Location: Connecticut, New York, or Massachusetts

Summary

Criterion Ventures, a unique consulting firm focusing on launching social enterprises, is seeking applications for a new Manager of Project Marketing.

Criterion Ventures (Criterion) works with entrepreneurs on developing, growing and scaling social change entities. Dramatic growth in the social change space, evidenced by the emergence of countless new non profits, hybrid models and alliances created in the last five years, has created incredible opportunities for forming and building new entities. Criterion works with individuals and organizations that have a bold vision for what is possible for the world and partners with them to translate that vision into sustainable ventures.

With a full time staff of eight, and an impressive network of 9,000 people developed through years of conversations and convenings, Criterion is enabling social change by weaving together sophisticated strategy, vast networks and thoughtful partnerships. The Manager of Project Marketing (MPM) will assume a leadership role in managing projects by working directly with clients in leading the development of exciting and cutting edge projects and ventures.

About Criterion Ventures

Criterion Ventures launches ventures in the social change space, an activity with similarity to and distinctions from launching traditional businesses. Criterion works in fields such as education, health, poverty alleviation and religion with clients and partners who are passionate about the change they want to see in the world, independent enough to take risks to make things happen, and resourced at a level which enables them to pay for results. Criterion’s clients are independent business people and philanthropists, players in large non-profit systems and established entrepreneurs.

Founded in 2002 by Joy Anderson, Criterion has evolved into a nimble and extremely well-connected organization that achieves dramatic good for the world by focusing on launching social ventures, either for clients or by taking an equity position with internally developed ideas. Criterion focuses entirely on partnering in deep and impactful ways with a few ventures at a time to achieve dramatic and large scale results. Poised for significant growth in the coming year, the MPM will join a creative and thoughtful team looking to create significant change in the world by leveraging existing networks and partnering with smart entrepreneurs and businesses.

Criterion’s core asset is a network of relationships developed not around a set of services, but rather through conversations about possibilities, trust and shared vision. The results of these years of conversations are both a reservoir of social capital among the leaders in Criterion Ventures the social change world and well-honed practices for connecting with them. Criterion’s work has, from the beginning, been driven by three core values: grace, hospitality and the power of invitation. These touchstones shape all of Criterion’s business decisions and have shaped the methodology and inform the role of the company as value-driven players in a value-driven marketplace. By incubating social ventures that create a better world, Criterion makes connections visible so individual actions have incredible impact on critical social issues.

Specifically, by leveraging the power of its network, Criterion moves initiatives forward by playing two critical roles:

- Partnering with founders in independent ventures. By working with partners on a shared idea, new ventures can be launched. Over time, passive income generated by equity ventures will provide investment capital for future projects.
- Consulting on key components to new ventures. By engaging a core skill set of managing innovative ventures in the context of complex systems, Criterion bolsters key infrastructure and enables the future growth of new ventures.

The Manager of Project Marketing will play a lead role in developing new and growing social ventures by leveraging partnerships to enable social change.

About the Manager of Project Marketing Position

The Manager of Project Marketing will be a strong marketer with both the skills and the personality to follow ideas and to develop unexpected relationships that move projects forward. With the research capabilities of an anthropologist, the observations skills of a behavior scientist, the and the large-scale relationship management skills of an organizer, the MPM will be innovative and excited to help grow and expand both Criterion and client ventures. The MPM will naturally evolve ideas to incorporate how consumers think and adapt actions accordingly. Both a marketer and an organizer, the MPM will have the capacity to think broadly in creative ways about bringing ideas to constituents calling for action on a large scale.

The MPM will work with a variety of clients galvanizing partnerships and bolstering project goals. Specifically, s/he will develop outreach strategies that leverage multiple channels and enable cross pollination across networks. Outreach strategies will include, but not be limited to, leveraging social network sites and blogs and developing sophisticated cause-related marketing plans. These strategies will constantly evolve to continuously remain at the edge of innovation and creativity. By working closely with and managing partners, the MPM will be regularly gathering and incorporating feedback to enable full partner buy-in.

The MPM will organize, drive and oversee constituency outreach for Criterion projects and ventures. Campaigns, which will rely heavily on viral messaging to further spread the word, will be developed in partnership with clients but will require significant input and management from the MPM. The MPM will be charged with developing a carefully packaged group of tactics and supporting them with appropriate systems to target a specific audience around a theme. Tactics, themes, and audiences will vary per campaign and will all involve evaluation metrics and measurement tools which will be regularly assessed and utilized to update strategies.

While over time the MPM will work with many clients and ventures, the initial project will be Constituent Marketing for the Women’s Funding Network (WFN), in their partnership with The Good Deed Foundation. WFN, a global network of 125 women’s foundations, has created a broad coalition of faith-based, labor, women’s and environmental groups committed to fighting poverty and climate change. The MPM will work with and through these groups to mobilize 30 million consumers to action through a series of campaigns. Making this campaign successful will be creative, thoughtful and cutting edge strategies which blend traditional and online organizing.

Work Environment and Location

Criterion’s Project Managers work almost exclusively remotely and are all provided with a sophisticated home office infrastructure. Travel is required approximately two days per month, and monthly meetings, which must be attended in person, are held at Criterion’s home office headquarters in Haddam, Connecticut, two hours from both Boston and New York. The MPM, therefore, can be located anywhere in or between these two cities.

The MPM will be a thoughtful marketing expert with the capacity to superbly manage relationships and processes like an organizer. S/he will have many of the following skills, qualities and attributes:
* At least ten years of experience managing and organizing complex marketing and outreach projects with the corresponding savvy to build and drive relationships, projects and budgets.
* A Bachelor’s degree is required, and preference will be given to candidates with an advanced degree in a related field.
* Remarkable acumen in working with people from diverse backgrounds with vastly different priorities and perspectives, often with varying understandings of marketing strategies and outreach.
* A zeal for the power of possibility enabled by large-scale social change.
* The nimbleness to work within a complex, exciting and trailblazing organization.
* Fluency in leveraging technology and on-line marketing strategies to promote ideas and to organize social change.
* Strong project management expertise with the sophistication to manage processes that, by definition, will always be evolving.
* The sophistication to quantitatively and qualitatively critically analyze projects as they are underway and to regularly incorporate the feedback of others.
* An ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, often with competing, but equally important deadlines.
* The independence to work almost entirely remotely including the capacity to adapt with ease to technological systems and structures.
* Creativity, flexibility, adaptability and open-mindedness are required; a sense of humor is ideal.
* The capacity to travel up to 25% of the time is required.

To apply, please submit your resume, a cover letter outlining your specific interest in this opportunity, your draw to the mission of Criterion along with your salary history and where you learned of this opportunity to: mpm@criterionventures.com with only your name written in the subject line.

Resumes will be reviewed as received. Due to the pace of this search, applicants are encouraged to apply immediately.

More information about Criterion Ventures can be found at:
http://www.criterionventures.com
Criterion Ventures is an equal opportunity employer.