Research, Impact & Influence Officer

The Difference is launching the role of an Research, Impact and Influence (RII) Officer. This role focuses on providing administrative, logistical, and operational support to colleagues in the Research, Impact and Influence (RII) team. This is the right role for an individual with good organisational skills who would like to learn on-the-job in a friendly, dynamic and ambitious organisation. 

The role works across a small directorate that includes the Impact, Influencing and Fundraising teams, giving the opportunity to get a deep understanding of what each part of the team does and how best to support them. 

This role will give you the foundation to grow within the organisation, with the aim that you eventually step into a future role at The Difference as the organisation continues to grow. You will be a valuable member of our hard-working and enthusiastic team, and the team in turn will support you in your development and learning. 

Person Specification

• You are driven by the social injustice of exclusion, and the work of The Difference and want to join us in our aim of making schools measurably more inclusive, nationally, by 2030. 

• You are highly organised, and enjoy keeping things in order with systems and processes. 

• You have an eye for detail, tracking the small stuff and making sure work is high quality and accurate. 

• You can multitask, working on a number of different projects at one time and are able to prioritise and organise in line with changing deadlines and priorities. 

• You’re a good communicator, able to communicate with a wide range of external stakeholders, as well as communicating clearly with colleagues on when you will deliver work and when you need help or support. 

• You’re a team player who wants to get stuck in when and where needed. 

• You’re a self-starter, happy to take initiative and work out the best way to do things - we are always looking for ways to improve!

• You’re agile, flexible, and can adapt when priorities change and tasks shift last minute - a common occurrence in small and nimble organisations. 

• You’re ambitious to grow and learn.

Areas of Responsibility

Planning and Logistics across Communications and Research: 

• Supporting event planning (e.g. managing venues, hospitality, invitations). 

• Working with our Research team to support fieldwork planning and travel.

• Working closely with our Head of Communications to develop and plan social media posts and email campaigns around our work.

• Planning and managing event logistics from round-tables with senior politicians to our annual conference IncludEd.

• Scheduling of meetings for internal team members, important external stakeholders including journalists, research participants (like our headteachers, parents, young people) and policymakers.

Tracking Press, Research and Data: 

• Ensuring we are aware of upcoming publications and events relevant to our team or community. 

• Ensuring all relevant information is logged on a database Hubspot to continue clear communication between our team and funders/ stakeholders.

• Working closely with the Impact team to manage and log collected data, and support analysis and reporting.

Fundraising Events and Stakeholder Management:

• Supporting the delivery of stewardship and engagement activities for funders and prospects including scheduling meetings, coordinating events and school visits

• Ensuring that the prospect pipeline is up to date and that actions are recorded

• Working across the Impact and Fundraising Teams to ensure fundraising reporting requirements are factored in to impact plans and providing impact and evaluation insight and stats for funder reports and applications 

• Ensuring all fundraising information is logged on our database Hubspot