplished communications and marketing professional for BFA Global, its largest project, Catalyst Fund.

Reporting to the Head of Comms & Influence, the Comms & Influence Manager will know how to develop and execute on influence strategies that can reach target stakeholders in the development, tech, financial inclusion, and international development ecosystems, from startups to investors, banks, and funders. They will have phenomenal writing skills and be able to work with experts across BFA to act as a thought partner for written content, and be able to extract and articulate insights that are meaningful to a broader audience. The successful candidate will be passionate about storytelling, familiar with managing press and media, and able to diagnose and advise on solutions for challenges faced by startup teams in the marketing and communications space.  

What you will do

BFA Global content

• Work with BFA Global experts to ideate, draft, edit and publish relevant insights and project-related content
• Act as a writing partner to suggest topics, distill insights from BFA team, edit drafts
• Work with designer + digital marketing teams to enhance content with relevant graphics, imagery for social media
• Regularly produce creative content for BFA that draws on insights from across projects, per focus area, to demonstrate BFA’s learnings, insights and capabilities
• Own, manage and update BFA Global content calendar, dissemination calendar, according to upcoming production schedule
• Working with business development leads, create case studies that highlight core BFA projects for each business development area, to be used in new business proposals
• As-needed: Work with design team to visualize data and insights for external publication, leveraging BFA Global visual guidelines

 BFA Global project support

• Work with project leads and Head of Comms & Influence to determine strategic opportunities to provide communications support as a core consulting offering for all new projects in BFA’s pipeline. This might include participating in project proposal development and attending project kick-off meetings. 
• Ideate on creative outputs for project deliverables beyond traditional reports to reach more people 
• Support writing, editing, dissemination and learning agenda needs for BFA projects as assigned
• In addition to support in writing, editing and disseminating project deliverables, comms & Influence support may include:
• Communications and marketing advisory for BFA project clients and end beneficiaries
• Development of training and educational materials
• Contributions to desk research and insight gathering
• Distilling insights and next steps from first hand research
• Development of personas and value propositions
• Larger dissemination and partner strategy for project insights and deliverable

Catalyst Fund project support

• Support Head of Comms & Influence on marketing, communications and messaging support for Catalyst Fund startups. This may be inclusive of:
• Diagnostic for all new startups to determine areas where support is needed 
• Sprint sessions with the startups may include: target segmentation and persona development, value proposition, messaging strategy, digital marketing and content strategy, collateral development, advisory on existing marketing efforts, and more
• Support Catalyst Fund Marketing & Comms Manager with dissemination of outputs as needed and overall Catalyst Fund influence strategy

Press + media

• Work with PR firm to elevate the influence of BFA and team members in core subject areas through regular media placements and coverage
• Draft press releases, define outreach strategy and execute dissemination along with partners, for all relevant announcements or publications
• Create and update BFA press kit, team bios for external use
• Manage all inbound press requests

Metrics + reporting

• Work with comms & influence associate to produce monthly report for the BFA team
• Work with all project teams to generate marketing and communications reporting metrics for individual projects, as needed

Required skillset:

• 7+ years of experience in communications, marketing, PR, and/or knowledge management, with at least 1 year working with international development organizations, NGOs, or a related organization in the development sector 
• Experience working with and advising startups in emerging markets a strong plus
• Superior writing and editing skills; ability to distill meaningful insights from data-driven research
• Strong written and verbal communication skills to communicate effectively with a distributed team across several countries
• Experience with and understanding of inclusive finance in emerging markets (Africa, LatAm, Asia) is preferred
• Strong project management experience
• Experience working with the press and pitching to a broad international audience, including governments and policymakers, central banks, international development organizations, etc
• An excellent ability to create and manage content (e.g. for website, e-newsletters, social media, etc.)
• A good eye for visual branding and graphic representation
• A demonstrated ability to plan creative events to engage audiences
• Self-starter and team player with lots of energy to juggle multiple responsibilities
• Strong organizational and management skills, excellent punctuality, attention to detail and professionalism
• Fluency in English required, and Spanish preferred. Any other local language will be an advantage

Human skills: 

Applicants need to succeed in technical skills, but also need to build a strong portfolio of human skills to achieve long-term success at BFA Global.

• Emotional intelligence, communication & empathy – You need to have a strong ability to collaborate effectively with others and work in teams, build relationships, share ideas, and manage conflict.
• Creativity & problem-solving skills – You are required to have analytical and critical thinking skills that can help them find creative solutions to problems. 
• Adaptability & flexibility – You need to be agile and adaptable to effectively deal with the rapid changes (both financial and technological) occurring in the industry.