Senior Vice President of Communications (American Camp Association) in Indianapolis, Indiana at Nonprofit HR

Organization: American Camp Association
Role: Senior Vice President of Communications
Headquarters: Martinsville, IN (Indianapolis area)
Work Location: Remote
Travel: Up to 30%
Salary Range: $160,000 to 185,000
The American Camp Association (ACA) seeks a Senior Vice President of Communications to lead the organization's communications strategy across all stakeholder groups. This executive will unify ACA's voice, sharpen its value propositions, and ensure that the right messages reach the right audiences with clarity and impact—driving engagement, action, and organizational growth.

The SVP of Communications is a senior member of the executive leadership team, reporting to the COO and advising the Board. This role leads a team of direct reports and manages ACA's external agency partners in marketing and public relations, providing strategic direction while holding those relationships accountable to organizational goals.

ABOUT The American Camp Association:

The American Camp Association (ACA) is a community of camp professionals who, for over 100 years, have joined together to share our knowledge and experience and to ensure the quality of camp programs. Because of our diverse 10,000 plus membership and our exceptional programs, we’re uniquely able to unleash the life-changing power of camp. Our work gives more children and adults the opportunity to learn powerful lessons in community, character-building, skill development, and healthy living — lessons that can be learned nowhere else. Learn more at http://acacamps.org

ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES
In addition to being an innovative, thoughtful, communicative, and productive member of the ACA team, this person will support and advance the mission of the American Camp Association and American Camp Foundation with the following responsibilities.

Strategic Communications Leadership
• As the primary function of the role, owning ACA's overall communications strategy and being accountable for ensuring that all stakeholder groups -- members, volunteers, donors, partners, staff, and the public -- receive communications that are clear, compelling, and actionable.
• Developing and executing a comprehensive, integrated communications strategy that advances ACA’s mission, ensures key stakeholders have the information that will motivate them to action, and strengthens its national presence.
• Leading long-term brand positioning and messaging frameworks that reinforce and extend ACA’s role as the leading voice for the camp community that supports accredited camps, members, volunteers, and other key stakeholders to strive for the strongest collective impact on all camp participants.
• Building and maintaining audience profiles for each of ACA's key stakeholder groups; develop tailored strategies to break through the clutter and move each audience to action.
• Overseeing strategic vision and leadership for communication and marketing: content, digital, website, public relations, communications, video, marketing, and fundraising campaigns.
• Creating and continuously refining a clear tone and voice for the organization and ensuring a standard of excellence.
• Serving as the strategic advisor to the CEO, executive team, and Board of Directors, developing and implementing communications and marketing strategies to meet the goals of the organization.

Member and Stakeholder Communications
• Ensuring that members, volunteers, and other key stakeholders receive communications that drive engagement, cross-selling, up-selling, and participation in ACA programs and events.
• Lead communications to current members that promote ACA programs, events, and services -- developing strong value propositions that cut through and motivate action.
• Developing and implementing targeted communications strategies for volunteers, affiliates, partners, donors, funders, and staff.
• Build communications frameworks that support volunteer communicators, who are among ACA's most effective voices in the field.
• Partner with ACA Development on integrated donor communications and fundraising campaigns.
• Fostering cross-departmental collaboration to ensure consistent messaging and alignment across ACA’s programs, membership services, funds development, and advocacy work.

External Agency and Partner Management
• Providing strategic direction to ACA's external partners and holding them accountable for results, which requires both strong strategic judgment and the ability to manage sophisticated vendor relationships effectively.
• Direct ACA's marketing agency partner (Hanson Dodge) on external marketing strategy, brand management, and campaigns to bring new members and customers into the organization.
• Direct ACA's PR agency partner on media relations and proactive storytelling, building internal capacity over time.
• Managing relationships with outside agencies, partners, and vendors to advance the marketing and communication strategy of the organization.
• Bring and cultivate relationships with reporters, influencers, and content creators relevant to the youth development and camp spaces.

Measurement and Organizational Accountability
• Driving both quantitative and qualitative disciplines to communications -- setting clear metrics, tracking performance, and translating data into strategic decisions.
• Propose, monitor, and meet or exceed marketing and communications measurement objectives across all channels and campaigns.
• Extract insights and actionable headlines from research and performance data to continuously sharpen strategy.
• Monitoring emerging issues affecting camps, youth development, and nonprofit organizations, advising leadership on potential impacts.
• Maintain an informed point of view on the ethical and efficient use of AI in marketing and communications.

Team Leadership and Operations
• Provide strategic direction and support to direct reports, building a high-performing communications team.
• Work collaboratively with team leaders and staff to build and manage budgets and forecasts that support organizational objectives.
• Design and implement standard operating procedures that support consistency, quality, and scalability.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Editor-in-Chief of Camping Magazine
• Director of Digital Experiences
• Public Relations & Communications Manager
• Creative Services Manager
• External vendors (PR, Marketing, Ad Agency)

EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS
• Bachelor’s degree in related field or equivalent experience required; Master’s in Communications, MBA, or master’s degree in a related field preferred.
• 12+ years of professional experience in communications, marketing, public relations, or a related field -- with demonstrated leadership of complex, multi-stakeholder communications environments.
• Proven ability to develop and execute communications strategies that drive measurable stakeholder engagement and organizational growth.
• Strong track record of both quantitative and qualitative results: setting and meeting metrics while also building brand, voice, and trust.
• Experience managing external agency and vendor relationships; ability to provide strategic direction and hold partners accountable to goals.
• Experience leading a cross-discipline marketing and communications team and overseeing multi channel communications, including digital, print, PR, and crisis response.
• Polished communicator and strong writer, able to articulate complex ideas to diverse audiences; capable of serving as an organizational spokesperson and thought leader when appropriate.
• Passion for youth development and passionate about our mission, vision, ends, and strategic plans with a belief in our cause.
• Camp or youth development experience is a meaningful plus, not a requirement. Strong external marketing experience -- including consumer brand-building -- is highly valued.

PREFERRED SKILLS
• Analytical--Synthesizes complex or diverse information; Collects and researches data; Uses intuition and experience to complement data; Designs workflows and procedures
• Problem-Solving--Identifies and resolves problems in a timely manner; Gathers and analyzes information skillfully; Develops alternative solutions; Works well in group problem-solving situations; Uses reason even when dealing with emotional topics.
• Inclusion and Belonging — Knowledge, skills, and experience in expanding DEI across the field of camp and ACA, and the ability to work with individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences, creating an open, inclusive, and welcoming work environment and valuing the voices of others.
• Project Management--Develops project plans; Coordinates projects; Communicates changes and progress; Completes projects on time and budget; Manages project team activities.
• Visionary Leadership--Displays passion and optimism; Inspires respect and trust; Mobilizes others to fulfill the vision; Provides vision and inspiration to peers and subordinates.
• Judgment--Displays willingness to make decisions; Exhibits sound and accurate judgment; Supports and explains reasoning for decisions; Includes appropriate people in decision-making process; Makes timely decisions.
• Professionalism--Approaches others in a tactful manner; Reacts well under pressure; Treats others with respect and consideration regardless of their status or position; Accepts responsibility for own actions; Follows through on commitments.
At the American Camp Association, we believe inclusion and belonging are at the heart of a thriving camp experience. We empower positive change in the world when youth and adults of all backgrounds, beliefs, identities, and abilities are valued and actively engaged in camp and camp leadership. Together, we endeavor to create an expansive and inclusive camp community that is open and promotes equity across a diversity of ideas, experiences, perspectives, and voices.

American Camp Association is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, or other employment practices for reasons of age, race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, medical condition, veteran status, marital status, sexual orientation, genetics, or any other non-job-related factor. We value the contribution that the diversity of our applicants can bring.

HOW TO APPLY

The American Camp Association has exclusively retained Impact Search Advisors / OneDigital to lead the recruitment efforts for our next Senior Vice President of Communications. For consideration, all interested candidates should submit a completed application, cover letter and resume. Preference will be given to candidates who submit prior to June 15th, 2026 at https://nonprofithr.applytojob.com/apply/98DkRZliao

For further details or any inquiries about this opportunity not addressed above, please contact Hakimu Davidson, Executive Recruiter with NonprofitHR & OneDigital Executive Search, at hakimu.davidson@onedigital.com.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

Nonprofit HR is committed to fostering and maintaining a work environment where diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are fully integrated into everything we do for the benefit of our employees and the clients that we serve. To fully realize our goal, we prioritize our understanding of the complexities of DEI within our workforce to inform our approach to talent management. We believe that this guides how we do our work, advise our clients to operationalize DEI and position our content and educational opportunities help strengthen the talent management capacity of the social impact sector.

Continue reading our about our commitment at nonprofithr.com/deinow.