Application Guide
How to Apply for Partnerships & Community Manager
at Parking Reform Network
🏢 About Parking Reform Network
The Parking Reform Network is a small, nimble national nonprofit that punches above its weight in the fight to reform parking policy across the US. Unlike large legacy advocacy groups, it operates like a startup—fast, collaborative, and deeply embedded in local campaigns. If you want to shape the future of urban mobility and work directly with passionate advocates and policymakers, this is a rare opportunity to make a tangible impact.
About This Role
As the Partnerships & Community Manager, you'll be the connective tissue of the Parking Reform Network—recruiting, onboarding, and activating a nationwide web of advocates and allied organizations. You'll own the Local Campaign Support Program, develop webinars and a policy cookbook, and manage a Communications Coordinator. This is not a policy-expert role; it's a relationship-builder and program-designer role that makes the network run.
💡 A Day in the Life
You might start your day with a check-in with the Communications Coordinator, then spend the morning onboarding a new local advocate group and connecting them with a policy expert in their region. In the afternoon, you'll plan an upcoming webinar on parking benefit districts, update your partnership tracking system, and hop on a call with a coalition partner to strategize a campaign. Every day is a mix of relationship-building, program development, and light management—all in service of making the network stronger.
🚀 Application Tools
🎯 Who Parking Reform Network Is Looking For
- You have 3+ years of experience in community organizing, partnership management, or network building, ideally in a nonprofit or advocacy setting.
- You're a systems thinker who can design lightweight processes to keep hundreds of relationships warm and track engagement without over-engineering.
- You're comfortable managing a junior staffer and can delegate day-to-day communications tasks while keeping an eye on strategic goals.
- You're excited to learn about parking policy on the job, but your superpower is connecting people to resources and each other—not being the policy wonk.
📝 Tips for Applying to Parking Reform Network
Highlight any experience you have with coalition-building or network management—even if it's from volunteer work or side projects. The Parking Reform Network values practical organizing skills over formal credentials.
Show that you understand the unique challenges of a small national nonprofit: you'll need to be scrappy, self-directed, and comfortable with ambiguity. Use your cover letter to give an example of a time you built a system from scratch.
Mention specific tools or methods you've used to track relationships (e.g., CRM systems, Airtable, Slack communities) and how you've used them to scale personal outreach.
Demonstrate familiarity with the parking reform movement by referencing key concepts like minimum parking requirements, parking benefit districts, or the work of advocates like Donald Shoup. You don't need to be an expert, but showing you've done your homework sets you apart.
In your resume or cover letter, quantify your impact: how many partners did you recruit? How many events did you organize? What was the growth in your network? Numbers help the hiring team see you as a doer.
✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter
Focus on your ability to build and nurture communities at scale, your experience managing programs (especially if you've run a support program or webinar series), and your knack for matchmaking—connecting people to resources and each other. Also emphasize your comfort with a remote, fast-paced nonprofit environment and your excitement about learning parking policy on the job. Finally, highlight any experience supervising or mentoring junior staff, as this role manages a coordinator.
Generate Cover Letter →🔍 Research Before Applying
To stand out, make sure you've researched:
- → Explore the Parking Reform Network's website, especially their 'Local Campaign Support' page and any webinars or policy cookbooks they've published. Understand what resources they already offer.
- → Read about the parking reform movement: key concepts like parking minimums, parking maximums, and parking benefit districts. Follow advocates like Donald Shoup and organizations like Strong Towns to get up to speed.
- → Look up recent parking reform victories in cities like Buffalo, Minneapolis, or Austin to understand the landscape and the role of advocacy networks.
- → Check out the LinkedIn profiles of current staff, especially the President and the Communications Coordinator, to understand their backgrounds and how this role fits into the team.
💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics
Based on this role, you may be asked about:
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Don't pretend to be a parking policy expert if you're not—the job description explicitly says you don't need to be. Instead, emphasize your ability to learn quickly and connect people to expertise.
- Avoid generic language about 'passion for nonprofits' without concrete examples of how you've built or managed networks. The hiring team wants to see specific, relevant experience.
- Don't overlook the management aspect: this role supervises a coordinator. If you have no management experience, don't ignore it—address how you've mentored or led teams informally and express eagerness to develop those skills.
📅 Application Timeline
This position is open until filled. However, we recommend applying as soon as possible as roles at mission-driven organizations tend to fill quickly.
Typical hiring timeline:
Application Review
1-2 weeks
Initial Screening
Phone call or written assessment
Interviews
1-2 rounds, usually virtual
Offer
Congratulations!
Ready to Apply?
Good luck with your application to Parking Reform Network!