Now Hiring: Events, Comms, Volunteer Management and More!
Reports To: Deputy Director, Administrative Manager, or Policy Director
Status: Full-time or Part-Time, we’re flexible
Location: San Jose, CA
Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC) is a non-profit organization that seeks to build more healthy and just communities by making bicycling safe and accessible for all.
We’re extraordinarily proud of the impact we’ve had over the past ten years in improving local infrastructure and normalizing bicycling for transportation. And we’re passionate about how much more we can do to solve challenging local and global issues through the use of the bicycle.
The Team:
You’ll join a team of 15 people that are passionate about moving swiftly toward our goals in a manner consistent with our principles. We invest a great deal of time in strengthening relationships and building a high-trust environment where feedback in all directions is welcomed as an opportunity to learn. And in our downtime, we’re often discussing various social justice issues or planning the next office party.
The Opportunity:
SVBC has a number of holes that need to be filled, some of which are detailed below. Please consider applying if any of this resonates with you.
In 2022, SVBC adopted a new Strategic Plan, which can be accessed at this link. It recognizes that with a staff of 15 covering two counties comprised of 15 cities and towns, we must rely on one of the organization’s most valuable assets - people (what we call pedal power). So, we’re looking for potential SVBC employees who are committed to growing the bike movement by leveraging the collective power of people who want to spread the joy of living life by bike.
Events: Does the prospect of organizing a huge bike ride that raises hundreds of thousands of dollars with thousands of riders excite you? Do you enjoy hammering out the logistics of events, lining up venues, coordinating caterers, and managing teams of volunteers to help you with all of this? SVBC needs someone to organize three main events each year:
Bike Summit: This is a typical conference where you’ll be securing the venue, making sure all the tech works, feeding people and more.
End of Year Party: This is a relatively low-lift where we throw a party for our supporters.
A Big Fundraising Ride: This is a huge endeavor that requires someone with great project management skills to put together the plan, delegate tasks and then execute on that plan.
Communications/Outreach: In addition to putting together the weekly e-bulletin and using social media to increase awareness of SVBC, you’ll develop and implement the organization’s communications and outreach strategy. The organization puts on great events and does great advocacy work but where we fall down is in making sure people show up and are aware of what we do. Ever throw a great party and very few people show up? Yeah, us too.
In this role, you would need to understand bike culture and have the ability to tailor the look and feel of our communications to all segments of the bike world. Passion for writing and copy-editing is a must and it is worth noting, we are not looking for people who want to design graphics. While that is a small part of what is needed at SVBC, we’re looking for someone who knows how to get content out there, someone who keeps themself educated about ever-changing marketing best practices in a world where people are inundated with email and social media. And, you’ll need to love the grunt work side of Mailchimp and segmenting emails. You would also be in charge of the tracking and analysis to understand what works and what we should keep doing.
Volunteer Management: SVBC has a dream of being able to accomplish so much more by growing, recruiting, training and deploying lots of passionate bicyclists to go out and convince others to live life joyfully by bike. For example, we organize bike rides but we also want to organize others to organize bike rides in order to have greater impact. The person in this role would be in charge of growing the number of people who volunteer with SVBC for things like bike parking, leading bike rides, attending city council meetings, and helping to make events like VivaCalle a great success. They would oversee the organization’s regular volunteer training and supporter recruitment events in the form of pop-ups along popular bike routes to get more riders involved in SVBC.
If you excel at inspiring people to get involved and also keeping them involved, we want you to oversee our volunteers!
Admin: Since 2015, the organization has doubled in terms of headcount and budget yet we’re still supported by one office manager. And while we now outsource some of the accounting functions, there’s a lot to do in terms of onboarding new staff, overseeing office space, dealing with tech issues, managing payroll and more. We need extra help. More about this role is detailed here.
Individual Donor Relations: We’re also looking for someone who can get into the weeds of Salesforce and take our fledgling individual donor program to the next level by providing back-end support to the Development Director. SVBC has three main sources of revenue: grants/contracts, sponsorships, and individual donors, all adding up to a $1.5 million budget. Last year, we started investing more heavily in developing the individual donor program and this year we’re ready to build it out even further.
Community Organizing: Finally, we are also growing our team of bike advocates. The power of the bike movement resides in the thousands of passionate people who ride bicycles. That’s why SVBC’s advocacy model is rooted in community organizing. We’re looking for people who have demonstrated experience making policy change by bringing people together to advance a common cause. This entails three main areas of experience:
A track record in community organizing
Technical knowledge of transportation and related policy
Successfully moving an issue through the public policy process
The ideal candidate would have experience in achieving advocacy wins by working with and through community members. This involves an understanding of the process and how to navigate it, connecting volunteers with relevant decision makers, being that conduit of information to a local agency, and more.
Tools you need to know or learn real quick:
Salesforce, EventBrite, Box, Google Docs, Zoom, MailChimp, Squarespace, Click and Pledge and more.
Salary and Benefits:
All positions are dependent upon experience but to give a sense for pay range, the starting salaries are listed below:
$60k: Coordinator level
$70k: Manager level
$80k: Director level
Salary ranges are based on the Northern California FairPay survey in order to be fair and equitable across all staff. Full-time, exempt positions come with a competitive benefits package including excellent vacation, health insurance, and 401k.
How to Apply:
Send a compelling cover letter and resume to jobs@bikesiliconvalley.org. In your cover letter describe which area/s of work you are interested in, a brief description of how your experience makes you a good fit for the role, and why you are excited to work at a bicycle coalition. Please include "Roles at SVBC, [YOUR NAME]" in the subject line. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until the positions are filled.
It’s important to note that SVBC is deeply committed to advancing its mission through a lens of cultural humility and social justice. Candidates should have a deep understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The right person would bring a perspective that helps build a diverse team, measured by a set of lived experiences that leads SVBC to be more successful in attracting a broad swath of people to live life joyfully through the bicycle.
SVBC is committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all persons regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, marital status, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, sex, or age.
