Senior Vice President, Communications

Remote
Full Time
Executive
The Senior Vice President (SVP), Communications is a key member of the leadership team responsible for advancing the Armed Services YMCA’s internal and external communications strategy in support of organizational alignment, mission impact, reputation, growth, fundraising, and stakeholder engagement.

A central priority is building an effective internal communications function that keeps employees informed, connected, and equipped to act on organizational priorities. Working across departments and with branch leadership, the SVP establishes the strategies, channels, and practices that strengthen engagement through growth and change.

Reporting to the Chief Development & Marketing Officer (CDMO), the SVP oversees strategic messaging, internal communications, public and media relations, content development, executive communications review, and crisis communications. This leader collaborates closely with fellow SVPs within Development and Marketing to support corporate partnerships, fundraising, brand visibility, reputation management, and coordinated crisis response across channels.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership
  • Develop and execute comprehensive internal and external communications strategies aligned with organizational priorities, growth objectives, and mission advancement.
  • Serve as a strategic advisor to the CDMO, CEO, and leadership team on organizational communications, public relations, reputation management, and stakeholder engagement.
  • Establish messaging frameworks and communications standards that ensure clarity and consistency across National Headquarters and branches.
  • Collaborate with fellow SVPs within Development and Marketing to integrate communications with fundraising, corporate partnerships, marketing, and audience engagement strategies.
  • Establish measurable goals, key performance indicators, and reporting mechanisms to evaluate communications effectiveness and guide improvements.
Internal Communications & Organizational Engagement
  • Build and lead an enterprise-wide internal communications strategy that connects National Headquarters and branches and strengthens employee understanding of ASYMCA’s mission, priorities, decisions, and progress.
  • Partner across Human Resources, operations, finance, programs, Development and Marketing, and branch leadership to identify communications needs, coordinate priorities, and clarify roles for shared planning and review.
  • Establish a coordinated communications calendar, channel standards, and distribution practices that deliver timely, relevant information to the right employees, including frontline staff.
  • Translate strategic decisions, organizational initiatives, and operational changes into clear communications that explain what is changing, why it matters, and what employees need to do.
  • Develop executive updates, town halls, manager resources, and other communications that increase leadership visibility and equip department and branch leaders to communicate consistently.
  • Support employee engagement, organizational culture, and change communications while creating meaningful opportunities for two-way feedback and exchange of ideas across departments and branches.
  • Coordinate significant internal announcements with external communications and measure reach, understanding, and usefulness through feedback, channel analytics, and other relevant indicators.
External Communications & Public Relations
  • Lead external communications and media relations strategies that elevate national visibility, strengthen public understanding, and advance ASYMCA’s reputation.
  • Build and maintain relationships with media outlets, industry influencers, community leaders, and strategic partners.
  • Develop compelling messaging and content for organizational initiatives, campaigns, events, impact stories, and public engagement opportunities.
  • Collaborate with fellow SVPs within Development and Marketing to coordinate external communications supporting corporate partnerships, sponsorships, fundraising, brand priorities, and partner commitments.
  • Coordinate with marketing and social media leadership to ensure consistent messaging across earned, owned, and shared channels.
  • Serve as an organizational spokesperson when appropriate and support designated spokespersons throughout National Headquarters and branches.
Crisis Communications & Reputation Management
  • Lead the development, implementation, and refinement of an organization-wide crisis communications plan, including roles, response protocols, approval processes, and escalation procedures for National Headquarters and branches.
  • Advise the CEO, CDMO, and leadership team on sensitive issues, emerging reputational risks, and crisis communications strategy.
  • Coordinate with fellow SVPs, department leaders, affected branches, and corporate partnership leadership to assess communications needs and execute timely, unified internal and external responses.
  • Partner with marketing and social media leadership to monitor emerging issues and coordinate crisis messaging, responses, and engagement across social platforms.
  • Lead the development of holding statements, talking points, media responses, stakeholder communications, and employee guidance that are accurate, consistent, and appropriately sensitive.
  • Prepare designated spokespersons and equip department and branch leaders to communicate effectively during sensitive situations.
  • Conduct crisis preparedness exercises and post-incident reviews to strengthen readiness and improve response practices.
Executive & Board Communications
  • Review and provide strategic and editorial guidance on all executive communications—including speeches, presentations, written messages, and thought leadership content—to ensure clarity, consistency, and alignment with organizational priorities.
  • Partner with executive leadership and staff responsible for drafting communications to refine messaging, maintain each executive’s voice, and tailor content to its intended audience.
  • Support Board communications and strategic stakeholder engagement initiatives.
  • Prepare executive leadership for public appearances, interviews, conferences, and media opportunities through communications counsel, key messages, and briefing materials.
Fundraising & Mission Advancement
  • Collaborate with Development leadership to support fundraising campaigns, donor stewardship, major gifts initiatives, and annual giving.
  • Develop compelling impact stories and donor communications that demonstrate mission outcomes and organizational value.
  • Support sponsorship, partnership, and revenue-generating initiatives through coordinated strategic communications.
  • Partner with program and branch leaders to identify stories, insights, and outcomes that communicate ASYMCA’s impact on military families.
Qualifications
Required Education & Experience
  • Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Public Relations, Journalism, Marketing, Business Administration, or a related field and at least 12 years of progressively responsible experience in communications, public relations, or related disciplines; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
  • Minimum of seven years leading teams and managing complex organizational communications strategies, including budget management, staff leadership, and vendor oversight.
  • Demonstrated success building or significantly strengthening internal communications within a geographically dispersed or multi-site organization.
  • Experience translating organizational strategy, complex change, and executive decisions into communications that improve employee understanding, engagement, and alignment.
  • Demonstrated success developing and executing external communications, public relations, and media relations programs.
  • Experience serving as a strategic advisor to executive leadership and boards.
  • Proven experience leading crisis communications and reputation management, including coordinated response across social media.
  • Demonstrated ability to collaborate with executive peers, influence across functions, build trust across leadership levels and locations, and communicate with exceptional writing, editing, presentation, and verbal skills.
Preferred Experience
  • Experience within a national nonprofit organization, association, military service organization, foundation, healthcare organization, or other mission-driven enterprise.
  • Experience working in an organization with a National Headquarters and branch or affiliate structure.
  • Experience supporting corporate partnerships, fundraising, donor engagement, advocacy, membership, or public policy initiatives.
  • Familiarity with employee communications platforms, digital publishing tools, social media monitoring, and communications analytics.

Military spouses, veterans and military affiliated job seekers encouraged to apply.

Armed Services YMCA is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. ASYMCA is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, family or parental status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. We will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. ASYMCA encourages applicants of all ages.

Armed Services YMCA acknowledges the minimal use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in our initial recruitment stages. All AI use is coupled with human review and is designed to assist our team in building efficiencies and excelling at focusing on timeliness and communication in our hiring process. Our hiring teams thoroughly evaluate skills and qualifications and make all final hiring decisions. 

Share

Apply for this position

Required*
We've received your resume. Click here to update it.
Attach resume as .pdf, .doc, .docx, .odt, .txt, or .rtf (limit 5MB) or Paste resume

Paste your resume here or Attach resume file

To comply with government Equal Employment Opportunity and/or Affirmative Action reporting regulations, we are requesting (but NOT requiring) that you enter this personal data. This information will not be used in connection with any employment decisions, and will be used solely as permitted by state and federal law. Your voluntary cooperation would be appreciated. Learn more.

Invitation for Job Applicants to Self-Identify as a U.S. Veteran
  • A “disabled veteran” is one of the following:
    • a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or
    • a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.
  • A “recently separated veteran” means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.
  • An “active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran” means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.
  • An “Armed forces service medal veteran” means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.
Veteran status



Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability
Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability Form CC-305
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 07/31/2029
Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Please check one of the boxes below:

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.

You must enter your name and date
Human Check*