Director of Organizing
Director of Organizing
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Job Description
JOB ANNOUNCEMENT:
DIRECTOR OF ORGANIZING
Firelands Workers United/Trabajadores Unidos seeks a collaborative leader who shares our commitment to building multiracial multicultural workingclass people power in rural communities in Washington State!
Firelands organizes with working families in rural counties in Western Washington State. Our memberdriven campaigns have won statewide advances in healthcare fair taxes green jobs and tenant protections. We train members and partners with innovative popular political education in Spanish and English and we run nationallyrecognized narrative strategy. Our skilled and powerful team of organizers have come up through our base and lead the heart of our work with energy and rigor. Join our team and help shape the answers to these questions:
- How do we embrace the challenges and opportunities of this moment especially in rural communities to protect our people widen our base and pick smart fights while shifting power to win over the long term
- How do we build irresistible welcoming organizations where rural workingclass leaders immigrants and locallyborn can form bonds of solidarity across race and language to organize together for what we all need and deserve
- How can organizing be a joyful calling where organizers and volunteers bring wise creative strategic leadership with a culture of sustainability and resilience
THE ROLE
The Director of Organizing will develop Firelands organizing teams skills and lead vision strategy and design to grow our multiracial multicultural base and develop leaders. This role brings together the skills of developing people and teams vision and strategy systems and program management and socialemotionalcultural leadership. The Director of Organizing will work deeply with our bilingual team of six Organizers directly supervising 34 Organizers and will collaborate with other staff. The Director of Organizing will participate in colearning spaces with other rural groups across the US including the national Peoples Action Organizing Directors cohort and will have opportunities to attend conferences and receive coaching and professional development. The Director of Organizing reports to our Executive Director working together with them and other teams to strengthen our organizing program and lead a growing vibrant organization advancing multiracial worker power.
Applications due: We are receiving applications on a rolling basis. The priority deadline is April 27 2025. Our goal is to make an offer by end of June 2025.
Compensation: Salaried exempt fulltime 32hour/week position. Annual salary range of $85061 $89341. Employerpaid medical dental vision life and disability insurance as well as FSA and Dependent FSA accounts offered. Firelands provides 15 paid holidays 8 sick days and generous vacation plus three office closures for approximately four additional paid weeks off (April July and over winter holidays). A flexible familyfriendly work culture.
Location: This is a hybrid inperson and remote role in Western Washington State. The position requires working with the Organizing Team in person in our Aberdeen office 1 day minimum ideally 23 days/week) with additional events in Grays Harbor northern Pacific county or Olympia WA. Occasional outofstate travel for conferences/trainings may also be required. Day to day work can be carried out in our offices or remotely. Workrelated travel is covered including mileage and lodging and we offer homeoffice setup funds. If the selected candidate has to move to the region or from out of state to take this position we can offer a relocation stipend.
ABOUT FIRELANDS
Firelands Workers United/Trabajadores Unidos organizes with workingclass power in rural timber counties in Washington State. We are working families in Grays Harbor and Pacific counties in rural Southwest Washington and the Olympic Peninsula joining together across race and language to fight for good green jobs & workers rights affordable & healthy homes healthcare childcare fair taxes healthy forests immigrant rights and more. Our coastal forested region is full of natural beauty and cando people but over the decades big corporations have exploited our lands and labor and eroded union jobs. Public disinvestment via a regressive tax code has led to high poverty rates and the decay of our housing and other public goods. While some politicians in our region have backed these schemes people are fed up with the rich and powerful calling the shots. Rural working families in Washington deserve better and we are organizing for a different future.
Since forming in 2019 Firelands has played an outsized role in winning nationallyrecognized statewide policy campaigns from expanding healthcare access to transformative tax reforms to tenant protections to defending billions in public resources for schools childcare and climate jobs. At the national level we are recognized for our leadership in bilingual popular political education and public narrative strategy campaigns.
We are committed to multicultural organizing with workingclass rural people building a culture of solidarity across our differences. Firelands is made up of a growing base of over a 1000 members who are cannery workers mill workers healthcare workers domestic workers retired veterans students and more. Our members are majority Latino and we are growing our base of members who are white Black Asian and Native. We organize in Spanish and English. We host joyful events drawing 500 participants; we run deep listening canvasses; we host leadership cohorts which have developed over 60 volunteer organizers. We collaborate with other workers groups that share our commitment to dissolving the jobs vs. environment story in rural WA and creating local union climate jobs. We also engage in numerous WA state coalitions including the State Power Table as well as collaborating with national campaigns and organizing with Peoples Action. To learn more about Firelands read our 2024 Annual Report and our 2025 Legislative Agenda.
Organizing is the heart and soul of our work and our organizational structure reflects that. With a 32hour work week a valuesaligned and equitable pay structure that recognizes organizing as the center of Firelands and oneonone outside resilience coaching for each organizer our team of 11 is dedicated to making our organizational culture energizing and sustainable. Our Organizing Team of six began as members and today are powerful and committed organizers with a keen understanding of their rural and working class communities both immigrant and localborn. Since our founding Firelands has retained 100 of fulltime staff. We work hard laugh hard rest and pace ourselves for individual and organizational health and learn continuously with evaluation and feedback. We see hope as a disciplined mutuallysupported practice. Join us!
This position supports both Firelands Workers United/Trabajadores Unidos 501c4 and our sister organization Firelands Workers Building Community Power/Trabajadores Construyendo el Poder de la Comunidad 501c3.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Supervision & Team Management
The Organizing Director manages a phenomenal team of six Organizers (all former memberleaders):
- Coaches supports and holds accountable 34 Organizers through weekly supervision
- Trains and stewards a strong and healthy team through weekly Organizing Team meetings monthly Retreats and checkins with all organizers
- Offers guidance and mentors the Team to resolve contradictions challenges and conflicts that arise in organizing and cultivates emotional resiliency and trauma stewardship.
- Leads assessments evaluations and feedback for growth and learning
- Manages the hiring of new Organizers or Organizing Apprentices
Systems & Structures for BaseBuilding & Leadership Development
- Trains and mentors Organizers and memberleaders to improve skills in deep canvassing phonebanking and oneonones to recruit and develop Firelands members
- Guides the collaborative design of the structures and strategies for stronger basebuilding (via events canvassing phonebanking and more); and leadership development (via a membership structure and leadership ladder member committees leadership trainings and more)
- Leads participatory planning of the organizing programs longterm goals (e.g. multiyear) as well as medium and short term goals
- Collaborates with our Trainings Manager and Organizers to lead political education and organizing skill trainings with members with plain language and popular education in Spanish and English: trains and facilitates and mentors Organizers to train and facilitate
- Supports the Organizing Team to continuously evaluate and improve practices for a welcoming irresistible and responsible bilingual organizing culture with members across race language age and culture
- Ensures there are opportunities for volunteer members to participate and give input in campaign decisions and strategy
- Works with Data staff to implement and train the Organizing Team on data systems
Campaigns & Political CoLeadership
- Works with the Executive Director Campaigns Team and Organizing Team to devise campaigns and campaign strategy (including local statewide and national campaigns)
- Leads in designing and carrying out tactics together with other staff members (e.g. lawmaker visits media actions etc)
- Coordinates with the Narrative Team on public narrative and basefacing communications
- With the Executive Director explores future opportunities for electoral organizing
Organizational CoLeadership
- With the Executive Director holds Firelands political and cultural center with love rigor integrity and responsive leadership
- With the Executive Director holds the strategic compass of Firelands to bring an eartotheground connection with the base and organizing team together with ongoing assessment of the political moment and opportunities to adjust our strategy and work accordingly
- Facilitates sections of weekly Full Team meetings and Quarterly Staff Retreats for assessment and strategic planning
- Represents Firelands at coalitions and partner events as needed
- Participates in Organizing Director Cohort with Peoples Action crosslearning spaces with other groups attends and represents Firelands at national conferences attends professional development opportunities and training (e.g. Rockwood Management Center etc)
Financial Management & Fundraising
- Coordinates with the Operations & Finance Team on organizing program budgets and compliance
- Supports fundraising work as needed (e.g. provides information for grants attends funder briefings etc.
QUALIFICATIONS
- 5 years relevant experience including experience in community organizing labor organizing and/or electoral organizing preferably with experience in grassroots workingclass memberbased organizations and with immigrant communities
- Sufficiently bilingual in English and Spanish to facilitate support and supervise bilingual and monolingual (English and Spanish) staff and memberleaders
- Experience as a manager/supervisor of organizers and ability to build and steward a strong and healthy team as a motivational accountable patient and supportive team leader
- Demonstrated record building trust with workingclass people across race gender language and political party/ideology including with Latinx white Black Asian Pacific Islander and/or Indigenous people
- Experience designing programs and managing organizers and volunteers to carry out basebuilding activities including canvassing house visits phonebanks member meetings large events campaign tactics and trainings
- Strong facilitator particularly of nuanced or complex decision discussions and processes
- Experience developing the analysis and skills of base members (through oneonones accessible trainings etc) to take part in strategy and campaign decisions
- A deep commitment to advancing racial and economic justice with strong analysis of the political and economic systems that exploit workingclass people
- Capacity to bring warmth and wisdom when working with organizers who are taking on secondary trauma (we hear hard stories on the doors and most of our base have experienced trauma). This position does not require professional training in trauma stewardship or therapy but it requires familiarity and sensitivity to trauma.
- Flexibility responsiveness a commitment to growth and learning and giving and receiving feedback
- Ability to work independently with selfidentified goals to make decisions and resolve challenges with structured planning or improvisation when needed
- Strong written verbal interpersonal communication
The following are helpful but not required qualifications:
- Experience with multiracial populist political education and agitation
- Experience with deeplistening canvass methodology
- Experience with popular education training and curriculum design
- Experience managing data in a database (such as EveryAction Action Builder) experience using VAN Google sheets peertopeer text tools (we use ThruText) or other digital organizing tools
- Trained in conflict resolution and trauma stewardship
- Knowledge of at least one of our issue areas: tenant rights workers rights tax system healthcare etc.
- Familiarity with lobbying working with government agencies and organizing towards governing power
- Understanding of WA state political landscape and conditions
- Background with rural and small town communities
TO APPLY
Please upload a resume cover letter and a relevant work sample of any kind or length at this link:
We understand that candidates may bring different skills than we have listed here. If you have questions please do reach outwe want to hear from you! Reach out at . Subscribe to our newsletter here to be updated on new positions.
HIRING PROCESS
We are receiving applications on a rolling basis. The priority deadline is April 27 2025. Our goal is to make an offer by the end of June 2025.
Applicants who are selected to continue in the process can expect to participate in a brief screening interview plus two longerformat interviews (with the second inperson) and will have the opportunity to meet with various team members and memberleaders.
We strongly encourage applications from those who live work and contribute to rural Washington or who have experience with and connections to rural communities immigrant communities and working class people. Firelands is an equal opportunity employer and we encourage people of color immigrants bilingual people and multicultural individuals d/Deaf people and people with disabilities women members of LGBTQIA and gender nonconforming communities and people of all and underrepresented backgrounds to apply. Come join us at Firelands!
Required Experience:
Director
Employment Type
Full Time
