Communications Manager Job Description

Location: Hybrid, requires 2-4 days per month in-person in San Francisco

Supervisor: Sr. Director

Work Periods: Full-Time, 12 month

Direct Supervision Exercised: As Assigned

Role Type: Salaried-Exempt

About Urban Ed Academy

At Urban Ed Academy, we're on a mission to ensure every student gets the chance to learn from a Black male educator. We know representation in the classroom is a powerful catalyst for improving educational outcomes for all students. 

Our educator fellowship program, Man the Bay, is all about tackling the obstacles that Black male educators face when entering the profession. We recruit, house, train, and support their professional development throughout all 4-years — because students deserve to see themselves in the classroom. Our vision is for every student in the Bay Area and beyond to have one Black male educator in their lifetime.

The last year has been a major inflection point for us as an organization as we continue to build out our team. We have an emerging culture that values energy, creativity, and innovation in building a solution that no one has gotten right yet. We will continue to iterate until we find the right processes and people. We want to build relationships that last and programs that expand beyond the Bay Area. That growth will take time, and we are inviting people to invest in our potential.

About the Role

The Communications Manager plays a pivotal role in driving Urban Ed’s strategic marketing efforts and ensuring brand consistency across all communications channels. Reporting directly to the Senior Director of Development, the Communications Manager collaborates closely with the Programs team to foster synergies between communication efforts and programmatic initiatives, ensuring a unified approach toward achieving and communicating Urban Ed's mission.

Key Responsibilities

• External Marketing and Communications:
  • Develop, implement, and refine comprehensive marketing and communications strategies to enhance Urban Ed's brand visibility and amplify the impact of our educational programs alongside the Sr. Director of Development for donors, partners, staff, participants and broader community.
  • Manage Urban Ed’s marketing efforts, including content creation, management and reporting to leverage for stewardship and fundraising communications, events, social media, paid ads, the blog and website, all while ensuring a consistent brand identity and messaging.
  • Promote new content, key pages, and calls-to-action across channels. Position content to target different segments and to fit the format and publishing requirements of each platform
  • Produce all email campaigns, soliciting compelling content from internal sources, and manage review, testing, and sending. 
  • Support the Executive Director and Sr. Director of Development in the creation of materials to improve stewardship and cultivation of top donors. 
• Events & Social Media Management:
  • Plan, develop and coordinate consistent campaigns to increase brand recognition, expand recruitment and fundraising efforts across channels and during events. 
  • Ensure consistency and quality of brand representation across all platforms, materials, and touchpoints, to enhance online engagement, increase followership, and amplify Urban Ed's brand.
  • Monitor online conversations, respond to inquiries, and manage the organization's online reputation.
  • Engage with staff and participants around creative campaigns to engage our community of supporters.
  • Collaborate across development and program teams to ensure timely communications for events and on social media 
• Analytics and Continuous Improvement:
  • Utilize data analytics to measure the effectiveness of marketing and comms initiatives and campaigns.
  • Identify areas for improvement and innovation based on data-driven insights.
  • Continuously refine strategies to maximize impact and engagement.
  • Participate during in-person activities to support photography and videography collection for 
• Management of Marketing Projects 
  • Manage external consultants – graphic design, photography and videography – to implement and refresh evergreen marketing materials for organization on an annual basis. 
  • Oversee vision setting, goals, project timelines to complete creative projects and meet deadlines in support of fundraising, donor stewardship, and programs.
  • Develop an annual calendar for creative projects to ensure up-to-date visuals for use in all marketing materials for external and internal audiences. 

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of duties and requirements. The responsibilities of the Communications Manager may vary depending on the needs of the organization.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Communications, Marketing, Public Relations, or related field.
• Proven experience in marketing, communications, or fundraising, preferably in the non-profit sector.
• Must be a strong communicator, have excellent written, presentation, oral communications and interpersonal skills.
• Knowledge of best practices for writing and publishing on different platforms (especially LinkedIn and Instagram)
• Proven experience with marketing tools and analytics platforms, including MailChimp, social media platforms, Wordpress, and Google Ads/SEO (a plus). 
• Must be a creative and strategic thinker with good judgment and ability to make independent decisions in a changing environment while meeting deadlines.
• Ability to lead and manage staff effectively.