Organizing Director

POSITION: Organizing Director

REPORTS TO: Executive Director, Elsa Oliva Rocha

ABOUT PADRES & JOVENES UNIDOS: 

With roots in the struggle for educational and racial justice, Padres & Jóvenes Unidos has evolved into a multi-issue organization led by people of color who work for educational excellence, racial justice, immigrant rights, women's liberation, and health justice for all. Our parents and youth members organize to build power in their communities to challenge the root cause of discrimination, racism, and inequity by exposing the economic, social, and institutional basis for injustice as well as developing effective strategies to realize meaningful change. 

OVERVIEW OF POSITION:  

The Organizing Director at Padres & Jovenes Unidos is responsible for the leadership, management, and oversight of the organization’s  grassroots and digital organizing efforts. The Organizing Director will mobilize youth and adult members toward systemic and institutional change through its campaigns and organizing committees. As the principal leader for the organization's fieldwork, the Organizing Director develops, directs, and supports the execution of campaign plans, strategies, and tactics to achieve the mission and vision of Padres & Jóvenes Unidos.  

Through educational campaigns, participatory research, coalition building, and direct action, this position will further develop and implement campaigns and programs to increase the capacity and impact of our policy advocacy agenda, grassroots leadership, stakeholder engagement, and mobilizing community allies. Padres & Jóvenes Unidos is seeking a tenacious and revolutionary bilingual (Spanish and English) Organizing Director grounded in anti-racist intersectional theory, has a strong command of community organizing, organizational leadership, team supervision, and program management.  

Organizing & Campaign Leadership

• Serve as a leader within the organization on in-person and digital organizing and stay informed on the latest best practices in social media, email, paid digital advertising and SMS as campaign tools 
• Develop and execute comprehensive in-person and digital strategies and tactics to grow our audiences and membership, move digital and organizing campaigns forward, engage and motivate online audiences, and drive membership to action
• Facilitates and manages strategic organizing campaigns rooted in the needs and demands of Padres & Jóvenes Unidos’ membership to include: developing effective campaign plans, coordination of campaign activities and actions, recruiting members and coalition allies
• Mobilizes PJU membership, staff, interns, and stakeholders to participate in organizing efforts with support and accountability thought planning, project and time management, meeting facilitation, and sustainable work practices 
• Build an effective and integrated team by providing informed and intersectional support for staff and prioritize power-building through base-building and grassroots leadership development
• Provide support and resources for raising the political consciousness of members and stakeholders through online, in person, formal, and informal group trainings; coaching and mentoring; regular fieldwork; curriculum development; and programming that strategically combines political education, organizing theory, and PJU’s strategic plans
• Actively participate in organizing work by overseeing the development, tracking, and reporting of organizing goals, outcomes, and performance metrics to ensure that the PJU team has access to up to date information on organizing efforts, operating requirements, concerns of members and staff, successes, challenges, and critical issues as they relate to campaigns.

Program Management & Evaluation-

• Leads the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of organizing practices at PJU utilizing participatory research, direction from membership, goal-setting, tracking, and reporting for digital and in-person organizing
• Understand strategic planning, logic models or design thinking, work plans, and evaluations; utilize mechanisms to monitor and evaluate organizing programs, practices, and campaigns to ensure quality and effectiveness of issue priorities and direct action strategies
• Supervise, train, develop, and support the leadership and organizing skills of youth and adult community organizers by using a strengths-based or coaching approach; spearhead internal and track external training and professional development of membership and staff 
• Direct the development and implementation of outreach and organizing plans, including member recruitment, training, leadership development, communications systems, databases, event management, strategic and tactical plans.

Communications, Policy, and Public Relations-

• Form and manage strategic relationships with local, state, and national allies, partner organizations, and policymakers while advancing the visible leadership of youth and adult members
• Manage key relationships with institutional administrators, staff, and stakeholders and represent PJU at community gatherings; at workshops, trainings, and presentations; to the community, political, and government leaders; to other community-based organizations; and in the media
• Serve as a strategic liaison to leadership, field, communications, and policy staff to consistently build digital organizing into traditional organizing plans, execute communications strategy, and develop messaging in alignment with organizational narratives, political, and campaign objectives

Organizational Development & Administration-

• Lead program and staff meetings, maintaining a cooperative approach to achieving organizational goals
• Model organizational culture of learning, growth, and evolvement through designing and executing digital organizing experiments and creating and disseminating reports to internal and external stakeholders
• Attend staff, board, program, and other relevant meetings as necessary
• Coordinate with the Leadership Team on organizational budget, staff reimbursements, timesheets, and HR tasks as needed
• Coordinate with the field and phone canvass departments, program team, coalition partners, and PJU members to ensure grant deliverables
• Contribute to grant research, writing, and reporting in collaboration with the Leadership Team
• Contribute to fundraising for general operations and programs through grant writing, donor appeals, special events, earned income, and major donor program
• Serves on the leadership team by participating in the organizational development process at PJU

Qualifications-

• The ideal candidate will share a commitment to the organization's mission and have at least 3 years of experience in a management level position (including supervision) and a minimum of 5 years’ experience in traditional or relational organizing, communications, and/or digital organizing, digital campaigns or marketing. A mix of these experiences is ideal
• A Successful candidate in this role will be self-motivated, flexible, innovative, detail-oriented, and data-driven with a strong understanding of digital trends and best practices.
• Provide culturally-relevant management as part of a multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural team with the ability to combine assets available as a means of maximizing skills to function at a high level 
• Understand and respectfully interact with persons of various social, cultural, economic, and educational backgrounds to foster productive and authentic relationships.
• Grassroots organizing experience working with historically-marginalized communities including working-class, Latinx, indigenous, immigrant, people of color, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ, communities
• Understanding and willingness to learn from various historical and current social change movements and the root causes of discrimination, racism, and inequity 
• Strong communication, leadership, and management skills, close attention to detail, working collaboratively and independently, and simultaneously leading multiple projects simultaneously
• Experience managing and coaching staff as well as the skills in negotiating, exchanging ideas, opinions, and conflict resolution to create healthy tensions for learning moments, in the service of building a more inclusive work environment and movement
• Demonstrated experience using digital platforms and tools such as social media, SMS, email and paid advertising, and other platforms for audience engagement alongside a willingness to learn new technologies, tactics, and strategies
• Skills and tools for facilitating adult and youth-led initiatives and participatory planning; able to motivate youth and parents, support youth self-determination, and create and enforce systems of accountability
• Background developing and leading trainings and comfortable speaking in front of large and small groups of people
• Excellent time management, project management, and delegation skills.
• Fluency in English and Spanish is required.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS: Salary range is $54,000 to $58,000, based on experience. We offer a comprehensive benefits package. 

TO APPLY: Email resume and cover letter to jobs@padresunidos.org. 

Please address the following in your cover letter: 

Your interest and commitment to grassroots community organizing as the key strategy to achieving social justice;

Why do you want to join the PJU team?

Padres & Jovenes Unidos is an equal opportunity employer; women and people of color and LGBTQ people are strongly encouraged to apply.