TEN
Tenant Education Network

Organizing Manager

Based in Illinois

 

What is Tenant Education Network? Tenant Education Network (TEN) is power building 501c3 founded in 2020. We organize in a unique context of laws and bureaucratic oversight that apply to a specific type of subsidized building. We’ve developed an organizing model that prioritizes supermajority tenant participation, and harnesses that context to win tenant-landlord agreements that closely resemble collective bargaining agreements. These agreements guarantee material improvements in tenants’ lives, can bring onsite services or other tenant benefits, and provide ongoing funding for the tenant union. TEN is supported by a full-time tenants’ rights attorney.

Salary Range: $55,000 – $70,000 depending on experience, need, and skill
Benefits: Healthcare, Dental, Life Insurance
How to Apply: Send résumé and cover letter to: kira@tenanteducationnetwork.com.

TEN is seeking a disciplined, hard-working, communicative and detail oriented organizing manager who shares our vision for a national, democratic tenant union representing thousands of members. They must be open to the uncertainty and unpredictability of a startup organization and able to take initiative to move our mission forward. They must be able to learn and execute our organizing model, while innovating upon it to account for new information and circumstances.

Tasks:

• Identifying and recruiting tenant leaders
• House visits and 1-1s
• creating, coaching, and supporting an organizing committee
• Assisting the organizing committee in designing and executing effective direct actions
• Recognizing and confronting landlord retaliation through direct action and working with TEN’s attorney
• Building a list of all tenants in a building, including their contact info, and ID’ing them based on their support or opposition to the tenant union.
• Recruiting and consistently tracking tenant engagement in the union to achieve routine supermajority participation
• Organizing and facilitating tenant meetings, meetings with electeds, and meetings with government bureaucrats.
• Doorknocking and phonebanking in multifamily rental apartment buildings throughout the Midwest.
• Collecting timelines and documentation, including photos & video, from tenants to process grievances.
• Learning and executing our unique organizing model start to finish
• Training and supporting frontline staff organizers and tenant leaders
• Understanding and using applicable tenant laws
• Understanding and compelling action from relevant city, state, and federal agencies
• Miscellaneous administrative and fundraising tasks as needed

Requirements:

• Demonstrated history of:
  • building, training, and sustaining winning organizing committees
  • self-sufficiently owning, designing, and executing organizing campaigns from start to finish.
  • Training, developing, and holding new new organizers accountable
• Experience in writing, using, and training on organizing “raps” or scripts
• Excellent data management and collection skills. Must be detail oriented.
• Experience with excel spreadsheets, google drive, and other spreadsheet and data management tools.
• Comfortable using a smartphone
• Car & Valid Driver’s License
• Willingness to travel throughout the Midwest
• Willingness to work non traditional hours including nights and weekends, a minimum of 40 hours/week.
• Excellent and empathetic listening skills
• Non-judgemental approach to tenants’ issues and circumstances
• Rigorous follow through, keeping commitments, not over-promising, and maintaining personal boundaries.
• Pro-tenant disposition in any tenant landlord dispute.
• Must be honest with tenants, co-workers, donors etc.
• Fluency in spanish is a plus.

Tenant Education Network is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applicants will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender expression, medical condition, or any other basis prohibited by federal, state, or local law. We are committed to building a diverse and passionate team, and especially encourage women, people of color, LGBTQ folks, people with disabilities, and other interested people from historically marginalized communities to apply.

To Apply:
Interested? Email Résumé to: kira@tenanteducationnetwork.com.