Category Archives: funding-jobs-awards

Community Engagement Fellowship at Merrimack College

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We wanted to share an announcement we saw recently about a graduate fellowship program we think some of our NCDD members might be interested in. Merrimack College’s Masters of Education program is offering a year-long, full tuition fellowship that focuses on community engagement – perfect for folks seeking to gain more theoretical grounding as well as experience in engagement. You can learn more from the announcement below or visit the fellowship page here.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Merrimack

I am pleased to announce that applications have opened for our 2014-2015 M.Ed. Community Engagement Fellowship programs. This is a full-tuition, 36-credit graduate fellowship leading to a Master’s in Community Engagement in one year. This program focuses on diversity, social justice, community development, and organizational change. Students gain a broad understanding of civic engagement in the nonprofit sector and pursue careers as nonprofit leaders, social change activists, and leaders in the national service learning movement. I would be grateful if you could pass this information on to your colleagues and interested individuals who may be interested in learning more about this program.

Highlights of our fellowship program:

  • The year-long fellowships cover all tuition costs.
  • Students take courses in the summer and evenings throughout the semesters as they engage in a site-based residency, gaining unparalleled hands-on field experience.
  • Students have a site mentor and a college supervisor throughout the fellowship.
  • Fellowships are open to all academic majors and backgrounds; bachelor’s degree is required.
  • Students earn a Master’s degree in one year.

Learn more about the Community Engagement program at Merrimack College:

Learn more at www.merrimack.edu/academics/graduate/fellowship-programs/community-engagement.php.

Two Job Openings at the Orton Family Foundation

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Orton LogoOur partners at the Orton Family Foundation, an NCDD member organization, have recently announced two great job opportunities that we wanted to make sure all of our NCDD members hear about. Orton is looking for a new Senior Associate in Outreach & Strategic Partnerships and for a new Communications Associate, and we know that there are lots of NCDD members out there who would be great for the positions.

You can read about the current job openings, as well as future ones, on the Orton website at www.orton.org/who/jobs, or you can check out the descriptions below.

The Senior Associate position is described briefly below, and you can find the full job description by clicking here.

Senior Associate, Outreach & Strategic Partnerships: This full-time position reports to the Executive Director. Applicants must possess a strong commitment to the success and future of small towns and cities in rural areas and to the Orton Family Foundation’s philosophy and mission.  Travel will be required and needed for achievement of goals.

The ideal candidate must: have a minimum 5 years of demonstrated success at identifying and forming purposeful relationships with program/organizational/business strategic partners; be a tech-savvy and people-oriented professional who can set and achieve goals to grow program support among individual supporters and mutually aligned groups; be able to persuasively communicate the Foundation’s Mission and Purpose; be a self-starter who can develop direction and activities for success. Primarily an externally focused position, candidate must have strong commitment to accountability to and communication with fellow Foundation staff that develop and implement mission driven program and communication activities. Must have a deep commitment to and passion for the life, culture, heritage, and future of rural small towns and cities across the USA.

And next, the brief description of the Communications Associate position is below, with the full job description available here.

Communications Associate: This full-time position will report to the Communications Director and work closely with Foundation staff to shape and strengthen the Foundation’s voice and coordinate its message, with particular emphasis on responsibility for the Foundation’s website and the promotion and marketing of its offerings.

The ideal candidate will have: at least 4-5 years experience in media and digital marketing; a college degree; strong written and verbal skills; extensive website management experience; public relations, publicity, and marketing experience; fluency in social media, blogs, and other online promotional channels; creative thinking and a willingness to take risks; knowledge of multimedia production and online distribution; mastery of Microsoft tools; ability to manage people and projects; a spirited, directed work style.

We encourage NCDD members to consider applying for either of these great positions by sending your resume and cover letter to cbertrand@orton.org. Make sure to share the openings with your friends and colleagues, too.

The application deadline is Friday, December 20th, so don’t let the date sneak up on you. Good luck to all the applicants!

Announcing the new Penn State Democracy Medal

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Starting this year, Penn State University’s Democracy Institute will be awarding a Democracy Medal for exceptional innovations that advance the design and practice of democracy. The medal comes with a $5,000 award and tremendous publicity for the recipient, who will accept the medal and give a speech in the Fall of 2014. The medal celebrates the best work being done to advance democracy in the United States or around the globe. This year’s competition focuses on practical innovations, such as new institutions, laws, technologies, or movements that advance democracy.

The first medal will be given in 2014 for the best innovation in the practice of democracy. Nominations will be accepted through December 10, 2013, and the awardee will be announced in the spring of 2014. The winner will give a talk at Penn State in September, 2014, when they also receive their medal and $5,000 award. Between the spring announcement of the winner and the on-campus event in the fall, the Institute will provide the recipient with editorial assistance toward completing a short (20-25 page) essay describing the innovation for a general audience. The Institute will publish the essay electronically, possibly in collaboration with an independent press, and make it available to the general public at a very low price (e.g., $1-2), along with a similarly-affordable audio version. These print and audio distillations of the innovation are designed to aid its diffusion.

We encourage NCDD members to nominate themselves or others for this award!!!

It is important to act quickly, as the nomination period last just one month this year. Nomination letters must be emailed by December 10, 2013 to democracyinst@psu.edu. Initial nomination letters are simply that, a one-to-two page letter that describes how the nominee’s work meets the criteria for this award and what distinguishes it from other work on democracy. Both self-nominations and nominations of others are welcomed. The call for nominations is described in detail at http://cdd.la.psu.edu/research/penn-state-democracy-medal.

The Pennsylvania State University Democracy Institute promotes rigorous scholarship and practical innovations to advance the democratic process in the United States and abroad. The Institute pursues this mission, in part, through supporting the work of the Center for Democratic Deliberation (CDD) and the Center for American Political Responsiveness (CAPR).  The CDD studies and advances public deliberation, whereas CAPR attends to the relationship between the public’s priorities and the actions of elected bodies.

Job Announcement from the Jefferson Center

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NCDD is a network filled with impressive and capable people, and we are sometimes asked to share job announcements by organizations looking for just our kinds of folks. We have been impressed by the democracy work being done by the good people at the Jefferson Center for New Democratic Processes in Minnesota (an NCDD organizational member), so we are pleased to be able to share their newest job opening with you. We encourage anyone from NCDD to consider the position, and wish all applicants the best of luck! 

Jefferson Center – Program Associate

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The mission of the Jefferson Center for New Democratic Processes is to strengthen democracy by improving civic discourse and advancing informed, citizen-led solutions to public policy issues. The Jefferson Center envisions a democracy where citizens interact genuinely with public institutions and officials, and where public input becomes an essential component of decision-making dynamics through the implementation and support of deliberative processes and initiatives.

Job Title: Program Associate – Exempt Position

Location: Twin Cities – Full Time

Opening Date for Applications: November 6, 2013

Closing Date for Applications: November 28, 2013

Summary

The Program Associate position supports the Co-Director functions by assisting in policy research and outreach efforts, researching funding opportunities, drafting grant proposals, preparing printed and electronic materials for fundraising and programs, assisting with project implementation tasks, and completing other duties as assigned.

Responsibilities & Duties Breakdown

  1. Research and policy analysis (25%),
  2. Program Assistance (25%),
  3. Fund Development (20%)
  4. Communications (20%),
  5. Other (10%)

Qualifications

  1. Bachelor’s degree in political science or related field; Master’s degree in public policy desirable.
  2. Minimum 2-4 years work experience, preferably in nonprofits.
  3. Outstanding interpersonal skills, including the ability to successfully interact with a wide range of individuals.
  4. Excellent oral and written communication skills.
  5. Strong computer skills, including standard MS Office and Salesforce/cloud-based software formats, strong internet research and data management skills required. Previous experience with Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere, and Dreamweaver), WordPress, and basic HTML/CSS coding ability preferred, but not required.
  6. Strong organizational and presentation skills, including the ability to maintain and synthesize large volumes of information into comprehensible summaries and reports.
  7. Exceptional curiosity and intellectual capacity.
  8. Strong interest in governmental reform.
  9. Willingness to travel to various locations across Minnesota and other states.

Certificates, Licenses, Registrations

Valid driver’s license required for travel to community sites (some out of state).

Please send cover letter and resume to: annettescotti@hrtechies.com. Questions, please call: 612-414-4537 

New Round of Grants from the Taylor Willingham Legacy Fund

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We’d like to encourage all NCDD members to consider applying for a grant from — or donating to — the Taylor L. Willingham Legacy Fund. You can find out more about Taylor, her work in deliberation, and her legacy here. The original NIFI announcement can be found by clicking here.

NIF-logo

Applications are now being accepted for grants from the National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) to enable individuals to develop an understanding of deliberative democracy and to launch one or more deliberative forums in their communities or organizations. Grants are expected to be in the range of $500-$1,000.

Applications should consist of:

  1. A completed application form — click on the download link above for a copy;
  2. A resume describing your experience and education;
  3. A cover letter that explains why you are interested in becoming involved in the deliberative democracy movement and what specific course of action you propose to become familiar with this work and how and where you would implement forums; and
  4. A budget indicating how the grant would be spent.

Applications are welcomed from any U.S. resident, with special consideration given to residents of Texas. The application should be received on or by November 15, 2013.  Applications may be either faxed to Bill Muse at 937-428-5353,  e-mailed to bmuse@nifi.org, or mailed to:

National Issues Forums Institute
100 Commons Road
Dayton, Ohio 45459

Grants will be made by January 15, 2014 and will be for use during 2014. A report on activities will be required on or before November 30, 2014. You can find the application here.

Click here for more information about Taylor L. Willingham and her work.

Donations to the fund are welcome and can be made securely online. All donated money will go toward grant awards.

Funders to Launch National Conversation on A ‘Common Purpose’

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Here’s an important heads-up for NCDDers…

During a plenary session at the Independent Sector’s annual conference on September 30, 2013, Stephen Heintz, president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Diana Aviv, president and CEO of Independent Sector, unveiled planning for a “National Purpose Initiative,” an effort to reunite Americans around a common purpose. The project aims to engage hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of Americans in a dialogue that will culminate in a broadly shared agenda of national priorities by 2016. Other funders of the planning, proof of concept, and development phase of the initiative include the Open Society, Rockefeller, W.K. Kellogg, Carnegie, Hewlett, Packard, Mellon, and MacArthur foundations. (Read the full speech here.)

RBF-logoA contact emailed me to let me know that RBF is seeking a Program Associate to coordinate the new National Purpose Initiative, so in addition to an exciting development for our field, there’s a job opening that perhaps one of you would be perfect for!

The above text came from the RBF website. An October 1st article on The Nonprofit Times website added this and much more:

Heintz used the forum to unveil an attempt to reunite Americans on a common purpose. RBF and six other major foundations are funding a project called the National Purpose Initiative (NPI). It is a multi-year effort to combine citizens’ dialogues and other forms of public consultation “engaging hundreds of thousands if not millions of Americans, online and face-to-face, with a parallel but integrated effort to engage a wide range of issue experts, policy analysts, scholars, advocates, and leaders from the nonprofit sector as well as from business, the media, and the cultural and faith communities,” said Heintz.

Along with RBF, funders include the Rockefeller Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, the Carnegie Foundation, The Hewlett Foundation, the Packard Foundation and Mellon Foundation and MacArthur Foundation.

The hope is that by 2016 the initiative will be able to offer a broadly shared agenda of national priorities, a statement of shared principles to guide the nation’s politics and economic life, and an emerging vision for America’s future that is animating, unifying, and empowering.

CIVICUS looking for convening partners to conduct local dialogues

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My friend Ileana Marin at the Kettering Foundation brought my attention to this announcement the other day, thinking it would be of interest to some NCDD members…

CIVICUS is looking for Expressions of Interest by potential convening partners to conduct locally-initiated multi-stakeholder dialogues, following the methodological approach proposed by the project New Social Contract. The dialogues shall take place between November 2013 and May 2014.  Selected partners will receive a financial contribution of $4000.

We’re looking for NGOs, CBOs, CSOs, umbrella organisations and other relevant entities across the world to get involved in this project. Interested? Apply online before 15 October! Or consult the call here.

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is an international alliance of members and partners which constitutes an influential network of organisations at the local, national, regional and international levels, and spans the spectrum of civil society. CIVICUS includes the following in its definition of civil society: civil society networks and organisations; trade unions; faith-based networks; professional associations; NGO capacity development organisations; philanthropic foundations and other funding bodies.

Institute for Local Government seeks Public Engagement Program Manager

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The Institute for Local Government is recruiting for a public engagement program manager. The position, based in Sacramento, offers an exciting opportunity for an energetic individual who shares the Institute’s passion for good government at the local level and the role that public education and engagement can play in building greater public trust and confidence.

Salary depends on qualifications, but the salary range starts at $73,488 per year.

The position has primary responsibility for developing and recommending the overall strategy and workplan for the program, planning, budgeting, management, execution, evaluation and fundraising for Institute’s public engagement activities.

The position is part of the Institute’s overall management team and will share in communications with the Board of Directors and long-term planning for the organization.

The nature of the position demands a highly motivated individual who has not only public engagement and program management expertise, but excellent communications, interpersonal and teamwork skills.

A passion for ILG’s mission and a commitment to fulfill ILG’s obligation to local officials, funders and stakeholders is also essential.

See the full program announcement at https://www.cacities.org/UploadedFiles/LeagueInternet/ab/ab43dbdc-721c-4b72-b3a1-5dcda4a91d09.pdf.

All-America City Award to spotlight healthy communities

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Our friends at the National Civic League (an NCDD organizational member) recently announced the 2014 All-America City Awards.  This year’s awards will spotlight healthy communities. The year-round program will culminate in a multi-day peer learning forum and competition for civic activists and community problem-solvers to be held June, 2014 in Denver, Colorado.  I’d love to see some of you enter your cities and towns into this year’s competition!

On August 20th, the National Civic League (NCL) announced the 2014 All-America City Award will spotlight healthy communities. The year-round program will culminate in a multi-day peer learning forum and competition for civic activists and community problem-solvers to be held June, 2014 in Denver, Colorado.

“We’re very excited about the spotlight on healthy communities,” said NCL President Gloria Rubio-Cortes. “It will highlight the important issues of our time and how people come together to address health issues.”

Rubio-Cortes invited applications from communities that are playing a leadership role in making their communities healthier by addressing obesity, health equity, disease prevention and health promotion, health access, healthy eating, regional transportation and other challenges.

To obtain a 2014 All-America City Award application, send an email to AAC@ncl.org or call 303-571-4343. Applicants may be neighborhoods, towns, cities, counties, or regions. Twenty applicants will be named finalists and invited to present their challenges and best practices to a national jury in June 2014 in Denver. Each applicant is asked to describe three community projects to address local challenges with one focusing on healthy efforts.

“For more than 20 years NCL has been a leader in helping communities become healthier,” said Rubio-Cortes, who noted that the 25th anniversary of the “healthy communities” movement would be celebrated in an upcoming special edition of the National Civic Review, NCL’s quarterly journal.

Immediately recognizable for the stars and bars shield logo found on water towers and city limits signs across the country, the All-America City Award is given to ten winners each year for community-based problem solving, grassroots civic engagement and joint efforts on the part of the public, private and nonprofit sectors.

The honor has been achieved by more than 650 communities across the country. Some have won the award multiple times. Learn more about the award program and follow events leading up to the June 2014 Denver event on our All-America City blog and the All-America City Awards Facebook page.

NCL is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that strengthens democracy by increasing the capacity of our nation’s people to fully participate in and build healthy and prosperous communities across America. Find out more about the National Civic League at www.ncl.org.

Job, Internships, Facilitator Opportunities with Participatory Budgeting

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This post was submitted by Josh Lerner of the Participatory Budgeting Project via the Add-to-Blog form.

There are several new job, internship, and volunteer opportunities with the participatory budgeting programs in New York City and Chicago. Participatory Budgeting is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. In New York, over 15,000 residents will decide how to spend around $12 million over the next year. In Chicago, over 3,000 residents will decide how to spend $5 million.

New opportunities to get involved include:

1) New York Community Engagement Lead Position

Community Voices Heard has just posted a 7-8 month community engagement job position to help support community engagement efforts for PBNYC, particularly with traditionally disenfranchised populations. Read more here.

Deadline: September 13, 2013, but CVH is looking to fill the position asap.

2) Volunteer Opportunity: Facilitation & Outreach Teams in NYC and Chicago

Do you have a couple of hours a month to give to your community? The Participatory Budgeting Project, the Great Cities Institute, and Community Voices Heard are looking for volunteers with Outreach and/or Facilitation skills to support Participatory Budgeting in New York City and Chicago. This is an excellent opportunity for individuals interested in honing their facilitation and outreach skills, learning more about city government, gaining experience engaging diverse community members, and contributing to real grassroots democracy.  Read more here.

Deadline: September 6, 2013