The Sustainability Flywheel of the BIG ONE

Organizational Background:
Rare is a fast-growing, international conservation organization that runs state-of-the art communication and outreach projects that empower local communities with the tools to solve their own conservation challenges. Rare’s innovative conservation programs fuel projects located in more than 50 countries around the world.  Named to Fast Company magazine’s list of “Top Social Capitalists” for the last four years in a row, Rare is committed to bringing a spirit of entrepreneurship and creativity to solving one of this century’s great challenges – changing human behavior to make conservation possible.

All Rare projects are managed by local partners; our focus is on building community support for conservation and developing local communications capacity among the world’s leading local environmental organizations. Rare has trained 150 local conservation leaders implementing dynamic change processes in 50 countries. These “campaign managers” work for the largest and the smallest conservation organizations globally, including The Nature Conservancy, WWF, and Conservation International. 

The Opportunity:
To further leverage our investments at both the local and international levels, Rare has launched RarePlanet.org a multi-lingual community platform that connects local and global conservation efforts and promotes collaboration among campaign managers worldwide. RarePlanet.org is designed to support social networking and communication for  communities of practice and training cohorts as well as project management workflow for campaigns. As the Community Manager for RarePlanet.org, the ideal candidate will play a key role in shaping its evolution into a vehicle for enriching the interactions among Rare staff, partners, and investors. The manager will participate in developing and implementing our strategy to make RarePlanet.org into a self-sustaining knowledge and expertise-based community dedicated to improving the practices of conservation and increasing the world’s commitment to conservation.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Work across the organization to enhance the value of RarePlanet.org to our key audiences by supporting community engagement and seeking opportunities to continuously improve contribution, collaboration, interaction, and enthusiasm
• Design and facilitate online events and promotion to spur content development, interactive discussions, and community building
• Manage content quality and develop and manage editorial process to ensure cultural adherence to quality/content standards

RarePlanet.org Site:

• As part of the RarePlanet.org platform team, manage and prioritize feedback including functional, quality, and usability enhancements and modifications suggested by the RarePlanet.org audiences
• Oversee trouble tickets and prioritize platform and user problems. Respond directly to users on problems related to users' lack of understanding
• Understand, report, and act on usage metrics, trends; deploy or develop methods to measure the effectiveness of RarePlanet.org
• Manage internal communications about the status of RarePlanet.org and program initiatives and work with the marketing organization
• As technology steward, train new program managers and provide periodic refresher training to program managers 

Supporting Responsibilities:

• Support efforts to market site to a larger audience base and to align RarePlanet.org with Rare’s marketing communications, programs and initiatives
• Support the Global Conservation Network to research and reach out to known experts in key toolbox areas, and develop program to attract and enlist them onto the site
• Participate in Rare’s global network strategy team as it develops governance models, translation workflows, the development of expertise toolkits, and outreach to a global network of conservation enthusiasts and experts

Qualifications:

• 5+ years experience in digital marketing and/or online community management
• Passionate about working with people, committed to using the Internet for social change, and possess a high level of energy
• Demonstrated experience with E2.0 technologies including blogs, wikis, RSS, discussion forums and community software, with a successful track record of participating in and managing online communities
• Knowledge of HTML and web site design principles. Ideal candidate has experience with CSS and/or Drupal-based communities.
• Native-level written English writing ability and strong interpersonal, project management and organizational skills.
• International experience or global outlook
• BA required; Masters degree preferred

Benefits:
Rare not only inspires conservation, we also inspire our employees. In addition to fully covered health insurance, a 401k savings plan and 3+ weeks of vacation/holiday leave time, Rare employees receive an annual training budget for continuous learning and growth, a bonus plan that ties to individual and organizational performance, and a flexible work environment. And to make sure no one gets cabin fever, there’s an annual staff retreat that allows everyone to experience, and support, Rare’s work in the field.

Application Procedure:
Please email a resume and cover letter, both in Word format, outlining how your skills and experience meet the qualifications of the position to Deb Chamberlin, Sr. Director of Human Resources at humres@rareconservation.org; subject line “Community Manager, RarePlanet.org.” We will greatly appreciate you mentioning how you found out about this opportunity. Applications reviewed on a rolling basis.