Jayne Cravens: Skills Inventory & Core Professional Competencies

• More than 20 years of experience working with nonprofit organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), corporations, public sector/government organizations, grass roots groups, universities and other institutions.

• Internationally-recognized expert in press relations and community outreach, project management, volunteer involvement, and capacity-building for staff and community members.

• Proven skills as a director and manager of programs and projects, with a focus on creating a results-oriented environment that empowers staff to do the best job possible and take responsibility for their tasks.

• Proven skills as a presenter, trainer and teacher.

• Comfortable working in a high-demand, dynamic environment with limited resources, or even limited infrastructure, and with diverse and/or remote staff.

• Commitment to take ownership of responsibilities and to ensure the effective and timely completion of tasks.

• Proven skills working with socially-excluded communities and religiously-conservative cultures where mistrust might be pervasive.

• Commitment to ensuring a gender focus is present in outreach materials, promoting gender considerations in various program activities, and carrying out activities in a culturally-sensitive and gender-sensitive manner.

• Directing press relations and community outreach activities, via both traditional and online avenues, for a variety of organizations. leading to higher participant numbers, increased press coverage and brand recognition:
  • writing and distributing press releases, pitching stories, networking with press contacts, coordinating press conferences, etc.
  • monitoring news wires
  • managing web sites
  • gathering and editing content for various audiences (donors, specific communities, media, general public, etc.) from a variety of different offices and departments
  • directing design, production and distribution of brochures, posters, flyers and other publications
  • drafting and implementing communications policies and procedures
  • setting up and moderating/facilitating online discussion groups
  • regularly contributing to online discussions, other organization's events and trade publications
  • writing speeches for a variety of audiences and with a variety of desired outcomes
  • creating and delivering presentations at onsite and online conferences
  • identifying audiences to target and creating and implementing strategies to reach such
  • editing technical documents, including those written by non-native English speakers
  • designing and conducting surveys
  • sharing photos online
  • setting up and staffing information booths at conferences and events, and training staff to manage such
  • setting up purpose-driven community meetings
• Extensive experience working with major media outlets (The New York Times, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, Deustche Welle, USA Today, National Public Radio, "Entertainment Tonight," among others), as well as local press and online media.

• Writing video scripts, directing live online video events (including in October 2001 featuring Tim Berners Lee) and producing video and audio pieces via a desktop computer for both external and internal audiences, basic video editing.

• Advising on local and international campaigns.

• Directing internal communications activities:
  • compiling information from remote staff
  • directing internal information distribution
  • producing internal newsletters
  • coordinating intranet materials.
• Preparing confidential reports and executive-level communications.
• Facilitating participatory meetings to help attendees identify community needs and community-lead solutions.
• Identifying and negotiating with potential corporate and agency partners.

• Extensive experience gathering information and compiling reports and proposals for both internal and external purposes, including reports for the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, various UN agencies, various government donors (such as USAID), and corporate donors.

• Developing and maintaining a knowledge base for programs and projects; preparing background documents, reports and recommendations; and providing a critique and commentary on documents prepared by others.

• Training and supervising staff in communications, community outreach and customer service activities.

• Designing, launching and directing large national and international initiatives relating to volunteerism, with the goal of encouraging individual and organizational participation.

• Advising on strategies for volunteer involvement in United Nations initiatives and for various other organizations, and creating and coordinating agency-wide volunteer -involvement strategies (recruitment, orientation, supervision, tracking results, etc.).

• Providing expert advice on various manuals and policies relating to volunteer involvement.

• Designing and administering grants programs, screening donation requests, and making funding recommendations.

• Corporate social responsibility in practice: decisions and actions to save energy, reduce waste, support local businesses, etc.

• Organizing various special events.

• Supervising hundreds of volunteers, as well as training and supervising paid staff to work with volunteers.

• Advising government, civil society and UN agencies on media and public outreach strategies.

• Building the capacities of others, including people in developing countries and non-native English speakers, regarding volunteer management/support, public speaking, staffing information booths, creating community newsletters, taking photos, gathering information and writing reports, fundraising, and customer service, through onsite and online workshops and the development of print, audio and video materials.

• Developing a variety off online and offline materials to train nonprofits, NGOs, schools, government offices and various other organizations to use advanced outreach tools, such as podcasting, live audio, live video, online social networking, blogging, instant messaging, etc.

  (read a detailed list of my capacity-building activities)

• Documenting activities for handover to other staff.

• Extensive computer experience (advanced re: word-processing, using online discussion groups, blogs, instant messaging, shared online working spaces and other interactive tools; intermediate re: slide presentations; basic re: spreadsheets, and video and audio recording and editing).

• Proven negotiation skills with potential partners.

• Extensive experience interviewing staff for various posts.

• Experience drafting policies regarding interns, employee volunteering and employee education/learning.

• Extensive experience supervising staff.

• Extensive experience conducting research (non-academic).

• Proven skills managing budgets and successfully raising or mobilizing funds.

• Typing (75 wpm, 3% error).

• Valid USA driver's license and ability to drive a manual transmission.

 
Read more about Jayne's credentials and expertise

Read more about Jayne's Capacity-Building Work

Read more about Jayne's workshops & presentations

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