As a campaign writer, you will write campaign content that appears in our email alerts and on the website. You will work closely with the campaign management team, the tech team, partners and other staff and team members to develop the copy, following an established set of guidelines for writers. Content may be written from scratch or developed from a rough draft provided by a staff member or partner. You may also at times do background research to develop campaign content. You can volunteer to be a campaign writer for a single campaign, a series of campaigns around a single issue of particular interest to you, or on an as-needed basis. A mentor will be provided.
Requirements: 3-5 hours to prepare content for a campaign and occasional availability while the campaign is active to help with minor updates to the campaign content on the website. We will let you know when we have a project needing a writer and you can tell us if you are available or not. A writing sample will be requested.
Campaign proofreader – As a campaign proofreader, you will proofread the content of our campaign email alerts and website content before it is sent out to identify typos, formatting errors, broken links, etc. You will provide a list of corrections to be made to the campaign team to fix.
Requirements: 1-2 hours, typically in the late afternoon or early evening on the day before a campaign is scheduled to become active. We will let you know the schedule a few days ahead and you can let us know if you can be available to proofread the campaign content at that time. Campaigns are often scheduled to go out on a Tuesday morning. We will provide training. You must have a thorough knowledge of English grammar, excellent writing skills and attention to detail. You will need access to a computer and the Internet.
As a grant writer, you will be a part of our fundraising team and will write grant proposals to foundations and other potential funding sources for funding to support Onward Oregon projects.
Requirements: Some experience writing grant proposals and a willingness to commit to completing several drafts of a grant on a schedule that allows the Onward Oregon fundraising team to complete reviews and submit the proposal by the proposal deadline. A grant proposal writing sample will be requested.
As a technical writer, you will help document the steps to posting campaign content and preparing an email in our content management system to be used as training and reference materials for new campaign tech team members.
Requirements: Some experience documenting technical procedures. Ability to determine documentation needs and create documentation based on interviews with tech team. A technical writing sample will be requested.
Campaign Tech Team Member – As a member of the tech team, you will use the content provided by a campaign writer to create the web pages and email alerts for campaigns. You will use a content management system to create HTML pages (some HTLM experience is helpful but not required) and use a graphical user interface to set database access functions to manage the web pages and emails sent to our online members. Although minimally challenging to a technically experienced person, this role is key to the work we do. Training is provided.
Requirements: 2-4 hours to implement and manage the review of a campaign during a 36 hour period just before a campaign is launched. Occasional availability while the campaign is active to help with minor updates to the campaign content on the website. We will let you know when we have a project needing a tech volunteer and you can tell us if you are available or not. After training, you must be available for at least one campaign per month.
Campaign Management Team Member – As a member of the campaign management team, you will help oversee the implementation of email action campaigns. The campaign management team works with Onward Oregon partners, our internal content writers, and our technical volunteers to define and carry out each email campaign.
Requirements: Requirements: 3-4 hours over a period of 2-3 weeks when you are working on a campaign. This is an ongoing volunteer position. You must also be able to attend most Onward Oregon staff meetings at a location in inner SE Portland on Tuesday evenings 5:15-7pm. You must have regular access to a phone and email to carry out campaign management tasks.
Community organizer for Cool Cities project – As a community organizer for Onward Oregon’s “Cool Cities” project, you will work with local groups and individuals in one of five metro area cities (Beaverton, Hillsboro, Lake Oswego, Oregon City, Gresham) that have signed on to the Cool Cities initiative to implement smart energy solutions for addressing global warming and comply with the Kyoto treaty. Through contacts with Onward Oregon members and networking, you will identify and help organize a group of concerned citizens to work within their community to develop support for the initiative and encourage their mayor and city council to take steps toward compliance.
Requirements: 1-2 hours minimum a week to contact individuals and organizations in the community by phone, email, or in person (for example, you may attend neighborhood meetings or civic gatherings to tell people about Onward Oregon and this volunteer opportunity). We will provide guidelines and suggestions and an initial list of contacts, when available, for your city as well as ongoing support.
Dialog Oregon Facilitator – As a Dialog Oregon facilitator, you will facilitate discussions that take place in a “community circle” in the Onward Oregon online forum about a specific topic of concern to Oregonians. You will help ensure that your community circle provides a venue where all participants feel engaged and heard and that circle discussions are focused on the chosen topic. You will introduce new topics as appropriate, encouraging alternative points of view, positively reinforcing constructive posts, communicating the purpose of the circle to new members, and responding to participants' questions and concerns. You will remind participants of the posted rules for engagement in a conversation circle and will have the ability to exclude a participant who does not follow the rules.
Requirements: 1-2 hours minimum a week to participate in your conversation circle. You must be knowledgeable about the topic you host and must have access to the Internet. We will provide suggestions and ongoing support.
We are also interested in skills in these areas:
