Partnership Director, guides.vote

Posted by Guides.vote on May 14, 2024

guides.vote seeks a creative, energetic, and experienced organizer to reach out to existing donors, potential donors and to organizational partners who can distribute our guides. We’re looking for a full-time applicant, but would consider part-time with the right experience and skill-set. Our team members all work remotely, so geographic location is flexible.

guides.vote engages potential voters, especially young voters, by providing clear, insightful, and well-sourced candidate information so they can draw clear contrasts and counter misinformation. We do so by creating and distributing nonpartisan candidate guides for America’s most important elections. Our guides give voters the confidence they need to participate, understand the stakes, and make informed decisions. The guides highlight where candidates stand on key issues, with links to credible sources. Concise, trustworthy, and user-friendly, our resources help people rise above the myth that voting is not worthwhile because candidates are “all the same.” They’re distributed by organizations including Black Voters Matter, Mi Familia Vota, the NAACP, Nonprofit Vote, Vote.org, Youth Service America, Teen Vogue, and Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. Working with groups like Andrew Goodman Foundation and Campus Vote Project, we also reach hundreds of college campuses. 

Collaborating with our terrific partners, we distributed 500,000 individual nonpartisan guides in 2022, our first year. Colleges with a total enrollment of 715,000 also posted enlarged versions as banners and posters in high-traffic locations, as did some community groups. The guides traveled further as individuals emailed them to friends, shared them on social media, and even posted printed versions on neighborhood lamp posts.  We then continued to grow in 2023, distributing as many printed guides in 6 races as in 46 in 2022. And our growth has skyrocketed in 2024, with NAACP, Black Voters Matter, BVM’s grassroots partners and several other groups committing to distribute 3.5 million printed guides as of spring, plus online commitments from outlets like Teen Vogue and States News Service.

See guides.vote for more information, including our Impact Summary.

$50,000-62,000 – full-time, hourly contract position.

This is a dual role with the following expectations: 

• Engage potential distribution partners, like national and local nonprofits and media outlets. 
• Engage existing and potential financial supporters. 
• For both, you’ll need to communicate the value of our nonpartisan guides in helping potential voters past their overload and mistrust, and the ways that partners have distributed them. 

 Engage New and Prospective Partners:

• Reach out to existing distribution partners and engage them to distribute our guides and increase their level of participation.  Partners include voter participation groups, nonpartisan advocacy groups, community-based nonprofits including social service organizations, nonpartisan voter engagement coalitions, individual campuses, and media outlets. 
• Engage new potential partners by email, phone, LinkedIn, social media etc. Communicate the value of the guides, motivate them to distribute them, and work to integrate them into their programs.  
• Research and follow up on lists of new potential distribution partners, including working through allies like Nonprofit Vote, Vote Early Day, and Youth Service America.  We’re particularly interested in reaching communities of color in our top priority states.
• Assist with communications, like partner and donor newsletters, email appeals, and ad campaigns. 
• Log  and track every contact in our database (Little Green Light) in a timely and accurate manner.  We also use this database to track outreach to donors.
• Help with miscellaneous tasks, like coordinating to send orders for printed guides to our printer.

Fundraising tasks:

• Reach out by email and phone to existing donors and new prospects. 
• As much as possible, incorporate each donor’s passions, interests, and communication preferences in your outreach.    
• Identify, research and solicit new prospective individual, foundation, and corporate donors. 
• Assist our grant writer with the submission of grants, as needed. Grant Writing experience is a plus, but not essential.
• Help organize in-person or virtual fundraising events drawing on the networks of our supporters.
• Work on donor-related marketing materials like E-newsletters, thank-you letters  or event invitations.
• Log  and track your donor contacts in our database (Little Green Light) in a timely and accurate manner.  We also use this database to track outreach to organizations.

 Desired Skills and Qualifications:

• A passion for citizen engagement and enthusiasm for providing trustworthy and accessible information to help people vote with confidence.
• At least three-five years of relevant nonprofit or grassroots experience, more preferred. Demonstrated ability to engage new allies, whether organizational partners, funders, or individuals, and inspire them for your cause.  History of leading successful initiatives with measurable results.
• Ideally,  2 + years of experience personally soliciting and a proven record of closing major gifts. If candidates have strong and successful organizing experience, we can train them on fundraising.  
• Highly organized self-starter, able to foster strong relationships, carry out projects independently, manage multiple deadlines, and take initiative while working in a fast-paced team environment. Ability to promote existing models of engagement while also developing new ideas.  
• Persistent and creative.  Comfortable asking people to distribute our guides or for money, willing to keep on following up despite the likelihood that most donors and partners you initially approach will take multiple rounds to engage and that some donors will simply say no, at least initially.
• Strong communicator with high emotional intelligence. Able to “make the case” to inspire potential partners and donors, while hearing and heeding their interests and passions.  
• Strong writing, editing and research skills. (Be prepared to share a writing sample.)
• Works with integrity, reliability, and professionalism. Particularly maintains confidentiality when fundraising.
• Familiar with Microsoft Office, Google docs and sheets, willing to use our easy-to-learn CRM, Little Green Light to track all your outreach.
• If not a US citizen, have US work authorization.

This is a contract position reporting to guides.vote founder Paul Loeb. Hourly payment $25-30 hr based on experience, not to exceed $62,000 per year without administrative approval. As an independent contractor, the employee needs to cover their own benefits. May be expected to work during weekends or late hours during peak election cycles. This is an opportunity to work full-time from your location on the critical mission of educating voters where candidates actually stand.

Guides.vote is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity in our work environment and believe it furthers our mission to create and preserve an inclusive democracy for all voters and for underrepresented and marginalized communities in particular. Applicants from diverse backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply. 

Contact [email protected] with a cover letter, resume, and three references. PDF format preferred.