Work with us

Executive Managing Director/Operations

for Fight for the Future / Center for Rights - Location: San Francisco / New York / Telecommute (Greater Boston Area)

The Organization

Fight for the Future is a non-profit organization whose mission is to ensure that the web continues to hold freedom of expression and creativity at its core. We primarily work on high value, fearless projects that can be seen by millions. The highlight of these efforts so far is the largest online protest in history, internet-wide strike against the web censorship bills SOPA and PIPA, and is an example of the impact a passionate few can have when engaging with the larger web community; see americancensorship.org, sopastrike.com, freebieber.org, and fightforthefuture.org/pipa. This could be a dream job.

Job Description

Our organization is focused on developing high-impact campaigns that resonate with people and help them band together to exert their power. The Executive Director/Operations position is central to the organization's operations and its and its effectiveness, though we will consider candidates who are more comfortable with operations management only. If you ever wanted to build online experiences that reach out, grab people, and help them them change the world, then this is the job for you.

You will help evangelize, plan and execute our campaign and organizational development strategies. You will ensure that our projects are smoothly executed, while managing the operational needs of the organization. You will be responsible for setting up and analyzing the overall organizational metrics for reach, efficacy, and fundraising, which will include the assessment, research, design, and implementation of online campaigns of the organization. The ED is responsible for overseeing finance, legal, staff, projects, and board requirements.

You should be able to think on your feet, be organized, optimize organizational and project plans and work load, manage/delegate the different pieces of a campaign (outreach, press, writing, product) and set up the organization for long term growth. As an ED, we expect that you will also interface with others, so to some extent you should have smart, powerful ideas to share with others.; you should understand and be able to express in ways that resonate with your audience the nuances and overarching themes of tech policy, free internet principles, and organizing on the ground and online.

We'd especially enjoy someone who has a wide interest in pulling off tactics and strategy and using whatever resources are at their disposal -- you should have an interest in using law, policies, pop culture, music, philosophy, subcultural themes, memes, language, history, media, organizing playbooks, and whatever else is out there to pull off a really hard-hitting and exciting campaign for the right audience.

Desired Skills & Experience. Ideally, you should have experience with:

  • Running campaigns on high-impact issues, managing campaigns and responses to a fast-changing, dynamic field, Play a key role in the planning and strategy of campaign organizing and organization growth
  • Working with a large variety of people, groups, and companies and spreading the message to as many stakeholders as possible, Finding and securing new sources for campaigns, Leading or starting coalitions
  • Manage and systematize organizational financial management and reporting, marketing & communications, data analytics & reporting, and evaluation systems.
  • Cultivate, solicit, steward, manage, and grow a diverse portfolio of contributed revenue sources to meet the organization’s annual fund development needs. The organization’s contributed portfolio should include, but is not limited to, support from: foundations/trusts, businesses/corporations, government, individuals, and appropriate local/state agencies.
  • Lead and implement fundraising strategies on behalf of the organization both offline and online.
  • Develop and manage the organization’s annual fundraising calendar, prospect list, and list of activities. Inform any key staff members of meetings, deadlines, talking points, any prior conversations or history with the organization, ask amount target, and likelihood of support.
  • Maintain fundraising and individual donor dashboard to track and evaluate giving trends and opportunities.
  • Work with executive staff and any development committee on the Board in devising fundraising goals, strategies, tactics, and campaigns or initiatives.
You should also have experience:
  1. Running online campaigns that grow fast
  2. Crafting exciting and persuasive actions
  3. Using online and traditional media to achieve broad visibility (including by talking with press)
  4. Fighting hard for something

Compensation. Market Rate / Commensurate with Experience

Location. The team will be 100% remote-—no need to commute or relocate. If you're interested in relocation, let us know. We’d start working with you on a contract basis at an hourly rate, but we will be able to offer full-time position with competitive salary and benefits to the right person.

To apply: If you’re interested, send links to work you’ve done to [email protected]. Show us that you excel at the things we’re looking for. If you like, include links to or samples of your writing–ideally in situations where you’re writing to persuade a group of people to. Include as much relevant information as possible: significant things you’ve done, projects you’ve worked on, etc. Being well-rounded is a plus, so don’t exclude significant skills or achievements just because they aren’t activism related (e.g. starting a business, or being a musician).

Note: we expect this job announcement to reach a lot of people who are very politically active, but who may not be sold on the significance of this particular cause. So here’s a quick summary of how we see the threat and the opportunity:

First, technology is increasingly the foundation for social participation and the pursuit of justice. We depend on a combination of software, devices, and the internet to get news, read books, organize others— a slew of essential activities. Second, digital technology contains a basic social justice: once something gets made, it costs relatively little to give everyone access.

This means two things: 1) to preserve our existing freedoms and institutions we have to fight to keep their technological underpinnings free from interference. 2) If we’re successful we win much more than that: a world where everyone has equal access to many of humanity’s most valuable creations (knowledge, cultural expression, and the digital tools to make more).

There are several excellent organizations working on the same set of issues; we can be very effective working in collaboration with them by focusing on public-facing campaigns and employing a different mix of tactics. The organization’s founding team also has an interesting track record in doing just this.