Job Title: Director of Strategic Communications and Informed Communities
Salary range: $135,000 – $162,000
Location: Denver, CO
Work environment: Hybrid (at least two days per week in the office)
The Organization
Gates Family Foundation celebrated its 78th anniversary in 2024. Since its creation, the Foundation has distributed more than $550 million in grants, with another nearly $60 million committed to impact investments in recent years. Representing a partnership of family and community representatives, the Foundation maintains a strong commitment through its grantmaking and other strategic efforts to four key areas:
- Education: Expanding access to educational opportunity for all children in Colorado.
- Natural Resources: Supporting land and water conservation, forest and watershed health, and management and protection of Colorado’s natural resources.
- Community Development: Addressing the root causes of economic inequality and inequitable community development.
- Informed Communities: Ensuring all Coloradans have access to trustworthy, rigorous, fact-based local news and information about important civic issues.
In recent years, the Foundation has sought to increase its impact through more creative approaches to grantmaking, an expanded impact investing program, additional staffing and expertise, and an increased focus on convening, partnering, and where appropriate, leading in the community. Climate impact has become a lens through which all Foundation grantmaking, investments, and activity are viewed, and since 2018, the Foundation has made an intentional commitment to advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts internally and through its grantmaking and impact investing.
To learn more about Gates Family Foundation and its programs, visit the Foundation’s website.
The Position
Gates Family Foundation is seeking a Director of Strategic Communications and Informed Communities. This position will lead a comprehensive communications strategy aligned with the Foundation’s broader goals, support all program teams in leveraging strategic communications to deepen the impact of their work, and oversee the Foundation’s grantmaking efforts to ensure widespread access to reliable information and strong civic engagement across the state. The position reports directly to the President, regularly oversees contractors, and joins a team of 11 other staff members across programs, learning and evaluation, finance and grants management. Job responsibilities of this role include the following:
Strategic Communications Leadership
- Provide strategic direction to continually develop, refine and implement a multifaceted strategic communications plan that advances the Foundation’s mission, amplifies its initiatives and the work of its grantees and partners, and fosters informed and engaged communities across Colorado
- Work with program teams to develop strategic communications strategies, highlight impact, and amplify success stories in all program areas
Collaborate with the Director of Learning and Evaluation to help codify and share key learnings from the Foundation’s grantmaking and initiatives - Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of communication strategies, making data-driven adjustments as needed
- Lend strategic thought leadership and hands-on communications support to key high-impact initiatives across program areas
- Oversee all aspects of external communications for the Foundation, including digital strategy, content creation, media relations, and public relations
- Build and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders, including community and foundation leaders, strategic partners, and media outlets
- Serve as a spokesperson and representative for the Foundation at public events, conferences, and other engagements
- Support internal communication and learning among the board of trustees and the staff
Informed Communities Program Leadership
- Provide intellectual leadership to continually develop and refine the Foundation’s theory of action and the strategy behind its grantmaking and initiated work for Informed Communities (see detail below)
- Serve as a an active partner and key voice on the Executive Committee of the Colorado Media Project, a broad coalition of stakeholders working to expand and protect access to reliable, local news for all Colorado citizens
- Build and maintain trusted relationships with grantee and non-grantee partners in the media sector, serving as a thought partner and support, surfacing common challenges, and identifying new opportunities to ensure a strong local news ecosystem
- Identify strategic grantmaking opportunities, analyze their feasibility, shape specific opportunities, present recommendations internally, and negotiate grant agreements
- Review grant applications, conduct due diligence, and make recommendations on funding
- Identify and track outcomes to evaluate the impact of foundation investments and inform its strategy for Informed Communities
Qualifications
Ideal candidates will bring:
- Passion for the Foundation’s mission and a deep commitment to fostering a thriving, diverse local news ecosystem accessible to all Colorado citizens
- Leadership experience in communications, with experience developing and executing successful communication strategies that affect positive change at a systems level (e.g. across a city, state, or field); Experience in the nonprofit, public, and/or philanthropic sectors preferred
- A robust and well-rounded communications skillset, including experience in digital media and multimedia content creation, media relations, public relations, and campaigns
- A track record of leading powerfully through collaborative relationships, with deep experience in coalition building, facilitating partnerships, and playing an advisory role to a wide array of stakeholders
- Exceptional storytelling, writing, and oral communication skills, including the ability to craft compelling narratives for diverse audiences and distill complex information into concise, digestible formats
- Experience working in an ambiguous, entrepreneurial context and launching innovative projects or initiatives
- A track record of building trusted relationships across many lines of difference (ideological, sector, political, racial, socioeconomic, geographic, etc.)
- Experience working on a small team with a highly collaborative, “all hands on deck” approach; ability to juggle many competing priorities at once
- Familiarity with Colorado’s local journalism landscape and trends in the field
Desired Mindsets and Orientations
- An entrepreneurial orientation, with experience and comfort in an environment that requires generating new ideas and approaches, handling shifting priorities, working autonomously, and adapting to rapid change
- A demonstrated commitment to equity, community-driven change, and disrupting traditional power dynamics
- A bold strategic thinker who achieves impact while maintaining ease, values-alignment, and voice for all stakeholders
- A servant leader who centers listening, humility, and relationships to achieve goals
- A collaborative team player who thrives in a culture of learning, feedback, coaching and reciprocal support among the team
- A commitment to Colorado and a never-ending curiosity regarding the challenges and opportunities the state faces, ideally including working knowledge of the state
- A leader who brings new and varied perspectives and experiences to the team that are reflective of Colorado’s diverse communities
Informed Communities Priorities and Strategies
Gates Family Foundation is committed to supporting community-based newsrooms and promising new ventures in Colorado that are building a more inclusive, responsive, resilient, and sustainable local news and civic information ecosystem. We support public-service journalism and communications that serve historically ignored communities and provide platforms for underrepresented storytellers. We work to fill civic news gaps in our core focus areas by supporting organizations that report on urgent issues in education, natural resources, and community development.
The priority strategies for Gates’ Informed Communities program are:
- Evolve and Strengthen the Civic News Ecosystem
- Catalyze and support innovations that help make Colorado’s civic news ecosystem more collaborative, resilient, inclusive and responsive to community needs.
- Address Gaps in Civic News Coverage
- Support civic news organizations that increase the amount and reach of high-quality reporting on Gates’ key focus areas of public education, natural resources and community development.
- Build Inclusive News Leadership, Voices and Models
- Engage a broader range of people and institutions in rebuilding the public square, with an emphasis on better service to underserved communities of color and rural areas.
A list of grantees and more information can be found on the Foundation’s website.
Working at Gates Family Foundation
Currently, staff is expected to be in the Foundation’s downtown Denver office on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The balance of the week is flexible and each team and team member is free to decide what approach is optimal. This position is expected to require travel within the state, as well as occasional out-of-state travel.
Gates Family Foundation offers a comprehensive benefits package and paid parental leave. Our work environment is characterized by a culture of collaboration, a commitment to continuous learning, and an inclusive environment that empowers staff to bring their unique perspectives and skills to the work. We place heavy emphasis on the following values:
- Respect – We seek out diverse perspectives and listen with humility and a spirit of learning.
- Creativity – We harness all resources to find new approaches, support experimentation, and drive systemic, lasting solutions.
- Engagement – We partner, convene, collaborate, and lead to catalyze transformative change.
- Place – We are deeply rooted in Colorado, with a long-term commitment to its people, communities, and civic capacity.
- Equity – We prioritize individuals and communities that have been historically marginalized by addressing systemic barriers and creating pathways to opportunity.
To Apply
To apply, please complete our online application (hyperlink: https://forms.gle/DodmNoWpbN17eSjc6). We will accept applications through November 17th, 2024, and we encourage early submissions. The application asks for a resume and, in place of a cover letter, responses to the following questions in 250 words or less:
- What compels you about the work of Gates Family Foundation, and about this position specifically?
- What past experiences have best prepared you for this role?
- What professional values are most important to you? How have those values shaped your behavior and decisions in your career so far?
Gates Family Foundation believes that diverse teams lead to better solutions, creative thinking, and greater depth in experiences and perspectives. We strive in our hiring to ensure that our candidate pool is diverse in terms of race, age, gender, sexual orientation, lived experience, socioeconomic background, physical or mental ability, origin, and religion.
Research suggests that women and people of color are more likely to self-select out of opportunities if they don’t meet 100% of the job requirements. We encourage anyone who believes they have the skills and the drive necessary to succeed here to apply for this role.
Finally, also in 2023 a total of $410,956 previously committed by Gates to the 
A total of $1,110,956 committed to the 
In 2019, the Community Development program committed $932,500 in strategic grants to 13 organizations and $465,000 in responsive capital grants to 12 organizations. New impact investments supporting vibrant communities in 2019 included a $500,000 MRI to 
Our Focus Landscapes initiative, a key element of our Natural Resources program, underwent a comprehensive review, revision, and re-launch in 2019. This initiative was launched in 2011 to help Colorado achieve landscape-scale conservation through the protection of private lands in specific geographies. A great deal of progress was made in North Park, southeast Colorado, and the San Luis Valley, resulting in more than 200,000 acres of farm and ranch lands conserved, along with their associated ecological values. The strategic review process was done in close partnership with the land trust organizations representing those geographies, providing lessons-learned and an exploration of emerging opportunities. The revised Focus Landscapes initiative will first focus on two geographies: