Bookmark this Nonprofit Career Resources page! This is your go-to for job search and career exploration for nonprofit jobs in Portland, Oregon, and beyond.

Nonprofit Career Resources in Portland, Oregon, and Beyond

By A Portland Career, edited by Dan Hahn, M.S., and Suzie Sherman

Looking for a more meaningful job?  We’ll help you thrive with purpose.

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If you’re a job seeker, and you want your career to align with your values, you’ve probably included nonprofit jobs in your search, or in your career exploration. Mission-driven jobs abound in local and national nonprofit organizations, whether your focus is social justice, equity, sustainability, or the arts. Here’s your go-to resource list for careers in the nonprofit sector in Portland, Greater Oregon, and beyond.

 

If you want your career to be meaningful, and you want to be of service to your community, you might be thinking about becoming a nonprofit professional. Oregon is home to 9,800 nonprofit organizations, providing nearly 186,000 jobs throughout the state. If you’re already working in this sector, or you’re looking to build your career, you might need help finding the best job openings or mission-based initiatives to work on.

This list is handy if you have a good idea of the job titles or specific roles you’re looking for, but it’ll also be helpful if you’re doing a more exploratory search to see what kinds of nonprofit organizations you’d like to work for, or get a feel for the types of job opportunities that are available in the world of nonprofit. Bookmark this list as you’re starting your nonprofit career!

If you’re looking for jobs in the growing green economy, we’ve got a resource page specifically for careers in sustainability here.

If you want to include local and state government job postings in your search, visit our government career resources page.

Portland Metro and Greater Oregon Nonprofit Job Search

  • The Nonprofit Association of Oregon Job Board: NAO is the premier place to go for local nonprofit job openings in Portland and beyond. NAO’s mission is to strategically connect Oregon nonprofits for maximum community impact and resource sharing. The organization offers excellent networking opportunities, training, advocacy, and in-depth support to nonprofit professionals and job seekers. Who said you need to be in Washington, D.C. or New York to get serious about nonprofit work?

  • WVDO dot Org: Willamette Valley Development Officers is a nonprofit fundraising resource organization that supports both organizations and individuals in their development missions. Become a member, and get access to job listings and continuing education certification trainings in nonprofit fundraising, event planning, grant writing, professional development, and more. As a BIPOC and LGBTQ+ led organization, WVDO has a deep commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and building a collaborative, financially sound nonprofit community in Portland and beyond.

  • BWork.Com: If you’re a purpose-driven job seeker, but don’t prefer to go the nonprofit route, we give an honorable mention to B Corps: for-profit companies with a commitment to positive social and environmental change as part of their core mission. BWork is a global directory of job opportunities with B Corps across hundreds of fields, and lists only companies that meet stringent standards for social and environmental impact.

  • Idealist.Org is a specialized nonprofit job board for job listings, internships, fellowships, and volunteer opportunities across many nonprofit fields, as well as links to graduate and training programs. If you’re a nonprofit professional, or looking to enter the nonprofit landscape, bookmark Idealist.Org in your browser, and visit regularly.

  • Indeed and LinkedIn: Both these sites have robust job boards for local, national, and remote job search. If you don’t already have accounts at Indeed and LinkedIn, these are essential tools for job seekers. Fine tune your job search by category, location, desired pay scale, full-time, part-time, contract-based, and more. Enter search keywords like “nonprofit“ (and the alternative spelling “non-profit”), as well as more specific terms for the fields you’re targeting, such as “grant writing,” “public policy,” “nonprofit management,” “grassroots organizer,” etc. Read our post about how to use online job boards to get more bang outta your buck on both Indeed and LinkedIn.

  • PCC Career Services: The career centers at all four locations of Portland Community College can help guide you in your search, whether you’re exploring career paths or looking for current open positions. The colleges are well plugged-in to Portland’s nonprofit community and can steer you in the right direction.

  • AmeriCorps VISTA: The Oregon.Gov page lists current openings for AmeriCorps’ Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) program statewide. If you’re 18+ (there’s no upper age limit) and a citizen or lawful resident of the U.S., you’re eligible to join AmeriCorps to alleviate poverty in our communities and gain real world work skills.

  • Goodwill Job Connection has free resources, job fair info, and skill building opportunities for job seekers in Portland.

  • Craigslist PDX: There are a significant number of postings for nonprofit jobs in a variety of fields on Craigslist. You can select specific fields in the drop-down menu, or select “nonprofit,” and then refine with keywords, like “arts,” “public health,” “fundraising,” etc. Play around with different keyword and category combinations. A note of caution: Craigslist remains a valuable job search resource, but we encourage you to use your best judgment on the site, since the names and credentials of the companies, organizations, and individuals posting jobs are often vague or are not listed.

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