Senior Communications Strategist

Senior Communications Strategist

LifeLine Animal Project is the largest animal welfare organization in Georgia, providing services to 46,000 animals annually with a team of over 300 employees working across four locations, including two county animal shelters, and remotely. LifeLine is committed to the care and welfare of pets and the people who love them. The values we exhibit as an organization show the strength of our staff, our leadership, and our community. We expect all employees to exhibit LifeLine's core values as we complete daily tasks, provide services to clients and care for our animals.

The Senior Communications Strategist builds and expresses LifeLine's brand and donor-facing narrative, working in close partnership with the Chief Marketing Officer, the marketing and development teams, and directly with the CEO to refine and elevate the brand and institutional story. The role helps establish LifeLine as the recognized authority (regionally and nationally) in its field, and develops strategies for donor, funder, and government partner conversations to drive fundraising and organizational growth.

Essential Job Functions:

• Partner with the CMO to develop and refine brand positioning, messaging frameworks and audience growth strategy, bringing research and recommendations that inform final CMO decisions.
• Conduct audience and competitive research—donor segments, adopter and foster personas, comparable animal welfare and nonprofit organizations—to ground strategic recommendations.
• Identify and propose new audience growth opportunities, channels and approaches, presenting data and rationale.
• Stay current on nonprofit marketing trends, audience behavior shifts and platform changes, proactively bringing relevant insights to the CMO and broader team.
• Draft annual marketing plan to continue to help save lives and increase financial and community support.
• Serve as lead writer to refine and advance LifeLine's brand and institutional voice: brand narrative, thought leadership, major organizational moments, website, and CEO op-eds.
• Collaborate with development team and provide messaging for major-donor and grant conversations as needed.
• Bring strategic narrative to the team's adoption, foster, and urgent lifesaving content so it moves animals and builds the case for continued funding/support.
• Work directly with the CEO to refine and advance LifeLine's brand and institutional narrative, coordinating through the Chief Marketing Officer.
• Build LifeLine's standing as the recognized authority in animal welfare with county and government partners, funders, media, and peer organizations, through thought leadership, organizational expertise, data, and outcomes, and help build and sustain a regional and national profile.
• Work directly with county communications teams so LifeLine's expertise informs public decisions.
• Assist CMO and PR Manager with crisis communication strategies and recommendations.
• As an exceptional steward for the brand, safeguard consistency and quality of LifeLine's positioning as it scales across new campaigns, partnerships, and audiences.
• Respect, embrace and celebrate diversity by ensuring strategic recommendations reflect and resonate with the full breadth of LifeLine's community and supporters.

Cross-Channel Guidance Responsibilities:

• Translate approved brand strategy into clear, actionable guidance—briefs, messaging guardrails and campaign frameworks—for the PR Manager, Social Media Manager and Digital Marketing Managers to execute against.
• Review campaign and content output across channels for strategic and brand alignment, flagging inconsistencies for resolution.
• Collaborate with the Creative Director to ensure visual brand expression and strategic positioning move in lockstep.
• Courageously ensure key messages and brand strategy is being communicated across all channels effectively.
• Take responsibility for tracking how strategic initiatives perform against audience growth goals, analyzing and reporting findings to the CMO and leadership.
• Build community internally by maintaining strong working relationships, especially across the marketing team, ensuring strategy work feels collaborative.
• Continue education by participating in LifeLine's 40-hour annual training requirement.

Qualifications:

• Be compassionate for animals and the people who love and care for them; a deep love for animals and comfort in handling all types and sizes.
• Proven experience developing brand strategy, positioning and audience growth plans, ideally including nonprofit or mission-driven work.
• Strong research and analytical skills, with the ability to translate data and trends into clear strategic recommendations.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence and advise senior leadership.
• Confident offering direction and effective at influencing and advising senior leadership and cross-functional peers to move strategy forward.
• Demonstrated ability to build institutional credibility and authority with sophisticated external audiences, including government and philanthropic leaders, distinct from consumer or social marketing.
• Strong cross-functional collaborator who can work effectively with channel managers without direct supervisory authority over them.
• Deadline driven, reliable, responsible and accurate with an attention to detail.
• Experience with G Suite/Office tools and Asana helpful.
• Strategic, curious and a collaborative team player.
• Committed to and enthusiastic about LifeLine's mission, programs and services.
• Must pass a background check.

Education and/or Experience:

• Degree in marketing, communications, business, or related field required.
• Five or more years of professional experience in nonprofit communications, brand strategy, or institutional storytelling, including substantial nonprofit or mission-driven experience.
• Demonstrated experience writing for major donors, boards, funders, and public or government stakeholders.
• Must have experience conducting audience or market research and translating findings into actionable strategic recommendations.

Work Environment:

Work is primarily performed in an indoor office setting. The role may occasionally require travel to LifeLine shelter locations or community events to inform strategic recommendations.