Vice President, Marketing

District of Columbia, USA (Hybrid)

Salary Not AvailableSenior Level10+ years expFull time

Posted 4 days ago

Job Summary

You will own the end-to-end marketing strategy and GTM enablement for First Book, leading brand, demand generation, pricing strategy, and cross-functional alignment across Revenue, Programs, and Operations.

Job Description

Responsibilities

  • Marketing Strategy, Brand & Market Presence - Develop and lead an integrated marketing strategy aligned with First Book’s growth, revenue, membership, Marketplace, and impact priorities. - Define and steward First Book’s brand standards, including voice, visual identity, tone, positioning, and external representation. - Own the overarching First Book narrative and ensure external communications consistently communicate First Book’s mission, impact, capabilities, and market position. - Ensure digital campaigns, social media, web content, email, pitches, sell sheets, events, and other external-facing materials align with First Book’s brand and messaging standards. - Use audience insights, research, market intelligence, and partner feedback to continuously refine positioning.
  • Go-To-Market Strategy & Revenue Enablement - Serve as the strategic marketing partner to the leaders of Strategic Alliances, Nonprofit Partnerships, Development, Community/Member Engagement, and Marketplace. - Establish scalable GTM frameworks that guide audience outreach, engagement, conversion, and retention. - Equip revenue and member-growth teams with the messaging, tools, and training needed to effectively communicate First Book’s value.
  • Offer Architecture & Pricing Strategy - Design and own First Book's partnership offer architecture, including defining tiers, deliverables, and positioning for corporate and nonprofit partners, and anchoring pricing to the measurable value delivered: CSR impact, educator reach, market intelligence, and brand alignment. - Partner with Finance, Operations, and the CRO to develop and maintain full-cost recovery pricing models that account for direct costs, overhead, and a sustainable surplus margin, ensuring every offering is financially sound, market-competitive, and built for organizational reinvestment.
  • Marketing Organization & Team Leadership - Strengthen the marketing capabilities and organizational capacity required to execute First Book’s growth strategy. - Lead the evolution of the current marketing team of approximately three employees toward a planned team of approximately six to seven, supported by an appropriate mix of staff, agencies, contractors, and specialized resources. - Define team structure, roles, responsibilities, operating processes, and performance expectations. - Recruit, develop, coach, and retain high-performing marketing talent. - Foster a culture of strategic thinking, creative rigor, collaboration, execution excellence, and accountability.
  • Cross-Functional Leadership - Build strong working relationships across Revenue, Programs, Operations, Finance, Research & Insights, Community/Member Engagement, Marketplace, and other organizational functions. - Position Marketing as a strategic business partner and organizational enabler. - Bring audience and market perspective into organizational planning, program development, offer design, campaign strategy, and revenue discussions. - Facilitate alignment around brand standards, audience strategy, value propositions, pricing architecture, and GTM priorities. - Influence effectively across functions and leadership levels while maintaining shared accountability for organizational outcomes.
  • Measurement, Analytics & Accountability - Establish Marketing Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) in partnership with the CRO and align them with broader organizational and revenue objectives. - Define how Marketing’s contribution to revenue, partnership growth, membership engagement, brand strength, and other organizational priorities will be measured. - Build dashboards and reporting cadences that provide visibility into campaign performance, brand metrics, audience engagement, pipeline contribution, and marketing return on investment. - Establish performance measures for marketing investments, campaigns, programs, and channels. - Use performance data and audience insights to test, optimize, scale successful approaches, and discontinue activities that do not generate sufficient value.
  • EDUCATION: - Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, business, nonprofit management, or a related field required. - Equivalent combination of education and significant relevant professional experience considered. - Advanced degree in marketing, business administration, communications, or a related discipline preferred.
  • SKILLS & EXPERIENCE: - 10 or more years of progressive marketing experience, including at least 3–4 years in a senior leadership capacity with responsibility for leading teams and organizational marketing strategy. - Demonstrated success building, rebuilding, or substantially evolving a marketing function. - Experience establishing brand standards, messaging architecture, marketing infrastructure, team structures, processes, and performance expectations. - Deep expertise in B2B or hybrid B2B/B2C marketing, including marketing to institutional partners, corporations, foundations, nonprofit organizations, funders, or similarly complex audiences. - Strong command of integrated marketing, including brand strategy, positioning, content, digital and web marketing, campaign management, audience engagement, and sales or partnership enablement. - Demonstrated experience developing value propositions, messaging frameworks, audience positioning, and customer or partner journeys. - Understanding and experience with full-cost recovery and value-based pricing principles. - Experience translating mission, impact, programs, services, or complex capabilities into compelling commercial, fundraising, or partnership propositions. - Knowledge of corporate partnership environments, including corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate giving, sponsorship, purpose-driven partnerships, and related engagement models. - Exceptional written, verbal, presentation, and executive communication skills. - Strong analytical orientation with demonstrated experience using performance metrics, customer insights, and market intelligence to inform strategic decisions. - Experience setting and managing OKRs, KPIs, or comparable performance frameworks strongly preferred. - Experience managing internal teams alongside agencies, contractors, consultants, and external creative resources. - Proven ability to operate effectively in a fast-moving environment and strengthen systems, processes, and infrastructure as organizational needs evolve. - Strong cross-functional leadership skills with demonstrated ability to influence without direct authority. - Experience in the nonprofit, education, social-impact, or social-enterprise sectors strongly preferred; significant corporate or agency experience working with mission-driven organizations will also be considered.

Requirements

  • Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, business, nonprofit management, or a related field required.
  • Equivalent combination of education and significant relevant professional experience considered.

Preferred

  • Advanced degree in marketing, business administration, communications, or a related discipline preferred.
  • Experience in the nonprofit, education, social-impact, or social-enterprise sectors strongly preferred; significant corporate or agency experience working with mission-driven organizations will also be considered.

Benefits

  • Medical and dental insurance coverage
  • Life insurance and Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D) coverage
  • Paid vacation and sick leave
  • 12 paid holidays annually
  • 401(k) retirement plan with employer matching contributions
  • Employer-provided parking stipend (Washington, DC)
First Book logo

First Book

Education transforms lives. First Book is building a world where every child has access to a quality education. We work to remove barriers to education and level the playing field for kids in need. At the heart of our work are the 600,000+ members of the First Book Network, the largest online community of individual educators, professionals and volunteers dedicated to supporting children living in low-income communities across North America. This Network is the key to creating lasting change. Through our research arm, First Book Research & Insights, we conduct studies that aggregate their voices to identify challenges, needs, and solutions. To address their needs, we provide free and low-cost books, resources and access to leading experts through the First Book Marketplace, which uses aggregated buying power to support their work. Founded in Washington D.C. in 1992 as a nonprofit social enterprise, First Book is dedicated to eliminating barriers to learning and inspiring young minds. Learn more at firstbook.org and visit our award-winning eCommerce website at fbmarketplace.org.

Founded in 1992
Washington, District of Columbia, USA
115 employees (16 in marketing)

Marketing Team

Marketing Team Size
13 (11% of company)
Median Tenure
3.5 years
Marketing Roles Posted (Last 30 Days)
2

Traffic Signals

Monthly Visitors
27K
Monthly Google Ads Budget
$686
Traffic Source Mix
Search
26.6%
Direct
28.3%
Referral
4%
Social
0.5%
Paid
0.4%

Headcount Trend

Current headcount: ~115
First Book logo

Vice President, Marketing

First Book · District of Columbia, USA · Hybrid