Careers

Job Title: Speakers Bureau Manager

Reports To: Vice President, Films and Series Impact 

FLSA Status: Full-Time Exempt

Location: New York preferred, but remote is an option

Salary Range: $85,000-$95,000

Represent Justice is a dispersed, hybrid organization, with staff in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, with co-working spaces in each city.

ABOUT REPRESENT JUSTICE

Represent Justice is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that turns stories into action to change the justice system, while building the capacity of system-impacted communities. A theory of narrative change forms the foundation for our work, which we carry out through two primary storytelling verticals: Films & Series Impact Campaigns, and Original Storytelling.

Launching in 2019, we bring to this work a track record of using storytelling to achieve impact. We have led campaigns for five feature films that address issues in the criminal justice system, including: Just Mercy, which included 650 screenings and activations that influenced the commutations of sentences for 24 people and supported concrete progress on legislation in California and Michigan; the film On These Grounds, which has featured nearly 200 events and raised public support for the Counselors not Criminalization Act, ranging from youth-facilitated healing dialogues, to an event with the Democratic Attorney Generals Association (DAGA); and the film Apart, which included targeted screening events across the State of Ohio, with business leaders, reentry offices, and prisons, mobilizing thousands of audience members to take action for Clean Slate legislation. Additionally, we led the campaign for the HBO documentary film Master of Light and are currently implementing the campaign for the PBS award-winning documentary film Sansón & Me. Through dozens of in-facility screenings and art workshops both campaigns addressed authorship as a form of healing and inspiration for incarcerated youth.

Building on the success of the Ambassador Program for the Just Mercy campaign, Represent Justice also oversees an Ambassador Program of 30 prominent nonprofit leaders, advocates, and artists, to build their narrative power as storytellers. Each Ambassador comes to the Program with a desire to grow their personal storytelling skills while also wanting to leverage those skills to disrupt harmful narratives and to advocate for change in the justice system. To date, Ambassadors have participated in comprehensive storytelling and film production training and public engagements to put their training into practice through experiential learning, self-advocacy and narrative powerbuilding. We also co-produce and message test original short films with Ambassadors to be used in local advocacy efforts.

Represent Justice also powered the Justice for Julius campaign, which fueled a significant public opinion shift for Julius Jones in Oklahoma, culminating in the 11th hour commutation of his death sentence. This work was part of a multi-year campaign anchored by Represent Justice called #JusticeforJulius, launched in collaboration with a coalition of Oklahoma-based organizations, advocates and influencers. We are now powering the coalition to free Lakeith Smith, who is currently incarcerated in Alabama with a felony murder conviction. 

Reflecting the communities we serve, the Represent Justice senior leadership team are majority people of color and includes directly-impacted experts and movement leaders—a critical part of ensuring our strategies and activities stay true to our mission and vision. 

OUR VALUES

We lead with our values in the way we show up for the work, and for each other.

Organizational Values

• Accountability: We take ownership and reflect on our successes as well as setbacks. We are committed to having meaningful and constructive conversations.

• Teamwork: Through teamwork and collaboration we achieve our best results. We support each other’s work and uplift each other in times of need. We equally share success and failure.

1. 1. Creative and Innovative: We remain curious and interested in new approaches. We are willing to test out new and innovative ideas within our programs.

• Inclusive: We bring together diverse experiences, backgrounds, and knowledge bases.

• Transformative: We are not bound to convention. Our ideas are audacious and future focused.

Community Values

• Respect: We show a deep appreciation and knowledge for the foundational work done by other organizers and activists. We develop our own expertise and seek continuous learning so that our actions and language can be intentional and thoughtful.

• Empathy: Through storytelling, we create proximity to inspire empathy and actively cultivate an understanding of the history and culture of the communities we serve.

• System-Impacted: Our solutions are formed in collaboration with system-impacted communities. We are mindful of the untold narratives of systemic oppression and educate ourselves on the foundations laid by organizers and activists within the community.

• Community-Led: We build up our community partners; we provide resources and amplify their platforms and relationships to create lasting impact in their work.

• Passion: Our impact on communities is never transactional. We remain committed and dedicated to making a difference.

We use the term system-impacted to mean Individuals and communities who have been impacted by the legal system and their families, loved ones, and support networks that are harmed by the trauma, absence, and deprived opportunities of those who are incarcerated. Our programs work with system-impacted individuals both inside and outside prison facilities and correctional institutions. 

THE POSITION

In 2024, Represent Justice will launch a mission-driven speakers bureau representing the extraordinary ecosystem of system-impacted movement leaders, exonerees, artists, campaign leaders, filmmakers, and film participants who work in partnership with Represent Justice to transform the criminal legal system. 

We will “flip the script” on the traditional speakers bureau, which operates with host organizations (e.g. companies, conferences) as their client base, and we will instead center our speakers as our clients, acting in all business transactions with a values framework that centers trauma-informed care, pay equity, and transparency.   

The Represent Justice Speakers Bureau will seek the following change through its operations:

• Build storytelling capacity and narrative power for system-impacted leaders. This includes growing their visibility and influence to ensure they are included and heard in decision-making that directly impacts their lives.
• Generate meaningful income to support the livelihoods of system-impacted leaders, fully acknowledging their lived experience and expertise. 
• Grow a critical mass of authentic, effective storytellers that can properly utilize their lived experiences to share stories that can effectively change the way people understand, and interact with, the criminal legal system. 
• Create a sustainable, revenue-generating model and industry standard for increasing the narrative power for system-impacted individuals that invests in marginalized communities and helps them take ownership of their stories and use them to catalyze change.

The Speakers Bureau Manager will be responsible for the set up, launch and maintenance of the bureau, scheduling speaker appearances and pitching prospects for speaking engagements using processes that reflect Represent Justice’s values and approach to building narrative power. The Speakers Bureau Manager will closely collaborate with senior organizational and campaign leadership, internal staff, and outside consultants in the planning and execution of the Speakers Bureau in coordination with existing programming.

The person in this position must be comfortable speaking to and working with meeting planners and executives from Fortune 500 companies to trade associations, colleges, non-profits, NGOs and international organizations.

We recognize that candidates may come from a range of media, non-profit, or cultural institutions, and the organization is receptive to exploring a diverse slate of experiences and backgrounds. This being said, the ideal candidate will have: experience working within social justice organizations or movements (particularly with system-impacted communities); experience with talent management and event booking; and a passion about the role storytelling plays in social change.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Host & Speaker Relations:

• Perform high volume of cross-sector outreach and pitches, including to speakers bureaus for co-brokering opportunities, with responsive outreach plans, customized for ongoing current events, changes in criminal legal system, and programming needs of hosts (including colleges, universities, corporations, conferences and nonprofits). 
• Respond to incoming requests from hosts in a timely manner.
• Onboard all speakers, which includes:

• Securing signed representation agreements.
• Managing intake & 1:1 conversations to craft speaking topics, dream list of hosts, bios, lists of previous speaking engagements, existing video assets.
• Building out speaker profile pages online and creating PDF one-pages and relevant collateral.

• Oversee facilitation of Public Speaking group trainings, 1:1 professional coaching & Owning Your Story training for Speakers.
• Serve as liaison to a mental health professional who is available to all Speakers.
• Ensure ongoing communications with speakers to receive updates on their work, to most strategically and responsively pitch them for engagements.
• Prepare all speaking invitations and receive timely acceptance/rejection responses 
• Attend select speaking engagements to provide on-the-ground support and build speaker relationships.

Events Management:

• Steward all planned speaking engagements, including oversight of logistics and facilitation of

communication between speaker and event host. This includes coordinating all travel arrangements for Speakers, including making travel bookings and creating detailed itineraries. 

• Handle travel invoicing following events and compile receipts. Ensure all payables and receivables are forwarded to the appropriate parties for timely payment and deposit.

• Keep detailed information on every secured speaking engagement. 
• Send post-event follow-up emails and surveys to host organizations.
• Input all host contacts and relevant notes into Represent Justice CRM.

Infrastructure & Operations:

• Liaise with legal counsel to create representation agreement, event agreement templates, and common negotiation scenarios with event contracting.
• Bookkeeping processes & protocols for event invoicing and payments, including processing and tracking.
• Build out webpage with speaker pages, and customizable menu, including sub-rosters by theme
• Keep all speaker bios, one-sheets, profile pages updated. 
• Maintain a media archive for all speaking engagements.
• Maintain a current database of event hosts and organizational partners.
• Review engagement stipulations for events featuring Represent Justice speakers and discuss any conflicts of interest in negotiated terms.
• Coordinate with digital & communications staff to develop and implement targeted marketing plans and high quality marketing materials for speakers and speakers bureau, including communication/media related activities.

Program Management:

• Work with program leadership to set success metrics for the Bureau within our organization’s Results Based Accountability framework. Design evaluation mechanisms, as needed (e.g. audience and host surveys; speaker surveys).
• Schedule speakers and research prospects for speaking engagements using templates and processes that reflect Represent Justice’s values and approach to building narrative power.
• Facilitate the advancement of speakers as projects in other media (books, films, podcasts, etc.) are cultivated.
• Coordinate with program leadership to establish a talent pipeline, eligibility requirements, and other rules of engagement as needed.
• Performing other duties and responsibilities as assigned, including participation in campaign leadership meetings, processes and reporting.

Supervisory Responsibilities:    

None

The above job description is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. Incumbents will follow any other instructions, and perform any other related duties, as assigned by their supervisor.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required to perform this job.  

• Minimum of 5 to 7 years of relevant professional experience, such as public relations, marketing,

publicity/event production, sales, communications.

• Passion for social justice is critical, in particular criminal justice transformation.
• Exceptional interpersonal and relationship-building skills, with ability to interface effectively with multiple internal and external stakeholders, from a variety of backgrounds and life experiences.
• Exceptional writing skills, with the ability to tailor communications to different audiences.
• Demonstrated initiative, problem-solving skills, and strategic thinking; results-oriented.
• Demonstrated business acumen; experience working on a team that brought a social enterprise to scale is a plus.
• Proven attention to detail and ability to handle simultaneous tasks, manage multiple communication threads, meet deadlines, and follow-through.
• Ability to handle sensitive information discreetly and maintain confidentiality.
• Ability to be self-sufficient and able to work in a complex environment without the support of a large corporate infrastructure.
• Proficiency with Google Workspace and CRMs.

Represent Justice encourages applications from system-impacted individuals who have experienced incarceration.

Represent Justice provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training. 

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, sit, use hands to finger, handle or feel;  reach with hands and arms; climb or balance; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl; talk to hear.  The employee is occasionally required to lift up to 25 pounds.  The vision requirements include: close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.  

If you are an individual with a disability, and would like to request a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please contact us at [email protected] (information about job applications status is not available at this contact information).

BENEFITS

Represent Justice offers a comprehensive benefits package, including:

• Remote organization with a commitment to nurturing a trauma-responsive workplace.
• Medical / Dental / Vision insurance for employees and dependents.
• Flexible Spending & Dependent Care accounts.
• HRA employer contribution of $1,500/year per staff member to offset mental health expenses.
• Monthly phone stipend.
• Generous vacation time and 12 paid holidays, in addition to a 5-day winter holiday.
• Professional Development stipend of $1,000/year per staff member.

HOW TO APPLY

Please submit a resume and cover letter to [email protected], and include “Speakers Bureau Manager” in the subject line. ​​In place of a written cover letter, you may submit a short video or audio recording (5 minutes or less).

The deadline for applications is Monday, March 18th, 2024. Candidates advancing to an interview will be contacted with details about next steps.