Job Description

The Advocacy Manager plays a leading role in CARE's Citizen Action Network (CAN), building and organizing our nation-wide network of advocates into a force to support save lives and end global poverty. She/he/they will join a team of dedicated colleagues that work to build a constituency of care and compassion by leading coalitions that influence U.S. policy makers, coordinating grassroots mobilization, and creating strong relationships with partners in the communities we seek to organize.

The Advocacy Manager is responsible for designing and implementing strategies lead and scale CARE’s grassroots organizing to demonstrate strong constituent support for U.S. international assistance and advance CARE’s policy priorities. This role is responsible for recruiting, training, mobilizing, and retaining a diverse base of volunteer advocates across priority states and beyond. The Advocacy Manager will deepen relationships between constituents and Members of Congress, oversee in-district and Capitol Hill advocacy meetings, build state-level volunteer leadership infrastructure, and grow high-impact advocate engagement.
Success in this role means measurable advocacy outcomes: increased congressional engagement, expanded advocate leadership capacity, new strategic partnerships, and a sustainable base of highly engaged grassroots advocates. The Advocacy Manager will work under the direction of the Director for Movement Building and Partnerships to construct and optimize national and local organizing strategies.

The Advocacy Manager will represent CAN as needed in cross functional strategy development, contributing to a national strategy to build a constituency to support our policy goals and engaging with her/his/their peers in implementation. Advocacy Managers regularly collaborate with other departments within CARE, including those in the Fundraising and Marketing Departments.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Drive High-Impact Advocacy to Influence Members of Congress

• Lead the planning and execution of Capitol Hill and in-district advocacy days.
• Coordinate and support in-district congressional meetings in priority states to deepen constituent relationships with policymakers and demonstrate sustained support for international assistance.
• Prepare advocates with policy briefings, talking points, and coaching to ensure meetings are strategic, disciplined, and effective.
• Develop and execute state-specific strategies in priority states to strategically engage and influence targeted policymakers, applying strong political judgment, power mapping, and relationship-building skills to identify the right messengers, moments, and tactics to move decision-makers along the engagement spectrum.
• Track and evaluate movement of targeted Members of Congress along the engagement spectrum, in partnership with Government Relations colleagues.
• Ensure advocacy activities are aligned with legislative strategy and advance CARE’s international assistance funding priorities.

Build and Strengthen Volunteer-Led Organizing Infrastructure

• Recruit, train, and engage advocates in each of priority states.
• Manage and grow our State Organizer volunteer leadership program to expand national capacity, recruiting new advocates per state and hosting three in-person advocacy trainings or events annually in each state.
• Develop clear leadership pathways that move advocates from initial engagement to high-impact action and leadership roles.
• Establish baseline metrics for advocate engagement, retention, and leadership development to inform future organizing strategy.

Grow and Diversify the Advocate Base

• Proactively convert newly acquired digital supporters into offline advocates by systematically working new supporter lists—conducting outreach calls, personalized follow-up, and targeted organizing tactics to move them from online engagement to in-person trainings, meetings, and advocacy actions.
• Conduct regular in-state travel to priority states to recruit new advocates through community outreach and in-person events, while strengthening relationships with and expanding engagement among the existing base of grassroots supporters.
• Build partnerships with external organizations that either adopt CARE’s policy priorities or actively recruit advocates to support international assistance.
• Develop systems to track and measure partner-driven recruitment and engagement, establishing baselines for future growth.