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Online Advocacy and Fundraising Director

ABOUT PUBLIC CITIZEN
 

Public Citizen is a national progressive advocacy organization that has been standing up to corporate power and holding government accountable to the public interest for 47 years.

Corporations have their lobbyists in D.C., but the people need advocates too. Founded in 1971 to advance health, safety, justice and democracy, we use all available advocacy tools – including research, grassroots mobilization and advocacy, lobbying, litigation, administrative petitioning and strategic communications – to ensure that all citizens are represented in the halls of power.

The folks who work here bring a lot of drive and passion to their work. We’re often the underdog, but we don’t shy away from taking on tough campaigns against powerful corporate actors. And long odds haven’t stopped us from successfully challenging the abusive practices of powerful industries, such as the pharmaceutical, nuclear and automobile industries, and many others.

ABOUT THE ROLE
 

Are you an excellent writer and quick, careful copyeditor who takes pride in crafting clear and compelling fundraising emails? Do you have a head for numbers that allows you to take a metric-driven approach to innovating and hitting performance goals? Are you an accountable self-starter who knows how to take initiative without sacrificing buy-in? Do you have a passion for serving the public interest and want to work for an organization that’s leading the charge to counteract Trump and the corporate power that is choking our democracy? Then read on!

We are seeking a senior-level person to serve as our Online Fundraising and Advocacy Director, who will oversee our email communications to our 400,000 supporters and bottom line all aspects of our online fundraising program. 

This role will involve conceiving and executing great campaigns to make sure we hit our online fundraising goals. Part of that will involve working very closely with the President of Public Citizen, Robert Weissman, on email fundraisers sent out in his name. In addition, the Online Fundraising and Advocacy Director will manage the list (oversee the email calendar, list growth, list health, metrics, and segmentation), serve as an editor of our advocacy emails, and promote both innovation and the adoption of best practices in our email campaigning.     

Responsibilities:

  • Oversee all email communications to our list of 400,000 supporters, ensuring we hit our online fundraising and list-growth goals, and promoting excellence in our digital activism program.  
  • Identify creative, strategic and timely fundraising opportunities, and lead the drafting of all fundraising emails to capitalize on those opportunities.
  • Shepherd fundraising emails through the editing and approval process, including working closely with Public Citizen’s President, Robert Weissmann, to ensure all emails sent under his name capture his voice, tone and perspective.
  • Work with members of the online team to identify creative, strategic and timely ways of tying advocacy emails to news events, and edit all advocacy emails before they go out.
  • Load, target and send all fundraising emails, and check the targeting of all other emails sent to our list. 
  • Monitor, evaluate and report on the performance of our fundraising and activism emails, and take action to promote high engagement and ensure good list health and hygiene.
  • Develop and implement new and creative list-building approaches.
  • Lead regularly scheduled planning, strategy and professional development meetings for Public Citizen’s online team.
  • Run point on arranging and implementing list-building opportunities such as joint petitions and email swaps with other organizations.
  • Manage our activism and fundraising CRM (Salsa), as well as the vendor relationship with the CRM provider (Salsa Labs).
  • Monitor trends, best practices and innovations in online fundraising and digital campaigning, with an eye toward improving Public Citizen’s online program.
  • Keep abreast of current events, politics and policymaking as they relate to Public Citizen’s advocacy and fundraising campaigns.
  • Other duties as assigned.

You could be great for this job if you:

  • Have a minimum of 3 years of experience in digital fundraising, email advocacy or direct response marketing, including deep experience with CRMs, blast email and digital activism toolsets like Salsa, Action Network, Actionkit, BSD or NationBuilder. 5-7+ year of experience is preferred, and salary is commensurate with experience.
  • Write in a clear and compelling way, and can quickly produce clean copy that distills complex ideas into succinct, actionable messages.
  • Can produce great fundraising copy in a variety of voices and styles suitable for email communication.
  • Possess a strategic sense allowing you to identify political opportunities for grassroots and online activists to deliver progressive victories. Possess the ability to articulate the strategic rationale for our actions to diverse audiences.
  • Follow current event and politics closely, and either understand the issues we work on or have the capacity to quickly get up to speed on them.
  • Can quickly learn how to use new software and technology (you don’t have to be a coder, but you can’t be allergic to technology). 
  • Have a solid proficiency in HTML and Excel, and know how to use Salsa or a CRM like it.
  • Understand email best practices, including those related to format and coding, deliverability and spam, testing and metrics.
  • Have strong organizational skills and the ability to handle many competing priorities without letting key tasks slip through the cracks.
  • Are comfortable navigating a fast-paced workplace with shifting priorities.
  • Have a passion for supporting the public interest and share our concerns about corporate power in government.

Although not required, a strong candidate may have some of the following:

  • Previous experience managing an email fundraising program and/or a track record of raising large amounts of money online.
  • Experience managing a large digital advocacy or fundraising list (250,000+ emails).
  • Significant advocacy or policy experience related to one or more issues relevant to Public Citizen’s ongoing campaigns.
  • A good grasp on how the media environment, electoral campaigns and legislative maneuvering impacts advocacy campaigns.
  • Coding skills.
  • Demonstrated success in project and team management.
  • A sense of humor

SALARY AND BENEFITS:
 

The salary for this role will be between $69,014  to 90,879, depending upon experience. The exact salary will be determined using a salary schedule that is part of a collective bargaining agreement. Thus individual salaries will not be subject to negotiation.

Benefits include:

  • Great medical and dental coverage, including full coverage for children
  • Three weeks paid vacation for new employees, plus five personal days
  • 401K plan with a 5% contribution from PC after one year of employment
  • 12 weeks of paid parental leave after one year of employment
  • Sabbatical after 10 years of employment
  • Student loan reimbursement program

TO APPLY:
 

Please submit your application packet as a single PDF document to Margrete Strand Rangnes at mstrand@citizen.org   

Your application packet should include:

  • Your resume
  • An action alert where the action is: “Hire me.” This will be in lieu of a standard cover letter. 
  • Optional: A writing sample of up to three pages.  

No phone calls please. If you have questions about this role, you can send an email to mstrand@citizen.org

Public Citizen is an equal opportunity employer. Public Citizen employees are proud members of SEIU Local 500.

People of color, women and LGBT candidates are encouraged to apply.