Save the Children to hire first digital director

Save the Children is recruiting its first digital director, bucking a global trend after a new report found that just 1 per cent of companies plan to hire a chief digital officer over the next 12 months.

Video: Save the Children’s recent digital campaign “Most Shocking Second a Day”

The charity’s digital director will be responsible for implementing Save the Children’s digital vision across the organisation, as well as developing and delivering engaging content and improving the online brand experience. The role will report into the marketing and communications director, while the charity is also hiring a dedicated digital fundraiser to take its online donations “to the next level”.

The hire comes as Save the Children puts digital at the heart of its plans to ensure it reaches its goals of reducing child deaths, increasing the number of children in school and lifting children out of poverty.

“With our digital platforms well established, we are ready to transform the organisation, taking the lead in developing digital, audience-responsive solutions that incorporate all our needs. We need digital thinking at the heart of our plans and a digital culture that permeates the breadth of the organisation. The new director of digital will lead the way in making this a reality,” says the spokesperson.

The decision to recruit a digital director follows moves by Save the Children’s decision to launch more digital campaigns as it looks to boost awareness of its causes and donations. It already has 75,000 followers on Twitter, 290,000 on Facebook and 2.5 million unique monthly visitors to its website.

The charity’s marketing director Sue Allchurch recently told Marketing Week that it planned to up its focus on social media to promote its causes, citing the success of the “Most Shocking Second a Day” film which showed what it might look like if the Syrian crisis happened in London and which has had more than 30 million views on YouTube.

However, Save the Children is one of very few organisation planning to hire a digital chief this year, with a recent report from Forrester finding that just 1 per cent of firms plan to do so in the next 12 months. Some 16 per cent already have a chief digital officer, while 50 per cent of companies have no plans to introduce the role.

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