Communications Specialist

The BUILD Initiative (buildinitiative.org) envisions a time when all children reach their full potential; race, place, and income are no longer predictors of outcomes. The BUILD Initiative partners with state leaders to promote equitable child- and family-serving systems that result in young children thriving and learning.

The BUILD Initiative is a national effort that advances state work on behalf of young children (prenatal-five), their families, and communities. BUILD staff partner with early childhood state leaders focused on early learning, health, mental health and nutrition, child welfare, and family support and engagement to create the policies, infrastructure, and cross-sector connections necessary for quality and equity. BUILD provides consultation, planning, and tailored implementation assistance, learning opportunities, resources, and cross-state peer exchanges. These efforts help state leaders improve and expand access to quality and promote equitable outcomes for our youngest children. BUILD takes a whole child/family/community approach to systems building. The organization is deeply committed to racial equity and promotes data analysis to determine programs and services impact the places and people furthest from opportunity and then BUILD facilitates state actions to remedy marginalization and under resourcing. BUILD is state-focused, but we embrace the significant role of community and the potential positive impact of federal funding such as ARPA, Title V, TANF, and the many other federal funding streams. BUILD promotes cross-sector collaboration across systems and including public and private sector stakeholders. This is critical to building broad ownership and addressing complex systems issues that undergird inequities. BUILD is an organization placed to assist state leaders do the hard things, test new strategies, and innovate.

This role is part of a highly effective team working to bring about positive change for young children and families that is constantly learning about all aspects of the early childhood field and working at the forefront of an exciting movement to promote early childhood systems building.

BUILD is a virtual organization. Staff members work from home offices. Team members have opportunities to attend in-person meetings but work primarily via phone and computer.

BUILD is fiscally sponsored by TSNE (tsne.org), which provides financial and grants management, human resources, legal, and other supports.

Email Communications and Social Media Management 

With communications team’s guidance and partnership:

• Build and send e-blasts and monthly newsletters. Use insights from past newsletter performance to increase open, click, and subscribe rates. 
• Write engaging and timely posts with simple graphics to spotlight early childhood systems building content on social media channels.
• Drive social media content and engagement: plan for, execute, and monitor media engagement across all social channels regularly and be able to make evaluative decisions to improve performance.
• Monitor and reply to comments and messages on behalf of the BUILD Initiative.
• Nurture reciprocity and sharing with BUILD’s network of partners: reach out to allies and supporters with stories of interest to them and amplify their relevant content. 

Media Monitoring

• Collect data from email campaigns, social media, and BUILD website for weekly analytics reports. Share insights and expertise with the communications team based on analytics reports.
• Monitor and analyze traditional media through Meltwater platform.
• Monitor the news and search the web for articles relevant to our work.
• Create reports/newsletters from traditional media using Meltwater for various BUILD content teams.

General Communications Support

• Brand support: gain an understanding of the various brands under BUILD; support staff in PPT/Word templates; support staff with content layout in templates.
• Occasional graphic design using Adobe Creative Suite: layout/design short written pieces for publication.
• Short form writing and editing.
• Occasional Salesforce list management.
• Occasional short video editing.

We will consider exceptional candidates who demonstrate a strong combination of the specific qualifications and skills described below.

Hard Skills

• Bachelor’s degree and three to five years of experience in a communications role with a social good organization, OR five to seven years of experience in a communications role with a social good organization.

• Experience with: Hootsuite, Campaign Monitor or similar, Meltwater or similar, Google Analytics, Google Data Studio, Canva, Microsoft Office

• Familiarity with Adobe Creative Suite and video conferencing programs.
• Confident using data and analytics to inform decision making.
• Familiarity with video editing software is a plus.
• Spanish speaker is a plus.

 Soft Skills

• Creative problem solver.
• Comfortable in a small, fully remote, agile team, spread across the United States.
• Excel working in a team environment AND be productive while working independently.
• Able to successfully manage your time, take initiative, and stay organized to ensure all deadlines are met and the team is supported.
• Excellent attention to detail, double-checking all products and paying close attention to all materials and content produced, possessing the initiative to polish public-facing content.

• Demonstrate good judgement and know when to act autonomously, and when to elevate issues to a supervisor or other team member.
• Enjoy being a team player, demonstrating kindness, patience, and engagement in your communication style. 

Physical Demands/Work Environment

The physical demands described here are representative of those for this position. Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions. Work is performed in an office environment and in close proximity to other workers.

While performing the duties of this position, the employee is required to:

• Handle, or feel objects, tools or controls;
• Reach; traverse; sit (usually for longer periods of time); occasionally ascend/descend; and position self (to) move;
• Occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds;
• The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate;
• Job is not subject to significant occupational or environmental hazards;
• Likelihood of personal injury would be relatively slight;
• Environmental and work hazards are not present to a measurable degree.

Regarding COVID-19: TSNE considers the health and safety of our employees of the utmost importance, and due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and subject to your state and local laws, our policy requires that all employees performing in-person work at a TSNE designated office are fully vaccinated. For the purpose of this policy, fully vaccinated indicates that you have received a single dose of the Janssen vaccine, or both doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine. Certain exemptions may be requested and will be considered by Human Resources.

Compensation and Benefits

Location: Work will be 100% remote, and will require travel 4-6 times a year to in person meetings. 

Compensation: The starting salary for this position is $50,000 - $60,000 /year and is commensurate with experience.

Benefits: This position is eligible for a full benefits package including:

• Generous Paid-Time-Off (PTO): 12 paid holidays, 3 weeks vacation, 1 week personal holiday, and sick time for full-time staff;
• 80% Employer-paid, $0 deductible Health Insurance through Harvard Pilgrim;
• Low-cost MetLife Dental and Vision;
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) for Health and Dependent Care;
• Employer-paid Life, Long- and Short-Term Disability Insurance;
• Employer-paid Pension through TIAA;
• ...and more!

TSNE/BUILD strives to achieve excellence through a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment that embraces all of our individual and collective differences. Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Middle Eastern and North African, Bilingual and/or Bicultural candidates, and LGBTQ2SIA+ candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. We value and honor the unique talents, learning styles, and lived experiences of each individual that enrich and strengthen our workplace culture, and we are proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer.

All employment conditions are based on an individual’s performance and job qualifications. TSNE/BUILD prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, creed, color, religion, native language, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, physical or mental disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, parental status, pregnancy, race-based hairstyles, or any other protected characteristic stated by federal and state law. Regardless of any class’ protection under the law or lack thereof, TSNE/BUILD celebrates diversity and values the strengths that come with having a diverse team of employees. It is represented in our workplace culture, and it is who we are.

TSNE/BUILD's EEO statement extends to volunteers, interns, contractors, vendors, and clients.