Campaigns and Community Engagement Officer

The Organisation

The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) is the peak national body for community and social services and a leading advocate for people affected by poverty and inequality. With more than 300 organisational members – from major charities to small not-for-profits across metro, regional and remote Australia – ACOSS is a powerful voice for change.

Through policy and research, public advocacy and campaigning, ACOSS and its members work closely with government, the media and key stakeholders to tackle poverty and inequalities and support people directly affected to be at the centre of policy debates.


Benefits & Culture

• Be part of a collaborative and passionate team working for systemic change
• High-impact role supporting leadership among people with lived experience
• Hybrid work culture
• Additional leave and above-award conditions under ACOSS’s enterprise agreement
• Inclusive, welcoming and values-driven workplace

The Role

This newly reshaped role offers the opportunity to lead ACOSS’s grassroots campaigns and community engagement. Sitting within the communications and engagement team, this leadership role will design and implement strategies to deepen supporter relationships and mobilise them to take action for ACOSS’s key campaigns.

You will work directly with people experiencing poverty and inequality to support them in becoming impactful advocates through media engagement, political meetings, campaign actions, and storytelling. You’ll build systems to onboard, welcome and train supporters, and lead campaign mobilisation efforts online, by phone, and in person.

The position is people-facing and process-driven – a balance of strategy leadership, relationship-building and structured engagement. From day one, you'll take ownership of supporter engagement, building systems and growing ACOSS's network of advocates.


Skills Required

You are a skilled community organiser, campaigner or relational advocate with hands-on experience in grassroots movements, unions, election campaigns or issues-based advocacy. Your track record includes mobilising people to participate in campaigns or advocacy and you’re equally comfortable engaging with stakeholders on the phone, facilitating a group, or writing a campaign email.

You’re mission aligned with a passion for social justice and equity, have high emotional intelligence and can connect meaningfully with people from diverse backgrounds and people with lived experience of poverty. You’re energised by seeing people grow in confidence and leadership - especially those who’ve been excluded from decision-making in the past.

You also bring:

• Demonstrated success facilitating supporter engagement
• High level verbal and written communication skills, ideally with digital engagement experience
• A process and systems-focused approach and confidence using CRMs, ideally NationBuilder
• Lived experience of poverty and/or inequality will be highly regarded

ACOSS is a values-driven organisation that actively supports and welcomes people from diverse backgrounds, including First Nations peoples, people with disability, and those with lived experience of disadvantage.


If you’d like to leverage your experience to build power among people with lived experience of poverty and inequality, we’d love to hear from you. Please submit your resume along with a cover letter addressing the skills required above, quoting reference # 1347854. Alternatively contact Hayley Martin on 02 8243 0570 to have further information emailed to you.

Please note there is no formal closing date for this role, if you are interested, we would encourage you to apply as soon as possible.

NGO Recruitment values equitable recruitment practices and is committed to representing candidates reflective of the diverse organisations and communities we work with. We welcome and encourage applications from all backgrounds, ages, and identities, and are happy to adjust our recruitment process to support accessibility needs. If you are interested in this position and have most of the skills or experience we are looking for, please go ahead and apply.