Public Lands Campaign Manager

Work schedule: Exempt, full time
Location: Anywhere in Colorado, Denver preferred (frequent travel to Denver required)
Deadline for submission: December 11, 2022

About Conservation Colorado
For over 50 years, we’ve worked with communities statewide to ensure that our quality of life and our environment are protected. We work to elect pro-conservation leaders to public office and then hold our decision makers accountable to move Colorado forward in protecting our environment. Our work to protect Colorado’s climate, air, lands, water, and communities reflects our commitment to racial and social justice, particularly by ensuring that policy victories are shared by all Coloradans including Black, Latino, other people of color and other frontline communities

We achieve these goals by organizing people and electing conservation-minded policymakers. We work closely with policy leaders, activists, businesses, and other organizations, and have built a reputation as one of the leading conservation advocacy organizations in the region. Within the organization, we aim to create a workplace culture of policies and practices that demonstrate how we value equity and inclusion.

What You’ll Do
As Public Lands Campaign Manager, you’ll work to deliver policy wins on public lands issues at the federal, state, and local levels. You’ll serve as our organization’s policy expert on lands, reporting to the West Slope Director on our Government Affairs team. This includes running issue-specific coalitions and tables and owning issue-specific policy campaigns for the organization. This role can evolve over time, but you will have these areas of responsibility:

Win policy campaigns

• Develop and execute strategic public lands campaign plans by collaborating with external partners and Conservation Colorado colleagues. 
• Provide issue area expertise and stay informed about policy and political developments relating to campaign strategy, including how these issues impact tribal nations and communities of color.
• Ensure that our equity principles are embedded within all climate campaigns.

Manage coalitions and build relationships 

• Work with partners to determine priorities, develop policy ideas, and build strategic campaign plans.
• Lead and/or participate in key public lands coalitions; diversify and grow coalitions to include a variety of voices and interests who support our work and influence decision makers, with a particular focus on Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
• Identify and cultivate relationships with decision makers at the legislature, state agencies, the governor’s administration, and others to ensure that Conservation Colorado is a trusted partner and key resource for legislators and decision makers.
• Meet with key foundation representatives and participate in funder briefings and other fundraising activities as requested by the fundraising team.

In addition to your regular responsibilities, all staff are expected to participate in certain fundraising efforts, take part in our election-related activities, and commit to our efforts around equity & inclusivity.

Qualifications
To be successful in this job, you will need to be excited and motivated to dive in on public lands policies, environmental issues more broadly, and Colorado politics, as well as have the skills to work collaboratively with partners and our team.

Fundamentally, we are seeking an issue campaigner with the skills and experience to deliver significant and equitable public lands policy victories to Colorado. More specifically, you will have or be most or all of the following:

• 4+ years of issue or political advocacy: Particularly in developing and executing campaigns. Public lands issue knowledge preferred but not required. 
• Relationship builder & coalition manager: Helping groups, whether your colleagues or coalitions, make decisions and then stay on track to deliver campaign wins is critical in this role. You excel at building the trust and respect necessary for relationships with decision makers, partners, and colleagues. This is especially important when working with those who have different social identities, or who have competing priorities, or who might disagree. 
• A commitment to our theory of change: You share our belief that equity and justice is centered and must stay centered in our work. We work at the intersection of people, policy, and politics to advocate for solutions to environmental problems. We accomplish this by organizing communities, influencing decision-makers, and electing conservation-minded leaders. This position is at the critical intersection of joining these different aspects of our work.
• Strong strategizing ability: Public lands issues are nuanced. We’re looking for someone with a demonstrated ability to navigate complex campaigns and issues, along with the ability to see solution pathways. Communication skills are necessary as well. You’ll produce collaborative plans with insightful, pragmatic, equitable, and sustainable ways to win issue campaigns.
• Cultural competency: We are working to change the face of the environmental movement. We accomplish this by expanding our base and partnerships to reach communities that have often been left out of policy decisions. Public lands issues are at the center of this. You must understand how your own social identities impact how you show up in this work. As we mentioned above, we need someone who identifies potential policy solutions through a racial justice lens.
  

This position does not have an undergraduate education requirement. Spanish/English bilingualism is a skill we value, but it is not a requirement for this role. This is a full-time job with flexibility in the exact schedule.

Compensation and Benefits:
The full-time salary range for this role is between $70,000 to $79,000, based on a wage analysis across the organization and new staff rarely starting at the top of the range.

We provide high-quality, zero-deductible health insurance and a strong benefits package that includes a SIMPLE IRA retirement plan with a match, at least 28 days of vacation & holidays as well as 6 physical & mental wellness days in your first year, and parental leave and a sabbatical program. This job offers an opportunity to engage people to find solutions to some of the most important environmental issues in Colorado and work with a great team that is committed to a better, more equitable future. It will be challenging, inspiring, and sometimes frustrating, but you’ll be making a big difference.

Please note that as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, Conservation Colorado employees are not eligible to participate in the Federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.

We are committed to building a more diverse and inclusive organization and conservation movement to fully represent and engage all Coloradans and to build as powerful a movement as we can. Recruiting staff that better reflects Colorado is a priority and we encourage applicants from all cultures, race, ethnicity, geographies, political affiliation, sexual orientations, gender identities, and all other identities represented in Colorado or protected by law. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

To Apply
If this job truly speaks to you, please click here to submit an application, including a cover letter addressed to Luke Schafer, a résumé, and your answers to a few short questions. If you need accommodation or assistance with our online application process, please tell us how we can help by emailing jobs@conservationco.org or by calling us at 303.333.7846.