Government Affairs Associate

Title: Government Affairs Associate

Organization: Equality Texas and Equality Texas Foundation

Reports to: Government Affairs Director

Location: Remote

THE POSITION

The Government Affairs Associate will play a key role in Equality Texas’ advocacy efforts towards full and lived equality for all LGBTQ+ Texans with deep research, membership engagement, and administrative support. The Government Affairs Associate will contribute to the creation of important education materials and monitor issues affecting LGBTQ+ Texans. Additionally, the Associate will manage membership of our business coalition (Texas Competes), providing top-tier customer service and ensuring continued growth. 

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

Job responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Research/Resource Development:

• Contribute to deep research about the most pressing issues affecting LGBTQ+ Texans. 
• Stay on top of state and national news to track trends, opposition strategy and messaging, polling and public opinion data, and business and economic impact data and news.
• Maintain spreadsheets to track opposition to anti-LGBTQ policies in Texas and beyond, from conservatives to business leaders to faith leaders to medical associations.
• Provide research for and help develop content for Equality Texas’ social media engagement and education materials like one-pagers, talking points, issue briefs, related charts and visuals, infographics, and presentations.
• Monitor federal, state, and local level policies that affect LGBTQ+ Texans. Oversee the Texas bill tracker, ensuring it is up to date. Provide the team with an accessible, well referenced, usable document to track and link to bills filed by type, status, author, referred committee, number of co-authors, and brief description.
• Maintain and update power mapping profiles of key members of the legislature.
• Conduct research and write issue briefs detailing the power dynamics of emergent issues across the state - contextualizing issues within the broader fight for racial, gender, and economic justice. 
• Assist in the developing, proof-reading, fact-checking and reviewing documents, presentations, and data analysis on behalf of the Government Affairs department.

Membership Engagement: 

• Field requests from and manage members of our business coalition, facilitating members in maintaining all of the benefits of their membership. Support Texas Competes Managing Director in organizing and scheduling events and activities related to benefits offered by Texas Competes membership tiers.
• Recruit and onboard new members of the business coalition, including ensuring new members are accurately reflected on website and in database. Support Texas Competes Managing Director in reaching out to big companies to engage at higher membership tiers.
• Draft policy updates to diverse stakeholders when needed. 
• Assist in preparing sample talking points for community members on advocacy issues.
• Review community member testimony when requested to provide advice, fact-checking, and helpful tips. 

Administrative:

• Support the execution and manage logistics for events, briefings, and issue advocacy campaigns.
• Provide administrative support to the Government Affairs Team, including scheduling, note-taking, agenda and meeting materials development, project management, and maintaining calendars. 
• Clean up and update business coalition contacts as needed.

CANDIDATE PROFILE/REQUIREMENTS

The ideal candidate will possess a combination of the following experience and characteristics:

• Demonstrated commitment to achieving full legal and lived equality for LGBTQ+ people in Texas.
• Strong interest in policy and politics.
• Bachelor’s degree or at least 2 years related experience in a membership organization, political advocacy organization, or legislative office. 
• Enjoys and excels at conducting rigorous research and analysis. 
• Excellent organizational and time management skills.
• Ability to prioritize mission critical tasks while managing various projects with competing deadlines.
• Excellent interpersonal skills including the ability to work successfully with diverse audiences, i.e. business professionals, legislative staff, grassroots advocates and more.
• Must be fluent in Microsoft Office applications, especially Outlook, PowerPoint, Word & Excel. 
• Flexibility to adjust hours to meet deadlines and needs of the organization, including availability to work occasional evenings and weekends.
• Adaptive leadership style with the ability to problem-solve, navigate complex situations and relationships, and take advantage of strategic opportunities.
• Preference for working in organizations that place priority on teamwork and collaboration.
• Strong ability to “manage up,” anticipating needs of co-workers and setting them up for success, especially in time-sensitive periods.
• Strong sense of curiosity and willingness to dedicate attention to detail.
• Tenacity, grit, and resilience – doing this work in Texas demands it!

COMPENSATION

Equality Texas is offering an industry competitive compensation package based on the candidate’s qualifications and experience, with a salary of $45,000 – $50,000, plus medical coverage with FSA option, vision, dental, life, short term disability, and generous PTO.

ORGANIZATION OVERVIEW

Equality Texas envisions a Texas where all LGBTQ+ people and their families have full equality in the hearts and minds of their fellow Texans and in all areas of the law. Headquartered in Austin, Equality Texas is dedicated to securing full legal and lived equality for LGBTQ+ Texans through political action, education, community organizing, and collaboration. With tens of thousands of members across the state, Equality Texas is the state’s leading state-wide organizing and advocacy organization for LGBTQ+ Texans.

Today’s Equality Texas is comprised of two connected nonprofit corporations:

Equality Texas Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that provides educational programming on LGBTQ+ issues and conducts campaigns to build public support for equal rights, and Equality Texas, a 501(c)4 organization that conducts direct lobbying and advocacy efforts to advance pro-LGBTQ+ legislation and candidates and to defeat anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

Each organization is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors; these Boards have 33 members in total who represent a cross-section of LGBTQ community, business, and philanthropic leaders and allies. Equality Texas had combined (c)3 and (c)4 revenue of roughly $1.2 million in 2021. 

Equality Texas values the leadership of people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals, and strongly encourages people of all traditionally underrepresented identities to apply.

No applicant will be discriminated against because of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, disability, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, medical condition or any protected category prohibited by local, state or federal laws.