Vice President, Brand, Direct Marketing and Communications
Position Overview
Organization: Arthritis Society Canada
Title: Vice President, Brand, Direct Marketing and Communications
Reports to: Chief Development Officer
Team: 14
Key Relationships: Chief Development Officer; Brand, Marketing, Direct Response & Communications team; Revenue Development team; Executive Leadership Team (ET); Operations (Human Resources, Finance, Volunteer Engagement and IT); Mission Team; External partners/stakeholders: Arthritis Society Canada ambassadors and volunteers, media, influencers, vendors
Location: Preference to Toronto (GTA based) Candidates. Will be open to those in Vancouver & Montreal. Hybrid work policy.
Compensation: $165,000 – $185,000, plus a comprehensive benefit and vacation package
Is This You?
Are you ready to put your brand, marketing, and communications skills, and experience to work to accelerate a mission that is committed to extinguishing arthritis?
This role is about creating awareness and engagement to deepen relationships with supporters, volunteers, families and Canadians. We are looking for an ‘uber’ talented and experienced brand, marketing and communications leader who can help Arthritis Society Canada realize the full potential of their brand and mobilization to raise money in support of their important mission.
You have expertise in integrated brand strategy development and implementation, campaign planning and execution, event conceptualization, omni-channel marketing, and corporate communications with a focus on compelling storytelling. Further, you are skilled in direct and digital marketing and have a strong understanding around how data informs marketing decisions.
You are more than a coach; you are a strategist, self starter, and creative thinker. You are an authentic and trustworthy leader whose high integrity and heartfelt approach has led you to reach success. Your peers and direct reports would describe you as strategic, analytical, data-driven, a great communicator both verbal and written, a storyteller, an innovator, and someone who leads through influence and empowers their team and is a collaborator both with internal and external partners, including agencies. If this sounds like you, keep reading!
The Organization
Arthritis Society Canada is dedicated to extinguishing arthritis. They represent the six million Canadians living with arthritis today, and the millions more who are impacted or at risk. Fueled by the trust and support of their donors and volunteers and leading a nationwide strategy, co-created by 21 Ecosystem Champion organizations, Arthritis Society Canada is working to revolutionize health outcomes and quality of life for people living with arthritis through research, advocacy, innovation, information and support. They are Canada’s largest charitable funder of cutting-edge arthritis research.
Arthritis Society Canada is a nationwide organization, with approximately 130 staff members from coast-to-coast-to-coast. The largest offices are based in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal; with the majority of staff based in Ontario.
It’s not just arthritis.
Arthritis is Canada’s most common chronic disease and there is no cure. The disease affects the lives of six million Canadians (1 in 5 adults) – impacting their mobility, their ability to work, their time with their family and friends, and sometimes causing near constant pain. More than half of people with arthritis are under 65. Without a brighter spotlight on this serious issue, the number of Canadians with arthritis will rise to nine million by 2040. That’s 1 in 4 Canadians impacted by this disease – along with their families and communities.
Through the continued generosity of their supporters, Arthritis Society Canada will achieve their bold dream of making a cure a reality.
Arthritis Society Canada is accredited under Imagine Canada’s Standards Program, and is a proud 2022-2024 (and 2019-2021!) winner of Waterstone Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures™ award, a mark of excellence in culture and performance.
Vision: We will extinguish arthritis.
Mission: To fight the fire of arthritis with research, advocacy, innovation, information and support.
Values: United: We are stronger together; Impactful: We will create a bold future; Transformative: We fearlessly work to achieve greatness.
The Position
Reporting to the Chief Development Officer, the newly created role of Vice President Brand, Direct Marketing and Communications is the key strategist for the brand, marketing, communications and direct response portfolio. Working closely with the leadership team the successful candidate will be a vital member of the organization’s senior leadership team. With direct oversight for a team of 14 marketing, communications and direct response professionals, the Vice President is accountable for a broad range of activities to drive Arthritis Society Canada’s awareness nationwide and align marketing strategies with revenue growth.
Key Responsibilities
Marketing and Brand Awareness:
- Create and oversee a strategic roadmap for a multi-year plan to build purposeful brand awareness that demonstrates a measurable increase in brand recognition and awareness of the seriousness of arthritis.
- Lead the creation and implementation of a donor/market segmentation to drive engagement and revenue.
- Own and monitor brand health, alignment, engagement and integration nation-wide.
- Create a cohesive, targeted and data-driven digital and social media strategy with a clear ROI and the ability to draw on predictive analytics, adjust to real-time learning and success and “fast-fail” market testing, and leverage key partners and opportunities to position ASC in the marketplace.
- Guide leadership positioning in social and other media to ensure ASC are the “go to” source when relevant stories break and/or opportunities arise.
- Identify and implement awareness and engagement opportunities supporting innovation strategy, key donor engagement events, and other public and donor opportunities.
- Lead the digital team to elevate brand visibility and reach through UX, content and digital marketing campaigns while maximizing website reach, engagement and online presence.
- Measure and monitor the effectiveness of various channels to market including the management of metrics, KPIs and insights to make strategic, data-driven decisions.
Communications:
- Develop PR strategies, identify and execute PR opportunities; cultivate media relationships and manage external PR agencies.
- Oversee the creation and production of print and digital communications and brand assets, including the annual report, marketing collateral materials and electronic communications, the website, e-communications and social media.
- Oversee crisis communications.
Team Leadership:
- Lead, engage and build a best-in-class marketing team, ensuring clarity of accountability, motivating innovative and strategic approaches to marketing and communications, and measuring individual and team outcomes.
- Establish and implement an annual plan for the Mar/Com department fully aligned with the Revenue Development strategy and business plan and cascade annual performance goals to team members.
- Sustain a team of high performers, driven to play a key role in driving revenue and awareness goals; hire, retain and motivate talented individuals.
- Engage leadership colleagues to leverage opportunities and ensure MarCom is well positioned to play a significant role in supporting relevant strategic initiatives.
- Engage external experts, agencies and others to leverage expertise and talent in the most effective ways.
The Ideal Candidate
Will bring a minimum of 15 years’ experience and must have a proven record of success in:
- The strategic leadership of fully integrated marketing in an organization of significant scale and complexity.
- Implementing brand awareness to drive optimal commitment and engagement.
- Formulating long-range strategies for reaching a broad and highly diverse audience, implementing them, and critically analyzing results.
- Building relationships and engaging multiple levels of stakeholders in support of the goals and mandate of the organization.
- Leadership direction, including the implementation and use of sophisticated metrics
- Operational and financial oversight.
- Ideally will possess non-profit experience
Character & Competencies
Must possess:
- A respected ability to motivate everyone for the mission – to rally, challenge, and inspire a diverse team to the highest of standards.
- A bold/innovative and strategic lens on how to position the brand across all channels to market, enabling fundraising leaders across the regions to be well supported in raising awareness and elevating their events.
- Forthrightness in holding people accountable – an honest approach to building a team and building careers – a great coach.
- An attitude that champions disruptive ideas that drive brand awareness and engagement.
- Highly analytical and data-driven.
- An ability to paint a big picture by paying close attention to the details.
- A passion for life-long learning and staying current, for discovering, understanding, and implementing cutting-edge technologies and processes for greater reach and cost-effectiveness.
- Excellent problem-solving skills – structuring/analysis/synthesis.
- Honesty, openness, transparency, authenticity and model these in all situations and for all interactions.
- Experience in a multi-stakeholder environment where you have led by consensus.
- A deep understanding that the ‘whole is greater than the sum of its parts’.
- A positive attitude for self and team: anything can be solved; anything can be accomplished.
- A belief that opportunity can always be found in facing problems.
- Refreshing but respectful candor.
- A modus operandi that puts the mission ahead of personal advancement.
- The highest of personal and corporate standards – ‘good enough’ is never enough.
- Frugality – a nose for doing more with less.
- Bilingual (English / French) language skills an asset.
Application Instructions
If you are looking for an outstanding challenge and the opportunity to work with a great team for a very important, uniquely focused organization then what are you waiting for? Apply now!
As an organization with nationwide reach, Arthritis Society Canada recognize their work occurs on traditional Indigenous territories across Canada. Arthritis Society Canada’s national office is in Toronto (Tkaronto), which is the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. They also acknowledge this land is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. They encourage you to learn more about the nations, land, and communities in the areas where you live. Read their full statement.
In furtherance of their mission and strategic priorities, they are committed to promoting inclusion, diversity, equity and access (IDEA) through their information and support, advocacy, programming, internal policies, and governance structures. In selecting individuals and furthering the goals of their IDEA work, we aim to ensure that their people reflect the knowledge, experience, skills and diversity (including but not limited to diversity of gender, race, and geographical location) of the communities they live in and serve.
This job posting is for a newly created role. Thank you to all for your interest but only candidates who move forward in the process will be contacted. At the end of the search process, all interviewed applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application.
Please email your Cover Letter and CV to Cathy Preston at cathy@phcap.ca. Please note the posting closes on March 31, 2025, at 5pm ET.