Marketing & Communications Director

MRA Recruiting Services•Davenport, IA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

The Marketing & Communications Director leads River Bend Food Bank’s voice, visibility, messaging, brand strategy, and communications planning. This position ensures the organization communicates clearly and consistently with donors, partners, media, staff, volunteers, schools, policymakers, and the broader community. This role is responsible for developing and managing an annual marketing and communications strategy tied to organizational priorities, fundraising goals, advocacy needs, public awareness, and major initiatives. The Director provides strategic leadership for external communications, media relations, campaign messaging, donor communications support, website/content strategy, impact storytelling, internal alignment, and sensitive or high visibility communications. The Marketing & Communications Director supervises the Marketing & Communications Coordinator and ensures daily execution is aligned with organizational strategy, brand standards, timelines, and approved messaging.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience in communications, marketing, public relations, journalism, nonprofit management, or a related field.
Strong writing, editing, messaging, and storytelling skills.
Ability to communicate complex or sensitive information clearly and appropriately for different audiences.
Strong understanding of brand management, public positioning, and audience-specific communications.
Ability to supervise, coach, and manage the work of another staff member.
Strong project management skills and ability to manage multiple deadlines and priorities.
Ability to work collaboratively across departments and with external vendors.
Comfort representing the organization in public, media-facing, and partner-facing settings.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office and comfort learning project management, digital marketing, website, and communications platforms.
Willingness to support the mission of the organization and help end hunger in our area.
Ability to travel throughout the Food Bank’s service area as needed.
Possession of a valid driver’s license and insurable driving record.
Ability to successfully complete a pre-employment criminal background investigation and credit check.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading communications strategy, media relations, public relations, campaign messaging, or nonprofit communications preferred.
Experience supporting fundraising, donor communications, advocacy, or community-facing campaigns preferred.
Ability to work flexible hours, as needed, occasionally outside of regular business hours for events, media opportunities, or urgent communications needs.

Responsibilities

Develop and manage an annual marketing and communications plan aligned with organizational priorities, fundraising goals, advocacy needs, and public awareness efforts.
Lead messaging strategy for major initiatives, organizational changes, public issue moments, and community-facing priorities.
Develop talking points, FAQs, campaign language, leadership statements, advocacy messaging, and change management communications.
Ensure staff and leadership have clear, consistent language to communicate about key priorities such as school pantries, SNAP, food access, food costs, Core Collective, Student Hunger Drive, and other organizational initiatives.
Support crisis, sensitive, or high-visibility communications in partnership with leadership.
Serve as the lead for media relations, including press releases, media pitches, media inquiries, interview preparation, and story placement.
Build and maintain relationships with media contacts throughout the service area.
Position River Bend Food Bank as a trusted regional voice on hunger, food insecurity, food access, SNAP, and community-based solutions.
Identify opportunities to elevate River Bend’s work, impact, expertise, and leadership through earned media and public storytelling.
Lead communications strategy for major organizational campaigns and events, including Student Hunger Drive, Million Meals Match, Women Fighting Hunger, Hunger Action Month, Birdies for Charity, All Hands on Deck, year-end giving, food cost appeals, and other fundraising priorities.
Partner with Development on donor communications, direct mail strategy, donor emails, stewardship messaging, sponsorship materials, impact stories, and campaign language.
Support grant and funder communications by helping translate impact, data, and program priorities into clear public-facing language.
Work with external vendors as needed to ensure fundraising communications are aligned with organizational voice, strategy, and brand standards.
Develop, manage, and monitor the annual Marketing & Communications budget in alignment with organizational priorities.
Track marketing expenses, vendor costs, advertising needs, printing, promotional materials, software, and other department-related expenditures.
Work with the Vice President of Philanthropy and Finance to ensure marketing spending is planned, approved, and aligned with budget expectations.
Manage relationships with marketing-related vendors, including designers, printers, photographers, videographers, media partners, digital platforms, and other external contractors.
Evaluate vendor performance, pricing, timelines, and outcomes to ensure resources are used effectively.
Supervise, coach, and support the Marketing & Communications Coordinator.
Manage marketing priorities, timelines, approvals, project flow, and workload in coordination with the Coordinator.
Establish systems for marketing requests, project tracking, shared assets, templates, and approval processes.
Collaborate with Development, Partnerships, Community Engagement, Operations, and Leadership to ensure communications are timely, accurate, and aligned.
Track communications outcomes, including campaign performance, media reach, social engagement, web analytics, email performance, and other relevant measures.