Organizing Director

The ACLU of Arizona—a leader in the fight against mass incarceration, voter suppression, discrimination in public education, and threats to LGBTQ equality and immigrants’ rights—is seeking a full-time Organizing Director to plan and implement the field and organizing components of our aggressive multi-year advocacy campaign to reduce the U.S. jail and prison population by 50% while combating racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

The ideal candidate is a skilled manager who has recruited, supervised, and trained field /organizing staff on electoral, legislative or issue-based campaigns where regular data-driven debriefs and assessments are an integral part of decision making and team building.  The ideal candidate is a creative, strategic thinker with a proven track record of solving problems and managing organizers who develop and inspire volunteers to meet specific policy objectives. Personal experience being incarcerated or in other ways entangled with the criminal justice system, preferred.

This is a newly created full-time position based in our Phoenix office. 

RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Organizing Director is a new permanent position based in the ACLU Phoenix office and reports to the Political Director. Job responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Recruiting, hiring, managing, training, and retaining field organizers.
• Establishing a positive, collaborative culture within the organizing team that is driven by values, accountability, teamwork, and creativity.
• Advancing shared campaign goals by collaborating with coalition partners. 
• Pursuing strategic partnerships with community-based organizations working in diverse communities.
• Forging new partnerships with community leaders and organizations who historically have not focused on criminal justice reform.
• Writing and executing a detailed data-driven organizing plan.
• Planning small and large-scale public events.
• Developing an effective “ladder of engagement” and training plan for volunteers that takes them from prospect to active volunteer to team leader.
• Creating organizing materials such as call scripts, canvass scripts, organizer talking points, educational materials, and meeting agendas.
• Monitoring organizing metrics and making management and coaching adjustments as necessary to meet and exceed daily, weekly, and monthly organizing goals.
• Creating regular reports that are both qualitative and quantitative that senior staff and stakeholders can use to monitor progress.
• Developing innovative approaches to recruit, engage and empower priority and underrepresented constituencies to play leadership roles within ACLU campaigns.
• Developing a plan to utilize online tools to recruit and activate volunteers.
• Targeting organizer recruitment and advocacy efforts with tools such as a voter file and volunteer database.
• Leading by example as an effective organizer when team capacity is too limited.
• Advancing other ACLU of Arizona priorities through organizing.

QUALIFICATIONS:

We’re seeking candidates who are strong managers, effective coaches, and who can make new organizers excellent organizers. Personal experience being incarcerated or in other ways entangled with the criminal justice system, preferred.

Additional qualifications we seek are:

• At least two to three years of experience directly supervising employees, with a preference for experience managing field/organizing staff.
• A track record of successfully hiring, managing and retaining staff in political, legislative, or advocacy campaigns.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral; experience as a public spokesperson and advocate. Fluency is Spanish is a strong plus.
• Strong understanding of various organizing models and philosophies and a willingness to innovate and try new tactics.
• Successful track record in community organizing and movement building.
• Ability to work effectively with lawyers and other professional staff; comfort with analyzing and articulating legal concepts and other complex issues and concisely communicating them to a variety of audiences.
• A history of successful collaboration with people from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and a broad range of ages, ideological positions, and religious views.
• Ability to keep organized in a fast-paced environment, to manage several projects simultaneously, and to adjust to frequently changing demands. 
• Experience utilizing a voter file and/or an online volunteer management system.
• Proficient in using Google Suite and Microsoft Office software, especially spreadsheets.
• Ability to adapt to new technologies and teach others to utilize them.
• Ability to work irregular hours, attend evening and weekend meetings, and travel often to other Arizona cities.
• Individuals with knowledge of current political alignments and opportunities for collaboration specifically in Arizona with a broad range of groups and familiarity with the advocacy and community organizing landscape around the state are strongly encouraged to apply.

Knowledge of criminal justice policy issues is a plus but not a requirement.

COMPENSATION:

Compensation for this position is negotiable and depends on experience and is highly competitive.  Benefits include generous vacation and sick leave; medical and dental insurance; life and long-term disability insurance; defined contribution plan with employer match; and 12 paid holidays.

TO APPLY:

Send a cover letter and resume with three professional references by email to info@acluaz.org describing your interest in this position, and the ways in which you satisfy the qualifications specified above. Include “Organizing Director” in the subject line of your email. When submitting your application, please be sure to submit both a cover letter (with a document name formatted as “Last name, First name- Cover Letter”) and your resume (with document name formatted as “Last name.First name-Resume”). Please also indicate in your cover letter where you heard of this career opportunity. No phone calls or walk-ins, please.  Applications accepted until position is filled.

ABOUT THE ACLU

For the past nearly 100 years, the ACLU has been at the forefront of every major civil liberties fight in our country’s history. Whether it’s ending mass incarceration, achieving full equality for the LGBT community, establishing new privacy protections for our digital age, or preserving the right to vote, we take up the toughest civil liberties issues to defend all individuals from government abuse and overreach. With ACLU affiliate offices in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, we fight tirelessly in the courts, legislatures, and through community engagement to ensure that all individuals’ rights are protected. We are a passionate, highly motivated group of lawyers, public policy experts, lobbyists, community organizers, and fundraisers, and we’re looking for exceptional talent to join our team.

This is an incredibly exciting time to join the ACLU. ACLU membership in Arizona has increased 250 percent from roughly 6,000 before the November 2016 election to more than 22,000 members today. Hundreds of people are joining the ACLU’s grassroots People Power movement. More than 2,300 people across the country signed up to host events during the March 2017 People Power launch – 200 people in Arizona alone – and since then dozens of people have been meeting with law enforcement officials across the state to advocate for immigrant-friendly policy changes that promote public safety and foster better trust between community members and police.

In celebration of the ACLU’s 100th anniversary in 2020, the organization is building a more expansive advocacy infrastructure to increase its effectiveness in achieving public policy objectives. The organization is growing rapidly and has identified critical policy objectives that need proactive campaigns to succeed.

We seek a talented Organizing Director with strong organizing and field experience to play a central role in designing and executing a field plan to inspire decision-makers to adopt policy changes to discriminatory and onerous bail and sentencing policies that contribute to Arizona having the fifth highest incarceration rate in the nation.

The ACLU of Arizona is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public interest organization dedicated to the defense and expansion of civil liberties and civil rights in Arizona. Our four strategic priority areas are: criminal justice reform, education equity, LGBT equality and immigrants’ rights. The ACLU of Arizona has 17 staff members, 22 board members, more than 22,000 members, and an annual operating budget of $2.1 million, which includes a significant influx of resources to hire several new positions in FYE 2018. 

The ACLU of Arizona comprises two separate corporate entities, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and the ACLU Foundation of Arizona. Both the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and the ACLU Foundation of Arizona have the same overall mission, and share office space and employees. The ACLU has two separate corporate entities in order to do a broad range of work to protect civil liberties.

ACLU is an equal opportunity employer. We value a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. The ACLU encourages applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status and record of arrest or conviction.