Communications Specialist

Victoria Foundation; Newark (NJ); On-site; USD 85,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Victoria Foundation in Newark, NJ, is seeking a Communications Specialist to help develop and implement an overarching strategic communications strategy that aligns with the Foundation’s new vision, mission, and values.

This role will support a broad range of internal and external communications activities, position the Foundation as an engaged partner in the Newark community, and work with nonprofits and residents while advocating for high‑priority policies.

Qualifications

• Develop and implement strategic communications plan aligned with new vision and values.
• Coordinate internal and external communications activities.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement a strategic communications strategy for the Foundation.
• Position the Foundation as an engaged Newark partner and advocate for priority policies.
• Support outreach to nonprofits and residents while aligning with the Foundation’s mission.

Skills

Strategic communications

Stakeholder engagement

Job description

Founded in 1924, Victoria Foundation is a private foundation based in Newark, New Jersey, with an endowment of $320 million. For the past 55 years, Victoria Foundation has focused most of its resources on children and families living in Newark, New Jersey, with grants totaling $300 million. The current grantmaking of about $11 million a year has been traditional in nature, with 160 grantees receiving annual grants to support operations and to provide a broad range of programs and services.

The Foundation is emerging from an intense time in its 99-year history. Throughout 2020 and the first half of 2021, trustees and staff engaged in a strategic planning journey to consider how the foundation might generate greater impact with its resources. The key question at the outset of this effort was: How might the Foundation address the root causes of generational poverty in Newark? Foundation trustees and staff grappled with the need to be more explicit about the central role structural racism has played as a root cause of persistent poverty. The strategic planning journey came to focus on the question: How should the Foundation approach place-based funding, given the long history of government-sanctioned racist policies and other forms of institutional racism that have shaped Newark as a highly segregated, majority Black and Brown, post-industrial city where 36% of children are living in poverty or extreme poverty?

Victoria trustees recently adopted the following mission:

Victoria Foundation partners with Black and Brown residents and other marginalized communities and nonprofit organizations in Newark to champion bold strategies that strengthen community power, foster economic justice, promote youth self-determination, and respond to pressing needs.

ABOUT THE POSITION

A newly-created position reporting to the Vice President - Strategy, Impact and Communications, the Communications Specialist will play a pivotal role in the next phase of the Foundation’s evolution, helping develop and implement an overarching strategic communications strategy that aligns with the Foundation’s new vision, mission, and values.

This new role will include support for a range of internal and external communications activities as well as activities that position the Foundation as an engaged partner in the Newark community, especially as it relates to the new framework, partnership with nonprofits and residents and becoming a more visible and vocal advocate for policies and issues of high priority to Newark community leaders. As needed, a communications consultant will be available to support the Communications Specialist and the staff as a whole in developing and advancing Victoria’s communications capacity.

Read the full description on our website: victoriafoundation.org/about-us/employment

COMPENSATION

$85,000-$90,000