The ACLU and ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties (ACLU) seek a full-time, sophisticated, dynamic team-player to join its defense of civil rights and civil liberties as Senior Organizer.
Founded in 1933, the San Diego ACLU is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization, which promotes and protects individual rights and fundamental freedoms, including First Amendment rights, Equal Protection, Privacy, and Due Process, through education, litigation, and policy advocacy.
Located in San Diego, the ACLU affiliate covers the length of California’s border with Mexico. It has twenty-three staff members, twenty board members, 9,000 members, and an annual budget of $3 million. San Diego is the eighth largest city in the United States and second largest in California. San Diego County has the third largest number of registered voters in California. Imperial County is the poorest county in California.
The San Diego ACLU works collaboratively with the ACLU affiliates headquartered in Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as a lobbying office in Sacramento. Together, the three affiliates have more than 110,000 members and 120 staff people in California.
Position Overview and Functions
The Senior Organizer oversees the organization’s efforts to organize and mobilize ACLU and community members, as well as to empower disadvantaged communities to protect civil liberties. This includes:
- Overseeing the work of three community organizers working on criminal justice reform, immigrant rights, and youth leadership development and providing thoughtful, strategic direction.
- Directing the organization’s organizing efforts and working collaboratively on issue and initiative campaigns.
- Developing community leaders and activists to lead organizing, issue, and initiative campaigns.
- Supporting communities organizing to build power to defend civil liberties and civil rights.
- Mobilizing ACLU and community activists to pressure public officials to protect civil rights and civil liberties.
The Senior Organizer’s work style will foster teamwork among legal, policy, communications, organizing, and development staff, as well as work effectively with ACLU staff in other offices.
Other specific duties and responsibilities include:
- Organize education and advocacy events that grow the organization’s strategic relationships, such as “know your rights” presentations, community forums, public hearings, rallies and trainings.
- Forge and strengthen collaborative efforts with student groups, communities of color, immigrant and refugee communities, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities, and the disability community.
- Integrate technology as a tool to advance the organization’s program goals.
- Represent the organization in the media and at public events.
- Work evenings and weekends and travel when necessary.
- Other duties as assigned.
Qualifications:
- Commitment to civil liberties.
- Bachelors degree required.
- At least five years in nonprofit or community-based groups, working on legislative, issue-based, and/or civic engagement campaigns.
- Demonstrated leadership in supervising, challenging, motivating, and evaluating organizers or other staff.
- Demonstrated leadership in designing and managing issue or civic engagement campaigns, including organizing and motivating allies, volunteers, and activists and working cooperatively with diverse groups.
- Excellent writing, speaking, and analytic skills; the ability to analyze and articulate complex issues and to communicate them to a variety of audiences.
- Experience with online organizing, communication and activism technology.
- Ability to manage several projects and staff members simultaneously and to adjust to changing demands; excellent attention to detail.
- A commitment to diversity; a personal approach that values the individual and respects differences of race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, and socio-economic circumstance.
- Familiarity with and/or expertise in a broad range of civil liberties issues preferred.
- Ability to speak Spanish strongly preferred.
Compensation: Salary is commensurate with experience and qualifications. Excellent benefits.
Application procedure: Applicants should submit by April 4, 2014, a resume, cover letter describing the applicant’s specific interest in and qualifications for working for the ACLU, and list of references, preferably by email, to jobs[at]aclusandiego.org or by mail to:
ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties
ATTN: Senior Organizer
PO Box 87131
San Diego, CA 92138-7131
The ACLU is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and encourages applications from women, people of color, persons with disabilities, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, and veterans.
