Consultant – Base Building/Organizing

The Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance (API PA) is looking to hire a consultant to help lead their organizing efforts and develop their organizing team through the end of 2024. The core responsibilities, necessary qualifications and compensation are outlined below.

If interested, please submit your resume and, in lieu of a cover letter, please submit a proposal that includes:

• A brief description of your background and why you want to work with API PA to organize the API community in PA
• A description of your approach to base building among diverse communities
• A description of how you would approach supporting an organizing team remotely
• Your hourly or project rate
• Three (3) client referrals or references
• Your availability for an interview

Job Summary

This person will work with and lead an organizing team responsible for managing, coordinating, and implementing API PA’s base-building and electoral strategies to build power in and for Asian communities statewide in Pennsylvania with a particular emphasis on Southeastern PA and Central PA. This is 20-30 hours/week and primarily a remote role with travel to the Philadelphia area as needed (most likely once per month) . We are looking for someone to start ASAP and continue through mid Nov 2024. This role works alongside a results-driven senior leadership team and reports directly to the Executive Director.

Organizational Leadership (80%): Build organizing capacity, community, and collaboration across API PA. They will coach and develop a team of passionate organizers, to strengthen API PA’s organizing capacity and support the long-term objective of building a strong statewide base and movement in support of augmenting and strengthening Asian power.

• Develop and maintain a strong team culture that centers individual accountability, fosters trust, and meets ambitious team goals focused on community and field organizing efforts.
• Direct and coordinate a strong voter engagement effort. That includes voter registration, education, persuasion, and mobilization for Asian voters in PA, in tandem with building deep relationships and connections with non-API communities and voters, with converging interests.
• Create systems and processes that support organizers to holistically integrate election cycle voter engagement work with year-round base-building, leadership development, and non-electoral programs that build
• API PA’s membership over time.
• Plan and implement base building and issue organizing (as it relates to the organizers’ work plans).
• Manage organizers who will manage volunteer-based voter contact activities targeting Asian voters in PA.
• Develop and implement campaigns to empower Asian communities in PA, and collaborate with community leaders and members.
• Maintain a volunteer/member database (VAN/EveryAction) for tracking supporters, volunteers, and events. Utilize data to identify strategic engagement opportunities.

External Affairs and Political Leadership (20%): Leverage their years of successes, learning, and networks to expand and scale the work of API PA in collaboration with the field, building a thriving community of trust to ensure leaders have the skills and resources they need to transform their communities.

• Cultivate strategic and values-based alignment with external partner organizations, API PA, and political allies.
• Assess and track national and regional political landscapes relevant to Asian American communities, identifying opportunities and needs.

Desired Qualifications

• Commitment to API PA’s mission and vision of building the political power of Asian American leaders.
• Strong knowledge and experience developing and implementing community, issue, or electoral organizing strategies within grassroots/movement building and electoral organizing contexts (typically developed after 4+ years of relevant experience, etc.).
• Ability to track/monitor/assess an issue campaign’s progress, troubleshooting and pivoting as needed, with a relentlessly solutions-oriented mindset.
• At least two years of supervisory experience in organizing staff, setting goals, creating plans, and ensuring accountability.
• Experience and comfort using tools like VAN (required) and outreach tools like Scale to Win, ThruText, Strive, or Hustle.
• Experience building strong relationships that center trust and mutual respect with a broad range of constituents and stakeholders, especially across lines of race, ethnicity, gender, and other lines of identity and power.
• Strong oral and written communication skills, including the ability to translate technical instructions into easy-to-follow language for non-technical audiences.
• An ability to give and receive feedback well and see mistakes as learning opportunities.
• Demonstrated track record of working effectively in coalition settings, with a keen ability to forge consensus and political unity.
• Proven track record of training, supporting, and developing a diverse team of staff or volunteers, with a deep motivation to help others learn and grow.
• Lived experience that promotes knowledge of and sensitivity to the challenges vulnerable communities face including an appreciation for historical context, discernment of relationship nuances, power dynamics, and understanding of social, racial, and ethnic realities.
• Strong track record of taking a concept from idea to implementation, effective project management, prioritizing various streams of work and competing demands, and creative problem-solving.

Compensation

This is a contracted position through December 2024. Please indicate your hourly or project rate in your proposal. The maximum hourly rate is $200/hr.

About The Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance

The Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance (API PA) is building long-term power for APIs in Pennsylvania. We coordinate political, electoral, and legislative work to hold our elected officials accountable, engage in culturally competent and linguistically accessible direct voter contact, and build solidarity with other aligned communities of color across the state. We are the first and only political organization directly advocating for the needs of Asians and Pacific Islanders in Pennsylvania and operate primarily in South Asian, Korean, Chinese, and Vietnamese communities in 15 different languages.

Since our founding in 2020, we have run the largest Asian American voter contact programs in the history of US elections, introduced a groundbreaking community-driven API Policy Platform for PA, established Pennsylvania’s first-ever pan-Asian organizer training program, and successfully elected community champions who represent us at every level of government throughout the Commonwealth.