Category: 
Job
Organization: 
Congress for the New Urbanism


Location: Remote

Director of Engagement

Salary: $85,000 - $95,000

Job Description

The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) is a member-based nonprofit organization championing better design of cities and towns to improve lives and strengthen communities for all. For thirty years, CNU has been the only organization reforming city-building across the country, gathering the broad spectrum of practitioners and advocates who share our mission. By highlighting impactful design principles and lowering barriers to change, CNU amplifies the grassroots power of our thousands of members to build and rebuild their cities and towns in ways that improve sustainability, accessibility, and equity. What we do:

  • We convene a broad spectrum of multidisciplinary practitioners and advocates working on reforming city-building, driving change in communities across the US and beyond.
  • We share best practices in urban design, policy, and implementation, opening doors for our members to enact meaningful change in their communities.
  • We amplify the grassroots power of our members working to build/rebuild their cities and towns in ways that improve sustainability, accessibility, and equity for years to come.

We are seeking a Director of Engagement to play a critical role in the re-launch and re-defining of engagement efforts for CNU. This new position is responsible for the development and delivery of the organization’s strategy for engaging an intentionally diverse variety of audiences and partners. This includes the development of promotional products, outreach materials, and engagement campaigns as well as strategies to strengthen connections with existing audiences, identifying opportunities to reach new audiences, and developing new channels for executing these strategies, to further CNU’s mission.

Essential Functions:

Establish CNU’s Brand and Organizational Reputation - 50%

  • Develop and maintain CNU’s visual identity.
  • Audit the current use of CNU’s visual brand guidelines and identify areas for improvement. Oversee potential brand updates and development of partner brands. Ensure brand templates are available and accessible across communications channels.
  • Assess, develop, and bolster CNU’s voice across communications channels, partnerships, and programs. Work with staff, board, and partners to understand the importance of vocal brand identity.
  • Develop materials for various audiences to better communicate the value of CNU and its programs. Ensure members, affiliates, and partners have the resources needed to effectively advocate for the organization's mission.
  • Build talking points, one-page documents, and other resources as needed. Create best practices for communicating.
  • Identify opportunities for CNU’s outward-facing communications to better support implementation of our strategic plan.
  • Understand the landscape of urbanist organizations, identify unique value-add of CNU, and develop strategies for establishing and bolstering the organization’s reputation.

Deepen Partner, Affiliate, and Member Relationships - 30%

  • Assess and catalog CNU’s various partners, identify opportunities for growth, and develop strategies to achieve that growth. This includes benchmarking current engagement and identifying goals and metrics.
  • Ensure regular communication touchpoints and engagement with partners and affiliates.
  • Identify opportunities for growth, including the development of strategy to grow and deepen our relationships with the CNU membership. Set and achieve goals for growth in partnership with members of the Operations Team.
  • Regularly assess the health and definition of partnerships, including the development or review of MOUs or other agreements.
  • Engage in strategic conversations about how to evolve membership structures, membership growth, methods for broadening our reach and connections within individual agencies, and inclusive engagement approaches.

Communicate the Story of CNU’s Impact - 30%

  • In partnership with the President, develop a robust strategy to leverage and promote CNU’s existing impact narrative.
  • Identify ways to quantify the value of CNU’s programmatic initiatives. Develop a suite of engagement products to tell the story of CNU as an organization and this impact.
  • Regularly represent CNU to groups and partners.
  • Develop and deploy engagement campaigns as needed to communicate this narrative.

Qualifications

The Director of Engagement should be creative, attentive, communicative, and ready to roll. This position requires self-motivation and the ability to self-manage to meet deadlines and execute tasks. In a fully remote office environment, communication and reliability are key. The Director of Engagement should have a Bachelor’s Degree and 7-10 years’ experience working in the nonprofit or public sector in communications, marketing, or engagement; be able to demonstrate a connection to, understanding of, and desire to be immersed in CNU’s mission; be familiar with the organization’s strategic plan; and demonstrate they have the following skills:

  • Project and Team Leadership. This position requires the ability to manage and lead projects, teams, and people. This includes convening project teams, assessing the needs, delegating tasks in addition to regularly following-up on assigned projects, reporting on the progress, and ultimately achieving the goals.
  • Interpersonal communication. This includes the ability to stay connected to other remote staff, regularly provide check-ins or updates to supervisors or other team members, the comfort to ask questions and reinforce priorities.
  • Project management. This includes the ability to see how to complete a task from start to finish, understanding at which point to update supervisors or other team members, being able to identify all partners that should be involved or notified, and completing tasks on time.
  • Creativity. This position requires the ability to think and communicate creatively, to simply present complex ideas and programs. This position also requires the development of creative communications, packages, reports, etc. Familiarity with design software such as competency with Adobe Suite products (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator) and other creative tools.
  • External communication. This position will regularly represent CNU to external partners, including potential speaking engagements, social media, op-eds, or other mixed-media. The capacity to clearly and confidently communicate, including public speaking, is required. Candidates should have competency with social media platforms (Instagram, Twitter/Bluesky, Tiktok) as well as communication platforms (Reddit, Discord) and UX design.
  • Reliability. This includes demonstrated ability to complete projects on time and ensure balls are not dropped.
  • Strategy. This position will require strategic thinking and the development (and execution) of engagement strategies. The capacity to think strategically and build plans to achieve these strategies is key.
  • Connectedness. A remote work environment is not ideal for every personality type or person. To be successful at CNU, candidates must demonstrate they are capable of growing relationships online, communicating effectively and regularly with all team members, and understanding that making yourself (and your work) known to others is a personal responsibility.
  • Organization. The systems-building portion of this role requires a high-level of organization, systems-thinking, and strategy.
  • Understanding the mission. CNU is distinct from other place-making organizations because of the intersectionality of New Urbanism. The ideal candidate will come to CNU with a passion for leveraging the built environment to offer social, economic, and environmental benefits to more people, but will also dedicate themselves to understanding - and being able to communicate about – CNU and New Urbanism effectively.

Classification:
Exempt

Reports to:
Senior Director of Engagement, or Executive Director if the Senior Director position is vacant. This position will work closely with the President and may interface with the Board of Directors.

Supervisory Responsibility:
The Director of Engagement will supervise the Director of Publications, with the potential to increase supervisory responsibilities as the department grows. The Director of Engagement will also periodically manage contracts and contractors.

Work Environment:
CNU is an intentionally remote organization with staff operating across the country. While each staff person is responsible for understanding their own ability to manage time and tasks, it is expected that each employee complete 35 hour work weeks (not including an hour for lunch), that all staff have an overlapping window of working 10am-4pm ET regardless of timezone, and that all staff will be available for phone calls / zoom meetings from a desk during their work day. Additional policies and expectations regarding remote work and staff culture can be found in CNU’s handbook.

Physical Demands:
The Director of Engagement position is a largely sedentary role, performed remotely. While performing the duties of this job, the employee must be able to communicate clearly and effectively through email, phone, and zoom.

Salary and Benefits:
Salary based on experience within the range of $85,000 - $95,000. Benefits package includes medical, dental, retirement, holidays, and paid time off.

To Apply:
Please email a 1.) cover letter detailing your interest in the position and your connection to the mission of CNU, 2.) a resume highlighting your professional accomplishments, and 3.) a portfolio of 1-3 sample engagement collateral / materials that the candidate either produced or oversaw development and production of to demonstrate competency to resumes@cnu.org by December 10th. Resumes will be reviewed on a rolling basis and the position remains open until filled.

CNU is an equal opportunity employer with fulfilling careers in design, placemaking, innovation, leadership development and administrative support. Diversity is a critical source of strength for us. Different racial backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, ages and points of view contribute to our effectiveness as an organization. We will prioritize candidates that reflect diverse backgrounds.