Brand and Content Strategist, ColorPop Books - Donors Choose (NYC, NY)
DonorsChoose makes it easy for anyone to help a teacher in need, moving us closer to a nation where students in every community have the tools and experiences they need for a great education.
Since 2000, more than 5 million people and partners have contributed $1 billion to support 2 million teacher requests for classroom resources and experiences. Projects range from art supplies to build the set for a school musical, to books and puzzles that affirm students’ identities, to bird seed for an at-home science project. We proudly serve all US public schools, public charter schools, and Head Start centers, and we combat systemic inequity by driving a majority of donations to schools that have been historically underfunded due to economic and racial inequity.
DonorsChoose has been recognized as a best place to work by GOOD Magazine and the Nonprofit Times, while Fast Company named DonorsChoose one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World—the first time a charity has made this list. Our dedicated team works from across the United States bring classroom dreams to life.
About the Team
ColorPop Books is a new expansion for our organization, made possible by a grant from a generous partner. ColorPop Books is a one-of-a-kind bookshop specializing in identity-affirming book bundles for families looking for narratives that inspire conversation and empathy. We are a small but mighty team focused on building this new brand for parents of color with a focus on uplifting the stories of Black and Brown main characters, which are historically harder to find in children’s books. We are currently focused on continuing to develop a product parents will love, generating brand awareness, acquiring new customers, and building our thought leadership across the children’s book space. This is a bookshop unlike any other and you would help to build it as a member of this growing team.
To view this job and apply, click here.
About the Role
As our first-ever Brand and Content Strategist, you’ll shape the brand and content strategy for ColorPop Books. In partnership with the Growth Marketing Manager, you’ll deliver high-impact content strategies that drive acquisition across multiple channels, strategic and visionary social campaigns, articles for SEO, and insightful data analysis. From concept to execution, you'll lead new marketing initiatives, adapting strategies based on performance, audience insights, and market dynamics, while ensuring the health of our content calendar.
In addition to marketing content, you’ll develop meaningful content that’s a part of our physical and digital product experience - for example, developing educational, well-researched activities for children and material for parents that meet key parenting needs and complement our book offerings.
In more detail, you will:
Own our brand voice and customer personas
Deeply understand our target audience through research, customer interviews, persona insights, and develop a brand and content strategy around key themes
Develop a content ecosystem that highlights the ColorPop vision and value proposition, attracts our target customers, and builds community through authenticity and brand consistency
Stay on top of competitor brands and keep track of the latest content and brand marketing trends
Take implicit and explicit customer feedback and drive continuous improvements around our product positioning
Effectively communicate and funnel up reporting and customer insights to the Product Owner as input to the overall ColorPop strategy
Envision, produce, and edit content
Own and produce a wide range of content types that extend far beyond the traditional blog posts and include educational materials, video programs, live and virtual events, and more
Work hand in hand with internal and external creatives (including copywriters, video producers, and graphic designers) to continue to move our brand forward through visual assets
Manage an internal social media coordinator and external creative agencies and freelancers
Manage our content calendar and strategy
Own the health of our content calendar and social media approach
Prioritize ruthlessly with limited resources and regularly evolve your strategy based on performance, persona insights, new products, as well as developments in the news cycle
About You
This position might be for you if:
You are passionate about equitable access to quality education and energized by ColorPop Books’ focus on lifting marginalized voices and perspectives.
You are willing and able to engage in conversations about race, representation, and equity. You are comfortable leading discussions, offering your perspective, and listening to learn.
You’re a proactive marketer who knows the usual content marketing strategies, but you’re also willing to push the envelope with outside-the-box storytelling and innovative distribution tactics.
You’re a storyteller who knows how to determine the needs of an audience and shape resources that genuinely serve their needs while driving brand engagement.
You’re scrappy and can get a lot done with few resources; you know when to pivot your strategy or tactics and when to double down. You might have worked at an early-stage startup or have previously helped bring a new brand to market.
Are a relationship-builder with proven experience. You know the value that building trusting and long-standing relationships can have on a business and have built relationships with key stakeholders in previous roles. You know how to bring in external voices to content in a way that’s organic and scalable.
You have a strong understanding of what good content looks and feels like on each channel and can effectively communicate your vision.
You have high standards when it comes to brand identity and actively enforce brand guidelines and evolve them as the brand grows
You mix creative ideas with strategic thinking and practical marketing skills. You have experience with copywriting or editing and/or are a very strong, writer.
You have experience launching new channels and have worked with other CPG brands
You have 6+ years of experience in creative marketing and have a strong toolkit in brand principles and how they interact with content. Bonus points if you have experience marketing children’s products, marketing to parents, and/or marketing to audiences of color.
Compensation and Benefit
Our compensation philosophy ensures that we are both externally competitive with tech-forward nonprofits of a similar size and internally fair in our pay practices. The following ranges represent the target offer range given the scope and experience expectations for this role.
The hiring salary range for this role is $84,000-$95,000
We have a hiring salary range of $93,000-$105,000 for specific higher cost of labor locations, which include New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, and Washington, D.C.
Once employees are hired, everyone at DonorsChoose is eligible to receive annual performance-based raises as they grow in their role. We are open to a variety of experiences, and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced or more senior than this job description as posted. If you don’t check every box listed here, or you know you’d bring additional experience to the table, we hope you’ll submit your application.
In addition, we offer full-time staff 25 paid vacation days per year and 11 paid holidays, a rich employer-paid individual and family health plan, a matching 401(k) plan (up to 5% of base salary), annual professional development stipend, and casual and flexible work environment. To learn more about what it is like to work for DonorsChoose, visit our careers page.
Hybrid Workplace and Other Details
In this role, you’ll have the option to work a flexible hybrid schedule in our NYC office, or to work fully remotely from CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, ME, MA, MD, MI, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, TX, VA, WA, WI.
Candidates who are not in the NYC area should expect to travel to our NYC office on an as-needed basis, about 4-6 times per year. All work-related travel expenses will be covered by the organization.
DonorsChoose participates in E-Verify. We will provide the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with information from each new employee’s Form I-9 to confirm work authorization.
To Apply
Please submit your resume and answer the application questions online. Since we’re trying to get to know you through our hiring process, we ask that you please refrain from using AI writing tools to craft your response to our application questions. A cover letter is optional and may be addressed to Vanessa Cardona Kepp, Product Owner, ColorPop Books.
A Final Note
The DonorsChoose team works toward a nation where students in every community have the resources needed for an excellent education. To do this we hire and support a diverse team of the best and the brightest talent available.
We are an organization increasingly representative of the varied races and ethnicities, genders and sexual orientations, religious and political beliefs, and abilities that comprise our nation. DonorsChoose focuses on attracting, retaining, and advancing diverse talent because it makes us more effective, high-performing, creative, and resilient.
If you are passionate about our mission, highly skilled in your field, and looking for a place where you can bring all of yourself to work, we want you.
