NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

VisionSpring seeks a persuasive and collaborative communications associate to tell and amplify our story. The associate will support content creation and development for our audiences, both creating original content directly and collaborating with teammates and freelancers as needed. Audiences include current and potential individual donors; institutional donors such as foundations, governments, corporations, and venture philanthropists; media outlets; partners; and other key stakeholders. The person in this role will manage VisionSpring’s social media channels, internal newsletter, quarterly and annual donor reports, website copywriting, and ad hoc communications needs.

As VisionSpring builds its marketing and communications capacity globally, the associate works in close collaboration with internal stakeholder groups such as the marketing and development teams, and program and sales teams across eight key markets—Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Vietnam, Zambia—and other emerging and frontier markets. This position reports to the global manager of communications and may be located anywhere in the Eastern time zone of the United States.

ABOUT YOU

• You are deeply curious about social enterprise models, field operations, and the experiences of partners and customers. That makes you an exceptional organizational ambassador.
• You are an excellent writer and storyteller. You find joy in personal collaboration with internal stakeholders across time zones to uncover the colorful details that make your stories compelling, even if it means starting early some mornings.
• You shine when communicating with internal and external organizational stakeholders and your words inspire excitement about what we can do together.
• You have an eye for design and love generating distinctive messaging that allows mission-driven organizations to do good, better.
• You enjoy creating structure, have exceptional focus and follow-through, and prioritize before you act.
• You are flexible and thrive in environments where each day is unlike the next.

ABOUT US

• As a social enterprise, social change motivates us first. Our focus on sales and revenue targets serves and advances our mission objective—to increase functioning, productivity, and income earning potential for our low-income consumers by correcting refractive error with eyeglasses.
• VisionSpring is the social enterprise accelerating the use of eyeglasses in emerging and frontier markets. Clear vision creates opportunities for increased learning, work, safety, civic participation, and quality of life.
• We are working to transform the systemic dysfunction of an optical market that has failed to deliver eyeglasses—a 700-year-old technology—to nearly a billion consumers in need of vision correction, most of whom live on less than $4 a day.
• We serve low-income consumers, not as beneficiaries but as customers. Our customers expect a high-quality and affordable product, and they will spend limited discretionary income for the immediate and tangible benefits of vision correction.
• By selling eyeglasses, we awaken new demand and seed a viable market. By selling new eyeglasses we are able to serve four times as many people per dollar input than the alternative of donating recycled ones. To efficiently scale, we must deliver each new unit with lower cost.
• We run our business on both sales metrics and social impact measures. We use a range of organizational forms and practices to get the job done.
• We believe in scaling our impact, not our organization. We are a lean team of doers.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Generally
• Master writing with the VisionSpring “voice,” and develop the capacity to tell our story to a variety of audiences.
• Work globally with key internal stakeholders, i.e. development, sales, programs, and employee relations teams, to translate and reflect key impact stories to optimize their sales, services, events, conferences, and overall business development.
• Capitalize on opportunities to teach colleagues how to communicate with the VisionSpring voice.
• Help maintain VisionSpring’s brand throughout all content including appropriate use of logo, consistent look and feel, and messaging.
• Create stories of impact for social, donor, and B2B audiences by working with colleagues in VisionSpring’s key markets to solicit customer stories from the field, and working with organizational leaders to develop narratives that highlight the successes and impact of VisionSpring initiatives globally.

Social Media & Internal Communications
• Spearhead and innovate VisionSpring’s social media channels to align with global strategy and broader messaging across channels (press, website, etc.).
• Own the production of VisionSpring’s weekly internal newsletter, InFocus.
• Work with global manager of communications to develop and implement the social media and InFocus calendars in harmony with the strategic communications plan.
• Monitor & analyze social media and website metrics, making improvements accordingly.
• Implement processes for making VisionSpring’s social media content more accessible to the visually impaired.
• Monitor & respond to VisionSpring’s audience on social platforms.
• Create promotions and boosts as needed.
• Stay on top of evolving best practices, new technologies and industry news.

Content Creation, Copywriting & Editing
Beyond social media, this person will play a support role in VisionSpring’s storytelling across communications materials and contexts:
• Support donor reporting through the repurposing of content.
• Assist with developing content marketing and program copy to support market messaging, vision screening and event communications, as well as program or market development materials.
• In partnership with the product manager, supports product launch and line maintenance collateral with copywriting and proofreading content.

Website Content & Support
• Contribute and organize content to keep the website up to date.
• Participate in continual improvement efforts.
• Back-up support to make basic website updates.

WHAT’S REQUIRED

• THE BASICS:
• Minimum of 3-5 years of relevant work experience.
• Bachelor’s degree in writing-intensive field of study.
• Outstanding writing skills and the ability to proofread at an advanced level.
• Comfort with a flexible work schedule and working across multiple time zones.
• Must be legally and permanently authorized to work in the United States.
• Domestic travel will be required.

• AND:
• Enthusiastic experience managing social media channels.
• Advanced Microsoft Word skills, proficient in Microsoft PowerPoint, and familiarity with Adobe Creative Cloud.
• Impeccable attention to detail with strong project management, organizational, and analytical skills.
• Experience, and a commitment to, working respectfully with a diverse team; experience collaborating with outside consultants to move projects forward.
• Demonstrated interest in social enterprise models and desire to learn how to articulate and share VisionSpring’s unique approach.
• Must meet the highest standards of ethics and personal integrity, with a demonstrated capacity for discretion and for handling sensitive information with care.
• Must be highly organized with extraordinary follow through and a strong personal sense of accountability.

PREFERRED

• Master’s degree in writing-intensive field of study.
• Experience living in a low-income setting and/or working/studying across languages and cultures.
• Experience crafting communications for social enterprises and/or nonprofits.
• Experience using project management software (especially Asana).
• Experience with email marketing platforms and developing email marketing campaigns (HubSpot and Constant Contact preferred).
• Working knowledge of how to analyze and use data from Google Analytics.

COMPENSATION

• Salary range is $58,000 – $65,000 per year, based on experience and education.
• We offer comprehensive benefits, including medical, dental, and vision, as well as 401(k) with match, pre-tax commuter plan, flexible spending accounts, and generous vacation/personal time.