Untangling your knotty moments
Nataliya Deleva
Interim and fractional brand, marketing and digital engagement leadership
I lead brand, marketing and digital engagement for charities, and have done for more than twenty years, at Barnardo's, Macmillan Cancer Support, WaterAid and Ronald McDonald House UK.
Now I work with charities that need senior marketing and digital leadership but not always a permanent hire: as an interim during a vacancy, as a fractional marketing director or head of team a few days a week, or leading a defined piece of work from start to finish.
89%
brand awareness at Barnardo's, 2% above target
£3m
raised for young people from disadvantaged communities in 18 months through the Barnardo's × Co-op partnership
2.3m
engagements for Macmillan's #LifeWithCancer campaign, four times the previous year
Each of these results was achieved in a collaborative, cross-functional and integrated way.
How I can help
These are some of the knotty moments I most often help charities and purpose-led organisations untangle.
01 Senior brand, marketing and digital leadership, when you need it
There might be a vacancy at the top of the function, a digital engagement or brand marketing leader on parental leave, or a talented team with nobody senior owning the strategy or leading the process of developing the theory of change. I step in as an interim/ fractional marketing head of function or an associate director, either full-time or a few days a week, developing the strategy, translating it into clear plans, leading the team to deliver the agreed priorities, collaborating with colleagues, agencies and partners, testing, constantly optimising and reporting to your senior leadership and board on the outcomes and the impact.
02 A marketing and digital engagement audit, with a roadmap you can act on
I love helping teams innovate and use technology with confidence in a responsible, ethical and strategic way, and it's great that digital engagement is something you see the value of and want to prioritise. But, despite having clear digital engagement goals and ambition, you might not know where to start, or you might simply be lacking the digital skills and resources in your team. To give you clarity on where to focus, I start with a marketing and digital engagement discovery & roadmap. I audit your digital engagement across three areas: 1) strategic approach; 2) channels, content and supporter journeys; and 3) skills and ways of working, including how you use technology and data, how you innovate responsibly and ethically, and how accessible and inclusive your content is. You get a roadmap of prioritised, actionable recommendations.
03 Team structure, skills and ways of working
Do you need someone to steady the team after organisational change, or do you actually need a team restructure but are not sure where to start or where the focus should be? I've worked with a number of charities which have passionate, capable people in structures that no longer fit. I audit skills and team design, recommend structures that match your strategy, ambition and budget, and co-design change with the people it affects.
I also build and introduce integrated, cross-team ways of working and workflows, so marketing, fundraising, content, technology, communications and services deliver to a single narrative and shared goals. This was my approach as a head of function both at Barnardo's and, most recently, at Ronald McDonald House UK, where the team restructure I led brought key skills in-house and steadied the team during and after change – great for our budget and morale.
04 A brand refresh, a new website or a campaign launch
You might have a brilliant campaign in the planning, but teams work in silos, and there's no one to bring everyone cross-functionally and to deliver the project in an integrated way of working. That task could be a marketing campaign, a digital transformation project, a new website, or a brand refresh. Any of these projects might seem too vast and need someone to scope it, lead the team and the external partners, and deliver it. I step in and own the process: from discovery, strategy and creative development through to launch and, crucially, adoption across every channel and team. At Ronald McDonald House UK, I led the launch and adoption of a new brand in under nine months, including a new website and a multi-channel campaign built to raise awareness and support income growth.
05 Integrated storytelling
Does your organisation have a concise, powerful brand story? What is your why at the core of everything you do? And how do you translate and integrate it across channels consistently? Imagine this: Brand just launched a campaign, but Fundraising and Special Events have five other priorities this month, which all need different content and calls to action, then the PR and Policy teams run with a completely separate campaign because now it's the time to influence the government, and Services, frankly, don't even know what to do with it all, because they've been asked to post on the socials, but clearly their priority is to support people.
If it sounds familiar, and despite the goodwill and some already brilliant thinking, your brand stays separate from the rest, and your content and messaging still seem disjointed and often confusing for your audiences, I can help. Storytelling keeps me going – apart from leading content and brand work in the charity sector, I'm also a published novelist.
Of course, one brand doesn't mean the same content and message. It looks one way when you pitch your story to media, differently when you engage policymakers or partners on LinkedIn, and even more distinctly unique when you co-create with young people on TikTok or Instagram. Yet, in all of these instances, your brand story, the why at the core, should come through strong and concise.
In my recent roles, I've developed integrated storytelling approaches, brand, digital and communications strategies, and have introduced collaborative and integrated ways of working, so that the charity speaks with one voice and confidently flexes the message for different audiences. If you're interested, we could explore different ways of working together on this: from collaborative workshops to deeper work with your teams longer term as an interim/ fractional support.
My approach
I start by understanding and defining the real challenge, or knotty moment, and how it's blocking the impact we want to achieve, before I attempt to untangle it. That sometimes requires asking difficult questions and helping leadership stay with the reality of where things actually are.
From there, I work in collaboration with your team and across the wider organisation, and I'm always guided by three principles:
Enable greater impact.
I start with the outcomes we want to achieve together, then make sure your team has the clarity, trust and room to get there.
Collaborate and co-create.
I bring teams together across the organisation and co-design the work with the people your charity supports, so their lived and living experience shapes it from the start.
Stay inclusive and curious.
I do my best work where inclusion is part of everyday practice, in how teams work together and how content is made – well beyond a policy written and filed away. I start with the question, "how can I support you to be at your best?", then listen closely and make sure you have what you need.
Most recently at Ronald McDonald House UK, I led the launch and adoption of a new brand in under nine months, including a new website and a multi-channel campaign, alongside a team restructure that brought key skills in-house.
Nataliya brings a valuable and rare combination of strategic thinking, pragmatism and deep care for people. I was immediately impressed by how quickly she got to grips with enormous complexity. Her lack of ego and laser-sharp focus on the bigger goal meant that we were able to challenge each other and have honest conversations in a way that always felt constructive and focused on the best outcome.
I always trusted Nataliya’s judgement and steer. She led with ambition, but also with empathy and integrity. She has an impressive and continually evolving specialist skillset, an enthusiasm for all things digital, a passion for equity and inclusion, and particular expertise in accessibility.
If some of this sounds like a knotty moment your organisation is facing, I'd love to help.
Let's chat