Communications/ PR Manager

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Warm Heart is a grassroots organization that empowers rural Thai villagers. Working with the community, Warm Heart organizes projects that improve access to education, basic health services, and jobs and sustainable incomes to the poorest people in the Phrao District of Chiang Mai, Thailand.

With such a diverse portfolio of projects, it is important to effectively present our work to our wide and varying community. We currently rely on donations and volunteers from around the world to support our endeavors. We work with other organizations and companies to put together major projects that create a lasting impact on the people of Phrao. And all of our activities are community-sponsored meaning our impact must be tracked and publicized in a reliable and understandable way.

In addition to effective communication for the Warm Heart Foundation, we also work with local artisans to improve the sales and marketing of their products. We provide design, business, and marketing assistance to women’s cooperatives in Phrao in order to sell their products on both the Thai and international markets.

Position Overview

Warm Heart seeks a creative, forward-thinking Communications/PR Manager to create an effective communications plan for our organization as a whole, as well as for our Microenterprise Program.

Primary Responsibilities

• Formulate and implement Warm Heart’s overall communications strategy
• Collaborate with translators, IT personnel, and designers to put together new communications materials, i.e. pamphlets, presentations, one-pagers, infographics, etc.
• Organize and implement a fundraising strategy
• Manage Warm Heart’s social media presence (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Flickr)
• Assist with other projects, as assigned (e.g. volunteers are required to teach English for 2 hours of each week)

Experience/Skills

• Strong PR background- experience implementing high-level communications strategies to successfully execute its plan
• Interest in promoting sustainable development
• Management experience
• Ability to think creatively and function in a diverse workplace
• Conversationally fluent in English

Working for a start-up NGO in a foreign country, especially one located in a small town, places special demands on volunteers. Volunteers will work with a small team of international volunteers in a Thai organization and community. The work is demanding and can prove difficult at times due to linguistic and cultural barriers.

Volunteers must, therefore, understand that Warm Heart requires individuals who have excellent interpersonal and diversity skills, lots of patience, perseverance, and endurance. Warm Heart also requires initiative-taking individuals who are self-starting, flexible and self-managing.

Bottom line: We serve real people with real needs and we need only volunteers ready to accept the intellectually, professionally, and personally challenging work we offer. Being a "volunteer" at Warm Heart means only that you are not being paid for your work; it does not mean that you carry any less responsibility for the promises we have made to the people of Phrao.

Location

Volunteering at Warm Heart is an opportunity to immerse oneself in both authentic Thai culture and the beautiful mountains surrounding Warm Heart's location in Phrao. Local villagers will welcome you to share in the simple pleasure of day-to-day life, while Phrao's north-central location provides the perfect base camp to explore the rest of Thailand and Southeast Asia. Warm Heart’s offices are conveniently located just 70 kilometers north of Chiang Mai, Thailand's second-largest city, where all the comforts of Western culture can be found.

Duration

A 2-3 month minimum commitment of 40 hours per week is required, but a longer commitment is much preferred. You will really begin to feel at home and know your job after a few months, and Warm Heart will be able to give you much more responsibility if we know that you are not just passing through.

Benefits

• You will make a real difference. You will meet the people whose lives you are changing and the changes that you will bring will be big: jobs and sustainable incomes.
• You will leverage your university experience. It is one thing to learn about global markets or grassroots development; it is an entirely different thing to do them yourself.
• You will acquire professional skills that cannot be taught in the classroom. Every survey shows the same thing: companies think that their new employees are well educated, but lack interpersonal, teamwork and diversity skills. Warm Heart is a university of this stuff; you will return with amazing cross-cultural, multi-lingual teamwork and management skills. You will gain invaluable insight into how an NGO operates.
• You will grow. You are on your own in a strange place working with a staff of Thais on the real problems of real people. It's like a human growth hormone for the soul.
• You will meet cool people. Warm Heart volunteers come from everywhere from Australia to Vietnam. You will have the chance to develop close-knit friendships with other volunteers as well as the locals.

Costs

Unlike many volunteer programs, Warm Heart does not charge a participation fee or require a donation. We do provide low cost packages that include:

• Housing: Single in a nearby guest house with screens, western toilet, hot water, and internet.
• Services: Document preparation and translation for visas, work permits, required health documents, visa extensions, etc.

The Warm Heart package for those staying up to three months is currently $250 per month (subject to change, of course). Volunteers should expect to spend about another $250 per month on food, gas, telephone and entertainment. How much more you spend will depend on how often you go to Chiang Mai for the weekend.
Please fill out our online application: https://warmheartworldwide.org/volunteer-application/