Grassroots Advocacy Organizer

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an established San Francisco-based nonprofit organization defending online privacy and free expression, is looking for a full-time energetic and enthusiastic organizer to join our Activism team as a Grassroots Advocacy Organizer for our national Electronic Frontier Alliance network.

As the Grassroots Advocacy Organizer, you will be responsible for facilitating day-to-day relationship management with the 75+ member organizations of the Electronic Frontier Alliance (EFA), a grassroots network of community and campus organizations across the United States engaged in training and advocacy for digital privacy, security, creativity, innovation, and free speech. You know how to manage multiple ongoing projects and communication threads, and you enjoy building rapport with people across diverse backgrounds, interests, and experiences.

This position is part of a highly cross-disciplinary Activism team, and will collaborate regularly with our legal, technologist, and legislative colleagues. As threats to digital civil liberties arise, you may need to quickly get up to speed on any number of issues that EFF works on, and be prepared to discuss complicated, emerging issues with diverse audiences. Above all, you understand what it takes to bring people together around a common purpose while navigating disagreements and matching tactics and strategies to advocacy goals.

We value candidates who bring diverse experiences and perspectives, professional and otherwise, to our team and to EFF as a whole.  If you can add value to EFF’s Activism team, please apply.

What You’ll Do

The Grassroots Advocacy Organizer who reports to the Associate Director of Community Organizing, is responsible for the following:

• Managing relationships with EFA members, including outreach about upcoming events, meetings, and actions as well as ensuring prompt responses to member inquiries and requests;
• Directly supporting EFA organizers by developing shared campaign strategies, trainings, and materials;
• Recruiting new members, arranging vetting calls, and generally serving as the first point of contact for Alliance members and new groups interested in joining the EFA;
• Identifying and amplifying Alliance members’ local events, initiatives, and other engagement furthering digital rights goals;
• Traveling and organizing events, as safety guidelines and considerations permit, to connect with EFA groups and facilitate regional and national convenings;
• Identifying emerging digital rights issues that require the intervention of grassroots activists, and opportunities for our team to expand and better serve the Alliance.

What We’re Looking For

To be successful in this job, you’ll need:

• Community organizing experience: A demonstrated record of community organizing is essential. This could be volunteer experience or experience from a paid professional position, and does not necessarily need to be in digital civil liberties. You are a great written communicator comfortable with maintaining a substantial number of contacts. You aren’t afraid to propose bold ideas or experiments, and can keep the big picture of furthering EFF’s digital rights mission in mind while managing multiple tasks.
• An inclusive approach to relationship building: You approach coalition-building  with a mindset of “power with” rather than “power over,” and prioritize shared values and goals over differences of opinion. You have brought different groups and people together before to achieve an advocacy-oriented goal, and you understand that building authentic relationships requires showing up for others and their fights in the way you hope they’ll show up for yours.

What Else You Should Know

You may work from San Francisco or you may work from another U.S. location. This position will need to keep Pacific time zone hours. The compensation for this position is $75,000 to $81,900 depending on experience and location.

EFF is a great place to work! We offer a supportive and empowering environment, along with an excellent benefits package including housing cost assistance, student loans assistance, medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 403(b)(7) retirement savings program with matching, paid time off, holiday benefits, paid parental leave, a dog-friendly workplace, and more.

As an advocacy organization, EFF is committed to being part of a diverse community. Diversity of life experiences makes a big difference in how we identify and litigate legal issues, design privacy-enhancing software, and organize our activism. To that end, we deliberately seek applicants with different perspectives, identities, and experiences to build an inclusive workplace to better inform our advocacy and defense of freedom in our digital world. EFF is an equal opportunity employer and encourages people of all races, genders, ages, abilities, orientations, ethnicities, and national origins to apply. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

EFF is looking to fill this position as soon as possible so please submit your application promptly, and no later than Friday November 11, 2022. Applications submitted after that date will be considered until the position is filled. Please know we value hearing about you, so applications without a cover letter will not be considered.

Detailed Job Description

Position Summary

The Grassroots Advocacy Organizer supports EFF’s local advocacy efforts, and engages in outreach to community groups, with a focus on technical communities and hackerspaces. Working closely with the Activism team, the Grassroots Advocacy Organizer will spend part of their time traveling throughout the U.S. to speak at events and facilitate workshops, and part of their time working to grow our national network by developing remote relationships with organizers and coordinating outreach to new groups. Regardless of location, a portion of this individual’s time will be spent documenting outreach efforts by conducting interviews and writing case studies.

Essential Functions:

• EFA Base-building (35%)
  • Maintain regular contact with EFA members through meetings, emails, calls, and our open-source Mattermost;
  • Facilitate meetings and social events among EFA groups;
  • Connect EFA members to related community groups;
  • Facilitate regional meetups;
  • Offer and follow up on talks and trainings to improve organizing strategies, including regular EFA teleconferences and periodic standalone workshops;
  • Attend EFA member events as a guest or participant.
• Community Outreach (35%)
  • Recruit and connect with potential EFA members, both in person or online;
  • Meet with organizers outside the EFA to direct them to local EFA members and EFF resources;
  • Visit maker spaces and community groups, attend conferences, and represent EFF and the EFA in other relevant venues;
  • Participate in external panels, talks, and workshops on behalf of the EFF;
  • Provide prompt responses to individuals seeking to learn more about the Electronic Frontier Alliance.
  • Regular travel (up to 10% of time) both to San Francisco offices and conference events for in person engagement with community members
• EFA Management and Mobilization (10%)
  • Draft open letters, pledges, petitions, and other advocacy materials;
  • Identify, build, and maintain shared resources for organizers, including presentations, educational materials, and training resources;
  • Document contacts and outreach opportunities.
• Media Strategy (20%)
  • Identify and amplify EFA members’ events, initiatives, and campaigns;
  • Assist in maintaining the public-facing EFF events calendar;
  • Write community mailings;
  • Speak to the press about digital rights issues;
  • Write blog posts for EFF’s Deeplinks blog, including profiles of EFA member groups.

Qualities We’re Seeking (i.e. Competencies)

Successful candidates bring these qualities:

• Must demonstrate care and respect toward coworkers, outside partners, members of the public, donors, and others with whom this role interacts;
• Must work to positively and collaboratively resolve conflicts and overcome challenges
• Must have effective oral and written communication skills
• Must be able to understand and articulate with accuracy EFF’s mission, positions, and work (for program team members or those who represent EFF at public events);
• Must be available and responsive to colleagues, outside partners and others over email, phone, and online chat, with the ability to respond and reliably to time-sensitive requests for assistance and opportunities during agreed upon working hours;
• Contributes to the creation of a diverse, equitable and inclusive work culture that encourages and celebrates differences including race, ethnicity, age, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, disability and socio-economic circumstance.
• Comfort and interest in learning unusual technical tools.
• Experience working in a collaborative setting;
• Excellent judgment and strategic thinking.

Required Education & Experience

• Knowledge of community organizing, either professionally or as a volunteer;
• Excellent writing skills and experience maintaining correspondence with a substantial number of contacts.

Preferred Education & Experience

• Significant experience organizing, including leading campaigns and initiatives;
• Comfortable with CRM software and social media;
• Public speaking skills and experience.

Classification: Full-time, Union, 1 FTE (40 hours/week)

Compensation: $75,000 to $81,900 Depending on experience and location

Expected hours of work: Typically Monday - Friday

Reports to: Associate Director of Community Organizing

Supervisory Responsibilities: None

Travel:  Up to 10% of the time

Location: You may work from San Francisco or you may work from another U.S. location. This position will need to keep Pacific time zone hours.

Commitment to Diversity

As an advocacy organization, EFF is committed to being part of a diverse community. Diversity of life experiences makes a big difference in how we identify and litigate legal issues, design privacy-enhancing software, and organize our activism. To that end, we deliberately seek applicants with different perspectives, identities, and experiences to build an inclusive workplace to better inform our advocacy and defense of freedom in our digital world. EFF is an equal opportunity employer and encourages people of all races, genders, ages, abilities, orientations, ethnicities, and national origins to apply.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.