About 18 Million Rising
18MR builds Asian American political power that contributes to movements for racial justice, abolition, anti-militarism, and democracy through political education, base building, and strengthening movements that address these issues head on. Our commitment is to dismantle systems of oppression, fight white supremacy, and work towards a liberated future for Asian Americans and all people. 18MR organizes online and offline using digital platforms and tools to empower people and build movements that shift the current political moment. We see the internet as a place to gather, a place to build community, and a place to organize on a mass scale.
Read more about 18MR here.
SUMMARY
18MR is looking for a Field Organizer to lead in building our membership and campaign work as we launch our new base building program. They will work collaboratively with other team members to coordinate our leadership development, skills training, campaign and movement building work to build power and organize progressive and radical Asian Americans across the U.S. The Field Organizer will provide in-depth support to our new and emerging members to develop and engage with campaigns and participate in local actions across the country. A strong candidate for this position has experience in grassroots organizing and campaigns, strategic communications, and power building through coalitions.
The ideal candidate thrives within a tight-knit team but can work independently and remotely day-to-day; is comfortable navigating the internet and organizing spaces across the country; interested in base-building and mass mobilization to deeper power-building and political education; has an understanding of Asian American movements and history; able to think outside the box and pivot into rapid response quickly; and is curious about the ways Asian Americans can become a robust base for anti-racist organizing and movement-building.
The Field Organizer will report to the Organizing Director.
Responsibilities
Membership Recruitment
- Build 18MR’s new membership base program and local chapters in key cities
- Recruit and retain members through one on one meetings, phone calls, and emails
- Coach and develop strong member leaders through weekly check-ins, monthly meetings and ad-hoc support
- Support allied organizations and grassroots partners campaigns and activities – bridging the gap between 18MR member base and larger movement ecosystem
- Creating opportunities for member investment that leads to meaningful and relevant leadership entry points
Leadership Development & Facilitation
- Organize and coach members on research, messaging, tactics, targets, escalation, and all components of a local campaign
- Conduct in-person engagement to provide on-the-ground training and support for meetings, actions, and local strategy sessions
- Support development and execution of trainings, member engagement meetings and other key programs
- Coordinate with our Organizing team to provide political education and organizing skills training to 18MR members
- Work with member leaders to develop and execute campaign plans
Campaign and Movement Building Coordination
- Work with new members to launch new local campaigns and political work, with an emphasis on East Coast Asian American communities
- Prospect and develop potential campaign and movement building opportunities that are aligned with our vision and values including rapid response campaigns addressing a punctuated moment; short-term campaigns focused on timely issues; and long-term projects designed to do deep political education with our base
- Organize and coordinate actions, trainings and workshops across regions and campaign issues
- Collaborate with 18MR team to connect campaign goals to narrative and cultural strategy, lived experiences, and opportunities for 18MR members
- Deepen 18MR members and supporters involvement and relationships to our campaigns and the organization
- Support with writing and editing campaign materials, including emails, action pages, and social media posts to engage and mobilize supporters to take action
- Represent the organization as a spokesperson with media and coalition tables
- Attend coalition meetings and identify opportunities to build relationships with movement partners
Required Skills and Work Experience
- At least 3-5 years experience working in social movements or organizing, either as a paid staff person or organizer working on grassroots campaigns and/or digital organizing
- Must have relational organizing skills, campaign strategy and implementation skills, and strong interpersonal skills to build good rapport with community members and engage individuals one to one
- Strong facilitation and training skills. Ability to coach and train others in a broad range of organizing tactics: including developing and implementing campaign strategy, volunteer recruitment/training/development, coalition building, event and direct action planning, media outreach and communications
- Demonstrated base building and outreach experience in working class people of color communities, to hold strong relationships across lines of race, gender, and other identities; ability to engage in generative conflict, with internal and external stakeholders
- Ability to travel and work evenings to attend partner gatherings and meetings
- Fast learner on organizing platforms and familiarity using digital channels and project management tools – ranging from email, SMS, peer-to-peer texting, digital advertising, social media platforms – to meet the goals of digital campaigns
- Strategic campaigning and forward thinking, strong intersectional and internationalist analysis and ability to articulate connection between concepts and principles and current events
- Confidence working with a diverse team and the capacity to approach conflict with both compassion and firmness
- Superior time management and organizational skills and ability to juggle multiple projects, campaigns and meet deadlines in a high-energy, fast-paced environment
Nice-to-Have Skills and Work Experience
- Drivers license (for travel to regions without public transportation)
- Front-end campaign platform experience with Action Network
- Problem-solving skills with online platforms
- Familiarity with working on a remote team and building relationships with teammates and partners in both a virtual and in person setting
- Fluency in one or more Asian (including East, Southeast, and South Asian) languages
- An understanding of Asian American movements historically and in the current moment
- An understanding of how different ethnic, language, and racial sub-segments of the Asian American community use different digital tools
- Familiarity with abolitionist frameworks
Salary & Benefits
This is a full-time, salaried, exempt position. The 18MR team works a 32 hour – four day work week, although hours can be flexible based on the demands of current events and the campaign cycle. The salary range for this position is between $70,000 and $80,000 annually, commensurate with experience and your local cost of living.
As we are a distributed team, your primary residence may be in New York or Washington D.C. as we plan to build our membership base in the east coast. 18MR’s current staff are based in Philadelphia, Minnesota, Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area. Occasional organization-sponsored travel for conferences and face-to-face staff gatherings will be required.
Through our fiscal sponsor, Allied Media Projects, we offer a competitive benefits package including generous vacation; full health, dental, vision and flex benefits; 403b program with employer match; short and long term disability; provided life insurance with the option for additional coverage; ongoing training opportunities; wellness stipend and allowances for co-working space in your area and other incidental costs.
We are an equal opportunity employer that values diversity as central to our work serving underrepresented communities, and we encourage candidates from a wide range of backgrounds to apply.
This position will be open until filled, however, there is a priority deadline of July 7, 2024. We are aiming for this position to have a start date in mid- August.
Send resume, 1-2 page cover letter, sample base building recruitment plan, and/or sample curriculum or workshop outline in PDF form to jobs@18millionrising.org by 11:59 pm on July 6, 2024.
Please respond to these three questions in your cover letter:
- What interests you in organizing Asian Americans and why do you think you’re a good candidate for building pan-Asian power?
- What is your unique approach to base-building?
- What is a campaign that you successfully led and what was the outcome?
