Senior Communications Manager

Job Title: Senior Communications Manager

FLSA Status: Exempt

Position Type: Full Time

Department: Development

Job Level: 4

Pay Rate: $120,863/year

Reports To: Director of Development

About Earth Island Institute

Earth Island Institute is a nonprofit environmental organization and operational home and cultural hub for environmental changemakers. For more than 40 years, Earth Island has provided critical infrastructure and support to people and organizations working to protect the planet and build a more just and sustainable future.

Earth Island brings together environmental news and analysis, leadership development, legal advocacy, and capacity building to strengthen the work of grassroots leaders and organizations. We believe that many people, working at many points of intervention and bringing diverse ideas and strategies, are essential to creating solutions for a healthy planet.

Our communications reflect Earth Island’s role as an amplifier, facilitator, and steward—amplifying voices, causes, and narratives; providing a gathering ground and support system for changemakers; and thoughtfully caring for the community and resources that sustain their work.

Position Overview

The Senior Communications Manager is a strategic and hands-on communications leader responsible for shaping Earth Island’s voice, visibility, and narrative across media, digital platforms, email, and other communications channels.

The Senior Communications Manager will bring to life Earth Island’s mission statement: To create a healthy planet for all by equipping changemakers, driving action, and strengthening the environmental movement.

This role will help audiences understand who Earth Island is, why its work matters, and how they can participate in a broader movement for a healthy planet. The Senior Communications Manager will strengthen Earth Island’s brand and voice, establish the organization as a trusted and valued voice on environmental activism and movement-building, grow and diversify its community, and amplify the people and projects that make up the Earth Island network.

The ideal candidate is both a strategic thinker and an exceptional storyteller who can move comfortably between developing strategy and writing, editing, pitching, creating content, and managing communications projects.

Key Duties & Responsibilities

Lead Strategic Communications and Narrative (20%)

• Develop and implement an integrated communications strategy aligned with Earth Island’s goals and messaging platform.
• Translate Earth Island’s values and core messages into clear, compelling communications for diverse audiences.
• Strengthen a consistent narrative about Earth Island’s role in creating solutions for a healthy planet and supporting the environmental movement.
• Serve as a communications advisor to leadership, staff, and programs and develop messaging tools that support consistent communications.

Tell Stories That Build the Movement (20%)

• Develop original stories and content that demonstrate the possibility of a healthy planet and inspire action.
• Identify and elevate compelling stories and diverse voices from across Earth Island’s projects, programs, staff, partners, and community.
• Balance the urgency of environmental challenges with stories of possibility, action, resilience, and hope.
• Support executive thought leadership and coordinate with Earth Island Journal to extend the reach of strong editorial content.

Amplify Programs, Projects, and People (20%)

• Partner with program leaders, project directors, youth leaders, and other changemakers to bring their work to broader audiences.
• Communicate the breadth of opportunities available through Earth Island and ways people can engage in environmental activism and advocacy.
• Highlight the value of Earth Island’s shared services infrastructure—including legal advocacy, leadership development, journalism, and organizational support—while respecting the autonomy and distinct voices of individual projects.
• Develop coordinated communications between Earth Island and its projects, including shared social media and storytelling.

Build External Visibility and Engagement (20%)

• Lead and oversee Earth Island’s external communications and audience engagement across media, digital, social, email, and other public-facing channels, —working directly or through staff, contractors, vendors, and organizational partners as appropriate.
• Establish priorities, editorial calendars, workflows, and standards to ensure communications are coordinated, timely, high-quality, and aligned with Earth Island’s brand and messaging.
• Ensure effective use of written, visual, multimedia, and other formats, including graphics, carousels, infographics, and video.
• Coordinate communications around organizational announcements, events, legal developments, project news, and other timely opportunities.

Strengthen Organizational Communications (10%)

• Serve as a strategic communications partner to leadership, staff, and programs.
• Write and edit organizational communications for clarity, consistency, accuracy, and impact.
• Translate complex environmental, legal, scientific, and organizational issues into accessible language.
• Develop communications processes, tools, calendars, and systems that support effective collaboration.
• Bring an adaptable, collaborative, and solutions-oriented approach to a changing organizational environment.

Measure, Learn, and Evolve (10%)

• Establish and track meaningful communications goals and measures of success.
• Monitor audience growth, reach, engagement, website traffic, media visibility, email performance, and other relevant metrics.
• Conduct regular communications audits and use quantitative and qualitative insights to refine strategy, messaging, content, and tactics.
• Manage communications projects, timelines, priorities, and outside vendors or contractors as needed.

Qualifications

Required

• 7+ years of progressively responsible experience in communications, public relations, journalism, advocacy, nonprofit communications, or a related field.
• Exceptional writing, editing, and storytelling skills, with the ability to translate complex issues into clear, compelling, accessible communications.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and implement communications strategies across multiple audiences and platforms.
• Ability to manage media relations build productive relationships with journalists, partners, and organizational stakeholders.
• Excellent judgment, collaboration, and project management skills, with the ability to balance strategy, priorities, and hands-on execution.
• Ability to communicate with a consistent, authentic voice while listening to and elevating diverse perspectives.
• Commitment to environmental and social change and to communications that build understanding, engagement, and collective action.
• Adaptability, curiosity, creativity, and initiative.

Especially Valuable

• Experience in environmental, climate, conservation, environmental justice, grassroots organizing, or movement-building communications.
• Experience communicating about legal advocacy, environmental issues, or other complex or technical subjects.
• Experience working with grassroots leaders, youth, community organizations, or advocacy networks.
• Experience developing executive communications, thought leadership, and spokesperson platforms.
• Experience with social media, email marketing, websites/CMS, analytics, and media databases.
• Graphic design and visual storytelling skills, including the ability to create or direct engaging graphics, social media assets, presentations, infographics, and other visual communications.
• Experience with video, photography, Canva, or other visual/content creation tools.

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role will mean that Earth Island has a clear, compelling, and recognizable voice and that audiences understand not only what Earth Island does, but why its work matters.

• Earth Island’s role as an operational home and cultural hub for environmental changemakers is clearly understood.
• Its vision of a healthy planet where people and nature thrive is consistently communicated.
• Earth Island’s programs, projects, and approaches are understood as connected contributions to a broader environmental movement.
• Project directors, youth leaders, staff, partners, and other changemakers have greater visibility and opportunities to share their work and perspectives.
• More people see meaningful ways they can participate in environmental action.
• Earth Island is recognized as a thoughtful, credible, and accessible voice on environmental activism, legal advocacy, and movement-building.
• Communications balance urgency with possibility, action, resilience, and hope.
• Earth Island’s shared infrastructure and resources are clearly communicated while honoring the autonomy and distinctiveness of individual projects.
• Communications serve not only to inform, but to listen, build relationships, strengthen community, and support collective action.

Ultimately, the Senior Communications Manager will help Earth Island tell a compelling story about what is possible when changemakers have the resources, community, infrastructure, and support they need to drive action for a healthy planet.

Supervisory Responsibilities and/or Key Relationships:

• Directly supervises the Website Manager. Reports to the Director of Development.

Work Hours, Working Styles, Travel Requirements, and Additional Benefits:

Staff are required to work in the San Francisco Bay Area. We are 3 days/week in-office hybrid at the Earth Island Institute office in Berkeley, California. Schedule to be coordinated with the Director of Development.

No travel is required for this position.

Compensation, Hours, and Location

The salary for this position is $120,863 per year and is non-negotiable. Earth Island Institute has adopted a compensation philosophy and set of practices to promote equity, remove bias - whether implicit or explicit - in the salary adjustment process, and promote transparency around salaries. Each position has a grade and has a corresponding range of pay based on market pay practices and an employee’s tenure in a job. Full benefits include medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, 13 paid holidays per year, a week-long winter break, paid vacation and sick leave, and a 403(b) plan. The organization provides a supplemental bonus equal to 4% of eligible compensation to staff in lieu of the employer 403(b) matching contribution.

Affirmative Action/EEO Statement:

Earth Island Institute provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.

We strongly encourage applications from women, people of color, and bilingual and bicultural individuals, as well as members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. Earth Island Institute is committed to our role in addressing barriers to engagement as we work collectively toward a future of environmental well-being for all. We value diversity and inclusion, and we look forward to reviewing applications from all who are qualified to apply.

Reasonable accommodation will be made so that qualified disabled applicants may participate in the application process. If you seek an accommodation, please advise in writing at the time you apply. If you seek an accommodation for the application process, please send an email to Michelle Thompson at HR@earthisland.org.

To Apply: Please send your résumé and a cover letter expressing your interest in the position to jobs@earthisland.org with Senior Communications Manager in the subject line. Applications received by November 8th, 2026 will be considered for priority review. The position will be open until filled.

The salary for this position is $120,863 per year and is non-negotiable. Earth Island Institute has adopted a compensation philosophy and set of practices to promote equity, remove bias - whether implicit or explicit - in the salary adjustment process, and promote transparency around salaries. Each position has a grade and has a corresponding range of pay based on market pay practices and an employee’s tenure in a job. Full benefits include medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, 13 paid holidays per year, a week-long winter break, paid vacation and sick leave, and a 403(b) plan. The organization provides a supplemental bonus equal to 4% of eligible compensation to staff in lieu of the employer 403(b) matching contribution.