Now Hiring! Communications Manager
Join the effort to advance reproductive Freedom in Minnesota as Our Justice’s New Communications Manager!
Title: Communications Manager
Supervised by: Board Vice Chair, Our Justice Executive Committee
Supervises: Volunteers
Status: Full-time, salaried
Salary level: Manager
Date revised: January 2021
Pay: $55,000 per year
Benefits: Health insurance, phone reimbursement and computer provided
To Apply:
Send resume, cover letter, and three communications samples to contact@ourjustice.net under the subject line “Communications Manager Application” no later than Monday, January 18th, 2021. If you have any questions about the position please email stephanie@ourjustice.net.
Organizational Overview
Every day, people are making decisions about sex, pregnancy, and parenting, and many encounter enormous challenges due to lack of resources and support.
Our Justice has always worked to provide people with the resources they need now, while also advocating for policy change that would make these resources more available and remove many of these challenges altogether. Founded in 1967 by a small group of doctors, clergy, and community members to assist Minnesota women in accessing abortion care, Our Justice continues to support people’s reproductive and sexual human rights.
Currently, our work is spread out across a committee structure and powered by a working board, active volunteers, and two full-time staff members. This position will round out a trio of full-time staff members, including programming (Vision Realization Advisor) and development. These three positions will work as a horizontal team, taking direction from committee work and reporting to the board and executive committees.
Position Description
Our Justice is seeking a full-time, salaried Communications Manager to tell the story of our organization - our work, our history, our values - to our key audiences in a new, consistent, and engaging way. In this role, you can collaborate with our small team and volunteers to help this organization of over 50 years deepen community understanding of reproductive justice, educate and activate folks around our work to remove Minnesota’s unconstitutional anti-abortion restrictions, help Our Justice show up for our partners, and strengthen relationships with our community allies and supporters.
Essential Job Functions
Amplifying Our Work to Remove Minnesota’s Abortion Restrictions (approximately 40% of the position)
Tell the story of our participation in the current Doe v. Minnesota case to remove Minnesota’s abortion restrictions. Ensure that messaging reaches out to and beyond our supporters and integrates with fundraising goals.
Cultivate Our Justice as an essential voice in this work by drafting organizational messaging and talking points, conducting or coordinating spokesperson and media training for the Board Chair, Vision Realization Advisor, and others as assigned, and developing and executing an earned media strategy.
Represent Our Justice as co-leaders of the UnRestrict Minnesota campaign. Ensure our organization and the folks we serve have an active voice in the campaign, lead and/or support coalition activities, and amplify UnRestrict Minnesota communications across our channels.
Aid in the practical aspects of our role as a plaintiff in a currently ongoing lawsuit, including help with gathering discovery documents, cataloging and communicating historical information, and other activities as determined.
Attend all UnRestrict Minnesota Community Partner meetings (1-2/month), attend UnRestrict Minnesota leadership meetings if determined needed (up to 1/week), lead (or co-lead) sub-committees as assigned.
Amplifying Our Justice’s Programmatic Work (approximately 50% of the position)
Ensure the breadth of Our Justice’s programmatic work (Abortion Assistance Fund, Abortion Assistance Lodging Program, Emerge, Curbside Plan BⓇ, community advocacy) is reaching key audiences in vibrant, authentic, and engaging ways.
Oversee and execute OurJustice’s digital communications, including social media and email, and ensuring our blog and website is regularly up-to-date. Publish original content and graphics that match our brand voice and identity.
Grow Our Justice’s current and timely voice through rapid response communications as appropriate.
Work with the communication, fundraising, and programmatic teams to hold a central communications calendar to organize and work off of.
Support Our Justice’s major events with an “all hands on deck” approach, especially but not limited to Our Justice’s booth at the Minnesota State Fair/Pleasure Summer and the spring Fund-a-Thon. Employee must commit to being in town and accessible during the full duration of the Minnesota State Fair (during active seasons) and to working 7x 4-hr shifts at Our Justice’s booth.
Cultivate our organizational culture by acting as “moderator” on Our Justice’s closed Facebook group and Slack channels.
Monitor and amplify shared communications from partner organizations, including the National Network of Abortion Funds.
Other (approximately 10% of the position)
Support the success and engagement of the Communications & Fundraising Committee by attending meetings, preparing materials as needed, and collaborating with the committee leads.
Support the work of additional Our Justice committees as needed.
Actively participate in required convenings, summits, retreats, and org meetings, and participate in required virtual staff communications.
Protect the organization by keeping information confidential.
Update professional knowledge by participating in educational opportunities approved by Our Justice, maintaining networks, and participating in professional organizations relevant to your role.
Perform duties required of all staff to support smooth internal operations such as submitting timely reports, reimbursement requests, and timesheets.
Perform other duties as assigned by the Board and Executive Committee.
Travel Expectations
Travel is currently limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a post-COVID landscape, state, regional, and sometimes national travel would be expected no more than 6 times per year. Ability to travel locally (2-3x or more per week) within the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area is required. Reliable transportation to and from the State Fairgrounds during active Minnesota State Fair years a must. Regardless of where an employee lives, and barring travel delays, outside an individual’s control, employee must be able to arrive at destination on-time.
Travel precautions and suspensions will be made in order to ensure safety amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Benchmarks
Work with Program and Fundraising teams to develop a communications calendar.
Increase reach and engagement across all platforms - social, email, etc.
Develop Our Justice’s leaders as effective public spokespeople around our work, Doe v. Minnesota, and UnRestrict Minnesota.
Launch a successful campaign highlighting the history or our work and our efforts to advance reproductive freedom by removing Minnesota’s abortion restrictions.
Qualifications
Job experience requirements
5+ years of PR/media relations experience and digital communications (can include volunteer or student work)
Demonstrated writing, editing, and proofreading skills - with evidence of good storytelling ability.
Meaningful personal and/or professional engagement in movements or organizations centered around BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) communities.
Experience with reproductive justice and/or racial and social justice movements.
Ability to self-manage and work outside traditional work week, as needed.
Specific skill sets
Understanding of public relations, marketing, and communications.
Technology acumen - CRM experience (EveryAction preferred), Squarespace, social media platforms. HTML knowledge a plus.
Strong interpersonal skills. Comfortable delegating tasks, working with coalition partners, managing volunteers, managing up, and working with a network of folks with varying degrees of involvement and capacity.
Candidate has a strong confidence center - is comfortable handling the ambiguity and change that comes from working with a small organization in a period of transformation and growth.
Comfortable working within a place of what can be v. what has been established.
Qualities
Committed to abortion access, reproductive justice, and full reproductive health care for all.
Committed to an intersectional framework that includes, but is not limited to gender, economic, and racial justice.
Ability to enjoy collaboration and be a part of a dynamic and integrated team; maintain flexibility and effectively manage ambiguity and/or gaps in communication that are common in a volunteer-heavy work environment.
Self-motivated, resourceful, creative, and able to work without significant day-to-day supervision.
Open to giving and receiving feedback and committed to practicing this regularly.
Appreciation of working with diverse staff and board in an organization committed to racial justice.
Demonstrates commitment to organizational stability
Work Environment
The physical demands and work environment described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with different abilities to perform the essential functions.
Our Justice is led by a volunteer working board and committees who regularly meet in off hours including evenings and weekends. Our Justice staff must be flexible and able to attend these meetings as much as possible, being able to prioritize their time in a flexible way.
Depending on location, a combination of in-office and virtual office at this time. Must be able to participate in online virtual communications including email, video conferencing, and other online tools used to facilitate virtual office culture and work sharing.
This position is full time, with employee’s regular full time schedule to be approved by supervisor.
Must be able to conduct business in English; however, fluency in languages other than English is a plus.
Some work at off-site locations may be required; Our Justice aims for accessibility in any off-site location that we have control of, but some of them may not be fully accessible.
This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, and scanners. Employee is regularly required to communicate effectively via computer, via phone, and in person.
This role requires frequent sitting.
As an organization rooted in Reproductive Justice and anti-racism, Our Justice is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any individual based on any non-merit factor. Our Justice is committed to an equitable workplace where everyone is treated as a respected and valued member of the team. Our Justice actively seeks to build and maintain a diverse staff with regard to race, culture, ethnicity, class, religion, physical ability, age, gender, and sexual orientation. As an organization working in solidarity with the reproductive justice movement, Our Justice is committed to fostering the leadership and elevating the voices of women, young people, people of color, Native people, immigrant and refugees, low-income people, LGBQ+, and transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary people, people who have had abortions, people with disabilities, young parents, people who were formerly imprisoned, people who have received funding for abortions, and people living in the many intersections of these experiences. We encourage people from these communities to apply.