Description

Position: Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) 

About ACE Scholarships

ACE is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, founded in 2000 in Denver, Colorado, to provide low-income children with equal access to quality K-12 private schools through partial scholarship support. Over the past 22 years, ACE has provided more than 50,000 scholarships worth over $138 million. This school year, ACE serves approximately 10,500 children in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, and is actively pursuing other expansion opportunities with support of a national funding partner. For more information visit the ACE website at www.acescholarships.org. 

Our Mission is to provide children of low-income families with scholarships to private schools in grades K-12, and to advocate for expanded school choice.

Our Vision is that every child has equal access to a quality education.
Guiding Principles and Convictions:
1. The American public education system if flawed.

2. Free enterprise and democracy work.

3. Parents know the best education environment for their kids.

4. Private schools offer great value and have open seats (often faith-based).

5. All people are created equal and deserve an equal chance to pursue the American Dream.

Position Overview:

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) works closely with the President and the Executive Team to develop and lead in the execution of ACE Scholarships’ Strategic marketing and communication plans. This will include oversight of all upstream and downstream marketing, grants and market research. The CMO will drive the priorities, lead the team (internal/external via partnerships), engage key stakeholders, and manage the budget. 

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Marketing - Development and Planning

• Under the direction of the President, the CMO develops and manages Strategic Marketing and Communications plans for national and market-specific fundraising, brand awareness and stakeholder engagement. Strategic Marketing includes leveraging ACE’s strengths to capitalize on market opportunities. This will be accomplished by defining strategies, tactics, channels, target segments, messaging, necessary resources, goals, and metrics. 

Leadership

• Under the direction of the President, the CMO leads the Marketing team­ (including external partners) focusing on department culture, morale, innovation, creative execution, and output.
• Responsible for ensuring all members of the Marketing team (internal and external via partnerships) are equipped with clear direction, training, and resources to succeed in their roles while fostering new learnings and career growth. 

Internal/External Marketing:

• Under the direction of the President, and in collaboration with the Development and Programs teams, supervise the execution of marketing and communications for the organization, including strategic marketing planning, digital marketing efforts, direct mail, traditional advertising, content marketing, video production, and earned media to advance the organization’s mission and assist fundraising and engagement efforts.
• Supervise the messaging, creation and distribution of employee and internal communications, speech writing and other content development.
• Lead earned media efforts to further the ACE mission, including supervision of press releases, editorials, and logistics around press conferences, podcasts, radio and television interviews, newspaper editorial board meetings, etc.
• Act as chief editor for all ACE content, including campaign messaging, student and family stories, website and blog content, direct mail letters, speeches, press releases, and video scripts.

Brand Stewardship:

• Develop, maintain, and supervise the adherence to ACE Scholarships brand standards. Prevent harmful messaging by internal and/or external actors. Ensure quality, design consistency, messaging and brand integrity remain intact.
• Maintain relationships with external agencies and lead the ideation and creative process in the development of current and future ACE branded materials. 

Measurements of Success

• Mission-centered, strategic execution of the above job roles and responsibilities
• Ability to lead team members in the successful execution of strategic objectives
• Effective and constant communication to internal and external stakeholders
• Compliance with all internal policies and procedures
• Evaluate costs / benefits (ROI) of ACE’s marketing efforts in any given market
• Uphold and consistently demonstrate the values of the organization
• Manage all marketing plans to budget

Core Competencies and Skill Sets

• Knowledge of, and passion for, school choice and ACE Scholarships mission
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills. Background in writing on deadline preferred. 
• Demonstrated ability to develop a strong internal / external (partners) team culture that empowers co-workers to achieve success.
• Strong decision-making ability using a collaborative style that encourages input from others.
• Clearly accepts work responsibilities for tasks and decisions; sets clear objectives, goals and measures; monitors process, progress and results; designs feedback loops into work.
• Uses time effectively and efficiently; concentrates effort on priorities; adeptly handles several tasks at once.
• Experience in analytical data collection, interpretation, and reporting that will support organization’s strategic development and communications goals.
• Ability to develop strategic plans and execute plans towards specific and measurable outcomes

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Business Administration, or similar degree; or equivalent professional experience
• Master’s degree preferred
• 10 years of experience 

Location and Reporting

• Position will be based in Denver, CO/Denver Tech Center
• Reports to President, currently, no direct reports. 

FLSA Status: Exempt

Travel

• ~10%, attending out of state ACE Events and meetings with key stakeholders

Compensation

• Salary range of $140,000 - $160,000 (DOE) and benefit package, including health, dental and vision insurance; 401(k), with corporate match; plus, other benefits.

Please submit your resume and cover letter. We look forward to reviewing applications.