Grant Writing Team Intern

Job Description: 

Spark Point Fundraising Interns help the company complete internal projects that support our strategic growth, operations, and grant writing. In addition, Interns have the opportunity to shadow staff in client meetings, attend events, and learn from people with decades of experience in the nonprofit sector. An interest in social justice, entrepreneurship, and non-profit management are helpful for successful candidates.

·       Nonprofit Sector – The person in this position must have an interest in the nonprofit sector and/or volunteer experience with a nonprofit organization.

·       Communication – The person in this position must be able to effectively (meaning without ambiguity or animosity) communicate with colleagues, clients, and others in a direct and respectful manner and must prioritize direct communication as the most effective means of conveying meaning. In other words, say what you mean and mean what you say.

·       Entrepreneurship – The person in this position must have an interest in or experience with entrepreneurship.

·       Ingenuity – The person in this position must have experience with creating, designing, or otherwise coming up with a new idea, creating a plan for executing on the idea, and completing the execution of said plan.

·       Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – While it is not required that the person in this position have formal experience with DEI, they must be familiar with the concepts, be committed to diversity and inclusion, and be committed to achieving equity both within the company and beyond.

 

1. Supporting the development of a grant writing apprenticeship. In the fundraising and consulting fields, structural racism creates steep barriers that prevent many BIPOC workers from gaining access to career opportunities and experiences, especially when compared to their White counterparts. As a result, the fundraising field is predominantly White. To address the challenges that arise from this and to help build diversity within the field, Spark Point Fundraising seeks to create a cohort-style apprenticeship program, built specifically for aspiring grant writers and fundraisers of color. As an intern at Spark Point Fundraising, you would help lay the groundwork for this program by researching similar program models, their strengths, and their challenges. Your findings would be compiled into a memo document and presented to the leadership team to spur future development.

2. Organize and update funder contact information and other internal knowledge. As an organization, Spark Point Fundraising often interacts with funders through multiple clients. As a result, we often gather contact information and updates about a foundation's strategic priorities that have not been made public. This information is part of our unique value to the organizations we serve, and as we grow, we need a way to document and share this information internally. An intern will support this project by reviewing current spreadsheets and other efforts to consolidate information, and will work to fill in existing gaps and create new resources, as necessary, to support the effectiveness of our client teams. 

3. Support team-wide professional development and learning. As Spark Point's team continues to grow, there is an increased need for the curation of professional development trainings and resources to support ongoing staff learning and growth. As an intern at Spark Point, you will interview team members to gain an in-depth understanding of their professional development and learning goals, and conduct research to identify available resources, webinars, trainings, etc. Your learning will be organized into a living document (e.g. Google Sheets or Google Docs) and presented to the leadership team. Once approved, this will be shared with staff who may use their professional development budgets to gain access to trainings and resources aligned with their needs. 

4. Develop funder profile templates to support prospect research and other work. Conducting prospect research and presenting it to clients is a key part of our work. While this work does require a good deal of time and strategic effort, up to this point, this work has been presented in a relatively ad hoc manner. Current formats include adding information to prospect research spreadsheets and adding notes to agenda documents. In an effort to help professionalize the presentation of this work -- and to help demonstrate the high-value work that it is -- you will create a "funder profile template." This template (1 page or 1 slide) will be a visually appealing way to present the topline details of our prospect research. Once completed, you will begin building a Funder Profile library, creating templates for the 10-20 most common prospects we present to clients. These templates will be stored in a central location easily accessible to the whole team. As-needed, the intern will also conduct additional prospect research to support the work of our team.

In addition, Spark Point Fundraising will support and facilitate whatever professional development and learning activities are required for Interns to receive academic credit for their work. In addition to financial compensation, Spark Point will offer the following additional benefits:

·       Professional development – Opportunities to attend events (fundraisers, lunch and learns, webinars, hearings, etc.) that are relevant to our clients’ missions and that offer an enlightening experience for interns.

Spark Point Fundraising LLC provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Spark Point Fundraising LLC complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in Washington, DC.