Community Relations Specialist at American Riviera Bank in Santa Barbara, California

Job Description:

The Community Relations Specialist is responsible for developing and managing the Bank's Corporate Giving Program for all communities the Bank serves, ensuring the Bank's vision and mission are being accurately represented. This individual creates, plans, and implements programs and events designed to represent the Bank favorably – making positive contributions to the community, while promoting the bank's image in a positive and community-focused way. The Community Relations Specialist also supports the Bank’s efforts to elevate brand awareness and to enrich community partnerships resulting in the cultivation of new client relationships and increased profitability.



Duties & Responsibilities:

• Develops and manages the Bank's Corporate Giving Program and is a member of the Bank’s Donation and Sponsorship Committee.


• Administers the overall management, execution and coordination of community, non-profit and sponsorship events, ensuring appropriate attendance by Bank employees to maximize visibility and promote top-of-mind awareness.


• Runs Bank customer appreciation events such as Bank anniversary and holiday events, including managing vendors and employee volunteers.


• Represents the Bank at community events to cultivate and maintain positive relationships with community members, nonprofit organizations, and fellow employees.


• Identifies and maintains an excellent rapport with key industry and market influencers within the communities the Bank serves, including community-based, charitable, and non-profit organizations.


• Collaborates to build relationships crucial to the success of the bank and manages a variety of special projects, which may have significant organizational impact.


• Leads, directs, and supports all volunteer programs and initiatives, such as the Bank’s financial literacy efforts, including participation in national programs such as Teach Children to Save and Lights, Camera, Save.


• Maintains a calendar of outreach activities, including community events, workshops, appearances, and other communication opportunities.


• Assists with Bank CRA efforts by building partnerships with CRA-eligible nonprofits, identifying CRA investment opportunities through donations and sponsorships, community development and volunteer efforts, including providing evidence of CRA activities for reporting purposes.


• Facilitates collaboration between clients and external contacts, such as the Federal Home Loan Bank, and other governmental agencies, to identify and assist with grant opportunities for clients.


• Works with the Marketing Specialist to expand reciprocal social media exposure with community partners and targeted media placement.


• Works with public relations firm to provide potential opportunities for press releases around community involvement.


• Collects data and information on the community partners which may be useful to the Bank in identifying potential business development opportunities and/or opportunities for external recognition.


• Performs research pertaining to specific assignments, projects, etc. for internal departments, as needed.


• Prioritizes conflicting needs; handles matters expeditiously, proactively, and follows-through on projects to successful completion, often with deadline pressures.

General:

• Treats people with respect; keeps commitments; inspires the trust of others; works ethically and with integrity; upholds organizational values; accepts responsibility for own actions.


• Completes administrative tasks correctly and on time; supports the bank’s goals and values; benefits the Bank through outside activities.


• Comply with all applicable OSHA safety standards, including:


• Read the workplace safety and health poster at the jobsite.


• Report hazardous conditions to your supervisor and/or HR


• Report any job-related injury or illness to your supervisor and/or HR, and seek treatment promptly.

Compliance

• Supports the bank’s compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).


• Complies with bank policies and procedures relating to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), and Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) guidance. Report suspicious activity to the BSA Department through a Suspicious Incident Report (SIR).


• Adheres to privacy and information security policies, and ensure all sensitive internal and external customer information is properly secured and safeguarded. Use secure methods delivering client and/or confidential data by email.


• Demonstrates knowledge of and adherence to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policy; shows respect and sensitivity for cultural differences; educates others on the value of diversity; promotes working environment free of harassment of any type; and maintains a diverse workforce.

Qualifications:

• Requires 5+ years of professional fundraising, volunteerism or non-profit support and/or marketing and events planning, preferably in a financial setting; or the equivalent combination of education and experience.

• Bachelor's degree in business or communication preferred.

• Strong organizational and time management skills that reflect the ability to perform and prioritize multiple tasks seamlessly with excellent attention to detail and the ability to maintain a realistic balance between multiple priorities.

• Very strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build external relationships with stakeholders, including internal and external clients, non-profit organizations, and vendors.

• Solid negotiation skills in finding win-win solutions for the Bank and the communities it supports.

• Exceptional verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills with the ability to apply common sense to provide instruction to others, prepare and write reports, correspondence, and procedures, speak professionally and clearly to internal and external customers.

• Emotional maturity with proven ability to handle confidential information with discretion and exercise good judgment in a variety of situations.

• Highly resourceful with the ability to also be extremely effective independently and meet deadlines in fast paced environment.

• Ability to adapt to various competing demands, and demonstrate the highest level of internal/external customer service responsiveness.

• Advanced skills in computer terminal and personal computer operation; Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, and word processing, spreadsheet and specialty software programs.

• Intermediate typing skills to meet production needs of the position.

• Intermediate math skills; ability to calculate interest, commissions, proportions, and percentages; balance accounts; add, subtract, multiply and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions and decimals; locate routine mathematical errors; compute rate, ratio and percent, including the drafting and interpretation of bar graphs.

• Thorough understanding of management procedures; ability to plan department or bank activities (setting objectives, developing strategies, budgeting, and developing project plans and proposals), takes initiative to organize various functions necessary to accomplish department or bank activities. Effectively plans and coordinates functions and events to meet desired objectives.

• Ability to deal with complex problems involving multiple facets and variables in non-standardized situations.

• Current driver's license and a vehicle with appropriate insurance coverage if required to drive in the course of performing assigned duties and responsibilities.

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