Background & Introduction:
The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) is a mission-driven organization that has an outsized impact in promoting and defending sportsmen’s policy that spans over 35 years. Although the entirety of CSF’s work has been massively impactful to all hunters, anglers, recreational shooters & trappers, CSF is not currently a household name for America’s sportsmen and women. It is therefore time for CSF to amplify its voice and reach amongst the public, and a seasoned marketer and communicator is necessary to achieve this. CSF is seeking a leader of our Marketing & Communications (Marcomm) Department that can significantly improve CSF’s brand positioning and storytelling for the benefit of increasing our impact for the sportsmen and women that CSF represents.
Defining Success for the Role:
The ideal candidate will be a storyteller, a visionary and an implementer, and someone who is excited about scaling marketing and communications efforts to match CSF’s outsized influence in the policy space. A successful candidate will be able to highlight CSF’s leadership in the policy arena on behalf of sportsmen and women, as well as the broader conservation community, and effectively communicate to both policymakers and beneficiaries to drive CSF’s mission. Additionally, this individual will be able to operate independently while also being able to work in a team environment in a collegial manner with colleagues in multiple departments.
- Leadership & Team Management – Reporting to the Senior Vice President, this role will lead all aspects of the of the Marketing and Communications Department. A successful candidate will:
- Serve as a strategic adviser for the executive management team to optimize CSF’s policy & development efforts.
- Own the look, feel, and messaging of the Foundation.
- Define measurable Marcomm goals and the resources needed to achieve those goals.
- Establish and maintain Marcomm budgets.
- Identify needs/opportunities, recruit, and manage all internal & external Marcomm resources.
- Marketing – CSF is excited to enhance its marketing through additional resources and staff expertise. While efforts to enhance our brand awareness and positioning have grown in recent years, these aspects of the organization remain mostly a green-field environment. A successful candidate will:
- Align marketing strategies and tactics to support policy and development objectives.
- Continually enhance and improve CSF brand positioning amongst policymakers and the sporting community.
- Demonstrate the ability to define target audiences, build campaigns, and establish and achieve key performance indicators to accelerate policy impact and fiscal support.
- Motivate the sporting community, industry partners, and policymakers to engage with CSF at a broader and deeper level.
- Communications – CSF’s communications to policy audiences are well established and mission critical. A successful candidate will be able maintain/grow these efforts while significantly enhancing our communications to target the larger sporting community. A successful candidate will:
- Deliver technical messages to policymakers.
- Expand CSF’s relationships with industry as well as media partners (endemic and non-endemic) to broaden and improve our story telling.
- Evaluate and rebuild CSF’s communications technology toolset in a cost-effective manner.
- A truly exceptional candidate will also be able to message complex policy initiatives into digestible and attractive content that sportsmen care about (preferred but not required).
Characteristics and Traits Needed:
It will take a special candidate that possesses both a personal passion for the mission, and also the experience and skills necessary to help push CSF forward. An ideal candidate will possess the following:
- Authenticity. To connect & tell meaningful stories to sportspeople, a successful candidate must be able to speak their language…fluently! For this reason, the individual chosen to lead our marketing and communications efforts must be an active and passionate outdoorsperson.
- Leadership & Vision. CSF seeks a candidate that can develop and effectuate a vision that ties back to the broader policy and financial goals of the organization and provide thought leadership amongst peers, officers, and colleagues inside the Foundation as well as partners outside the organization.
- Values & Work Ethic. A successful candidate must embrace this ideology to the fullest. Furthermore, leadership and vision alone will not be enough. A successful candidate will have a lunch pail mentality and be willing to roll up their sleeves to deliver on tactics and execution.
- Network. The hunting, angling, shooting, trapping, and conservation industries are comprised of special networks of individuals that dedicate their professional careers to their personal passions. As such, meaningful relationships and professional networks often take years to build. A successful candidate will come into the position with an already established peer network and will have experience navigating these industries to achieve specific marketing and communications objectives.
- Experience. If you’ve read this far, the marketing skills and requirements necessary to achieve the previously described objectives should be table stakes. That said, a successful candidate should possess a minimum of 10 years of experience within the sporting industry and/or conservation community and should be able to specifically address how they have accomplished objectives similar to those detailed in the “Defining Success for the Role” section of this posting.
Position Location:
TBD – Washington, DC preferred but will consider other locations.
Salary: Commensurate with experience and qualifications, generous benefits package including health, dental, life, and 401k.
Title: As with the salary, the final title for the successful candidate will be commensurate with experience and qualifications.
To Apply: Email cover letter, resume, writing sample, and three professional references to Kelli Altimus at kaltimus@congressionalsportsmen.org.