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Give to The Telling Room

Donating to The Telling Room is about believing in our students.

The Telling Room began as a grassroots group of volunteer writers and educators fueled by a belief in the power of the written word to change our community for the better. Your belief and financial support makes it possible for The Telling Room to be what it is today: a thriving nonprofit organization with a paid staff of five, four AmeriCorps members, a volunteer writer in residence, and 200 volunteers serving over 2,000 students each year.

All of our core programs are 100% free to students and their families, ensuring that the students who need our services most – the students who are least likely to have a voice in the community – can participate. Your support is crucial to keeping those programs alive. Through skilled, creative, and resourceful program delivery, we minimize overhead and maximize impact. Our programs cost only $5 per hour, per student, and formal assessments of our programs show that Telling Room students show significant improvement in their writing, social, emotional, and academic skills. Thank you for your generous support of The Telling Room.

To see a list of our donors, click here, and check out our Annual Report here.

Giving Stories

  • Chrispo Niyokwizerwa, Student

    Chrispo Niyokwizerwa has been in our afterschool Young Writers and Leaders program for two years. It’s free for him to participate, and being in the program means that, for nine months each year, he is able to gather with a strong, supportive peer group of other English Language Learners from all over the world. Together, they write, create original works of art, and become published writers, all while receiving one-on-one mentorship, job skills and leadership training, and college readiness support. At The Telling Room, Chrispo has written about growing up in Rwanda and his passion for soccer and music; he has been published in two of our major anthologies and two chapbooks. He’s also performed his original songs on stage at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, written and starred in his own film as part of our Whole World Waiting project, presented his work at countless sold-out events in Portland and beyond, and more.

    When asked what being a part of The Telling Room means to him, Chrispo says, “I have never had this kind of opportunity. The Telling Room means a lot to me. It helps me discover my talent and it helps me experience other people’s lives from different countries. It helps me know what other people have been through and give them respect. My writing has improved a lot. We write about stories that have affected our lives. We also write about our future. We go outside and write about anything that we see – whatever comes to our mind. We write about what we love – music, art. I have discovered my talent as a singer or a rapper. It’s pretty amazing. I didn’t know I could do all of those things until I came to the TR. I want people to hear about The Telling Room and to know how good it is and how helpful it is to people who have experienced it.”

  • Patty and Cyrus Hagge, Donors

    We contribute to The Telling Room because we are suckers for good stories and know that good stories change lives for the writers and the readers. The Telling Room does a great, creative, and intelligent job implementing their mission to foster storytelling and writing skills in children ages 6 to 18.  We also support The Telling Room because we believe that creativity, the arts, and educating youth all contribute to the vitality and well being of the entire city of Portland.

  • Pie and Lulu Rasor, Students

    From Mitch Rasor, Pie and Lulu's Dad: The Telling Room is not just about writing stories and it’s far more than a room in a building. For our family, Telling Room workshops have been nothing short of magical.  The city is the room, a laboratory, where our daughters learn about different cultures, architecture, and the bustle of the street. They now see everything in a different way and articulate this through empowered conversation, prose, and poetry. But perhaps even more important than seeing a new world, the Telling Room has given our daughters a more grounded sense of their place in the world. The Telling Room has helped our daughters express their own individuality while also deepening the bonds they share as twins. They have found communities of other bright, funny and articulate writers whose opinions matter and whose stories come alive.

    Life is about change and the Telling Room is nothing but transformative, providing Pie and Lulu with new tools to navigate the world.

  • Emilia Dahlin, Donor and Teaching Artist
  • Nadia Umwali, Student
  • Meeghan McLain and Joel Antolini, Donors

    We support the Telling Room because we believe in the transformative power of the written and spoken word. As technology nudges children to communicate in faster, more fleeting ways, the opportunity to cultivate meaningful narratives provides them a powerful lens through which they can broaden their view of themselves and the world. While our adolescents increasingly communicate electronically, we believe that truly compelling stories are rarely told via text or twitter so providing them alternative ways to express their truth is essential. The Telling Room offers students a new set of tools which allow them to discover the stories deep within themselves and to experience the wonder in watching them unfold. For this and so much more, we are deeply grateful for what they contribute to our extended community.

    Meeghan McLain and Joel Antolini

Your donation impacts our students and community

Other Campaigns

  • Sudanese School Lunch Program

    Aruna Kenyi, was one of The Telling Room's first students. His story about life as a Lost Boy in Sudan was featured in our first anthology, I Remember Warm Rain. After publishing that story, Kenyi had a chance to meet Dave Eggers and fellow Lost Boy Valentino Achak Deng, about whom Eggers wrote in his critically acclaimed novel, What is the What.  Inspired by Deng and Eggers' project, Kenyi went on to write his own memoir with the help of a Telling Room mentor. He is now a Community Health major at the University of Maine Farmington and is raising money to return to his home in Sudan to start a school lunch program in a rural primary school. To donate, click the link and write "Kenyi" in the Designation Box.

    Donate Now via Network for Good!
  • Telling Room Annual Fund

    The Telling Room's Annual Fund is the lifeblood of our organization. All of our core programs for the community are 100% free to students and their families. By contributing to our annual fund, you make it possible for students from all over Southern Maine to benefit from our services and realize their potential. You can contribute to our annual fund by joining one of the Giving Circles or by making a one-time donation.