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Nonprofit Remote Digest - Issue #405
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Nonprofit Remote Digest - Issue #405

Nonprofit Remote
Jun 23, 2020
Share this post
Nonprofit Remote Digest - Issue #405
digest.nonprofitremote.com

Common Defense is the country’s only veteran-led grassroots organization committed to engaging, organizing, training and mobilizing veterans to elect accountable leaders and promote progressive values in 2020 and beyond.


Common Defense — commondefense.us We started Common Defense to oppose Trump's corrupt administration, organize our community into a powerful force, and elect champions our nation deserves.

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Communications Manager

Position Overview:

The Communications Manager will direct and shape Common Defense’s internal and external communications and social media. The ideal candidate will have a finely-tuned sense of compelling storytelling, be comfortable working independently, have experience liaising with the press, have a demonstrated commitment to people-powered progressive social change.

Supervision and team members:

  • Reports to the Political Director

  • Works in collaboration with the Political team and Organizing team

  • Supervises the work of the Digital team

  • Supervises volunteers in a Speakers & Writers Bureau

Primary Duties:

Strategic planning and capacity-building

  • Develop communications strategies to further Common Defense’s campaign goals and overall narrative strategy, continually expand our audience, recruit new members, and provide avenues for current members to become more active.

  • Organize Common Defense staff and volunteers into a speakers & writers bureau, to include:

  • Uplift traditionally marginalized voices, and intentionally and proactively collaborate with these members on message development.

  • Design and implement introductory and sustainment spokesperson and interview training for members of the speakers & writers bureau on an ongoing basis, taking care to invest in developing a diverse range of speakers

  • Draft talking points and messaging products to prepare Common Defense spokespeople, consistent with Common Defense’s narrative strategy guidelines

  • Facilitate “after-action” assessments with speakers

  • Recruit and supervise communications, social media, and design volunteers to assist with communications duties.

Earned Media

  • Deepen awareness of Common Defense among the media in line with the communications strategy, to include:

  • Manage, maintain, and build local, national, and issue-based press lists

  • Cultivate and hold relationships with individual journalists, producers, and bookers

  • Develop press kits for Common Defense campaigns

  • Develop and make pitches in collaboration with the Political Director, including:

  • Draft and pitch op-eds to opinion editors at local and national publications

  • Pitch media bookers on Common Defense speakers as guests

  • Develop and pitch story concepts to reporters

  • Manage rapid response to breaking events, including:

  • Conduct scenario-planning with Common Defense staff around potential rapid response scenarios

  • Draft and send press releases, media advisories, and statements on behalf of Common Defense leadership

  • Field and prioritize press inquiries

  • Organize press conferences and act as a media liaison at public events

  • Develop op-ed and Letter to the Editor (LTE) campaign concepts and draft templates

  • Monitor press mentions and share clips with Common Defense staff and volunteers

Digital

  • Oversee the team of digital consultants by editing and approving emails, ads, petitions, and other content they draft to engage grassroots supporters and small-dollar donors

  • Develop partnerships with ally organizations and other strategies to enable list growth

Social Media & content creation

  • Occasionally shoot, curate, and organize photo and video content

  • Design and create multimedia content including graphics and memes, and perform basic video editing such as adding captions and cutting clips

  • Cultivate and hold relationships with communications and social media staff at ally organizations and campaigns

  • Create and implement a content calendar for Common Defense social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

  • Cultivate and hold relationships with social media influencers

  • Develop concepts for social media actions to be taken by Common Defense members

  • Update the Common Defense website as needed

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

  • Shares the progressive values of Common Defense, our commitments to equity, and supports our theory of change

  • Minimum two years of relevant experience (either paid or unpaid)

  • Fluency in US military and veteran culture, idioms, institutions, organizations, ranks, operations, and basic service histories

  • The ability to work with, inspire, and develop volunteers, as well as build and sustain durable relationships with a wide variety of allies and stakeholders.

  • Seasoned news judgement, with a solid understanding of the media ecosystem and compelling media narratives.

  • Quick and persuasive writer and storyteller, with the ability to translate complex issues into everyday language and memorable sound bites

  • Strong project management, time management, and planning skills, with a demonstrated ability to take initiative and drive projects forward independentlyA strategic mindset that identifies short-term and long-term opportunities, and an ability to balance conducting rapid-response with pursuing long-term objectives simultaneously

  • Demonstrated ability to operate well under pressure, tight-deadlines, and while working remotely

  • Fluency with Google suite, including Docs, Sheets, Calendar, Slides, and Drive

  • Basic graphic design and video editing skills (eg. the ability to produce simple graphics, or add captions to a cell phone video)

Optional-but-beneficial Qualifications:

  • Additional years of relevant education or experience (either paid or unpaid)

  •  Graduate of the Veterans Organizing Institute, or other training programs which teach narrative strategy

  • Past history of involvement with Common Defense or other veteran organizing

  • Experience with Democratic electoral campaigns

  • Experience with progressive movement or labor organizing

  • Experience with small-dollar grassroots digital fundraising list management, including an understanding of reputations, using analytics to optimize open and click rates, executing multi-organizational joint action petitions, and other list health best practices.

  • Existing relationships with journalists, opinion editors, producers, media bookers, and social media influencers, particularly those covering:

  • Veterans and the military

  • Progressive movement and electoral politics

  • Media sectors serving underrepresented communities (eg LGBTQ media, Black media, Native American media, etc)

  • Beltway policymaker-facing media outlets

  • Existing relationships with progressive elected officials and legislative staff, as well as organizers, staff, and leaders of other progressive organizations, think tanks, movements, or member-led grassroots organizations.

  • Fluency with setup and back-end management of tools and CRMs, including:

  • Social media management tools such as Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Actionsprout, and alternatives

  • Mobilization tools such as New/Mode & Phone2Action

  • Phone banking and texting tools such as Hustle, GetThru, etc

  • Content management systems such as WordPress

  • CRMs such as NGP VAN, ActionKit, and Mailchimp

  • PR software such as Cision

  • Physical residence in Washington D.C., New York City, or one of the following states: AZ, CO, FL, GA, IA, ME, MI, NC, NH, NV, OH, PA, RI, WI

  • Fluency in Spanish

  • Advanced graphic design and video editing skills (e.g. the ability to create professional-quality pamphlets and flyers, or film and edit a promotional video including clips from different sources)

  • Advanced proficiency with Photoshop, Canva, and other graphic design and video editing software.

  • A substantial existing politically-engaged personal social media audience

Common Defense is an equal opportunity employer, and is strongly committed to welcoming, supporting, investing in, and empowering a workforce that reflects the full diversity of the military community we serve. We strongly seek and encourage candidates who are military veterans, women, LGBTQIA+, Native, People of Color, immigrants, and people with disabilities to apply.

Benefits

All work is remote, with flexible hours and paid time off, with a baseline of expected availability between the hours of 10AM-6PM EST, M-F. Evenings and weekend work are occasionally required, compensated by comp time.

On top of base compensation, employees are provided with a technology stipend for purchasing equipment such as laptops required for their duties, and a healthcare stipend is provided for the employee and dependents to either purchase or supplement health insurance.

Level of Language Proficiency

Spanish proficiency a plus

How to Apply

jobs@commondefense.us

http://commondefense.us

Candidates will be considered on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Please send application materials to Jobs@commondefense.us 

Applications should include:

  • A Resume (1 page)

  • Two references

  • Answers to the following questions in lieu of a cover letter:

  • What is your motivation for applying to this position? (suggested 200 words)

  • Describe a challenging project you have led which relates to one of the responsibilities of the position, and how you approached it. (suggested 200 words)

  • Up to three writing samples (e.g. a media pitch, communications plan, content calendar, press release, op-ed, talking points document, etc.)

  • Optional: A media clips portfolio linking to a few representative media hits that resulted from your work

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