Job Opportunity for Strategic Communications Manager at Pratham in Multiple Locations

About Pratham

Pratham Education Foundation (‘Pratham’) is an innovative learning organization with a mission of “every child in school and learning well”. More than twenty years ago, Pratham’s work began with pre-schools in the urban slums of Mumbai, Today Pratham has grown both in scope and geographical coverage. Currently, Pratham has activities in 23 states and UTs and implements programs that include activities for pre-school and elementary school age groups, dropout girls and women as well as vocational skilling programs for youth. As one of the largest non-governmental organizations in the country, Pratham focuses on high-quality, low-cost, and replicable interventions to address gaps in the education system.

The mission to improve the quality of education in India and ensure that all children not only attend but also thrive in school is being accomplished by working in collaboration with the government, local communities, parents, teachers, volunteers, and civil society members. Our programs aim to supplement rather than replace governmental efforts. They are implemented on a large scale to not only reach as many children as possible, but also to enable an adoptable demonstration model for governments and other partners. For more details, refer to www.pratham.org

Role Overview

As Pratham continues to grow and have a significant impact on learning outcomes in India, the organization is looking to hire a Strategic Communications Manager. This individual will be responsible for working with a team for raising the visibility of the Pratham approach and its overall mission. This individual will help build and participate in implementing a multi-dimensional communications strategy, aimed at delivering unified and consistent messages across all of its key constituencies: donors, partners, media, internal team members and employees, volunteers, government representatives, community leaders, etc.

Pratham has grown organically over time with its network of affiliates both in India and outside and is involved in a number of activities, each with an external-facing component. The Strategic Communications Manager will be instrumental in working with others in the communications team, and across the organization, including with international affiliates such as Pratham USA and Pratham UK, in helping to reconcile and prioritize communication and marketing strategies across activities in order to create and confirm a unified face of the organization.

Specifics include working with the Communications and programs teams to carry out the following:

• Communications Strategy – Coordinate annual development of the overall, integrated communications strategy based on the organization’s positioning, defined organizational objectives, the competitive situation, and a deep understanding of key stakeholders (Corporates, Foundations, Individual Donors, Media, Other Non-Profits, Governments, Academics & Researchers), and expectations across brands, messages/channels and vehicles/forums/platforms. Plans need to link back to the organizational objectives, and include a sharp focus on target audience, message, medium(s), timing and weight.
• Brand Steward – Ensure that Pratham brand continues to embrace and reflect the defined brand equities across all communication touch-points, with every key stakeholder group. Serve as a passionate steward, advocate and gatekeeper for the brands, providing internal standards and guard-rails for the organization to follow while not curbing the flexibility, agility and decentralized decision-making culture that the organization has developed.
• Strategic Partnerships – Working cooperatively with the Executive team, help identify, explore pathways and pursue strategic relationships with a variety of external partners – corporations, media, foundations, influencers, event and product partners etc.—who share common interests and objectives as Pratham. The focus of this work will be on the communications programs designed with and for these important strategic partners and on supporting consumer retail fundraising.
• Creative Oversight & Leadership – Lead development of creation of content for creatives across platforms including overseeing written and design material, ensuring consistency, quality and messaging across creatives.
• PR & Media Management – Work actively on managing the PR and media for Pratham including working hand in hand with colleagues from international affiliates.
• Agency Oversight (as required) – Oversee and manage outside Communications, PR, and Brand agencies/Consultants, and that there is consistency in how the brand is handled across all communications. This oversight should also include monitoring which projects are handled internally, and which are outsourced, in order to optimize the cost/quality/timing balance. (To date Pratham has not worked with too many external agencies. Most efforts have been inhouse activities).
• Platform & Collateral Management & Performance – oversee coordination and management of communications activities across platforms including social media, Website (including SEO and content management), email communications, marketing collaterals, fundraising and campaign materials etc. Additionally, oversee and track performance of communications initiatives across all internal and external platforms to inform strategy.
• Team Management & Recruitment Support – daily management of current team and lead recruitment effort to build a communications team to deliver on organizational marketing & communications strategy and needs.

Qualifications and Experience

Key Performance & Success Measures include:

• Brand Health measures (Attributes, Equity) across key stakeholders
• Number of communications products ideated and utilized (across programs and key donor markets)
• Growth in social media followers (FB, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube)
• Conversion of online followers to retail donors
• Increase in website traffic and performance
• Team growth and performance over time
• Success of campaigns and communications activities across platforms
• Improvement in internal communications management
• Managing workload of the communications team, including management of urgent requirements within organization to ensure smooth and punctual work flow

An Ideal Candidate will:

• Have 8-12 years’ experience in “audience first” communications with a non-profit organization, corporate or relevant experience in media roles
• Be fluent in both spoken and written English. Fluency in an additional Indian language is desirable
• Have leadership experience and the ability to oversee and direct team members in coordination with the team lead
• Have the ability to travel as required. We believe a key component of communicating about
• Pratham’s work is forming a direct connection with our programs through on-ground visits. An ideal candidate would be willing and able to travel frequently across the country to visit our local programs
• Be self-directed/motivated, flexible and adaptable
• Have a strong work ethic and be results oriented

Other Details

Location – New Delhi, Mumbai or Hyderabad

Reports to – Reports to Advisory group for Communications from Pratham leadership team and helps build a communications strategy and strengthen the team.

Application Process

Please send the following to communications@pratham.org by the application deadline with Strategic Communications Manager – (Your Name) in the subject line.

• Statement of Purpose (500 words) highlighting your background, your interest in the role and why you are a good fit
• Updated CV (no more than 3 pages) capturing all relevant experience in line with the expectations of the role
• References (at least 1 and no more than 3) who can speak to your experience and the overall fit for the role and organization

The application deadline is Aug 30, 2022.