Career Center

Association Forum has a unique opportunity for a strategic leader in Marketing. The newly defined Director of Marketing and Engagement is an integral member of Association Forum’s leadership team, responsible for driving revenue through membership and corporate partnership promotion and engagement, and leading membership experience efforts with oversight of engagement strategy, marketing, communications, and data analysis focused on increasing membership and stakeholder engagement.

This is an opportunity for an influential executer, relationship builder, and strategic thinker to shape the future of Association Forum marketing, redefining member and partner engagement with innovative initiatives and solutions.

Success of the Director of Marketing and Engagement will be measured in the following areas:

Leadership & Management

• Provide strategic direction and oversight to staff, volunteer committees, and working groups to ensure program effectiveness, connecting operational performance to member outcomes.
• Lead and develop a high-performing Member Experience Team, as well as external marketing professionals.

Marketing – Presence, expansion, brand awareness

• Collaborate with internal and external resources to plan, develop, and execute Association Forum’s marketing and advertising initiatives.
• Own and drive the development, implementation, and evaluation of communication strategies and marketing plans across membership, meetings, events, online learning, products, career center, and other Association Forum initiatives.
• Collaborate with Association Forum leaders and the Member Experience Team to create persuasive organizational and value proposition messaging across multiple channels that attracts a broad and diverse audience to further enhance the member experience.
• Innovate creative messaging and promotion of member recruitment, member experience, and member events.
• Define the brand strategy for the Forum building brand equity for specific audiences and champion internal and external brand guidelines.
• Oversee the development of programs and social media campaigns to create brand awareness and recognition and generate quality leads through strategy and pricing.

 Membership and Partner Engagement

• Lead development of Association Forum’s engagement strategy with focus on growth and engagement across all member and partner segments.
• Leverage deep industry knowledge to identify potential dues targets, risks, and opportunities to engage members in sponsorship and/or advocacy opportunities.
• Create and maintain a prospect database; develop plans to engage prospects and convert them to members.
• Define and achieve the membership and partnership sales plans, revenue goals, and strategic objectives.
• Use data to support the growth, retention, and delivery of value to members, collaborating with internal teams and experts to create compelling marketing strategies, materials and offerings.
• Enhance member and partner user experiences to ensure Association Forum exceeds user expectations at every touch point.
• Develop customized member and partner solutions that engage and increase participation and investment.
• Engage with partners to gather feedback and ensure ongoing member and partner satisfaction and retention.
• Ensure integration of diversity, equity, and inclusion in membership and partnership efforts.
• Collaborate with internal staff and external service providers to oversee proper delivery of all member benefits, continuously auditing benefits to ensure value.

Volunteer and Committee Management

• Liaison to the Welcoming Environment Committee.
• Support Committee and identity based various advisory group programs.

For consideration, candidates must possess the following:

• 7-10 years related experience in an Association or non-profit environment
• Bachelor’s degree
• Certified Association Executive (CAE) or similar job specific credentials
• Expert application of marketing analytic tools
• Expert knowledge and use of relational database applications
• Demonstrated revenue generation experience
• Advanced MS Office user
• Experience supervising, leading, and developing staff
• Volunteer management experience

Competencies required of an Association Forum leader include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Executive Presence
• Individual, Team and Project Management
• Strategic Agility
• Financial Management
• Personal Integrity and Professional Conduct
• Influence

Association Forum is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We realize the key to creating a company with a world class culture and employee experience comes from who we hire, as well as creating and maintaining a workplace that celebrates everyone.

We proudly consider qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, pregnancy, sex, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, physical or mental disability, HIV status, registered domestic partner status, caregiver status, marital status, veteran or military status, citizenship status or any other legally protected category.

About Association Forum

Association Forum is a 501 (c)(6) organization headquartered in Chicago, known to association professionals as the association of associations. We provide services, resources, professional development, and networking opportunities to more than 1,500 businesses and charitable, civic and professional organizations The Association Forum’s 3,000+ members are the CEOs and staff professionals of national, state, and nonprofit organizations, as well as providers of goods and services to businesses in the association industry. Association Forum is an industry leader and proud to provide essential learning, compelling experiences and powerful resources that advance the professional practice of association management.

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