Community Engagement Manager, Greater Houston Voter Engagement Project

Community Engagement Manager

The Voter Engagement Project, with funding and support from Houston Endowment, is in its fourth and final year. Launched in 2023 as a time-bound initiative, the Project advances a nonpartisan, neighborhood-based strategy to increase turnout among lower- and mid-propensity voters in persistently low-turnout neighborhoods in the Greater Houston Area. It contributes to a broader goal for Greater Houston to have the highest voter turnout per capita of any major metropolitan area in the United States.

The neighborhood strategy is deeply rooted in the experiences and interests of people and community organizations in each neighborhood. It centers the needs, experiences, and desires of voters, potential voters, and the community institutions that serve them. This is a nonpartisan effort with a strong commitment to transparent decision-making and nonpartisanship in all materials and programs.

The Project currently works in a diverse set of seven neighborhoods:
Gulfton, Golfcrest, Southwest Houston, Westchase, and 1960 North in Harris County;
Porter/New Caney in Montgomery County; and Rosenberg in Fort Bend County. Example programs include text banking, phone banking, canvassing, mailers, digital ads, relational organizing, community events, and literature drops.

Each election cycle builds on lessons from previous elections. Community-based partner organizations have been taking greater leadership roles over time on the path to sustainability. The Project team is working with partners to intentionally grow their ownership of all phases of civic engagement work, including community engagement, program design, program implementation, and coordination activities.

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the initiative's fiscal sponsor, contracts with community organizations to advance on-the-ground resident engagement, increase local leadership of the project's nonpartisan civic engagement efforts, and participate in capacity-building activities. Redstone Strategy Group supports the design and implementation of efforts to increase voter turnout, working closely with community partners and advisors to strengthen local capacity.

The Community Engagement Manager (CEM) will provide ongoing leadership and project management to enable and strengthen local ownership of nonpartisan civic engagement work in lower-turnout neighborhoods after the formal Voter Engagement Project and Redstone support conclude in December 2026.

We are seeking someone with proven success and experience independently managing multiple work streams, timelines, and a variety of stakeholders. The CEM will work closely with community partners, the Advisory Committee, and Houston Endowment to set timelines, milestones, and deliverables with particular attention to on-the-ground engagement with stakeholders. Familiarity with the civic engagement landscape, community partners, and/or project neighborhoods is helpful but not required;

more important is the ability to learn and build relationships quickly, and to apply strong project and stakeholder management skills in a complex, fast-moving, trust-based context. A successful CEM will foster authentic ownership and meaningful mutual accountability among local stakeholders to ensure high-quality nonpartisan civic engagement that centers lower- and mid-propensity voters.

The ideal candidate will work alongside the Redstone team beginning in September 2026 and will step into full Project and partner management responsibilities in January 2027. The role is a contract position running from September 2026 through December 2027 (approx.
15 months) with the desire for a successful CEM to extend through 2028. Further engagement beyond 2028 will be driven by local partners' and the CEM's work and decisions about the path forward.

Project management and coordination (~45% of time)

• Provide overall leadership, project management, and mutual accountability for ongoing nonpartisan civic engagement efforts in lower-turnout neighborhoods, working closely with community partners to set goals, timelines, milestones, and deliverables
• Support community partners to develop and implement plans to gather ongoing community input (e.g. community council facilitation, focus groups, interviews, and surveys)
• Coordinate partner activities across neighborhoods and organizations to keep schedules, resources, and priorities aligned

Engagement with the Advisory Committee, fiscal sponsor, and Houston Endowment (~30% of time)

• Serve as the primary liaison to the Advisory Committee, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Houston Endowment, and potentially additional funders as relevant, maintaining a detailed stakeholder engagement work plan and reporting regularly on the interests, concerns, and capacity of community partners
• Support Advisory Committee members to design and lead their engagement with initiative partners and activities (e.g., ensure committee meetings are set up, facilitate connections…