Employment at Write Around Portland

Now Hiring: Program & Events Coordinator

The Program & Events Coordinator is responsible for coordinating our ticketed public programming, including Resonate: A BIPOC Writers Circle, as well as our events, including an auction and gala and our signature Summer and Winter Reading events.  

Applications closed March 20, 2025. We are currently reviewing applications and contacting finalists.

As an equal opportunity employer, Write Around Portland values a community in which everyone can experience respect, writing, and community. We strive to cultivate equity throughout our organization and value a diverse workforce. Write Around Portland prohibits discrimination based on race, creed, sex, gender, religion, marital status, color, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local nondiscrimination laws.

Now Recruiting Volunteers!

Volunteering is a great way to learn about Write Around Portland’s workplace culture.

Volunteer With Us

How We Hire

Thank you for your interest in working with Write Around Portland!

We have a small staff, and typically we don’t have many openings that become available with our organization. However, when we do hire for positions, we put a lot of thought, time and energy into evaluating and selecting the right candidate.

What to Expect in our Hiring Process

When we hire, we look for applicants who share our passion, enthusiasm and commitment to respect, writing and community; and who reflect the full range of our community’s diversity. If you go through all of the steps in our hiring process, it may consist of:

  • submitting an application (e.g. cover letter, resume)
  • written exercises
  • a phone call and/or an interview with the hiring manager
  • a group interview and conversation with all staff

We recognize this requires an investment of your time, and we really appreciate it. We hope this process will give you more insight into our organization, as well as help you evaluate us. We want to get to know you and for you to get to know us, so we can all make the best decision.

It’s also important to know that our hiring process is competitive. When we have an opening, we receive many applications and since we cannot hire everyone, we may ultimately turn away some stellar applicants. This isn’t to discourage you from applying but to emphasize that if we don’t end up working together, it’s likely because we had a competitive candidate pool.

An equal opportunity employer, Write Around Portland values a community in which everyone can experience respect, writing, and community. We strive to cultivate equity throughout our organization and value a diverse workforce. Write Around Portland prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, creed, sex, gender, religion, marital status, color, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local nondiscrimination laws.

Our Culture

Write Around Portland’s culture is the manifestation of our values. Others experience and understand our values through our culture. Our culture is made of our words, our actions and our tone. Acting in the spirit of our values compels us to:

  • be thoughtful in our language and how we communicate
  • consistently demonstrate what we believe in, the societal change we are trying to make and the respectful relationships we strive to create and nurture
  • reflect our values in how we make decisions and how we allocate our time and resources

As part of our strategic plan and day-to-day work, we ask these questions, related to our values:

  1. How can we ensure that we maintain our core values and program successes?
  2. How can we better communicate and advocate for our mission, efforts and impact?
  3. How can we increase the number of people who meet, know, respect, fund and support us?
  4. How should our program change, if at all?
  5. How will we know if we are successful?

Our Commitment to Staff

  • We strive for fair compensation and low disparity between director/management and staff salaries. We strive to provide benefits such as health insurance, retirement and paid time off.
  • We have reasonable expectations about working hours and accommodate flexibility whenever possible. We encourage and assist staff to make the best use of their work time to be effective and efficient and leave work at the office.
  • We respect employees’ personal lives and time outside of work; we encourage them to create boundaries they need to do that. We promote self-care and encourage each other to be well.
  • We provide development and training opportunities for staff, and we encourage them to take on roles and tasks that are of particular interest to them.
  • We support personal and professional development. We value growth and learning opportunities; we encourage staff to explore, take risks and challenge themselves.
  • We respect designated roles, responsibilities and lines of supervision. We also encourage positive relationships between all board members and all staff members, including opportunities to communicate and collaborate outside of regular meetings.

Our Staff’s Commitment to the Organization

As staff, we are responsible for the day-to-day work. We are the face of Write Around Portland for many people, and we are the primary stewards of our culture. To that end:

  • Our work is guided by our values.
  • We keep our people-centered, relationship-based focus in our work, while also maintaining appropriate boundaries.
  • We nurture a collegial, good-humored office where creativity and laughter abound.
  • We work as a team. We let each other know when we need help and when we have help to offer. We understand that our individual work affects our colleagues, their work and our collective efforts.
  • We focus on the positive, our strengths and what is working effectively. We are simultaneously aware of and honest about our challenges and areas for improvement. We are open to change and assistance in addressing those challenges.
  • We have high expectations for exemplary work in ourselves and in our colleagues. We hold ourselves accountable. We hold each other accountable in respectful ways that encourage one another to do our best work.
  • We create efficient and detailed systems, processes and structures that support our day-to-day work and help with transferring institutional knowledge. We continually adapt and change our systems based on previous outcomes, new best practices and evaluating what works well and what could be improved. We are proactive.
  • We strive to be thorough, accurate and punctual. We meet deadlines.
  • We anticipate challenges. We are flexible, and we roll with difficult situations and do our best not to take the behaviors of difficult people personally.
  • We are honest. When we make mistakes, we own them, we apologize, correct or mitigate them when possible and learn from the experience to move forward.
  • We communicate clearly to avoid misunderstandings and to be inclusive.
  • We are transparent, while respecting confidentiality. We explain what we do and why we do what we do.
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