Sierra Club Hiring for National Distributed Organizing Representative at Remote Full Time

Job Title: National Distributed Organizing Representative
Department: Program Department
Unit: Grassroots Power Building
Location: Flexible/Remote. This position requires an ability to travel (note that Sierra Club is currently in a multi-phased re-opening process).
Reports To: Distributed Organizing Manager
Overview of the Sierra Club/Context: At the Sierra Club, we believe in the power of togetherness. Together, we remain committed to the fight for a healthy climate built on a foundation of environmental, racial, economic, and gender justice – a future where all people benefit from a healthy, thriving planet and a direct connection to nature. As the climate crisis and deeply entrenched systemic racism all fuel inequity, we will continue to fight for a bold, transformational agenda that recognizes the interconnectedness between our planet, our humanity, and our democracy. By recognizing that our destinies are tied, we continue to name that all things are fundamentally connected, and the overlap between ecology, race, gender, and representative government will move to either advance our collective humanity or to oppress it. Organizers practice the Jemez Principles and center organizational Equity Values within the work.

Sierra Club is comprised of staff across the country and a network of local chapters that support our grassroots engagement. Grassroots engagement includes public education activities, issue based campaigns, administrative advocacy efforts, legislative lobbying and electoral politics. We are also proud to be a unionized employer – with two labor unions representing more than half of our employees.

Scope: This position is situated within Sierra Club’s work to build and support permanently organized, resilient and powerful communities and the organizing infrastructure to anchor a long term vision and strategy that stops the bad, builds the new and shifts power to communities. This position will work to build grassroots power, achieve concrete electoral and issue campaign victories as well as create permanent structural and cultural change in our country. One focus of this position will be recruiting, coaching and training volunteer leaders who in turn help recruit and train thousands of other volunteer leaders who make Sierra Club their permanent organizing home. Some programmatic activities may include organizing large scale phone, canvass, text and event organizing.

The National Distributed Organizing Representative will work with teammates and partners to build out the distributed organizing work internally and externally. The person in this role will dovetail distributed, digital, field and Chapter-based organizing strategies and will work on issue-based and electoral campaigns. They will build a distributed network of public support across the country and may focus on specific geographic locations and targets as needed and based on Sierra Club’s programmatic priorities.

Job activities include but are not limited to:

• Develops distributed organizing strategy. Works with volunteers to develop strategy that will build grassroots power through base and community building, leadership development, partnership building and achieving local victories while elevating community expertise.

• Coordinates distributed organizing tactics/activities and ensures the effective implementation of the organizing plan to train and coach volunteers, and other groups as appropriate. Coordinates connections and networks within and among regional communities, field organizers, Chapters and campaign representatives to bring their collective pressure to bear at the local, regional and federal levels. Creates organizing materials,develops understandable, inspiring and repeatable volunteer activities, develops systems to maintain daily trackers and progress toward goals.

• Believes in people power and the necessity of volunteer leadership. Recruiting, coaching and training volunteer leaders who in turn help recruit and train thousands of other volunteer leaders who make Sierra Club their permanent organizing home is essential. Therefore, this position will encourage volunteers to participate in existing Sierra Club Chapter, group and field programs and/or create local distributed groups of volunteers and/or develop a national network of distributed volunteers. This position and the volunteer leaders will build power at the community, state, and national level;identify and develop volunteers who will take work as part of a team and take on the role of team leaders to build grassroots power and networks. Help leaders succeed by training and coaching them how to strategize, organize, inspire and develop networks of networks.

• Serves as an internal and external resource on Distributed Organizing, coaching organizers and liaising with regional coalitions, at regional events and to the general public while developing volunteer leaders to do the same. Maintains and develops new partnerships with other organizations that are using distributed and decentralized organizing models. Actively participates in the further development of Sierra Club’s distributed organizing framework, strategies, programmatic activities and team building.

• Works to build just, respectful relationships within the organization and with external individuals and entities around our collective work. Practices the Jemez Principles and creates inclusive, equitable spaces and relationships; centers equity, justice and inclusion throughout the organizing work. Supports a community of care with colleagues and collaborators and recognizes the need for self care, healing and self transformation in order to sustain ourselves and our work.

The successful candidate must have the following skills and experience:

• Experience in distributed organizing – engaging volunteers, supporting leadership development, creating “networks of networks” and building strong partnerships that grow and deploy power to change policies, structures and cultures. Ability to leverage and dovetail organizing strategies at the distributed, digital, chapter, field and place based levels in service of power building for our communities and achieving concrete campaign wins that improve people’s lives. Willingness to support on the ground leadership.
• Experience with the integration of online and on the ground organizing and bringing the collective power of online and on the ground organizing to community, regional and federal work through a variety of tactics and actions.
• Equity analysis and practice. Awareness of your group identities and how they have shaped both life and experiences at work. Have an analysis of how racism and other forms of oppression in society impact relationships, systems and cultures. Bring experience and skills for working effectively with colleagues across group identities and position/role.
• Understanding of the legislative and/or administrative policy-making process and politics and/or electoral campaign experience. Desire and interest to connect change making at the federal, regional, state and local levels.
• Intersectional understanding and analysis of issue based organizing and campaigning. (For example, intersectional connections between environmental, climate, and social justice issues and how they relate to each other.) Understands how power, privilege, and oppression manifest at the individual, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural levels.
• Demonstrated emotional intelligence and ability to be values and results-driven while participating in and supporting teamwork with a flexible approach in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong collaboration, effective team work and ability to project manage within a complex and layered “matrix team” environment. Experience working within a team where there is mutual accountability for shared objectives.

Nice-to-have skills and experience – The strongest candidates will also demonstrate the following experience, skills and competencies:

• Coaching and training experience, both online and in person.
• Knowledge and experience in movement building.
• Quantitative and qualitative data experience to inform and evaluate organizing and power building work (base building, leadership development, partnerships) with a focus on learning and innovation. Comfort with current movement technology tools determined by the organizing department.
• Comfort using a variety of in person and online/virtual tools and venues for volunteer outreach and engagement.
• Ability to navigate change and complexity with flexibility, compassion and a sense of humor.

Seasonal Activities:
Heavier seasonal workloads may occur as a result of project deadlines, staff absences and vacancies, and during peak activity periods. Travel as well as weekend and/or evening work required. Travel expectation is to be determined and the Sierra Club is currently in the midst of a multi-phased COVID-19 reopening plan. These should be balanced using compensatory time as needed to slow down.
Compensation and Benefits
This position is represented by a collective bargaining unit and is subject to the terms and conditions of the contract between Sierra Club and Progressive Workers Union or Sierra Employee Alliance.

The salary for this position is $65,500 if Salary Region 1 (e.g.; Washington, DC, or Oakland, CA).

The Sierra Club offers a competitive salary package commensurate with skills and experience plus excellent benefits that include medical, dental, and vision coverage, and a retirement savings 401(k) plan.

This is a category 4 exempt, represented position.

Sierra Club values the expertise and talents of foreign nationals. Sierra Club sponsors both nonimmigrant and immigrant visas when certain criteria are met, based on immigration laws and organizational needs. Such sponsorship is at the discretion of the Department Head and Sierra Club Human Resources in consultation with the employee’s manager. The Sierra Club cannot guarantee the approval of a visa petition. The Sierra Club is an equal opportunity employer committed to workforce diversity.

Explore, enjoy and protect the planet.
To Apply
This position does not have an undergraduate education requirement. If you choose to include your education history, please remove your schools from your resume. You may leave your degree (e.g., “B.A. Philosophy”), but please remove any undergraduate and graduate school names.

This process is aimed at opening this opportunity to more candidates, reviewing applicants on performance assessments and mitigating bias in the decision making process.

Lastly, we are intentionally not asking for a cover letter, so please do not send one in with your application.

We anticipate accepting applications until late fall. We anticipate hiring 3 organizers from this applicant pool.

Job Type: Full-time

Work Location: Multiple Locations