Ben & Jerry's Activism Manager job in Toronto (or remote)

Ben & Jerry's Activism Manager for Canada

About this role:

Do you have experience working in campaigning within the NGO, charity or grassroots movement-building space? Have you got a passion for the idea that business can be used to drive positive change in the world? Do issues of social and environmental justice drive you to take action? Values-led ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s is recruiting an Activism Manager to lead social and environmental justice campaigns with our team in Canada.

The primary role of the Activism Manager is to translate Ben & Jerry’s progressive values into successful externally-focused activism campaigns that create impact and drive action. The Activism Manager will lead strategy development and execution under the direction of the Global Activism Manager, and will work closely with internal functions while managing a diverse set of external stakeholders and campaign partners. The Activism Manager for Canada will join a global team of Activism Managers and will provide vision and leadership within the Global Social Mission and Advocacy teams to ensure Ben & Jerry’s remains the most progressive, innovative, and impactful activist company.

What you will be doing:

• Work with a cross functional team of Ben & Jerry’s staff to develop and execute progressive, innovative, and strategic winning campaigns that support progressive social change. The campaign issues and partners should move fans and citizens alike from awareness and education to engagement and direct action.
• Work on strategy development, partner selection, and execution of issue advocacy campaigns across multiple channels that align with the company’s priority issue areas.
• Identify local, regional, and national level issue on-ramps that that make our activism campaigns timely, relevant, and impactful.
• Cultivate and manage a diverse set of internal and external stakeholders and partners, including civil society / NGO’s, other allies in inside and outside the company, that are partners in creating and executing winning campaigns.
• Support the development of strategies that translate Ben & Jerry’s social mission priorities into compelling and relevant local, regional, and national campaigns.
• Support marketing teams and agencies in creating compelling content that effectively engages fans and citizens on our advocacy campaigns and inspires them to take action.
• What you need to be great in this role:
• You’re a strategy guru: We want to build winning campaigns that advance progressive policies that address economic and social justice issues, and you can’t win progressive policies without a bullet proof strategy. We want you, because you know how to build a plan to win.
• You’re a dot connector: Working on the Ben & Jerry’s social mission team requires managing a diverse set of internal and external stakeholders, we need you to ensure the right dots are connected inside and outside the company.
• You love to win, and have fun doing it: As Jerry said, “If it’s not fun, why do it?” He was right.
• You’re a storyteller: A critical element of our fan facing advocacy campaigns is the art of compelling storytelling as means to educate, inspire, and ultimately activate our fans in support of our campaigns. We need your creativity to support our digital content team.

Skills and experience

• An understanding of, belief in and passion for Ben & Jerry’s Mission and Progressive Values.
• One to three years of previous campaign experience and a proven track of campaign strategy development.
• A strong knowledge of public policy and the political process.
• A belief in the power of grass-roots campaigning and commitment to movement-building as a theory of change.
• Experience working across multi-cultural and diverse communities.
• Experience and understanding of how to use a diverse set of tools and channels, including digital and social media, to inspire people to action in support of progressive social change.
• Excellent public speaking and presentation skills, and media experience.
• Strong interpersonal, leadership, communication and diplomacy skills.
• Ability to influence internal and external partners in order to establish a collaborative stakeholder alignment across a complex globally matrixed organization.
• Attention to detail, planning and preparation.
• Will work independently, with limited oversight, while defining the role.
• Minimum degree or equivalent practical experiences in Political Science, Sociology, Community Organizing or related fields relevant to this work; Marketing, Communications, or a Business degree a plus.