Communications and Community Cultivator
Job Type: Full-time
Location: Remote or in-person
Position Summary
The Communications and Community Cultivator role is a full-time remote or in-person position with the Academy for the Love of Learning, a learning nonprofit based in Santa Fe, NM. They invite Santa Fe based applicants as well as applicants outside of New Mexico to apply. Please note that remote employees will be required to travel to Santa Fe at least quarterly for connecting and capacity building with fellow employees at their campus.
The Communications and Community Cultivator is a relationship builder and technology enthusiast interested in reimagining learning as a lifelong practice in being human, and communicating this unique message of reimagining learning to both online and in-person communities. The role will strategically grow and develop relationships with the Academy’s online and in-person communities through audience engagement and research; managing and developing the Academy’s relational database (Notion), community forum (Circle), and online learning hub.
About the Academy for the Love of Learning
The Academy for the Love of Learning is a world-class organization in the field of learning and education. Over the past twenty five years, it has designed and implemented curricula and dozens of programs for teachers, educators, social leaders, artists, elder communities, and young people. Their well-tested pedagogy and unifying learning frameworks guide participants through deep reflection and to a new understanding of transformational learning and the individual and collective wellbeing that comes with it. Today, they are building on that foundation of decades of in-depth, in-person work, while shifting their approach to reaching the millions of people across the country who are seeking the frameworks and tools to break out of the prevailing institutionalized education system and into a meaningful, self-directed, and empowering relationship with learning.
The Academy is focused on magnifying its impact through collaborative efforts with the individuals and organizations already working to reimagine what learning in this country might look like – the existing movement to reimagine learning. By highlighting examples of self-defined, self-directed learning, sharing the stories of the individual and collective well-being that comes with it, and offering guidance and tools to enable these transformational learning experiences, the Academy aims to change the frame of what’s possible in learning.
Targeting young people and the adults who support them – parents, teachers, and many more – the Academy seeks to help young people experience the impact of this kind of learning, trusting that having had this experience, they will naturally seek to ensure such opportunities for their own children and generations to come.
About the Communications Team and the Communications and Community Cultivator Role
The Academy for the Love of Learning’s Communications Team is a small, co-creative team that shares stories of transformational learning; how to practice and enact self-led, self-determined learning; and how to co-create new learning ecosystems. Through storytelling and audience engagement, the Communications Team aims to learn how their audiences are impacted by their work and inspired to reimagine learning, as individuals and as community members.
Within the team, the Communications and Community Cultivator will focus on learning how the Academy’s audiences are impacted by their stories of learning, pedagogy, and practices. Learnings and feedback from Academy’s audiences will be gathered both online and in-person, including through engagement at on-campus events and programs. This role will operationalize learning about the Academy’s audiences by growing, managing, and curating the Academy’s online communities, which include social media, an organization-wide relational database (Notion), an online community forum (Circle), and an online learning hub. The Academy’s community forum and online learning hub are in the ideation phase, and they are looking for someone to develop these communications functions. The Communications and Community Cultivator will work with the Communications Lead and other team members to develop these new platforms and functions – with the attention to the Academy’s communications strategy, goals, and voice.
The position will also manage the Academy’s WordPress website, Presspoint database, and Mailchimp audience lists.
The Communications and Community Cultivator will report to the Communications Lead.
The Communications and Community Cultivator is a creative, independent, entrepreneurial individual with unique life and work experiences and a demonstrated ability to manage multiple internal and external relationships and timelines across projects. They will be part of a team that sets project priorities based on an evolving, dynamic organizational vision and communications strategy. They will participate in the Academy’s iterative approach to project development, where they create, test, and refine their projects and initiatives over a period of time.
Key Responsibilities
1) Develop, Manage, Curate, and Guide Knowledge Management: The Communications and Community Cultivator will guide the development of the Academy’s Notion databases. They will also manage and curate all incoming content related to the Academy’s knowledge base, learning partnerships (Learning Exchanges and the Mapping Project), and audience research.
2) Research and Develop Forum and Online Learning Communities: Develop and manage the Academy’s community forum (Circle). Research, select, develop, and manage the Academy’s online learning hub.
3) Social Media: Audience Research, Strategic Campaigns, and Relationship Building: Research audience content experience through surveys and user-generated campaigns. Build relationships with audiences through learning-focused user-generated campaigns. Generate audience conversations by directing audiences to the Academy’s online conversation forum. Create monthly and quarterly audience research and campaign reports.
4) Manage Website, Contact Forms, CRM, and Mailchimp Audiences: Manage website function and design. Work with contractors to create new web designs and troubleshoot website bugs. Manage and respond to contact form and website inquiries. Purchase new domains. Manage and optimize the Academy’s CRM database. Work with contractors to manage CRM updates. Manage and optimize Mailchimp audience lists, groups, segments, and tags. Synch Mailchimp audience lists with the CRM database.
5) Internal Communications: Share knowledge base (Notion) updates with the Academy staff and faculty.
Qualifications and Skills
- At least 4 years of communications, campaign building, online community building, audience research, and technology capacity building experience.
- Expertise in social media engagement and audience research.
- Excellent written communication skills, reporting skills, and copywriting skills.
- Experience or willingness and eagerness to explore and learn new tech platforms. Experience or interest in managing and optimizing CRM systems and relational databases (Notion).
- Experience or interest in building an organization’s knowledge base and developing an efficient, easy-to-use knowledge management system.
- Experience initiating, building, and cultivating relationships.
- Experience synthesizing information from multiple projects and distilling them into key learnings and campaign themes.
- Experience with WordPress websites, Mailchimp, and survey tools.
- Possess a solid understanding of effective online and in-person community building techniques.
- Demonstrated interpersonal skills in working with a variety of people. Ability to work independently and as part of a co-creative team.
- Demonstrated ability to establish priorities, manage shifting priorities, and handle numerous time-sensitive projects with multiple deadlines.
- Demonstrated creativity, problem solving, critical analysis, initiative, judgment, and decision-making skills.
- Be able to communicate clearly, effectively, and directly.
- Strong desire and willingness to work with other staff and core contractors to strengthen and deepen the Academy’s organizational culture and what it means to work in an organization with a flatter than usual hierarchy.
Remote Position Information
In the wake of the pandemic, the Academy is still operating under a work-from-home mode. For this position, the Academy is open to hiring a remote employee. The employee will be required to travel to Santa Fe at least quarterly for capacity building and connecting with fellow employees at their campus. The candidate understands that the Academy may alter work-from-home conditions to either a hybrid mode or work-from-office mode.
Benefits
Employment includes a generous benefits package subject to the terms of the Employee Manual.
Apply
Please submit a resume and cover letter by uploading your documents to the application form linked below. Email any questions to hanna@aloveoflearning.org.