June 2022

Position: Communications Manager

Classification: 1.0 FTE (40hours/week)

Salary Range: $65,000 – $85,000 DOE

Benefits: Paid vacation days, sick days, and holidays. GCNF pays for 80% of your health care premium; 3% 401K match; Work from Home stipend

Ideal Start Date: As soon as possible

Please submit resume and cover letter to:

Email: info@gcnf.org

Subject: Communications Manager

Interviews will be held on a rolling basis, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible. Three professional references will be requested from final candidates. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Who We Are:

Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) is a small non-profit founded in 2006. We help governments around the world build national school meal programs that contribute to their educational, health, economic, agricultural, and human capital development goals.

Our flagship programs include:

Global Child Nutrition Forums, the world’s largest annual learning exchange and technical assistance conference focused on sustainable school feeding programs.

Global Survey of School Meal Programs, providing the world’s most comprehensive data on school feeding in over 100 countries.

GCNF is governed by an impressive Board of Directors and led by a world leader in school feeding. Our team consists of four staff positions and is complemented by consultants and volunteers around the world. While weare a very small organization, we have an excellent reputation globally, an extensive international network, and a mighty ambition.

The Position:

GCNF is seeking to add a fifth staff member to the team. All staff positions at GCNF require a great deal of flexibility in the willingness and ability to accomplish a wide range of tasks. We learn and apply new skills daily. Active engagement in solving a wide variety of challenges is required.

The primary responsibility of this position is to manage communications and events on behalf of GCNF. This position will also play a significant role in fundraising and development.

Primary Responsibilities:

Strategic Communications: Develop and implement effective ongoing communications efforts that raise awareness and advocates for investment in sustainable, locally-sourced, nutritious school meal programs that improve equity in food systems and broader education, health, nutrition, and economic outcomes.

• Identify and develop collaborative relationships with key stakeholders that result in productive and strategic outputs such as blogs, news articles or other communication materials.
• Curate and disseminate external communications including quarterly newsletters, press releases, programmatic updates, event announcements, and fundraising appeals.
• Update and produce promotional and operational materials including program one-pagers, pitch decks, blogs, and annual report.
• Develop and implement a social media strategy to improve awareness and engagement.
• Curate content for and disseminate GCNF’s quarterly newsletter, managing contact lists through MailChimp.
• Manage content and minor technical aspects of website, which may include coordinating with a vendor to implement larger changes.

Event Management: GCNF hosts at least one major global event (Global Child Nutrition Forum) each year, along with a handful of smaller, virtual or in-person events. The 5-day Forum is held outside the US and attracts high level government officials. This role assists in all aspects of event planning and execution, with key responsibility on several specific activities essential to event execution.

• Assume primary responsibility for all event communications including invitation letters, newsletters, social media, website content, event platform content, scripts, talking points, post event communications, and others as needed.
• Manage event logistics including venues/platforms, contractors (for technology, translation, video production, or other).
• Assist with planning sessions, panels, and Assist with the strategic identification and coordination of event co-hosts and partners.
• Maintain up-to-date skills on event platform technology. 

Development:

• Assist in the identification of funders and grant opportunities. 
• Facilitate virtual and in person fundraising activities. 
• Draft, edit, and compile grant application and reporting materials. 
• Assist in the recruitment and maintenance of GCNF’s Business Network. 
• Develop expertise in Little Green Light, GCNF’s CRM software and ensure donations, grants, and partners are appropriately tracked and recognized.
• Update and implement GCNF event sponsorships.

Preferred Qualifications: All GCNF employees and consultants are expected to possess the cultural competency to diplomatically navigate diverse international contexts and multi- national stakeholder groups. The ideal candidate can readily discern what is unique about each context and connect dots where there are common themes and learnings to be shared. This is challenging and complex work, so an adaptive style that allows you to thrive in ambiguity and maintain a bias toward action that keeps GCNF on the forefront of global school feeding is essential. Self-motivation, pushing projects forward, juggling priorities, keeping our mission boldly on the international scene, and maintaining a good attitude are daily practices at GCNF. We are looking for someone who can think strategically and creatively, work collaboratively with a team, and problem solve independently as needed.

We don’t expect the successful candidate to have all the qualifications below. If you hold most of the qualifications, please feel free to apply.

• This is not an entry level position. We seek applied experience in communications, development and fundraising, and event coordination, ideally in a non-profit environment.
• Understanding of and interest in the sustainable development goals, and/or school feeding programs, and willingness to attain more knowledge on relevant issues.
• Knowledge of the major global partners (UN agencies, NGOs, businesses) that work on school feeding.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including public speaking. 
• Willingness to travel internationally. 
• Proficient in Google Workspace, Microsoft Office, Adobe, WordPress, and social media platforms.
• Exceptional initiative and interpersonal skills, including the ability to work independently and collaboratively, listen well, build trust and inclusivity.
• Strong project management skills and demonstrated ability to work on multiple timelines.
• Enthusiasm for and experience in cultivating strong and engaged partnerships with a diverse body of stakeholders and decision makers.
• Experience in a cross-cultural environment.
• Working level language skills in one or more of the following languages in addition to English (Arabic,Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish).

Who You Are and Keys to Success:

Curiosity and flexibility: You are naturally curious and enjoy learning new things and building new skills. You are comfortable in an at-times fast-paced environment where things can change quickly. You are interested in contributing across projects and learning about many different functions of non-profit organizations. You are ready and excited for projects that require ‘all hands-on deck’ and you readily figure out solutions to challenges.

Comfort with technology: You are tech-savvy and pick up new platforms and programs quickly. You are comfortable seeking out additional support or resources independently. You are, or can quickly become, our in-house expert when it comes to virtual meeting platforms, registration software, and Little Green Light (our Customer Relationship Management software).

Emotionally Intelligent: You have exceedingly high emotional intelligence, which allows you to communicate clearly, have difficult conversations with respect, and resolve conflicts with win-win solutions. You recognize when you need to shift an approach to achieve better outcomes and you provide excellent customer service to all our stakeholders.

Workplace Location and Work from Home:

GCNF’s official physical work location is in Seattle, WA. Under pre-approved conditions, GCNF staff may work remotely. However, some in-person work, and domestic and international travel, at least on a periodic basis and as pandemic conditions allow, is expected for GCNF employees.

For more information: https://gcnf.org, https://survey.gcnf.org/ or info@gcnf.org