Communications and Outreach Director; FFCF

Communications and Outreach Director (FFCF)

Posted on July 08, 2020

The Food and Farm Communications Fund (the Fund) was founded to address the funding gap in strategic communications and narrative work amongst grassroots movement groups working to advance justice, equity, and ecological resilience in food and farming systems. Operating as a multi-funder pooled grant program (and housed at Greater Horizons/Greater Kansas City Community Foundation), we raise visibility around the power and role of communications in movement building and social change.

Since 2012, the Fund has invested over $3 million in targeted grants to community-based organizations, grassroots networks, and media efforts to uplift grassroots narratives, build power, and embolden transformative food and farm systems.

At a time of strategic growth, the Fund seeks its first Communications and Outreach Director. In close partnership with the Fund Director, this position will set and advance the Fund’s communications goals to deepen and expand its storytelling, funder and grantee engagement, and overall reach. Specifically, the Communications and Outreach Director will lead in the following areas, the demands of which will ebb and flow over the course of the year:

Communications Strategy and Systems

• Develop and implement a comprehensive communications strategy designed to attract new supporters, lift up the voices of grantees, and generate greater awareness of the power of communications in the food and farm movement.
• Build infrastructure and systems to synthesize grantee reports, and uplift data and stories of the Fund, its grantees, and programs; develop and maintain an effective contact management system.
• Seek out opportunities to increase visibility of the Fund through philanthropic and food/farm movement communications outlets and other channels.
• As needed, conceptualize and develop written content, including presentations, impact reports, web copy, and other collateral.

Funder Outreach and Engagement

• In partnership with the Fund Director, develop and implement outreach strategies to engage existing funders and solicit new donor partnerships, including writing grant proposals, reports, and donor updates; center grantee stories and voices in donor-facing communications.
• In partnership with the Fund Director, participate in key conferences, meetings, and webinar opportunities to represent the Fund.

Grantmaking and Grantee Engagement

• In partnership with the Fund Director, conceive, plan, and implement grantee communications enrichment activities, such as sharing resources, facilitating peer-to-peer learning, and planning grantee webinars, trainings, events, and other capacity-building opportunities.
• Engage in grantmaking processes, particularly around capacity-building and impact media programs.

• A strategic and values-driven communications leader
  . You hold the big picture in leading communications work from start to finish. You apply a conceptual understanding of narratives and their role in movement building and social change. You possess at least 8 years of work experience in communications, fund development, philanthropy, or a related field.
• A compelling and engaging connector and storyteller.You enjoy serving as an organizational ambassador with a love of building relationships and networks. People’s stories inspire you, and you take a community-centered approach to storytelling. You are skilled at packaging data and stories in order to create powerful written and spoken narratives.
• A catalyst for racial and social justice work.You hold an analysis of racial and social inequities and systems of oppression. You have a demonstrated track record of working effectively across lines of difference.…