Employment Opportunities

Public Opinion Researcher

Description of Position:

The Opportunity Agenda seeks an entrepreneurial Public Opinion Researcher to manage the organization’s public opinion research and media analysis; provide strategic input on research, communications and advocacy projects; and contribute to program development and fundraising.  The successful candidate will possess strong skills in quantitative and qualitative public opinion and media research, as well as in written and oral presentation.

Working under the supervision of the Director of Communications, this position will manage the organization’s communications research and analysis, including:

• Working with Opportunity Agenda staff and outside partners to determine public opinion and media research and analysis needs;
• Identifying and analyzing relevant existing public opinion research;
• Determining and specifying details of public opinion research projects, including sources of information, procedures to be used, and the design of survey instruments and materials;
  
• Designing, planning, implementing, and interpreting original public opinion research, including surveys and focus groups, collaborating or coordinating with other researchers when appropriate;
• Conducting media content analyses, identifying coverage trends, and proposing recommendations;
• Recruiting, hiring and managing consultants to complete opinion and media research projects when appropriate;
  
• Preparing and presenting summaries and analyses of survey data, focus group results, and media coverage, including tables, graphs, and fact sheets that describe techniques and results; and
• Preparing and delivering briefings for advocates, policymakers, funders, and other audiences.

Qualifications:

• Masters degree or equivalent experience in and knowledge of research methods and approaches;
• Five years experience working in a political, advocacy, or policy research environment, with some exposure to the nonprofit sector (educational background may substitute for work experience);
• Commitment to social justice and strong working knowledge of social justice issues and organizations;
• Knowledge of strategic communications planning and implementation;
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to interact with a wide and diverse population;
• Experience conducting and/or managing significant public opinion research projects;
• Familiarity with media research and analysis methods;
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite and database programs; and
  
• Bilingual skills in Spanish highly valued.

About The Opportunity Agenda:

The Opportunity Agenda works with social justice leaders to build public support for greater opportunity in America.  With a growing community of partners that spans diverse issues and constituencies—human rights, racial equality, immigration, health care, labor rights, education, criminal justice, and others—we work to move hearts and minds as well as public policy and political discourse.  Over time, our activities achieve: (1) measurably better media coverage that shifts the public debate; (2) visibly improved public support for social justice values and policies; and (3) greater capacity within social justice organizations and movements to communicate our shared values and vision for America.

For more information about the activities of The Opportunity Agenda, please see www.opportunityagenda.org.  The Opportunity Agenda, a project of the Tides Center, is an equal opportunity employer. We value a work place that is diverse in terms of gender, race, class, geographic origin, sexual orientation, and other differences that enrich our society.

Salary and Benefits: The salary range for this position is $50,000 to $65,000 and will be determined based on experience and skills.  Medical and dental insurance provided as well as short-term disability, flexible spending, and 403(b) accounts. Generous vacation package.

Location:  New York, NY

Application Instructions:  Applications should send a letter of interest, resume, and writing sample to Tony Stephens at tstephens@opportunityagenda.org.

Director of Law and Advocacy

Description of Position:

The Opportunity Agenda is seeking candidates for the position of Director of Law and Advocacy in its New York Office.

The Opportunity Agenda is a communications, research, and advocacy organization with the mission of building the national will to expand opportunity in America. Working with a wide range of non-profit, academic, governmental, and media partners, the organization works to build public support for social justice values and solutions, and to promote effective social justice policies. The Opportunity Agenda’s current areas of activity include health care, education, workers’ rights, and economic development, bringing to this work an emphasis on racial justice, gender equity, immigrant opportunity, economic justice, and universal human rights. The Director of Law and Advocacy will have an important opportunity to help shape the development and direction of our new and growing organization.

The Director of Law and Advocacy will be responsible for overseeing and coordinating The Opportunity Agenda’s activities in the areas of legal research and analysis, amicus briefs and filings, drafting of proposed legislation and regulations, legislative and administrative advocacy, and transactional legal assistance to governmental and organizational partners. She or he will also manage the organization’s outreach and interaction with advocacy organizations and leaders, participate in collaborative strategy development, and serve as one of the spokespeople for the organization and its positions. The position will also entail working closely with the organization’s communications and research staff on joint projects. The Opportunity Agenda does not engage in direct litigation or individual client representation.

Qualifications:

The ideal candidate will have at least seven years experience in litigation, legislative or administrative advocacy, or policy making.  Additional criteria include:

• A law degree;
• A demonstrated commitment to social justice and the public interest;
• Experience managing staff and interns and coordinating program activities;
• A record of working with advocates and policymakers on social justice reforms;
• Demonstrated interest in The Opportunity Agenda's core issues and values;
• Interest and experience working with communications professionals and researchers;
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to speak and write clearly to a wide range of audiences;
• A commitment to promoting diversity and to working in a diverse environment;
• Modesty and a healthy sense of humor.

Title, Salary, and Benefits: Title and salary will be determined based on experience and skills.  Medical and dental insurance provided as well as short-term disability, flexible spending, and 403(b) accounts.  Generous vacation package.

Location: New York, NY

Application Instructions: Applicants should send a letter of interest, resume, and writing sample to kparks@opportunityagenda.org.


General Volunteer Opportunities

Undergraduate and Graduate Student Interns and Work Study:  Student interns may receive course credit for work done at The Opportunity Agenda.  Students from Columbia University, New School University, and Rochester University have completed projects such as media and public opinion research on domestic human rights and immigrant integration, video documentaries, and grassroots advocacy.  We strongly encourage students at New York City and Washington, D.C.-area universities and colleges to contact us before the beginning of a semester or quarter about internship opportunities.  Students interested in health equity policy and advocacy, public interest law, representations of human rights in the media, video editing and production, animation, and filmmaking are especially encouraged to apply.  Some work-study opportunities may be available.

Creative Professionals:  We are interested in working with videographers, filmmakers, and students interested in social justice and documentary; journalists writing stories on topics relating to opportunity; communications and media professionals, and creative people interested in moving Americans’ hearts and minds to embrace opportunity for all.

Development, Communications and Fundraising:  We are interested in working with undergraduate or graduate students who are interested in learning more about the “nuts and bolts” of development work including annual giving, special events, direct mail, major gifts, and prospect research. 

Deadlines:   Resumes will be reviewed on a rolling basis.  The Opportunity Agenda, a project of the Tides Center, values a diverse workplace and encourages students with non-traditional experiences and from historically underrepresented groups to apply.  For more information about the work of The Opportunity Agenda, please see www.opportunityagenda.org.  The contact persons are listed below.  No phone calls, please.

How to Reach Us:  If you would like to explore a volunteer opportunity further, contact the relevant staff member listed below.  Please, no phone calls.

• If you are a student interested in an internship in our New York office, please contact Jason P. Drucker.
• If you are a student interested in an internship in our Washington, D.C., office, please contact Betty Alvarez.
• If you are student interested in a media internship, please contact Micky Hingorani.  We are particularly interested in graduate students with a focus on graphic design and managing photographers.
• If you are a creative professional, please contact Julie Rowe.
• If you are interested in a development internship, please contact Jason P. Drucker.
• If you are an attorney or scholar interested in providing pro bono services, please contact Kevin Hsu.

The Opportunity Agenda seeks Pro Bono Attorney Assistance

The Opportunity Agenda strives to bring our unique communications, research, and advocacy strategy to a specific issue.  The Health Equity Initiative works to build the national commitment to equitable, high-quality health care for all.  It involves collaboration with health leaders working on racial disparities in care, women’s and reproductive health, immigrant health care, and universal access.  Our goal is to educate and mobilize a growing segment of the American public and help bring quality health care access and treatment to people and communities that are poorly served by our current health care system.

Health care is an issue that all Americans can understand and relate to.  A majority of Americans supports universal health care guaranteed by government, yet policy and political discourse are far from that approach.  The Opportunity Agenda staff and partners have considerable expertise in this area and it is one in which we can link a diversity of leaders and constituencies—including racial justice, women’s and reproductive rights, immigrant rights, anti-poverty, human rights, health professionals, and others—around a common approach.  Finally, equal and universal access to quality health care is vital to American opportunity.  More than 18,000 Americans die each year due to inadequate health care access, and racial, gender, and linguistic barriers threatens the health and security of many more.

As part of The Opportunity Agenda’s goal to marshal the public will to demand comprehensive, universal high-quality healthcare, we provide our local partners with legal and policy support that connects our research and communications efforts to specific policy solutions.  Our work focuses on identifying the health policies and practices that will address the diverse needs of the community, that embody the values of opportunity that we seek to promote in all public policies, and that will, in turn, fuel further demand for expanding opportunity in other sectors.  Our aim is to provide information and analysis regarding effective solutions to community leaders, advocates, and institutions seeking to implement promising practices.

Additionally, we have identified a number of promising policy levers, including health opportunity monitoring and health opportunity impact statements.  We are also researching ways of integrating human rights standards into U.S. law in the area of health care.  In collaboration with experts in the field and pro bono law firm partners, we will pursue other potential policy levers designed to build public dialogue and political will to address health equity as a cornerstone of opportunity. 

We are grateful to our current law firm partners including:  Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP; DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary; Schulte Roth & Zabel; and, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP.  Our legal work is chaired by Bill Lann Lee, shareholder at Lewis, Feinberg, Lee, Renaker & Jackson, P.C. in Oakland, California. and former assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration, and Alan Jenkins, Executive Director of The Opportunity Agenda and former director of human rights at the Ford Foundation.  If you are interested in learning more about pro bono opportunities for research on health equity, human rights, and the law, please contact Kevin Hsu, Associate Counsel, by email (khsu@opportunityagenda.org) or phone (212-334-4267).