Chief Marketing & Communications Officer

Chief Marketing & Communications Officer

• Feeding America
• August 02, 2024
• Chicago, IL

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About Feeding America

As the nation's largest nonprofit and domestic hunger-relief organization, Feeding America is at the forefront of the fight to end hunger.

With an annual revenue of $5.15 billion (2023), which includes 4.7 billion pounds of donated food, Feeding America engages our country and communities in the fight to end hunger on an unprecedented scale, serving as a catalyst at both the national and local levels, reaching every county in the United States.

The work is not just about providing meals. On the journey to achieving its mission, Feeding America addresses barriers so everyone can thrive.

Specifically, Feeding America’s work includes :

• Addressing the immediate needs of people facing hunger through the sourcing and distribution of food.
• Working to reduce rates of food insecurity through innovative programs that bundle food with other critical resources such as healthcare, housing, and economic mobility.
• Catalyzing the movement to end hunger through policy advocacy and systems change.

A People-Centered Approach : Through it all, Feeding America keeps the neighbors it serves at the center of its vision of a hunger-free America.

Feeding America is deeply committed to meeting the unique nutritional and health needs of individuals and their communities by leveraging an approach that is people-centered, responsive, and adaptive.

The Network : The organization is a nationwide network of over 200 food banks, which distribute food through 60,000 partner food pantries and meals programs.

Together, the Feeding America network provides more than 5 billion meals to tens of millions of people across the United States and supports programs that improve food security for the families they serve.

Rising Demand : In a country that wastes billions of pounds of food each year, it is shocking that almost anyone in America goes hungry.

Yet, there are 44 million people who don’t have enough to eat that is 1 in 7 individuals, and 44 million too many. Each year, more than 13 million children (that is 1 in 5) and 5.

5 million seniors struggle with hunger.

In 2020, the COVID crisis devastated individuals and families and food insecurity grew. The average increase in the number of clients reported by food banks grew by an astounding 60%.

Since then driven by record inflation, historically high food costs, reduced federal assistance, and more demand has continued to grow.

Through it all, Feeding America and its partners have continued the march to solve hunger, moving quickly and decisively to implement multi-prong strategies that include new systems, distribution, and supply chain, and leveraging and expanding partnerships.

Looking Ahead and the Critical Role of Marketing & Communications : Feeding America has set the bold aspiration that by 2030 every community and person within it has access to the food and resources that they say they desire and need to thrive;

that the food insecurity rate is 5% and disparities by race and place are cut in half.

As Feeding America works towards its bold aspirations, the Marketing & Communications function will play a key role in Feeding America’s evolution into a catalytic organization serving as the primary conduit for raising awareness, engaging stakeholders, and mobilizing resources to make sure all communities and individuals have the food they need to thrive.

For more information, please visit Feeding America’s .

The Opportunity

At this moment of tremendous opportunity, Feeding America is seeking an innovative, collaborative, dynamic, and deeply committed leader to serve as the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer (CMCO).

Recognizing the clear synergies that exist between Marketing and Communications, this is a newly scoped role for the organization and represents a unique opportunity with the potential to positively impact tens of millions of lives each year.

The CMCO directs the development and execution of strategies focused on significantly increasing public awareness of the issue of hunger, step-changing public engagement in Feeding America’s mission including the people and communities Feeding America serves, and building Feeding America into one of the best known and most admired non-profit brands in the country.

The CMCO is responsible for driving growth in unrestricted revenue and delivering against an annual revenue target in excess of $80 million.

They also provide strategic oversight of the communications function which includes internal, Board, network and external communications, public relations, media relations, celebrity engagement, and optimizing donor partnership communications.

Reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer, the CMCO is a member of the Executive Team and oversees a team of more than 40 marketing and communications professionals (with six direct reports including the VP, Brand & Content;

VP, Direct Marketing; VP, Marketing Operations; VP, Digital Marketing; VP, Communications; and Director, Customer Experience), multiple agency relationships, and a total budget in excess of $50 million.

The CMCO is responsible for leading brand strategy, strategic marketing planning and execution, and audience activation across donated, earned, owned and paid marketing channels including traditional (television, radio, out of home, print / mail, etc.

as well as digital and other emerging media (digital ads, email, social medial, mobile, etc.). Development of multicultural strategies that demonstrate an inclusive perspective is critical.

The CMCO collaborates with the government relations team to support driving policy and legislative priorities and also provides public relations counsel to the CEO.

Key responsibilities of the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer include :

Direct the advancement and evolution of Feeding America’s brand vision, goals, and marketing and communications strategies, to align with / reflect organizational strategic priorities and ensure positioning, brand personality and brand promise that is compelling, credible, distinctive, and that reflects Feeding America’s focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Clearly articulate the most promising target(s) for engagement and relationship cultivation based on deep consumer insights about what motivates people to support domestic hunger relief and ending hunger expanding engagement in critical areas like supporter base, new email subscribers and interaction with content.

Prioritize equity by centering people facing hunger and focusing on strengths over needs in strategy and practice.

Lead efforts to develop and evolve an enterprise-wide content strategy, and associated marketing plan, that supports all aspects of Feeding America’s mission and speaks to all of Feeding America’s audiences.

Create optimized user journeys to engage, acquire, and retain donors and advocates; and activate to ensure a positive neighbor experience by facilitating access to food and benefits assistance, as well as extend invitation to join the anti-hunger movement.

Ensure coordination and prioritization of messages, actions, and activities across audiences by working closely with Executive Team colleagues and other internal governance bodies to prioritize and optimize use of these platforms.

Oversee and refine the existing integrated communications strategy ensuring that it aligns with Feeding America’s mission, elevates people facing hunger, and effectively supports internal, network, and earned media communications goals.

Provide strategic guidance to optimize current processes and strategies, ensuring comprehensive integration across all channels and audiences (internal, Board, network, media, external).

• Lead the performance marketing program to reliably raise $80M+ in unrestricted revenue annually. Identify resource needs and allocate resources within the marketing domain to optimize ROI today, while building the pipeline of future individual donors.
• Oversee the development and execution of strategies to proactively and creatively drive visibility for the Feeding America brand, its key spokespeople (e.

g., the CEO), and key messages.

Develop, coach, and motivate a best-in-class team capable of delivering across a broad range of strategies and operating goals.

Create a results-focused environment that includes clear goals, regular feedback, and transparent accountability. Invest in talent development and succession-planning at the functional and enterprise level.

• Direct the development of a structure, and resource allocation process, to provide marketing and communications partnership, and support to internal functions and network partners, such as maximizing our marketing channels and communications resources to further our movement to end hunger, acknowledge donors, activate against our corporate partners’ cause marketing campaigns, educate the general public, and engage our neighbors as partners in our work and provide them with assistance as needed.
• Build strong and collaborative working relationships with Feeding America network leaders, establishing strategies and opportunities to elevate the network as a driving force behind the movement to end hunger.

Create, deliver, and drive Feeding America Network-wide marketing platforms and communications initiatives, incorporating key massages and turn-key tools that support and enhance network member participation.

• Serve as a compelling and inspiring spokesperson for Feeding America in front of the media and other key audiences as needed.
• Guide the effective development and stewardship of the Feeding America brand image internally and externally. Ensure alignment and ownership of brand equity guidelines across a broad range of stakeholders including FANO staff, network food bank members and other partners.
• Direct the management of the marketing technology stack to operationalize the current program while monitoring future mar-tech tends and user behaviors to ensure audience expectations are met now and into the future in alignment with organization priorities.
• Oversee Feeding America’s rapid response approach and process ensuring timely and appropriate responses to issues that impact our audiences.

Monitor the external landscape (i.e. key activities and public engagement efforts by other leading non-profits) and be an expert source of sector and market intelligence for strategic planning purposes.

Foundational Principles

Candidates must meet the following foundational requirements :

A Passion for the Mission

This leader will :

• Demonstrate a commitment to Feeding America’s mission through word and action.
• Have a deep commitment to keeping people facing hunger at the center of their work and strive to translate this commitment into action on a daily basis, inclusive of embracing the charge of care in telling the stories of individuals experiencing hunger.
• Be willing to advocate for people facing hunger and serve as an ambassador for Feeding America inside and outside of work.
• Be driven by the profound opportunity to join the largest nonprofit in the country and move the needle for millions of people experiencing food insecurity by playing a key role in amplifying Feeding America’s mission, ultimately enhancing its capacity to address and end hunger.
• Be an individual of unquestioned integrity, ethics, and values; someone who can be trusted without reservation.

A Commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

This leader will :

• Have a demonstrated personal commitment to valuing different backgrounds and life experiences through word and action.
• Take personal actions to build an inclusive culture that ensures everyone can fully contribute based on their unique talents, skills, and perspectives and feels welcomed and valued.
• Commit to driving equitable solutions to address root cause issues by incorporating an equity framework in their daily work.
• Be committed to continuous personal EDI development.
• Bring a commitment to ensuring that the marketing and communications activities of Feeding America help close food access and food insecurity disparities experienced by historically marginalized communities.

Candidate Profile

While it is understood that no candidate will offer every desired skill, quality, and characteristic, the following offers a detailed, aspirational view of the ideal candidate profile :

A Strategic Systems-Thinker with Marketing and Communications Expertise

This leader will :

• Have demonstrated success in marketing and communications including senior leadership experience within complex organizations in nonprofit, corporate, or agency settings.
• Have experience leading the development and execution of effective, comprehensive, innovative, multicultural marketing and communications strategies that clearly define audience and map motivators and barriers with an inclusive perspective.
• Ideally have a track record of success with organizations known for excellence in insight-driven marketing and customer / donor experience and demonstrated success in creating and launching effective media partnerships, communications platforms and cause marketing partnerships.
• Be experienced in leveraging marketing discipline to drive measurable increases in attention and market share including audience research, strategy development, marketplace positioning differentiation, experience design, branding and integrated and multi-channel communication.
• Have a demonstrated track record of engaging BIPOC and other historically marginalized and underserved audiences.
• Understand and appreciate the interconnectedness of marketing, communications, and fundraising.
• Have an insatiable curiosity to understand and learn from their audience.

An Innovative and Resourceful Leader

This leader will :

• Have strong analytical and planning skills with demonstrated success in analyzing ROI for marketing and communications investments and collaboratively facilitating optimum use of staff and budget resources to provide support across multiple priorities and departments within an organization.
• Be a data-informed, impact-driven, and creative thinker, effectively and constructively leading Feeding America to consider new and innovative approaches to marketing and communications.
• Approach their work with an entrepreneurial mindset and an eye towards resourcefulness; understanding that there is a responsibility to steward the resources of Feeding America in a thoughtful and impactful way.
• Be energized by the opportunity to build on the strengths of the organization and the work done to date, elevating the brand in order to maximize impact.

A Collaborative, Inclusive, and Emotionally Intelligent Leader

This leader will :

• Understand and have the ability to navigate the complexity of a large non-profit and associated network; able to make decisions within a matrixed environment.
• Have the ability to lead at an enterprise level, measuring overall effectiveness of marketing and communications by examining the success of the full team and organization.
• Balance their leadership, vision, gravitas, and charisma with a high degree of humility.
• Be a natural bridge builder and collaborative leader, with a deep appreciation for the power of the collective.
• Be an inspiring, empathetic, approachable, and inclusive leader with an infectious optimism and adept ability to lead through periods of change.
• Be energized by the opportunity to unify the marketing and communications functions; able to develop a powerful sense of shared purpose and engagement in the future of Feeding America’s work and the possibilities ahead.
• Celebrate a diverse range of skillsets, and an ability to bring out the best of a talented, passionate, and deeply committed team.

Have a strong willingness to leverage the existing expertise, uplifting others’ voices and knowledge.

• Inspire trust at all levels of the organization, modeling respectful leadership in every interaction and setting.
• Have a proven capacity for effectively building and managing collaborative partnerships with external partners including agencies, consultants, donor partners and other external advisors.
• Be confident and comfortable presenting and interacting in a variety of settings, from large public audiences, to boardrooms, to community listening sessions.

Location & Travel

The successful candidate must be based in or willing to relocate to Chicago, Illinois, and will be expected to be in the Feeding America office 2-3 days per week.

Additionally, the successful candidate will be willing and able to do a moderate amount of domestic travel ( 20%).

Compensation & Benefits

The salary range for the Chief Research & Innovation Officer is $260,000 $320,000 and will be based on the successful candidate’s skills and experience.

In addition, there is a target bonus of 15%.

This is a permanent, full-time, exempt position and is eligible for Feeding America’s comprehensive benefit package.

Feeding America recognizes and values diversity. Our goal is to attract, develop, retain, and promote a talented diverse workforce where all employees feel a sense of belonging and contribute to a culture that values differences, ideas, and experiences.

We intentionally seek out diverse perspectives and skills on our teams, knowing that it makes us stronger as an organization and better equipped to serve our neighbors in need.

We encourage individuals from historically under-represented communities and individuals with lived experience of hunger to apply.