Ben & Jerry’s
Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc., started in 1978 in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont, USA, founded by childhood friends and dedicated activists Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. In 2000 Ben & Jerry’s became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Unilever with the remainder of an independent Board of Directors to provide leadership focused on preserving and expanding Ben & Jerry’s social mission, brand integrity, and product quality.
Ben & Jerry’s has an inspiring ambition to use its position as beloved ice cream company to advance progressive social change. This translates into a fast-paced environment married with an uncompromising grassroots and activist spirit. That is how we remain a true progressive values led organization with a connected 3-part mission that are reflected in our KPI’s:
- Social mission: We initiate innovative ways to improve the quality of life locally, nationally and internationally specifically on Climate Justice and Social Justice, Racial Justice, and Economic Justice
- Product mission: We make and distribute the finest quality natural ice cream and euphoric concoctions
- Economic mission: We operate our Company for sustainable, Profitable financial growth
Role & Responsibilities
SUMMARY
The primary role of the U.S. Activism Manager is to lead the strategy development and execution of the company’s U.S. based issue advocacy / activism campaigns that align with Ben & Jerry’s progressive values under the direction of the Head of Global Activism Strategy. The U.S. Activism Manager is a critical part of bringing Ben & Jerry’s impactful activism campaigns to life and requires close coordination across functions internally while also managing a diverse set of external stakeholders and campaign partners. The current focus of activism work are on issues of racial justice and equity broadly and specifically around issues within the criminal legal system.
Given Ben & Jerry’s unique position within Unilever, the ability to build excellent relationships within both Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s will be essential. Having the right energy and attitude to connect both parts of our organization will be critical for success.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Include the following. Other duties may be assigned.
You’ll work with a cross functional team of U.S. based Ben & Jerry’s staff to develop and execute progressive, innovative, and strategic winning campaigns that support progressive social change. The campaign issues and partners should move fans and citizens alike from awareness and education to engagement and direct action. Strategy development, partner selection, and execution of issue advocacy campaigns across multiple channels that align with the company’s Board approved priority issue areas.
Support the development of strategies that translate Ben & Jerry’s social mission priorities into compelling and relevant local, regional, and national campaigns. Identify local, regional, and national level issue on-ramps that that make our activism campaigns timely, relevant, and impactful.
Cultivate and manage a diverse set of internal and external stakeholders and partners, including civil society / NGO’s, other allies in inside and outside the company, that are partners in creating and executing winning campaigns.
Support U.S. marketing team in creating compelling content that effectively engages fans and citizens on our advocacy campaigns and inspires them to take action.
With the U.S. being the most mature Ben & Jerry’s market, U.S. campaigns are often setting the standards and best practices that become models for our overseas markets. This role will capture, document and disseminate best practices, tools, and models that can scale globally. Manage communications platforms for collaboration between the U.S. and global advocacy teams.
Provide vision and leadership within the Global Social Mission Advocacy Team to ensure Ben & Jerry’s remains the most progressive, innovative and impactful activist company.
QUALIFICATIONS
An understanding of, belief in and passion for Ben & Jerry’s Mission and Progressive Values.
At least five years of previous activism campaign experience and a proven track of campaign strategy development.
A strong knowledge of public policy and the political process.
Experience working on issues of racial justice and familiarity with the landscape of groups and organizations focused across those issues is a plus.
A belief in the power of grass-roots campaigning and commitment to movement-building as a theory of change.
Experience and understanding of how to use a diverse set of tools and channels, including digital and social media, to inspire people to action in support of progressive social change.
Experience working across multi-cultural and diverse communities.
Strong interpersonal, leadership, communication and diplomacy skills.
Excellent public speaking and presentation skills, and media experience.
Attention to detail, planning and preparation.
Ability to influence internal and external partners in order to establish a collaborative stakeholder alignment across a complex globally matrixed organization.
Minimum degree or equivalent practical experiences in Political Science, Sociology, Community Organizing or related fields relevant to this work; Marketing, Communications, or a Business degree a plus.
Will work independently, with limited oversight, while defining the role.
Will design and build programs with potential for implementation across a global enterprise.
Over the past year, we have dedicated ourselves in new ways to understanding and developing strategies for the deep work necessary to uproot the systemic racism underpinning our racial inequity. Ben & Jerry’s is committed to becoming a truly antiracist company by eliminating racial disparities within the company and to disproportionately create Black wealth through our business relationships.
We are actively working to achieve equity in our workforce, franchise network and supplier base through a wide range of ongoing and evolving strategies that eliminate barriers, increase access to opportunity, and make real changes in our business practices and culture. This work will be supported by goals and internal metrics to maintain and report on our progress.
We have chosen to center on racial equity out of an understanding that the culture of white supremacy must be dismantled to achieve equity for all marginalized people. We have focused our strategies on outcomes for Black people because slavery and its legacy remain such a defining element of American life. We believe this targeted work will help us achieve our broader commitment to universal social equity.
The initial phase of this work focuses on our home market of the U.S., where the majority of our employees and business is located. As we learn and build our capacity for this work, we will expand it to our global markets where systemic racism in other forms, with roots in colonialism, persists.