Nature of Work

The Vice President (VP) of Marketing & Communications is a visionary and strategic leader responsible for shaping and executing the Arizona Community Foundation’s (ACF) statewide brand strategy. This role is pivotal in enhancing ACF’s visibility, reputation, and engagement with diverse stakeholders, including donors, nonprofits, community leaders, and the media. As a member of the senior leadership team, the VP will lead a high-performing marketing and communications team and collaborate across departments to ensure consistent, compelling, and mission-aligned messaging that elevates ACF as a trusted philanthropic leader and convener.

Essential Job Functions

• Brand Leadership: Champion ACF’s brand identity and ensure alignment with its mission, vision, and values across all platforms and audiences.
• Strategic Marketing & Communications: Develop and implement integrated marketing, communications, and public relations strategies that drive visibility and engagement, both externally and internally, through targeted and inspirational storytelling.
• Team Leadership: Lead, mentor, engage and develop the marketing & communications team.  Manage all external vendor relationships and consultants, ensuring the delivery of timely, high-impact products and collateral.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Cultivate strong relationships with media, community partners, donors, and internal stakeholders to amplify ACF’s voice, statewide impact, and sector leadership.
• Performance Measurement: Define, execute and track key marketing performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate the effectiveness of brand and communication strategies.

Duties and Responsibilities

Vision & Strategy

• Develop and execute a comprehensive brand strategy, in partnership with the Chief Impact Officer and executive team, to strengthen ACF's identity, ensure consistency and alignment with its vision, mission, strategy and values and increase audience engagement.
• Lead as the brand champion, advancing ACF’s brand and reputation in communities across the state. 
• Collaborate with the executive team to advise and participate in decisions that impact the ongoing reputation of the organization.
• Establish and execute plans to target more segments of the marketplace and diversify revenue, working in concert with the executive team to determine the strategies the organization will deploy to achieve these goals.
• Track and analyze relevant metrics to highlight deviations, monitor trends, and contribute to business strategy.
• Consistently seek to enhance and elevate ACF’s standing as the ‘go-to’ organization for philanthropy, community connectedness, thought partnership, and collaboration.
• Contribute creative ideas and innovative solutions to advance ACF’s strategic priorities. 

Marketing / Communications / PR / Engagement

• Develop, implement, and manage ACF’s internal and external marketing, communications, and public relations activities and strategies, with a focus on delivering compelling content to reach and influence target audiences statewide to increase philanthropy, community engagement and impact. Track the return on these efforts and seek to continuously improve.
• Work closely with all business units to understand and synthesize messaging, creating compelling brand messaging that addresses ACF’s value propositions and highlights key focus areas. 
• Build and manage strong relationships and a strong presence with media outlets, digital platforms, influencers, and thought leaders to amplify ACF’s engagement and reach.
• Collaborate with development and community teams to integrate branding and marketing strategies to enhance donor and community engagement and support and elevate fundraising activities.
• Play an active role in creating strategic partnerships with corporate sponsors, community leaders, and other foundations to expand ACF's reach and impact.
• Oversee the creation, planning and execution of ACF events, campaigns and strategic messaging for target audiences that deliver high impact results.
• Support the CEO and executive team members to represent ACF in public settings, including audience research, identification of strategic messaging goals and delivery of speeches, talking points, and presentations.
• Represent ACF in public settings as spokesperson for the organization with the media and by engaging in collaborative planning groups and project task forces.
• Review all ACF Board and committee meeting presentations and materials.
• Manage crisis communication strategies to protect and maintain ACF’s reputation.

Staff/Budget Management & Development

• Serve as a collaborative member of the senior leadership team, with an emphasis on innovation, peer learning and support, a cross functional mindset, and contributing to a positive and strong team and organizational culture. 
• Supervise marketing and communications staff and contractors by developing clear expectations and performance standards, team building, facilitating and monitoring goals and objectives, preparing written evaluations, and establishing professional development plans to meet organizational goals.
• Promote a service-oriented, inclusive, and creative team environment.
• Plan and administer the budget for the marketing & communications business unit.

Knowledge or Skills

• Requires 10 to 15 years of relevant industry experience in communications, marketing, advertising, public relations, or a related field; plus
• Bachelor’s degree in communications, public relations, journalism, or a related field.
• Nonprofitsector experience is preferred.
• Strong computer skills, including proficiency in Microsoft Office products, Adobe Creative Suite, InDesign, event management software, WordPress content management system and knowledge of HTML.
• Advanced organizational management skills, strategic thinking, and capacity to see both the larger picture and the detailed steps needed to achieve success.
• High proficiency with social media platforms, data analytics, and related tools.
• Strong journalistic writing ability with experience editing, proofreading, and writing original copy. 
• Experience leading a marketing and communications team in the execution of strategic plans. 
• Ability to coach a team and guide personal and professional development in others. 
• Demonstrated ability in writing and managing website content and preparing photos, graphics, and text for online deployment.
• Ability to be a self-starter, function independently, and make sound decisions based on experience, knowledge, and business acumen.
• Experience making presentations, leading group discussions, and building consensus among various parties. 
• Excellent organizational skills including attention to detail and ability to follow through. 
• Excellent customer service skills. 

Major Accountabilities

• Effectively represent the Foundation in a positive manner.
• Manage multiple projects and situations in an effective and efficient manner.
• Effectively communicate, verbally and in writing, at all levels. 
• Be an independent, critical, and creative leader.

Other Requirements

This position functions in an office environment and requires some local and/or regional travel.  Must be available for occasional evening and/or weekend work hours. 

The intent of this job description is to provide a representative summary of the major duties and responsibilities performed by incumbents of the position. Incumbents may be required to perform other job-related tasks other than or in addition to those specifically presented in this description.

Career Opportunities – Arizona Community Foundation