Senior Director of Communications

POSITION OVERVIEW

The Senior Director of Communications leads the development, direction, and implementation of the communications strategy for America’s Promise Alliance. America’s Promise is a coalition of national and community-level youth-supporting organizations—collectively known as the Alliance. The organization is in the process of reimagining its longstanding Alliance community, with the aspiration of building the leading “practitioners’ community” for youth-supporting non-profits in the country. In service of this vision, the Senior Director of Communications is responsible for elevating the work of our member organizations, sharing insights generated by our community, disseminating our field-leading original research, and designing and executing national storytelling campaigns to support our collective impact initiatives. Reporting to the Chief Community Impact Officer and serving as a member of the Leadership Team, the Senior Director of Communications will join America’s Promise at an important moment, as we complete a comprehensive organizational rebrand, celebrate our 25th anniversary, and unveil a new 5-year strategic plan. This provides the Senior Director of Communications with a unique opportunity to shape and grow the America’s Promise brand, lifting up the work of our member organizations, contributing to our systemic change efforts, and bringing new partners and supporters to our community.

About America’s Promise Alliance  

America’s Promise Alliance was founded in 1997 by five U.S. Presidents and General Colin Powell. Over the last 24 years, our Alliance has grown into a community of hundreds of the top youth-supporting non-profits in the country, working together to advance equity, increase opportunity, and improve outcomes for young people in America. Collectively, our member organizations serve millions of young people each year across every state in the country.

America’s Promise Alliance is an independent entity that exists to serve the field[1], to build the community, establish the infrastructure, and secure the resources necessary for collective improvement and action at a national scale. Our job is to make collaboration among our member organizations effective, efficient, continuous, informed by communities, and joyful. We believe that if you want to foster coordination and collaboration, you start by building relationships. We believe that if you want to build a field, you first create an authentic community dedicated to helping each other. We believe a sustained and continuous effort to bring the best organizations into deep and trusting working relationships with one another will ultimately translate into more effective and more connected support for young people across the country.

About Our Next Chapter 

America’s Promise Alliance is in the process of completing a new 5-year strategic plan and a comprehensive “next chapter” for the organization. The Senior Director of Communications plays a pivotal role in ensuring the successful implementation of this five-year strategy. An overview of that strategy is here.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The initial priority of the Senior Director of Communications role is to help design and implement the public launch of the reimagined America’s Promise this spring. This launch represents a convergence of the organization’s new brand, its five-year strategy, and its reimagined Alliance community. After the launch, this position will conceptualize ongoing communication with and about the Alliance; amplify the organization’s research, policy, and youth leadership contributions; and play a key role in designing the Alliance community’s issue-based storytelling campaigns.

Core responsibilities for this position include:

Organizational Rebrand

This spring, America’s Promise Alliance will unveil its new brand. The Senior Director of Communications will be responsible for leading all aspects of the rebranding process, working with our external branding partner, including:

• Understanding the insights and learnings uncovered by the organization’s branding partner firm as part of the Discovery Phase, as well as the brand elements that have been determined as part of the Brand Strategy Phase.
• Supporting the branding firm’s development of additional brand elements, including soliciting and compiling feedback from key stakeholders.
• Supporting the branding firm and its web development partner’s creation of a new website for America’s Promise.
• Leading the America’s Promise communications team in activation of the rebrand, from development of brand assets to the formulation of more detailed messaging.

Launch of America’s Promise’s Next Chapter

This spring, America’s Promise Alliance will launch as a reimagined Alliance community. This role’s launch responsibilities include:

• Designing and implementing a multifaceted public launch that highlights key elements of the organization’s five-year strategy, introduces the founding Alliance community, reflects the new brand, and features a new website.
• Conceptualizing every aspect of a strategic communications plan for the launch, including but not limited to: media outreach; social media strategy; partner, Board, and funder engagement; website deployment; Alliance storytelling.
• Leading the communications team and external consultants in implementation of the launch plan.

Alliance Communications

After the launch, the organization will need to determine a strategy for ongoing communication with and about the Alliance. Senior Director responsibilities include:

• Developing relationships with Alliance members to deeply understand their needs and insights, informing our Alliance communications work.
• Developing a plan for regular communications with Alliance members about program offerings, Alliance community news and announcements, and updates from the field; leading the communications and Alliance teams in implementing the plan.
• Guiding the communications team in unearthing potential story ideas from America’s Promise’s various partners and networks.
• Establishing the Alliance as a trusted source of information about education and the youth development field for key stakeholders, including media and decisionmakers.

Research, Policy, Youth Leadership Communications

America’s Promise will lead independent research, influence policy, and create extensive opportunities for youth leadership. Senior Director responsibilities in these areas include:

• Lead the dissemination of findings from America’s Promise Alliance’s unique, youth-centered research to the stakeholders who can best utilize the results and recommendations.
• Develop and help implement a plan for communicating about the organization’s policy approach and the involvement of young leaders and practitioners in the policy process.
• Develop and help implement a plan for communicating about the organization’s community-based youth leadership model.

Storytelling Campaigns

America’s Promise, its Alliance members, and youth leaders will identify issue areas that affect young people as the focus of national communication campaigns designed to raise public awareness, shift mindsets, or inspire action. Responsibilities in this area include:

• Participating in a cross-functional team to design a process for taking the issue-based storytelling campaigns from conception to execution.
• Partnering with the Senior Director of Research to seamlessly integrate research and storytelling to create “head and heart” campaigns that center first-person storytelling from young leaders in our key issue areas.
• Overseeing the activation of the national communications campaigns, including pursuing strategic partnerships for compelling content creation and high impact distribution.
• Developing an ethical, responsible, and sensitive approach to helping young people tell their stories and share their perspectives in ways that recognize their power, humanity, and autonomy.
• Support the engagement and mobilization of coalitions of Alliance members in the design and execution of these campaigns.

Team and Organizational Leadership

The Senior Director of Communication’s leadership responsibilities include:

• Leading a high-performing communications team
• Serving as a member of America’s Promise’s Leadership Team
• In partnership with other America’s Promise staff, operationalizing the organization’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within teams, in organizational culture, in our communications, and in our Alliance.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Position requires at least 8 years of work experience in a related field.
• Deep knowledge of the education and youth development fields and experience communicating about and with young people, the issues and experiences that shape their lives, and the practitioners and policymakers who support them.
• Deep storytelling experience across a variety of media formats.
• Strong messaging and framing skills and an intuition for the language, narratives, and arguments that resonate with various audiences.
• Superb interpersonal skills with the ability to connect and collaborate with a range of individuals and organizational partners.
• Flexible and adaptable. Able to work with ambiguity and changing conditions and priorities.
• Sound organizational skills. Demonstrated ability to manage and balance a wide range of projects and duties in fast moving environment under tight deadlines.
• The ability to not only spot problems but articulate solutions—and guide and empower others in executing them.
• Strategic firepower that can be applied to developing and executing communications plans that advance America’s Promise Alliance’s organizational goals and positioning.
• Ability to lead communication professionals with expertise in social and digital media, content development and promotion, storytelling, and project management; experience with prioritizing and integrating these functions within a high-performing communications team.
• Experience communicating about racial and social injustice.
• Bachelor’s degree (or related years of experience) is preferred, preferably in communications, public relations, marketing, journalism, or any related discipline. Graduate degree in related field a plus.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

Salary and benefits will be competitive and commensurate with experience with a range of $100,000 -$130,000. America’s Promise Alliance offers a generous benefits package that extends beyond health care coverage to help provide team members with a work-life balance that includes childcare, wellness initiatives, professional development, retirement savings, and more.

[1] We define the “field” as organizations working in the outcome areas at the intersection of young people’s lived experiences: (1) education & youth development, (2) racial & social justice, (3) workforce development & economic mobility, and (4) mental health and wellbeing.

To Apply

Please submit a resume and cover letter detailing your interest in this position to careers@americaspromise.org. Please include the position title in the subject line of your e-mail.

America’s Promise Alliance is an Equal Opportunity Employer.  We actively seek and welcome diversity of all types on the America’s Promise team. America’s Promise is committed to an inclusive environment that allows all team members to thrive. While we sincerely appreciate all applications; only those candidates selected for interview will be contacted.