Director of Communications
Location: Open to location
Full-time Partially remote
Namati is advancing social and environmental justice by building a movement of people who know, use, and shape the law. We work with partners to train and deploy paralegals across six countries to support their communities to remedy injustices related to citizenship, health, land and environment. Together, we strive to translate the lessons from this grassroots experience into positive, large-scale changes to laws and systems. Globally, Namati convenes the Legal Empowerment Network—over 2,800 groups and 10,000 individuals from every part of the world, learning from one another, advocating together, and joining forces to bring justice everywhere.
The time has come for Namati to undertake a communications refresh. In the ten years since Namati was founded, our work and impact have evolved tremendously. We have leaned into land and environmental justice issues, refined our legal empowerment approach, and seen the communities with whom we work driving systemic change locally and nationally. We are now exploring how we might engage segments of the general public in this burgeoning global movement for social and environmental justice. Meanwhile, the Legal Empowerment Network is set to become a distinct brand with its own website and social media channels in late 2022.
We’re looking for a Director of Communications to help us revise our global communications strategy, with a particular focus on core messaging, and execute it across all channels — from website and earned media to subscriber emails and social media. This is a senior-level role that requires an experienced communications professional who is ready for this challenge now and can hit the ground running, including managing direct reports who are themselves new to Namati. Our communications strategy is iterative and dynamic – meaning that the Director will not just execute on big projects but will also evaluate whether such projects should be done at all, and how they should be prioritized relative to other comms functions.
Rather than employing the top-down approach common at international NGOs, we partner with communities to support them in claiming and advancing their rights. Our Communications Director must not only convey our mission through clear, compelling narratives and messaging, but must also deeply internalize and exemplify the values of humility, empowerment, and solidarity that underlie our grassroots method.
While this is a senior role which requires significant experience, we’re not looking for a specific experience set or minimum number of years — if you feel strongly that you’re a match for this role, we encourage you to apply.
The Director’s primary areas of responsibility include:
Vision and Strategy
- Leading a re-examination of our global communications strategy — with a particular focus on audience and messaging — and overseeing its implementation
- Developing a global earned media strategy and implementation plan, including determining the appropriate level of time and resources to devote to this area of work
- Providing strategic input on — and support for — global initiatives and campaigns led by the Public Engagement team, Global Programs team, Legal Empowerment Network team, and others
Content Creation
- Collaborating with the Communications team, program teams, and external vendors to produce a steady flow of high-quality content that compellingly communicates Namati’s core messages and impacts to a global audience. Deliverables would include, but are not limited to, stories of change, blogs, photos, videos, emails to our list of 25,000+ subscribers, and an annual impact report
- Identifying and addressing content gaps on our website and collaborating with our external website agency to make site improvements, with the ultimate goal of increasing newsletter subscribers and donations
Coaching and Management
- Guiding the Senior Network Communications Officer in refining the Legal Empowerment Network communications and brand strategies and implementing them across the Network’s new, independent website and social media channels
- Managing a small team (currently 2 staff members and external vendors) and driving the team’s annual goal setting, ongoing learning, and high performance.
Systems and Processes
- Developing and/or ensuring organization-wide usage of tools and processes that support the production and dissemination of quality, on-brand deliverables, such as our new Digital Asset Management system (Canto), creative brief template, core language archive, vendor spreadsheet, and updated brand guidelines and templates
- Ensuring the proper functioning of MailChimp and improvements that would enable the increased use of list segmentation to provide our different audiences with targeted content
Examples of what you might have tackled last month
- Developed a plan on how to approach the review and revision of organizational core messaging
- Drafted an email newsletter for our list of 25k practitioners and supporters, sharing a funding initiative for Legal Empowerment Network members in Ukraine
- Worked with the communications officer to do a full review and analysis of social media and MailChimp metrics, examining how to increase reach and engagement across these channels
- Provided comprehensive feedback on an op-ed written by the director of our Sierra Leone program for a national media outlet and on a video about birth registration in Kenya produced by the Citizenship team in conjunction with a local filmmaker.
- Worked with the the digital communications officer and website developer on a plan to address bugs impeding the functioning of the website and adjust several page layouts
- Provided strategic input on the Public Engagement team’s plans for activities to celebrate Namati’s 10 year anniversary
- Collaborated with relevant members the Legal Empowerment Network team and the Senior Network Communications Officer to develop a full-scale promotional plan for the launch of the global Learning Agenda
- Completed a mid-year review of the communications budget, adjusting costs based on changes to annual plans and needs
About You
- A visionary and collaborative leader: You think big picture. You are attuned to changing political, cultural, and economic environments and spot new opportunities. You are known for your ability to unlock the talent and imagination of your teammates, not just your own, and have successfully led innovative projects. You can keep staff, consultants, and other team members accountable to their project commitments while maintaining strong, open interpersonal relationships and lines of communication.
- An experienced and skilled communications professional: You’ve done this work before, and are old hat at all the planning, researching, writing, editing, and strategizing that comprises high-level comms. You understand how to craft messaging for different audiences, how to identify and tell a good story, and how to produce content that resonates.
- Global experience and perspective: You’ve done communications work in a global context and understand there are cultural and political sensitivities to consider when speaking and writing about our work. You are eager to help weave our varied projects from around the world into narratives that transcend their particular context and have an even wider impact.
- Growth-oriented: You’re always seeking to better yourself and your work, and you will push yourself to the peak of performance to help fulfill our mission. In service of that growth, you welcome and delight in feedback from supervisors, peers, and anyone else.
- Knowledge of design, video editing, and photography principles: Communications is about visual storytelling as well as written and audio. You don’t need to be able to do everything – you’ll have some budget for freelancers and professional agencies – but you do need a strong visual aesthetic. You’re picky about things like balance and spacing in graphic design and can intuitively identify photos with compelling composition, good lighting, and a clear focus and emotion.
Nice to have:
- Experience in Namati’s grassroots legal empowerment settings: You’ve advocated and/or worked in a grassroots setting in Asia, Africa, or Latin American, so you deeply understand and empathize with the needs and struggles of communities working for change. While not necessary for this position, that empathy would enhance your ability to communicate about our mission and impact.
Location
This position is open to any location. The successful candidate will be expected to travel internationally and to occasionally work non-standard hours to accommodate the various time zones of our staff.
We have strong preference for candidates based in one of Namati’s following office locations: Kenya, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and the United States, and/or the global south. Please note you must already be legally eligible to work in one of these countries to be considered for the position.
Compensation
We base our compensation on the markets where our staff operate. We work to communicate transparently with candidates (including talking about compensation very early in the process) and will finalize pay and responsibilities based on the qualifications, experience, and country location of the person joining. If you have salary requirements, please share them in your cover letter.
We also offer excellent benefits: while the exact terms vary somewhat based on location, they always include health coverage, generous paid time off, retirement or old-age plan contributions, sick leave, and parental leave— or compensation for the same. All staff also have access to funds for professional development opportunities.