The Opportunity

Down Home North Carolina (DHNC) is seeking two full-time, temporary Regional Field Directors to manage and support Down Home’s 2024 Field Team. The 2024 elections will have definitive results for our government on the local, state, and national level for working people. Down Home’s 2024 political program aims to transform elections from the grassroots by electing working class champions to office. Down Home is working to engage voters in small towns and rural areas through base building, leadership development, and direct voter contact. We are committed to building a base of working class power through both community organizing and participating in elections at all levels of government. 

The ideal candidate is a people-person who is highly motivated to build a powerful multiracial base that wins changes for poor and working-class people in rural North Carolina. They are an experienced organizer, a strong staff manager, an effective project manager, and are committed to building power for the working-class. 

About Down Home North Carolina

Down Home North Carolina is a growing statewide organization of rural and small town communities that advocate for economic, gender, and racial justice. We move North Carolina toward the values of dignity, safety, and inclusion through leadership development, strategic campaigning, multiracial movement building, and civic engagement that advances positive, life-changing reforms for rural communities.

Founded in 2017, Down Home has built a strong organizational track record, including:

• Electing Diamond Staton-Williams in House District 73, the first black woman to represent Cabarrus County in the General Assembly as well as temporarily preventing a Republican Supermajority 
• Led a years-long statewide campaign to Expand Medicaid, which was passed by the General Assembly in 2023
• Helping to elect the first Latinx state legislator in NC history
• Growing a statewide membership base that includes all 100 counties of North Carolina
• Anchoring the first southern, rural deep canvass and race-class narrative tests
• Driving statewide coalitions to fight for a just COVID-19 recovery and Medicaid expansion

Buckets of responsibility: 

1. Directly manage, coach, and train a team of field organizers

• Coach, train, and mentor field organizers on effective effective campaign strategies including but not limited to recruitment, door-to-door canvassing, and other necessary field tactics
• Support Field Organizers in all canvasser recruitment activities and ensuring that recruitment goals are achieved throughout the duration of the program
• Organize at the “grasstops” level, building political leads early in their turfs
• Oversight of the complete vetting, interviewing and hiring of all successful applicants
• Ensuring the successful training and orientation of all Field Organizers and Paid Canvassers

2. Manage Down Home Political Program in assigned region

• Implement and execute a robust outreach plan field plan encompassing voter contact, and volunteer recruitment 
• Provide Field Organizers and canvass teams with the positive leadership culture, resources, guidance and technical support required to succeed during each phase of the program 
• Ensuring that all canvasses are launched and completed in a timely, orderly fashion
• Promoting the continued development of canvass teams in their day-to-day duties and responsibilities over the course of the program

3. Provide accountability and support 

• Communicating all important on-the-ground information and providing timely response to requests from Field Organizers, the Political Director, and Down Home leadership 
• Ensuring that canvass teams maintain accurate and reliable data
• Providing the Political Leadership team with daily quantitative and qualitative reports as part of an ongoing evaluation of the program’s success
• Help create a professional staff culture that that is upbeat and empowering, with a mind towards greater inclusion, and willingness to solve problems creatively

Required skills and experience: 

• Experienced organizer: Has shown the ability to organize large groups of people for a cause or a campaign; has a true understanding of organizing skills including having effective one to ones, making hard asks, base building, propositions, and building trust and credibility with communities in small amounts of time. Has experience working in elections, either through campaigns or other entities. 

• Coach and learning mentality: Helps others grow. Uses coaching, training, and feedback to develop others and support problem-solving. Sees mistakes as learning opportunities. Seeks and engages well with feedback. 

• Strong sense of ownership and resilience: Plans ahead and finds alternative paths, when needed, to get to the finish line. Bounces back from setbacks and rejections. Holds a high bar even when things are hectic.

• Models and inspires accountability: Inspires and motivates others to take action and meet goals. Delegates skillfully. Holds the team accountable and acknowledges growing edges (in self and others).

• Mission alignment: Committed to the vision of a  powerful, inclusive, rural, multiracial, working-class movement-building as a path towards liberation for all people. Is aligned with the idea that building power takes both election programs and long-term base building and investment in communities. 

Personal or professional experience living in rural communities, living in the South, rural organizing, and/or organizing in the South are a plus but not required. 

Some irregular hours are required, including nights and weekends. Location is flexible within North Carolina. Applicants must be able and willing to travel regularly for work.

Compensation

Compensation for this full-time, temporary staff position is the equivalent $70,655 to $76,090  annually and includes best-in-class health and we also offer a relocation stipend. Applicants must be able and willing to travel regularly for work. 

How to Apply

Down Home NC is committed to creating a dynamic, multicultural, diverse working environment. Candidates of color and diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Down Home NC is an equal opportunity employer. 

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. If this job description is posted on Down Home’s website (www.downhomenc.org), we are still accepting applications.

Please send a resume and a short cover letter that includes your experience working with organizations to: [email protected]