ROLE TITLE: Manager, Communications & Network Engagement (Full Time)

POSITION REPORTS TO: Managing Director, Partnerships and Programs (Hazen Fairbanks)

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 11:59pm ET on Tuesday, September 3, 2024

LOCATION: Twin Cities, Minnesota

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Teach For America – Twin Cities seeks a Manager, Communications and Network Engagement to foster a thriving, impactful network – connecting our program participants and network to one another and to high impact roles and professional development opportunities. We are looking for a communicator and relationship builder that executes effective program recruitment campaigns, drives regional event engagement, and amplifies storytelling to provide greater awareness of TFA’s impact as well as statewide efforts to advance education equity in Minnesota. The ideal candidate for this role has prior program coordination, regional operations, multi-channel and digital communications, and/or project and event management experiences. In this role you will design and implement events and engagement campaigns for a wide variety of program participants including aspiring educators, corps members, alumni, fellowship participants, school and community partners and key stakeholders. You will curate opportunities that strengthen the experience, culture, and connectivity of Teach For America Twin Cities while mobilizing our network to create transformative opportunities for children, youth, and families in our community.

The Manager, Communications and Network Engagement will partner with the Managing Director for Partnerships and Programs to design marketing and promotion strategies to drive prospect interest that increases the number of applicants and improves matriculation and program retention for TFA Corps Program, Ignite Tutoring Fellowship, and TFA Twin Cities professional development, fellowship programs, and talent opportunities. Additionally, the Manager of Communications and Network Engagement will collaborate with the Managing Director of Alumni and External Affairs to implement comprehensive alumni and external affairs engagement campaigns and networking and social events. You will lead the region’s digital communication and social media strategy, capturing and sharing impact stories, while also supporting ED and Regional Team with earned media and public speaking events. This job is for you if:

• You are a natural self-starter – you don’t wait for direction, but instead anticipate opportunities and challenges, see areas for improvement, and proactively act on them.

• You are a strong relationship builder - you are energized by getting to know new people and connecting them with opportunities to make positive change in their own and students’ lives.

• You enjoy planning events - once you get to know a group, you enjoy envisioning and executing events that will bring people together around a common goal or interest and help them get to know one another and continue to connect long after the event is over.

• You are a storyteller - when you learn something exciting, you can’t wait to share it with others and can do so compellingly, in a variety of formats (digital, print, video, etc.)

• You are meticulous in your attention to operations and project management -you are a caretaker and meaning maker that recognizes how much details matter to create the ideal environment and context to foster powerful learning and collaboration.

WHAT YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR

Network Engagement, Collaboration, and Events - 40%

• Partner with MD, Partnerships and Program and MD, Alumni and External Affairs to executive comprehensive network engagement aligned to TFA's 10-year goal and organizational priorities.

• Collaborate with regional leaders to set recruitment goals for professional development opportunities, fellowship programs, and events and implement outreach and engagement strategies to meet and exceed program recruitment and retention targets.

• Provide project management, event execution, and compelling communications to drive engagement of aspiring educators and applicants for TFA Corps Program and Ignite Tutoring Fellowship

• Ensure smooth transition for new alumni to Twin Cities and 2nd year CMs to alum status by welcoming them, curating strong connections to TFA network, and sharing career support; professional development opportunities; social, networking, and volunteer events.

• Cultivate and deepen the corps and alumni community through 1:1 and small groups meetings to build strong relationships and drive engagement and partnership with TFA Network Leadership Groups (The Alumni Board, Collective, PRISM, and Corps Member Leadership Council).

• Manage regional events calendar and lead operations for Back to School BBQ, Holiday Party, Choose the Twin Cities, Corps Member Programming, Fellowship Sessions, Alumni Induction, DEI Keynote, training and community events, and anniversary celebrations.

• Manage portfolio of prospects, corps members, alumni, fellows, and school and community partners, strategically connecting them to each other and high impact roles and opportunities while facilitating involvement in TFA initiatives and volunteerism in local communities across Minnesota.

Communications, Marketing, Social and Earned Media - 35%

• Partner with MD, Alumni and External Affairs to create and execute regional communications plan and strategies, leveraging resources from TFA national external affairs team.

• Collaborate with regional team, national colleagues, and partners to execute external affairs and earn media strategy, craft key messages and source/share stories that strengthen culture and conviction of our base and compel external audiences to support TFA.

• Build a culture of storytelling and develop compelling profiles of corps members, alumni, board members, and students to be compiled in a accessible resource bank

• Visit CMs, alumni, fellows, and partnership in the field, conduct classroom visits, attend community events to find multiple ways to highlight their efforts and share stories of impact.

• Design collateral for regional events (flyers, banners, one-pagers, and branded slide decks) and stewardship opportunities (holiday cards, thank you cards, and other marketing materials), in collaboration with event leaders and regional leadership, respectively.

• Deepen engagement with our base and reach new audiences by expanding our digital presence and effectiveness (social media, regional microsites, e-marketing, op-eds, etc.)

• Foster relationships with local reporters, proactively pitch positive stories, and manage regional response to inquiries and rapid response protocols for crisis communications.

• Establish bench of prepared spokespeople (including Executive Director, region staff, CMs, alumni, and community champions) and actively source speaking engagement, roundtables, interviews, and earned media features across multiple media platforms (TV, print and radio)

Operations, Project Management, and Collective Responsibilities - 25%

• Manage execution for critical regional projects, community initiatives, and/or alumni efforts that require progress monitoring, milestone/deliverable tracking and internal and external stakeholder communications and stewardship.

• Lead operations and logistics support for regional programming and events with meticulous attention to detail aligned to best practices and identify opportunities for process innovation and continuous improvement participant experiences.

• Lead regional data management and refine processes for data collection and survey administration while enhancing capacity of the team to leverage results, insights, and feedback to improve program experiences, engagement, communications, and impact.

• Attend and contribute to all-staff meetings, retreats, and step backs and engage in org-wide opportunities like resource groups, affinity spaces, and cross-functional teams.

• Contribute to initiatives, priorities, and projects to help fellow regional and national team members achieve our shared goals and responsibilities.

• Operate flexibly to lend skills and capacity to emerging projects or priorities as they arise.

A WEEK IN THE LIFE

Over the course of any week, the Manager of Communications & Network Engagement will spend time doing outreach to and designing communications from TFA prospects, program participants, CMs, alumni, partners and stakeholders across Twin Cities; leading event operations, communications, and logistic to support with regional team and alumni to host social, networking and/or professional events; tracking alumni interactions via Salesforce; designing and writing social media posts and emails highlighting local and national TFA stories and events; networking with other alumni-facing peers across the Teach For America network.

YOUR EXPERIENCE

Your areas of knowledge and expertise that matter most for this role (minimum qualifications):

• 1-3 years of experience in program coordination, regional operations, multi-channel and digital communications, and/or project and event management

• Able to translate high-level strategies into actionable program engagements, communications, and operations while using a nuanced approach that considers varied perspectives.

• Experience implementing integrated multi-channel campaigns for diverse audiences and content creation and digital design for social media, marketing materials, written communications, and presentations leveraging a variety of design tools, email marketing and social media platforms (Adobe Creative Suite, Canva, PowerPoint, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Sprout Social, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)

• Passion for actively and productively engaging in dialogue to further your commitment and your organization’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusiveness.

• Displays and models a learning orientation, including around one’s own personal identity.

• Open to ambiguity, adaptability, risk taking, and learning in a constantly evolving context.

BONUS (preferred qualifications)

• Knowledge of TFA brand standards, theory of leadership development and participant journey

• Experience in written & verbal communication including writing long and short form content.

• Ability to collaborate effectively with multiple teams efficiently driving work forward.

• TFA Corps member experience or experience in similar programs (i.e., Breakthrough, City Year, AmeriCorps, College Possible, etc.) strongly preferred.

• Bachelor’s degree is preferred.

YOUR FUTURE TEAM

Teach For America’s mission is to enlist, develop, and mobilize the nation's most promising future leaders to grow and strengthen the movement for educational equity and excellence. TFA-Twin Cities has a diverse coalition of staff members, corps members, alumni, school partners, program participants and community partners all working to realize the potential of all Twin Cities students. At Teach for America - Twin Cities, we believe that our students and community are our greatest asset and resource so it is critical to work collaboratively to address and disrupt educational inequity so that all children will have access to an excellent education.

In Minnesota, educational inequities are experienced early and often by our students of color, American Indian students, and students from low-income, linguistically diverse, indigenous, different ability, and immigrant backgrounds. While Minnesota is consistently nationally ranked highly for quality of life, there are significant race and ethnic disparities in access to high-quality schools, grade level academic proficiency, high school graduation, and post-secondary education. MN is essentially one of the worst states in the country for students of color and students from diverse low-income, linguistically diverse, indigenous and immigrant backgrounds to live if they want to graduate from high school in four years. In the midst of these challenges, there is a growing number of Twin Cities educators, advocates, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and foundation, non-profit, corporate, and school leaders intent on building and creating innovative solutions to our state’s historic inequity. Among these leaders is a network of nearly 1000 Teach For America alumni and corps members providing all Twin Cities students with the education they deserve. We are determined and focused to work in deep partnership with the communities we serve to ensure that more students learn, lead, and thrive in Minnesota.

YOUR COMPENSATION

The applicable salary range for each U.S.-based role is based on where the employee works and is aligned to one of 3 tiers according to a cost of labor index in that geographic area. Starting pay for the successful applicant will depend on a variety of job-related factors, which may include education, training, experience, location, business needs, or market demands. New hires are typically brought into the organization at a salary between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint depending on qualifications, internal equity, and the budgeted amount for the role. The expected salary range for this role are set forth below. These ranges may be modified in the future.

$55,700 - $74,500

You can view which tier applies to where you plan to work here. If your location is not listed, please click here for additional total rewards information.