Communications Director

Position Summary:

Are you a great visual, verbal and written communicator who wants to lead a team that can create compelling communications whether under the pressure of a 24- hour news cycle or with evergreen communications assets?  Do you have a passion for all things environmental that you want to proclaim from a rooftop, a short film, news release, or even, with a tweet?  Do you possess a special magic that can move varied  audiences (elected officials, our membership, the media) to connect to the important work of WildEarth Guardians?  If so, this leadership position within our organization may be for you!

We are seeking a Communications Director who will be tasked with leading Guardians’ overall marketing, branding, and media strategy, while managing the daily urgency of the news cycle. A qualified candidate must have the knowledge and skills in values-based story-telling paired with a commitment to the Guardians’ statement on justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. The Communications Director, and the team that they lead, will be responsible for collaborating with other organizational staff to produce high-impact communications that influence the social and political narrative about the important national, regional, and local issues in which we are engaged. 

The Director will play an integral role in elevating our organization’s profile through the use of innovative and conventional communications strategies and tactics. Guardians and our staff already engage in substantial communications work. The Director will be critical for enhancing the quality and impact of this work to ensure greater success toward meeting organizational goals.  In addition, the Communications Director will help to create and communicate the organization’s messages while ensuring brand consistency.  

The Communications Director must have the ability to manage staff and interact well with others in a fast-moving, complex organizational ecosystem working with multiple teams and staff across the organization. 

Responsibilities:

COMMUNICATIONS WORK & ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP:

1. Works with program, fundraising, and communications staff in developing innovative communications.
2. Execute an aggressive, creative and integrated earned media strategy working primarily with program and campaign staff.
3. Develop visionary and creative approaches to communications that include, but are not limited to, film, radio, print and social media in order to market the organization and our ideas to policy makers, thought leaders and prospective donors. 
4. Create metrics to evaluate, and evolve existing communications, and manage execution of communications to create momentum and awareness. 
5. The Director guides and coordinates with program leaders to create communications that fulfill their project goals and reach overarching conservation program goals while building overall brand awareness.
6. Ensure that all program, fundraising, and communications materials present a consistent and cohesive brand. 

STAFF MANAGEMENT

1. Directly supervise the communications team, create a culture of teamwork, support, and professional development, and hold staff accountable to achieving the organization’s strategic goals.

DIGITAL ADVOCACY

1. The Communications Director is responsible for overseeing the organization’s digital strategy and managing a team to build power online to contribute to the success of campaigns.  
2. Generation of online content for all WildEarth Guardians e-platforms that engages audiences and results in measurable action. 
3. Determine when to invest in new technologies. 
4. Decide the best platforms, timing, and methods to disseminate new creative material. 
5. Mentor and lead a team member responsible for e-platform administration, execution, and coordination. Coordinate e-platform maintenance—ensure that new information (article links, stories, and events) is posted regularly and in a way that builds the brand. 
6. Evaluate current platforms for efficacy and coordinate with Associate Director to potentially migrate to a different Donor Management Systems. 
7. Develop and maintain a system to respond to inputs and rapidly send high quality and accurate e-communications appropriately. 

PRINT COMMUNICATIONS 

1. Creatively imagine, then coordinate and manage the development, distribution, and maintenance of all print collateral including, but not limited to, newsletters, brochures, annual reports, fact sheets etc. 
2. Coordinate print and e-communications so one amplifies the other.

FUNDRAISING  

1. Assists with organizational fundraising efforts as needed to ensure financial health of the organization.

Additional preferred skills include:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, Communications, Marketing/Advertising or related field.
• Five + years of experience in a similar communications, marketing or creative director role.
• Excellent writing/editing and verbal communication skills.
• A strong track record as an implementer who thrives on managing a variety of key initiatives concurrently.
• Knowledge of conservation issues in the American West.

Special Job Requirements:

Some travel around the West to satellite offices and expect flexible work hours, including some weekend and evening hours. 

JEDI Vision Statement:

WildEarth Guardians recognizes that numerous communities continue to be underrepresented in the environmental movement. Lack of access, lack of opportunity, and disparity of power in decisions affecting our shared planet is an injustice. This document represents our commitment to change that state of affairs by changing the culture of our own organization.

As advocates for the health of the natural world, WildEarth Guardians affirms biodiversity, ecological unity, and the interdependence of all life. We believe that diversity, whether of ecosystems, cultures, or peoples, is a strength. We affirm the right to a clean, safe, and healthy environment. We affirm the right to live free from the threat of ecosystem collapse. We recognize this right is not equally realized among all.

We work to ensure that the American West’s landscapes, wildlife, rivers, and climate will be protected so that future generations of people, plants, and animals can thrive in and be nourished by the natural world. We work to ensure that ecosystems will be respected and managed responsibly and sustainably; that the natural and human environment is restored to the benefit of all people and living things; and that no community should bear disproportionate risks of environmental harm due to demographic characteristics or economic conditions.

Power to manage lands and waters is being seized and consolidated by special interests. We must reverse this trend that threatens lands, waters, and Western communities.

WildEarth Guardians commits to becoming a more equitable, just, and inclusive organization. As we engage in this ongoing process, we commit to celebrating diversity, buoying inclusivity, and striving towards equity. We commit to integrity and accountability by continuing to seek out new training opportunities and in nurturing equity and inclusion throughout our organizational practices. We adopt Environmental Justice principles to guide our advocacy and outreach. We strive to confront injustice by welcoming a wide variety of voices as we defend the vulnerable from the powerful. We embrace opportunities to bring together as many people as we can to create a more just, beautiful, and equitable world. We are learning how to better bolster issues of equity while confronting environmental injustice, and we make this solemn promise that our actions will become consistent with our words.