Communications Manager

This role will be based in our Charlottesville, Falls Church, or Richmond offices.

Salary Note:  The salary scale for this position is $59,225.00 - $76,992.50 based on years of relevant experience and LAJC’s formal salary scale. To allow for salary growth within the position over time, the anticipated hiring range for this position is between $59,225.00 - $68,108.75.  Placement on the range will be based on factors such as years of relevant experience, budget, and internal equity. 

About the Legal Aid Justice Center:

The Legal Aid Justice Center is a nationally recognized, non-profit organization that partners with low-income clients and communities of color in Virginia to fight for racial, social, and economic justice. We understand that the harms our clients endure are inextricably linked to overarching systems of injustice. Together we are dismantling those systems through a combination of community organizing, litigation, policy advocacy, public relations, and individual legal services.  

Founded in 1967, LAJC has offices in Charlottesville, Richmond, Petersburg, and Falls Church and provides services under six key program areas: Civil Rights & Racial Justice (focuses on the criminal legal system), Housing & Consumer Justice, Youth Justice, Health Justice & Public Benefits, Immigrant Justice, and Worker Justice. As examples of LAJC’s recent work, our lawsuit and organizing against the state forced reform of Virginia’s unemployment insurance system, including advocacy that resulted in the distribution of over $1 billion in illegally withheld payments to over 160,000 Virginians. During the pandemic, we demanded and secured a statewide eviction moratorium and emergency pandemic protections that helped hundreds of families avoid eviction. We reduced incarceration across the state, including reducing the population of a local immigration detention center down to historically low levels through a coordinated effort of organizing paired with impact and individual litigation.  Our staff are on the front lines of some of the most important anti-poverty fights happening today.  

With a staff of over 90, the past few years have been a time of exciting growth and opportunity for the organization. In addition to the growth of programmatic efforts including increased organizing capacity, LAJC has expanded its operations and administrative capacity, created new opportunities for professional growth and leadership among staff, engaged in ongoing race equity work, and explored changes to organizational structure to deepen its efforts to create long-term, sustainable, community-driven change. 
    
LAJC’s latest strategic plan is available at https://www.justice4all.org/lajc-strategic-plan-2022-2026/#area d.
   

For more information about LAJC’s work and programs, visit www.justice4all.org.

About the Position:

The Legal Aid Justice Center seeks a Communication Manager to help advance LAJC's ambitious agenda to achieve economic, social, and racial justice. This position will support communications work across multiple areas including earned media, social media, digital projects including website content, internal communications, donor communications, and branding and marketing. The ideal candidate will have experience working with advocacy campaigns, interacting with members of the media, writing, creating digital content for social media and web, and experience working with community members to facilitate storytelling and other communications activities. The ideal candidate will have experience communicating through diverse media, and promoting work in earned media, utilizing a race-equity lens. This position offers a chance to help grow the communications capabilities and activities of an active and multifaceted advocacy organization that is working to create meaningful change in our service areas, the state of Virginia, and nationwide. 

Job Duties:

• Social media: Plan and manage LAJC social media accounts with content support from LAJC programs and departments. Work to expand the reach and engagement of our work through current and new social media channels.  Track and analyze data to improve outcomes.  
• Advocacy Communications: Work with the Communications Director, Program Directors, campaign leads, and staff to develop and execute communications plans to further advocacy campaign objectives.  
• Media Relations: Work with the Director of Communications to develop local, state, and national press strategies. Help to maintain accurate information about media across the state. Track and report media mentions.  
• Website: Create and maintain LAJC website content including working with program leadership and staff to solicit or create up-to-date information.  
• Email: Create and manage regular email communications to LAJC audiences about our work. Create and manage emails systems such as the LAJC sign-up welcome series. Work with the Development team to maintain email marketing calendars.  
• Fundraising: Work with the Development Team to produce written materials highlighting LAJC’s work, such as annual reports, brochures, e-newsletters, etc.  
• Training: You will help to plan, schedule, and support communications trainings for LAJC, including trainings on media relations, social media, advocacy tools, graphic design, and other topics as needed. These trainings will be both agency-wide and to address needs of specific groups. You will also help with onboarding of new staff to communications policies and procedures.   
• Racial Equity: Promote racial equity across all dimensions, including within LAJC, by doing the following:  
  • Helping to recruit, retain, and support both staff and leadership that reflect the racial composition of our community
  • Cultivating respect for the work of and expanding resources for non-attorney staff that are disproportionately people of color  
  • Creating spaces for staff to discuss issues of racial, gender, and all other issues of marginalization
  • Pushing for institutional and cultural changes by management, the board, and staff to further promote racial equity. 

Salary : $59,225 - $76,993