Senior Communications Manager

Overview

LOCATION. Remote.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS. 

$109,012 or $118,823, based on training and experience.
100% employer-covered medical, dental, and vision
50 paid days off / holidays in 2024

ROLE TYPE. This is a full-time role for the 2024 cycle with an expected end date of February 28, 2025. This role could extend beyond February 2025 based on performance.  This role is managed by Vote Rev’s Director of Partner Success, Marisa Kanof.

APPLICATION DEADLINE. Rolling application. We will accept applications through Thursday, December 14th, but please get in your application as soon as possible.

 

About the opportunity
Vote Rev seeks an experienced, mission-driven individual for the position of Senior Communications Manager to effectively and strategically tell the story of Vote Rev to a wide variety of audiences across the progressive ecosystem. The ideal candidate is a sophisticated communications professional who enjoys executing a broad range of communications activities and is demonstrably skilled at engaging a wide variety of audiences across many forms of written communication. This person will have previous experience working as a solo communications practitioner within an organization and enjoy working in small teams.

The Senior Communications Manager will have two main areas of responsibility:

• Continually develop, refine, and deploy Vote Rev’s story to three core audiences: donors, partners, and researchers.
• Further develop and improve the systems, tools, and infrastructure to regularly source and communicate with key influencers and stakeholders in the progressive ecosystem.
• This individual will work closely with Vote Rev’s Executive and Development teams but will be part of the Partner Success team.

 

About the organization
Vote Rev designs and quickly mainstreams field-tested voter engagement innovations to help Democrats win. In 2020 we released Polling place vote tripling (PPVT) and trained dozens of partners on it, including the Biden-Harris campaign. Our partners’ 94,000 canvasser-hours of PPVT produced 1,100,000 friend-to-friend reminders to vote – 5x as many as the official Biden campaign app! PPVT was featured in The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and The New York Times.

In 2022 Vote Rev and our sister organization, Vote Rev Action Fund, provided training and materials to help partner organizations spark 450,000 relational get-out-the-vote reminders. Simultaneously, we used our ENGAGE design process to start developing the next generation of tactics. In the Georgia runoff, we ran a lightning-fast randomized trial of a new, more scalable version of PPVT with the potential to generate 10x as many votes.

In 2023 we’ll optimize our existing voter engagement tactics and design two new tactics ready for 2024. In 2024, we’ll boost tens of thousands of net votes by mainstreaming these tactics to Democratic campaigns and allied organizations!

Vote Rev, headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, is a remote-first workplace. We have an office in downtown Brooklyn, New York City, and employees across the country.

We are dedicated to creating an organization that reflects the diversity of the country we serve. We strongly encourage women, people of color, and others who are underrepresented in campaigns and voter engagement nonprofits to apply.

Note: Due to the nature of our work we are unable to hire any individuals who aren’t U.S. Citizens, Legal Permanent Residents (Green Card holders), or DACA recipients.

 

Responsibilities 

• Work closely with the Executive and Development teams to craft messages, materials, and communications to donors and donor advisors.
• Work closely with the Partner Success Team to gather stories and create case studies about Vote Rev’s mainstreaming work with partners, and to create materials that compel partners to use Vote Rev tactics.
• Work closely with the Research team to tell compelling stories about our ongoing research to develop new voter engagement tactics.
• Generally be responsible for external messaging, such as content on our website
• Manage the individuals on, and communications with, Vote Rev’s influencer list.
• Lead the drafting and sending of Vote Rev’s quarter-in-review updates.
• Draft and send Vote Rev’s quarterly newsletters.
• Identify and execute on opportunities for earned media such as podcasts and op-eds.
• Write the Vote Rev and Vote Rev Action Fund’s 2024 cycle impact reports.
• Join our Partner Success and Research teams in the field to participate in their work.

Requirements for the role

• Six or more years of experience in mission-oriented organizations. At least four years of experience in communications or marketing. Political experience preferred.
• Excellent written and storytelling skills.
• Experience translating data, research, and/or public policy issues into narratives using a values-based approach to communications.
• Demonstrated ability to tailor messages to donors and practitioners.
• High level of self-organization, detail-oriented, and ability to manage competing deadlines.
• Ability to work independently, ask questions, and seek support when needed.
• A positive attitude rooted in flexibility and teamwork.
• Commitment to our mission of designing and quickly mainstreaming field-tested voter engagement innovations to help Democrats win.
• Commitment to understand and actively oppose racism and promote equity.
• Commitment to working with and for teams of diverse individuals, and to reducing disparities in whose voice is heard in the electoral space.
• Demonstrated awareness of one’s own cultural identity and ability to build relationships and collaborate across lines of difference.
• Ability to thrive in a startup environment: you move quickly, think strategically, can handle uncertainty, are adaptable to changing circumstances, and are good at tactical execution.

Preferred but not required

• An understanding of voter contact methods and campaign timelines.
• Graphic design skills.
• Previous experience with Asana and Copper.
• Familiarity with randomized controlled trials and other common research practices.

 

Compensation and benefits
Compensation: $109,012 or $118,823, based on experience.

Benefits: Choose from a variety of 100% employer-covered vision, dental, and medical HMO or PPO plans. We also offer partially subsidized coverage for spouses and dependents. In addition, we offer generous paid family medical/parental leave.

Paid time off: Vote Rev staff will get a total of 50 paid days off in 2024. Specifically, all staff get 11 federal holidays off, a one-week summer break from May 28-May 31, every other Friday off for the first three months of the year (before our busy season takes off), every Friday off after Election Day (to recharge after our busy season), a winter break from December 23 to January 1, and in addition to those company-wide holidays, every staff member accrues 1.5 flexible days off per month for a total of 18 flexible days off per year.

 

Timeline
We aim to close this application by December 14th, 2023. We review applications as they come in, so you may be notified whether or not you are moving forward before the application closing date. If we receive a high volume of applications, we may close the application sooner than December 14, 2023. The steps in the process are:

• Resume screen: This step is to establish the baseline for candidates we will advance through the process. This is the form linked on this page.
• Case study: The case study should take no more than one hour and is designed to learn more about your writing and messaging skills.
• Application questionnaire screen: This will be a 30-60 minute phone or Zoom conversation with a member of the Vote Rev team. It might include answering scenario-based questions.
• Final interviews: We will call back 3-6 applicants for a set of final-round interviews with Hiring Manager Marisa Kanof (Director of Partner Success) and other members of the Vote Rev team. This will require up to three hours during business hours and will occur the first week of January.
• References: We will ask for three professional or personal references for our top one or two candidates to learn more about working with them.
• Job offer: We provide our best and final offer in terms of compensation, which will be within the salary band shown in the job description. We base our offer on the years of relevant study and work experience and where that fits within our internal salary leveling system. We do not negotiate salary or other benefits because research finds that introducing opportunities to negotiate results in pay disparities that are not correlated with competency.

We expect to make an offer by mid-January 2024, with a preference for a start date shortly after the offer is accepted.