The Donkey Sanctuary is an international animal welfare organisation, offering care and protection to donkeys worldwide. Our vision is a world where every donkey has a good quality of life, and our mission is to improve the lives of donkeys every day. We will achieve this by transforming the lives of donkeys in need worldwide by fostering greater understanding, collaboration and support, and by promoting lasting, mutually life-enhancing relationships. 

The board of The Donkey Sanctuary are seeking a new CEO to lead it through its next evolution. The successful candidate will be an experienced leader, comfortable in operating within an increasingly global organisation. They will oversee an organisation with a make-up of overseas programmes and physical facilities that require different approaches to oversight. They will understand how to get the best out of staff and build and be able to demonstrate the approach of compassionate leadership and help drive ambition and inspiration through the organisation. Critically they will be able to quickly understand the organisational model and build a strategy for the next five years, gaining the remit from the board to do so.

The right individual will be adept at operating and communicating at the nexus of sectors and issues that relate to the welfare of donkeys. Key to this existence at the nexus of sectors is a high degree of competence as a networker, able to generate leads and deliver results against them. They will be a good orator and be able to mobilise and inspire audiences, ensuring that the organisation is seen as the voice for donkeys globally. They will be principled, passionate and able to sell a strategic vision and communicate this to different stakeholders internally and externally. They will be able to build bridges and deploy diplomacy as well as be able to communicate hard truths and negotiate effectively. Self-aware and culturally attuned, they will be comfortable in global forums and working internationally.

The individual will be able to inspire staff and take them on the strategic journey with global ambition. Equally the new CEO should be able to shepherd all of the organisations stakeholders through the next strategic period. Of critical importance is tying together the organisation culture overseas with the one based in the UK and providing coherence and unity between the two. They will understand how to foster accountability across the leadership team of the organisation. They will be on-site, visible, available to staff and collaborative.

The organisation benefits from a stability of income and as such the future strategy will be evolutionary in nature; essentially maintaining trajectory and improving in quality and professionalism, while providing the stability of a mature organisation. The key strategic change will be toward more impact in low to middle income countries where donkey welfare requires attention.

The right individual can come from any sector or background as long as they are credible in the role. They need to be passionate about animals and their place in society. The individual will have a track record of working successfully with boards and have an enthusiasm in working with them to steward the organisation. The organisations interaction with the board revolves around committee work as such the CEO should feel comfortable in this environment. In return, the CEO can expect a level of autonomy, but must also be comfortable with the board engaging more broadly with the executive if needs require.

Oxford HR are handling the recruitment for this role and if you are interested please apply via - Chief Executive Officer - The Donkey Sanctuary - Oxford HR

The Donkey Sanctuary is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable people (children and adults), and expects all staff and volunteers to undertake this commitment. Applicants will be subject to safer recruitment processes, including an application for a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check where required for the post.

The Donkey Sanctuary also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme and, for relevant posts, may request information from applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment.

Please note: The Guaranteed interview scheme is only applicable to candidates who consider themselves to have a disability applying for roles based within the United Kingdom.

NOTE TO APPLICANTS: We look forward to receiving your application, but we do ask you to complete this in your own words, and not to employ an Artificial Intelligence (AI) writing tool or assistant. Applications that are considered not to be an applicant’s own work may not be shortlisted for interview.

Before submitting your application, please ensure you read our candidate journey page, in particular our FAQs section – https://jobs.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/jobs/candidate-journey/