Organizer

Position Type: Independent Contractor, no benefits provided, healthcare stipend

Organization: The Debt Collective

Duration: ~1 year, possibly renewable

Location: Remote

Hours: Full-time, flexible working hours

Salary Range: $60,000 - $70,000 + healthcare stipend

Organizational Summary

The Debt Collective is a membership-based union for debtors. We use our collective power to fight for better conditions in our financial lives and a more equitable society: the cancellation and renegotiation of debts, access to publicly-funded goods (education, healthcare, housing, etc), anti-capitalist and anti-racist economic policies, and much more. Our current campaigns include the national fight for full student debt cancellation and publicly-funded tuition-free higher education, as well as campaigns around tenant power and carceral debt/bail abolition in California, and other campaigns in development.

Position Summary

The Debt Collective is seeking a full-time Organizer to co-create and implement our campaigning, organizing, and base building strategies to build the power of multiracial debtors union. We seek an experienced organizer who is excited to fuse labor, community organizing and distributed organizing models to build and engage the base of our debtors’ union, design pathways of engagement and develop training models to support mass action. This is an opportunity to bring your creativity and conviction and help us bring our organization to a new level.

The Organizer will begin by focusing on our Cancel Student Debt/Free College Campaign, and eventually shift into growing people-powered campaign strategies and programming for our other areas of work: medical debt, carceral debt, housing debt, credit card debt etc. This position will help the Organizing Director develop and implement a vision for infrastructure and programming that allows us to grow, retain and empower our membership.

The ideal candidate is a people person who is highly motivated to help create a powerful multiracial base that wins changes for debtors across the country. They are a systems-builder comfortable mobilizing and growing a national network and an experienced base-builder skilled at building effective volunteer teams.

Key Areas of Responsibility

• The Cancel Student Debt Organizer will be responsible for mobilizing people to take action with our Cancel Student Debt Campaign and building their long term leadership and commitment to the Debt Collective.
• Work with Organizer Director to co-develop an organizing strategy
• Work with Organizing Director to identify key moments for mobilization, escalation, and absorption
• Co-Create ladders of engagement that align with the campaign plan
• Design the systems, structures and programs that move people up the ladder of engagement and keep them active and engaged.
• Build and support a Distributed Organizing program that will support as many people as possible to mobilize and take action. This program will be responsible for things like:
• Mass Calls: Setting agendas, managing participation, facilitating discussions, and following up with attendees.
• Action Toolkits: Creating resources to support grassroots initiatives.
• Calls to Action: Strategically driving national turnout efforts.
• Orientation Calls: Welcoming new members, identifying potential leaders, and integrating them into the program.
• Contact Management: Overseeing communications across Slack, Signal, and Facebook groups; drafting and sending emails through EveryAction.
• Campaign Planning: Identifying targets, establishing recruitment goals, designing escalating actions to grow our base, and developing campaign timelines.
• Build and support a Leaders Organizing programs for top leaders. This team program will be responsible for:
• IDing top leaders
• Building a top leaders cohorts/programs to develop leadership
• Building systems/teams for mentorship and coaching
• Skills Training and Political Education
• Identify gaps in our organizing infrastructure and make plans to fill them

Qualifications

• Experience leading and winning issue campaigns, bonus if you have experience in Momentum style campaigning.
• Feels confident executing strategies for distributed organizing, organizing at scale, and mass mobilization
• Skilled relational organizer
• Digital Organizing Experience: experience building online to offline organizing flow
• Has experience and success in building, leadership development and leading effective volunteer teams
• Experience coordinating and leading a diverse team and navigating conflict
• Confident and effective project manager
• Is excited about the Debt Collective’s long term vision, and wants to grow the Debtor’s Union beyond the Cancel Student Debt Campaign.
• A passion for economic justice, an interest in the way finance works and a commitment to devising and advancing innovative ways to transform our financial system
• Experience with data informed online organizing, including multi-channel digital engagement tracking, list segmentation, A/B testing and CRMs. Direct experience with EveryAction is a plus.
• Experience and skills to design and run rigorous experiments, document and report on learnings, and iterate and innovate based on lessons learned.
• Strong interpersonal skills: focused on building trust and knowing that everything starts with good relationships
• Problem solving skills, able to figure out how to get things done in accordance with deadlines, deliverables and changing circumstances
• Strong writing skills.
• Sees failure as an opportunity to learn and retool the approach, and is committed to ongoing learning in the field
• Has effective personal systems for project management - able to move multiple projects forward and hold relationships
• Maintains personal boundaries and engages with professionalism even when under pressure

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, and skills required.

Application

Debt disproportionately affects the most marginalized people in society — including black and brown communities, people from working class backgrounds, women and LGBTQ+ people. These communities are centered in this work. People with these identities or who are members of other marginalized communities are strongly encouraged to apply for this position.

To apply, please send a resume to julia@debtcollective.org along with a brief paragraph describing your interest in the position.