Irving Harris Foundation

Chaloner has partnered with the Irving Harris Foundation on their search for a Director of Communications.

About Irving Harris Foundation

Irving Harris Foundation (IHF) fuels ideas, leaders and movements led by and for people most impacted by harm. We partner with those who are reimagining systems, centering equity, and shifting power and resources to eliminate racial and gender disparities among pregnant and birthing people, babies, very young children and their families so that they thrive within just and flourishing communities. To realize our vision, Irving Harris Foundation invests approximately $18 million annually in four interconnected areas: Early Childhood, Reproductive Health and Justice, Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health and Jewish Values. To maximize our impact, the Foundation leverages our resources, time, knowledge and influence to further fuel the efforts of our grantee partners centering our core values of justice, courage, persistence, relationships and equity. We work side by side with our partners and foster supportive relationships rooted in trust. 

Irving Harris Foundation has four primary strategies: grassroots organizing and movement building to galvanize people-driven movements; advocacy, policy and systems building to address root causes that lead to disparities and shift public and private resource allocation; innovative community centered and led model development and replication to help incubate, launch and sustain new programs, ideas and institutions; and leadership and workforce development to build the capacity of current and future generations of changemakers, especially those from communities most impacted by harm who are best positioned to lead changes rooted in community that address persistent disparities. Irving Harris Foundation is a private foundation based in Chicago and funds in Illinois, nationally and to a limited extent in Israel.

In 2024, the Foundation announced that it will be sunsetting by 2032 after 85+ years in existence. As a spend-down philanthropy working in under-resourced priority areas, IHF invests in systems, policies, capacity building efforts, and leaders so that the impact of our work may endure long after Irving Harris Foundation sunsets. As the Foundation enters the final phases of spending down our assets, we are establishing our sunset programmatic and partner engagement strategies and clarifying our legacy priorities. We seek candidates who have exceptional narrative design and storytelling experience, are detail-oriented, organized and who can contribute to our organizational culture through their lived experience and commitment to racial, gender and economic equity for all. The Foundation is committed to fostering an equitable, inclusive and diverse culture, and seeks candidates who can help the Foundation achieve this aspiration.

Position Summary

IHF seeks a Director of Communications to join its Leadership Team. While IHF has worked with communications consultants and contractors, the Director of Communications will be IHF’s first full-time staff communications hire and will help shape and evolve the role. This role will support IHF in advancing its strategic work through spend down, focusing on the critical role IHF’s narrative plays in advancing our legacy and philanthropic impact and using communications to leverage our partners’ impact now and after we sunset. Additionally, this role will support internal communications including the Foundation team’s effective reporting and engagement with the Foundation’s Board of Directors. 

The Director of Communications will possess a deep commitment to IHF’s mission, and be able to identify and implement strategic communications activities that reflect the Foundation’s legacy and contribute to change in the reproductive and birth justice, early childhood, infant mental health, and Jewish Values ecosystems through an integrated strategy. In addition, they will be considering how the Foundation’s legacy could impact the philanthropic sector. The director will be excited and motivated to pursue innovative approaches and experimental thinking and know how to translate these ideas into a practical course of action. 

As a member of the Leadership Team, the Director of Communications will work in collaboration across the organization to create and execute an effective communications strategy that fits the organization today and looks toward the future. The Director of Communications will maintain and elevate IHF’s positioning, shape narrative and storytelling, lead projects, provide communications support to staff and when possible, external partners, and determine messaging and communications channels.

The ideal Director of Communications is a compelling storyteller, a voracious consumer of local and national media and a gifted communicator who is intellectually curious and has the facility to write and speak about complex social issues and sectors in a way that inspires action.

Key Responsibilities include:

Strategic Communications, Storytelling and Narrative Development

• Develop the vision for IHF’s communications strategy, including articulating a clear internal philosophy on the role of communications and how to use IHF’s assets to advance the mission. This should include:
• A roadmap for building our narrative and storytelling process 
• A plan to eliminate communications silos and build an ongoing engagement strategy and feedback processes for program team engagement
• Internal communication plan for knowledge sharing and best practices
• An alignment of our language to our values 
• A long-term vision for organizational sunsetting communications
• Develop and execute an organization-wide narrative that effectively works across the range of programmatic priorities and incorporates family and practitioner voices shaping the Foundation’s narrative. From this narrative strategy, guide, build and counsel leadership on the following:
• Identify storytelling opportunities for the organization and its partners. Build a storytelling framework that aligns with narrative pillars, and the Foundation’s principles and practices.
• Create messaging and talking points for team members to support their ability to communicate with external stakeholders in a way that ensures transparency and clarity for our grantees and other partners regarding our priorities, policies and practices as IHF sunsets.
• Write/edit communications and support thought leadership and field building opportunities, leveraging IHF’s platform in alignment with the overarching communications strategy.
• Work with the Leadership Team to manage storytelling for Board meetings including building the strategy and approach to presentations and materials. Support goal setting, narrative building and content direction.
• Develop content such as newsletters, annual reports, IHF’s website and other high-valuable deliverables.
• Determine analytics and success metrics for all communications work 
• Work with and or hire external contractors to support successful implementation of communications tactics organization-wide.

Overall Foundation Effectiveness

• Collaborate across program areas to advance the Foundation’s vision, mission, internal and external goals.
• Support updates and revisions to grantmaking processes as IHF continues to advance our commitments to Trust Based Philanthropic practices.
• Participate in full team and relevant Program team meetings.

Foundation Organizational Culture

• Contribute to building an inclusive and equitable organizational culture that is joyful, inclusive, equitable and trusting.
• Support the Foundation’s commitment to live into its values of becoming an anti-racist organization.
• Engage and participate in workshops and consultation on racial equity including activities of the Culture Club

Candidate Profile

We recognize that there is a spectrum of lived and professional experience that will set candidates up for success in this role. While no one candidate will have every experience outlined in the position description, ideal candidates will display the following professional and personal qualities, skills, and characteristics:

• Passion for the mission of IHF
• A minimum of 12 years of increasingly responsible communications roles is required. At least five (5) years in a communications leadership role working in close collaboration with senior leaders
• Senior level expertise and experience in the communications field, including proven experience building or evolving a communications function in the mission-driven space
• Values alignment and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion including proven experience centering equity through strategic communications
• A creative outlook and adaptability to change, be it embracing a shift in strategy or finding new approaches to existing work
• An understanding of the philanthropic sector from experience working directly in a foundation setting or alongside as a partner or grantee is preferred
• Strategic issue-based communications experience in the mental health, reproductive justice, prenatal-to-age-3 (early childhood), multi issue grassroots organizing and movement building policy fields is a plus but not required
• Strong relationship building/relationship management skills. Proven experience working as a proactive partner to field experts, including those with limited communications experience and resources, providing communications ideas, tactics and support
• Demonstrated practice developing, executing and measuring successful and integrated communications plans using a mix of traditional and new strategies and tools. Must be a digital communications expert
• The proven ability to work in a dynamic, and relatively flat organization is essential. This position will both lead and tactically execute.
• A flexible and personable work style.
• Excellent writing skills and the ability to write compelling short and long form content for a range of internal and external audiences, IHF colleagues, grantee audiences, policy influencers, the media and the broader philanthropic community.

This position offers the opportunity to be part of a mission-driven team committed to making a difference in the lives of pregnant and birthing people, infants, young children, and families. We welcome candidates who are passionate about our work and dedicated to creating positive change. We encourage passionate and interested candidates to apply even if you do not meet every qualification.

WHY THE FOUNDATION? 

The Foundation offers a competitive salary/benefits package and the opportunity to work with a small, collaborative, and dedicated team.  

• Competitive Fulltime Salary – salary range $150,000 - $180,000 and commensurate with experience
• Annual bonus, 3-7%  
• Professional Development Opportunities  
• Tuition Reimbursement  
• 401(K) contributions of 15% after 1 year (no match required)  
• Generous employer paid Health, Dental and Vision package  
• Vacation accrual of 18 days in year one increasing in year 2   
• 10 PO PSSL days (up front) upon hire  
• Bank Holidays plus 3 floating holidays  
• Closed the week between Christmas and New Year  
• Work week 4 ½ days per week  
• One in-person collaboration day a week and access to an office at any time  

The position is based in Chicago, Illinois. The Director of Communications may travel on occasion.   

HOW TO APPLY Interested candidates should submit a cover letter, resume and two-to-three-page writing sample using the application form. Chaloner will review all applicants and, upon qualification, contact you to determine next steps.