Freelance Copywriter
Who are we and what are we looking for?
Shape History is looking for freelance copywriters who have at least 3-5 years of copywriting and strategic communications experience..
Are you a savvy strategist and wicked wordsmith wanting to use your skills to improve lives and save our planet?
Yes? Great. Keep reading…
We’re Shape History, the social impact communications agency. We’re here to nurture a fairer world, faster, through strategic communications, creative storytelling, and powerful partnerships.
So what does this mean? From Climate Change to Gender Equality, Digital Health, to Human Rights, we work with charities, NGOs, funders, and business on some of the biggest issues facing humanity today to help them tell their story and accelerate progress to their ambitions. We create and evolve organisational brands. We craft and run campaigns. We build websites.
We all like to tell stories. We do it everyday. With our friends. Our families. Our colleagues. But what is the point? What is the outcome? Is it just chit chat or do you want to get them to DO SOMETHING?
At Shape History we and our partners want to get people to do something.
That’s where you come in. We’re on the lookout for freelance Copywriters to support our full time team over the coming 3-6 months. You should be able to keep your eye on the North star – delivering desired impact through crafting connections with target audiences – whilst using your creative flair to write compelling copy that jumps off the page (metaphorically speaking of course!)
So what is it like at Shape History? One day you might be writing an op-ed for one of our partners to sell their vision of how to create a fairer world, the next you might be putting some life and energy into core brand messaging for an organisation – helping it to connect with their audiences.
If this sounds like you, please contact us below.
Race Equity:
We are committed to having an inclusive culture in which everyone feels safe and supported to achieve their potential. There is a long way to go in implementing race equity in the sector and we have a robust strategy in place for delivering this at Shape History. We actively encourage applications from underrepresented and minority groups, including those with lived experience of social issues we are working to address.
To apply please follow our recruitment application process here.
Freelance PR and Media Specialists
The role
Shape History is on a global search. We’re looking for freelance public relations and media specialists with at least five years of experience to join our collective of freelancers from all around the world.
Are you a strategic storyteller, with a pulse on what makes a good news hook? Do you have a proven track record of securing media coverage for national and international media outlets?
Yes? Great. Keep reading…
We’re Shape History, the social impact communications agency. We’re here to nurture a fairer world, faster, through strategic communications, creative storytelling, and powerful partnerships.
So what does this mean? From the climate crisis to gender equality, digital health, to human rights, we work with charities, NGOs, funders, and businesses on some of the biggest issues facing humanity today to help them tell their story and accelerate progress to their ambitions. We create and evolve organisational brands. We craft and run campaigns. We amplify narratives through securing media coverage.
As we grow, we are looking to build on our Shape History Collective – our network of freelance PR consultants from all around the world to support with media strategy, story generation, and media liaison across our increasingly international partnerships and projects.
We are looking for freelancers with existing contacts and expert knowledge on media in a specific region or issue. Please find below further information about who we are looking for.
Key requirements:
- A demonstrated background in PR and communications with a strong knowledge of what works when securing coverage
- Hold strong relationships with media contacts and be confident pitching news stories to journalists.
- An understanding of the evolving media landscape across multiple channels
- Tactically aware and knowledgeable about what’s going on in the media.
- Portfolio of publications in one or more of the priority geography and issue area top-tier media (further detailed below)
- Strong written, presentation and verbal communications skills
What issues do we work across?
You should have experience in one or more of the following areas:
- Public Health
- Technology
- Climate Activism
- Gender Equality
- Social Mobility and Equity
- Human Rights
- Philanthropy
- Start-ups/Entrepreneurialism
- Sustainability
What types of coverage are we looking for?
You should have experience in one or more of the following types of outlets
- International
- National
- Regional
- Local
- Trade/Sector specific
Where do you need to be based?
You should be based in, or have expertise and connections in one of more of the following countries/regions
- UK
- France
- Germany
- North America
- Latin America
- North and West Africa
- Central and Eastern Africa
- Southern Africa
- East Asia
- Southeast Asia
- Australia
Race Equity:
We are committed to having an inclusive culture in which everyone feels safe and supported to achieve their potential. There is a long way to go in implementing race equity in the sector and we have a robust strategy in place for delivering this at Shape History. We actively encourage applications from underrepresented and minority groups, including those with lived experience of social issues we are working to address.
To apply please follow our recruitment application process here.
ApplyPlanning Lead
The Role:
Shape History is looking for candidates with 3+ years of experience in account management. Through your experience of managing and delivering communications projects, account management and working with multiple partners, you will be responsible for project managing our social impact projects.
We’re on the hunt for an organised individual with a strategic mindset who loves working on both shorter and longer-term impactful projects. Sound like you? This full-time role will be perfect for you. It will involve you managing and coordinating different stakeholders both nationally and globally.
How you’ll be shaping history everyday…
- Communications Lead: Be the lead point of contact for all matters specific to your partnerships, ensuring the timely and successful delivery of high quality assets and expertise according to our partners’ needs and objectives.
- Meetings: Schedule and lead on regular meetings/check-ins with partners, plan the agendas, confirm attendees, and present work when required.
- Consulting: Proactively offer advice, guidance, and suggestions to partners that you believe will advance and improve the project outcomes, either strategically and/or creatively.
- Relationship building: Build, maintain, and evolve strong, long-lasting partnerships, and where necessary, facilitate consultation workshops.
- Finances: Manage your projects’ production budget and input all bills on the accountancy platform Xero as required.
- Autonomous working: Embrace full autonomy over your work, understanding every aspect of the projects you run, including timelines, deliverables, and budgets, and ensure project management documents and software (Streamtime) are kept up to date.
- Risk mitigation: Anticipate workloads in advance and preemptively flag any potential disruptions to ensure your projects run according to plan.
- Quality checking: Ensure every piece of work undergoes appropriate quality checks and proofing before being sent externally to partners or published.
- Upselling services: Work closely with our internal team to identify additional skill sets and expertise that may need to be introduced to the partnership, including Strategy, Creative, Digital or others.
- Content production: Contribute to writing blogs for partners on key issues within their sector, or for the Shape History Hub.
You’re good at…
- Account & project management: A confident, organised individual, with at least 4 years’ experience of account management and communications planning with excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
- Collaboration: A respectful and competent leader but also a fantastic collaborator with the utmost confidence to push our partners beyond their comfort zones, in a respectful way.
- Agency experience: Bring knowledge and drive of previous experience working in agencies.
- Building relationships: Proven excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
- Adaptability: Proactive, fast thinking and easily adaptable to any quick changes.
- Organisation: Very good organisational skills and understands how to balance multiple projects at once.
- Cool under pressure: Comfortable working under tight timelines and in a high-pressure environment.
- Communicating in different formats: Proven, quality written communication skills, understanding how to communicate to various audiences in a way that they’d understand.
- Working in a team: You are a total team player and enjoy collaborating with our team members.
- Presenting and public speaking: Exceptional presentation skills, with confidence speaking to a room of partners and stakeholders.
- Being proactive: Excellent initiative and a proactive problem-solving approach to your work.
- Showing a passion about what you do: A campaigner mindset – someone who can demonstrate and communicate passion for specific causes.
- Knowledge of our systems: Experience of working with all G Suite packages (Drive, Gmail, Sheets, Slides, etc.)
- Getting stuck in: Willing to roll up sleeves during short intensive sprints to ensure success of campaigns.
Extra bit of awesome:
- Knowledge and background in the social impact sector, whether that be working with charities, NGOs, funders, or institutions.
- Experience with creating campaigns, from start to finish.
- A proven track record of developing and implementing communications action plans.
Race Equity:
We are committed to having an inclusive culture in which everyone feels safe and supported to achieve their potential. There is a long way to go in implementing race equity in the sector and we have a robust strategy in place for delivering this at Shape History. We actively encourage applications from underrepresented and minority groups, including those with lived experience of social issues we are working to address.
Remuneration:
Base salary of £32,000 -£38,000 per annum + discretionary personal and company bonus.
Recruitment process:
As part of our process, we use blind recruitment in our first round of applications. This is part of a wider race equity strategy at Shape History. When applying for this role, you will be taken to a Typeform link where you’ll be asked a series of questions.
Applications close on Wednesday 4th January at 9am GMT.
We will proceed with interviewing a select few candidates at the start of January. A short task might also be sent during the process.
Strategic Communications Consultant
The Role:
We’re on the lookout for a strategic consultant based in the US who can collaborate with our London based team and also take a lead on strategic partnerships in that part of the world. You will lead communications strategies – from ideation to implementation – for our partners in the US (other agencies like to call them clients) to achieve the outcomes they are looking for.You will need to demonstrate expertise in one or more of the following areas: PR (extra marks for experience in this field), digital campaigning, political campaigning and copywriting.
How you’ll be shaping history everyday:
- Leadership and Consultancy: You will lead the strategy for the partnerships you are working on. This involves providing leadership and strategic counsel to our partners, helping to guide them through the process and not being afraid to challenge their points of view in a respectful way.
- Strategic thinking: You will always keep your eye on the big picture – achieving the outcomes our partners are looking for. This means putting outcomes before outputs, always thinking about the road to getting there within both available means and the changing environment, and recognising that the tools and tactics are adaptable and evolving.
- Strategic ideation. You will brainstorm ideas and build them out into strategies across a wide range of communications disciplines. This will involve crafting brand strategies for organisations, building campaigns for advocacy and behavioural change goals, developing communications strategies for organisations, and developing digital and media strategies to effectively reach priority audiences on the channels they use.
- Strategic PR and Media: Using your experience working in PR, you will use your knowledge to build up relationships with press in the States. You will be required to lead on PR and content planning within the region and execute outreach on behalf of a variety of partners, both proactively and reactively.
- Copywriting: Writing clear and concise copy for a range of different mediums – ads, publications, websites, press releases – that inform, engage, and resonate with target audiences. You will understand the message that our partners are trying to seek to express and translate this into powerful and convincing written content.
- Research: Carrying out research (e.g conducting stakeholder interviews, desk based research, competitors/peers analysis) to unearth powerful and actionable insights to inform strategies and activations.
- Facilitating workshops: Leading on physical and virtual workshops to unearth insight, scope out opportunities, and co-develop strategies. This will include planning, running, and writing up key notes and outcomes.
- New Partnerships: You might help fine-tune and support with responding to briefs and writing proposals for new and existing partners in the US, as well as taking part in pitches and presenting proposals.
Must haves:
- Strategic Experience: Proven track record and experience of developing and implementing effective strategies and influencing stakeholders. The individual should have at least 10 years of strategic experience.
- Problem solving: Using logic, as well as imagination, to make sense of a situation and come up with realistic and workable solutions.
- Leadership: Experience of leading meetings with partners and taking a lead on the creation of various strategies.
- Agency experience: We’d ideally like to bring someone on board who has agency and sector experience.
- Collaboration: Working collaboratively in a team, as well as independently, and willing to roll up your sleeves during short intensive sprints.
- Clarity and simplification: From presenting ideas to the internal team or our partners, to delivering strategy documents, you present and organise information in a clear, engaging way that resonates and creates clarity and alignment.
- Proactivity: Taking ownership and autonomy over your work, solving problems that others may not have noticed, and going out of your way to continue learning and growing.
- Time management: Effectively planning and organising how to divide your time between specific projects and activities, balancing the art of flexibility with realism.
Q&A:
Who are we? We’re Shape History, the social impact communications agency. We work with our partners on some of the biggest issues facing humanity today, from Climate Change to Gender Equality, Digital Health to Inequality. We harness the power of communication to inspire inventive thinking and propel social impact leaders and change makers to create a fairer world faster.
Where do you need to be based? We have partners all across the US but we’d primarily be looking for someone based on the East Coast.
How often will you be needed? We can be flexible but ideally part-time, approximately 2-3 days per week.
How much and how often will you be paid? We’ll agree on a day rate with you and pay you for the hours you complete at the end of each month.
How do you apply? Send us your details and let’s have a call! Reach out on recruitment@shapehistory.com
When will we be making a decision on who to bring on board? We’ll be looking through applications on a rolling basis and we’d like to bring someone on board anytime from March onwards.
Race Equity:
We are committed to having an inclusive culture in which everyone feels safe and supported to achieve their potential. There is a long way to go in implementing race equity in the sector and we have a robust strategy in place for delivering this at Shape History. We actively encourage applications from underrepresented and minority groups, including those with lived experience of social issues we are working to address.
ApplyUX & UI Design Lead
The Role:
Do you find yourself constantly coming up with ideas that you just want to explore and share? Do you love guiding others to develop their own ideas? Do you want the opportunity to grow and lead a team of passionate creatives? If this sounds like you, you could be what we’re looking for.
Hi! We’re Shape History, a social impact communications agency based in London and we’re looking for a passionate storyteller and a creative visionary to come and shake up our UI/UX team. You will have no problem with exuding creativity through the agency, both internally through culture and externally through projects. You will be a vital part in evolving a fast-growing young and thirsty agency. We’re looking for candidates with at least 5 years of experience in UI/UX design to innovate and elevate our work.
How you’ll be shaping history everyday…
- Ideate: Using strategic and behavioural analysis, you will develop multi-platform design workflows for new or existing brands. You will support brainstorms to inspire new ideas and work together with our strategists & developers to deliver branded UI/UX behavioural design.
- Deliver: You will ideate, design and develop wireframes and page designs for websites with varying degrees of complexity. In doing so, you will manage digital design workflows and implement briefs to a schedule. Through leading the development of designs that are innovative and intuitive, you will ensure brand consistency and quality throughout.
- Mentoring: You will act as a mentor to our UI/UX team, nurturing them to become the best version of themselves by guiding them through their work and goal setting. You will act as a soundboard and a quality check to enhance the quality of their work.
- Strategic mindset: You will understand the needs of our partners, what they’re trying to achieve and their audiences. You will be comfortable at pushing the boundaries of creativity and developing ideas that will resonate with a variety of audiences.
- Pitching creativity: You will feel comfortable pitching both your ideas and those of the team to new or existing partners (we call clients partners). You will react to feedback that might arise and be flexible in your response. This will also involve contributing to new business proposals, collaborating with other team members.
- Disrupting: Identifying where our UI/UX work can evolve to the highest quality and sharing feedback in a respectful way to other team members. Through this, you will stretch the boundaries of creativity for the agency as a whole. You will be a constant well of inspiration and new ways of doing things to help disrupt the space and inspire creativity.
- Representing the brand: You will keep a keen eye on all internal and external marketing, finding new ways to live and breathe our creativity both within the physical office space and online.
You’re good at…
- Behavioural design: With 5 years minimum experience, you’re able to demonstrate an excellent understanding of behaviour design and you have a clear process of brand implementation.
- Project management: You are responsive, comprehensive and detailed in your project management approach, feeling comfortable speaking with our partners (clients).
- Collaboration: Working collaboratively in a team, as well as independently, and willing to roll up your sleeves during short intensive sprints.
- Open-minded: Willing to step outside your comfort zone, and work on a variety of new and different outputs to evolve your skill sets.
- Stress Management and Adaptability: You feel comfortable adapting your planned course of action when unexpected issues arise, and are able to effectively manage and surpass stressful situations. This involves managing a complex and reactive workload.
- Clarity and simplification: With your experience of leading meetings, you will feel comfortable presenting ideas to the internal team or our partners in an engaging way that resonates and creates clarity and alignment.
- Familiarity with creative software: You may not be an expert but you will be familiar with Adobe Suite and Figma.
- Proactivity: Taking ownership and autonomy over your work, solving problems that others may not have noticed, and going out of your way to continue learning and growing.
- Agency experience: Your agency experience will allow you to understand how the sector works and how to prioritise your different tasks.
Extra bit of awesome:
- Knowledge and background in the social impact/charity/political sector, whether that be volunteering or working with charities, campaigns, NGOs, funders, or institutions.
Race Equity:
We are committed to having an inclusive culture in which everyone feels safe and supported to achieve their potential. There is a long way to go in implementing race equity in the sector and we have a robust strategy in place for delivering this at Shape History. We actively encourage applications from underrepresented and minority groups, including those with lived experience of social issues we are working to address.
Remuneration:
Base salary between 40,000-50,000 plus discretionary personal & company bonus
Recruitment process:
As part of our process, we use blind recruitment in our first round of applications. This is part of a wider race equity strategy at Shape History. When applying for this role, you will be taken to a Typeform link where you’ll be asked a series of questions.
We will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis.
JOIN THE TEAM
Our team are full of campaigners who genuinely want to create an impact in society. We see the agency as a place for individual and collective evolution. We therefore put an emphasis on training for the team and ensure that everyone can be their full self when coming into the office.
WHY JOIN OUR TEAM?
We put the individuals in the Shape History team at the heart of every decision that is made. Here are some of the reasons we think you should join the team.
We offer grants to team members to build passion projects with no restrictions. We also run our own internal campaigns with ideas coming from the team.
We understand that people work best at different times in the day, and either at home or in the office so we're super flexible!
4x per year, the full team comes together to take part in workshops, activities and socials. Previous team days have included axe throwing (not at each other), graffiti spraying and team challenges around London.
Each team member is entitled to 24 days of holiday plus a Christmas shutdown period and bank holidays. We also have an enhanced parental leave policy.
We think that the team has a vitamin C deficiency because the amount of fruit they devour during Monday huddles is ridiculous. Enjoy that, as well as prosecco Thursdays!
Our main priority is our team and the culture that runs throughout the agency. We put emphasis on working with team members to unfold their individual and unique potential.