The Organization

Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative believes in the vision that all people have a home. We are a collaborative of congregations and housing advocates who believe that secure, affordable housing provides the key to safer communities, stronger families, and a healthier economy.

Together, we develop new apartment homes, invest in residents through supportive services, and champion policy solutions that expand access to safe, affordable housing across Minnesota. Beacon safely houses more than 1,500 individuals in the greater Twin Cities metro, with advocacy and policy work that impacts communities statewide. We believe quality, affordable homes belong in every community.

Beacon is seeking individuals who are deeply aligned with our mission, bring strong cultural competency, and are committed to ongoing learning and collaboration as we work to address bias and racial inequities in housing. Please visit our website to learn more about our strategies, programs, and values, including collaboration, risk-taking, racial equity, and inclusive decision-making.

Role Overview

Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative seeks a Senior Organizer. The Senior Organizer is an advanced practitioner responsible for driving high-level engagement from Beacon’s collaborative of congregations. They are responsible for leading and growing a portfolio of diverse interfaith congregations in the Twin Cities metropolitan area to grow Beacon’s power. The Senior Organizer operates with a high degree of autonomy to develop sophisticated congregational teams and pilots innovative organizing tactics that reach beyond our existing base and serve as models for the rest of the division. The successful Senior Organizer is both self-motivated and collaborative with the Policy and Organizing team. They demonstrate commitment to racial justice and high cultural competency.

This is a full-time, exempt, bargaining unit (union) position and is eligible for health benefits, our retirement plan, and paid time off. The annual salary range for this position is $72,000 - $82,000.

Key Responsibilities

Congregations

• Maintain and develop relationships with a portfolio of congregations and clergy who remain active long-term. Recruit and invite diverse faith communities to join the collaborative.
• Recruit new congregations to explore Beacon’s work, including in-person presentations, visits, trainings, and building tours to introduce them to supportive housing. 
• Design new pathways for engagement and lead new initiatives to broaden Beacon’s appeal to strategic communities. 
• Build relationships with clergy and staff of faith communities that are members or considering membership. 
• Adapt and develop tactics and trainings to include faith communities that are underrepresented in the collaborative or represent communities with lived experience of housing instability. 
• Invite congregations into the membership process according to annual goals.
• Represent Beacon through public presentations and group events in interfaith community spaces.
• Track activity of the portfolio of congregations in the database. 

Leadership Development

• Plan and lead the development of advocates who learn organizing skills and increase the power and inclusion of the collaborative. 
• Seek out, coach, and mentor emerging Beacon leaders in congregations through one-to-one meetings, events, and regular leadership trainings. 
• Update and stay informed of what individuals are active in from their portfolio of congregations using our database. 
• Create intentional pathways for leadership development for active advocates and volunteers to deepen their engagement. 
• Recruit, develop, train, and lead leadership teams that serve to organize individual congregations, support developments, or work to drive a campaign, tactic, or event.
• Master and facilitate Beacon’s existing training programs while identifying gaps and developing new curriculum to meet the evolving needs of campaigns.

Campaigns

• Contribute to the staff team’s development of housing and policy campaign strategies—lead trainings, events, and tactics. 
• Understand complex housing policy and our model of congregational organizing and explain this to individuals or groups in understandable ways. 
• Design and lead tactics for campaigns that allow the growth of new and diverse leaders, such as educational events, letter writing or email drives, days at the Capitol, in-district meetings, rallies, and public events. 
• Train team members to talk to and lobby elected officials. Directly communicate with elected officials or their offices about issues and maintain a number of these relationships on Beacon’s behalf. 
• Lead and support public events by writing agendas, preparing speakers, making invitations, planning and executing logistics, tracking attendee data, and publicly speaking during programs.
• Research, write, and produce materials that effectively communicate about housing policy, developments, or work of the division through blog posts, emails, and flyers. 

Fundraising and Volunteering

• Partner with advancement staff to support Beacon’s fundraising goals. 
• Support asks for larger gifts and first-time gifts from congregations. 
• Invite advocates to make individual gifts to Beacon.
• Develop opportunities for congregations to support residents’ needs through volunteering with service providers and in-kind donation drives. Utilize direct service opportunities to reinforce organizing messages, such as advocacy for public funding. 
• Maintain data related to fundraising and volunteering efforts.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of 3 years of nonprofit or congregational leadership experience that demonstrates autonomy in developing programming or training for volunteers. 
• Experience with community organizing (congregational, labor, political, grassroots, or other)
• Availability to work some weekends and evenings. 
• Have a valid driver’s license and the ability to travel throughout the metro. 

Preferred Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• BA in related field preferred. 
• Attended a weeklong or equivalent organizing training.
• Comfortable working in the context of faith communities; ability to authentically draw on language and values of faith groups and connect that with social change or housing issues.
• Proven ability to work effectively with people from diverse racial, cultural, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Some background working with people experiencing homelessness preferred. 
• Ability to work independently and demonstrate initiative while maintaining strong collaboration as a team member. 
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including public speaking, facilitation of groups, and written articles.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office software, Zoom, social media platforms, and ability or willingness to learn database and simple project management software.
• Strong time and task management skills.

Beacon strives to be an authentically inclusive organization. As an equal opportunity employer, Beacon does not discriminate against candidates on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, age, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation. We affirm that all people are valuable and deserve respect, we welcome diverse perspectives and backgrounds, and foster an inclusive and collaborative environment as we work together on our vision that “All people have a home”. All qualified candidates are welcome to apply.