Conservation careers: Senior Project Manager, April Matthews

What does your current role at WWF involve?????

My current role with WWF involves managing the way we work on big and priority campaigns such as Save Our Wild Isles. This includes agreeing internal governance (who makes the decisions), managing budgets, and helping to ensure everyone involved has all the information they need at the right time, whilst supporting all the teams involved from campaign design through to delivery. It also means a lot of problem solving!?

Save Our Wild Isles is a joint campaign with the National Trust and RSPB, so this also meant working closely with our counterparts at both these organisations - a huge additional challenge. Basic things like diary management, sign off and of course budget management all become more complication when you’re working across the three organisations.??

What led you to your current role?

It’s not been a straightforward journey, but I have stuck to my strengths and interests since leaving education. During my degree I did a placement year at 3M PLC as a European Marketing Assistant. This was a brilliant experience: I got to taste what a B2B marketing job in a big corporation was like and really got to understand what I did and didn’t enjoy. After my studies, some traveling and a couple of temporary roles, I landed my first full-time role as an account executive at a small marketing agency. During this time, I also joined a local Greenpeace volunteer group, where I was really introduced to campaigning - I then started applying for marketing jobs at various environmental charities.??

Eventually, I got an interview at WWF-UK as a Service Delivery Executive. This role evolved into a project management role and in my first few years I undertook a secondment into the Advocacy Campaigns teams for 3 months – I loved it. It was fascinating learning about power dynamics and advocacy strategy.?

I got promoted to Senior Project Manager leading on fundraising priority campaigns. I really enjoyed these roles as they involved both creative development and my project management skills, which I developed after undertaking a PRINCE2 certification.?

Before landing my current role, I was promoted to interim Head of Supporter Acquisition. This was a real career path moment for me. I could have happily stayed in fundraising as I loved the team and knew the role well, but after much deliberation I took a leap of faith and side stepped into Advocacy and Campaigns as Senior Project Manager and within a few weeks was working on Save Our Wild Isles!?

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What fuelled your passion to work in conservation/environment????

I have always loved animals. Thinking back there were a few signs the WWF was the place for me. My bedroom as a child was covered in lion, tiger, leopards print, then later dolphins. I had a panda litter bin. At university I dressed up as a panda for a friend's birthday night out...no I’m not sharing pictures!??

After university, I decided I wanted to go traveling before jumping into full-time work. It was one of the best things I’ve done for my personal development, and it changed the direction of my career. I lived in various places in Australia over 2 years and visited New Zealand and Southeast Asia – I even volunteered at an elephant sanctuary for a week. During my travels, my interest and passion for animal rights and the environment developed. I saw first-hand the damage that can be done to wildlife and how fragile the beautiful places I was visiting were. It was my experiences travelling that made me shift from a more straight forward marketing job to want to use those skills to support wildlife and the environment instead of selling products.?

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What do you enjoy most about your job??

I work with some of the most incredible, bright and passionate people. From polar scientists, comms geniuses, website developers to international finance policy experts! Being part of an international organisation, I’ve been able to connect with people from around the world and learn about their culture and lives. Working with these people really makes me feel part of something bigger than myself.?

I’ve had so many memorable moments, a couple that jump out at me are:??

1. Seeing the Walrus From Space project go live and thousands of people from around the world searching satellite imagery for walrus to help conserve them.??
2. Being part of Earth Hour – a group of us were in a temporary office in London helping to document the switch off and getting the images out on WWF channels.??
3. Launch of the Save Our Wild Isle’s campaign!??

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Which aspects of your job do you find challenging????

The flip side of doing a job that has potential to make a positive difference is the added pressure you put on yourself to get things right. Sometimes we don’t achieve the full impact we had wished and worked so hard for. The issues we are trying to tackle are so complicated and when you are reading/hearing about these problems all the time and working hard to tackle them it can impact how you react to, oh I don’t know, say one of your neighbours not recycling properly!?

Also working from home several days a week, while it has had other benefits, has made internal communication, co-ordination of teams and running a big campaign harder. ?

What advice do you have for someone who is looking to get a similar role????

My advice is to follow and develop your skills as well as your passions. I was never a scientist or conservationist; I am a creative, organised, numbers and process driven animal lover and all organisations need all types of skills.??

Look at job descriptions for jobs you find interesting and identify what gaps you may have in knowledge or experience and endeavour to fill them (and apply anyway!). I would encourage people to look for opportunities in their current role that can help demonstrate skills, knowledge and interest in environmental issues and solutions. Is there opportunity to support your organisation’s ESG projects, or campaign for a small change at work that reduces the organisations environmental impact?? Or volunteer or study environmental issues at home where you can.??

What gives you hope when thinking about the future of our planet????

All the incredible people I work with putting their passion and skills into solving the most complex issues! And seeing the number of supporters we have giving their time, money and voices to bring our world back to life. ?

Also many of the solutions to our environmental issues are out there they just require scaling. And to scale we need everyone, governments, business and communities to act.??