Location: Denver, Colorado
Work schedule: Non-exempt, Full-time
Deadline for submission: September 12, 2022

About Conservation Colorado

Conservation Colorado is committed to protecting our climate, air, lands, water, and communities. Conservation Colorado’s work to protect and advocate for the environment reflects our commitment to racial and social justice, particularly by ensuring that policy victories are shared by all Coloradans including Black, Indigenous, Latinx, other people of color, and other frontline communities.

We achieve these goals by organizing people and electing conservation-minded policymakers. We work closely with policy leaders, activists, businesses, and other organizations, and have built a reputation as one of the leading conservation advocacy organizations in the region. Within the organization, we aim to create a workplace culture of policies and practices that demonstrate how we value equity and inclusion.

What You’ll Do

As Conservation Colorado’s Front Range Field Organizer, you will be a key part of the team in cultivating substantial, authentic, and racially diverse voices across the state supporting conservation issues. These positions are focused in the Denver metro area to secure protections for our environment and natural resources while advancing a conservation ethic that provides for healthy communities, social justice, and expanded public engagement. These positions report to the Front Range Field Manager. This role can evolve over time, but you will have these areas of responsibility.

Recruit and Develop Activists

• Build our activist base in the Metro Area by engaging communities, including those who have been traditionally excluded from the environmental movement, and mobilize them to take action to pass strong conservation policy.
• Develop authentic relationships with community members ranging from individual activists and business owners to community leaders and local elected officials and through education, create a culture of advocacy and engagement on our issues. Incorporate fundraising into the day-to-day work as a skill that is essential to the continued success of the organization
• Become embedded in your organizing community through organizing events, holding meetings with decision makers & activists, and becoming an expert in your local decision makers so you understand what motivates them to take action.

Engage People to Take Action

• Work closely with the government affairs team to design and/or implement strategic and effective campaign plans that intersect with our powerbuilding, fundraising, political, and issue-specific organizational goals so we can win strong pro-conservation policies and win at the ballot box
• Build power for our issues by elevating the voices of our activists and connecting them to decision makers to hold them accountable
• Engage the community to take action on our campaigns and look for strategic overlap between local issues and our state and federal work.

In addition to your regular responsibilities, all staff are expected to participate in certain fundraising efforts, take part in our election-related activities, and commit to our efforts around equity & inclusivity.

Qualifications

To be successful in this job, you will be a dedicated organizer who is committed to building a movement for a better future, with the skills to build community and a willingness to learn. More specifically, you will have:

• Commitment to our mission and theory of change: Our work marries the people to the policy & politics. Commitment to an advocacy-based environmental mission & and a belief in the importance of elections is necessary. Experience, whether paid or volunteer, engaging people to take action is a huge plus.
• Authentic relationship builder: Building and maintaining authentic relationships where you inspire and teach people about our issues, particularly with people from different racial or socio-economic backgrounds is fundamental to being a good organizer.
• Commitment to racial justice: An understanding of why racial justice work is critical to the mission of environmental organizations and ability to share those values with others is required.
• Skilled collaborator: We work in a collaborative space and so you need to be a reliable teammate who can accomplish all facets of the job, including the more day-to-day administrative tasks that might not seem as urgent, but are important for the work.
• Problem solving orientation: Organizing is often about figuring out how to overcome obstacles so the ability to dig into situations to get to the root of a problem and propose and implement solutions is vital to the work.

Spanish/English bilingualism is encouraged for this position, but not a requirement. The position requires some evening and weekend hours.

Compensation and Benefits:

The full-time salary range for this role is between $52,000 to $60,000 based on a wage analysis across the organization and new staff rarely starting at the top of the range. We provide high-quality, zero-deductible health insurance and a strong benefits package that includes a SIMPLE IRA retirement plan with a match, at least 28 days of vacation & holidays as well as six physical & mental wellness days in your first year, and parental leave and a sabbatical program.

This job offers an opportunity to engage people to find solutions to some of the most important environmental issues in Colorado and work with a great team that is committed to a better, more equitable future. It will be challenging, inspiring, and sometimes frustrating, but you’ll be making a big difference. Please note that as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, Conservation Colorado employees are not eligible to participate in the Federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.

We are committed to building a more diverse and inclusive organization and conservation movement to fully represent and engage all Coloradans and to build as powerful a movement as we can. Recruiting staff that better reflects Colorado is a priority and we encourage applicants from all cultures, race, ethnicity, geographies, political affiliation, sexual orientations, gender identities, and all other identities represented in Colorado or protected by law. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

To Apply

If this job truly speaks to you, please click here to submit an application, including a cover letter addressed to Renée Larrarte, a résumé, and your answers answer a few short questions. If you need accommodation or assistance with our online application process, please tell us how we can help by emailing jobs@conservationco.org or by calling us at 303.333.7846.