The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation of Florida seeks a Senior Program Manager. The Senior Program Manager reports to the Deputy Field Director and works within the Field Department to achieve the organization’s goal of protecting the liberties that define our democracy. This position is based in Florida.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida is an affiliate of the national ACLU, a national public interest organization devoted to the defense of the Bill of Rights. For over 100 years, the ACLU has served as the nation’s primary protector of the liberties that define our democracy. The organization implements its vital civil liberties mission in all 50 states in large part through affiliate entities such as the ACLU of Florida. Operating out of six offices—Miami (main), Tampa, Pensacola, Orlando, Tallahassee, and Jacksonville— the Florida affiliate has a budget of over $8 million and 55 staff members, placing it among the larger ACLU affiliates in the nation.
The ACLU of Florida, the state’s largest civil rights and civil liberties organization, employs litigation, public policy advocacy & organizing, and public education to protect and promote a broad range of constitutional values and individual rights, such as freedom of speech, racial justice, right to privacy, religious liberty, criminal justice reform, voting rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, disability rights, and immigrants’ rights. The ACLU of Florida litigates a broad range of complex constitutional cases in federal and state courts through direct representation, filing amicus briefs, and submitting administrative complaints to state and federal agencies.
ORGANIZING APPROACH
The ACLU of Florida has adopted a “campaign” approach for its work. Work is focused on pursuing specific integrated advocacy campaigns to achieve measurable goals that will expand civil liberties and civil rights, while building the long-term power of the ACLU and the civil liberties movement.
For the foreseeable future, the ACLU of Florida will focus on three campaigns: voting rights, criminal justice reform, and immigrants’ rights. The campaigns in which the organization engages are about integrated advocacy, and include lobbying, communications, and litigation in addition to grassroots organizing.
As a result of this campaign approach, the ACLU of Florida’s organizing model focuses on developing volunteer leaders for the civil liberties movement, mobilizing grassroots support for campaign objectives, and educating Florida residents about campaign objectives through person-to-person field contact. The ACLU of Florida organizing is intended to engage both existing ACLU members/supporters/volunteers in the movement, as well as to reach new constituencies. Organizing at the ACLU of Florida centers the experiences and leadership of directly impacted people and engages directly impacted people in the work, while also ensuring that non-impacted allies engage in effective and substantive action.
The Field team works with Florida residents to influence decision-makers, via direct contact of decision- makers by residents and by holding events/actions. The Field Department focuses on identifying and supporting volunteer leaders willing to work to mobilize contacts with their own networks, to expand the
size, reach, and power of the movement. The Field Department works with the ACLU of Florida’s chapter network, collaborating with chapter leaders and members to advance campaign objectives and build power in the 12 Florida communities that have chapters.
Organizing at the ACLU of Florida is intended to complement the approaches used by some other groups— especially those that connect individuals to resources, build community/social capital, primarily react to unanticipated or emerging community concerns, or educate the public about important issues—but not to replicate those approaches. Organizing at the ACLU of Florida is instead oriented towards systemic change and policy action—moving people to take strategic actions that lead to decision-makers making different decisions, ones that result in the advancement of specific campaign objectives. These strategic actions can take place in the electoral, legislative, legal, and community education contexts. Organizing at the ACLU of Florida is also designed to build long-term political and community power for the civil liberties movement, so that civil liberties and civil rights are better protected and strengthened.
POSITION OVERVIEW
The Senior Program Manager is a staff position within the Affiliate’s Field Department. The position reports to the Deputy Field Director and is responsible for the overall design, implementation, and evaluation of programs that build and sustain the ACLU-FL base through leadership development, skills-building, and community engagement.
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES
● Setting goals based on evolving organizational needs and designing new programs to achieve those goals.
● Managing implementation and evaluation of established, new or evolving programs that engage ACLU-FL supporters.
● Supervision and development of three staff members;
● Collaborating with ACLU-FL colleagues, other affiliate colleagues, and/or National colleagues to synchronize and evaluate programs and identify best practices.
● Supporting overall department management and leadership, in partnership with the Field Director and Deputy Field Director.
● Manage the ACLU-FL Statewide Fellows/Internship Program
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
While no one person will have all the qualities enumerated below, the successful candidate will bring many of the following qualifications and attributes:
● 2-5 years of professional organizing, policy advocacy, legislative, or campaign experience.
● 3+ years supervision and management experience
● Deep understanding and enthusiasm for volunteer leadership development through program design, group trainings, individual development and relationship building.
● Extensive knowledge of different organizing models, differences between organizing and mobilization, and the ability to adapt standard organizing and mobilization approaches to the unique needs of the ACLUFL in leading base building efforts.
● Enthusiasm for collaboration and ability to negotiate effective partnerships to accomplish ACLU- FL goals.
● Ability to identify a volunteer’s potential for growth and leadership and provide the support needed to build the volunteer’s engagement and leadership through group trainings and individual 1-on-1s while addressing challenges to help volunteers stay in alignment with our values, including managing out problematic volunteers.
● Demonstrated experience in large scale event management and being efficient and attentive to details when managing meetings, events and trainings of all sizes and complexity.
● Ability to plan and implement activist or volunteer opportunities such as community meetings, phone banks, and other events from start to finish including developing and keeping to a timeline, creating materials, recruiting, and training volunteers, managing or delegating logistics, and following up with participants.
● Strong writing and analytical skills with the ability to conceptualize and finalize high-quality activist materials, toolkits, trainings, and presentations.
● Strong public speaking and facilitation skills, especially when working with people from mixed backgrounds or knowledge bases and being comfortable in implementing standard equity and inclusion practices.
● Familiarity with and comfort talking about a wide range of civil liberties and civil rights issues on behalf of the organization and in a variety of settings.
● Past success developing and implementing organizing campaigns to advance state and/or federal legislation and local policy change.
● Extremely strong project and time management skills, including developing and adhering to timelines and deadlines, tracking progress on goals, and managing and prioritizing competing projects for individual work, for supervised staff, and for lateral colleagues.
● Disciplined in completing routine, daily administrative functions and keeping track of details, or delegating these tasks effectively, including tracking volunteers in databases, scheduling meetings with many participants, sending reminder emails to volunteer program participants, and other administrative tasks.
● Skilled at giving meaningful feedback to direct reports and identifying opportunities for their further development.
● Ability to supervise people with supervision responsibilities, coaching them on giving feedback, fostering an equitable environment, navigating challenging relationships, executing project planning, and developing growth plans
● Ability to work collaboratively with a variety of organizational stakeholders and resolve conflicts, including staff, volunteer, and complex partnerships or coalitions, and when working with people from different backgrounds and life experiences.
● Ability to think proactively, anticipate problems, analyze situations, develop, and implement effective solutions and take initiative.
● Adaptability and capacity to change course quickly when required, propose new ideas or solutions, or temporarily take on added work as needed.
● Comfort with high levels of ambiguity, especially when developing new programs or trying new things.
● Ability to cope and respond strategically when dealing with stressful situations, including in supervision, working with Deputy Field Director to propose solutions to address problematic volunteers, supporting staff in navigating challenges with other staff or volunteers, or challenges with partner organizations.
● Excellent judgment, especially when dealing with sensitive situations or information, including legal and personnel matters.
● Available for weekend and evening responsibilities.
● Available for travel throughout the State of Florida.
● Valid driver’s license and ability to drive throughout the 67 counties in Florida.
Compensation will be commensurate with experience, within the range of $45,000 - $60,000.
The ACLU of Florida provides excellent benefits, including health and dental insurance with generous vacation, holiday, and sick leave policies, as well as a Defined Contribution 401K Retirement Plan. Base vacation leave is five weeks per year (and six weeks per year after five years).
Please send cover letter, resume, by email to [email protected]. All inquiries should include Senior Program Manager in the subject line and all attachments should be in Microsoft Word or PDF format.
Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Please indicate where you learned from this job posting. No phone calls, please.
This job description provides a general but not comprehensive list of the essential responsibilities and qualifications required. It does not represent a contract of employment. The ACLU of Florida reserves the right to change the job description and/or posting at any time without advance notice.
The ACLU of Florida is an equal opportunity employer. We value a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. The ACLU of Florida encourages applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, or veteran status. We encourage formerly incarcerated individuals to apply.
At the ACLU of Florida, we value diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion and embrace the uniqueness of everyone. We seek to create a place of belonging where candidates of diverse backgrounds will be included, represented, and heard.
The ACLU of Florida makes every effort to assure that its recruitment and employment efforts provide persons with disabilities with full opportunities for employment in all positions.
The ACLU of Florida undertakes affirmative action strategies in its recruitment and employment efforts to assure that persons with disabilities have full opportunities for employment in all positions. If selected for an interview, please inquire if financial assistance is needed to attend.