Seeking: Tech-Savy Communications Maven

An awesome opportunity for a TECH-SAVVY communications maven in New York City. If you know someone, pass it on!

With an emphasis on community organizing and grassroots mobilization, Birthright Israel NEXT empowers all Taglit-Birthright Israel trip participants and Jews between the ages of 22-30 to be more connected to Jewish community, ritual, culture, and social action. The organization’s goal is to provide the resources and motivation for Jews to discover and develop their own relationship with Judaism, communicate and meet other Jews in the community, and provide an inclusive means for people of all religions to understand and experience Jewish culture.

Background

This past year, Birthright Israel NEXT secured a 25 million dollar national grant to launch affiliate offices in five cities, with the goal of eventually launching 15 affiliate offices across the country. The aim is to establish an online and physical community to engage the roughly 150,000 Taglit-Birthright Israel participants and their peers as they continue their journey upon their return from Israel.

Creating an inspired, interactive, and compelling online presence is essential to increasing awareness of and participation in our programs, adding to our growing community and encouraging involvement in our events. Therefore, we are seeking a Director of Communications to develop and implement traditional PR and online strategies to provide young people with a rich, interactive experience with our brand. This is an exciting opportunity for a creative and tech-savvy communications specialist with a passion for our mission and a desire to mobilize.

Position Summary

The Director of Communications is charged with crafting a communications strategy for Birthright Israel NEXT and overseeing the full range of internal and external communications, including media outreach, social media marketing, advertising, fundraising, and board communication. The Director of Communications will lead the communications department at the Birthright Israel NEXT National Office, and reports to the Director of Operations and the Executive Director. The communications department’s role is to manage and promote the Birthright Israel NEXT brand; to nurture two-way relationships with Birthright Israel NEXT participants; to advertise for upcoming events and initiatives; and to express the mission and values of Birthright Israel NEXT to all stakeholders, including Taglit-Birthright Israel participants and their peers, board members and supporters, professional staff and partner organizations, and the greater Jewish world.

The ideal candidate has demonstrated success in leading integrated traditional and digital public relations/marketing campaigns for a cause-related organization with proven results, has outstanding brand-building experience, and superior communications skills.

Primary Responsibilities

• Lead Birthright Israel NEXT’s communication team
• Manage 3 in-house staff
• Inspire collaboration between affiliate and national offices
• Oversee and manage outside vendors and consultants

Create and execute an ambitious communication strategy

• Integrate traditional and new media strategies and tactics to realize our mission
• Create internal communication plan and set into action
• Stay on top of new trends and research in social marketing, social networking, and optimizing Web 2.0 tools and integrate into campaign as necessary

Manage Birthright Israel NEXT’s website and online presence

• Keep current website fresh by managing content, look, feel, and function
• Lead the development of a new website to launch in 12-18 months
• Suggest and implement additions, changes, and upgrades (architecture, design and graphic enhancements, navigation improvements, additional tools) and new features that will help achieve organization’s goals
• Manage and guide team dedicated to redesigning the participant database
• Engage online communities through unique strategies and campaigns to increase program participation
• Work with outside public relations firm to expand social networking efforts, including blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, and others

Establish Birthright Israel NEXT’s brand internally and externally

• Disseminate style guides and best practices throughout the organization
• Ensure that communications resources including graphics, copywriting, editing, etc. are available to the organization (by building in-house competencies or identifying outside vendors)
• Lead online marketing activities including tagging, web advertising, viral marketing, and search engine marketing
• Develop relationships with traditional press and new media outlets
• Oversee the selection and production of marketing materials and branded items, such as giveaways, branded ritual items, and retreat gift-bags

Fundriaisng

• Help produce reports to the board
• Assist in grant development process
• Advise the Foundation about effective fundraising methods (as needed)

Requirements

The ideal candidate will possess the following skills and experience:

• Creativity and innovation in directing all communications tasks to realize the organization’s mission
• Excellent communications skills
• Extensive experience (7-10 years) with branding, viral marketing, public relations, and website management
• Significant expertise in the power of databases, CRMs, CMSs, and Web 2.0 technologies
• Demonstrated success carrying out a mobilization campaign with proven results
• Superior problem solving skills
• Experience in online community building and fundraising as well as other web marketing techniques including web advertising, email  outreach, social networking, and search engine marketing and optimization
• Exceptional project management skills with ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, complete projects on tight deadlines, and rapidly respond to new developments
• Strong leader with ability to work independently with minimum direction
• An entrepreneurial, can-do attitude
• Strong knowledge of the Jewish world
• Team-building and effective management experience of teams and outside consultants and vendors
• First-hand experience with and a presence on popular social networking sites (Facebook, twitter, etc)
• Masters, MBA, or other professional degree preferred

To Apply

We aim to fill this position by early March. To apply, send resume and cover letter with salary requirements to: rabia@realizeink.com.
Subject line: Birthright Israel NEXT Director of Communications Search.