Organizing Manager - Operations in Portland, Oregon at Oregon Food Bank Inc

Who We Are:

Oregon Food Bank (OFB) believes that no one should be hungry. Our mission is to eliminate hunger and its root causes. We believe that food and health are basic human rights for all. We know that hunger is not just an individual experience; it is also a community-wide symptom of systemic barriers to employment, education, housing and health care such as systemic racism, sexism, and cissexism. That’s why we work systemically to achieve our mission to end hunger: we foster community connections to help people access nutritious food, and we build community power and strengthen networks of support and the safety net to eliminate the root causes of hunger for good.

We build community power to dismantle systems and policies that drive hunger and poverty.

Oregon Food Bank is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and we strongly encourage applications from candidates who can increase the diversity of our organization and strengthen our capacity to eliminate hunger. We believe strongly in the power of lived experience — and we actively seek individuals who have experienced hunger and its root causes to join our team. Our organization is stronger because of the leadership of people who have faced food insecurity in their own lives and/or hail from historically under-represented communities. Learn more about our commitment at oregonfoodbank.org/equity.

Who You Are:

You care deeply about community, about people experiencing hunger and hold them in the center of all that you do. You are committed to apply equity as a process and an outcome of your work to disrupt systemic social patterns that promote hunger such as racism, sexism, and cissexism. You have a strong affinity with OFB’s 10 Year Vision and are profoundly excited to achieve this vision for and with our community.

Position Summary:

As the Operations Organizing Manager, you will contribute to the organization’s success by leading the operations and logistics for the Organizing and Advocacy Department for both internal and external facing bodies of work in this fast-growing statewide organizing program building power for systems change. Working collaboratively with the Director, the Operations Manager will lead internal systems creation and manage key functions such as budget tracking, barrier mitigation process, transcreation processes, and event planning. This position will oversee two Project Coordinators and will also be responsible for some direct implementation of administrative and logistics tasks.

Primary Responsibilities (Essential Functions):

• Collaborate with the Director in departmental systems design and management.

• Lead the development and/or operationalization of core departmental systems that are essential to an effective field organizing program. Including, but not limited to:

  • Budget modeling and tracking

  • Barrier mitigation (for community leaders)

  • Project Management and event planning

  • Data Entry

  • Field materials and equipment

  • Onboarding and skills training for team members

• Revise and/or formulate standard operating procedures and promote their implementation

• Project manage logistics for multiple statewide organizing events annually.

• Collaborate with the Associate Director and Director to ensure we are effectively leveraging our financial resources for maximum impact by ensuring effective and accurate budget management in compliance with policies and procedures established by the Fiscal department.

• Oversee relationships/agreements with external partners/vendors and coordinate internal OFB review process with risk assessment team.

• Provide oversight and guidance around 501 (c)(3) compliance and reporting including – training team members across organizational departments on the reporting elements of grassroots and direct lobbying and working with the Fiscal Department for reporting purposes.

• Supervise two project coordinators as the primary implementers of administrative, project coordination, and logistics functions of the department. Responsible for providing ongoing feedback and coaching, performance management processes, and development of staff.

• Implement administrative and logistics functions as needed.

• Participate fully in OFB’s Manager’s team, leaning into collective responsibility for developing manager skills and a strong equity-centered organizational culture.

• Serve as OAT department representative on cross-functional teams related to organizational wide fiscal, compliance or technology systems and infrastructure.

• Organizational level responsibilities of exempt employees include:

  • To be an ambassador and a leader for OFB’s vision and mission, a cross-departmental collaborator, and an active contributor to building a movement to end hunger for good by addressing the root causes of hunger: systemic oppressions such as racism, xenophobia, sexism, and cisexism.

  • In consultation and coordination with the supervisor, actively contribute to:

    • cross-departmental efforts

    • work culture activities and programming

    • advisory and consultative groups such as the compensation committee, affinity groups, Equity Ambassadors, Equity Think Tank meetings, among others

    • plan and engage in professional development activities that strengthen your capacity for your specific role as well as your capacity to contribute and advance organizational goals, OFB’s vision and mission.

• Identify, share, engage in, and collaboratively adjust and make necessary changes to this description of duties according to the inevitable evolution of the role over time.

  • Other related duties as assigned, consistent with the scope and level of this role

Skills and Experience Required:

• Deep passion for eliminating hunger and its root causes.

• Proven skill in building team culture, implementing feedback loops, and working across personality and style.

• 3+ years’ experience in race and gender justice social change strategies - including grassroots organizing and legislative campaign strategies.

• 3+ years’ experience in non-profit operations and systems.

• 2 + years experience supervising staff, building teams, and developing staff leadership.

• Knowledge of and ability to interpret and apply 501c3 and lobbying compliance laws.

• Ability to enter, retrieve, interpret, analyze, and report data utilizing computerized systems and tools accurately. Protects confidentiality of data and systems to department and organizational standards. Familiarity with budget management software and Excel.

• Excellent organizational and leadership abilities

• Demonstrated excellence in conceptualizing project work plans and project managing from conception to evaluation.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.

• Personal lived-experience of systemic hunger and/or its root causes (racism, sexism, heterosexism, cis-sexism, ableism, ageism, size-ism, ethnocentrism, and classism)

• Organizational level skills and experience required for exempt employees include:

• Disposition and willingness to maximize multiple perspectives to innovate, problem solve and seek creative solutions.

• Experience in modeling intercultural competence and demonstrated commitment to equity and social justice.

• Demonstrated ability to think strategically, collaborate, take initiative, and to maintain confidentiality.

• Project coordination and organization skills; ability to manage multiple projects with attention to detail; ability to handle interruptions, and produce timely, accurate work.

• Ability to both work independently and as part of a team; comfortable working in an office environment and offsite.

• Ability to thrive in a diverse, creative, responsive, mission-driven, and fast-paced work culture.

• Experience of successful multicultural immersion working and/or living within OFB's Equity Constituencies: BIPoC, Immigrants & Refugees, Single Mothers, Trans and Gender-Non-Conforming folx.

  • Multicultural Immersion defined as: Actively integrated in one or more communities, interacting with individuals and groups, and seeking to understand the diversities within and between communities by being there and engaging in daily life activities.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Organizational level preferred qualifications of exempt employees include:

  • Multilingual skills at a minimum professional level of proficiency or greater in English and any additional language/s, defined as being able to speak the languages with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations on practical and professional topics.

  • Multicultural skills of adaptation and integration are strongly preferred.

    • Adaptation is defined as the capacity to communicate and interact with people of multiple cultures, backgrounds, and styles by incorporating and adapting to the world view and perspectives of others.

    • Integration is defined as being able to “code-switch” or move in and out of one's worldview and help others understand different cultures, backgrounds, and styles to promote diversity and inclusion.

  • Commitment to continued professional development to strengthen capacity to work through an equity lens for equity and racial justice.

  • Strong capacity to consider multiple perspectives, to pivot to respond to emerging needs and lead through organizational changes.

  • Years of successful multicultural immersion either working with and/or living within one or more of OFB’s Equity Constituencies at the time of hire. An additional step for at least 10 years above minimum required of successful multicultural immersion working with and/or living within one or more of OFB’s Equity Constituencies at the time of hire.

    • Multicultural Immersion defined as: Actively integrated in one or more communities, interacting with individuals and groups, and seeking to understand the diversities within and between communities by being there and engaging in daily life activities.

The Fine Print:

Work environment:

Work is performed in an office environment while sitting in meetings or at a computer screen for extended periods inside and outside of Oregon Food Bank and will use computers and phones extensively.

May work outside of general working hours of 8:00 – 5:00 p.m., such as evenings and weekends, and occasional travel out of town may occur.

This role requires travel/personal vehicle use /work outside normal hours.

Work may require to lift, move and carry objects from 20 to 40 pounds, such as boxes containing office and other supplies. Crouching, bending, kneeling and reaching when filing. Accommodations may be available upon request.

Background Check:

This position doesn’t require a criminal background check.

Inclement Weather, Service Disruptions and Disaster Response expectations:

OFB is part of the regional disaster response network and, as part of our commitment to our community, we all are expected to report to work as soon as it’s safe to do so and to respond to the disaster, emergency, inclement weather or extended service disruption as needed and as possible. Work and paid designations are described in OFB’s Inclement Weather Guidelines. At all times staff is supported to prioritize their safety and those of their dependants, families and loved ones while in communication and coordination with supervisors.

1. Exempt classification refers to employees who earn a salary rather than an hourly rate for the work they do instead of the number of hours they take to complete the task. Exempt employees are not eligible for overtime pay or minimum wage. They; 1) Supervise two or more full-time employees or four part-time employees regularly; 2) Are responsible for managing at least part of a business; 3) Play an important role in the job status of other employees, including hiring and delegating tasks; or 1) Perform office or non-manual work directly related to the business operations or management of an organization and its customers; and 2) Exercise independent judgment and discretion over important business decisions.