Community Organizer (NYC or DC)

Full-time, Remote, based in NYC or Washington, DC | Reports To: Executive Director | Start Date: Immediate | Salary Range: $60,000-$65,000

Tight Lipped is seeking a self-motivated, experienced Community Organizer to join our growing team. The Community Organizer will work with our active and budding chapters to support our campaign to expand OB/GYN residency education. Our chapters are led by patient volunteers with chronic vulvovaginal pain conditions who struggle to access affordable, comprehensive healthcare.

Candidates should have experience with issue-based organizing, campaigns targeting decision-makers, team-building, and leadership development. The ideal candidate has experience in patient advocacy, sexual health, stigmatized health conditions, or women’s/LGBTQIA2S+ health. They will be committed to our mission of fighting for access to care for women and gender expansive folks with chronic vulvovaginal and pelvic pain. They will be resourceful and creative, and have the resilience to navigate setbacks with an eye toward new opportunities.

Who We Are

Tight Lipped is a grassroots movement by and for people with chronic vulvovaginal and pelvic pain. We believe that people with these conditions should be diagnosed correctly, treated effectively, and given compassionate care. We are driven by a shared vision of a world in which people with vulvovaginal and pelvic pain can lead full lives, free of societal stigma and free to access necessary medical care. Tight Lipped uses a community organizing framework, bringing patients, medical providers, and allies together to collectively shift medical practice and address the root causes of diagnostic delay, ineffective treatment, and negative social attitudes towards pelvic pain. We currently have active chapters in New York, Washington, DC, Connecticut, and Los Angeles. Our advocacy campaign is focused on closing the gaps in Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB/GYN) education and ensuring that every OB/GYN knows how to diagnose and evaluate for common vulvovaginal and pelvic pain conditions.

What You'll Do

The Organizer is responsible for the following:

Leadership Development: 40%

• Regularly hold one-on-one meetings with leaders to develop their organizing instincts, leadership meeting skills, and investment in our work and mission.
• Coach leaders to work through strategy and problems that arise within their chapters and teams or in their campaign work.
• Identify step-up opportunities for promising leaders to practice skills such as storytelling, facilitation, leadership meetings, etc.
• Train leaders and prospective leaders on campaign, outreach, and community organizing skills (in-person and virtual). Cultivate political education and leadership among members.

Team Building: 30%

• Support regular chapter communication and decision-making by facilitating effective meetings and/or teaching leaders how to facilitate such meetings.
• Identify potential new leaders and members through creative outreach efforts including referrals from pelvic floor physical therapists and gynecologists, flyering, etc.
• Coach existing chapter leaders on how to build and strengthen their local team, and support leaders in working through structural, interpersonal, and communication challenges and questions.

Campaign Organizing and Strategy: 20%

• Collaborate with staff and volunteers to build and adapt organizational and campaign strategy, including campaign goals and tactics, chapter growth, communications, and fundraising.
• Grow, strengthen, and revise campaign strategy and tactics based on progress, wins, and challenges.
• Drive local campaigns forward and prepare chapter leaders for meetings with OB/GYN faculty at teaching hospitals. Support leaders in scheduling, strategizing around, and executing events at teaching hospitals such as patient panels, lectures by sexual medicine experts, etc.

Data & Tracking: 10%

• Maintain a database of volunteer leaders.
• Work with leaders to track engagement with campaign targets (at OB/GYN teaching hospitals and residency programs).
• Work with Director of Communications to track & narrativize campaign developments and wins.

Who You Are & Keys to Success

To be successful in this job, you will excel in six key areas:

1. Bread & butter organizing skills: You live and breathe one-on-ones and storytelling, and love teaching these skills to volunteers. You're not afraid to have tough conversations with leaders and push them to grow in their leadership, strategic instincts, and political analysis.
2. Mentorship: You see yourself as a mentor and thought-partner to volunteers, rather than a manager. Nothing makes you happier than seeing new leaders grow and thrive.
3. Communication skills: You have exceptional oral and written communication skills with the ability to tailor your language and style to different audiences. You communicate clearly, directly, and often.
4. Relationship-building: You develop and maintain strong relationships with a diverse array of leaders and stakeholders.
5. Self-management: You have experience managing multiple projects with competing deadlines and keeping tasks from slipping through the cracks. You plan backwards, are detail-oriented, and involve stakeholders and co-workers appropriately. You have the ability to work independently, as well as collaboratively, and manage time effectively in a remote work environment.
6. Collegiality and team-work: You enjoy being part of a small team and work well with others. You are a direct communicator and bring good humor and compassion to your relationships with co-workers and leaders. You aren’t afraid to ask for help when you need it.

Required Qualifications

• A minimum of 3-5 years experience in community organizing (including a minimum of 2 years in a full-time, professional organizing role)
  • The bulk of this experience should be in issue-based or union organizing.
  • We will NOT consider candidates who only have experience in electoral/voter turnout organizing.
• Strong facilitation skills (for meetings, trainings, conversations)
• Passion for health equity
• Enjoy a flexible work schedule, and can work some evenings or weekends as needed
• Working knowledge of spreadsheets and Google suite

Desired Qualifications

• Experience with remote and/or distributed organizing (i.e., working with multiple chapters or campaign teams in different locations)
• Knowledge of healthcare advocacy and chronic vulvovaginal and pelvic pain conditions
• Bilingual English/Spanish preferred, but not required

What Else You Should Know

This position is full-time and remote,* based in New York City or Washington DC. The salary for this position ranges from $60,000-$65,000, with exact salary depending on experience and cost of living in the candidate’s work location.

*The role is remote in the sense that there is no physical office. However, the role does have significant in-person requirements (i.e., for one-on-ones with local chapter leaders), and requires occasional travel to meet with leaders, run trainings, and support other campaign activities, about once per month (approximately 24-30 days of travel per year).

Equal Employment Opportunity

As an organization, Tight Lipped is committed to taking an intersectional approach to healthcare advocacy and educating ourselves and others about the ways in which reproductive and sexual health are shaped by political, social, and economic forces. Tight Lipped is an equal opportunity employer. We value having staff who are personally impacted by our issues. Tight Lipped is committed to fair and equitable hiring practices and policies that promote and support people who are most marginalized.

Tight Lipped especially encourages people of color, women, non-binary and transgender individuals, LGBTQIA2S+ individuals, and people with disabilities, to apply. Applicants will not be discriminated against because of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, parental status, age, religion, national origin, citizenship status, disability, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, medical condition, or any protected category.

Systemic inequities in hiring have caused women, people of color, LGBTQIA2S+ folks, and others to apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. Tight Lipped encourages you to break that statistic and apply, as no one ever meets 100% of the qualifications. We look forward to your application.

Tight Lipped is a fiscally sponsored project of Social Good Fund.

• Health, vision, and dental insurance (Tight Lipped covers 85% of healthcare premiums and 100% of vision and dental premiums)
• 403(b) retirement plan
• Four Day Workweek
• Generous PTO, including: 14 paid holidays, 3 weeks paid vacation (4 weeks after two years of employment), and 4 weeks of health & wellness leave per year
• 12 weeks paid family/medical/parental leave available after 12 months of employment
• Flexible scheduling (“flex time”)

Bilingual English/Spanish preferred, but not required