Storytelling Editor (Podcast & Documentaries)

About Mentor A Promise

Mentor A Promise (MAP) is a New York City nonprofit supporting children and youth ages 5–18 experiencing housing instability. Through mentorship, literacy, creative expression, storytelling, and community engagement, MAP creates safe, consistent spaces where youth voices and lived experiences are honored with dignity. MAP’s storytelling platforms—The Bells I Hear and Threads of Voices—use long-form and short-form media to explore youth resilience, culture, housing justice, creativity, and human connection.

Position Overview

The Storytelling Video Editor is the creative engine behind our storytelling. They are responsible for transforming recorded podcast conversations into high-quality, thoughtful video content for YouTube and podcast and social platforms. This role ensures that stories are edited with care, clarity, and respect—preserving tone, context, and intention. This is not fast-turnaround content editing. It is ethical storytelling through visual craft.

Key Responsibilities:

Video Editing:

• Craft compelling video podcast episodes and short documentaries from interviews, B-roll, archival footage, images and graphics.
• Identify the strongest moments in interviews and build narratives that resonate.
• Use pacing, music, visuals, and transitions to keep viewers engaged.
• Incorporate captions, titles, lower thirds, and motion graphics consistent with Mentor A Promise's brand.
• Perform color correction and basic post-production finishes.
• Create platform-specific versions for YouTube, Podcast Platforms Shorts, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
• Ability to research, source, and organize high-quality, royalty-free music, sound effects, and archival media. Maintain meticulous tracking of usage rights, licensing terms, and attribution requirements.

Audio Editing (Podcasts & Sound Design)

• Edit full-length video podcast episodes for pacing, clarity, and engagement ensuring smooth transitions between segments, intros, outros, and sponsor reads.
• Clean and enhance dialogue while maintaining a natural conversational flow.
• Incorporate music, and transition and clean up audio to support the story.
• Deliver polished, well balanced audio ready for publication.
• Clean up raw podcast recordings by removing filler words, awkward pauses, and background noise while maintaining a natural conversational flow.
• Source, license, and layer background music and sound effects to elevate the narrative tone and overall production value.
• Balance audio levels and export final master files to industry-standard loudness levels (e.g., -16 LUFS for podcasts).

Required Qualifications & Skills

• We are looking for someone who can find the story - not simply assemble clips. The ideal editor knows when to let a moment breathe, when to tighten pacing, and how music, visuals, and silence work together to create emotional impact.
• Minimum 1 year of proven experience editing both narrative audio podcasts and documentary-style video content.
• Software Proficiency: Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve or equivalent professional video editing software
• A strong editorial ear and eye—knowing how to cut a scene or an interview to maximize emotional impact and keep the audience engaged.
• Strong organization skills for managing large media assets, syncing multi-cam footage, and organizing multi-track audio.
• Ability to take direction from producer notes, incorporate feedback gracefully, and work efficiently under tight deadlines.

Preferred (Nice-to-Have) Qualifications

• Familiarity with Riverside recordings
• Experience working with nonprofit, journalism, or documentary content

What You’ll Gain

• Meaningful storytelling experience with real community impact
• Portfolio-ready podcast and digital media work
• Collaboration with producers, hosts, and creative teams
• Professional references and letters of recommendation
• The opportunity to help amplify voices with respect and intention

How to Apply

Interested candidates should apply directly through Idealist.

For any additional questions or concerns, please email us directly at hr@mentorapromise.org

Edit with purpose — help shape stories that honor humanity, amplify voices, and reflect the care at the heart of Mentor A Promise.

Thank you for your interest in volunteering with our organization. At this time, our volunteer opportunities are limited to individuals who are based in the United States. This limitation is due to legal, safeguarding, data-privacy, and programmatic requirements associated with our work. We appreciate your interest in our mission and your understanding of these constraints.