Strategic Communications Manager

GiveWell; United States; Remote; USD 143,000 - 159,000; Full time

Job summary

GiveWell seeks two Strategic Communications Managers to join their communications team. This hands-on role involves shaping communications strategy, engaging media, and enhancing messaging to ensure clarity and impact in how the organization conveys its mission and findings. Candidates should have substantial experience in strategic communications, media relations, and the ability to adapt to an evolving environment while delivering high-quality content.

Benefits

Flexibility in working hours

Fully funded health, dental, vision, and life insurance

Four weeks of paid time off

16 weeks of fully paid parental leave

Qualifications

• 6-10 years in strategic communications roles.
• Proven ability to generate media coverage.
• Exceptional writing and editing skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop messaging for high-value initiatives.
• Lead planning and execution for communications efforts.
• Generate media coverage and cultivate relationships with journalists.

Skills

Strategic Messaging

Media Relations

Digital Engagement

Job description

GiveWell is a research organization that identifies and funds cost-effective giving opportunities, focusing on global health and well-being. Our work is funded by tens of thousands of donors who rely on our research to inform their giving. We’ve grown from raising $1.5 million annually in 2010 to raising ~$350 million in 2024.

The Role

We’re hiring up to two Strategic Communications Managers to help build the foundation of GiveWell’s growing communications team. In this hands-on role, you’ll work alongside our Head of Communications to shape how the world understands GiveWell’s work—increasing awareness, deepening understanding of our research, and driving support for the programs we recommend for their outstanding ability to save and improve lives.

You’ll craft clear, compelling content and ensure our communications are timely, consistent, and high-quality. You’ll also strengthen the tools, workflows, and shared messaging that enable responsive, strategic communications across the organization. And as the communications landscape evolves, this role will help explore how new tools—including AI—can support clarity, efficiency, and impact across our work. You’ll have the opportunity to grow alongside GiveWell’s communications team—taking on more scope and responsibility as our reach expands.

We’re looking for candidates with excellent track records of delivering high-quality communications in complex, mission-driven organizations. This senior individual contributor role is for highly adaptable communicators who bring sharp judgment, a balance of broad versatility and deep expertise, and who thrive in collaborative, creative, execution-focused environments.

Working closely with the Head of Communications, you will drive progress across the following key areas:

Messaging & Strategic Communications

• Develop messaging for high-value initiatives, grants, and other public-facing materials that reflect GiveWell’s voice and values
• Tailor communications for diverse audiences—including donors, journalists, grantees, and internal stakeholders
• Collaborate with research, fundraising, and operations teams to align messaging with strategic goals
• Apply strategic messaging to craft high-impact content for donors, the public, and internal teams — including web content, presentations, and guidance materials
• Create and maintain strategic messaging documentation and frameworks
• Act as a trusted advisor to internal teams on message development and alignment
• Ensure consistent application of brand voice and standards across content and channels

Media Relations & Public Engagement

• Generate high-profile media coverage and lead responses to inbound media requests
• Craft compelling pitches, talking points, and public communications that make our work accessible and resonant
• Cultivate relationships with journalists, podcast hosts, and grantee communications leads to increase the frequency and prominence of earned media coverage
• Collaborate with leadership and internal experts to prepare for media interviews and speaking engagements
• Manage GiveWell’s presence on public channels—including social media and online forums—in collaboration with team members
• Proactively raise our public profile through podcast bookings, event participation, and other strategic outreach
• Track and evaluate media engagement to inform future strategy

General Communications Management

• Lead planning and execution for ongoing communications efforts, ensuring timely delivery and excellence in output
• Collaborate with teammates and staff across GiveWell to produce cohesive, on-brand, high-quality communications, offering both editorial input and strategic guidance
• Support the strategy and execution of GiveWell’s digital presence—including developing and managing web content and collaborating with design or technical teams
• Explore and evaluate the use of new tools—including AI—to improve communications workflows, content quality, and team capacity
• Use strong judgment to prioritize and shape communications that advance GiveWell’s goals
• Analyze communications performance and audience insights to inform decision-making and drive improvement
• Improve and maintain communications processes and infrastructure, including calendars, asset systems, and review workflows
• Oversee development of design, multimedia, and digital content; manage contractors and freelancers as needed
• Identify opportunities to enhance our communications approach and contribute to long-term team and strategy development

About You

You are a strategic, collaborative communicator who thrives at the intersection of big-picture thinking and practical execution. You’re energized by crafting compelling narratives, clarifying complex ideas, and helping teams communicate more clearly and effectively. You care deeply about doing good in the world—and doing it well.

You bring a versatile skillset and a strategic mindset, enabling you to deliver on both high-level strategies and day-to-day execution across a wide range of communications responsibilities. You pair this breadth with deep expertise in at least one of this role’s core areas—strategic messaging, media relations, and digital engagement.

You’re also attuned to how the communications landscape is evolving. You’re curious about the role tools like AI might play in shaping our workflows, amplifying our efforts, or challenging our assumptions—and you’re excited to explore how to make the most of these changes in service of GiveWell’s mission.

You’re precise and thoughtful, hold a high bar for excellence, thrive in fast-paced and complex roles, and are excited to contribute to a growing team that works hard to help donors save and improve lives the most they can.

Strong candidates will possess:

• Significant experience (typically 6-10 years) in strategic communications roles, ideally in research-driven, philanthropic, nonprofit, or policy-focused organizations
• A broad, adaptable communications skillset complemented by deep expertise in at least one of this role’s core areas—strategic messaging, media relations, and digital engagement
• Exceptional writing and editing skills, with a strong track record of translating complex ideas into clear, compelling messaging and content across a variety of formats and audiences
• Experience leading media relations and external engagement, including proactive outreach, media relationship management, and public-facing communications through channels such as podcasts, social media, and online forums
• Strong grasp of brand and voice standards, with experience applying them across content types and enabling others to do the same through documentation, editing, or collaboration
• Experience with digital content development—including creating and managing web content, collaborating with design or technical teams, and shaping social media strategy
• Proven ability to collaborate across teams, especially with research, fundraising, and program staff, to align messaging and support shared communications goals
• Demonstrated project and content management skills, with a strong sense of ownership and the ability to coordinate reviews, manage timelines, and ensure consistent, high-quality output
• Strategic sensibility paired with executional strength—you can zoom out to understand goals and priorities, then zoom in to deliver crisp, effective execution
• Informed interest in how tools like AI may shape communications workflows, and enthusiasm for contributing to how a small, high-performing team explores, adapts, and adopts them to enhance quality, effectiveness, and capacity
• Curiosity, humility, and alignment with GiveWell’s mission, values, and evidence-based approach to global health and development

While the ideal candidate will bring all of the above, we recognize that no one is “perfect.” If you meet most of the qualifications and are on the fence about applying, we strongly encourage you to apply.

Key Questions

What does the current team look like?

While GiveWell has been communicating about our research and the best giving opportunities we find since 2007, our communications team is new. Our Head of Communications joined us earlier this year, and our two Communications Specialists moved from other teams to communications last year.

What are some of the reasons I might not like this role?

• While we’re looking for expertise in at least one of the areas cited above, this is a hands-on role with broad scope. You’ll lead projects that support our overall strategy, but you’ll also write, edit, plan, pitch, and step up wherever needed.
• Our style is clear, careful, and restrained. We prioritize clarity, accuracy, and honesty. If you prefer bold or emotive brand voices, ours may feel limiting.
• It’s highly collaborative. You’ll work closely with many teams and engage in iterative review processes. Desire to give and receive thoughtful feedback is essential.
• The work is complex and high-context. You’ll need to understand nuanced research, global health, and effective giving—and make careful judgments. Intellectual curiosity is key.
• You’ll need to be comfortable with ambiguity and evolving priorities and approaches. We’re a new team that's still building our strategies and systems, and we're committed to continually exploring new technologies and other better ways to do our work. Flexibility, initiative, and a mindset geared toward adaptation and innovation are essential.

What is the hiring process like?

We’re glad you’re interested in this role! Here’s what you can expect moving forward:

• Application with short-answer questions
• 30-minute interview with the People team
• 30-minute interview with the Head of Communications
• Work trial (up to 5 hours and compensated at a salary-equivalent rate)
• 90-minute interview with the Head of Communications
• 75-minute values-based interview with the People team
• Reference checks
• Offer

Details

• Team: You'll report to the Head of Communications
• Compensation:
• NYC or the San Francisco Bay Area: $158,400
• All other U.S. locations: $143,600
• Location: This position is eligible to work fully remotely within the U.S. We're not planning to consider applications from international candidates unless they're willing to permanently relocate to the U.S. for this position.
• Offices: You are welcome but not required to work from our offices in Oakland, California or Brooklyn, NYC. We'll cover relocation expenses for candidates who wish to move to our physical office locations.
• Flexibility: We support and encourage flexible working, including flexible hours, working remotely, and working from the office when you choose. The majority of our staff, including senior management, work flexibly in one way or another.
• Visa Sponsorship: If you want to work in the United States and need a work visa, we’ll do our best to sponsor it (and also cover up to 100% of relocation expenses on a case-by-case basis). Please note that government entities ultimately dictate our ability to sponsor visas.
• Fully funded health, dental, vision, and life insurance (we cover 100% of premiums within the US for you and any dependents)
• Four weeks of paid time off per year, in addition to a one-week summer closure
• 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave
• Ergonomic home workstations or coworking space memberships
• Travel: Communications managers are expected to attend four ~weeklong retreats each year to bond with other team members and complete in-person work. Additional travel may be required, or available for those interested. We’ll discuss travel obligations in more detail during late stages of the hiring process, and we’ll give reasonable consideration to staff who have family or other obligations.
• Start date: We’d like a candidate to start as soon as possible after receiving an offer, but we’ll offer flexibility for candidates whose personal or professional circumstances require them to moderately delay their start date.

About GiveWell

GiveWell makes grants to support cost-effective programs that save and improve lives. We focus on global health and poverty alleviation in the lowest-income parts of the world because that is where we’ve found we can have the greatest impact.

Since 2007, we’ve directed over $2.4 billion to cost-effective programs and interventions. In the last two years, we’ve made more than $500 million in grants. GiveWell is one of the world’s largest private funders of global development efforts, and we estimate that the funding we’ve directed will save more than 270,000 lives .

• Sought to scope and scale promising interventions that don’t have clear existing implementers. We are supporting the Clinton Health Access Initiative’s Incubator and Evidence Action’s Accelerator to identify potentially cost-effective interventions and create programs that we would be excited to support in the future. For example, we recently funded a program to provide diarrhea treatment to children in Nigeria that we co-designed with CHAI through the Incubator program.

We never take for granted that GiveWell’s work is good for the world. We make our reasoning public and transparent so others can challenge it (sometimes we even pay people to point out our errors ). We go to unusual lengths to check our assumptions and assess our impact, including funding research and external analysis to address our uncertainties and insisting that our grantees conduct rigorous monitoring and evaluation. We change our minds when the evidence demands it.

Additional information

We don’t want to miss candidates that could do great things at GiveWell. Practically, that means a GiveWell staff member reads all components of every application carefully and considers the whole picture of your background and potential. If you’re on the fence about applying because you meet some but not 100% of our preferred qualifications (some studies suggest this hesitation is especially common for women and people of color), we encourage you to apply anyway.

GiveWell is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer by choice. At minimum, this means that we comply with all federal, state, and local EEO and employment laws. Beyond the requirements of those laws, we value our team’s diversity in all respects, and we desire to maintain a work environment free of harassment or discrimination—we want our team members to thrive at GiveWell. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, contact us at [e-mail] . We will consider employment for qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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