Communications Manager en UNCF

Job Title: Communications Manager  

Department: Branding, Marketing, and Communications  

Reports To: Senior Vice President, Strategic Communications 

FLSA Status: Exempt 

Band: C2 – Location 2  

JOB DESCRIPTION  

This individual will work within the Branding, Marketing and Communications department and directly with local UNCF office staff, special events teams and others managing major conferences to raise awareness and facilitate the media/communications needs of UNCF staff conducting fundraising and educational conference events.     

ABOUT UNCF  

The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) has been an engine of educational achievement for more than 80 years. UNCF’s mission is to build a robust and nationally recognized pipeline of HBCU students who, because of UNCF support, become highly qualified college graduates. In addition, UNCF ensures that its member institutions remain respected models of best practices in moving students to and through college. Since its inception in 1944, UNCF has raised over $6 billion in private support, distributed scholarships to help students attend school, and enabled more than 500,000 scholars and low-income students to graduate from UNCF’s member historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and launch professional careers. UNCF is committed to closing the educational attainment gap by increasing postsecondary access and success for student groups, particularly low-income and first-generation students. 

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES:  

• Coordinate media outreach efforts and provide media outreach support to local offices and internal departments and teams. 
• Prepare event briefing documents. 
• Pitch stories for earned media and facilitating media interviews. 
• Work with internal research team to provide specific fact sheets to support local office event needs.
• Conduct other research as needed.

• Develop and implement local market strategies. 
• Amplify the work of the local offices around events. 
• Draft and distribute media advisories, press releases and post releases. 
• Develop key messaging and toolkits for local offices. 
• Develop relationships with national, regional and local media. 
• Staff UNCF events as needed. 
• Prepare and assemble press kits. 
• Develop content for email, website, social media, newsletters, digital marketing campaigns, presentations. 
• Monitor traditional and social media coverage around local markets using Meltwater software. 
• Report on media coverage related to events. 
• Contact member college development points of contact on a regular basis to request and create content articles to support updates of member college-oriented pages, the UNCF annual report, and newsletters using Associated Press and UNCF in-house style guides.
• Support daily and project web content creation, publishing and editing; and special projects as they arise.
• Edit photos using Adobe Photoshop.
• Monitor and be primary person to complete content submissions as sent through Gathercontent.com.
• Create, update and maintain Web pages in content management system (WordPress).
• Support solicited input from departments and offices weekly to ensure on-going information creation and content is maintained. 
• Edit and post website content upon approval.
• Complete special assignments regarding content organization, updating, modifications or other projects as assigned.
• Monitor content on live site and escalate when needed.
• Ensure that produced content complies with all brand and Web style guidelines.
• Manage image library submissions, ensuring images are up to date, sorted, sized per need, and correctly tagged.
• Track through multiple projects and provide weekly updates or as needed to UNCF BMC team.
• Manage process for content reviews and audits with constituents and web support team; ensure all pages are reviewed on schedule.
• Other duties as needed. 

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES 

This job has no supervisory responsibilities.    

QUALIFICATIONS:  

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE  

Bachelor’s degree required; master's degree preferred and with a minimum of 5 -7 years of experience working in the fields of traditional media, communications, journalism, public relations and/or social media. S/he must be comfortable dealing with changing project requirements and shifting deadlines. He/she should have an interest in HBCUs or higher education, with passionate ideas about how to develop great content for related fundraising efforts and conferences 

OTHER SKILLS AND ABILITIES   

• Strong writing and editing skills. 
• Familiarity with AP Style Guide and using in-house style guides to write copy. 
• Organized, attentive to details and able to multi-task/manage time effectively. 
• Strong oral and written storytelling skills. 
• Strategic thinking skills, with the ability to be flexible and adaptable. 
• Ability to manage and execute complex or specialized projects or processes. 
• Previous experience as an events manager or communications manager for a similar organization.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION  

Benefits include: 

Medical, Dental & Vision 

Vacation, Sick & Personal Leave  

Life Insurance (Basic & Optional) 

Flex Spending Accounts 

403(b) Retirement Account 

Holiday Savings Plan 

Annual Success Sharing  

Salary Range: $76,700.00 To $80,000.00 per year (Salary is commensurate with experience.) This is a hybrid role: 4 days on-site and 1-day remote per week, located in UNCF’s Washington DC Headquarters building.  

Background checks required. 

UNCF is EOE M/F/D/V