The museum is currently seeking a new leader to continue to shape this innovative organization and shared leadership model. The Codirector will share executive leadership of the museum with the current Codirector, Molly Alloy, and will have central focus on fundraising and development.

(Artwork by Pace Taylor, from Gender Euphoria: Contemporary Art Beyond the Binary)

Five Oaks Museum is an independent nonprofit located on the Portland Community College–Rock Creek Campus on Tualatin Kalapuya land in Washington County, Oregon. As a local organization engaged in globally relevant dialogues, we support the thriving cultural ecologies around us through guest-curated exhibitions, learning programs, events, research, and the museum’s cultural resources, archives, and library. After 65 years of centering Euro-American settler narratives, the institution was fundamentally reshaped in 2019. It now operates as a platform for multivocal, culturally embedded stories and as a sandbox for innovative organizational structures, all shaped around the core values of Body, Land, Truth, Justice, and Community.

Shared leadership is a cornerstone of Five Oaks Museum’s innovative organizational structure. The Codirector will share executive leadership of the museum with the current Codirector, Molly Alloy, and work closely with the museum’s staff, board of directors, committee members, volunteers, and contractors. The Codirectors have overlapping responsibilities, such that each will have some areas of individual focus and some areas that will be executed collaboratively through shared focus. The incoming Codirector will have central focus on fundraising and development, while Molly will maintain central focus on the guest curator program and exhibitions. Together, the Codirectors will lead vision and strategy for the museum, maintain board relations, and share chief financial oversight. The incoming Codirector will define together with Molly how they will divide or share the focus areas of communications, facilities, learning, and cultural resources. Enjoyment of fundraising and museums will be essential for the incoming Codirector’s success, as well as comfort in collaborative work methods and a genuine connection to the museum’s values.

 

Position in Organization

Reports to: Board of Directors

Responsible for: Museum staff, volunteers, interns and partners

Locations: Hybrid remote and on-site work

Incoming Codirector’s Focus-area Responsibilities

• Plays an integral role on the existing Development Committee along with Codirector, board members, and community partners. Works with the Development Committee to create and implement the annual development plan, including short- and long-term contributed income strategies and fundraising goals.
• Plays a lead role in prospecting and soliciting major gifts from individual and corporate donors with support from the Development Committee. Stewards the museum’s relationships with existing donors, in collaboration with the Director of Community Connections, to ensure that the museum appropriately acknowledges and honors the value of donors in supporting our mission.
• Collaborates with Codirector to steer grants strategy and oversees grants consultant to determine which grants to pursue, manage grant submission timelines, verify grant language, maintain foundation relationships, and ensure quality reporting as needed.
• Coordinates fundraising appeals, including for the museum’s annual Showcase, end-of-year giving, and others.

Shared Codirector Responsibilities

• Staff and operations management
• Institutional visioning and strategy
• Board engagement
• Finances team, strategy, high-level tracking and assessment
• Institutional budget-making
• Highest level management of intersecting work areas/projects
• Public speaking and advising around museum work/shared leadership and other innovative models, related partner engagements
• Executive signer (tax forms, state and federal registration, insurance, banks, etc.)
• Other duties as assigned by the board of directors

Responsibilities shared OR divided as determined by Codirectors

• Facilities: key member of facilities team, point of contact with Washington County facilities, management of building funds and projects with Director of Community Connections
• Communications: Lead communications team and committee, strategy, brand voice, writing, manage staff and volunteers, newsletters, social media, graphic design, website
• Learning: Lead learning team, strategy and supervision over learning materials, educator presentations, field trips, partnerships etc
• Cultural Resources: liaise with Cultural Resources Committee and Director of Exhibitions & Cultural Resources to ensure strategic alignment with museum’s overall goals

Note that Codirector Molly Alloy will retain focus-area responsibility over the guest curator program, exhibitions, and visual branding.

Any combination of education, work experience, and lived experience that demonstrates your ability to thrive in this position is welcomed.

The skills and experience needed to be successful in this job exist on a spectrum. Frequently cited statistics show that disabled candidates, BIPOC candidates, LGBTQ candidates, women, and members of marginalized and/or systematically excluded groups apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. We value and respect the many paths that might bring someone to this position; if you see yourself as our new Codirector, please apply.

Required

• Demonstrated ability to manage staff effectively while respecting their identities, background, and professional development needs.
• Demonstrated ability to personally cultivate and solicit major gifts from individuals and businesses. 
• Familiarity with, or experience in implementing, community-centric fundraising principles and programs that seek to disrupt systems of generational wealth and challenge white supremacy in philanthropy.
• Proficiency with preparation of grant applications and reports, including research and relationship building with foundations and grant-making organizations.
• Ability to work collaboratively with community members, partner organizations, funders, and state and local government.
• Demonstrated strength in at least two of the following areas: museum education, communications, facilities management, collections/ archive management.
• Strong skills in collaboration, self-reflection, and interpersonal communications.
• Ability to articulate and apply ongoing learning around anti-racism, decolonial practices, and intersectional liberatory ways of working.
• Desire to work in a shared leadership model and to work collaboratively to adapt and shape the model over time.
• Commitment to Five Oaks Museum’s values.

Preferred

• Experience in museums is strongly preferred.
• Comfort and rapport with data including collecting, interpreting, and communicating it.
• Understanding of (c)(3) organizations.
• Experience with, and knowledge of, donor-management software.
• Ability to travel as needed for meetings, conferences, and events.

This is a full-time, salaried, exempt position based on 32 hours of weekly work, with employer-sponsored health benefits for the full family and vacation time, with a salary of $75,000. 

Note: We have taken drastic steps since 2019 to address pay inequities that were inherited from the previous organizational structure and leadership. Codirectors have pay parity; as such, the salary for this position is fixed at exactly $75,000. All positions receive annual evaluations and raises which contain a shared process of adjusting pay, title, and job scope. As Codirectors shape the annual budget, they will have a chance to collaboratively propose adjustments to their salaries upon the new budget cycle effective July 1, 2023.

This position is located at Five Oaks Museum on the Portland Community College Rock Creek Campus, 17677 NW Springville Rd, Portland, OR 97229. ADA parking and TriMet bus service are available to the museum. This role may involve limited travel throughout the region which can be shaped around access needs. Our workplace operates in English, using Google Suite for shared documents, virtual meetings, and email. The museum building is accessible to ADA standards including entry ramp, power doors, and accessible restroom stalls; there are no stairs within the building. Physical workstations are designed for each individual’s needs and size-inclusive seating is present in meeting spaces. Disability justice is deeply within our values and enacting that beyond compliance is currently an area of focused growth for us.

Modest relocation assistance may be available. Visa sponsorship is not available at this time.

We are committed to doing all that we can to support additional access needs throughout the interview process and within the position. To request accommodations, alternative formats of this application, or to contact us regarding issues with the application process, please call (503) 645-5353 or email hiring@fiveoaksmuseum.org.

The Codirector hiring process will remain open until the position is filled, and candidates will move along the hiring process on individual timelines according to the following steps: 

Initial application (Phase 1)

Applications must include a minimum of (1) a letter of interest tailored to this position along with (2) a resume and/or CV to be considered. Email your application materials and any other supporting documentation showcasing your fit for this position to: hiring@fiveoaksmuseum.org

We will begin with an initial grace period ending March 10, 2023; during the grace period the museum will allow applications to arrive and will only begin to review them and respond on a rolling basis after that. Candidates will be contacted no later than 15 business days from the end of the grace period or date their materials are received (whichever is later) to be notified if they are being moved on to phase 2. We hope to contact all applicants; in the event that applicant volume is too high, we may only contact those applicants who are being moved on.

Follow-up (Phase 2)

Supplemental questions will be sent to applicants who pass initial vetting. Responses will be due back within 10 business days. All applicants who complete the supplemental questions will be contacted within 15 business days of receipt and informed if they were not selected, or to arrange interview times.

Interviews (Phase 3)

Once the supplemental question responses and application materials have been carefully reviewed, we will determine if a candidate is being moved on for interviews. The process from here forward will be defined and communicated on a case-by-case basis with such finalists to ensure a process that is both thorough and accessible to individual candidates.