EDGI is hiring! Communications Coordinator — Part-Time

Job Posting — Communications Coordinator – Part-time 

Dates: September 28, 2020 – September 30, 2021 
Compensation: $41 per hour 
Expected hours: 20 hours per week
Location: Fully remote

Position Description 

The Communications Coordinator will develop and implement the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative’s (EDGI’s) communications strategy, with a specific focus to ensure that EDGI’s work reaches audiences with which it will have the greatest impact. The Communications Coordinator will work with EDGI’s Coordinating Committee to identify strategic audiences and will work with EDGI’s working groups to accurately and effectively communicate their work to these audiences. The Communications Coordinator will maintain an understanding of EDGI issues, mission, and values in order to help craft and deliver strategic communications plans for specific projects. The Communications Coordinator will maintain EDGI’s media and social media presence through sending reports to journalists, Congressional staff, advocacy groups, maintaining the WordPress-based website, and posting relevant and engaging content on Twitter and Facebook.

About EDGI

The Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI) is an international network of caring and committed members, primarily volunteers, from more than 30 different academic institutions and 10 non-profit or grassroots organizations, as well as a broad spectrum of other work and life backgrounds. We analyze federal environmental data, websites, institutions, and policy with the aims of improving environmental data and information stewardship and promoting environmental health and environmental justice. We work in collaboration with other organizations and communities concerned about climate change, science policy, good governance, and environmental and data justice. We are a collective, self-organized into working groups. We practice different kinds of collective decision-making and strive to be an equitable and non-hierarchical organization. 

EDGI’s working groups operate in four spheres: (1) maintaining vigilance and fostering legibility for changes to environmental governance, (2) visioning and building alternatives for socially just environmental governance, (3) prototyping an alternative organizational structure, and (4) communicating and engaging in various spheres of influence. We monitor tens of thousands of federal webpages and analyze changes to information access and presentation; interview more than 100 past and present EPA employees to learn about changes within the US agency primarily tasked with environmental governance; analyze deficiencies in EPA enforcement of environmental violations; identify and describe conflicting justice concerns that data manifests and envision more just data enterprises; lead our organization in experimenting with and adopting human-centered organizational practices; disseminate and promote EDGI’s analyses and information to target audiences. The Communications Coordinator will be instrumental in designing and leading dissemination and promotion activities. 

For more information about EDGI, please see our website and most recent annual report.

Specific tasks may include:

  • Developing a communications strategy for the months leading up to the 2020 election, and in the aftermath of the election. 
  • Collaboratively working with EDGI teams to identify potential partnership opportunities.
  • Posting regular calls for volunteers to join EDGI
  • Proactively engaging news media on environmental data and governance issues; serving as initial contact for major media inquiries.
  • Collaboratively drafting, editing, proofreading, and publishing blog posts and press releases in a time-sensitive manner and in keeping with EDGI’s communications protocol.  
  • Increasing EDGI’s visibility and proactivity on social media, particularly Twitter and Facebook.
  • Maintaining a communications calendar based on the activities of each working group, along with any relevant external events and news.
  • Editing and updating website content for a general audience.
  • Extending existing communications databases (e.g., media tracking database). 
  • Keeping membership current with EDGI news.

Qualifications and skills we are looking for:

  • Bachelor’s degree in communications, journalism, or related field preferred, but candidates with significant agency, policy, and/or non-profit experience and degrees in natural or physical sciences, environmental studies, citizen science, public health, public policy or other relevant fields will be considered.
  • Three or more years of experience in communications and advocacy roles.
  • Experience in audience engagement through social media.
  • Knowledge of the environmental and climate change advocacy and media landscapes.
  • Working knowledge of the current global debates on environmental and climate justice, and strong interest in working on these issues.
  • Non-profit experience.
  • Experience with media analysis and metrics.
  • Experience in remote collaboration and communication; comfort working remotely with colleagues in multiple time-zones via Slack, Zoom, and other online tools.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication in English. Spanish is a plus. 
  • Strong organizational skills with the ability to multitask and meet deadlines. 
  • Ability to take initiative and anticipate team needs, working without a manager.
  • Comfort working both independently and in teams; able to lead initiatives as well as take direction from others.
  • Ability to work collaboratively and non-hierarchically.
  • Adherence to policies and procedures; support for EDGI’s mission, vision, and values, which include justice; environmental and human health; intersectionality; anti-facism, anti-racism, and anti-oppression; accessibility; participatory knowledge-making; and responsivity and proactivity.

Terms of the Contract

The Communications Coordinator will work approximately 20 hours per week. This is a contracted position without employment benefits (technically contracted by our fiscal sponsor, Public Lab) from September 28, 2020 to September 30, 2021, with the possibility of renewal subject to funding. The first month of the contract will be considered a trial period. 

Application Process

Please email applications to edgi.hiring@gmail.com by 11:59 pm on Sunday, August 30, 2020 with:

  • A resume or CV.
  • A cover letter outlining why you are a good fit for the position.
  • A Digital Portfolio of your communications work. We’d love to hear about one (or more) successful communication campaign you worked on, including its goals, strategy, and metrics for success. Specific example materials such as tweets, graphics, or reports are encouraged. Please highlight how you were involved and why you consider it a success.

We will begin considering applications on August 31st, with an anticipated start date of September 28th. Shortlisted candidates will be asked for contact information for three references. Interviews will be held in early September. The position will remain open until filled. 

EDGI strives to acknowledge and reduce barriers for members of equity-seeking groups through fair hiring practices and enaction of our values. We expect everyone to follow our Code of Conduct and principles of friendliness, respect, empathy, and open communication. 

EDGI is a distributed collaboration operating under the fiscal sponsorship of the non-profit, Public Lab, with volunteer members across North America.

Public Lab is committed to a diverse, multicultural work environment. We encourage people with different ability sets, people of color, and people of diverse sexual orientations, gender expressions, and identities to apply.