Community Response Strategist

About Us: Mount Baker Foundation is a private foundation, located in and serving Whatcom County. Our Vision is that individuals, families, neighborhoods, and communities are becoming stronger, healthier, and more compassionate, generation after generation. Our mission is to identify and fund catalytic, transformative initiatives that result in sustainable change. We are a small team (three current staff members) seeking a team member who dreams of community organizing towards shifting power through movement building, curriculum development, and civic health work. You’ll be a bridge-builder—connecting people, ideas, and resources—while helping to sustain and expand our civic health and movement-building efforts. This role is right for you if you love community capacity building and are interested in systems change and advocacy work.

Mount Baker Foundation Guiding Wisdoms:

• What we pay attention to grows
• Abundance over scarcity
• Catalytic
• Holistic approaches
• Trust in community-centered approaches
• Anti-racism
• Indigenous sovereignty
• Center the people most impacted by health inequities
• Learning through modeling

Mount Baker Foundation Priorities: Our collectively-created guiding wisdoms prompted us to consider how we fund our communities, our role and responsibility in movement building and advocacy, and what supporting and fueling community-centered work means beyond grantmaking. We therefore focus our work and strategic plan on three areas:

• Resource Reallocation: We identify, fund, and support local organizations that are for, and by the people they serve, to address the root causes of inequities that lead to current disparities in health, housing, and other social determinants of health, using an accessible, community-centered, antiracist, and transparent approach.
• Movement Building and Advocacy: We advocate for collective action and the coordination of regional funders using anti-racist organizing and trust-based, community-centered frameworks. We support existing efforts and organize partners where gaps emerge to grow our region’s capacity.
• Community Capacity Building: While funding continues to be a core strategy, we also ensure community partners have the resources they need beyond financial ones to grow community capacity, build power, and develop a shared movement-building analysis.

Responsibilities

Community Capacity Building and Movement Building:

• Support individuals and groups in identifying and building on their strengths to engage in civic health and systems-change work.
• Organize with others interested in civic health and community resilience.
• Cultivate relationships with partners, coalitions, and allies to expand our understanding of local for and by organizations, and those organizations working to shift the balance of power.
• Co-design and facilitate programs that strengthen leadership, advocacy, and organizing skills within the community.
• Support community members in identifying their strengths and leading their own change efforts.

Curriculum Development and Facilitation:

• Support the development of curriculum, training, and/or third-party relationships that center the continued development of strong, healthy communities.
• Create, adapt, and implement culturally relevant training materials, curricula, and resources.
• Facilitate interactive workshops, trainings, and community conversations that inspire action.

Support Advocacy & Systems Change:

• Partner with community leaders to plan and implement campaigns aimed at shifting systemic power.
• Provide tools, resources, and strategic guidance for grassroots systems change efforts to grantees and partners.
• Serve as a connector between community members, partner organizations, and coalitions.
• Help sustain and grow our role as a hub for civic engagement and collective action.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience in community organizing, grantmaking, or nonprofit collaboration.
• Strong understanding of racial equity, community health, and/or public health frameworks.
• Excellent facilitation, communication, and relationship-building skills across a diverse and broad range of communities.
• Familiarity with local funding landscapes and philanthropic engagement strategies, or a desire to learn more.
• Ability to work collaboratively across diverse groups and adapt to changing community needs while using a community centered approach.