Director of Advocacy and Campaign Strategy

The National Alliance to End Homelessness (the Alliance) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization committed to preventing and ending homelessness in the United States. The Alliance uses qualitative and quantitative data and research—including the perspectives of people with lived experience of homelessness— to identify solutions to homelessness; works with Congress and the Administration to support and advance these solutions; and helps communities to implement the solutions. Recognizing the disproportionality of people of color who experience homelessness and the disparities that cause this, it undertakes its work in the context of achieving racial equity.

What we are looking for:

The Alliance is looking for a seasoned and experienced Director of Advocacy and Campaign Strategy to bring strategic leadership on advocacy and grassroots mobilization to drive and advance the Alliance’s policy goals and priorities. The ideal candidate will be committed to anti-racist values and have significant experience designing and implementing successful advocacy campaigns on homelessness, housing, or other social justice related topic(s).

What you will do:

The Director of Advocacy and Campaign Strategy is responsible for building and driving transformative advocacy campaign strategies aimed at preventing and ending homelessness. Reporting to the Vice President of Programs and Policy, the Director of Advocacy and Campaign Strategy leads the development, execution, and implementation of a visionary and transformational advocacy campaign strategy to advance the organization’s policy goals and objectives. The Director will work closely with the Vice President for Programs and Policy, the Congressional Affairs Manager and other staff within the organization to identify the most critical opportunities and officials to engage with at the federal, state, and local levels. Working with the Senior Field Organizer, the Director will oversee efforts to build, educate, and support a robust, active, and diverse advocacy community to take policy actions at the local, state, and federal levels. Finally, the Director works in close collaboration with other national organizations and coalitions that are mobilizing behind the effort to end homelessness.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Devise, continuously update, and drive forward a public advocacy and political strategy in support of the organization’s policy priorities.
• Collaborates with the communications team to develop a coordinated advocacy communications strategy, including digital media, to build constituent support for the organization’s legislative priorities and to keep the Alliance’s advocacy community informed of policy issues and developments, strategies, and opportunities.
• Identifies existing local and state leaders in the field who can participate in these campaigns and build strategic relationships with leadership in target jurisdictions.
• Establishes strategic community partnerships and leverages internal/external resources to raise the visibility of the organization within communities.
• Oversee the development and implementation of advocate training initiatives.
• Establishes and applies metrics and a framework to monitor progress against the campaign goals. Identifies gaps, risks, and potential opportunities. Designs and executes adjustments and/or risk mitigation strategies, as needed.
• Identify and collaborate with key national, state, and local partners to form coalition(s) around key advocacy campaigns. Represent the Alliance in existing coalitions as requested.
• Oversees and supports the work of the Senior Field Organizer to build, nurture, and empower advocacy community, execute advocate training initiatives, and plan and coordinate the execution of the annual Capitol Hill Day.
• Participate in other activities of the Program and Policy team. Tasks include but are not limited to developing workshops for the Alliance’s two conferences each year, maintain advocacy-focused content on the Alliance’s website, contribute to articles and blog posts, and more.
• Work closely and collaboratively with other Alliance staff members and assume other responsibilities as assigned.

What a successful candidate will need:

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher is preferred.
• Equivalent work experience combined with lived experience of homelessness will be considered.
• At least 7 years of relevant experience running legislative, issue advocacy, or political initiatives and campaigns and a demonstrated capacity for achieving success while maintaining strict adherence to 501 (c)(3) nonpartisan requirements.

Skills and Abilities

• Strong commitment to having an impact on homelessness, housing justice, and/or other related issues with a demonstrated ability to recognize and respond to the ways race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity intersect to further promote racial equity and social justice.
• Demonstrated experience building and managing coalitions among diverse array of individuals and organizations.
• Demonstrated ability to move between high-level strategy to implementation.
• Demonstrated experience developing, organizing, and managing advocacy campaigns and large events for advocacy purposes
• Demonstrated experience in mobilizing community and grassroots campaign supporters using a variety of tools and modalities.
• Ability to exercise discretion and independent judgment.
• Ability to synthesize and accurately and persuasively convey complex legal and policy issues to non-expert government, coalition, and public audiences.
• Ability and experience to manage people and projects collaboratively and efficiently.
• Ability and experience to work effectively with ideologically and politically diverse stakeholders.

Please note: Studies have shown that women and Black, indigenous, people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At the Alliance, we are committed to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace– so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles!

The Alliance is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit and business need.