Sports and Challenges Manager (DIY Sports)

Location: Hybrid Variable – tied to the Bristol or London office or Home Based with travel to Bristol once a month

Salary: £35,882 (outside of London); £37,778 (inside London)

Job Level: Advanced Practitioner

Change lives in a life-changing career. When a child or young person is diagnosed with cancer, their whole world can feel like it’s falling apart. Independence is taken and confidence is stolen. Stability no longer exists. The future suddenly feels uncertain. The impact of cancer on young lives is more than medical. And that impact can be felt by entire families. That’s why we exist. Our specialist social workers help children and young people with cancer and their families navigate the emotional and practical impact of cancer. We remove barriers, solve problems and prioritise wellbeing. And we stop at nothing to make their voices heard and their unique needs understood, so they can get the right care and support at the right time.

About the role: We’re looking for a Sports and Challenges Manager (DIY Sports) with strong strategic and operational experience in mass-participation events to join our Sports and Challenge Events Team. As part of our dynamic Sports and Challenge Events team—and the wider Mass Participation fundraising function—you’ll play a key role in growing our programme of third-party sports events across the UK. You’ll lead on developing and delivering an exciting portfolio including Ultra Challenges, Run for Charity events, and DIY/open challenges, ensuring exceptional supporter experiences at every stage. You’ll create new multichannel stewardship journeys, oversee acquisition and marketing activity, and work with external event organisers to select and shape events that drive long-term value for Young Lives vs Cancer. You’ll collaborate closely with colleagues across Supporter Engagement, Brand and Marketing, Regional Engagement, Partnerships & Philanthropy and more, ensuring seamless supporter journeys and consistently outstanding experiences. To thrive in this role, you’ll need to be proactive, analytical, creative and passionate about delivering sector-leading events with impact. This role is subject to a basic criminal record check.

What will I be doing? No two days are the same at Young Lives vs Cancer. So, summarising your ‘day to day’ isn’t easy. Here are some of the main things you’ll be doing:

• Strategically manage a portfolio of mass participation events to agreed acquisition and income targets, driving growth and long-term supporter engagement.
• Lead on marketing and acquisition campaigns for your events, working closely with our Digital and Brand teams to create compelling assets and reach new audiences.
• Oversee all event operations and on-the-day planning, collaborating with Regional Engagement teams and managing key supplier and organiser relationships.
• Create and maintain multichannel stewardship journeys, ensuring supporters receive exceptional experiences delivered consistently across teams.
• Track, monitor and report on event budgets, KPIs and performance, using insight to plan, forecast and make recommendations for future investment.

What do I need? The key skills we’re looking for in this role are:

• Strong strategic and operational experience in mass-participation events.
• Experience of delivering successful marketing and acquisition campaigns.
• Proven ability to create effective, data-driven stewardship journeys.
• Excellent prioritisation, time-management and communication skills.
• Ability to build strong relationships and negotiate with external organisations.
• Experience interpreting and working with budgets, forecasts and financial data.
• Project and/or programme management experience.

Diverse perspectives and unique skillsets are at the heart of Young Lives vs Cancer. If you're passionate about making a positive impact and eager to learn, we encourage you to apply, even if you don’t meet the criteria and person specification fully. Your potential is what matters most to us, and we’re committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive work environment to help you develop.

What will I gain? For people to reach their full potential, they need the right environment. As a member of Team Young Lives, you’ll be made to feel supported, valued and appreciated. Here’s how we do it:

• Flexible working: we’re open to working hours outside of 9 - 5 and we can talk through your flexibility requirements at interview stage.
• Wellbeing, Thinking & Growth Days: four days a year to step back from the day-to-day and focus on your own learning and development.
• Generous annual leave allowance.
• Great family/caring leave entitlements.
• Enhanced pension.
• Access to our employee savings scheme.

To find out more about our benefits package, have a look on our website.

Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging: At Young Lives vs Cancer, we recognise that opportunities for too many people remain a condition of their sex, ethnicity, class, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation – or a combination. This has never been acceptable to us as an organisation. We don’t just accept difference, we value it, celebrate it, nurture it and we thrive because of it. We’re on a journey to be reflective of the diverse children, young people and families we support. We know we aren’t there yet, and we’re passionately committed to taking actions and making changes to be a truly diverse, inclusive and equitable organisation. This includes taking anti-oppressive action and removing barriers in our recruitment practices. We particularly welcome applications from members of minoritised communities.

Our Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging strategy will tell you more. We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. CVs can be uploaded, but we won’t be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to fully complete the work history sections of the online application form for us to be able to assess you quickly, fairly and objectively.

Accessibility: We’re committed to providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process and we’ll always aim to be as accommodating as possible. Please let us know in your application form of any adjustments or access requirements we could make to help you with the application process and interview. To arrange an informal chat, please contact Lauren Hunt (Head of Mass Participation).