• Job Description

  Req#: 474559
  The Best Friend's Mission is to do nothing short of making history by bringing about a time when there are No More Homeless Pets. Our goal is that every animal shelter in every community in the country be no kill by the end of 2025. The fact is, we have a great culture, populated by fun, dedicated and brilliant people. But we’re always looking for talented people who can help us make history, and that’s where you come in. If you want to be a part of history and end the killing of shelter pets by 2025, apply today for one of our open job opportunities!

  Location: Remote, USA

  Hiring Range: This position is anticipated to pay a salary between $75,000 and $95,000 depending on experience.

  Manager interviews will begin the week of December 4th.

  Position Summary: The Communications Strategist develops, supports, and executes a wide variety of public relations activities that build public awareness and support for Best Friends and our no-kill 2025 goal. You are a critical thinker and creative storyteller with an ability to understand and distill complex issues into consumable, compelling stories for a broad spectrum of channels and audiences. You are an exceptional writer and communicator who works with a sense of urgency and can always find a meaningful way into public narratives. You are extremely collaborative, have strong follow thru and project management skills.

  Essential Duties/Responsibilities:

  • Treat people around you as our most valuable resource by leading with Kindness and Compassion in all your actions, build trust by demonstrating authenticity and following through on your commitments, encourage self-care and work-life balance through your own example, and work to build strong relationships with your team by creating communication loops to share and receive honest feedback. You are responsible and accountable for the culture of your team.
  • Create and execute public relations strategies and tactics to build awareness of Best Friends’ lifesaving work and thought leadership around the United States by writing and developing press releases, pitches, Op-eds, fact sheets, bios, media briefings, and more while managing messaging strategies and distributions.
  • Develop, maintain, and leverage critical relationships with national, regional, and local media channels and news producers, including mainstream and independent platforms.
  • Utilize comprehensive industry data to drive storytelling and shape integrated communications strategies.
  • Manage media shoots, serve as a Best Friends spokesperson and media train appropriate staff as needed to promote a myriad of topics, including adoption segments, thought leadership and other relevant issues.
  • Analyze coverage of animal welfare issues in various media outlets and provide strategic communication counsel to senior leaders on thought leadership opportunities.
  • Partner with cross-functional internal teams such as marketing, social, creative, advocacy, celebrity relations, corporate relations, and programming to create and ensure delivery of compelling messaging and maximum exposure for Best Friends.
  • Seek out media opportunities in assigned region(s), as well as serve as a mentor, partner and/or content producer for local Network Partners.
  • Maximize media opportunities in assigned market(s) by collaborating with internal stakeholders to support events, adoption promotions and lifesaving stories.

  Skills and Experience:

  • 5+ years related communications and PR experience. Agency experience preferred.
  • Ability to distill complex and nuanced issues into succinct and consumable messages for a variety of audiences and channels.
  • Understanding of industry trends and dynamics, earned media landscape and modern media platforms.
  • Excellent writer and communicator with strong attention to detail.
  • Passion for the mission and objectives of Best Friends with strong sense of curiosity about no-kill and related animal welfare issues.
  • Demonstrated success in building media relationships and earning media placement from influential and a broad range of media outlets and channels.

  Physical & Other Requirements:

  • Must be able to perform repetitive tasks for extended periods of time including typing, sitting, walking, arm, and hand motion.
  • Valid driver’s license, meeting Best Friends Animal Society’s driver qualification standards; ability to travel up to 20% of the time.
  • Daily hours and days of the week may vary according to the needs of the department schedule; position includes weekends, nights, and holiday work.

  Best Friends recently received a 2022 Top Workplaces USA award from Energage. Visit the Best Friends Animal Society page on the Energage Top Workplaces award winners’ site here to learn more. Not only do we take pride in cultivating a welcoming and supportive community and culture for our employees, but we also offer competitive benefits that make it easy to see why we were granted such an awesome award! We offer competitive pay including the opportunity to receive a discretionary bonus based on performance. We offer medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, short and long-term disability, dependent care reimbursement, pet sitting reimbursement when traveling for work, flexible spending account, and health savings account. We offer generous paid time off up to 9 hours per month for full time employees, nine paid holidays annually, auto insurance discount, and legal and identity theft coverage. For added well-being support, we offer Pawternity Leave for employees to have time to care for their personal pets, mental health support, and an employee assistance program. We also offer a generous 401k savings plan. Do you want to love where you work and make history and end the killing of shelter pets by 2025? Look no further and apply today!

  Thank you for your interest in pursuing a career at Best Friends Animal Society. Best Friends Animal Society is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to their race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, marital status, or domestic partner status.

  Applicants for employment in the US must have valid work authorization that does not now and/or will not in the future require sponsorship of a visa for employment authorization in the US by Best Friends Animal Society.

• About the company

  Best Friends Animal Society, founded in its present form in 1993, is an American nonprofit 501 animal welfare organization.

Notice