Marketing & Communications Manager - National

Reading Partners is changing the education landscape. We are a leader in working to solve the literacy crisis in our country by leveraging community volunteers in under-resourced schools. Our diverse and expansive volunteer base provides one-on-one tutoring to students twice weekly, and our program is proven to help children master the reading fundamentals they need to unlock their potential as successful, happy, and confident readers in school and in life. Our people are our heartbeat and our greatest resource; we are all passionately rallied around our mission to help children become lifelong learners by empowering communities to provide individualized instruction that truly works. Join our stellar, committed team leading the charge to deepen our impact and expand our service. Watch this video to learn more about the mission and core tutoring work of Reading Partners.

Location: This position is remote but requires candidates to reside within one of Reading Partners’ markets. Reading Partners markets include Baltimore, MD, Denver, CO, Charleston, SC, Los Angeles, CA, New York City, NY, North Texas (Dallas and Fort Worth), San Francisco Bay Area, CA, Seattle, WA, Twin Cities, MN, Tulsa, OK, and Washington, D.C.

The high level:

The vision of the marketing & communications team is to build one of the most admired and magnetic brands in the early reading and service movements in the communities we serve and across our current and future footprint in the US. In order to do so, we aim to attract, engage, and inspire a broad network of supporters to amplify our brand voice and take action to advance our organization’s mission. We build awareness, long-term affinity, and engagement with Reading Partners among a diverse network of supporters and partners and we inspire individuals to take action to ensure that students in all communities develop the reading skills and confidence they need to reach their potential.

We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced marketing & communications (M&C) manager to join our national M&C team. The M&C manager will play a vital role in supporting our 12 regional teams as well as the national partnerships team. From a regional perspective, the M&C manager will ensure effective two-way communication, brand consistency, best practice sharing, and the execution of impactful marketing initiatives across the country. The M&C manager will help the M&C team deliver the resources needed most by regions but also to mine for M&C-related best practices within regions and bring those to other regions and the broader organization.

From a partnerships perspective, the M&C manager will serve as the primary M&C-team liaison who can take the executional lead on a broad range of M&C projects including project management, video production, photo shoots, collateral management/graphic design, branding, taskforce representation, public relations, documentary outreach and coordination, volunteer recruitment, case studies, one-pagers, website integration, social media, digital ads, email automation, etc.).

Importantly, while the M&C manager will be the team point person with regions and the partnerships team, the person serving in the role will have the support of the national M&C department. This position will report directly to the national managing director of marketing & communications.

What you’ll do:

• M&C support for regional teams (70%) The M&C manager will drive and support a number of key regional marketing and communications initiatives.
• Establish strong two-way communication with regions:
  • Build strong relationships and two-way communication practices with regional team members (both executive directors and other key points of contact).
  • Collaborate closely with regional leadership teams to understand their marketing and communication needs and work with the rest of the national M&C team to develop strategies to meet objectives.
  • Participate in and contribute to monthly org-wide M&C team meetings.
• M&C best practice sharing and mining:
  • Ensure that regions are aware of all available M&C resources, that M&C is aware of the additional resources regions need, and that regional best practices are identified and shared to benefit the broader organization (recognizing that good marketing ideas can come from anywhere in the organization).
  • Facilitate and maintain M&C systems - reinforce our current marketing systems with regional teams.
  • Identify gaps and create new resources and processes to better support regional team needs.
  • Stay updated on industry trends, best practices, and emerging marketing technologies.
• Public relations accelerator (working in close collaboration with the managing director of M&C and our agency partners):
  • Work with regional points of contact to help them proactively cultivate local media relationships in order to drive positive media coverage for the region.
  • Leverage existing tools and templates to:
    • Support the development of talking points and prep sheets for media or other external speaking opportunities by Reading Partners’ spokespeople.
    • Help draft regional press releases, media advisories, and newswires to promote Reading Partners’ initiatives and to attract local media attention.
  • Keep regional media distribution lists up to date.
  • Track and amplify regional media coverage, and report media performance on a regular basis.
• Regional implementation lead for national M&C initiatives:
  • Help execute marketing campaigns and other key initiatives in collaboration with regions.
  • Offering a regional perspective to the process, participate in the creation and production of marketing collateral, including print materials, digital assets, videos, social media, and other assets, in collaboration with the national M&C team.
  • Monitor and analyze regional marketing performance, providing regular reports and recommendations for improvement to regional and national leadership teams.
  • Ensure that regions apply new messaging framework to our external communications that better embodies our race equity, diversity, and inclusion (REDI) vision.
• Regional M&C project facilitator
  • Provide additional marketing oversight for regions (i.e. email marketing 2nd/3rd approver, coordinating photo/video shoots, auditing social media handles, ensuring regions keep website content fresh, etc.).
• M&C support for our partnerships work (30%)

Following the lead of the managing director of marketing and the director of marketing, support our partnerships work as the organization expands our reach and impact through exciting new strategic collaborations with other organizations across the country. Priorities will include:

• Bring M&C expertise and strategy to our partnerships workstream
  • Work with M&C-department leadership to apply a strategic marketing lens to help build our organization’s new partnership funnel.
  • Become a well-informed and effective source of M&C best practices and resources at Reading Partners.
  • Create mechanisms to identify, create and share key learnings, tools and resources that may help the organization further expand into new or deeper partnerships.
• Project management and cross-functional collaboration
  • With guidance and support from other M&C teammates:
    • Serve as the M&C department point person with the partnerships team to manage a range of projects from conception to timely completion.
    • Take ownership of projects and lead the thinking from a M&C perspective regarding key project actions, recommendations, next steps, etc. (be solutions-oriented) and maintain ongoing communication with all key stakeholders.
    • Work closely with the partnerships team and other relevant departments and/or regions to align on and execute against project/partnership objectives.
    • Establish clear roles and responsibilities and interdependencies related to each specific partnership.
• Managing / leading content and design work
  • The needs of the M&C department will be different for every partnership. For each project, identify what the needs are and then collaborate with the broader M&C team to develop a plan about how/when to deliver any needed content/materials such as videos, branding, collateral, one-pagers, case studies, media outreach, etc.

How you’ll do it:

Communications and relationship development

• Serve as an essential conduit between the national M&C team and both our regional and partnerships teams.
• Develop clear, mutually understood, and effective working relationships with all regional teams and partnership team collaborators.
• Establish clear understanding of all M&C points of contact in regions (which may vary by region) and on the partnerships team and develop effective systems of communication and collaboration.

Project management and operations management

• Identify and engage with key project contributors on various initiatives.
• Assess existing project processes (where they already exist) and consider innovations and improvements based on ongoing feedback.
• Be proactive in organizing and managing projects and in communicating progress, optimizations, and outcomes.
• Take ownership of projects and lead the thinking regarding key project actions, recommendations, next steps, etc. (be solutions-oriented).
• Look for trends across projects that present support opportunities for M&C and propose solutions accordingly.

Creativity

• Demonstrate innovative and out-of-the-box thinking.
• Generate and implement ideas to innovate on our current practices.
• Support design/content projects and pull in best practices from other high-impact creative/content ideas you see both inside and outside the organization.

Detail Orientation

• Manage priorities effectively and ensure people manager and all collaborators are aware of key areas of focus.
• Develop project tracking systems and other processes that are efficient, transparent, and can be leveraged in subsequent years / cycles.
• Deliver projects on-time or be transparent about delays as they arise.

About you!

You’ll be successful in this role if you:

• Have 3-5 years of relevant experience in communications or marketing
• Have strong relationship-building and collaboration skills
• Have excellent oral and written communication skills with both expertise in, and an affinity for, content creation
• Think proactively and are not afraid to take calculated risks
• Have strong project management experience and time management skills with demonstrated success meeting deadlines
• Have a strong commitment to service and support of all internal teammates and stakeholders
• Are a responsible, flexible, and cooperative team player comfortable working independently and collaboratively to contribute to organizational goals
• Are detail-oriented and organized with exceptional project management skills and a demonstrated ability to prioritize and manage complex projects with multiple stakeholders on a deadline
• Are committed to our mission (and our core values), strategic goals and to race equity, diversity, and inclusion (REDI) and have some prior experience working on projects that aim to promote REDI.
• Have strong working knowledge of the Microsoft Office suite and are comfortable working with Apple technology, data management systems, Google Apps, and shared documents
• Have some graphic design experience, including familiarity with Canva and/or Adobe Suites, and have experience managing external graphic designers
• Hold a bachelor's degree in communications, marketing, business or equivalent experience
• Can prove eligibility to work in the U.S. legally

Bonus Points if you:

• Are an AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, or other national service alum/alumna
• Have prior experience working as a member of a regional team (whether at Reading Partners or a similarly structured organization)
• Have experience working in launch or growth phases of organizations
• Experience creating high-impact collateral, such as infographics, and proficiency in Adobe Indesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator
• Have a solid understanding of internet technology and communication
• Have experience working with AI tools like Chat GPT and other generative AI platforms
• Have experience working with email and/or marketing automation platforms, digital advertising platforms, and/or Wordpress
• Have experience managing and growing professional social media accounts