Ballotpedia seeks a 100% remote, full-time Volunteer and Editorial Program Manager to join its Editorial Department.
Reporting to the Editor-in-Chief, and collaborating with staff within the department and across the organization, you will coordinate and manage the regular operations of Ballotpedia’s growing volunteer program, including its community researchers and volunteer fellowship programs, which are integral to our mission to providing accurate and unbiased information on American politics and elections to voters across the country. In this role you will oversee volunteer recruitment, training/orientation, volunteer task delegation and supervision, and metrics reporting on the programs’ progress and success.
This role will also provide administrative and logistical support to the Editorial Department through coordination of various department-wide projects, including audits, metrics tracking, and the development and distribution of routine reports.
Environment
The Editorial and Volunteer Program Manager will work remotely from their home location. All Ballotpedia staff work remotely. To join Ballotpedia, you must have a computer with internet access. Ballotpedia uses Google Suite (Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive, and more), Slack, and Asana to accomplish our goals. Working familiarity and/or experience with these or similar platforms is highly desirable.
Ballotpedia has a flexible work environment, BP Flex, in which every employee enjoys unlimited vacation and flexibility in scheduling. Each employee will be oriented to the principles of Ballotpedia’s flexible environment during new employee training.
As a Volunteer and Editorial Program Manager you will:
Volunteer & Fellowship Programs Management (60% of the time)
- Maintain and grow Ballotpedia’s volunteer base through outreach to individuals, organizations and groups, colleges/universities, and other entities, as needed
- Work closely with the Editor-in-Chief to periodically assess needs for volunteer expertise and level of volunteer staffing
- Develop, maintain and optimize processes to review applications, vet, and interview potential volunteers
- Regularly assess interests/skills of volunteers and match with appropriate activities
- Manage comprehensive orientation process for new volunteers that includes distributing information about volunteering at Ballotpedia (internal documentation and website) and criteria for involvement, as well as updating training documentation and manuals
- Ensure that volunteer positions are sufficiently filled to meet the program’s needs and volunteers enjoy a positive experience
- Maintain database of current and prospective volunteers
- Provide accurate and timely volunteer program-related data for requested internal and external reports
- Engage with existing volunteers on a regular basis providing feedback and additional guidance as needed
- Maintain ongoing communications with volunteers through email newsletters
- Collaborate cross-functionally with staff within the department and across the organization to build and execute project plans to ensure the programs run smoothly and meet the needs of Ballotpedia
- Work closely with the Communications Department to promote the programs
Department Administrative Support (40% of the time)
- Provide logistical, administrative support for the Editorial Department as directed by the Editor-in-Chief including coordination of various department-wide projects, schedules (including on-calls schedules) and audits
- Regularly collect, update and aggregate information related to key department metrics across various tracking mechanisms, including Google Sheets and dashboards
- Develop and distribute routine reports
- Other duties as assigned by the Editor-in-Chief
An ideal Volunteer and Editorial Program Manager will have:
- A demonstrated passion for Ballotpedia’s mission
- A minimum of two years prior experience managing volunteers or a volunteer program, or related programmatic work, for a small to mid-size organization (remote work experience a plus)
- Superb organizational skills, a keen eye for detail, and discretion. They enjoy organizing their own lives and the world around them. They maintain orderly habits and perceive external disorder as an opportunity to innovate and improve
- Excellent verbal and written communication and customer service skills, with ability to obtain the needed results with poise, class, tact, and efficiency in getting what is needed to get the job done
- Strong project management skills, with ability to multitask, set priorities, and follow-through
- A desire to work collaboratively with Ballotpedia staff from within the department and across the organization and contribute to a positive and open team environment
- The ability to learn quickly and adjust to changes easily. They thrive in a world of constant iteration and feed into the cycle instead of slowing it down
- The ability to move among different project types and topic areas, often on the same day—from crunching numbers in a spreadsheet to communicating with external contacts or helping coworkers unexpectedly
- Ability to gather, analyze, and make recommendations/decisions based on data
- Experience managing and updating complex spreadsheets or working with databases is a plus
- Familiarity with Google Apps and a variety of tracking platforms is a plus (such as Google Analytics, etc…)
The starting pay range for the Editorial and Volunteer Program Manager is $55,000-$62,500 and will be commensurate with experience.
In addition to salary, Ballotpedia offers performance bonuses and a $8,000 annual benefits stipend, which can be used to pay for a full benefits package, including health, vision, and dental insurance; retirement accounts; and more. If benefits are not elected, the $8,000 stipend is treated as regular income and added to salary.
To apply, visit the job opportunity page, click on ‘Apply for this job’ and fill out the form: https://apply.workable.com/ballotpedia/j/4D000FB2FA/
Please attach the following in PDF format:
- Résumé
- Cover letter detailing your interest in Ballotpedia’s mission and this position
Please ensure that either your résumé or cover letter includes your current address. Applications without addresses will not be accepted.
Please note that if you are hired for this position, Ballotpedia participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, Ballotpedia is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9. For more information on E-Verify, or if you believe that your employer has violated its E-Verify responsibilities, please contact DHS.
About Ballotpedia
Ballotpedia is a collaborative team of fast learners and creative problem solvers who are eager to work hard to make the world a better place. We believe the world will be a better place if every citizen has access to information to make informed decisions about their vote in every election in which they are eligible to vote: primary, general, and special elections; federal, state, and local offices.
We work diligently to present the available information about elections, candidates, judges, ballot measures, policies, and more in a way that enables our readers to vote with confidence and to act as engaged citizens outside of the polling booth.
Ballotpedia readers, like Ballotpedia staff, are special people.
When we launched in 2007, we did not go out of our way to seek new readers. Starting with our small team of visionary idealists, nerds, and aspiring political journalists, we just wrote the best unbiased online articles we could, especially about ballot measures. Readers found those articles in droves. It turns out there was an unclaimed audience out there—people who wanted straightforward facts about political issues, and were willing to read at length instead of just scanning the headlines.
“If you build it, they will come:'' our readers came to our neutral oasis in growing numbers; we’ve had many millions of lifetime pageviews, we reached nearly half of all voters in 2020, and, in the month surrounding the November 2020 election, we were the 77th most-visited website in the U.S.
We’ve come to realize that we need to meet our readers where they are. In doing so, over the past five years, we’ve grown our email newsletter program from infancy to include more than 3,000,000 opt-in subscribers with more than a dozen newsletters to choose from. We are working in numerous ways to help put our neutral information in front of people at the times when they most need it, including on mobile phones while you’re standing in the voting booth. We firmly believe that our readers, and the mindset we help them cultivate, are essential in a world where too many others are fighting to get us all addicted to sensational posts and the irrational decisions they foster.
If this is a mission you’d be willing to work hard to achieve, and if this is a team you’d be willing to work hard with—JOIN US.