Narrative Capacity Building Manager

POSITION OVERVIEW

Working closely with the Director of Narrative Strategy and Capacity Building (“Director”), the Narrative Capacity Building Manager will play a crucial role in ensuring the smooth execution of BLIS’s major narrative consulting contracts and the successful launch of the Solidarity Gym. This is a one-year, full-time, client-facing role that requires someone highly organized, collaborative, and politically grounded – able to manage complex projects across philanthropic, movement, and cultural ecosystems. 

The Manager will serve as the primary project manager for BLIS’s narrative consulting portfolio, coordinating internal teams, timelines, and deliverables. In addition, they will help operationalize and support the rollout of our public Solidarity Gym as a signature training and narrative capacity-building offering. The ideal candidate brings a strong project management skillset, deep alignment with BLIS’s values, and the ability to hold relational, logistical, and strategic responsibilities with care. 

ABOUT BLIS COLLECTIVE

The BLIS Collective (Black Liberation-Indigenous Sovereignty) is a Solidarity and Action Hub that braids narratives and grows movements. Our mission is to spark radical collaboration and narrative alignment between and within Black, Indigenous, and transformative social movements to repair, decolonize, and reshape culture. 

BLIS advances a long-term inside and outside power-building strategy that activates narrative research, national and local coalition building, cultural production, capacity building, and braiding solidarity across a multi-movement membership network, all to build a culture of solidarity and pass transformative policies. 

Our membership network is made up of national and local organizations, cultural workers, researchers, and strategists committed to the principles of repair, redistribution, and solidarity. 

Savannah Romero and Trevor Smith founded the BLIS Collective in 2022. It is a fiscally sponsored project of Possibility Labs. 

ABOUT POSSIBILITY LABS (PL)

BIPOC-led movements and power-building initiatives, as well as funders and donors who want to fund BIPOC-led social movement groups, need adequate and values-aligned infrastructure to gather and deploy money at the speed and scale necessary to build the power needed to create a world where BIPOC and historically low-income communities have self-determination, clean air, clean water, and clean energy.

Possibility Labs’ mission is to accelerate and empower community-driven solutions that are built, led, and governed by and for low-income and BIPOC communities, by providing the essential financial and legal infrastructure to manage and move integrated capital to BIPOC-led movement groups. We aim to advance racial, gender, and climate justice and a new economy where everyone thrives.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Project Management & Client Coordination

• Serve as the primary project manager for all narrative consulting work, ensuring timelines, deliverables, and communications stay on track. 

• Nurture client relationships proactively, offering support and spotting opportunities for deeper relationship-building.

• Manage client project workflows: intake, contracts, planning, execution, follow-up, and closeout. 

• Co-lead scoping and contracting process for client work with the Director, in close coordination with the Operations Manager.

• Manage scheduling and logistics for meetings and events (e.g. training programs, workshops, focus groups and coaching sessions), including agendas, registration, pre/post surveys, materials, venues, tech checks, and other preparations. 

• Maintain shared documents, internal notes, and deliverable tracking systems. 

• Track progress on key goals, partner satisfaction, and uptake of tools across capacity-building engagements.

• Coordinate across internal teams to support excellent delivery of project deliverables.

• Support billing, budgeting, reporting, and administrative tasks in collaboration with the Operations Manager.

Narrative Capacity Building

• Support the Director with implementing and coordinating BLIS-led narrative consulting engagement related work. 

• Expand Capacity Building portfolio by promoting BLIS’s capacity building services to potential clients and partners across philanthropic, movement, and cultural ecosystems. 

• Support the creation and dissemination of curricula, guides, tools, media and resources that embed BLIS’s solidarity and narrative frameworks across different fields, movements, and ecosystems. 

• Support the design and facilitation of narrative training offerings, including the Solidarity Gym and custom workshops for partners. 

• Support with Solidarity Gym follow-up, relationship management, and insight gathering. 

• Coach partners in applying narrative strategies internally and externally across their ecosystems. 

• Participate in internal planning, documentation, and systems-building efforts to ensure the sustainability and scalability of capacity offerings.

Narrative Ecosystem Stewardship

• Track patterns, challenges, and breakthroughs emerging from BLIS’s narrative consulting and capacity work to help inform organizational learning and field strategy.

• Document and distill promising practices, tools in use, and lessons learned from partner engagements that can be shared back with the broader field. 

• Keep abreast of art, cultural, and media trends and trendsetters to identify possible narrative-driven collaborations for BLIS, its members, and partners. 

• Represent BLIS in narrative and field-building spaces and uplift BLIS member stories, tools, and strategies. 

Supervisory Responsibility

This role does not currently have direct supervisory responsibilities. The Narrative Capacity Building Manager is part of the Narrative Strategy & Capacity Building Circle and reports to the Director of Narrative Strategy & Capacity Building.

BLIS is committed to building a liberatory and sociocratic organizational culture rooted in shared leadership, mutuality, and collective accountability. While there are functional hierarchies – particularly around accountability and project management – we strive to ensure that those hierarchies do not determine all decisions that are made within the organization. We are building a work culture grounded in shared leadership, collective learning, mutuality, and respect. 

EXPECTED HOURS OF WORK

This is a full-time, remote position. BLIS operates Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. local time. Occasional flexibility is required for workshops and partner meetings that span multiple time zones.

TRAVEL 

This position requires some domestic travel, approximately 5-10% of the time.

ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND EXPERIENCE

• Deep alignment with the BLIS mission, including commitments to reparations, Land Back, solidarity economies, and decolonization.

• 3-5 years of experience in movement building, narrative and cultural strategies, training and facilitation, or strategic partnerships.

• Strong project management and organizational skills with ability to manage multiple projects with concurrent deliverables and timelines.

• Strong facilitation and training design experience, especially with frontline organizers or coalitions.

• Strong writing and communication skills, including the ability to synthesize frameworks into accessible tools, educational media, and other resources.

• Experience building trusted relationships across movement spaces and identities, with a commitment to healing, justice, and liberation.

• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with artists, organizers, researchers, and narrative practitioners.

PREFERRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND EXPERIENCE

• Experience in building capacity within organizations or networks to embed narrative and cultural strategy.

• Familiarity with frameworks of narrative power, social psychology, and movement ecology.

• Experience in designing and evaluating training programs or curriculum.

• Familiarity with participatory facilitation models and popular education methods.

• Prior experience with multi-movement or cross-racial coalition spaces.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

The starting salary for this position is $70,000 to $80,000, depending on experience. The BLIS Collective offers an excellent benefits package, including comprehensive healthcare with a national network, vision insurance, short and long-term disability insurance, parental leave, two one-week office closures for rest and recovery, and the last two weeks of December closed for hibernation. We also offer a one-time work-from-home stipend and flexible work hours. 

Possibility Labs is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion or belief, disability, gender, nationality, ethnicity, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other status protected by law. People of color and LGBTQ candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

WHY JOIN US?

BLIS is building the emotional and narrative infrastructure for liberation. As our Narrative Capacity Building Manager, you’ll support organizers, artists, and strategists in braiding narratives, deepening solidarity, and building the skills needed to achieve transformative policy and cultural change. You’ll help translate research into movement-ready tools and be part of a bold team imagining the next era of collective power.