Community Organizing & Advocacy Manager

United Way of Rhode Island•Providence, RI

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

United Way of Rhode Island is seeking a Community Organizing & Advocacy Manager to lead their community organizing strategy in support of the organization’s public policy agenda and strategic plan: Strong Families, Strong Nonprofits, and Strong United Way. This position will build and manage organizing strategies around the issues affecting Rhode Islanders, translating community experience, qualitative insight, and quantitative data into coordinated advocacy and engagement efforts. The Manager will work across United Way departments and with external partners to identify emerging needs, strengthen coalitions, develop community leadership, and mobilize stakeholders around local and statewide policy priorities. The Manager will serve as a bridge between community voice, data, policy, and action —ensuring United Way’s advocacy reflects the experiences of Rhode Islanders and that community partners are equipped to participate meaningfully in policy development and systems change.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in public policy, political science, community development, sociology, public administration, nonprofit management, or a related field; equivalent professional experience will be considered.
Minimum of 4–6 years of progressively responsible experience in community organizing, advocacy, public policy, coalition management, civic engagement, or related work.
Demonstrated experience developing and managing community organizing or advocacy campaigns.
Experience convening and managing coalitions or multi-stakeholder partnerships.
Strong understanding of state and local government, legislative advocacy, and community-based policy change.
Demonstrated ability to interpret quantitative and qualitative data and apply findings to strategy.
Experience facilitating community meetings, trainings, listening sessions, or public engagement processes.
Strong written communication skills, including the ability to contribute to legislative testimony, policy materials, advocacy communications, and public-facing content.
Demonstrated ability to manage complex projects, competing priorities, and cross-functional relationships.
Demonstrates a commitment to continuous learning and professional growth, including active participation in United Way of Rhode Island's JEDI learning and development practices.
Works with their manager to identify opportunities to strengthen cultural humility, inclusive leadership, equitable community engagement, and understanding of how identity, power, systems, and institutional practices can affect community outcomes.

Nice To Haves

Ability to design and execute community-centered campaigns that elevate resident voice, build collective power, and advance equitable outcomes.
Demonstrated ability to build, facilitate, and sustain diverse coalitions, including residents, community-based organizations, nonprofits, government, philanthropy, and other stakeholders.
Knowledge of state and local government and the ability to advance policy priorities while considering how policies may affect different communities and populations.
Ability to use quantitative data, qualitative information, community experience, and disaggregated data where available to identify disparities, understand root causes, and inform strategy.
Ability to design inclusive engagement processes that value lived experience and create meaningful opportunities for people most affected by an issue to influence decisions.
Strong communication and facilitation skills with the ability to create respectful environments where different perspectives can be heard and considered.
Ability to translate complex policy issues, research, data, and community experiences into accessible testimony, briefs, presentations, and other communications for policymakers and the public.
Ability to lead projects across departments and disciplines, establish shared accountability, navigate differing perspectives, and advance common organizational and community goals.
Demonstrated ability to develop authentic, sustained relationships across differences in background, identity, professional role, institutional power, and lived experience.
Ability to navigate complex political and community environments with sound judgment, cultural humility, discretion, nonpartisanship, and awareness of power and institutional dynamics.
Demonstrated commitment to incorporating JEDI principles into day-to-day work, including examining assumptions and biases, seeking diverse perspectives, identifying barriers to participation and opportunity, and contributing to an inclusive organizational culture.
Ability to listen to and learn from residents and community partners and translate lived experience, community priorities, research, and data into actionable policy and systems-change strategies.

Responsibilities

Lead and implement United Way’s statewide community organizing strategy across the Strong Families, Strong Nonprofits, and Strong United Way policy pillars.
Develop organizing plans for priority policy issues, including clear objectives, target audiences, geographic strategies, engagement tactics, timelines, and measures of success.
Identify communities and populations where deeper engagement is needed and develop targeted organizing strategies responsive to local conditions.
Build sustained relationships with residents, nonprofit organizations, community leaders, faith institutions, civic organizations, advocacy partners, and other stakeholders.
Design engagement opportunities that elevate community experience and strengthen participation in United Way’s policy and advocacy work.
Use quantitative and qualitative data to inform organizing priorities, strategies, and resource deployment.
Assess available data sources—including 211 data, community feedback, program data, demographic information, research, and partner insights—and determine which information is most relevant to specific advocacy efforts.
Design and facilitate community listening sessions, focus groups, surveys, stakeholder interviews, and other qualitative engagement strategies when additional community insight is needed.
Translate community and service-delivery data into actionable organizing strategies and advocacy narratives.
Partner with Research & Data, Community Impact, 211, Philanthropy, Marketing & Communications, and other departments to ensure organizing strategies are informed by a comprehensive understanding of community need.
Manage and strengthen coalitions aligned with United Way’s strategic and policy priorities.
Convene nonprofit organizations, advocates, community leaders, residents, and institutional partners around shared policy objectives.
Assess United Way’s existing coalition participation and identify gaps where new partnerships, voices, or issue-specific coalitions are needed.
Develop strategies to strengthen coalition representation across geography, race, ethnicity, age, language, lived experience, sector, and community.
Establish clear coalition goals, workplans, communications structures, and accountability mechanisms.
Represent United Way at coalition meetings, community tables, municipal forums, and other external convenings.
Support the development of state legislative testimony, advocacy materials, public comments, community briefs, and policy communications in partnership with the Government Relations & Policy team.
Lead community mobilization strategies around priority legislation, budget requests, administrative actions, and other policy opportunities.
Manage local advocacy campaigns across Rhode Island , including targeted municipal organizing strategies tied to United Way priorities.
Build relationships with municipal leaders, local boards and commissions, community organizations, and residents to advance place-based policy priorities.
Organize public testimony, community turnout, advocacy days, public meetings, and other opportunities for community participation.
Prepare community members and nonprofit partners to engage effectively with elected officials and public decision-making processes.
Serve as a key Public Policy liaison to internal teams whose expertise, relationships, or data are essential to organizing strategy.
Convene cross-functional teams when policy or organizing priorities require coordinated input from Research & Data, Community Impact, Philanthropy, 211, Marketing & Communications, and other departments.
Develop clear roles, timelines, and shared objectives for cross-departmental organizing initiatives.
Identify opportunities to connect United Way’s grantmaking, service delivery, fundraising, community partnerships, and public policy work to strengthen advocacy outcomes.
Provide strategic guidance to internal teams on community engagement and organizing practices.
Develop trainings, tools, and resources that strengthen the ability of nonprofit partners and community members to participate in advocacy.
Facilitate advocacy, organizing, civic engagement, and policy education sessions for community stakeholders.
Identify and cultivate community leaders who can authentically represent local experiences in policy discussions.
Create sustainable engagement structures that move beyond one-time participation toward long-term community leadership and partnership.
Establish organizing goals, performance measures, and indicators of community reach and policy impact.
Track coalition participation, community engagement, geographic reach, advocacy activity, and campaign outcomes.
Evaluate organizing strategies and make recommendations to strengthen future campaigns.
Provide regular updates and analysis to Public Policy leadership on emerging community trends, organizing opportunities, coalition gaps, and risks.
Design and set local campaign strategy.
Manage complex relationships and coalitions across multiple issue areas.
Determine appropriate engagement and data strategies based on policy objectives.
Lead cross-functional projects requiring coordination across United Way departments.
Advise Public Policy leadership on community dynamics, organizing opportunities, and advocacy risks.
Manage multiple campaigns and workstreams simultaneously, establishing priorities and adjusting strategies as conditions change.
Represent United Way externally with professionalism, sound judgment, and a strong understanding of the organization’s public policy priorities.
Develop and implement a personalized JEDI Growth Plan with your supervisor that establishes baselines and tracks growth across the three JEDI domains, two spheres of influence (interpersonal and within UWRI/sociopolitical systems), and your level of practice (Emerging, Developing, Practicing).
Complete the annual JEDI self-assessment honestly and use it to identify priorities for ongoing learning and growth.
Participate in annual JEDI training, monthly learning and reflection opportunities, and at least one quarterly teach-back of a JEDI learning experience.
Engage with UWRI JEDI initiatives such as the Equity Challenge, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), the Heritage and Professionals group, and the Culture, Equity and Strengths Committee (CES).
Participate in community, state, or national JEDI growth opportunities (including United Way Worldwide) as relevant to your role.
Advocate for policy changes that address systemic barriers to economic stability, even when those conversations are politically complex or challenging.
Elevate community voices and lived experiences that may be underrepresented in policy discussions, ensuring those most impacted have opportunities to influence solutions.
Use community data, resident feedback, and coalition input to challenge assumptions and inform advocacy priorities.
Engage in difficult conversations about equity, power, and access while maintaining trust and accountability with partners and community members.
Adapt organizing strategies when community feedback, changing conditions, or emerging issues require a new approach.
Communicate transparently with residents, partners, coalitions, and colleagues about advocacy goals, opportunities, limitations, and decision-making processes.
Ensure community perspectives are accurately and respectfully represented in advocacy materials, testimony, and policy recommendations.
Follow through on commitments to partners and maintain trust through consistent communication and action.
Seek and incorporate feedback from community members and coalition partners to strengthen organizing efforts.
Take responsibility for mistakes, repair relationships when necessary, and use lessons learned to improve future engagement efforts.
Build authentic partnerships with residents, nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups, municipal leaders, and other stakeholders.
Create opportunities for community members, volunteers, and partners to co-design advocacy strategies and solutions rather than simply participating in pre-determined efforts.
Facilitate coalition meetings and community conversations in ways that welcome diverse viewpoints and encourage shared ownership of outcomes.
Work across UWRI departments to align policy priorities, data insights, community engagement, grantmaking, and communications strategies.
Share information, resources, and recognition in ways that strengthen collective impact and community leadership.
Design organizing and engagement strategies that intentionally include communities historically excluded from decision-making processes.
Identify and address barriers to participation related to language, transportation, accessibility, scheduling, technology, or other factors.
Use disaggregated data, community feedback, and lived experience to understand disparities and inform advocacy priorities.
Support community members to develop advocacy skills, leadership capacity, and confidence in engaging with public systems and elected officials.
Center the voices and priorities of those most impacted by policy decisions while promoting shared power and meaningful participation.
Continuously seek to better understand community experiences, policy issues, and emerging trends affecting Rhode Islanders.
Participate in JEDI Pathways learning opportunities and apply new knowledge to community engagement, coalition-building, and advocacy practices.
Regularly reflect on organizing strategies, partnership effectiveness, and campaign outcomes to identify opportunities for improvement.
Demonstrate humility by listening deeply, valuing lived expertise, and remaining open to feedback and new approaches.
Implement 70/20/10 learning activities in annual Goal & Growth plans, including training, peer learning, community-informed reflection, and practical application of lessons learned.

Benefits

healthcare
dental
vision coverage
flexible spending account
retirement match
prorated paid leave
floating holidays
personal days
sick days
individual and collective programs supporting organizational and career growth, including CliftonStrengths® by Gallup, the JEDI Pathways Framework, AIRS certification, and ongoing learning offerings.