Communications Manager

Help shape Oregon’s future and work at one of the 100 Best Nonprofits to Work For in Oregon!

As Oregon’s only statewide land use watchdog, 1000 Friends works with Oregonians to improve our quality of life by building livable and lovable cities and towns, protecting family farms and forests, and conserving natural areas. 1000 Friends achieves these efforts by building power with Oregonians across the state through land use policy research, advocacy, mentorship and programming, coalition-building, and enforcement. As a result of these efforts, Oregonians continue to take care of the only statewide watchdog; the majority of funding, year after year, comes from individual donations.

In 2025, Oregon faces similar pressures to those of the 1960s and 70s: historic amounts of federal stimulus dollars for jobs, transportation, housing, and energy projects. The pressure to irreversibly pave over our farms, forests, and watersheds mounts. But 1000 Friends is built to work with communities to guide these dollars in ways that improve our quality of life for generations to come. Oregonians continue the strong tradition of resisting pitting two good things against each other, like our environment vs. jobs. We continue to show we can build a diversified economy of the future and ground ourselves in nature.

We rely on membership and public events and surveys to ensure we are responding to the most timely issues. We also incorporate polling results. For example, 68% of respondents hope Oregon will limit the construction of new homes in fire-prone areas (Oregon Values and Beliefs Center Survey, June 29, 2022). 71% of Oregonians said they would oppose allowing local governments to permit housing developments in areas currently protected as farm and forestlands (DHM Research, March 16, 2023).

Position Description

1000 Friends of Oregon is seeking a Communications Manager who will build on a growing, inspired, and engaged membership to capture, transform, and amplify our complex statewide work into a variety of compelling, personal, and impactful outputs. The manager is responsible for oversight and creation of messaging, written communications, and responsive engagement materials for 1000 Friends of Oregon, as well as all project management for the communications team and organizational press management. The manager works in parallel with the digital communications and engagement manager (who oversees our social media, multimedia storytelling, visual brand, and design strategy) in creating and managing 1000 Friends’ comprehensive communications strategies. The manager conveys the importance and connection of our land conservation and development efforts with a broad and diverse audience of Oregonians.

As the Communications Manager, your role is to inspire deep engagement with 1000 Friends, conveying the importance of Oregon’s land use system and motivating action that advances our mission and program goals. You will serve as the primary written communications staff for our organization, maintaining strong familiarity with program activities and outcomes while collecting, creating, editing, and curating content for diverse audiences. You will produce and disseminate action alerts, news for our website and email marketing, program materials such as one-pagers and presentations, and fundraising content. You will create a steady, supportive presence on the communications team, ensuring effective management of our systems and projects, while also being flexible and adapting to sudden, unanticipated needs in content production.

The Communications Manager helps 1000 Friends connect with our existing heavily engaged audiences in authentic, memorable, and meaningful ways using diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles and centers the stories of historically underrepresented Oregonians. The manager will be supported with a full suite of modern tools and technologies to develop and implement communications projects.

Your direct supervisor will be the executive director. You will collaborate with all staff to meaningfully and authentically connect with Oregonians about 1000 Friends’ programs. You will collaborate with leadership, program staff, and development staff to develop and deliver key messages, stories, publications, speeches, and events to establish and foster strong relationships with key stakeholders and the press.

Responsibilities & Scope

50% Storytelling: Writer, editor, messaging lead

• Collaborate with senior and program staff to provide identified stakeholder groups, including activists, donors, and key partners, with continuous and current information/examples that powerfully illustrate why Oregon’s land use system and the work of 1000 Friends matter to them
• Collaborate with program staff to produce written content for use in a variety of formats (e.g., email alerts, web posts) that encourages recipients to take action to further positive land use outcomes (e.g., to support or oppose proposed legislation, to participate in local land use decisions, etc.), and financially support our work
• Collaborate with program staff to produce, as needed, materials to support our affiliated groups
• Collaborate with relevant staff to produce supporting materials for use in their outreach and educational activities (e.g., slide decks, one-pagers, reports, case for support, fundraising outreach)
• Write and edit long-form written pieces for both print materials and digital platforms that convey 1000 Friends’ values, stories, and advocacy positions
• Utilize Mailchimp and Salesforce to create regular, optimized, and engaging email blasts for the purposes of effective program communications
• Actively manage and update our house style guide and adhere to Chicago Manual of Style, achieving a high level of writing standards
• Strategically elevate visibility and public support for the work of 1000 Friends of Oregon to build a strong pipeline of followers to subscribers to donors supporting our work
• Bring, build, and maintain a strong network of professional relationships, particularly with communications and media contacts, that will facilitate broad and deep impact
• Regularly assess overall program communications strategy and tools, making recommendations for changes and taking the lead in implementation
• Expand our earned media by serving as 1000 Friends’ primary media contact and content manager, including production and dissemination of press kit, press releases, pitches, op-eds, articles, and technical reports, managing associated roll-out activities, and media tracking

25% Platform and project management

• Consistently and regularly manage project statuses in our project management system (Asana), leading communications meetings and performing relevant project management to help the organization to work together to complete goals.
• Actively manage 1000 Friends’ complex communications calendar, in partnership with the digital communications manager
• Serve as a lead in our relationships with external communications consultants, when necessary and appropriate
• Manage our Drupal-based website and produce content with an eye toward increasing SEO as well as improving conversion rates
• Actively manage our email subscriptions, lists, and strategy for audience targeting
• Lead in website management to keep content accurate, relevant, and responsive to visitors.
• Execute day-to-day upload of events, blog posts, and banners and collaborate on updates to marketing pages, helping to maintain style and brand standards.
• Suggest changes to increase SEO.
• Monitor for functionality (dead links, broken forms, etc) and make changes as needed.
• Act as backup support for social media

15% Special projects

• Plan and produce written content for our annual report (each October) and legislative recap (after the short or long legislative session each year), working with the digital communications manager, who will execute designs
• Help reimagine our website and participate in project of partnering with a contractor to build and launch a new website
• Help manage our external site for helping Oregonians prepare for wildfire, wildfirereadyoregon.org, and execute additional phases for its growth
• Provide communications support for events, including webinars and trainings

10% Administration

• Cross-train with fellow communications staff to help maintain a collaborative and balanced environment
• Coordinate technical support with our website developer, manage domain and Google Analytics, and ensure overall site functionality
• Manage and create templates to support team-wide collaboration on communications projects, and keep our suite of communications guidance and resources up to date
• Support adoption of project management systems and tools, helping fellow staff consistently engage with such systems and technologies
• Collaborate with the digital communications manager in annual planning to recommend improvements to the overall program communications strategy and tools.
• Maintain all data and files related to the position in accordance with organizational protocols and best practices, ensuring internal accessibility
• Other duties as needed

Minimum Qualifications

• At least 3 years of relevant communications experience at a nonprofit or advocacy organization, and experience applying DEI principles to communications
• Strong writing and/or editing background, and facility with producing such work quickly and with high degree of quality
• Ability to harness highly technical or complex information from our on-staff program experts and relay that information in a clear way for a general audience
• Ability to lead the communications team’s project management (we use Asana), coordinate with all staff on project statuses, and complete projects
• Superb listening, writing, speaking, editing, storytelling, and deadline-management skills
• Exhibit grace under pressure, maintaining a positive and proactive attitude while juggling competing needs, priorities, and deadlines and pivoting based on new needs
• Record of successfully incorporating analytics and feedback for stronger communications outcomes
• Expertise in primary organizational tools and technologies or similar (Google Workplace, Google Analytics, Mailchimp, Salesforce, Drupal)
• Comfort taking responsibility for organizational narratives, communications, and overall audience response and growth
• Proven ability to work effectively as part of a decentralized team
• Experience building nonprofit storytelling campaigns and thought leadership initiatives
• Readiness to travel occasionally, and flexibility to work occasional evenings, weekends, and holidays as needed

Preferred Knowledge, Skills, & Experience

• An aptitude for multimedia, multi-channel communication
• Familiarity with organizational social and digital media, and related best practices
• Familiarity with Oregon’s statewide land use system and Oregon’s legislative process
• Familiarity with Oregon media outlets
• Expertise in Adobe Creative Suite (specifically InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop)
• Experience communicating public policy and advocacy work
• Experience with nonprofit fundraising activities and milestone celebrations
• Fluency in Spanish*

• 1000 Friends offers additional compensation for this skill and experience, recognizing the value that diversity of cultures and languages brings to the movement.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply, submit a resume, 3 professional references, 3 work samples of your writing and/or editing, and a cover letter (1-page max) describing how your experience and skills match the needs of the organization. Provide these materials as a single PDF document and email them to jobs@friends.org with “Communications Manager” in the subject line.

We are most interested in finding the best candidate for the job, who may be someone who doesn't meet every qualification listed. Do not sell yourself short. If you are interested in applying, we encourage you to think broadly about your background and qualifications for the role.

Fluency in Spanish. 1000 Friends offers additional compensation for this skill and experience, recognizing the value that diversity of cultures and languages brings to the movement.