About the Obama Foundation

At the Obama Foundation, we are guided by a core belief: that ordinary people working together can change history. Our mission is to inspire those people to take action, empower them to change their world for the better, and connect them so they can achieve more together than they can alone.

We were founded by community organizers, so when we seek change, we do it by bringing people together. 

That approach begins at home, on the South Side of Chicago, where we are building the Obama Presidential Center. The Center represents a historic opportunity for Chicago: a chance to build a world-class museum and public gathering space that celebrates our nation’s first African American President and First Lady, steps away from where he began his career, where she was raised, and where—together—they made their home. 

But that approach extends to all our work, whether it’s holding leadership training sessions in communities throughout the U.S., bringing local leaders together in countries around the world, working to support the global education of girls, or ensuring young men of color have pathways to opportunity.

As President Obama has said, “we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together.” So join us. 

For more information, please visit www.obama.org.

Purpose of the Role

As a member of the Public Engagement team, the Public Engagement Associate supports the implementation of the Foundation’s theory of change by contributing to a human-centered, data driven, and place-based strategy. In this role, the Associate builds relationships and solicits input from key stakeholders and collaborates cross-departmentally to ensure that input is incorporated into the organization’s strategies  for both local and national engagement. Additionally, the Associate ensures that team goals are met by proactively tracking actions, measuring progress, and reporting out metrics. This role reports to the Director of Public Engagement.

Core Job Responsibilities

  • Public Engagement Project Management: Execute on internal and external-facing projects and partnerships related to OPC community activations, including Public Engagement/Government Affairs initiatives. 
  • Stakeholder engagement and management: Identify, cultivate, and manage relationships with community stakeholders and potential OPC programmatic partners to share updates about the Foundation/OPC and stay current on initiatives, events, and opportunities within Chicago’s non-profit landscape. 
  • Operationalize Place-Based Strategies: Design and maintain a system for tracking priorities and actions, and working across the vertical to ensure goals are met.
  • Public Engagement Communications: Support the creation and dissemination of Public Engagement communications via regular external and internal communications methods.
  • Perform other duties as assigned

Key Deliverables / Outcomes

  • Support surveys, focus groups, and community meetings that solicit feedback from key stakeholder groups and an up-to-date system for sharing that feedback cross-departmentally.
  • Support Public Engagement and OPC programs/activations; ie. salon dinners, roadshows, etc. 
  • Support Public Engagement operations including budget maintenance, contracting, and other administrative items. 
  • Provide regular landscape scans of potential OPC programming partners and an up-to-date system for tracking/evaluating those potential partners.
  • Manage the Public Engagement team’s utilization of the management tools, ie. Salesforce, Asana, etc., keeping records up to date.
  • Report tracking milestones and goals for Public Engagement strategies 
  • Provide up-to-date communications materials, including decks and one-pagers 
  • Support our regular Chicago newsletter for community stakeholders

Required Qualifications

  • Excellence in written and verbal communication (including direct communication with members of the Chicago community), as well as presentation skills. 
  • Experience building and implementing community-informed research strategies, including writing and designing surveys, focus groups, and questionnaires to solicit feedback on a variety of topics.
  • Experience in stakeholder engagement and management. 
  • Experience leading and providing assistance to support projects around Chicago engagement and program development. 
  • Experience using project management tools/systems, i.e. Salesforce and Asana. 

The salary range for this role is between $59,755 and $74,670.

Don’t check off every box in the requirements listed above? Please apply anyway! Studies have shown that marginalized communities - such as women, LGBTQ+ and people of color - are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. The Obama Foundation is dedicated to building an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible workplace that fosters a sense of belonging – so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to still consider submitting an application. You may be just the right candidate for this role or another one of our openings!

In the interest of employee health and safety during the pendency of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Obama Foundation is requiring that all prospective employees present proof that they are fully-vaccinated against COVID-19, or seek a reasonable accommodation for religious or medical reasons, prior to their first day of employment.

Equal Opportunity Employer

The Foundation is committed to creating a diverse work environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. The Foundation does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability, parental status, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable laws. We encourage individuals of all backgrounds to apply. If you are a qualified candidate with a disability, please e-mail us at careers@obama.org if you require a reasonable accommodation to complete this application.

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