PennEnvironment Clean Water and Conservation Associate

PennEnvironment is seeking a Clean Water and Conservation Associate to advocate for clean water and conservation in Pennsylvania. Responsibilities include organizing public support, events, and media attention, lobbying officials, and managing grassroots campaigns. Ideal candidates are entry-level with a passion for the environment, strong communication skills, and a willingness to learn. The position is based in Philadelphia, PA, with a starting salary of $37,000-$38,000.
Description

PennEnvironment is looking for a skilled and savvy organizer to build public support for clean water and conservation campaigns to preserve Pennsylvania’s incredible natural heritage. This includes PennEnvironment’s campaigns to preserve our parks, forests, and public lands, and our efforts to protect and restore Pennsylvania’s incredible rivers, lakes and streams from major sources of pollution.

The Clean Water and Conservation Associate will help defend our cornerstone conservation programs from attack at the federal and state level; work to promote and increase stewardship of our public lands and open spaces; and tackle the threats of fracking, encroaching development and illegal polluters that endanger our waterways, our wildlife, and our health.

Key Responsibilities
• Work with coalitions: Work with organizations and affected constituency groups across the political spectrum that are invested in protecting Pennsylvania’s natural heritage, wildlife species, and rivers and streams to demonstrate support and engage them in our strategies and campaigns to achieve our conservation and water campaign goals.
• Organize events and work with volunteers: Organize webinars, community events and public meetings. Recruit organizations and members of the public to attend and participate.
• Earn traditional media and social media attention: Organize media events and write opinion pieces. Build a following on social media for your campaigns.
• Lobby elected officials: Coordinate strategy with champions in Congress or in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Make a convincing case to legislators to support important conservation and clean water policies, and to oppose proposed rollbacks. When a critical vote is happening on our water and conservation campaigns, work to demonstrate the support you’ve been building on the ground to help line up the votes needed to win.
• Recruit new people to your team: Help build our team by recruiting volunteers, interns and full-time staff.
• Run a grassroots campaign office each summer: Run a campaign office for the summer to raise money to support our campaigns, build our organization and membership, and help build critical and timely grassroots support to win key campaigns while honing your organizing and management skills. You may be assigned to a different office location for the summer and should be flexible to move.

Qualifications

Entry level candidates are encouraged to apply. Though we expect you to take your campaign and run with it, we provide training on advocacy and organizing skills, as well as oversight by an experienced advocate. Ideal candidates will have a commitment to protecting the environment and a love of nature as as well as leadership experience, top-notch writing and public speaking skills, an eagerness to learn, and be ready for a challenge.

Details

Compensation and Benefits

The starting annual compensation for this position is $37,000-$38,000 in the first year. PennEnvironment offers an excellent benefits package. Our benefits package includes medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and dependents, paid time off, a commuter benefit program, a 401(k) plan with employer match, parental leave, long term disability insurance, and may include needs-based student loan assistance. We also offer an excellent training program and opportunities for advancement.

Location

Philadelphia, PA preferred but would also consider top candidates in Pittsburgh, PA

Why work with PennEnvironment? Check out 10 reasons: https://environmentamerica.org/pennsylvania/why-work-with-us/

Our Mission and Values

PennEnvironment and Environment America are part of The Public Interest Network, which operates and supports organizations committed to a shared vision of a better world and a strategic approach to social change. Visit https://environmentamerica.org/core-values/ for things you should know about our network when you apply.

PennEnvironment is an equal opportunity employer.

COVID-19: We take COVID-19 safety very seriously. Employees must follow our COVID safety protocols and be fully vaccinated and boosted. Accommodations are provided to the extent required by law.

About Environment America

Environment America is a policy and action group working to tackle the most profound problem of our time: a way of living that is depleting and destabilizing the natural world.

We’re advocates for energy conservation and renewable power, so we can keep oil in the ground and stop burning fossil fuels. We’re champions of plastic reduction, so nothing we use for a few minutes is allowed to pollute our oceans for centuries. And we’re defenders of wildlife and wild places, both for their own sake as well as the awe and wonder they bring to our lives.

Environment America and our national network of 30 state environmental groups work to improve our quality of life by reducing the pollution and other harms of how we produce, consume and dispose of more and more stuff. And we do it one step at a time, by winning results for clean air, clean water, clean energy, wildlife, open spaces, and a livable climate that make a tangible difference in people's lives and our environment.

If you want to work hard, challenge yourself, and make a real impact on the critical environmental issues of our time, consider a career with Environment America.