Communications Strategist for Midwest Office & Tribal Partnerships Program
Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization. We take on the biggest, most precedent-setting cases across the country. We wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people’s health; to preserve magnificent places and wildlife; to advance clean energy; and to combat climate change. We partner with thousands of groups, supporters, individuals and communities to engage the critical environmental issues of our time, and bring about positive change. We are guided by a passionate, ambitious vision for the future for people and our planet: until justice stands for all, we will never rest. We are here because the earth needs a good lawyer.
Founded in 1971, Earthjustice has a distinguished track record of achieving significant, lasting environmental protections. We achieve this by hiring people who share a passion for justice and a healthy environment. Our headquarters are in San Francisco with offices in Anchorage, Juneau, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Chicago, Tallahassee, Honolulu, New York, Philadelphia, Denver, Seattle, Bozeman, Miami and Washington, DC.
In addition to a talented cadre of environmental lawyers and legislative advocates, Earthjustice has an amazing communications department that works in partnership with every other department at the organization. The team is looking for a Communications Strategist dedicated to supporting our Midwest Regional Office and Tribal Partnerships Program. The Communications Strategist works closely with the attorneys and policy staff to develop and implement strategic communications —including issue management, government relations, dynamic storytelling, media, and public outreach and engagement—to support priority litigation and legislative advocacy in our docket and to help build Earthjustice’s profile.
In addition to a talented cadre of environmental lawyers and legislative advocates, Earthjustice has an amazing communications department that works in partnership with every other department at the organization. The team is looking for a Communications Strategist dedicated to supporting our Midwest Regional Office and Tribal Partnerships Program. The Communications Strategist works closely with the attorneys and policy staff to develop and implement strategic communications —including issue management, government relations, dynamic storytelling, media, and public outreach and engagement—to support priority litigation and legislative advocacy in our docket and to help build Earthjustice’s profile.
The Strategist also coordinates with National Communications Strategists and other Communications Strategists on priority intersecting environmental issues at Earthjustice, adopting consistent framing within the lens of our work.
About the Midwest Regional Office
The Midwest Regional Office partners with tribal nations and frontline communities to fight for clean air, drinking water, and soil; we fight to protect the region’s treasures, including the Great Lakes and the pristine Boundary Waters, and every creature that depends on these places; and we work to transform the way our food is grown and power is generated to combat climate change and provide for a more sustainable future. We are committed to working with communities across the Midwest with special attention to Detroit and Flint, Chicagoland including Northwest Indiana, and St. Louis. We are currently fighting an oil pipeline in the Great Lakes on behalf of a tribal nation, trying to stop a new asphalt plant that will pollute the air in Flint, Michigan, and a Black community in the St. Louis area faced with failing drinking water, stormwater, and sewage infrastructure.
About Tribal Partnerships
Earthjustice's Tribal Partnerships Program fights to ensure our tribal and Indigenous clients’ natural and cultural resources are protected for future generations and to elevate Indigenous voices on the frontlines of environmental degradation. Earthjustice is honored to partner with some of the 574 federally recognized Indian and Alaska Native tribes, Native Hawaiians, state-recognized tribes, Indigenous NGOs, and unrecognized tribes as they fight to protect their air, earth, water, and way of life. This work necessarily is informed by the complex legal, cultural, and political issues unique to tribal and Indigenous people in North America.
This position will be based in our Chicago, IL office. It is not a remote work position. Beginning no earlier than March 1, Earthjustice staff will be working two days a week in the office. After six months, the Executive Leadership Team will evaluate whether to adjust our hybrid work plan.
Responsibilities:
Strategy & Coordination: 35%
- Works effectively and collaboratively with the Managing Attorneys and key lawyers and policy staff in the Tribal Partnerships Program and Midwest Regional Office to create and implement a communications strategy for Earthjustice’s work.
- Manages budgets and workflows for media and other contractors.
- Coordinates with national communications strategists and other regional communications strategists on marquee environmental issues at Earthjustice, adopting consistent framing within the lens of our work.
- Works with partners and clients in developing coalition strategy and advocacy tactics including grassroots and grasstops issue education, engagement, and mobilization as well as paid, owned, and earned media.
- Identifies potential partnerships with other local organizations.
- Develops strategy documents, timelines, manages budgets and oversees tracking of tactics to determine effectiveness, ensure accountability, and inform future strategy. Sets achievable measurements of success and strives to meet these goals.
- Works in collaboration across the Program Communications team to develop and implement comprehensive and creative advocacy communications strategies.
Media relations: 30%
- Works with traditional and new media to ensure coverage of Earthjustice’s work in target print, television, radio, and online media; maintains knowledge of and relationships with reporters covering key issues, and coordinates press events and other earned media opportunities.
- Creates and implements comprehensive strategies across earned and paid media.
- Works with our legal and policy staff to consistently improve and polish their media and social media skills, including spokesperson prep for priority media interviews.
Content creation: 25%
- Develops innovative, new ways to tell the stories of Earthjustice cases and clients.
- Develops ways to raise the profile of Earthjustice’s priority issues. Drafts compelling content for the Earthjustice blog, website, and print materials. Develops internal message guidance for colleagues.
- Maintains close fidelity to organizational branding requirements and as lead for the Midwest Regional Office and Tribal Partnerships Program communications at Earthjustice, serves as an advisor to colleagues throughout the Communications department and organization on ensuring messages on this work are on-brand and further our goals.
- Collaborates informally and formally to develop organizational strategy related to key issues in the portfolio.
Administrative: 10%
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in journalism, political science, literature, rhetoric, communications, or environmental fields required. Master’s degree desirable but not necessary.
- 5+ years in communications or journalism, with an emphasis in environmental/nonprofit/advocacy projects. Experience setting strategy, managing projects, writing and producing content, and coordinating team participation in executing projects.
- Strong background in social justice or environmental justice movements, politics, Indigenous issues, or community organizing a plus.
- Media savvy, with great depth of experience in successfully placing stories, opinion pieces, and narratives, with a history of influencing conversations unfolding in the media.
- Experience creating compelling storytelling and creative advocacy communications strategies.
- An independent self-starter who can own our communications work and coordinate multiple projects with a large legal team. Must be adept at rapid response communications work and juggling competing deadlines.
- Experience working collaboratively within and across teams.
- Excellent communications strategic sense and an ability to set goals and priorities, managing limited resources for maximum impact.
- Experience working on environmental or social justice issues such as public lands management, wildlife protection, fossil fuels, environmental justice, toxic air pollution, transportation issues, or pesticides.
- Understands and works with coalitions through both online and offline communications.
- Familiarity with social media.
- Commitment to and experience with increasing the diversity of clients and partners within campaigns, media projects, and related efforts.
- Thinks of and develops creative new ways to mobilize supporters for strategic impact.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Strong interpersonal skills to coordinate projects across teams and coalitions.
- Outstanding organizational skills with demonstrated ability to plan and coordinate a variety of detailed outreach projects, sometimes under a very tight deadline.
- Ability to lead staff and vendors in a team environment and exhibit strong team-building/participation skills.
- Demonstrates an awareness and sensitivity to the needs and concerns of individuals from diverse cultures, backgrounds, and orientations.
- Contributes to the creation of a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work culture that encourages and celebrates differences.
- Experience working on indigenous policy issues preferred
*Supervisory Responsibilities: managing regional press and campaign contractors and vendors.
Salary is dependent on experience and location.
Salary for Chicago, Illinois: $103,300 - $114,800.
To Apply:
Interested candidates should submit the following via Jobvite:
• Resume
• Cover letter
Please reach out to jobs@earthjustice.org if you are having technical difficulties submitting your application. No phone calls, drop-ins, or hard copies. Earthjustice only accepts resumes submitted for positions that are currently open. Unsolicited resumes, or resumes for posted positions that are not submitted via the online application process (where available), will not be reviewed or retained.
Earthjustice is driven by a passion for justice, partnership, and excellence. Our core values lead us to seek a broad range of perspectives and backgrounds to achieve our mission and to maintain an inclusive environment where all staff is valued and respected. As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to employment practices that ensure that employees and applicants for employment are provided with equal opportunities without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, age, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, or any other factor that is not related to the position.
For positions located within the City and County of San Francisco Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider employment-qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
For positions located within the City of Los Angeles: We will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring.