Southeast Iowa Organizer

Food & Water Watch is looking for an Southeast Iowa Organizer to join our political team. This organizer will lead outreach to residents of southeast Iowa, helping Iowans get registered to vote and involved in the election process. We will organize a combination of grassroots volunteers and students, mobilizing them to conduct outreach to their communities.

This is a temporary grant-funded position. The position is available January 5, 2026, and is initially funded through April 2026. We are continuing to raise funds with a goal of extending this position through the end of 2026.

Food & Water Watch is organizing on some of the biggest issues Iowans face today, like holding factory farms accountable for their pollution, advocating for clean drinking water, stopping carbon pipelines, and supporting our growing renewable energy industry. The 2026 midterm elections offer a great opportunity to be engaging Iowans around these critical issues.

Food & Water Watch has been working for years, organizing to build power in Iowa. Our work gets real results. In 2025, we defeated the so-called “Cancer Gag Act” that was pushed on the Iowa legislature by Bayer and Big Ag. This bill would have prevented farmers, workers, and anyone affected from exercising their right to hold companies accountable for failing to warn them of health risks.

We also played a role in passing legislation blocking carbon pipeline companies from using eminent domain to take property from landowners.

The Iowa Organizer will report to the Political Director and will work with other staff on the organizing team to support Food & Water Watch’s work. This organizer will lead outreach to residents of southeast Iowa, helping Iowans get registered to vote and involved in the election process. We will organize a combination of grassroots volunteers and students, mobilizing them to conduct outreach to their communities.

Salary: $45,600 to $53,300, depending on location and experience

Location:

Southeast Iowa, with a preference for Scott County. Will also consider candidates based in Johnson County.

Responsibilities:

• Recruit volunteers and allies in support of our campaigns, with an emphasis on recruiting new volunteers and developing them into leaders
• Leadership development:
  Build the capacity and leadership of volunteers and allied grassroots organizations by offering training and organizing support.
• Develop and implement campaign strategy:
  Work closely with team and partner organizations to develop and implement joint strategies.
• Hone campaign messaging by reporting back on effectiveness of outreach tactics
• Regularly report on work to supervisors.
• Participate in membership recruitment for Food & Water Watch.
• Carry out other projects as assigned.

• Experience with grassroots organizing, either in a paid or volunteer capacity.
• Types of campaign experience that would make a good candidate include voter registration, voter mobilization, managing a paid or volunteer canvass effort, student organizing, grassroots advocacy, and relational organizing.
• Experience training others in grassroots outreach skills
• Ability to work effectively with people of diverse racial, ethnic, class, age, gender, and sexual orientation backgrounds.
• Ability to work remotely using basic online programs, including email, Slack, and Google docs.
• Excellent time management & organizational skills and ability to balance multiple projects.

• Experience using VAN or a similar voter file database
• Experience using outreach texting and phone banking tools like Thru Text or Scale to Win
• Knowledge of southeast Iowa

Compensation: $45,600 to $53,300, depending on location and experience

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