Communications Specialist

School on Wheels is a nonprofit organization with hundreds of volunteers who give their time, talents, and support to the educational needs of unhoused children. School on Wheels aims to enhance educational opportunities for children — kindergarten through twelfth grade without a home. Our mission since 1993 has been to shrink educational gaps and provide students with the highest quality education possible.

Since 1993, we have

  • Provided mentoring and tutoring for more than 50,000 students.
  • Reached six counties in Southern California.
  • Partnered with 400+ sites, including shelters, school districts, and after-school programs.
  • Supplying approximately 5,000 students with school supplies yearly.

Position Overview

School on Wheels seeks a creative, enthusiastic, and self-motivated individual to join its team. This ideal candidate will play a key role in shaping and leading the execution of our comprehensive communications and development strategy. This role is essential to our mission of elevating visibility, attracting support from new donors and volunteers, and continuing to grow relationships and partnerships.

Working closely with The Chief Development and Marketing Officer, this role is instrumental in meticulously planning and executing impactful marketing and fundraising campaigns and events. Responsible for managing donation platforms, social media, email marketing communication, and content creation to drive consistent engagement to further our cause.

Major Responsibilities

As an excellent communicator with exemplary written and verbal communication skills, the ideal candidate will write, edit, and distribute content, including newsletters, press releases, website content, annual reports, presentations, and other marketing material that communicate School on Wheels’ mission and goals. The Communication Specialist will be responsible for helping design, plan, and host fundraising, advocacy, and appreciation events.

Communications
● Work with the team to create content for newsletters and curate impact stories and ideas for reports and other external communications to promote our work.
● Train staff, the Board, and volunteers on external communication and messaging strategies.
Website Management
● Maintain and update the School on Wheels’ website. Create new web pages, campaigns, events, press releases, blog posts, etc. Collaborate with web developers when necessary.
● Support implementation of SEO strategy- drive organic search to the website.
● Collaborate and consult with leadership, program, and regional teams on overall messaging to maintain consistency across all external channels.

Media Relations
● Manage and create content on all social media channels outlets to increase engagement and expand our reach.
● Identify and develop new strategies to increase social media following.
● Generate video content through writing and editing. Analyze social media performance data to inform future strategies.
● Generate positive media coverage that highlights our work and encourages others to support our cause.

Email Marketing
● Manage all external emails, appeals, events, fundraising campaigns, etc.
● Develop and manage donor campaigns using donation platform and CRM.
● Utilize data analytics to measure and continually enhance the effectiveness of our email campaigns.

Qualifications
● A degree or equivalent in a relevant field
● 4+ years of experience working in a fast-paced marketing/communications/development team.
● A deep passion for advocating on behalf of children experiencing homelessness.
● Alignment with School on Wheels’ core values: Trust, Integrity, Innovation, Flexibility, Passion, and Teamwork.

Software Platform Skills
● HTML & CSS skills
● AE (formerly Pardot) or similar email marketing platform
● Salesforce or similar donor/volunteer database
● Airtable
● All social media platforms and Meltwater
● Adobe Creative Suite
● Google Suite, including Google Ad Words and Analytics
● WordPress

Job Type
● Full Time
● Hybrid (remote with telework agreement)
● 8-hour shift
● Monday to Friday
Salary: $21.63 – $26.44/h DOE

Benefits
● 401(k)
● Dental Insurance
● Vision insurance
● Flexible schedule
● Health insurance
● Life insurance
● Paid time off
● Parental leave
● Employee assistance program
● Professional development assistance