Hiring Organization Information
Position Information
At Philanthropy Northwest, we seek to build resilient, equitable and inclusive communities in the Pacific Northwest. Our staff is a critical part of making that mission a reality. Strong relationships power our work at every level, which is why we build them with care and nurture them attentively. We embrace and encourage diversity, equity and inclusion in our community and continuously seek to bring new perspectives into our organization. We hope you consider joining our team.
ABOUT THE EPA THRIVING COMMUNITIES ENVIORNMENTAL PROGRAM
EPA’s Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking program, created by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, is the largest investment in climate action in history. This new grant program, which will make it easier for small community-based organizations to access federal environmental justice funding, responds to community feedback about the need to reduce barriers to federal funds and improve the efficiency of the awards process to ensure communities that have long faced underinvestment can access the benefits of the largest climate investment in history. Communities will be able to apply to a Grantmaker for a subgrant to fund a range of different environmental project activities. Our client has been selected as the Region 10 grantmaker, serving Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington; and will collaborate with regional philanthropic partners to ensure the equitable distribution of funding to support community-led environmental justice work.
The Senior Manager, Communication and Community Outreach will play a crucial role in the successful implementation of the EPA Environmental Justice Thriving Communities grantmaking program. This position involves developing, managing, and coordinating communication and public outreach strategies to engage stakeholders, communities, and agencies. The Sr. Manager will work collaboratively within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to the program's overall goals while upholding values of equity and environmental justice.
Ideal candidates will possess extensive expertise in public involvement, communications, outreach, facilitation strategies, coupled with experience advising leadership on strategic efforts to achieve successful results. This is a 36-month LTE (limited-time engagement).
Responsibilities and duties:
- Lead the design, development, and execution of a comprehensive community involvement and communications program for a federal grant initiative, incorporating environmental justice principles that remove barriers to participation.
- Develop and create high-quality, public-facing materials (i.e., engagement plans, communications plans, website content, fact sheets, email updates, surveys, questionnaires, press releases, social media, and a range of other program materials), and other activities as necessary to support thoughtful, equitable and culturally relevant community engagement.
- Collaborate with VP, Marketing and Communications, and project team to establish and monitor metrics for assessing campaign effectiveness, ensuring accountability, and informing future strategy.
- Plan, organize and facilitate online and in-person community engagement activities including workshops, open houses, and in-person and virtual public meetings.
- Develop and implement strategic communications tailored to project stakeholders, including the EPA, advisory committee, regional partners, and community-based organizations, as well as environmental justice communities.
- Serve as a representative of the organization in supporting project communications and fostering relationships within the community and with local organizations.
- Closely track project activities, work with agency public information officers to ensure alignment of communications across the grant lifecycle and identify opportunities and risks.
- Lead internal engagement and communications to inform staff and board about program milestones and developments.
- Collaborate with the VP, MarComm to manage grant opportunity communications budget.
- Work
Other:
- Engage in enterprise-wide activities and team building, including staff meetings, peer coaching, learning and development, annual conference, staff committees and other enterprise events throughout the year.
- This is not a comprehensive list of duties and may be asked to take on other administrative and operational tasks, as needed.
- Applicants should possess a minimum of 4-6 years of extensive communications experience, preferably demonstrated in impactful roles within relevant sectors such as grassroots nonprofits, federal agencies, or communications agencies managing large-scale projects.
- 4 years specifically in crafting and launching communications programs from scratch with a philanthropic lens.; this includes showcasing proficiency in building and driving comprehensive community engagement and communications strategies from the ground up.
- Demonstrated expertise in executing engagement strategies through both traditional and digital channels, including conducting stakeholder interviews, hosting public meetings, managing digital communications and website content, and creating visually captivating collateral.
- Experience facilitating in-person and virtual community meetings, workshops, events, focus groups, listening sessions and/or roundtables, etc.
- Proficiency in MS Word, PowerPoint, Adobe Creative Suite, or other graphics software.
- Ability to travel within the region.