ForwardTN is seeking a full-time, contract, ForwardTN Organizer to develop and support volunteer leaders and their teams in the fight for progressive values, beginning with the prevention of climate disaster and promotion of prosperity for all Americans through regular advocacy and earned media. This effort will focus on organizing people to engage in issue advocacy  to hold federal and local office-holders accountable.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

This role has overall responsibility for building local volunteer-led teams that take responsibility for recruiting supporters, building relationships, and organizing regular activity to advocate for the protection and advancement of policies to safeguard public health and the environment.  Likely required activities to meet goals will include:

• Recruitment: regular recruitment calls to supporters of specific policy and action.
  
• 1-on-1 Relationship Building: regular meetings one-on-one to get to know supporters and learn about them and the best ways to include them in the work. 
• Organizing advocacy actions: hosting office visits, letter writing events and other advocacy actions until they are volunteer led.
• Train volunteers:  as volunteers take more responsibility for organizing press events and advocacy actions, you will need to provide training to develop the skills of your emerging leaders.
• Press Pitching: you will be responsible for helping your volunteers develop relationships with the media, coaching and pitching stories.
• Rapid Response Press Pitching: each week there will be several opportunities to pitch to press stories that help respond to, or shape the narrative on the issues we are fighting for.
• Organizing Earned Media Events: recruit and manage volunteers to organize earned media (office visits, press calls, press conferences, interviews)  the speakers, and personal stories to shape the coverage.
• Organizing to Build Capacity: build volunteer teams to own advocacy goals and provide a drum beat of activity on which to layer the communication.
• Reporting: report daily on activity to help inform rapid response and strategy of the national and state coalition.
• Learning / Teaching to Strengthen Advocacy Work: commit to culture that celebrates learning. We debrief everything we do - asking what worked well and what didn’t so we can replicate best practices and make changes  where necessary to become more effective.
  

QUALIFICATIONS: If you have some, but not all the qualifications, consider applying anyway.

• Experience in and evidence of the ability to develop talent and leadership in other people.
• Ability to work quickly under pressure and juggle several projects at one time.
• Demonstrated excellence in learning quickly.
• Commitment to progressive causes and issues.
• Excellent writing and communication skills.
• Immediate availability.

CULTURAL FIT:

• Solutions focused:  ForwardTN is looking for people who can adapt and roll with the punches. Inevitably, challenges will arise, and the most successful team members are ones who when faced with challenges, immediately begin thinking of potential solutions and how to adapt.
• Fast-paced: ForwardTN is operating in a fast paced and unpredictable environment where opportunities quickly arise. We are responsible for bringing press attention to the stories of how people are affected by progressive issues, beginning with climate change and supporting the organizing effort to help get those stories heard.
  
• Collaborative and independent:  We need team members who can take initiative, operate well independently and a part of a team.
  
• Building a learning culture:  FowardTN is looking for people who love reflecting and learning in everything they do so we can keep adapting and growing as a team.

Initial opportunities are for contract work with possibility of ongoing employment.  Compensation commensurate with experience.

ForwardTN is deeply committed to social, racial, gender, and economic justice. We strongly encourage persons of color, women, LGBT individuals, and those who are unemployed to apply.

ABOUT FORWARDTN
Forward Tennessee promotes public policies which make Tennessee a fairer, healthier, more equitable state by advocating solutions to critical community challenges.  ForwardTN is a non-profit project dedicated to elevating voices of forward-thinking Tennesseans who want a balanced approach to government, where policy affecting the wellbeing of people’s lives is shaped by evidence and results, instead of extreme partisan ideology.

ForwardTN’s goal is to educate Tennesseans about the negative effects and extreme policies certain elected leaders and organizations have on their quality of life through organizing, social media and action.  ForwardTN provides issue and opinion research, shared message development, technical assistance and shared technology and resources to partner progressive advocacy groups.

We monitor the statewide political landscape, identifying extreme legislative actions and other policy changes that could affect your life. We tell you about them quickly and let you know what you can do about them.

We are determined to see Tennessee be a great place to work, live and raise a family. To that end, ForwardTN raises the visibility of issues that affect the quality of life in our state.

Apply for the ForwardTN Organizer (Multiple Positions) Position