Senior Manager of Government Affairs - GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY

General Description: The Senior Manager of Government Affairs advances the Food Depository’s legislative agenda and relationship goals with local, state, and federal elected officials under the direction of the Senior Director of Community Advocacy and Government Affairs.  

Food insecurity is a symptom of poverty and racial inequity. The Food Depository’s Policy and Advocacy team leads organizational efforts to advance policy solutions to food insecurity in Cook County and throughout Illinois. The Policy and Advocacy team advances legislative and administrative policy solutions at the federal, state, and local level and maximizes the implementation of the social safety net in Illinois. 
 

The Senior Manager of Government Affairs is responsible for engaging Cook County elected officials at the local, state, and federal levels. The role is responsible for monitoring, reporting, and influencing legislative action by the Chicago City Council, the Cook County Board of Commissioners, Illinois General Assembly, and Congress. The Senior Manager of Government Affairs will implement a relationship management strategy to deepen legislator engagement around food insecurity at the local, state and federal level. The Senior Manager of Government Affairs will work closely with the Manager of Advocacy to cultivate individual and organizational advocates to lift up the issue of hunger, its impact on communities, and its solutions. The Senior Manager of Government Affairs will also work closely with two Policy Advisors on designing and executing engagement strategies to enact and implement priority bills or administrative actions. The role works across departments to understand and proactively advance Food Depository and community partner policy and government relations needs.  

Key Responsibilities and Essential Functions: 

• Create and maintain strong relationships with elected officials and their staff. 

• Advance the Food Depository’s legislative agenda at the local, state, and federal levels, including shaping and executing a legislative strategy for priority bills. 

• Execute the Food Depository’s government affairs relationship strategy with local, state, and federal representatives. 

• Implement all outbound communications and meeting coordination with elected officials and their offices, and work with the Manager of Advocacy to craft impactful communications to advocates to engage with their elected officials.  

• Maintain strong working knowledge to be able to accurately and strategically represent Food Depository programs, operations, and policy goals. 

• Strategically deploy Food Depository staff, advocates, partners, board members, and other stakeholders to advance legislative and government relations goals. 

• Organize engagement events including legislator breakfasts, site visits, volunteer events, and similar experiences. 

• Represent the Food Depository at public and private events including elected officials and prepare other staff throughout the organization to engage with elected officials at events, as needed.  

• Collaborate with a variety of Food Depository functional areas (programs, marketing, volunteer services, development) to advance advocate, partner, and elected official engagement. 

• Monitor legislative action, identify impacts on Food Depository and partner advocacy and operations, and report to key stakeholders. 

• Collaborate with the Manager of Advocacy and Greater Chicago Food Depository staff and teams to build proactive advocacy partnerships with individuals and organizations within target districts for key elected officials.  

• Represent the Food Depository at policy-related meetings, events, and conferences. 

• Support the planning, promotion and execution of key advocacy events including the annual Illinois End Hunger Now Lobby Day in Springfield, smaller Springfield lobby days with partners, and an annual Lobby Day in Washington D.C.   

• Beyond large events, coordinate and participate in additional lobbying trips and hearings to provide testimony, as necessary, in Springfield and Washington D.C. with staff, and in some cases advocates, and represent the organization’s policy priorities and secure support.  

• Maximize existing systems for tracking organization-wide engagement with elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels, and complete data entry of all legislator engagement by the Policy & Advocacy team. 

• Supporting technical assistance with our statewide network of Feeding Illinois food banks, as needed, to encourage their government affairs outreach. 

• Manage budgets and participate in budget planning and reporting process. 

• Other responsibilities and duties as assigned. 
   

• Bachelor’s degree plus Master’s Degree or graduate level work in public policy, social work, public health, urban planning, or a related field is preferred. 

• Minimum of 7 years of work experience with at least 3 years of experience in lobbying, advocacy, public policy, community organizing, political campaign, or similar experience. 

• Expert knowledge of federal, state, and local legislative processes. 

• Excellent written, oral, and presentation skills. 

• Strong people skills including ability to establish and maintain effective, collaborative relationships with diverse stakeholders and influence others toward a common goal. 

• Strong knowledge of the advocacy and political landscape in Chicagoland, including trusted relationships at the federal, state and local levels, and a track-record of collaboration with other civic, advocacy, or community organizing groups or coalitions.   

• Proven record of generating buy-in from stakeholders and advancing legislative solutions. 

• Ability to work in political environments requiring a high degree of tact, discretion, and political savvy with keen political and interpersonal judgment.  

• Ability to effectively adjust communications for audience and situation. 

• Strategic thinking with robust analytical/problem solving skills and organizational agility. 

• Ability to advance multiple projects simultaneously and leverage opportunities to achieve multiple objectives. 

• Ability to effectively manage complex projects and work with limited supervision. 

• Action-oriented, entrepreneurial leader with significant creative capacity and flexibility. 

• Proficiency in MS Office-Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and any client relationship management (CRM) database.  

Exposure: 

• Normal office environment; some warehouse environment. 

• Hybrid work environment, with minimum three days per week on-site. Tuesday- Thursday. 

• Out of office meetings and events. Occasional travel.  

• Interacts with Food Depository staff; political and community leaders; federal, state, and local government staff; volunteers; member agencies and general public.