We’ve accomplished so much together in 20 years.
You can help us continue for 20 more.
When you donate to The Telling Room, your gift will be matched up to $100,000 between now and 12/31/2024.
With this community support, our goal is to raise $200,000 by December 31st.
Every gift The Telling Room receives helps keep our writing and publishing programs free for young writers and their families. Together, we can ensure that youth continue to share their stories and make themselves heard.
Telling Room co-founders Sara Corbett, Susan Conley, and Michael Paterniti speak at Paint the Town Read: The Telling Room’s 20th Anniversary Bash in October 2024
““20 years ago the idea seemed as simple as it does today, which is that stories bind us and give us meaning, and that a little afterschool writing program can help us create a safe, nurturing space to help young people brimming with dreams and secrets and amazing stories to find their voices. All they need is someone to listen.””
Executive Director Kristina Powell speaks at at Paint the Town Read: The Telling Room’s 20th Anniversary Bash in October 2024
Dear Friends,
The Telling Room was founded in the grounding belief that stories bind us and give us meaning. Twenty years on, we continue to reach young writers, offering programs free to youth and their families throughout the State of Maine, still driven by the knowledge that youth voices matter, writing matters, and listening is paramount.
For 20 years we’ve seen time and again how the power of creative expression can change our communities and prepare our youth for success now and in the future. With The Telling Room, students improve their writing and literary arts skills in supportive, playful, empowering ways, while also building community among their peers and connecting to the wider world.
As we celebrate our anniversary year, I am also looking ahead to our future and to the youth we’ve been working with this fall (whose books will be launched in the spring), the writers who just started their creative journeys last month, and the ones we have yet to meet.
I am asking you to join me in making a gift to The Telling Room today, supporting the next students who walk through our doors, the next generation of young writers, emerging authors, and leaders. Because even as the world around us continues to change, the need for this vital and affirming work remains.
The Telling Room remains a place where youth can find and build community, connect with their inner selves and with others, play, be joy-filled, process the world around them, and create new worlds of their own through writing and sharing. We need such places now, places that, in the words of our co-founder Susan Conley, gather us around a shared vision in the deep collective spirit of hope in humanity, rooted in the telling of stories to change lives.
Kristina M. J. Powell,
Executive Director, she/her/hers
Students take the mic at the Works-in-Progress afterschool reading in spring 2024
“Writing requires you to put yourself into someone else’s shoes. That inherently builds empathy.”
— Madeleine Turgelsky, author of At the Corner of Christopher Street
“It’s one thing to talk to computers, it’s another to talk to humans. Storytelling is a great way to do that.”
— Salim Salim, Telling Room alum and computer science graduate student at the Roux Institute
“Being able to connect with others and share my story allowed me to heal, grieve, and grow.”
— Leela Marie Hidier, Telling Room alum and author of Changes in the Weather
How to Give
All donations will help us advance our mission to empower youth through writing and share their voices with the world. Thank you for your support.
You can make a secure online donation here.
Contributions may be sent to:
The Telling Room
225 Commercial Street, Suite 201
Portland, ME 04101
For other ways to give, please contact our Development Director Sarah Schneider at sarah@tellingroom.org.
The Telling Room is a registered 501(c)(3) organization, so all donations are fully tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. Tax ID # / EIN: 74-3136956 We currently hold a Guidestar/Candid Platinum Seal of Transparency for nonprofit reporting in finances, structures, programs, capacity, and impact.
Become a Corporate Sponsor
Our new annual sponsorship structure gives local businesses and organizations the opportunity for increased visibility through our special events, audience channels, and publications throughout the year. All contributions go towards supporting our suite of innovative writing and publishing programs for youth.
Read Our Latest Impact Report
See what a difference your gift makes here.
Our vibrant and generous community powers The Telling Room and uplifts our youth. Every gift we receive makes an enormous difference. Your donation will:
Reach youth throughout the State with one-of-a-kind literary arts programs: Each year we work with young writers in over 100 communities
Ensure students have healthy snacks in our afterschool programs – and treats at their book launch celebrations: We’ve served over 35,000 youth in 20 years!
Amplify youth voices: Telling Room authors share their work at events hosted by libraries, bookstores, festivals, museums, and other venues across Maine as changemakers and artists vital to the literary conversation. We’ve published 5,100 authors in over 200 books!
Ignite the power of creative expression: Students say that they’re more confident and feel like their voice matters after working with The Telling Room
Reading Ahead:
Our 2023 - 2027 Strategic Plan
Learn more about what The Telling Room’s goals are for the next three years and how you can get involved here in our latest strategic plan.
Thank you to our generous supporters for helping make it all possible.
Community Support
The Telling Room belongs to a vibrant community of youth-serving organizations and arts nonprofits. We encourage wide support of Maine’s many nonprofits that uplift youth and the arts so our whole community can be stronger together.