We're hiring a Communications and Advocacy Director!

Our Justice is hiring a full-time Communications and Advocacy Director to tell our story, share information about our direct services, and build community power for reproductive justice in Minnesota.

JOB DESCRIPTION 

COMMUNICATIONS & ADVOCACY DIRECTOR

Title: Communications & Advocacy Director

Supervised by: Executive Director 

Status: Full-time, salaried 

Salary level: Director 

Pay: $56,000-$67,500 per year 

Benefits: Health and dental insurance, wellness and phone stipends, unlimited PTO 

Location:  Work from home, Twin Cities, MN based; co-working space available

Projected Hiring Timeline:  Open for applications through July 23; interviews late July - early August; job offer mid-late August; anticipated start date in early-mid September. 


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 to access reproductive care 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. 

Position Description 

Our Justice’s Communications and Advocacy Director tells the story of our organization - our work, our history, our values - and leads advocacy projects that align with our values and meaningfully impact our clients’ ability to access abortion care. 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 make abortion and all reproductive health care radically accessible, help Our Justice show up for our partners, and strengthen relationships with our community allies and supporters.


Essential Job Functions 

Directing Overall Communications Direction and Strategy (approximately 40% of the position) 

  • Coordinate with fundraising and programmatic teams to curate and manage a central communications calendar 

  • Create, 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 voice through timely and impactful rapid response communications.

  • Monitor and amplify shared communications from partner organizations.

  • Update the communications strategy and plan for Our Justice providing strategic direction, oversight, coordination, and priority setting.

  • Create communications and media materials, including but not limited to web content, brochures, annual reports, fact sheets, advocacy and fundraising emails, newsletters, press releases, media pitches, toolkits, and other publications.

  • Lead projects that shape, gauge, and translate complex public opinion and message research, both qualitative and quantitative, into actionable tactics to advance reproductive freedom.

  • Create and oversee earned media strategy, including proactively pitching stories, identifying earned media opportunities and building relationships with reporters to garner press.

  • Identify opportunities to lift the voices of Our Justice staff and members around key media moments.

  • Seek out new channels of engagement including micro-influencers in key communities and new means of audience segmentation and targeting, constantly pursuing innovation and results. 

  • Support fundraising in preparation and content development of grant applications.

Amplifying Our Justice’s Programmatic Work (approximately 25% 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. 

  • 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.

  • Prepare and edit communications pieces for the Executive Director, other staff, and board members including speeches and op-eds 

  • Establish a regular cadence of relevant, easily accessible content through various communication channels. Develop relationships with communities most impacted by reproductive oppression to share our resources and reduce abortion stigma.

Advocacy (approximately 25% of the position) 

  • Co-lead with Executive Director future advocacy initiatives that align with Our Justice’s values and strategic priorities - this looks like developing specific policy/service provision changes Our Justice would bring to elected officials, providers, insurance providers, etc. 

  • Curate audience specific educational materials for future advocacy initiatives

  • Stay up to date on national and local policy landscape 

  • Develop and sustain relationships with political stakeholders 

  • Power mapping elected officials and allies -learning about official positions, past votes, campaign platforms, past social media posts, endorsements, allies within the elected body/community at large

  • Writing talking points and general policy guidance based on Our Justice’s values - how will the given policy item make abortion and all repro care more accessible, correct reproductive injustices, etc.

Other (approximately 10% of the position) 

  • 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.

  • Perform duties required of all staff to support smooth internal operations such   as submitting timely reports and reimbursement requests.

  • Perform other duties as assigned by the Executive Director

  • Update professional knowledge by participating in educational opportunities approved by Our Justice, maintaining networks, and participating in professional organizations relevant to your role.


Travel Expectations 

Ability to travel locally (2-3x or more per week) within the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area is required. 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 advocacy, partnerships and direct service work.

  • Launch successful campaigns highlighting the changes in the Reproductive Justice ecosystem.


Qualifications 

Job experience requirements 

  • Leadership experience with communications, social media, PR/media relations & advocacy

  • Demonstrated writing, editing, and proofreading skills - with evidence of good storytelling ability. 

  • Demonstrated knowledge of Reproductive Justice & abortion landscape 

  • Ability to self-manage and work outside traditional work week, as needed. 

  • Experience with or strong connections to movements led by-and-for young Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) most directly impacted by and best positioned to end gender oppression

  • Enthusiasm for building relationships (i.e. engaging in many meetings, coffees, breakfasts, Zoom meetings, etc.) across grassroots movements to advance Our Justice’s purpose and vision


Specific skill sets 

  • Technology acumen - CRM experience (EveryAction preferred), Squarespace, social media platforms. HTML knowledge is a plus. 

  • Understanding of public relations, marketing, and communications.

  • 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. 

  • Leadership style that is emotionally intelligent, transparent, self-reflective, and comfortable working through moments of conflict and ambiguity

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. 

  • 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 the employee's regular full time schedule to be approved by the 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. 

Our Justice is committed to fostering the leadership and elevating the voices of Black people, 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. 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. 

To Apply:  Please submit your resume, three writing samples (one of which should be a social media sample), and a cover letter to contact@ourjustice.net.  As part of your cover letter, please describe how reproductive justice shows up in your life.  

Megumi Rierson