Street Books is Hiring!

RFQ Contracted Position Description: Communications Support

Street Books is a 15-year-old nonprofit street library providing books, resources, and advocacy for people living outside or at the margins in Portland, Oregon. We cultivate mutual relationships rooted in dignity and autonomy by showing up every week, year after year, in all kinds of weather, all around the city, to meet people where they are. We believe in the transformative capacity of books, both for the individual and the collective. Books offer access to ideas, education, and liberation.

Duration: July 2025 through January 2026

Hours: Up to 10 hours per week

Pay: $40 per hour

Main contact/supervisor for this work: Co-ED for Development and Finance

Location: Primarily remote but with availability to meet in person in Portland, Oregon for occasional meetings or events.

Overall description: This is a contract position that will work with the Co-Executive Directors and the Communications Team to build successful messaging and share what we do in order to bring in donors, friends, and supporters. To mark our 15th anniversary, we are seeking special gifts and new or increased monthly sustaining gifts throughout the year. We also have an end-of-year campaign in November and December, during which we raise approximately one-third of our annual funding. We have a Communications Team that currently meets once a month and communicates via Slack between meetings. 

How to respond to this RFQ/express interest in this contracted position: 

Please send a resume to librarian@streetbooks.org. Please also include a letter that answers the following questions: 

1) Why would you like to work with Street Books? 

2) What is your experience and/or skills related to the responsibilities below?

3) What do you think are the root causes and solutions of homelessness?

Street Books encourages responses from you, even if you do not have experience related to every single responsibility. We are all always learning and none of us knows everything. 

Responsibilities:

Overall communications: In collaboration with the Communications Team, build messaging for the contracted period, including crafting compelling fundraising messaging and a storytelling plan for events and campaigns. Help to gather stories and make sure we are ready to implement our plan.

—Help build a shareable media kit for community partners, for the end-of-year campaign, and as needed. 

—Coordinate social media postings with community partners for campaigns or events.

—Newsletters: Gather stories for electronic newsletters, build them, send them to CoED for editing/input, schedule, and send. These happen monthly for most of the year but will be 4-6 times a month during the end-of-year campaign.

—Social Media: With the Communications Team, build a social media plan for events and development, and coordinate with the program social media coordinator to schedule and post messages to Facebook and Instagram. Help ensure direct messages are responded to. Repost partner messages when we are mentioned or when it is appropriate.

—Help create and implement a strategy to build our LinkedIn page and contacts.

—Help build a Style Guide and a plan to implement it.

—Assist with updating profiles on Guidestar, Candid, and other portals used by donors to learn about Street Books.

—Design a 2025 annual report based on input/verbiage from staff and photos from throughout the year.

—Create flyers, business cards, and other graphics for the organization (depending on available time and strategy).

—Keep the website up to date: Receive requests for changes and report needs, plans, and changes at Communications Team or with Co-ED as needed.