External Relations Coordinator (Remote)

Ballotpedia is seeking a full-time, 100% remote External Relations Coordinator to provide essential support and project management for its External Relations department. Ballotpedia’s External Relations department leads development, data sales, and strategic partner functions on behalf of the organization with individuals and organizations nationwide. This position will provide comprehensive support to Ballotpedia’s External Relations department including scheduling, meeting planning, project management, document drafting and review, and general administrative support. 

The External Relations Coordinator will play an integral role in coordinating department activities and tracking department successes. They will also be responsible for planning various recurring and ad hoc internal meetings and events for donors and other partners.

This dynamic position requires the ability to anticipate needs, think critically, and offer solutions to problems with a high level of professionalism and confidentiality. An ideal candidate has prior experience working in a support position and/or in a fundraising or sales environment.

The position reports to the Director of External Relations.

Responsibilities

As an External Relations Coordinator, you will:

• Provide sophisticated calendar management for the department, prioritizing inquiries and requests while troubleshooting conflicts gracefully, making judgements and recommendations to ensure smooth day-to-day engagements. 
• Provide administrative project management support and organization for the External Relations department’s major department-level projects, including setting up, monitoring, and managing team task workflows in our project management software, Asana. 
• Assist with travel and meeting follow-up and next action coordination (i.e. coordinating notes and promptly entering important follow-up and tracking information in Salesforce).
• Maintain overall ownership of Salesforce for Ballotpedia users, including monitoring and updating the system, developing routine department reports, and updating contact information and files. 
• Coordinate, attend, take notes for, and capture next actions during key department meetings (including weekly department team meetings, cross-departmental meetings, and significant external meetings).
• Coordinate Ballotpedia’s partnership, speaking, and sponsorship opportunities, including tracking requests, event logistic support, maintenance of records surrounding requests/opportunities, and other support as needed.
• Coordinate the administration of Ballotpedia’s Outreach and Partnership program, including tracking events, sponsorships, and partnerships, meeting preparation and coordination, and post-event follow-up.
• Respond proactively to donor and partner inquiries, routing communications to appropriate staff members.
• Assist with various mailings and donor recognition activities.
• Update, manage, organize, review, and archive department records.
• Conduct donor, customer, and partner research as needed.
• As needed, represent Ballotpedia at in-person conferences and events, as well as in-person department meetings.

Qualifications

The ideal External Relations Coordinator will have:

• A demonstrated passion for Ballotpedia’s mission.
• Preferably 1-3 years experience working in an administrative or program support role and/or in a fundraising or sales environment.
• Prior experience working with customer relationship management (CRM) systems, especially Salesforce.
• Prior event and/or meeting planning experience is a plus, but not required.
• Excellent judgment with the ability to maintain a high level of integrity and discretion in handling confidential information.
• Impeccable attention to detail, a love for logistics and organizing, and a passion for coordinating people and projects.
• An appreciation for and dedication to providing exceptional customer service, as well as a high degree of professionalism in dealing with diverse groups of people.
• A desire to work collaboratively with Ballotpedia staff from multiple departments.
• Ability to react with appropriate levels of urgency to situations and events that require quick response or turnaround.
• A first-rate customer service mindset with a soft spot for hospitality and seamless experiences.

Environment

The External Relations Coordinator will work remotely from their home location. All Ballotpedia staff work remotely. To join Ballotpedia, you must have a computer with Internet access. Ballotpedia uses the Google Workspace (Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive, and more), Slack, Asana, and Salesforce to accomplish our goals. Some familiarity with the Google Workspace, Slack, and Asana is helpful.

Ballotpedia has a flexible work environment, BP Flex, in which every employee enjoys unlimited vacation and flexibility in scheduling. During new employee training, each employee will be oriented to the principles of Ballotpedia’s flexible environment.

Compensation

The pay range for the External Relations Coordinator is $44,000-$46,500 and will be commensurate with experience.

In addition to salary, Ballotpedia offers an annual benefits stipend equivalent to $8,000, which is paid out in equal increments in each paycheck once an employee becomes benefits eligible. The stipend may be used to pay for a full benefits package, including health, vision, and dental insurance, retirement accounts, and more. If benefits are not elected, the stipend is taxed as regular income and added to the salary.

To Apply

To apply, click on ‘Apply for this job’ below and fill out the form.

Please attach the following in PDF format:

• Résumé
• Cover letter detailing your interest in Ballotpedia’s mission and this position

Please ensure that your current address is included in your résumé or cover letter. Applications without addresses will not be accepted.

Please note that if you are hired for this position, Ballotpedia participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, Ballotpedia is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9. For more information on E-Verify, or if you believe that your employer has violated its E-Verify responsibilities, please contact DHS.

About Ballotpedia

Ballotpedia is a collaborative team of fast learners and creative problem solvers who are eager to work hard to make the world a better place. We believe the world will be a better place if every citizen has access to information to make informed decisions about their vote in every election in which they are eligible to vote: primary, general, and special elections; federal, state, and local offices.

We work diligently to present the available information about elections, candidates, judges, ballot measures, policies, and more in a way that enables our readers to vote with confidence and to act as engaged citizens outside of the polling booth.

Ballotpedia readers, like Ballotpedia staff, are special people.

When we launched in 2007, we did not go out of our way to seek new readers. Starting with our small team of visionary idealists, nerds, and aspiring political journalists, we just wrote the best unbiased online articles we could, especially about ballot measures. Readers found those articles in droves. It turns out there was an unclaimed audience out there—people who wanted straightforward facts about political issues, and were willing to read at length instead of just scanning the headlines.

“If you build it, they will come:'' our readers came to our neutral oasis in growing numbers; we’ve had many millions of lifetime pageviews, we reached nearly half of all voters in 2020, and, in the month surrounding the November 2020 election, we were the 77th most-visited website in the U.S.

We’ve come to realize that we need to meet our readers where they are. In doing so, over the past five years, we’ve grown our email newsletter program from infancy to include more than 3,000,000 opt-in subscribers with more than a dozen newsletters to choose from. We are working in numerous ways to help put our neutral information in front of people at the times when they most need it, including on mobile phones while you’re standing in the voting booth. We firmly believe that our readers, and the mindset we help them cultivate, are essential in a world where too many others are fighting to get us all addicted to sensational posts and the irrational decisions they foster.

If this is a mission you’d be willing to work hard to achieve, and if this is a team you’d be willing to work hard with—JOIN US.