Marketing Department Manager

Lambs Farm•Libertyville, IL

About The Position

Lambs Farm is seeking a strategic, collaborative Marketing Department Manager to lead marketing and communications efforts that increase awareness of its mission, programs, businesses, fundraising initiatives, and community impact. The manager will establish marketing priorities, campaign strategies, brand standards, messaging, and performance goals, and provide leadership to the Marketing team. The role reports to the Director of Operations and oversees the Marketing Assistant, Special Projects Coordinator, and Special Events Coordinator. It partners with teams across the organization to align marketing resources with organizational priorities and serves as the primary owner of marketing strategy, external communications, public relations, advertising, and brand governance. The manager develops integrated campaigns and communications across digital, print, advertising, public relations, fundraising, events, and community channels. The role stewards the Lambs Farm brand and organizational voice, ensures communications respectfully represent adults with developmental disabilities, manages marketing budgets and external agency relationships, and uses performance data to guide strategy and resource allocation. The position also supports organizational and fundraising events and requires local travel as needed, along with occasional evening and weekend event participation. The anticipated annual salary is $50,000. Employment is subject to successful completion of background and registry checks and medical screenings.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Public Relations, Business, or a related field.
Three to five years of progressively responsible experience in marketing, communications, public relations, or a related field.
Demonstrated experience developing and executing integrated marketing campaigns.
Strong writing, editing, storytelling, presentation, and organizational communication skills.
Knowledge of social media, email marketing, digital advertising, website content strategy, public relations, and content marketing.
Experience using data and performance metrics to evaluate marketing effectiveness and guide decisions.
Working knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite and Canva sufficient to review and provide direction on creative materials.
Strong project management skills, including the ability to establish priorities, manage competing deadlines, and coordinate multiple stakeholders.
Ability to develop productive relationships with media, businesses, donors, sponsors, community partners, and internal teams.
Strong professional judgment and ability to represent Lambs Farm effectively in external communications.
Passion for working with and supporting adults with developmental disabilities.
Proficiency in writing, speaking, and understanding English.
Proficiency with word processing, spreadsheets, email, web-based platforms, digital communication tools, and marketing technology.
Ability to work effectively in office, campus, community, event, retail, restaurant, and other public-facing environments as needed.
Ability to participate in periodic evening and weekend organizational events.
Ability to occasionally transport marketing or event materials weighing up to 25 pounds.

Nice To Haves

Previous experience coordinating the work of staff, vendors, agencies, or cross-functional project teams.

Responsibilities

Develop and implement the overall marketing and communications strategy in alignment with Lambs Farm’s mission, strategic plan, fundraising priorities, and business objectives.
Set annual and seasonal priorities, campaign objectives, audiences, messaging, timelines, and performance expectations.
Develop and maintain an integrated marketing calendar covering campaigns, fundraising, events, business promotions, publications, digital communications, and community outreach.
Prioritize marketing requests and allocate work according to organizational needs, deadlines, resources, and team responsibilities.
Lead, coach, and provide performance feedback to assigned Marketing staff; establish clear team responsibilities.
Develop department processes, workflows, standards, and project management practices.
Oversee the Marketing budget and recommend resource allocations across advertising, printing, promotional materials, digital tools, vendors, and other activities.
Develop integrated campaigns across social media, email, digital, print, advertising, public relations, and community channels; define objectives, messages, calls to action, audiences, distribution plans, and success measures.
Provide content and creative direction and review and approve significant organizational marketing communications.
Partner with Development leadership on fundraising communications, appeals, Giving Tuesday, donor-facing campaigns, and major fundraising initiatives.
Work with departments across Lambs Farm to promote programs, services, recruitment initiatives, events, and campus businesses.
Steward the Lambs Farm brand, organizational voice, and external messaging; establish and maintain brand standards and visual guidelines.
Ensure communications respectfully represent the dignity, strengths, experiences, and contributions of adults with developmental disabilities, and accurately represent organizational programs, businesses, services, and fundraising priorities.
Set strategies and performance expectations for social media, email marketing, website content, and digital advertising; provide direction to staff responsible for routine execution and reporting.
Review digital and campaign performance and use data to guide future strategy and resource allocation.
Build relationships with media outlets, community organizations, businesses, sponsors, tourism partners, and other external stakeholders.
Serve as a primary contact for media inquiries and coordinate organizational responses with executive leadership when appropriate.
Identify opportunities for earned media, community awareness, partnerships, cross-promotion, and increased visibility; develop press releases, media pitches, talking points, organizational statements, and other significant external communications as needed.
Manage relationships with advertising, website, media, and other external agencies and consultants; set advertising priorities, approve campaign direction, monitor deliverables, and evaluate vendor performance.
Coordinate major website projects, technical updates, and agency-supported initiatives outside routine internal website maintenance.
Establish and monitor performance indicators for campaigns, digital communications, advertising, community engagement, and other marketing initiatives; analyze performance and provide leadership with updates and strategic recommendations.
Develop promotional strategies for organizational and fundraising events in partnership with event owners and departments, including audiences, timelines, messaging, channels, and campaign objectives.
Assign digital and creative event-marketing deliverables to appropriate Marketing team members and participate in major events as needed.
Travel locally as needed for community engagement, media opportunities, vendor meetings, networking, and organizational events.