Advocacy Intern

POSITION SUMMARY

The FACT Coalition is looking for an intelligent, energetic, and resourceful Advocacy Intern to help with the communications, advocacy, outreach, and operations of its office in Washington, DC during the Fall Semester, 2016.

The unpaid position will assist in achieving the strategic policy and communications goals of the coalition—primarily through online media work, but also with traditional communications as needed.

The Advocacy Intern will also help facilitate many logistics for the Coalition—coordinating a lot of the Coalition’s various committee meetings, planning and organizing public events, coordinating joint sign-on letters to various Administration officials and Members of Congress, and following up with Coalition members on their various commitments.

The Advocacy Intern will assist the Communications and Operations Associate with much of the operations and administrative support at FACT’s secretariat office: ordering office supplies; formatting, mailing, and shipping correspondence and packages; and troubleshooting various IT and administrative hurdles. S/he will also assist the Executive Director and the Deputy Director in any other coalition issues and activities as needed.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Maintaining the Coalition’s various email list-serves;

• Sending emails to list-serves pushing out reports, statements, press hits, event notices, etc. from Coalition members;

• Sending reminders of Policy/Communications, Field, and Community meetings with solicitations for agenda items;

• Helping to draft the agenda for the Policy/Communications, Field, and Community meetings;

• Taking notes at the Policy/Communications. Field, and Community meetings and circulating them to attendees;

• Helping with the logistics and planning of events, Hill briefings, press conferences, etc. This includes dealing with venues, catering, A/V, invites, etc.;

• Helping to follow up on commitments by coalition members: op-eds, scheduling legislative meetings, field work, etc.;

• Assisting with advocacy actions through the Salsa database;

• Logging and maintaining contacts (in Salsa database);

• Assisting with logging and maintaining the press lists (in Salsa);

• Identifying relevant topics, articles, etc. and drafting tweets for the Coalition;

• Assisting with the Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn profiles of the Coalition, posting and sharing on a regular basis as appropriate;

• Assisting with pitching calls to press for briefings, events, conferences, etc.;

• On occasion, drafting press releases, statements, blogs, op-eds, LTEs, correspondence, etc. for the Deputy Director and the Executive Director to review;

• Assisting the Communications and Operations Associate with maintaining and updating the website: posting blogs, op-eds, speeches, reports, FACT Sheets, and press releases to site. Posting links to member’s reports and quotes in print, radio, and TV interviews;

• Drafting weekly “Just the FACTS” newsletter;

• General research and grant-writing support, as needed; and

• General administrative duties, such as ordering office supplies and troubleshooting IT issues.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Excellent skills in copy editing, persuasive writing;

• Strong organizational and logistical skills;

• Resourcefulness and creativity;

• Demonstrated ability to learn and utilize information technology skills;

• Team player who can deliver in a fast-paced environment;

• Intellectual curiosity;

• Some related experience using social media, blogging, or websites as advocacy tools;

• Some related experience (work, volunteer, or internship) organizing public events;

• We give applicants who can work 40 hours/week higher priority but are flexible;

• Strong writing and speaking skills; and

• Some graphic design skills are a plus.

TO APPLY

Send cover letter, resume, and writing sample to Jacob Wills at internships@ thefactcoalition.org with the phrase “Advocacy Intern” in the subject line of the email before August 24th, 2016 at 11:59pm. Due to the expected volume of applications, only candidates who will be asked to interview will be contacted.

Absolutely no calls, please.