Senior Director of Organizing and Campaigns

About WEPOWER

WEPOWER is building a team full of dreamers and doers to advance our mission. We activate community power to:

1. Reimagine social systems
2. Develop grassroots leaders’ and organizations’ capacity as agents of systems change
3. Provide support with campaigns, coalitions, and innovative initiatives that transform community visions into reality.

We build powerful relationships with community members and amplify their voices to inform critical decisions that impact their lives. We train community members to design new policies, organize, and seek public office, lead policy and systems change. We provide early-stage companies with access to coaching, capital, connections, and community as they create jobs in the communities with whom we partner.

In our first five years, WEPOWER has activated nearly 400 community leaders, won a historic ballot measure that guarantees millions in public funding annually for early childhood, supported approximately 100 businesses with access to capital, coaching, and connections, and launched a one-of-a-kind investment fund. We envision a future where systems are accountable to powerful communities that have been historically oppressed, and nurture our freedom, well-being, dreams, and joy. We are building a powerful movement led by everyday people, and we have bold plans to get us there. Join us!

Our team is…

• Values-driven
• Community-centered
• Innovative
• Problem-solving
• Focused
• Collaborative

About the Opportunity

Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Senior Director of Organizing & Campaigns (SDOC) is an exempt full-time employee who will be located in St. Louis, MO. The SDOC will be responsible for coaching and developing the organizing team, community leaders, and coalitions towards policy and political campaign wins for the 2024 election cycle and beyond.

You Will…

DRIVE STRATEGY

• In consultation with the CEO and other Executive leaders, devise and implement WEPOWER’s theory of change and strategic plan within yearly departmental plans incorporating methods such as team capacity building, leading with empathy, and organizing, mobilizing, and power building.
• Facilitate the creation and stewardship of razor-sharp campaigns using your deep campaign, power analysis, and issue-cutting skills, centering volunteer and community leaders in the design and iteration process.
• Collaborate with the Director of Communications to ensure a strong public narrative, media relations, and storytelling strategy supports coalition building and campaigns.
• Manage campaign budgets in collaboration with the Executive team to support implementation of the Organizing & Campaigns departmental plan.
• Work in collaboration with the Development team to help shape grant writing and reporting in alignment with the values and organizing model of WEPOWER, while also connecting current and prospective financial supporters to coalitions and campaigns.
• Co-create data informed metrics of success around leadership development and coalition and campaign growth and effectiveness and ensure responsiveness to the local and state political climate and conditions.
• Analyze EveryAction and NGP VAN data within the appropriate community contexts and track progress toward strategic metrics and goals, ensuring best practices around data collection, privacy, integrity, and security.
• Identify opportunities for cross-collaboration with other organizational departments related to the organization’s overall mission.

COACH AND DEVELOP THE POWER BUILDING TEAM AND ISSUE-ORIENTED COALITIONS

• Build capacity within the Organizing team to develop WEPOWER’ s volunteer leadership base and coalition, as they work to accomplish electoral and direct action campaign goals.
• Manage the leadership of the Organizing team as they work to achieve early childhood and economic justice power by building a powerful base of leaders starting in East St. Louis, St. Louis City, and St. Louis County.
• Continuously improve coalition infrastructure in areas ranging from decision making, membership intake, budgeting and fundraising, organizing, and mobilization.
• Prioritize investing in relationships with Organizing team members in order to deeply understand their interests, motivations, strengths, growth edges, and professional goals.
• Identify and advocate for professional development opportunities to nurture the growth of members of your team.
• Foster a healthy culture and collaborative decision making environment on the Organizing team.
• Along with your team, community leaders, and coalitions, serve as a liaison with local, regional, and state movement organizations, community allies, and policymakers.
• Drive a commitment to collaboration between the Organizing team and vendors.

You Are…

A Results-Oriented Strategic Leader.

You actively seek to improve how you do things and support others in practicing this critical self-reflection, extending grace as you and your team work through new solutions, programs, and initiatives.

A Practitioner of Anti-racist, Anti-ableist Values.

You actively work to identify and uproot tenets of white supremacy within electoral and issue advocacy spaces, adopting appropriate interventions to create environments, policies, and practices to ensure diversity, equity, justice, and fairness.

A Manager who Grows with Their Team.

You express confidence in others’ ability to be successful and take time to highlight improvements that team members make toward hitting their personalized professional goals.

Your Qualifications and Experience

• A minimum of six years experience in community organizing including leading and winning multiple policy advocacy and/or electoral campaigns.
• Experience (minimum 3 years) with designing and iterating volunteer leadership and leadership development programs.
• Experience (minimum 3 years) coaching and developing high-performing teams.
• Experience leveraging tech platforms such as EveryAction and VAN to drive organizing strategy, base building, and voter engagement.
• Demonstrated commitment to and experience working within Black and Latinx communities to advance racial, gender, and economic justice and their intersections, both inside and outside of organizations.
• Demonstrated project management and organizational skills.
• Desire to be part of an evolving organization and contribute to its growth/reputation.
• Willingness to work some nights and weekends as campaigns heat up.

Work Environment

Fun. Fast. Focused. Values-driven. Community-centered. Collaborative. Innovative. Lots of brainstorming and imagining what’s possible and then chasing each possibility until it is reality!

Equal Opportunity Employer

WEPOWER is an equal opportunity employer and a fierce advocate for equity in the workplace. We value diversity in all its forms and aim to create an inclusive culture.

Apply

Interested candidates can apply by submitting their resume as well as their responses to the pre-screening questions below.

Pre-screening Questions

1. Why are you interested in working for WEPOWER? (250 words max)
2. Can you tell us about the largest volunteer leadership program you have managed? How did you ensure that the program was inclusive and representative of the communities you served? (250 words max)
3. How do you incorporate diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility into your management philosophy? (250 words max)

Process

• Phase One: Submit resume, including pre-screening questions.
• Phase Two: Interview stage with Meso Solutions, equity-forward hiring firm supporting this search.
• Phase Three: Interview stage with WEPOWER selection team
• Phase Four: Performance activity
• Phase Five: Concurrent final interview, meet & greet stages
• Phase Six: Background check and reference checks