Deadline: February 28, 2022
Location: This position can be located anywhere in Colorado.
Work Schedule: Exempt, full time

Conservation Colorado is seeking a Vice President of Marketing & Communications (who can be located anywhere in Colorado). You will be responsible for the development of the organization’s online and traditional marketing and communications strategies that include earned media, online activist engagement, campaign messaging, and off-and-online content creation. This position reports directly to the CEO and is a key member of the five person executive team.

About Conservation Colorado
Conservation Colorado is the largest environmental advocacy organization in Colorado, and we’re 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, Latina, Latino, Latinx, other people of color, and other frontline communities.

We achieve these goals by organizing people and electing conservation-minded policymakers, and then holding them accountable to our shared goals. We work closely with policy leaders, activists, businesses, and other organizations, and have built a reputation as one of the leading state-based conservation advocacy organizations in the country. Within the organization, we aim to create a workplace culture of policies and practices that demonstrate how we value diversity, equity and inclusion every day.

What You’ll Do
As VP of Marketing & Communications, you’ll be responsible for the development, integration, and implementation of a broad range of marketing activities relative to the strategic direction and positioning of the organization and its leadership. This is a brand new position, and will be instrumental in elevating our digital and offline communications alike to engage audiences and help win our campaigns. This position reports directly to the CEO.

While the responsibilities can evolve over time, they include these buckets of work:

Vision, Strategy, and Leadership

• Create integrated, multi-channel marketing and communications strategies that allows Conservation Colorado to articulate and achieve our mission
• Develop and oversee the Conservation Colorado brand, ensure its consistent usage and adjust for resonance with key audiences, topical events and cultural competence
• Ensure an integrated approach that promotes the work and engages the audiences of  Protégete, our Spanish-language focused organizing and leadership program, and the Colorado Outdoor Business Alliance and connects it to the broader organization.
• Work with the CEO and other peers to help develop the Conservation Colorado membership program and strategy including meeting goals for racial diversification of membership, and own or implement portions of that strategy as determined by the membership program plan.

Content Creation

• Develop strategy and manage staff and vendors in creation of digital and printed content, materials, and publications including the Conservation Colorado website, blog posts, social media, newsletters, brochures, event invites, and online supporter stewardship communications.
• Oversee the use of new tactics and tools that put Conservation Colorado on the cutting edge of effective marketing and communications. Experimentation is encouraged and rewarded.

Team Management

• Manage a communications team of five to support the development and execution of the communications strategy, including directly supervising the Communications Director and Digital Director.
• Utilize established systems/protocols to monitor staff performance and development goals, assign accountabilities, set objectives, establish priorities, conduct annual performance appraisals, and administer salary adjustments.
• Oversee the day-to-day activities of the communications team including budgeting, planning, and staff development.

In addition to your regular responsibilities, all staff are expected to participate at some level in organizational priorities including helping in certain fundraising efforts, taking part in our election-related activities, and committing to our organizational efforts around equity & inclusivity.

Qualifications
To be successful in this job, you will demonstrate the strategic thinking, results-focused work, and efficiency to work well with our team. Fundamentally, we are looking for a marketing & communications expert who has the skills to execute in our context. More specifically, you will have or be most or all of the following:

1. 10+ years of relevant experience that could be a combination of working with nonprofits in other capacities as well as communications but does need to include working with various communication channels and experience developing and executing integrated and multichannel marketing plans.
2. Management experience of high performing teams in a spirit of collaboration, transparency, accountability, inclusion, and equity.
3. Ability to conceptualize clear and compelling content, with written and verbal communication as well as editing skills to oversee turning complex ideas into compelling content for our activists, donors, decision makers, and key partners.
4. Agility and teamwork: This is a fast-paced and constantly changing environment, so the ability to stay nimble and organized, while managing multiple projects and competing priorities is critical as well as the ability to effectively work with a large team, both your own and across the organization, to achieve our goals.
5. Cultural competency: We are focused on changing the face of the environmental movement by connecting with more communities who have been traditionally left out, particularly Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other communities of color. Experience creating content for different communities is important to the success of our work.
6. Commitment to our mission & theory of change: Appreciation for an organizational culture that is oriented to an advocacy-based environmental mission that centers equity and justice and a theory of change that focuses on elections, policy and organizing and understands how communication strategies fit in that context to influence decision makers to make policy changes.

This position does not have an undergraduate education requirement. Spanish/English bilingual is a skill we value, but it is not a requirement. This is a full-time job, but there can be some flexibility in the exact schedule.

Compensation and Benefits:

The full-time salary range for this role is between $111,000 to $139,000, based on a wage analysis across the organization with new staff rarely starting at the top of the range.

We offer a strong benefits package, including high-quality, zero-deductible health insurance, a SIMPLE IRA retirement plan with a match, at least 28 days of vacation & holidays per year, 6 physical and mental wellness days in your first year, 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, and believe that life experiences can count just as much as formal education or traditional work experience. If you think you’d be great at this job but are worried about the qualifications, you should apply anyway!

To Apply
If this job truly speaks to you please click here to submit a cover letter addressed to Kelly Nordini, a résumé, and 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 oliver@conservationco.org.