Narrative and Communications Director

Overview

THE ORGANIZATION
TakeAction Minnesota is a multiracial people’s organization building power for a government and economy that works for all of us. We’re a hub for Minnesota’s progressive movement, bringing together people and organizations to make more politically possible. Founded in 2006, TakeAction Minnesota exists because the challenges we face are bigger than one campaign or election cycle.

The Campaigns Team of TakeAction Minnesota includes staff in organizing, field, data, politics, and communications that campaign in multiple arenas. We use legislative, administrative, electoral and community outreach opportunities to build support, engage members, and build grassroots leadership that pushes towards long-term transformational change through our campaigns.

Our communications staff relate to tens of thousands of email and text subscribers weekly, as well as thousands of social media followers, more than any other area of our organization. We have established a reputation for clear political analysis and trusted information on a variety of issue areas and Minnesota politics generally.

POSITION SUMMARY
Our next Narrative and Communications Director will fiercely promote our organization’s vision and organizing; seizing opportunities to connect, inspire, and make meaning with the public, our members, and our partners in the movement ecosystem. They will be primarily responsible for leading the development and delivery of our work to change public narratives and through earned media and public-facing communications. They will be part of our Campaigns Team and work in partnership with others across the organization to drive strategies for narrative building across the multifaceted work of the organization. As we campaign collaboratively with labor, community, and political organizations, our Narrative and Communications Director will be a strategic leader in these shared spaces. The Narrative and Communications Director will leverage our organization to build the narrative and communications power necessary to make a transformative agenda inevitable for Minnesota.

PRIMARY FUNCTIONS — Essential duties and responsibilities may include, but are not limited to the following:

Lead Narrative Strategy

• Create and execute plans that build our power to shift public narratives towards our vision and values in order to continuously till the soil for campaigning towards a transformative agenda. Define narrative benchmarks, design strategies and tactics to move towards them, and assess both actual narrative shift and our impact on narrative shift over time.
• Assess the political landscape in order to represent our values and vision powerfully and clearly in public. Build and maintain relationships with key organizational partners and political stakeholders.
  Maintain relationships with content creators, technical professionals, artists, videographers, photographers, media, graphic designers and digital organizers in order to hold a diversity of tactics towards executing our strategies.
• Enroll stakeholders in the vision and work around narrative change in an ongoing way and throughout every aspect of our work.

Lead Earned Media Strategy

• Develop and implement strategies to land and use earned media in service of our campaigns and broader narrative change goals.
• Build and organize relationships with reporters as a vehicle for moving our campaign and narrative strategies.
• Prepare members and executive leadership to be public spokespeople for our campaigns and organization, and equip campaign spokespeople such as influencers, elected officials, organizational partners, and campaign staff with clear message guidance and preparation for that role.
• Develop and land earned media communications such as letters to the editor and opinion pieces in service of our campaigns.
• Track and measure earned media placements and their impact on our campaigns.

Provide Cross-Organizational Coaching & Capacity

• Draft, design, and manage content creation about our work for various targeted audiences, including organizational content for stakeholders such as executive stakeholder communication, funder proposals and reporting, and members.
• Advise and lead on branding design, quality, and consistency. Ensure our brand and voice are consistent, powerful, and mission-aligned throughout all of our internal and external communications and assets.
• Train and coach staff and members in communications tactics and tools and develop them to be powerful public personas as needed.
• Design and lead campaign communications plans.
• Build and share knowledge related to our campaigns including policies, power analysis, social theory, and current events.

Organizational Leadership & Management

• Build and manage a team of staff and contract capacity to implement this work. Provide project management leadership with cross-organizational staff teams, and manage budgets and contracts related to communications and narrative projects.
• Show up as an organizational leader in line with our values and vision, and bring a leadership development lens to staff and members in order to train, coach, and support their success.
• Develop and manage systems to track deliverables and measure impact about all aspects of the work.
• Develop ongoing expertise, staying on top of fast-changing trends and best practices to position TakeAction Minnesota on the leading edge of the strategic communications field.

QUALIFICATIONS

Skills and Capacities

• Visionary – Is a big-picture thinker and can develop and organize people into visions for the world and visions for the work. Thrives when taking steps to move their vision into action.
• Strategy Builder – Approaches work from a strategic lens and can develop and execute strategies that build off of each other and add up to more together. Has team leadership skills to support individuals within a team to play their role towards a collective strategic goal.
• Relationship-Builder – Relates well to people across differences, including differences of race, class, age, gender, and geography. Builds strong relationships, works through problems and challenges transparently and assertively, and displays cultural competency. Can effectively lead in managing projects with colleagues, including more junior and more senior staff.
• Solutions Oriented – Evaluates both successes and failures for clues to improvement, experiments and focuses on moving forward toward solutions, grasps the essence and the underlying structure of a project, takes initiative and makes proposals.
• Dealing with Ambiguity – Handles change in stride, can shift gears comfortably, can decide and act without having the total picture.

Knowledge and Experience

• Minimum of 5 years of communications experience, paid or volunteer, with a nonprofit, social justice, labor, and/or political organization.
• Strong track record of building and maintaining effective working relationships with co-workers, organizational partners, community representatives, and reporters.
• Demonstrated experience as an excellent verbal and written communicator as well as serving as final approver on public facing materials for an organization or institution.
• Track record of attention to detail and high standards for accuracy and precision.
• Proven ability to manage and prioritize multiple competing projects and tasks and developing written strategic communications work plans. Excellent personal accountability and follow through.
• Strong understanding of racial capitalism and has built narrative strategies and tactics to polarize against neoliberalism and conservative viewpoints.
• Can articulate a clear vision of what we need to build in the next 30 years in our state to combat the climate crisis.
• Can take complicated concepts like false solutions or green capitalism and make them clear choices for a wide audience.
• Experience accessing and analyzing digital metrics for impact on audience and narrative shift.
• Strong computer skills including MS Word, Excel and Outlook. Experience with additional tools related to photography, videography, graphic design, and video editing a plus.

Other Expectations

• A strong commitment to social, racial, and economic justice and progressive political change.
• Enthusiastically promote TakeAction Minnesota’s goals and priorities in compliance with all policies and procedures and have a deep investment in our shared agenda for change.
• Complete and coordinate special projects as needed.
• Other duties or tasks may be assigned on an as-needed basis.
• Flexibility to periodically work outside normal business hours that include evenings and weekends, and periodically work extended hours to accomplish requirements of the position.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORKING ENVIRONMENT
Work is performed in a standard office environment which requires occasionally lifting such articles as file boxes or heavier materials with help from others and/or lifting and carrying light objects frequently. A job in this category may require walking or standing to a significant degree or may involve sitting most of the time with long periods of computer work and heavy phone usage.

SALARY/BENEFITS/OTHER INFORMATION

• Salary is commensurate with experience and starts at $75,000. Category: Director 2.
• Full-time employment defined at thirty-two (32) hours a week.
• Full health and dental benefits through HealthPartners. TakeAction Minnesota pays 95% of monthly insurance premiums for the employee and their family.
• Long Term Disability, AD&D and life insurance provided at no cost to employee.
• 401(k) and Roth 401(K) Retirement plans with up to 3% employer match.
• 3 weeks of vacation in the first year, 2 weeks of sick and safe leave upon hire with another 2 weeks in the first year, 8 paid holidays, and an office closure the last week of the year.
• 12 weeks paid parental leave, as well as other health related extended paid leave options.
• Annual 4% guaranteed pay increase; Monthly reimbursements including cell phone and home internet use; annual wellness and professional development stipends.
• This position is NOT a member of the Minnesota Newspaper and Communications Guild.

REPORTS TO & LOCATION
This position reports directly to the Deputy Director. This position is located in our St. Paul office but may be required to occasionally travel.  In response to COVID-19, all employees are resourced to work from home or under a hybrid model as needed.

HOW TO APPLY
Click “Apply for this Position” in the job posting in our website www.takeactionminnesota.org.  Upload a cover letter, resume and three references. This position will be open until filled with application review beginning October 2nd.

NO PHONE CALLS OR EMAIL INQUIRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED

TakeAction Minnesota is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from people of color, persons with disabilities, LGBT individuals, and women.