about the job
The School for Moral Ambition helps people turn their ideals into action. We run fellowships, community programs, and campaigns that empower talented people to work on the world's most pressing problems.
Our Moral Ambition Fellowships run across four cause areas (Global Tax Fairness, Food Transition and Food System Reform, Tobacco Free Future, and Democratic Resilience), placing carefully selected fellows with leading organizations around the world.
Please read our founding principles for a better insight into our mission and guiding values.
about the role
We're looking for a Freelance Writer-Editor to take on the communications and storytelling for one or two of our cause areas. You'll work with the cause area’s program team to figure out what we need to say, to whom, and how, and get deep enough into the cause to know it from the inside.
Every cause we work on has a story most of the world isn't hearing: the people moving into the field, the organizations they join, and the progress they make on problems that get too little attention. This can take many forms: funder updates, newsletters, fellow profiles, op-eds, community posts, the occasional strategy piece. You will write and commission content, you build the channels to carry it, and you work with the program lead to figure out what we're trying to say and to whom.
Over time, the aim is for The School to become a voice that helps shape the cause, not only one that reports on its own work. We currently work across four cause areas: Tax Fairness, Food Transition, Tobacco Free Future, and Democratic Resilience. You'd take on one or two of them (most likely Tax Fairness and Democratic Resilience, depending on your background).
This is a craft role first. We care more about how well you write and think than about whether you already know tax policy or food systems.
Key responsibilities
- Follow developments in your cause area and our program closely enough to know what matters and what doesn't.
- Work with the program manager to shape a communications strategy for the cause: who we need to reach, what the outside world is missing, and how we tell it.
- Own a regular update for the audiences that follow the program, on a cadence you agree with the program lead.
- Surface what fellows and host organizations are doing and turn it into content people want to read, increasingly by helping fellows and outside creators tell those stories themselves rather than producing everything in-house.
- Use and build our channels and formats: newsletters, social, our funder updates, community spaces, and new channels where they're needed.
What We’re looking for
- Three to ten years of experience, with a background in communications work or journalism.
- A genuinely good writer and communicator, able to take something complex and make it land for the people who need to hear it.
- Experience getting deep on a subject and the people working on it, the way a journalist builds a beat, or a policy NGO's comms person comes to know their field from the inside.
- The instinct to draw a story out of someone rather than wait to be briefed; you're comfortable working closely with a program lead as a partner.
- Working in an EU timezone, with the flexibility to join us in Amsterdam or Brussels on certain occasions.
- The right to work in the EU. We're not able to sponsor visas for this role.
- Strong alignment with our founding principles.
We value talent and a can-do attitude above traditional credentials. Even if you don't meet every requirement — and especially if you think we might overlook something that makes you a good fit — we welcome you to challenge us and apply. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and non-traditional career paths. If you have any questions about the role, reach out to us directly.
What we offer
- Real room to shape how a cause area's story is told.
- The chance to help build a new kind of editorial function from close to the ground, alongside a team already doing this work for our other causes.
- Hybrid work setup and an office in the center of Amsterdam, including a daily vegan lunch.
- A close-up view of fellows moving into some of the most important work there is, and the people and organizations driving these fields forward.
- A part-time role with genuine potential to grow as the work does.
Application process
- Application — Apply through our application form. We'll ask you a few short questions and a link to some writing samples, ideally pieces where you shaped the argument or structure, not only the prose. No cover letter needed.
- First conversation — A 30-minute call with Brendan Hadden, Communications Lead.
We review applications on an ongoing basis and aim to respond within a week. Know someone who'd be a good fit? Please pass it along.
