FILLED- Common Ground seeks Development Associate, Events and Communications

Organization Overview

Common Ground is a center for environmental learning and leadership in New Haven, Connecticut where a diverse community of children, young people, and adults cultivate habits of healthy living and sustainable environmental practice.  Farm meets forest meets city on Common Ground’s 20 acre campus at the base of West Rock Ridge.  The site abuts the 1500 acre West Rock State Park, sharing hiking trails, wildlife, and diverse natural habitats with the surrounding forests.  Common Ground delivers three tightly knit programs on site and in the community.

1. Common Ground’s college preparatory Charter High School uses the site and the City as an organizing principle of its curriculum which is guided by an ecological framework that recognizes the connection and interdependence of all living and non-living things.
2. The Environmental Education Center receives more than 12,000 community members/year who participate in festivals, field trips, after-school programs, and other educational opportunities on site.
3. Our Urban Farm is a key resource for both the high school and community programs, as well as for the greater New Haven community. It includes both production and educational gardens used to demonstrate and teach lessons in agriculture.

Common Ground has a commitment to examining the intersection of social, environmental, and food justice issues; how systems of oppression, including white privilege, impact the organization’s work; and how resistance to those systems can offer windows into a more sustainable society. For more information on Common Ground, see www.commongroundct.org.

Job Description

The Development Associate is an integral part of a small team that raised $1.5 million last year for a growing, and evolving, complex organization working at the intersection of social, environmental and educational leadership. Common Ground needs financial resources to drive its work towards a vision of a sustainable future, and the right candidate will have a passion for connecting people to the organization. Common Ground seeks an organized, computer savvy, detail oriented person to join the team with a focus on events and communications. Reporting directly to the Director of Development, the Development Associate’s work will include:

• Events strategy and management, including adult and student volunteer management
  • Common Ground’s signature fundraising event, Feast from the Fields.
  • Common Sense, an event designed to connect our supporters with everything we do.
  • Helping promote and fundraise for Rock to Rock.
  • Helping design other small events as needed.
• Communications and data management responsibilities
  • Overall WordPress website administration, maintenance and content for Common Ground’s web site, www.commongroundct.org.
  • Produce Common Ground’s monthly email newsletter: reporting stories, using Constant Contact to send to appropriate lists.
  • Craft strategy for and coordinate Common Ground’s presence on social media.
  • Primary development person responsible for GiftWorks database, auditing, reporting.
  • Creating and sending thoughtful thank you letters to Common Ground’s supporters within a few days of their gift.
  • Coordinating communications strategies for GreatGive and Giving Tuesday campaigns.
  • Assist Development Director with logistics of other direct response efforts, both snail mail and email, including newsletters and an annual Gratitude Report.

Qualifications

• 2-3 years experience in nonprofit development preferred; alternately, sales, event management, or marketing experience in the for-profit sector may be helpful.
• Meticulous attention to detail and customer service.
• Strong writer, and has experience managing the pressure of writing under deadlines, including media writing and editing.
• Computer and internet proficient, experience with website management, spreadsheets, customer relationship management databases (Common Ground uses GiftWorks), Constant Contact, and social media outlets. Experience with video a plus.
• Interest in working for an organization committed to working at the intersection of social and environmental justice through an educational mission.
• Experience with social justice work.
• Passion for bringing a diverse community of children, young people and adults together to support Common Ground’s mission.
• Enthusiasm for and commitment to the New Haven area.

To Apply:

Please email or send a resume and cover letter to Kimball Cartwright at kcartwright@commongroundct.org, or at Common Ground, 358 Springside Avenue, New Haven, CT  06515.  Attach files as Word or PDF documents and include “Development Associate” in the subject line of your email.  Applications will be reviewed as they arrive and the position will be filled as soon as possible.

It is the policy of the New Haven Ecology Project, Inc. and Common Ground High School that no person shall be excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or otherwise discriminated against under any program, including employment, because of race, color, religious creed, sex, age, national origin, ancestry, marital status, civil union status, sexual orientation, mental retardation, and past/present history of mental disorder, learning disability and physical disability.

It is the policy of the New Haven Ecology Project, Inc. and Common Ground High School to provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified individuals without regard to age, color, marital status, civil union status, national origin, disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or gender in all personnel actions, including recruitment, evaluation, selection, daily interactions, promotion, compensation, training and termination.

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), as amended, it is the policy of the New Haven Ecology Project, Inc. and Common Ground High School not to discriminate against protected qualified applicants and employees with disabilities in all aspect of employment.