Job Description:
Position: Program Manager, Strategic Communications at The Convergence Foundation
About The Convergence Foundation
Ashish Dhawan is a leading Indian philanthropist, who in his earlier avatar founded and ran ChrysCapital, one of the first private equity funds in India. In the last decade, he has played a pivotal role in building successful institutions, such as Ashoka University and the Central Square Foundation (CSF). They are both pioneering institutions in their own domains. Ashoka University is a leading liberal arts university, and CSF is a strategic foundation working towards improving the learning outcomes of all school-going children in India. Ashish set up The Convergence Foundation (TCF) in 2021 to tackle the most important challenges facing India by building institutions and supporting bold leaders.
TCF seeks to identify the Archimedean levers for Indias growth & development high-leverage opportunities that can catalyse pivotal outcomes. We currently support fourteen organisations through their seed stage across two pillars (direct engines of growth & human capital development). The organisations work on diverse areas, such as labour-intensive manufacturing, science & technology, effective governance, and acceleration of Indian philanthropy.
In the next phase of our journey, we aim to exercise our strengths as a philanthropic foundation to drive economic growth in India. While we will continue building institutions, we also aim to drive strategic projects around economic growth and development.
Position Summary
We are looking to hire an exceptional Program Manager (PM) to anchor our communications outreach on areas of Economic Growth and/or Human Capital Development. This role involves: designing Communications and PR programmes/campaigns by working across teams and multiple stakeholders on our focus areas; and owning the end-to-end execution of the programmes.
The PM will be responsible for developing content (long-form and short-form), growing our digital assets like TCFs social media accounts on LinkedIn and Twitter, and managing our newsletters and website. The ideal candidate should be able to come up with creative ideas, have strong writing skills, and be able to juggle multiple projects simultaneously. Additionally, s/he will be responsible for knowledge management, and managing partners/ vendors while providing them with timely and relevant information. The candidate will report to the Senior Manager, Strategic Communications.
Apart from building your Communications and PR skills, this is a great opportunity to get a ringside view of the development sector. You should apply if you enjoy working in a start-up environment, thrive with minimal hand-holding and care deeply about the importance of economic growth and human capital development in solving key development challenges in India.
Campaign development
- Develop, implement, and evaluate campaigns / outreach on TCFs focus areas
- Map and engage stakeholders and influencers for campaigns / outreach
- Develop concept notes and presentations for campaigns / outreach
- Identify and execute media and digital opportunities for campaigns / effective outreach
- Liaise with agency and partners to ensure high-quality collateral creation and provide them with the necessary support and information
- Manage relationships with agencies, partner organisations to ensure deliverables in a timely manner
Managing TCFs owned communications assets
- Manage TCFs digital presence across platforms: Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
- Increase TCFs reach and engagement, and ensure a coherent digital ecosystem for the organisation
- Develop customised and digital-friendly content and collateral
- Lead the redesign, development, and maintenance of TCF website
- Monitor data and analytics for our social media assets and newsletters and create regular reports. Develop growth strategies based on the reports
- Manage, and regularly update, the TCF database
- Manage distribution and maintenance of all print and electronic collateral including, but not limited to, newsletters, brochures, and the foundations annual report
- Ideate and create innovative communications vehicles to create momentum and maximise stakeholder engagement
Developing content and collateral
- Articles and blogs for TCFs newsletter
- Collateral like posters, leaflets, brochures, fact-sheets, a/v scripts, etc.
- Copy and graphics for social media
Required Qualifications, Skills and Abilities:
- Bachelors degree required; Masters degree preferred in Mass Communication, Journalism, Public Relations or related fields
- 4-5 years of work experience in planning and executing mass media and social media campaigns
- Excellent presentation skills and proficiency in drafting communication material in different formats - newsletters, social media copy, press releases, OpEds, etc.
- Experience of storyboarding, branding and communications
- Excellent writing/ editing and verbal communication skills
- Know-how of Canva; strong visual aesthetics
- Digital know-how: website development, social media management
- Experience of working with media teams and agencies, including copywriters, graphic designers, video editors, animators, etc.
- Ability to synthesise content inputs from different individuals and develop coherent and engaging content customised for different communication vehicles
- Knowledge of a wide range of media outlets, including print and digital. Should possess the ability to create a pitch and engage actively with media for generating coverage on important issues and topics
Desired Qualities
- Functional knowledge of graphic designing and video editing
- Creative and analytical thinking, and ability to ideate and articulate creative ideas
- Entrepreneurial spirit and a strong bias to action attitude
- Operating style suited to working in a small-organisation setting, where teamwork and resourcefulness are highly valued
- Ability to work proactively, with little supervision
- Ability to build and maintain positive and collaborative relationships both within and outside the organisation
- Planning and organisational skills, and an ability to be able to set priorities, plan timelines and meet deadlines
- Knowledge / awareness of economics/public policy preferable
- Involvement/experience in managing communications in a complex environment preferable