Job Description
Description
About Taproot
Taproot Foundation is a national nonprofit powering the next generation of pro bono service. For more than 20 years, we’ve connected nonprofits with high-quality, high-trust support from skilled professionals—so they can meet urgent challenges, grow their impact, and lead with confidence.
Today, we’re expanding that vision. We’re innovating our platform, deepening partnerships, and shaping a future-focused pro bono marketplace. Our aim: a system that meets nonprofit needs with ease, speed, and excellence—lowering barriers to access, centering community voices, and embracing innovation, including AI.
The Opportunity
The Senior Manager, Marketing & Communications is the campaign strategist and executor at the center of Taproot’s marketing engine. Reporting to the Head of Marketing & Communications, this role turns strategy into finished work: campaigns planned and delivered, content written, social channels growing, and launches carried to the finish line in service of Taproot’s bold vision to build the next-generation pro bono marketplace.
The Head of Marketing & Communications sets where the function is going. The Senior Manager takes a mandate, such as a campaign around a signature event or a flagship research release, shapes the strategy, builds the plan, and leads it through to delivery. This person is a maker at heart who loves producing the work, brings the independence to carry a project from hand-off through to the finish, and serves as an engaged thought partner who pushes thinking and offers input, with clear accountability for execution.
This role carries particular ambition for Taproot’s social media presence: someone who sees social as a channel that can shape action at the movement level, takes differentiated content approaches based on social platform, and who will modernize and evolve Taproot’s presence into new platforms and formats where the next generation of pro bono talent is ready to be engaged. A tech-forward mindset runs throughout, with curiosity about emerging tools, including AI, to expand reach, speed, and quality.
Reports to the Head of Marketing & Communications, with significant accountability for campaign execution and day to day marketing and communication operations. This role has no direct reports. Works across Programs, Strategic Partnerships & Advancement, Product, Finance, and Executive Leadership to align delivery with organizational priorities. Directs the work of contracted design and production partners, and interfaces with partners and sector collaborators in support of campaigns and convenings.
Key Responsibilities
Campaign Strategy, Planning & Execution
- Develop the campaign strategy for Taproot’s priority initiatives, such as the brand refresh activation, the 25th Anniversary campaign, or a flagship research release, translating the marketing strategy into audiences, objectives, channels, sequencing, and measurement.
- Lead two to three signature campaigns each year from plan to delivery, producing and coordinating work across channels.
- Maintain a rolling 6-12-month campaign calendar aligned to narrative priorities, resourcing realities, and organizational milestones.
- Develop briefs that give colleagues, contractors, and agency partners clear direction, sequencing, and success criteria.
- Partner with Programs, Strategic Partnerships & Advancement, and Product on launch planning and on materials that help colleagues share Taproot’s message consistently.
Content Creation, Storytelling & Brand Activation
- Write the work: campaign copy, email and web content, the stories behind research reports and case studies, and materials that support executive visibility.
- Carry Taproot’s refreshed voice with a contemporary, professional standard across every channel and format.
- Bring vision and ambition to Taproot’s social media, growing our presence beyond LinkedIn into platforms and formats, such as Instagram and TikTok, where the next generation of pro bono consultants is ready to be engaged.
- Create sharp, compelling social content made for each platform, experimenting with formats, trends, and emerging tools, and using simple measurement to show what is working.
- Partner with Programs to source and shape stories that show the human impact of skilled service.
- Hold a high-quality bar for clarity, craft, and brand consistency across the team’s output.
Design Direction, Performance & Delivery
- Direct contracted design capacity: scope, brief, art-direct, and review design work to a contemporary, distinctive visual standard.
- Ensure consistent application of Taproot’s refreshed brand across campaigns, channels, and materials.
- Manage contractors and freelancers for surge capacity, keeping high-frequency, brand-critical work in-house.
- Track and report campaign and channel performance, delivering clear summaries of what is working and what comes next.
- Keep the briefs, workflows, and planning rhythms that make delivery predictable and efficient for a lean team.
Other Duties
- Perform other duties as assigned to support Taproot’s marketing, communications, and organizational priorities.
This role requires occasional travel (up to 15%), as needed.
Requirements
Competencies Needed for Role:
- Campaign Execution Leadership: Proven ability to build and deliver integrated, multi-channel campaigns end to end, carrying work from mandate to finish.
- Exceptional Writing: A skilled, versatile writer who produces polished work across formats and carries a brand voice with consistency and craft.
- Social Media Vision: Deep fluency in social platforms and formats, with sharp instincts for each platform and a conviction that social can shape action at the movement level.
- Design Direction & Visual Judgment: Directs design work to a high visual standard, with a sharp eye for contemporary, distinctive brand expression.
- Independent Ownership & Initiative: Self-directed; takes a mandate and moves it to done, anticipating needs ahead of the ask.
- Strategic Contribution: Engages with strategy as a thought partner, pushes thinking, and translates direction into plans colleagues can act on.
- Values-Driven Leadership: Deep belief in Taproot’s values of Pragmatic Optimism, Impact Orientation, Playful Professionalism, and Progress, with commitment to equity and inclusion.
Qualifications
- 7-10 years of marketing and communications experience, including hands-on ownership of multi-channel campaigns from plan through delivery.
- Experience in a startup, high-growth, or otherwise scrappy and resource-lean environment, comfortable producing the work directly rather than delegating it.
- A strong, versatile writer across campaign copy, email, web, and social, with the range to shape the narrative behind research reports and case studies.
- Demonstrated social media fluency, with platform-native content and strategy across channels such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and short-form video.
- Experience directing contractors, freelancers, or agency partners: scoping, briefing, art-directing, and reviewing work to a consistent quality and brand standard.
- A data-informed approach, using metrics and audience insight to prioritize, optimize, and show what is working.
- Fluency with digital tools and genuine curiosity about emerging ones, including AI, to expand reach, speed, and quality.
- Self-directed and accountable, able to take a mandate and carry it to done while anticipating what the work needs.
- Direct experience with or exposure to product marketing is preferred.
- Nonprofit experience is welcome but not required. We are equally interested in candidates bringing startup, agency, or corporate marketing backgrounds.
Salary
Starting salary range is $90,000 - $105,000 per year. Exact placement within the range is based on location and experience.
To Apply
Please submit your resume and response to the application questions.
Apply through the Taproot Careers Page, not through a third-party website. Please apply by September 1. We will review applications and interview selected candidates on a rolling basis.
We know great candidates may not meet every qualification. If this role excites you, we hope you’ll apply.
Taproot is deeply committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in everything we do—from the work we lead to the culture we’re building. We believe that diverse teams and inclusive partnerships are essential to driving innovation, equity, and meaningful impact in the social sector. We welcome candidates of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences to apply.
