Digital Communications Director

Role Highlights

• Full-time, Hybrid Work Environment
• Location – Chicago, IL
• Competitive Compensation and Benefits
• Excellent opportunities for professional development and growing leadership skills

Company Overview

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago was founded more than a century ago to meet human needs. We accompany anyone in need regardless of their faith, race, gender, or ethnicity. By unifying and collaborating across the Catholic community during the 1917 global pandemic, our founders envisioned that together we might make a bigger difference for our community, and we did . . . and still do. A trusted partner and steward, Catholic Charities has grown to be one of the largest human service providers in the Chicago metropolitan region, covering all of Cook and Lake counties.

Position Overview

The Director – Digital Communications (D-DC) will be a key member of the IRC Team. Specifically, they will be charged with leading the team in setting a vision for and aligning the Team around a targeted and tightly executed digital strategy. Key outlets included under this strategy include our public website, a small set of social media platforms, and the strategic use of mass e-mail and texting.

In this role, the Director – Digital Communications will report to the President’s Chief of Staff, who is charged by the President and CEO with convening and facilitating the IRC Team. Toward that end, the D-DC will be expected to prepare regular reports for the President on strategy and outcomes around digital communications.

For the public website, the D-DC will set strategy for the overall website, as well as curate all content for the front landing page, the Learn More section, and the Enable Our Work section. To do this work well, the D-DC will partner with outside graphic and website design experts. They will also partner closely with the Director for Program Marketing (D-PM), whose job focuses on outreach to the people we serve. Accordingly, the D-PM will curate all content for the Get Help section.

The D-DC will ensure that the overall website is continually evolving with fresh content – both written and visual – with the goal of increasing all visitation analytics and reputational impact. With excellent WordPress abilities and deep understanding of Google analytics, the specialist will work with external digital partners to maximize the site’s effectiveness across all stakeholder groups.

The D-DC will also lead the Team in creating and implementing a thoughtful, targeted strategy for communicating via a small set of social media platforms. This will include determining the minimum number and most appropriate platforms for advancing Catholic Charities’ visibility, reputation, client impact, and donor revenues. They will partner across the IRC Team to establish a well-integrated monthly posting schedule and assure that all content is aligned – in advance of any posting.

Finally, the D-DC will also lead the team in aligning on the appropriate use of mass e-mail and text blasts. This will include determining the minimum and most appropriate use of blast texts and e-mails for advancing Catholic Charities’ visibility, reputation, client impact, and donor revenues. They will partner across the IRC Team to establish a well-integrated monthly schedule and assure that all content is aligned – in advance of implementation.

What we are looking for:

Someone to:

• Champion discussions with internal stakeholders to gain a deep understanding of the digital communication needs through agreement on project objectives, target audience(s), socio-emotional goals, and behavioral goals;
• Leverage performance data to establish baselines (if not already present), determine project pathways, and set success metrics;
• Work effectively with leading outside vendors to provide additional technical experience; and
• Reaffirm visual identity guidelines while promoting our values and purpose in all that we promote to our audiences
• It will be especially important that this leader has strong visual design sensibilities. They do not need to be a graphic designer by training, but they should have excellent judgment in gathering and selecting visual content across all media outlets. It is critical that they have an eye for fully conveying Charities’ identity with pictures, as well as words.

What you will be focused on:

Website Strategy and Management

• Set a vision for catholiccharities.net and build plan to launch a new version in first half of 2024
• Outline objectives, goals, and key deliverables – in partnership with Senior Team and IRC Team
• Solicit proposals from alternative vendors to deliver on this vision
• Partner with vendors to deliver a best-in-class new website
• Maintain existing catholiccharities.net utilizing a comprehensive understanding of WordPress
• Assure that all content is edited and proofread for errors with a sharp attention to detail and format and that all visuals are of high-quality, on message, and fully aligned with our identity, reputation, and culture goals
• Conceptualize and collaborate with internal teams to manage online program information and promotional strategies
• Enforce site standards around design, brand, accessibility, and visualization.
• Present monthly analytical reports through Google Analytics, interpreting data to drive site strategy

Social Media Strategy and Management

• Manage Catholic Charities presence on leading social media platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube) through the oversight and creation of a monthly editorial/post calendar (developed in partnership with an internal stakeholder committee)
• Monitor all platform engagement, acknowledging support, responding to questions, removing/hiding inappropriate commentary, and following and upholding other Catholic Charities partner organizations.
• Compile a monthly analytics performance report, highlighting key takeaways from the data to optimize Catholic Charities social engagement.

Text and E-mail Strategy and Management

• Create standards, guidelines, and strategies for guiding members of the IRC Team in selectively using and leveraging these platforms on behalf of stakeholder engagement.

Why you should join us:

• Ability to impact social justice work across Chicagoland
• Excellent opportunities for professional development and growing leadership skills
• Able to participate in cross-functional teams to advance Catholic Charities awareness
• Competitive compensation and benefits
• Hybrid work environment

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago