Environmental Justice and Collar Counties Organizer

The People’s Lobby is a membership-driven organization devoted to organizing widespread support for public policies and candidates – including people from our communities – that put racial justice and the needs of people and the planet before the interests of big corporations and the very rich. We train leaders to build bases of people and money power in our communities, organize support for progressive legislation, and endorse candidates and take direct action to pressure elected officials and other powerful people to put the interests of people and the planet first.

At The People’s Lobby, organizers hold primary responsibility for building power around one issue and in at least one geographic area. In addition to their work around environmental justice, this organizer would also spend significant time building relationships with people in Chicago’s collar counties to become members of The People’s Lobby, working directly with people who are interested in environmental justice and inviting people interested in other aspects of our work (healthcare, criminal justice reform, and the gig economy) to be organized by other staff.

Responsibilities

Base building

• Use The People’s Lobby’s methodology of relational organizing to identify leaders committed to building power in our organization. This methodology includes one to one relational meetings with community members and leaders to understand what they want, need, and are willing to take responsibility for campaign leadership to win. Mentor and support current members on how to engage and grow their base of membership locally via organizing events.
• Create and implement a calendar of local events that engage current and new membership which deepen and strengthen political analysis and their engagement.
• Build relationships with community institutions and leaders who might be interested in organizing with us, i.e. local organizations, churches, schools, service providers, community centers and elected officials.

Issue & Electoral Campaigns

• Organize people and communicate with voters around elections.
• Organize people around legislation and implementation connected to TPL’s environmental justice work.
• Identify and organize around other racial and economic justice issues based on their self-interests.

Leadership Development

• Use a deep leadership development model to invest in highly engaged community leaders and prospects in order to test their leadership, grow their vision of their own leadership in our organization/collective, and deepen their investment and participation.

Fundraising

• Engage core team in a membership drive to bring in dues-paying members.
• Participate in all staff fundraisers.

Other

• Participate in and organize leaders to participate in The People’s Lobby organization-wide campaigns and activities.

Qualifications:

• Demonstrated success in relational issue and/or electoral organizing and in working with people from diverse race, class, and gender identities.
• Demonstrated success in working with volunteers to complete group projects.
• Demonstrated success using a combination of tactics (canvassing, community meetings, social media or other) to bring new people into an issue or electoral campaign or as organization members.

Additional Qualities Sought:

• Angry about injustice in the world and committed to effectiveness.
• Three election cycles or understanding the process of leading an issue-based campaign (issue cutting, leadership development, strategy building, power analysis, etc), or experience leading a union campaign from start to finish.
• Experience building relationships with community leaders, church leaders, elected officials, stakeholders, organizations, or people in leadership positions that move community members into action.
• Ability to maintain and build on long-term public relationships with leaders, elected officials, volunteers, or members.
• Experienced with high-stake metric campaigns, punctual on updating metrics and keeping track of overall organizational goals.
• Willingness to learn and work within The People’s Lobby’s organizing methodology, including a focus on self-interest, negotiation, and agitation.
• Enjoys working with people and is capable of negotiating clearly with members, coworkers, and their supervisor about how we do the work.
• Willingness to take risks and do things outside of personal comfort zone.
• Attentive to details, which is often the difference between an average organizer and a highly effective organizer. Examples include keeping a busy calendar and the ability (or willingness to learn) how to think through the steps of managing meetings or events involving groups (sometimes large groups) of people.
• The ability to take multiple perspectives, even at times seemingly competing perspectives, and see what might be true (partial truths) in each of them.
• Kind, but direct. Able to give and receive feedback.

100% employer-paid health and dental plans, technology and transportation stipends, and 5% retirement contribution. The People’s Lobby offers generous paid time off, including 10 sick days per year and 10 days of paid time off for the first year of employment. The following holidays are observed by the organization: New Year's Day, Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Indigenous People's Day, and Thanksgiving Day and the following Friday. In addition to the holidays officially observed by the organization, permanent, regular employees are entitled to five (5) paid floating holidays, to be used for the observance of other civic holidays, religious holidays, or other days of personal significance. Additionally, offices will be closed for the last ten business days of each year.