Community Engagement Coordinator/bos - Newton, United States - Cradles To Crayons Inc

Description

ABOUT CRADLES TO CRAYONS:

Cradles to Crayons (C2C), founded in 2002, provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive at home, at school, and at play.

We supply clothing, shoes, diapers, school supplies, and more, free of charge. Our vision is that one day all children will have the essentials they need to thrive.

Two in 5 kids in the United States are currently facing Clothing Insecurity, going without basic essentials like pants, shoes, diapers, and school supplies during their critical development years.

Three of the top 10 reasons kids miss school are rooted in Clothing Insecurity—just one example of the significant short
- and long-term social and economic costs when these needs go unmet. Cradles to Crayons keeps Clothing Insecurity at the core of our mission and is the only large-scale nonprofit organization to focus on this resource gap. Since its founding, Cradles to Crayons has distributed more than three million customized packages of essentials to children in Massachusetts, Greater Philadelphia, Chicagoland, and nationally, through Giving Factory Direct—a first-in-kind online product donation platform launched in 2021.

Cradles to Crayons takes a three-pronged approach to mitigating Clothing Insecurity:

• 
  In-person Engagement—through tens of thousands of children and adults volunteering at our Giving Factory warehouses to sort and package high volumes of new and like-new donations from our communities for our Service Partners to distribute to the children they serve.

-
Online Product Donations—Giving Factory Direct matches product donors directly to children who need the items they have to donate. GFD is currently available in a growing number of communities as we expand our reach nationally.
-
Advocacy and Awareness—Cradles to Crayons is uniquely positioned to raise Clothing Insecurity as a national issue through awareness campaigns, data/evaluation, and legislative outreach.

Cradles to Crayons has earned the highest possible rating from Charity Navigator for 13 consecutive years. Only 2% of charities nationwide have received this distinction. C2C has a budget of $12.9M for FY22.


POSITION OVERVIEW:

This position is an opportunity to become an expert on motivating and empowering community members to act to directly impact the lives of thousands of children served by Cradles to Crayons each year.

The Community Engagement Coordinator is responsible for organizing and supporting volunteer engagement and product collection opportunities in the community.

They will use community donation drop off locations as resources for acquiring recycled product and providing community-based engagement opportunities. The coordinator will provide meaning and direction to their "community networkers", as well as tools to lead efforts in their community (i.e. marketing and communication resources, successful collection models, and ways to build upon strengthens).

They will be working on multiple projects at the same time, so attention to detail and organizational skills are critical.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:


Community Organizing and Volunteer Management

• Expand Cradles to Crayons' presence and engagement level in targeted communities by establishing new partnerships, placing donation bins, executing annual events, growing volunteer networks, and supporting donation drives.
• Coordinate and execute Collect & Sorts (communitywide volunteer events) including logistics, invitation lists, program planning, site visits, and followup. Includes frequent weekend and evening events in the spring and fall.
• Organize and unite "Community Champions" under a common goal of achieving full Cradles to Crayons engagement in target communities.
• Support in the maintenance of positive donor relationships through positive interaction, timely followup and excellent customer service skills.
• Driving our Cradles to Crayons Van to support donation pickups or to transport supplies for volunteer events.

Communications & Event Promotion

• Create communication materials to support initiatives and programs in line with Cradles to Crayons branding standards in collaboration with the Marketing Team.
• Represent Cradles to Crayons in publicfacing meetings and presentations.

Data Management

• Record all community engagement events in Salesforce.
• Track personal donation acquisition and community networking goals.

Team and Organizational Support

• Serve as a member of the Community Engagement Team and support efforts to reach recycled donation acquisition goals.
• Update Manager of Community Engagement on progress of assigned projects. Identify challenges to help redirect strategic approach.
• Assist with general Cradles to Crayons operations and signature events as necessary.
• Model and lead a positive "One Cradles" culture, underpinned by Cradles' Cultural Values and related beha