Posted On: August 11, 2016

Media-Related Job

Media Organization: Children's Rights

Company Description

Children’s Rights is a leading national children’s advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of vulnerable children in government systems. Children’s Rights uses civil rights litigation, policy expertise, and public education to create positive systems change, with a 20-year track record in the area of child welfare reform of raising accountability, protecting rights and improving outcomes for children.

Job Description

Children’s Rights is a leading national children’s advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of vulnerable children in government systems. Children’s Rights uses civil rights litigation, policy expertise, and public education to create positive systems change, with a 20-year track record in the area of child welfare reform of raising accountability, protecting rights and improving outcomes for children. The organization seeks a Media Strategist to drive consistent and effective press coverage that positively impacts our campaigns, generates stories about critical child welfare issues and helps build name recognition for Children’s Rights.

Reporting to the Director of Communications and Marketing, the Media Strategist will play a leading role in shaping and executing Children’s Rights’ media strategies and securing press placements in all manners of print, online and electronic outlets. The Media Strategist will also be key in developing fresh, smart, concise and powerful messages and talking points, providing media training for staff, assisting with effective social media strategy and generating copy for development and marketing materials.

The ideal candidate must have a comprehensive understanding of the current media landscape, strong national media contacts that can be leveraged to amplify our work and the ability to develop creative approaches to pitching our campaigns. S/he must be a sharp, concise writer with impeccable grammar and proofreading skills, capable of distilling complex issues into vivid language understandable to stakeholders and general audiences alike. S/he must be confident, proactive, extremely organized, efficient and able to manage multiple projects under deadline pressure with great accuracy. Strong interpersonal skills are necessary. Experience in child welfare and/or legal advocacy a plus.

Responsibilities
•Craft and implement media strategies to increase Children’s Rights’ press coverage and make the organization’s mission known to the widest possible audience.
•Develop pitches for the organization’s specific legal campaigns and overarching work; respond rapidly to breaking news on our cases; quickly handle press inquiries.
•Produce all types of press writing, including press releases, media statements, media advisories, op-eds, letters to the editor and social media copy.
•Create hard-hitting main messages and supporting points that underscore the necessity of our work.
•Help prepare staff for interviews and public appearances through formal media-training exercises and individual prep sessions.
•Draft speeches and talking points for Children’s Rights staff appearing at public events.
•Contribute to the organization’s annual Fostering the Future campaign: procuring/editing first-person accounts from those who have experienced state care and shaping/implementing media and social media strategy for the campaign.
•Manage or assist with events such as press conferences and annual benefit.
•Write and edit copy for printed marketing materials, including newsletters, brochures and annual reports.
•Review and write copy for the Children’s Rights website.
•As needed, contribute to concepts and copy for advertising and marketing collateral in print and online.
•Monitor media coverage daily, help maintain database of media contacts and archives of media clips, and distribute relevant clips to members of the CR staff and board.

Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree and minimum of five years of experience in communications, media relations or journalism. Demonstrated success in developing communications strategies and pitching stories to high-profile media outlets. Must have an impressive portfolio of writing samples illustrating facility with copy for a variety of audiences and formats. Experience with Microsoft Publisher and maintaining a WordPress-based website preferred; knowledge of Photoshop a plus.

Salary:
Commensurate with experience. Children’s Rights offers a comprehensive benefits package.

Children’s rights is an equal employment opportunity employer, and women, people of color, LGBTQ and gender non-conforming people and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply

To Apply

Please e-mail a cover letter, résumé and five writing samples demonstrating a range of capabilities to Wende Gozan Brown (wbrown@childrensrights.org) with “Media Strategist” in the subject line. Due to the high volume of submissions, only applicants of interest will be contacted. No telephone calls, please.