Position: Associate Director, Writer/Editor
Team: Communications
Reports to: Vice President, Strategic Communications
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA or Remote
The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN) seeks to nourish the world’s hungry through uniting and advancing food banks. Founded in 2006, GFN connects food banking organizations in more than 40 countries that together serve more than 16 million people annually. The organization currently operates with a team of twenty-three employees based primarily out of Chicago and engages a globally diverse Board of Directors.
Our goal is to support communities in their fight against hunger and food insecurity through advancing the food banking model. GFN launched a new strategic plan in 2019 that charts continued growth with an ambitious vision to help enable its food bank members to materially increase the amount of food distributed to those in need, distribute more nutrient-rich foods, and strengthen the resilience of their communities. Its major goals include:
- Increase the number of people served by food banks with which GFN currently works;
- Expand food banking in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa;
- Support food banking organizations in distributing a greater diversity of foods;
- Build a trusted global network of food rescue and relief organizations.
Our 2030 vision is a global network of community-led food banks that serve meals to 50 million people facing hunger. Our team provides best practices, partners and resources to food bank founders and organizations to help them fight hunger more effectively. In the next five years, we are especially aiming to come alongside changemakers in low-income communities, primarily those based in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America.
The Opportunity:
The Global FoodBanking Network is seeking to add an Associate Director, Writer/Editor to its rapidly growing communications team. The Associate Director will play a key role on the communications team as a content creator and overseer of all external content that is produced across GFN.
Above all else, the Associate Director must be a stellar writer and editor. The ideal candidate will view content creation as a strategic and integral component of the overall communications strategy, and can develop a content strategy to further organizational and communications goals, while simultaneously writing and editing compelling content, from blogs, to reports, to talking points, and more.
The Associate Director will work with colleagues on the Communications, Programs, and Development teams to identify and produce thoughtful content that matches GFN’s tone and guidelines featuring GFN’s accomplishments, the work of the food banks in the Network, and partner commitments.
Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
- Develop and maintain a thoughtful, strategic, and proactive organization-wide editorial calendar to determine content needs and plans for the year, in partnership with Communications Manager:
- Think creatively about channels and content types; monthly themes driven by calendar moments, programmatic activities, etc; different organizational needs.
- Develop process for multi-purposing content across campaigns and channels.
- Help define and maintain GFN’s voice; follow language guidelines and help develop additional guidelines as questions and needs arise.
- Help develop and write organizational strategic messaging.
- With Communications Manager, support story development/content creation pipeline process.
- Think through how story gathering takes place on a regular basis; what are we collecting; how are we collecting; where do we store this content; how do we share content internally?
- Conduct regular interviews via phone, email, to gather story content, quotes, etc. (TBD potential for travel beyond COVID)
- Assess existing story gathering processes and assimilate those processes into a broader organization-wide system
- Develop an archive/organizational structure to house stories, quotes, and interviews.
- Create content! This will include creating content for, but is not limited to:
- Blogs (likely 2/month)
- Quarterly President’s Update emails
- Monthly emails
- Annual report
- Website content
- Talking points
- Quotes for press releases
- Potential for longer-form pieces as organizational content creation process matures
- Serve as the frontline editor for the organization
- Review and edit monthly emails produced by the Programs and Development departments
- Time-permitting, edit reports, toolkits, etc produced by Programs team
- Liaise regularly with Programs and Development teams to understand priorities, keep updated about activities, reflect in storytelling.
- Mentor staff on communications team and other teams to build writing skills and depth of experience across the organization.
- Perform other related duties as requested.
Candidate Profile:
The ideal candidate will have the following qualifications:
- Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Communications, Journalism or related field. Other combinations of education with relevant experience that demonstrate the ability to perform the duties of the position will be considered.
- 10+ years of experience writing and editing, ideally in a nonprofit setting. Experience working in a global development context is a plus.
- Demonstrated experience using written communications strategically to further organizational objectives.
- Experience developing editorial calendars and identifying ways to create and repurpose content across different channels and audiences.
- Extremely strong written communications and editing skills; able to quickly produce high-quality, on-point, written content, matching the voice of the organization.
- Ability to think strategically and creatively, work collaboratively with a team, and problem solve independently as needed.
- Task-focused work style with an ability to create and follow disciplined and effective processes.
- Culturally-sensitive, demonstrated experience writing stories highlighting experiences from around the world in a way that centers people’s experiences and treats individuals with dignity and understanding.
- Knowledge of Spanish is a plus.
Location:
The position will be based either at GFN’s global headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, USA (remote location as needed during the COVID-19 crisis) or remotely.
To Apply:
Please email a cover letter, resume, and salary expectations to
hr@foodbanking.org.
The Global FoodBanking Network embraces a philosophy that recognizes and values diversity. Its goal is to attract, develop, and retain a talented, diverse workforce in a culture where all employees will contribute to their fullest potential. EOE
