Communications Director

MOVEMENT FOR BLACK LIVES

Title: Communications Director

FTE: Full-time

Location: Remote; travel required

Reports to: Executive Team

Salary Range: $120k–150k annually, with full health benefits for employees and dependents, employer-funded retirement plan, remote work stipend, and 28 days of vacation

THE MOVEMENT FOR BLACK LIVES:

Since 2014, the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) has continued the legacy of Black organizing for freedom, justice, and liberation for all Black people. Formed in the wake of the Ferguson uprisings, galvanized after the brutal death of Mike Brown, and forged through collective trauma, rage, and power, M4BL is an ecosystem of Black-led organizations and formations nationwide that organize around a shared purpose to abolish harmful systems like policing and prison and build liberatory alternatives. We are organizing to amass significant political power to influence national and local agendas in the direction of our shared Vision for Black Lives policy platform—a comprehensive framework for a society that values Black lives, repairs past harms, and invests in Black communities.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

The Communications Director is responsible for engineering, developing, implementing, and evaluating our narrative power and strategic communications initiatives to serve M4BL ecosystem members and make M4BL’s Vision for Black Lives a reality. This position requires a high-level understanding of narrative trends, patterns, and strategies within today’s socio-political context, primarily related to the experiences, oppressions, and needs of people of the African diaspora. The Communications Director supervises and is accountable to the communications team, which includes press and editorial, digital, design, TGNCI narrative power, policy communications, and some technology staff and consultants.

May require travel and work on occasional weekends and evenings as determined.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Direct and support the M4BL communications team (staff and consultants), including but not limited to coaching, hiring, performance management and evaluation, and management of key contractors
• Evaluate the efficacy and progress of M4BL’s narrative and communications strategy, including press and editorial, digital strategy, TGNCI (transgender, gender-nonconforming, and intersex) narrative power–building, design, crisis communications,  policy communications, and broad organizational comms support
• Manage and account for the communications department budget
• Ensure that M4BL’s abolitionist, anti-capitalist, Black queer feminist values are illustrated within our communications
• Report accomplishments, disappointments, and noteworthy information and data to the governing bodies
• Cross-pollinate communications narrative-power support and tenets among other departments, such as field, partnerships policy, finance and operations, and tech
• Bottom-line message research, development, and distribution for core campaigns
• Collaborate with M4BL leadership on meaningful editorial partnerships toward political education for new and developing audiences
• Build and develop relationships with intra-movement and cross-movement partners
• Proliferate M4BL’s ideas and narrative power–building strategies within the nonprofit, organizing, and philanthropic spaces when applicable
• Provide ongoing media, spokesperson, and narrative-power training to the M4BL ecosystem members

Note: The Movement for Black Lives is committed to responding flexibly to changing circumstances and priorities which means that the expectations of every position are dynamic. This description reflects the assignment of essential functions but does not proscribe or restrict the tasks that may be assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS:

M4BL is an abolitionist, Black Queer feminist, and anti-capitalist ecosystem, so we ground our narrative efforts in these values. The ideal candidate has more than a cursory understanding of these. In addition:

• 7-10 years of strategic communications experience, preferably at a values-based organization, coalition, or formation;
• Exceptional writing skills;
• Ability to adapt to change, prioritize multiple tasks effectively, and meet deadlines
• Expert knowledge of narrative and communications strategy and management of communications staff;
• The ability to work collaboratively in a team environment;
• Time-management skills and the ability to quickly pivot based on current events and organizational needs;
• A steadfast commitment to collective liberation and the ability to speak to and unite others behind M4BL’s platform;
• Experience running communications campaigns and previous experience working with policy teams to support legislative campaigns on a local, state, and/or federal level;
• Awareness of movement-building work related to housing, health care, Black liberation, climate justice, queer justice, immigration, and abolition.
• Can develop productive working relationships with various internal and external stakeholders and groups; ready to collaborate with people from various backgrounds.

HOW TO APPLY:

Please provide a cover letter, resume, and a writing sample (3 pages maximum) by applying to M4BL's BambooHR job posting. All writing samples will be kept confidential, and applications must have a writing sample to be considered for the position. Please indicate where you learned about the posting in your cover letter. For the references, please include 1 supervisor and 1 peer and/or 1 person you previously supervised if applying for a supervising role. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY WORKPLACE:

In partnership with its fiscal sponsor, the Common Counsel Foundation, the Movement for Black Lives is proud to be an equal employment workplace. We welcome and encourage job applicants motivated to partner with us in addressing social injustice and those with personal experience around injustice. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on any of the following factors; race, color, religion (including religious dress and grooming practices), age, sex/gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and/or related medical conditions), gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition (genetic characteristics, cancer, or a record or history of cancer), military or veteran status, national origin, ancestry, disability (mental and physical, including HIV/AIDS, cancer, and genetic characteristics), and genetic information.