SOCIAL MARKETING ASSOCIATE AT ACRE FUND

Social Marketing Associate Position at One Acre Fund, Apply NOW

Wanted

Exceptional professional with 2+ years of experience and a passion for social marketing and international development. 

Job Location

Rural Rwanda preferred (other rural field postings possible).

Duration

Minimum 2 years commitment, full-time job.

Organization Description

Most of the world's poor are farmers, representing the largest and most uniform group of poor people in the world. One Acre Fund is a growing social enterprise in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania that is innovating a new way of helping farm families to achieve their full potential. Instead of giving handouts, One Acre Fund invests in farmers to generate a permanent gain in farm income. We provide farmers with a "service bundle" that includes education, finance, seed and fertilizer, and market facilitation. Our program is proven impactful – every year, we weigh thousands of harvests and measure 50-100% average gain in farm income per acre. We have laser-like focus on generating better lives for the people that we serve.

Job Description

One Acre Fund has been in operation for roughly nine years, and each season, we execute a field program that is designed to meet the needs of smallholder farmers and enable them to dramatically boost their farm productivity. Working closely with thousands of smallholder farmers across East Africa has convinced us that the major bottleneck to achieving improved yields is boosting farmers’ awareness of and demand for basic agricultural technologies and practices, including hybrid seed, fertilizer, and agricultural best practices like row-planting and seed spacing.

It is this recognition of the importance of adoption and demand that is the rationale for our Social Marketing Associate position. One Acre Fund already conducts ad-hoc marketing as part of our standard field operations, but we want to significantly increase our investment and expertise in social marketing. We believe that a robust social marketing emphasis has the potential to increase farmers’ adoption of One Acre Fund recommendations, thereby unlocking dramatic improvements in their productivity.

The Social Marketing Associate will serve as a coordinator across our field operations, providing insight, project management, and M&E to various marketing campaigns. Sample projects include:

• Core program marketing support. A major goal of our core field programs in all of the countries where we operate is increasing farmer enrollment and retention. The Social Marketing Associate will design tools like rural sign posts, mass SMS campaigns, print and radio advertisements, t-shirts / cap promotions, and word-of-mouth campaigns to drive increased program adoption.
  • Ex: In preparation for the 2015 planting season in Kenya, One Acre Fund conducted a multi-pronged marketing campaign that emphasized themes like “Prosperous Farmer” and then rolled this messaging out in community meetings, SMS campaigns, and door-to-door messaging, driving pre-enrollment figures to 180,000 farmer sign-ups.
• Nationwide services. We increasingly play a supporting role in whole-country campaigns to boost adoption of key agricultural technologies. Examples include campaigns to drive mass adoption of hybrid seed, fertilizer, or row-planting; with each campaign regularly reaching millions of people. The Social Marketing Associate will deepen our efforts at country-wide behavior change outside our core program.
• Creating a monitoring framework. We would like the Social Marketing Associate not just to coordinate marketing campaigns, but to help One Acre Fund evaluate the success of these efforts, with a focus on hard product adoption and behavior change metrics at scale. Relevant scale is millions of adopted units of technology, rigorously measured using techniques like randomized trials.
• Build a team. Over time, if successful, this role includes a potential opportunity to help hire and develop a team of national and international staff.

Career Growth and Development

One Acre Fund invests in building management and leadership skills. Your manager will invest significant time in your career development. We provide constant, actionable feedback delivered through mentorship and through regular management consulting-style career reviews. We also have regular one-on-one meetings, where we listen to and discuss career goals, and work collaboratively to craft roles that each person can be passionate about.  Because of our rapid growth, we constantly have new high-level roles opening up and opportunities in many functions. This results in fast career growth for our staff.

Qualifications

We are seeking an exceptional professional(s) with 2+ year(s) of work experience and ideally a demonstrated passion for international development.  Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:

• Strong work experiences. Examples include a demanding professional work experience, or successful entrepreneurial experience (e.g. leading a conference, starting a business, solid Peace Corps accomplishments).
• Demonstrated passion for, and preferably experience in, applications of marketing to pressing social problems. While we do not need someone with a degree in social marketing, we would prefer to find a candidate who comes with experience in the social marketing space. Examples include helping to manage public health campaigns or marketing of microfinance services in the developing world.
• Leadership experience at work, or outside of work
• Top-performing academic background (include GPA on your resume)
• Humility. We are looking for passionate professionals who combine strong leadership skills with good humor, patience, and a humble approach to service to join our growing family of leaders.
• Language: English required

Preferred Start Date

Flexible

Compensation

Starts modest. However, this is a career-track role with fast raises for performance, paying a meaningful salary for long-term placement in developing nations.

Benefits

Health insurance, immunizations, flight, room and board.

Sponsor International Candidates

Yes

To Apply

Complete this form. You will be prompted to submit your CV and cover letter. You may also be asked to submit work samples for some positions. Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs), please submit a copy of your Description of Service (DOS) in the appropriate section.