Community Organizer

Mothers of Incarcerated Sons promotes good jobs, strong and healthy communities, and corporate accountability. Together, we fight for social justice and tackle the racial, gender, and economic inequality that holds back working families. Mothers of Incarcerated Sons is seeking a Community Organizer to lead our overall civic engagement strategy and implement our civic engagement efforts to advance issue campaigns, legislative priorities, local and state ballot initiatives, and Mothers of Incarcerated Sons’ electoral priorities, ensuring that our communities are the ones crafting a vision for a better Pennsylvania, and holding our elected officials accountable to that vision at the federal, state, and local levels.

As a community organizer, you will serve as a dedicated advocate, working directly with residents to understand their needs, challenges, and aspirations. Your role will involve identifying key issues within the community, rallying grassroots support, and cultivating leadership among community members. You will be at the forefront of mobilizing efforts to address concerns through policy changes, program development, and community initiatives. A key focus will be empowering marginalized populations, encouraging collective action, and creating meaningful social change. Through outreach efforts, community meetings, and the development of impactful campaigns, you will help drive positive transformation within the community.

This position will align our voter engagement efforts with our organizing program. This senior-level position will report to the Executive Director and work closely with the Organizing, Communications, and Development Directors.

Reports to: Executive Director

Supervises: Western PA Canvass Lead, Eastern PA Canvass Lead, and Volunteer Coordinator.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Leadership Development

Supervise and manage civic engagement staff and volunteers, ranging from 20-100 people

• Provide technical and training support to all MIS staff and members and, when necessary, train canvassers, volunteers, and staff on key areas such as the census, voter registration, voter education, redistricting, ballot initiatives, and get-out-the-vote efforts.
• Utilize and train canvassers, volunteers, and staff on Civic Engagement digital technology and databases, including the Voter Activation Network (VAN), EveryAction, Hustle, and peer-to-peer robo-texting messaging tools.
• Implement a comprehensive training program for staff and membership to enhance year-round voter engagement capacity.
• Contribute to the creation and support of political education and leadership development systems and pipelines for Mothers of Incarcerated Sons permanent and temporary canvassers.
• Support the Canvass Leads to create a positive staff culture oriented around leadership development in Mothers of Incarcerated Sons’ Core Canvass Teams.

Compliance and Development

Conceptualize and construct plans for field operations, including field budgets, work plans, and overall timelines.

• Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local rules and regulations corresponding to voter registration.
• Ensure the high quality and success of MIS’’’s civic engagement programs through quality control monitoring.
• Understand and manage C3 and C4 civic engagement field programs, including member recruitment, voter registration, persuasion, GOTV, and electoral accountability.
• Provide timely reporting as requested for funders, staff, Pennsylvania Department of State, and allied organizations.

Drive Community/Social Justice Issues Program

• Construct strategic civic engagement and voter contact programs to advance issue campaigns and policy priorities by managing and implementing MIS’’’s civic engagement initiatives, including census, voter registration, redistricting, voter education, and Get Out the Vote (GOTV) initiatives across the state.
• Co-lead state legislative strategy with the Organizing Director to ensure seamless voter engagement integration with organizing programs.
• Represent MIS at coalition and campaign tables, and manage and develop partnership relationships to achieve civic engagement and policy outcomes.

We encourage you to apply even if you don't meet all the qualifications listed. We value diverse experiences and perspectives, and we believe that passion, drive, and a willingness to learn are just as important as specific skills or experiences. If you're excited about the opportunity and feel you can contribute to our mission, we want to hear from you!

QUALIFICATIONS:

• A minimum of 7 years of comparative experience working with community, labor, or electoral organizations with success in developing and winning campaigns.
• Knowledge of and experience working with voter files, modeling and targeting, and Voter Activation Network (VAN), EveryAction, Hustle, and peer-to-peer and robo-texting messaging tools.
• Experience supervising staff in an organizing or canvassing setting, with a strong track record of building teams and developing staff leadership.
• Strong interpersonal, relational and organizational communication skills.
• Strong track record of operationalizing a model for transformative grassroots organizing and/or civic engagement work.
• Commitment and passion for racial, gender, and economic justice and their intersections, both inside and outside organizations

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• Experience with issue organizing and/or civic engagement in communities of color – preferably in Black communities
• Exceptional supervisory and coaching skills, including managing staff.
• Knowledge of civic engagement work, running large-scale canvassing programs, community organizing, political education, and movement building.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to write and implement training curriculum and organizing tools.
• Ability to partner and collaborate with the existing Core Canvass Teams.
• Ability to work well in a fast-paced environment and multitask without sacrificing quality.
• Ability to travel statewide regularly (2-3 times/month) and for extended periods;
• Reliable, consistent, trustworthy, detail-oriented, and self-motivated.

Preferred

• A minimum of 10 years or comparative experience working with community, labor, or electoral organizations with success in developing and winning campaigns.
• Extensive knowledge of and experience working with voter files, modeling and targeting, and Voter Activation Network (VAN), EveryAction, ThruTalk,ThruText, and peer-to-peer and robo-texting messaging tools.
• Extensive experience drafting field plans including budgets.
• Should have lived experience having been incarcerated and or having an incarcerated loved one.
• Extensive experience managing large staff and diverse staff teams;
• Demonstrated ability to build and motivate teams and work effectively in a team environment in both a management and support role;
• Strong working knowledge of federal, state and municipal legislative election processes
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in politically sensitive and high-pressure environments;
• Demonstrated ability to exercise excellent political judgment and discretion;
• Ability to work independently within context of a plan;
• Effective time management skills, including prioritizing and managing multiple tasks, and demonstrated experience in developing campaign and personal work plans and goals; Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Computer proficiency is required: email, internet, database/spreadsheet, word processing, and web conferencing.

Cultural Competencies:

• Shares our commitment to integrating racial justice, equity, and economic justice into our work and ensuring an inclusive organizational culture.
• Commitment to leadership development in communities most impacted by injustices we confront.
• Flexibility, self-awareness, humility, emotional intelligence, and ability to bring creative ideas and a fresh perspective to an evolving organizing program.

Conditions: Ability to work hours exceeding stated office hours to get the job done; ability and willingness to work evenings and weekends when necessary. The candidate will be based in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, and responsible for Centre, York, Harrisburg and Delaware Counties. Candidates should have access to reliable, insured vehicles and must have a PA license. MIS provides mileage reimbursement at the federal rate and lodging when working away from home.

Compensation:

Salary range of $55,000-$60,000 annually paid twice monthly and benefits including defined benefit package(with contributions beginning after six months of employment), generous paid time off, and partially paid health insurance.

To Apply:

Applications must be submitted by March 31, 2025, for priority consideration. Please send a resume, a one-page writing sample (preferably an old campaign plan or training curriculum), and a cover letter to Sharron Boddy-Adedipe, Executive Director, MIS, via email hiring@mothersofincarceratedsons.org. To ensure prompt attention, make sure to put “ Community Organizer” in the subject line.

Equal Opportunity:

Mothers of Incarcerated Sons is an equal opportunity employer. Mothers of Incarcerated Sons does not discriminate against or tolerate harassment of any employee because of race, color, religion, creed, sex, age, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, physical or mental disability, or any other basis prohibited by law, or protected activity under the anti-discrimination statutes.

Women and people of color are strongly encouraged to apply.