Alpha Head of Strategy and Partnerships: Catholic Context

Role purposeAlpha exists to equip and serve the Church in its mission to help people to discover and develop a relationship with Jesus and Alpha UK is seeking to position Alpha as the primary strategy for evangelism and the most trusted partner of the UK church.

The purpose of this role is to develop the sense of strategic and relational partnership between Alpha UK and the most influential individuals, networks, events and emerging leaders in the Catholic Context.

It will also involve analysing the strength of Alpha’s presence across other UK denominations, networks and movements, identifying significant growth opportunities, and helping to build the necessary relationships with leaders and stakeholders.

The Catholic Context is a key opportunity for growing Alpha in the UK. There are over 1.375 billion Catholics worldwide, representing 17.67% of the global population and 50.1% of Christians. Alpha in the Catholic Context represents around 20% of all participants globally (2023). Over the coming nine years, we aim to see this increase to at least 30%. To sustainably scale the growth of Alpha across the Catholic Church, an integrated strategy at a global, regional and national level is needed. This role is responsible for designing and executing this strategy for the UK.

Role

We also expect the role to prioritise the emerging generation in the Catholic Context, as an important expression of Alpha UK’s strategy for local leadership succession.Key deliverablesListed below are the key elements that the role holder will be accountable for delivering:

• Identifies and assesses complex problems for their own area of responsibility and recommends appropriate solutions
• In close collaboration with Directors and/or entity heads, contributes to decisions which impact the organisation as a whole
• Establishes the strategy and objectives for their own area or department.
• Uses subject-matter expertise and a high level of proficiency to further develop their own area
  
  

Alpha UK

• Pursue growth of strategic relationships in the UK for Alpha
• Identify and analyse significant denominational opportunities
• Create UK strategy for Alpha in the Catholic context
• Influence and oversee delivery of objectives for the Catholic context
• Bring subject-matter expertise within their discipline, internally and externally
• Use experience and knowledge to analyse and solve complex challenges
• Seeks ongoing opportunities for improvement
• Participate in and contribute to the UK church facing team
• Join the Alpha UK Leadership team
• Promote Alpha in other contexts e.g., Students, The Marriage Course, Youth.
• Express the AUK succession strategy by developing ministry among young people and students
  
  

Church Engagement

• Ensure UK churches running/considering Alpha are equipped and encouraged
• Deliver training to churches across the CEF, in collaboration with regional SRMs
• Forging relationships with Senior Church leaders across the UK, especially in the Catholic context
• Acquisition: see an increase in new Catholic churches running Alpha
• Reactivation: reactivate lapsed Catholic churches who no longer running Alpha
• Retention: see a high level of retention of Catholic churches running Alpha
• Identify potential Hub churches and engage in process to appoint churches as Hubs.
• Be fluent in using Salesforce to track, monitor and identify trends from the available data
• Responsible for accurate input and reporting of data in Salesforce and continued use of UK systems
  
  

Alpha Global

• Working with Global Catholic Context Director, contribute to the Catholic Context operational plan
• Represent AUK at a global level in working groups, collectives or contexts
  
  

Youth & Students

• Raise the commitment towards youth and student evangelisation in the Catholic Church
• Speak at strategic events
• Equip internal and external youth and student ambassadors with a compelling vision and set of values
• Raise up a team of young people to act as advocates for evangelisation to their peers and clergy
  
  

Events

• Represent Alpha at strategic UK events including networking, events and speaking engagements.
• Plan and coordinate Catholic cohort experience at Alpha’s UK events: e.g., The Leadership Conference, Alpha Collective, This Is Alpha
  
  

Partnerships

• Build UK network of relationships of high trust and collaboration with key leaders, movements, communities and foundations that are aligned with Alpha’s vision, mission and values.
• Identify and invest in strategic partnerships that have the potential to lead to the multiplication of Alpha and Alpha Youth across the UK.
  
  

Communications

• External: To work collaboratively with the Alpha UK Head of Marketing and Communications to develop and implement an Alpha Catholic Context communication strategy to share vision and impact (including stories and endorsements) with partner organisations, donors, bishops, dioceses, priests, lay leaders.
• Internal: Share best practices on strategy, communication, and training with Alpha UK team.
• Participate in Global Catholic calls to maximise learning and sharing of innovation and best practice.
• Build a coherent and compelling narrative of growing Alpha particularly in the Catholic context.Core behavioural competencies
• Sets an example to their team and the rest of the entity in living out our organisational Values at all times.
• Treats all colleagues with respect, irrespective of background, role and viewpoint, and sets the expectation of the same behaviour from all team members.
• Helps to maintain a culture of trust and empowerment through which all team members are able to learn and grow without fear of failure or negative consequences.
• Is prepared to speak the truth in love and encourages openness and honest communication.
• Continuously seeks opportunities for improvement and growth - for self, team and area.Essential skills, experience & knowledgeThe following skills and experience form the minimum requirements for the role:
• A committed Christian who is passionate about Alpha across the UK
• Experience in running Alpha in a church context  
• Experience holding high level partnerships and working with evangelism leads
• Experience training large groups of people
• Excellent people skills: networking & relationship building
• Highly proficient at public speaking 
• Forward thinker: ability to organize and set priorities  
• Dynamic and energetic with an ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously 
• A self-starter with a flexible and proactive approach to problems 
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with a high attention to detail 
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint and understanding of social media         
• Confident use of CRM systems eg Salesforce. Ability to master data input, data clean ups & reporting
• Up to date knowledge of Alpha products – Alpha Film Series, The Marriage Course, etc.Desirable skills, experience & knowledgeThe following skills and experience would be greatly beneficial:
• Experience of church leadership 
• Understanding of HTB network church
• Experience running Alpha in contexts other than the church 
• Understanding of the general breadth of the church landscape in the UK.