Communications Director Jobs

About The Opportunity Trust

The Opportunity Trust exists to ensure every child born in St. Louis is prepared to lead a life of choice and dignity as an adult. We pursue this mission by examining barriers to economic mobility in the St. Louis region, developing research-based theories of system-level change, and building national and local funds dedicated to eliminating these barriers over time.

One of the most urgent barriers to opportunity in St. Louis today is the changing nature of work and our increasingly outdated and ineffective public education system. Our first focus, Reimagining Schools, aims to catalyze a fundamental transformation of our public education system so that it can prepare children for the jobs of today and tomorrow.

Building off the successes and failures of the most effective transformations of public education in our nation, we invest in the following levers that together drive systemic change

• Strategic Priority 3: Growing talent pipelines for the education sector and deploying talent to the highest impact interventions;
• Strategic Priority 1: Providing tools and resources for parents to help them advocate for higher quality school options and place their children in the best-fit school;
• Strategic Priority 2: Building the vision and capacity of talented educators to scale, transform, and launch new and innovative schools in St. Louis;
• Strategic Priority 4: Building awareness among leaders in business and government about the conditions that enable quality schools and advocating for institutionalizing those conditions in state and local policy.

Beyond strategically deploying financial capital, The Opportunity Trust works to ensure the success of each fund in four ways:

• Coordinating and supporting the rigorous evaluation of current approaches and advocating for evidence-based local and state policy changes.
• Connecting organizations and resources nationally and locally;
• Identifying what is working and amplifying the impact of those organizations and leaders;
• Identifying and supporting entrepreneurs with local ties to fulfill unmet needs;

About Your Role

Reporting to the Partner for Communications and Coalitions, the Communications Director is ultimately responsible for shaping the public dialogue on education equity in our community, ensuring the voices and perspectives of those most impacted and proximate to educational inequity are at the forefront of discussion. This leader must develop and execute a communications strategy focused on increasing awareness of what is and is not working in public education across the St. Louis region and the role that The Opportunity Trust and its partners play in effecting change.

To succeed in those efforts, this person will work closely with senior members of the organization as a communications partner on various strategic initiatives and with partner organizations ranging from school districts to teacher development organizations to parent advocacy groups. The Opportunity Trust culture is a start-up environment, which means that everyone pitches in to help and steps up to support new initiatives as they arise.

What You’ll Do

• Represent The Opportunity Trust at public events as needed
• Develop and implement a comprehensive content strategy to share compelling stories around The Opportunity Trust’s work that inform and engage targeted audiences
• Maintain strong relationships with key partners to collaborate and build their capacity to share their success with the community
• Identify opportunities to utilize new information technology for communications outreach to internal and external audiences
• Develop and implement strategic communications campaigns around key initiatives of The Opportunity Trust and the education ecosystem across the region
• Lead media relations and engage journalists, publications, media outlets, and other external contacts to generate content and amplify key messages of initiatives of The Opportunity Trust and its partners - including earned, paid, and social media
• Examine target audiences& organize market research
• Analyze media markets and identify media influencers
• Work with the Communications Program Manager to manage, track and analyze effective communications operations, including up-to-date contact lists, timely delivery of newsletters, organizational collateral, and a current and relevant website; and coordinate and organize events that engage key audiences

What We Need

• Highly collaborative style; experience developing and implementing communications strategies
• Self-starter, able to work independently, and entrepreneurial; enjoys creating and implementing new initiatives
• Access to an established media network and an in-depth understanding of local media opportunities
• Confidence in providing strategic points of view to senior stakeholders
• Excellent writing, editing, and verbal communication skills, with a track record of media relations and a history of effective storytelling
• 5-7+ years of experience in media, public relations, communications, public policy, education, community engagement, local government, and/or related field
• Sincere commitment to working collaboratively with all constituent groups, including staff, board members, volunteers, donors, program participants, and other supporters
• Self-motivated and passionate about supporting organizations to build their capacity
• An understanding of the education landscape and/or policy preferred

What We Offer

• Flexible work environment
• Starting salary range:$80 - $110K
• Passionate, mission-driven colleagues
• Competitive salary and benefits

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