We’re looking for a Director of Communications to help us revise our global communications strategy, with a particular focus on core messaging, and execute it across all channels — from website and earned media to subscriber emails and social media. This is a senior-level role that requires an experienced communications professional who is ready for this challenge now and can hit the ground running, including managing direct reports who are themselves new to Namati. Our communications strategy is iterative and dynamic - meaning that the Director will not just execute on big projects but will also evaluate whether such projects should be done at all, and how they should be prioritized relative to other comms functions. 

Rather than employing the top-down approach common at international NGOs, we partner with communities to support them in claiming and advancing their rights. Our Communications Director must not only convey our mission through clear, compelling narratives and messaging, but must also  deeply internalize and exemplify the values of humility, empowerment, and solidarity that underlie our grassroots method. 

While this is a senior role which requires significant experience, we’re not looking for a specific experience set or minimum number of years — if you feel strongly that you’re a match for this role, we encourage you to apply. 

The Director’s primary areas of responsibility include: 

Vision and Strategy

• Leading a re-examination of our global communications strategy — with a particular focus on audience and messaging — and overseeing its implementation
• Developing a global earned media strategy and implementation plan, including determining the appropriate level of time and resources to devote to this area of work  
• Providing strategic input on — and support for — global initiatives and campaigns led by the Public Engagement team, Global Programs team, Legal Empowerment Network team, and others

Content Creation

• Collaborating with the Communications team, program teams, and external vendors to produce a steady flow of high-quality content that compellingly communicates Namati’s core messages and impacts to a global audience. Deliverables would include, but are not limited to, stories of change, blogs, photos, videos, emails to our list of 25,000+ subscribers, and an annual impact report 
• Identifying and addressing content gaps on our website and collaborating with our external website agency to make site improvements, with the ultimate goal of increasing newsletter subscribers and donations 

Coaching and Management

• Guiding the Senior Network Communications Officer in refining the Legal Empowerment Network communications and brand strategies and implementing them across the Network’s new, independent website and social media channels
• Managing a small team (currently 2 staff members and external vendors) and driving the team’s annual goal setting, ongoing learning, and high performance. 

Systems and Processes 

•  Developing and/or ensuring organization-wide usage of tools and processes that support the production and dissemination of quality, on-brand deliverables, such as our new Digital Asset Management system (Canto), creative brief template, core language archive, vendor spreadsheet, and updated brand guidelines and templates
• Ensuring the proper functioning of MailChimp and improvements that would enable the increased use of list segmentation to provide our different audiences with targeted content

Examples of what you might have tackled last month 

• Developed a plan on how to approach the review and revision of organizational core messaging  
• Drafted an email newsletter for our list of 25k practitioners and supporters, sharing a funding initiative for Legal Empowerment Network members in Ukraine
• Worked with the communications officer to do a full review and analysis of social media and MailChimp metrics, examining how to increase reach and engagement across these channels
• Provided comprehensive feedback on an op-ed written by the director of our Sierra Leone program for a national media outlet and on a video about birth registration in Kenya produced by the Citizenship team in conjunction with a local filmmaker. 
• Worked with the the digital communications officer and website developer on a plan to address bugs impeding the functioning of the website and adjust several page layouts 
• Provided strategic input on the Public Engagement team’s plans for activities to celebrate Namati’s 10 year anniversary
• Collaborated with relevant members the Legal Empowerment Network team and the Senior Network Communications Officer to develop a full-scale promotional plan for the launch of the global Learning Agenda
• Completed a mid-year review of the communications budget, adjusting costs based on changes to annual plans and needs 

About You

• A visionary and collaborative leader: You think big picture. You are attuned to changing political, cultural, and economic environments and spot new opportunities. You are known for your ability to unlock the talent and imagination of your teammates, not just your own, and have successfully led innovative projects. You can keep staff, consultants, and other team members accountable to their project commitments while maintaining strong, open interpersonal relationships and lines of communication. 
• An experienced and skilled communications professional: You’ve done this work before, and are old hat at all the planning, researching, writing, editing, and strategizing that comprises high-level comms. You understand how to craft messaging for different audiences, how to identify and tell a good story, and how to produce content that resonates. 
• Global experience and perspective: You’ve done communications work in a global context and understand there are cultural and political sensitivities to consider when speaking and writing  about our work. You are eager to help weave our varied projects from around the world into narratives that transcend their particular context and have an even wider impact. 
• Growth-oriented: You’re always seeking to better yourself and your work, and you will push yourself to the peak of performance to help fulfill our mission. In service of that growth, you welcome and delight in feedback from supervisors, peers, and anyone else.
• Knowledge of design, video editing, and photography principles: Communications is about visual storytelling as well as written and audio. You don’t need to be able to do everything - you’ll have some budget for freelancers and professional agencies - but you do need a strong visual aesthetic. You’re picky about things like balance and spacing in graphic design and can intuitively identify photos with compelling composition, good lighting, and a clear focus and emotion. 

Nice to have: 

• Experience in Namati’s grassroots legal empowerment settings: You’ve advocated and/or worked in a grassroots setting in Asia, Africa, or Latin American, so you deeply understand and empathize with the needs and struggles of communities working for change. While not necessary for this position, that empathy would enhance your ability to communicate about our mission and impact. 

This Talent Acquisition role will be a part of the global People team and will support team-wide efforts as appropriate to bring culturally-aligned people into roles designed to tap into their superpowers, help them to continually grow and develop, and bring them together in a vibrant, values-driven culture.

While we’re open to hiring this role at a variety of levels, we’re looking for someone with significant related professional experience and strong professional networks. The Talent Acquisition manager will focus on the following areas: 

• Sourcing candidates: You’ll do all the sleuthing you’d expect a recruiter might do, as well as constantly searching for new networks that might be full of incredible candidates who have never heard of us. Your calendar will be full of screening interviews, “get to know you” calls, and follow-ups, building a candidate pipeline for Namati now and into the future. 
• Managing hiring processes: You’ll manage all of the processes of hiring at Namati, from developing job descriptions to onboarding. You’ll conduct interviews, plan hiring timelines for new roles, develop candidate evaluation resources, set up all of the systems we use for hiring, and coordinate onboarding (and help us continue to strengthen our systems and capacity in these areas). You’ll work with hiring managers and the rest of the People Operations team to drive hiring processes forward, and you’ll own the candidate experience at Namati, ensuring that candidates are treated respectfully and communicated with in a timely manner.  

Here’s what you might have tackled last week -

• Scheduled, planned, and conducted a call with the Kenyan citizenship team to help them develop a role they plan to hire for.
• Held a check-in with a hiring manager to share updates on a recruitment process; after discussing eligible candidates, quickly reacted to make adjustments to the job description and recruitment strategy. 
• Finalized a new evaluation template for hiring managers to review written exercises.
• Had coffee with a senior-level candidate who might be a great match for our growing US Environmental Justice program when she’s available next year. 
• Had a long call with our Network manager, learning about how to navigate our Legal Empowerment Network platform and strategizing about how to find promising candidates who are already very engaged in our issues. 
• Did phone screen interviews with about 18,000 candidates (you might be exaggerating that number, but that’s how it felt).
• Finalized job descriptions for 2 upcoming roles, providing both content and light copy-editing on the documents to prepare for posting.
• Spent some time cruising around Twitter, exploring a rabbit-hole of environmental justice networks around the world.

About You

• Excellent communication and matchmaking skills: You love to connect with people and understand how their perspectives and unique qualities could be elevated. You’re great at articulating mission, achievements, and culture in a way that helps people understand how they could thrive with us. You enjoy people - working with them, learning from them - and you’re typically energized by a good conversation. 
• Nimble, creative, skilled project manager:  You’re extremely thorough and will follow through on complicated, multi-step processes. While careful planning and execution define your work, you are positive and graceful when unexpected challenges arise. You quickly reorient and identify the best new course of action. You are able to multitask using sound judgment while remaining detail-oriented.  
• Collaborative and service-oriented: You greet everyone you encounter with a collaborative spirit, kindness, and empathy. You are known as a team-player who brings an “all hands on deck” mindset to all projects -- you’re happy to contribute however you can to advance Namati’s mission. You manage collaborative processes confidently and efficiently: you know how to incorporate input from a variety of stakeholders.
• Growth oriented: You’re always seeking to better yourself and your work, and you will push yourself to the peak of performance to help fulfill our mission. In service of that growth, you welcome and delight in feedback from supervisors, peers, and anyone else.
• Maturity and discernment: You have several years of experience - perhaps at several workplaces - and have seen a lot of people thrive (and not) in a variety of ways. You trust your instincts, but also understand your biases, and have an expansive and inclusive idea of what it means to “belong” at an organization. 

Responsibilities:

• Donor stewardship and reporting: The Senior Manager will take on a significant portfolio of existing awards. Private foundations, and bilateral and multilateral institutions, represent the lion’s share of our awards to date. This person will manage proposals, reports and other deliverables; timely communications and thoughtful touchpoints; and coordination across stakeholders, with respect to these awards -- ensuring impeccable funder relationships that lead to ongoing renewal awards at the highest possible levels. 
• Cultivation: The Senior Manager will work with development and program staff to identify, vet, and cultivate a pipeline of productive new funding relationships, and to steward the relationships that arise therein. This person will be responsible for securing invitations to apply, developing proposals, and managing application processes in coordination with relevant stakeholders. 
• Thought leadership: The Senior Manager will represent Namati and provide thought leadership at relevant forums and events, to expand Namati’s visibility across the philanthropic sector and build a strong network of potential partners. 
• Internal coordination and advice: The Senior Manager will provide support, advice and guidance to program leads to ensure a consistent and coordinated fundraising approach. This person will work closely with the Director of Development, the Director of Partnerships and Engagement, and the Director of Communications on organization- and field-critical priorities at the intersection of fundraising and communications -- developing and implementing funder-facing communication plans, working to identify and make use of opportunities for program staff visibility in funder spaces.
• Strategy and planning: The Senior Manager will meaningfully contribute to setting the strategic direction for the overall development effort, as part of a collaborative, consultative Development team. This person will work closely with the Development Director and the Development Operations Manager to strengthen fundraising systems and policies at Namati, including future hires for the team.

Here’s what you might have tackled last week -

• Drafted a proposal to a foundation on behalf of our Community Land Protection (CLP) Program, based on dialogue with the CLP team about their upcoming program priorities; oversaw the timely editing of the proposal, and managed the submission process.
• Researched potential funders for the Legal Empowerment Network, convened by Namati, via databases on Foundation Center, Guidestar.org, and Inside Philanthropy, and via your own network. Creatively identified a number of new potential donors by carefully reviewing their existing grantees, grantmaking practices, and due diligence considerations, and then worked with the Network team to undertake an outreach strategy.
• Facilitated a call between our Director of Global Programs, Chief Operating Officer, and Right to Citizenship Director, to develop a plan for timely completing a massive proposal  in response to a U.S. government tender. Later, provided relevant team members with a detailed timeline, roles chart, writing outline, and materials chart.
• After collaborating with the communications and development staff to plan, coordinate and host a call for current and potential funders for our land and environmental justice program portfolio, lead on follow-up from the call to optimize connections leading to proposal invitations.
• Leveraged your network and strategic outlook to assist in mapping new power relations at a major funding institution that has just undergone a significant strategic shift, so that Namati is best-positioned to ensure ongoing support. 
• Plan a fundraising trip to Capetown, South Africa, in partnership with the directors of our Mozambique and Sierra Leone programs, where you will meet with several foundation program officers for initial conversations.

About You/Must-Haves for the Position

• A strong background of fundraising experience. We will prioritize applications from candidates with 10+ years of professional experience, and a track record of success as development professionals. The Senior Manager must be able to lead fundraising both independently without close oversight, but also as a team player who proactively and productively coordinates with key stakeholders. 
• Relationship-building skills (and the network to prove it): You’ve prioritized building relationships in your career, and the strength of your network reflects this skill. You make connections. When you’re wrestling with an issue, you immediately think of several people you’d like to ask. 
• Excellent communication skills, including great writing: You’re great at explaining things, building persuasive arguments, and organizing your thoughts in writing. You can produce good written products relatively quickly, and value receiving feedback, and collaborating with others, on your written product. 
• Collaborative and service-oriented: You greet everyone you encounter with a collaborative spirit, kindness, and empathy. You are known as a team-player who brings an “all hands on deck” mindset to all projects -- you’re happy to contribute however you can to advance Namati’s mission.
• Growth oriented: You’re always seeking to better yourself and your work, and you will push yourself to the peak of performance to help fulfill our mission. In service of that growth, you welcome and delight in feedback from supervisors, peers, and anyone else.
• Nimble, creative, problem-solving: Although careful planning and execution define your work, you are positive and graceful when u

While momentum is building, this is still a new project. We’re looking for an experienced movement builder to lead this global effort. In collaboration with Namati teams and Legal Empowerment Network members, as well as other supporters and allies, the person will co-create and execute global plans of action. The person needs to be seen both as a leader and as a peer to grassroots land and environmental justice leaders - someone with a significant track record of success in organizing and campaigning, with the gravitas that comes from hard-won experience. 

This is a senior-level role that requires organizing experience and leadership skills, as well as the ability to serve as a public spokesperson and advocate for the global movement. This is a new role at Namati and there is no blueprint for making it a success - we’re looking for a high-level steward to truly own and guide the work. However, if you think you’d thrive in this role we encourage you to apply regardless of your level of experience.

The Program Director/Global Organizer's primary areas of responsibility include: 

• Provide strategic leadership over all work streams to maximize synergies across shared learning and collective action activities and build an unignorable movement
• Co-create and oversee the execution of bottom-up, multi-pronged global campaign strategy (which may include community organizing, direct action, strategic communications, and policy advocacy) that puts impacted communities at the forefront
• Build a powerful collective narrative and identity for our movement, in partnership with network members and Namati’s teams, to raise its profile, shift the dominant public narrative, and inspire others to join the movement
• Create and maintain ways for impacted communities to input and lead the global movement while connecting with each other’s experiences
• Expand our global coalition of grassroots land and environmental justice groups, and grow the base of the movement, in partnership with Network members and relevant Namati teams
• Manage a remote team of 4 (and growing) and coordinate with other Namati colleagues distributed across many time zones and cultures, for mutually reinforcing work in service of the main objectives outlined above
• Perform other responsibilities as needed, such as fundraising and donor stewardship

Examples of what you might have tackled last week

• Co-facilitated a regular meeting with the core group, guiding the group towards a strategic breakthrough on a particularly thorny issue by drawing on your own experiences in a past campaign and insights from power and legal analysis 
• Led an energizing virtual conversation with community members, Indigenous rights advocates, and environmental justice defenders from across Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa to build solidarity and gain support for a global campaign strategy
• Brainstormed a pathway of engagement for new participants in the movement from different background and what resources are necessary for their inputs to be valued
• Visited a community on the front lines of environmental justice and brainstorm with them  about their role in the movement and what actions they can take next
• Met with representatives from Namati’s Legal Empowerment Network to conceptualize a creative direct-action plan for the environmental governance campaign, evaluating the positives and negatives of big attention-grabbing action.
• Started initiatives or seized opportunities based on your own experiences that we haven’t seen ourselves yet!

About You

• Mission-driven: Our vision for growing the global movement for grassroots land and environmental justice, and the work we do to support communities organizing for justice, deeply resonates with your own hopes for the world. You are driven, competent, and creative in your work because you know this cause needs driven, competent, and creative people.
• Organizing and/or campaign leadership: You’ve done grassroots organizing work yourself, so you deeply understand and empathize with the needs and struggles of communities working for change. Ideally, you’ve also led national or international movements, or otherwise served as a facilitator for grassroots campaigns.
• Background in land rights and/or environmental justice: You have a strong understanding of the power holders, relationships, and opportunities related to land environmental governance in key countries and/or globally, and know how to influence them to build considered, creative, and practicable strategic plans.
• A creative, relentless problem-solver:  It’s in your nature to work tirelessly on a problem -- you don’t rest until you’ve identified a great solution. And although careful planning and execution define your work, when challenges arise you quickly reorient and identify the best new course of action. You’re well-regarded for your ability to make reasoned decisions, even in the face of limited or conflicting information. 
• Collaborative and service-oriented: You greet everyone you encounter with a collaborative spirit, kindness, and empathy. You are known as a team-player who brings an “all hands on deck” mindset to all projects -- you’re happy to contribute however you can to advance our mission.
• Growth-oriented: You’re always seeking to better yourself and your work, and you will push yourself to the peak of performance to help fulfill our mission. In service of that growth, you welcome and delight in feedback from supervisors, peers, and anyone else.