Hiring Organization Information
Position Information
About The Raikes Foundation
The Raikes Foundation partners with leaders committed to building a society where all communities, especially young people, have the opportunity to reach their full potential. Their core belief: When we work together and center community voices and leadership, we can build a fair and just society for all. The Raikes Foundation believes that investing in systems-level change is the key to transforming society for the better, and that a meaningful structural shift requires building power through effective use of strategic communications. The program areas at Raikes Foundation include:
- Education: All students deserve educational experiences that affirm who they are and prepare them to thrive. We support youth, educators, and policymakers to reimagine and redesign our public education system so that all young people have an excellent education, no matter who they are or where they live.
- Housing Stability for Youth: We focus on prevention as the most efficient, direct and immediate way to reduce and ultimately end youth homelessness. We work with schools, advocates, and policymakers to create solutions that center over-represented populations experiencing homelessness: youth of color and LGBTQ+ youth.
- Impact-Driven Philanthropy: We want to help the field of philanthropy better focus on advancing equity, be more intentional in its giving, and change U.S. systems to work for all. To that end, we created the Impact Driven Philanthropy Initiative to support funders in using their resources to build a better world.
- Resourcing Equity and Democracy: A well-functioning and trusted democracy is the bedrock to all other pillars of society. The Resourcing Equity and Democracy portfolio at the Raikes Foundation strives to build a strong representative democracy that allows all individuals, regardless of background, to shape an equitable and just future.
A member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and reporting to the Executive Director of the Raikes Foundation, the Senior Director of Communications is responsible for maintaining and elevating/enhancing the Raikes Foundation brand, and continuing to shape the foundation narrative, providing communications support to portfolio leaders and advising the Trustees on their messaging and communications channels in support of the mission. The Senior Director of Communications will evolve the current communications framework to fit the needs of the organization working in collaboration with the program leaders, foundation leadership and the Trustees’ Executive Office. The Communications Officer reports directly to the Senior Director of Communications.
The Senior Director of Communications is responsible for building and maintaining the Foundation’s brand and reputation as well as expanding its impact through communications. A trusted partner to senior program leaders and organization leadership, the Senior Director of Communications ensures that program communications needs are being met while advancing the goals of the foundation’s external communications. This includes ensuring that the Foundation has a consistent cadence of content that is relevant, equity-focused, persuasive, and engages the Foundation’s key leaders, including the co-founders, to use their voices to advance the Foundation’s mission. It also entails working within funder and partner coalitions that help identify and deliver on field-facing communications needs, focusing on equity in the process and the outcome. The Senior Director of Communications is an experienced leader and strategist, and collaborative team member, capable of deftly working within coalitions, managing resources, and ensuring a wide range of voices are featured and heard.
Responsibilities include:
- Refine the existing communications framework and implement the vision for the Foundation’s communications strategy, including articulating a clear internal philosophy on the role of communications and how to use the Foundation’s assets to advance the mission.
- Integrate and execute the organization-wide communications strategy, that effectively works across program areas and tends to specific program needs when necessary.
- Partner with the Trustees’ Executive Office to support the ongoing development of the Trustees’ voice and platform to ensure alignment with the new communications strategy.
- Partner with the SLT to establish and continuously improve effective communications and messaging throughout the organization, creating means for information sharing between programs to communicate ideas and best practices to external audiences.
- Provide communications expertise and guidance to program teams to identify communications needs and trends in their fields, as well as specific initiatives which might require communications support.
- Collaborate across teams to ensure work in each program area integrates with the broader communications strategy.
- Provide counsel to coalitions and/or grantees identified with program colleagues on field- focused communications projects or support.
- Provide senior level media strategy including but not limited to building relationships with influential media outlets and reporters, pitch stories and respond to media inquiries and keep the Foundation abreast of relevant news and trends.
- Supervise and support the development of the full-time Communications Officer.
- Help identify skills and resources (internal or external, including our existing external agencies and consultants) required for successful implementation of communications tactics organization-wide and for program communications support.
- Provide leadership on the Foundation’s Management team to support continuous organizational development and effectiveness, including operationalization of the Foundation’s on-going commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in its practices, policies, and structure.
- Values alignment and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in their work. Proven experience centering equity through strategic communications.
- Passion for the mission of the Raikes Foundation.
- Senior level expertise and experience in the communications field, including proven experience building or evolving a communications function in the mission-driven space.
- A minimum of 12 years of increasingly more responsible communications roles is required. At least three years in a communications leadership role working in close collaboration with senior leaders.
- Strategic issue-based communications experience in education, youth homelessness/youth focused systems change and/or democracy is strongly preferred.
- An understanding of the philanthropic sector from experience working directly in a foundation setting or alongside as a partner or grantee is preferred.
- Strong relationship building/relationship management skills. Proven experience working as a proactive partner to industry specific experts, providing communications ideas, tactics and support.
- Demonstrated practice developing, executing and measuring successful, integrated communications plans using a mix of traditional and new strategies and tools. Must be a digital communications expert.
- The proven ability to work in a dynamic and growing organization is essential.
- Excellent writing skills and the ability to write compelling short and long form content for a range of internal and external audiences including but not limited to the Trustees, Foundation leadership, grantee audiences, policy influences, the media and the broader philanthropic community. Early career journalism experience is beneficial.
The successful Senior Director of Communications is excited about pursuing innovative approaches; someone who can be an experimental thinker, and also knows how to translate these ideas into an appropriate course of action to address strategic objectives. A creative outlook and adaptability to change, be it embracing a shift in strategy or finding new approaches to existing work, is desired.
The Senior Director of Communications is an accomplished, compelling storyteller, a voracious consumer of local and national media/information and a gifted communicator who is intellectually curious and has the facility to write and speak about complex social issues and sectors in a way that inspires action.
Given the Foundation’s commitment to equity, the Senior Director of Communications is committed to advancing equity and who also possess knowledge, skills and experience that would enhance the organization’s ongoing equity work.