Senior Communications Strategist

The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the country’s first and foremost civil and human rights law organization. Founded in 1940 under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall, who subsequently became the first Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice, LDF was launched at a time when the nation’s aspirations for equality and due process of law were stifled by widespread state-sponsored racial inequality.

From that era to the present, LDF’s mission has been transformative —to achieve racial justice, equality, and an inclusive society.

LDF’s litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education programs in the substantive areas of criminal justice, economic justice, education, and political participation seek to ensure the fundamental and basic human rights of all people to quality education, economic opportunity, the right to vote and fully participate in democracy, and the right to a fair and just judicial system.

In 2015, LDF celebrated its 75th anniversary with the launch of the Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI). The Institute is a collaborative hub within LDF that combines a multidisciplinary approach to advocacy with LDF’s traditional litigation strengths to advance a modern vision of racial justice. The Institute’s goals are to enhance LDF’s use and mobilization of research, archival materials, and public education to increase its capacity to fight for racial equity, justice, and a more inclusive democracy through targeted advocacy and high-impact communications campaigns.

In 2024, TMI launched LDF Recollection: A Civil Rights Legal Archive. The website contains editorial content and primary source materials documenting the history of LDF and the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. This initiative represents a significant milestone in LDF’s mission to preserve and promote our legacy of civil rights, activism, and advocacy. The core of the website is a searchable digital collection with over 12,000 legal documents, letters, photographs, press releases, original oral history interviews, and other materials from the LDF Archives.

LDF operates in a hybrid work environment where employees are expected to be in the office a minimum of two designated days per week, unless otherwise indicated.

This role is part-time, a four-day-per-week, term-limited assignment, anticipated to conclude on or before December 31, 2026.

Along with a resume and cover letter, applicants are expected to submit an independently authored piece of writing. While it may have undergone review or editing by others, it should primarily reflect your own work. The sample should be a deeply researched, 750 – 1200-word editorial or journalistic piece.

The Senior Communications Strategist is the subject matter expert and primary author responsible for conceptualizing and developing communications tactics, strategies, and products that amplify the Legal Defense Fund’s brand, work, and goals within a specific pillar or program area. This position’s work will focus on the Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) as the program area.

The Senior Communications Strategist must proactively advance strategies and content, and drive Communications work for the Thurgood Marshall Institute using strong independent judgment. They are expected to propose ideas for content, campaigns, and narrative shaping to advance LDF’s work and objectives for the Institute. As subject-area experts, they will also independently advise on messaging accuracy and alignment within their pillar or program areas, and, as senior Editorial/Narrative team members, they will mentor new and/or more junior team members on best practices.

• Develop and execute statements, press releases, op-eds, issue-related talking points, messaging, and journalistic editorial content (for LDF’s original content spaces (Substack, digital OC space, and print magazine) and the archival website Recollection).
• Shepherd writing projects approved by Editorial Directors from start to finish: from development, editing, and approval to publication.
• Assist researchers, archivists, and program team colleagues with written communications strategy.
• Work with the Digital, Media Relations,…