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Check out the latest jobs and opportunities in sustainable and ecological agriculture.
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March 5, 2015
The Sustainable Ag Jobs List is a service provided by the Ecological Farming Association.  
We do not endorse a particular organization or company.

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To send us a job posting, please email jobslist@eco-farm.org with the job title, description, and details in the body of the email. Please include links whenever possible. You will receive an automated response. Jobs are posted in the order they are received.

 

Opportunities in this email:


Development Coordinator
Homeless Garden Project

Executive Director
Pennypack Farm

Senior Facilitator
Ag Innovations Network
 

 

Development Coordinator
Homeless Garden Project
Santa Cruz, California

 
Homeless Garden Project has an opening for  an experienced and dedicated Development Coordinator. We value relationship-based fundraising, and seek an individual with professional standards and excellent communication skills. The ideal candidate is enthusiastic, outgoing and resourceful; an organized person skilled in communication, marketing, coordination, outreach, and building partnerships.  

Hours: 30 hours/week, occasional weekends, holidays and evenings 
Salary: $25/hour 
Benefits: Health reimbursement, 16 days vacation, 6 days sick leave, 9 days paid holiday (pro-rated) 
Reports to: Executive Director 
Job Category: Fundraising 
Area of Focus: Fundraising/Fund development, Special events, Job training/transitional employment, Farming, Homelessness, Social Enterprise 

Applications: Mail resume, cover letter and contact information for three references to Darrie Ganzhorn, Executive Director, P.O. Box 617, Santa Cruz, CA 95061 or email to darrieg@homelessgardenproject.org. Resumes will be accepted until position is filled; initial reviews begin March 13.

The Homeless Garden Project (HGP) is a nonprofit organization based in Santa Cruz, CA that provides job training, transitional employment and support services to people who are homeless. As an important complement to these programs, HGP operates a vibrant community volunteer and education program. The training, employment, education and volunteer programs take place in an organic farm and related enterprises.

Our grassroots program is funded through a mix of donations from individuals, grants, events and earned income; we receive less than 2% of our income from government sources. In 2014, about 57% of our income came from donations, grants and events.

HGP seeks an experienced and dedicated individual to coordinate our Fund Development and Fundraising program. We seek an enthusiastic, outgoing, resourceful and organized person skilled in communication, marketing, coordination, outreach, and building partnerships. The ideal candidate will also have an interest in agriculture and social enterprises and a sincere commitment to ending homelessness. The Development Coordinator will continue and build on HGP’s partnerships with donors of all kinds who are committed to HGP’s mission: In the soil of our urban farm and garden, people find the tools they need to build a home in the world.

Job Summary

The Development Coordinator will report to the Executive Director. In this role, the Development Coordinator will create and implement the annual fundraising plan in coordination with the Executive Director and Development Committee. We value relationship-based fundraising, and seek an individual with professional standards and excellent communication skills.

Responsibilities
  1. Lead in the development and implementation of the Development Plan that meets or exceeds HGP development budget goals by incorporating a range of strategies including annual appeals, major donors, grants, corporate and individual appeals, and special events.
  2. Support and guide the Development Committee, including creation of agendas, materials, and notes, reserving room, providing lunch.
  3. On a monthly basis, analyze and report to the Executive Director on progress on meeting fundraising goals as identified in the Development Plan.
  4. Attend HGP board meetings as needed.
  5. Implement a donor cultivation program that engages Board members, Development Committee members, and volunteers in donor-focused activities such as hand written notes to donors, thank you phone calls, and event roles.
  6. Craft thank you letters and appeals.
  7. Other duties upon request.

Job Requirements
  • Bachelor’s Degree A minimum of three years experience in fundraising and demonstrated effectiveness as an impactful development professional
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  • Grant writing experience preferred
  • Knowledge of social media tools: Facebook, Twitter, website management
  • Ability to handle some flexible hours (weekdays, some evenings, and an occasional Saturday and Sunday to help with events)
  • Experience with organizing special events
  • An understanding of and belief in, the mission of HGP

Skills and Qualifications
  • Organizational, project planning and leadership skills.
  • Exceptional interpersonal skills: ability to interact effectively with community leaders, board members, corporate managers, prospects, donors, and a variety of volunteers.
  • Must be able to coordinate multiple tasks and be open to new learning experiences.
  • Ability to work independently with minimal supervision and as part of a team.
  • Creativity, drive, enthusiasm and initiative to carry projects to conclusion.
  • Knowledge of event management, processes, and available resources including social marketing and web-based strategies.
  • Strong knowledge Microsoft Office applications.
  • Ability to learn Fundraiser database management software required.
  • Design skills preferred
 

 

Executive Director
Pennypack Farm
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania


Pennypack Farm and Education Center (PFEC) is a 12-year-old nonprofit organic CSA farm with a diversity of educational programs, located in Montgomery County, PA. Now in our 3rd year of operating two farms, we seek to improve the sustainability of our operations by hiring an Executive Director to oversee many facets of farm and nonprofit administration. More information about our mission and core values can be found on our website, www.pennypackfarm.org

 
Functions: 

  • To give direction and leadership toward the achievement and implementation of PFEC’s philosophy, mission, strategic goals, and annual objectives 
  • Work with the Board of Directors to fulfill its governance function 

Reports to: Board of Directors 


Major Responsibilities: 

  • Managerial Administration:
    • Fulfills the administrative and managerial tasks of PFEC as a non-profit enterprise, including managing day-to-day bill-paying, payroll, human resource paperwork, lease management, insurance, accounting, etc. 
  • Marketing and Communications:
    • Develops, implements, expands, and promotes PFEC’s marketing efforts, and expands our community by reaching new members.
    • Manages member databases, receives and answers email from members, and ensures regular communication between PFEC and members, including utilization of social media. 
  • Fundraising:
    • Oversees fundraising planning and implementation, including identifying resource requirements, researching funding sources, establishing strategies to approach funders, cultivating relationships with donors, writing grant proposals, and administering fundraising records and documentation. 
  • Board Administration and Support:
    • Ex-officio member of the Board, participating in development and successful achievement of strategic and annual goals to ensure the sustainability, success and growth of the organization.
    • Acts as liaison between the Board and other PFEC staff. 
  • Staff Supervision:
    • Directly supervises Farm Managers, Education Director, and office support staff (including volunteers).
    • Assists with hiring (firing) of all staff, with board participation as needed. 
  • Program, Product and Service Delivery:
    • Oversees design, marketing, promotion, delivery and quality of established CSA program, education programs and food donation programs, working collaboratively with other staff.
  • Community and Public Relations:
    • Assures PFEC and its mission, programs and services are consistently presented in a strong, positive image to the community, CSA members, prospective members, neighbors, landlords, granting agencies, food donation programs, and the broader sustainable farming community. 
    • Functions as an advocate for the farm and serves as primary spokesperson. 
  • Financial Oversight:
    • Annually develops and meets the expectations of a realistic operating budget in coordination with the Farm Managers, Education Director, and Board. 


Qualifications: 

  • Solid knowledge of food issues, and passion for the mission of sustainable agriculture. Experience in farming a plus. 
  • Significant experience with non-profit supervision, office management, database management, cash-flow issues, and personnel management. 
  • Articulate and well-spoken, strong verbal communication skills--a likable, personable, “people person” who is comfortable working collaboratively with internal staff and externally with a diversity of stakeholders, including participating in informal networking to making more formal presentations. 
  • Demonstrated clear and lucid writing abilities, with experience writing for various relevant media (newsletters, grant proposals, the press, etc.). 
  • Strong background in marketing, including social media. 
  • Successful experience with fundraising in a non-profit setting, preferably with local
  • connections. 
  • Computer literacy required, and willingness to become comfortable with the various software programs we currently use. 
  • College or advanced degree preferred. 

Salary commensurate with experience, and reflective of a $500K/yr non-profit organization. Hours will mostly be flexible, averaging 20-25 hours per week, but with occasional evening and weekend expectations. 

 

A full application will consist of: 

  1. Current resume. 
  2. A letter summarizing the applicant’s interest in the position, the unique
  3. qualifications s/he brings, and salary expectations. 
  4. Contact information for a minimum of three references, preferably including previous non-profit organizational experience. 

 

Applications will be accepted until April 15, 2015. Complete applications should be emailed to: ExecutiveSearch@PennypackFarm.orgQuestions about PFEC or the position may be addressed to the same email address. We anticipate interviews will be conducted in April and May, 2015, with a job start date in June/July, 2015. 


PFEC provides equal opportunity employment and promotion to all qualified employees and applicants. No person shall be discriminated against in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, age, national origin, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status or any other status or condition protected by applicable federal or state statutes.  

 

 

Senior Facilitator
Ag Innovations Network
Sebastopol, California


Ag Innovations Network (AIN) is now hiring a full-time Senior Facilitator. 

AIN is a unique nonprofit organization that designs and facilitates collaborations aimed at addressing the biggest challenges facing California’s food and farming systems. We are also frequently engaged as consulting facilitators for clients in government, academia, public health, food supply chains, and regional food systems around both their internal process facilitation needs as well as to manage public engagement. This position is a chance to practice facilitation at its highest level: making easier the difficult job of creating a sustainable future.


Position Description

The Senior Facilitator serves as lead facilitator and process designer for a variety of both our ongoing change collaborations and shorter-term public engagement projects. You will collaborate with program staff and project managers to design processes and meetings that meet the needs of the projects and coalition members, facilitate meetings, and work with program staff to advise and support the efforts of the members of these collaborations to achieve their objectives. 

 

Specific duties of the Senior Facilitator include:

  • Consulting and collaborating with the program staff and leadership bodies of our collaborations to identify needs and issues, develop process approaches to address these, and design meeting agendas to implement these approaches.
  • Facilitating virtual, telephonic and face-to-face meetings of the collaborations.
  • Advise the program staff and members of the collaborations on strategic considerations and approaches, and inform them of best practices and successful models of engagement and project design.
  • Designing, facilitating, and supporting other contract projects, as assigned.
  • Participating as an active member of our facilitation team to mutually advance and support the individual and collective learning of the team and its members, and enhance and improve the AIN practice approach and methodology.
  • Participating in the documentation of and writing about the AIN process approach and methodology, and in the marketing of it to prospective clients and new markets.
  • Participating as necessary in AIN strategic and team-building activities, as well as in development of new projects.
  • Continually seeking to develop and learn professionally and improve your individual process design and facilitation practice and skills.


Qualifications/Requirements

We recognize that professional facilitation is a nascent field and there are multiple ways to have gained genuine competence. These are our desired qualifications; we look forward to learning how you might have creatively attained comparable skills:
  • Significant experience as the lead facilitator for complex groups, projects, or initiatives.
  • Previous leadership or participation in multi-stakeholder initiatives, collaborations, social innovation labs, Theory U projects, or other designed process approaches to generating change.
  • Training, certification, or equivalent experience demonstrating mastery of a theory-based approach to facilitating change.
  • A demonstrated ability in working with diverse stakeholders, including government and industry representatives and public interest advocates. 
  • Experience with a variety of technologies for supporting collaborations ranging from conference calls to Google hangouts to Webex and/or one of the dozens of other tools for group collaboration.
  • Proven writing, presentation, public speaking, and interpersonal communication skills.
  • Meticulous organizational skills and ability to keep track of multiple project efforts.
  • Ability to work as part of a team to solve problems, coordinate projects and to develop short and long-term business plans.
  • A graduate degree, or its equivalent in experience, in a field that prepared you to become an effective facilitator. This may include psychology, community development, sociology, organization development, or leadership.
  • The personal flexibility and adaptability to be successful in an entrepreneurial nonprofit organization.


Candidates with these additional skills are particularly encouraged:

  • Significant experience and/or knowledge of California food and agriculture systems. Qualifying experience may include work in not-for-profit organizations, government agencies, academic institutions, or the private sector.
  • Specialized training in group dynamics, group development, and advanced methodologies such as Theory U.
  • Strong sensitivity for multicultural issues and concerns as well as the dynamics of power within socio-economic systems.
  • Bilingual Spanish-English with the ability to facilitate in both languages.


Compensation and Benefits

Ag Innovations Network strives to offer competitive salaries and benefits and a hospitable and collaborative work environment. This position is a full-time, exempt, salaried position. Compensation is competitive and dependent on experience with an expected salary range of $70,000 to 90,000 per year. While the starting salary is negotiable, new hires should not expect an offer at above the mid-point in the salary range. Paid vacation leave, employer-paid health benefits, and an employer-matching retirement plan are included as benefits.


Equal Opportunity

AIN is an equal opportunity employer. Our policy is to afford equal employment opportunities to qualified individuals without regard to any personal trait or characteristic that is not related to one’s ability to perform one’s job, including but not limited to those that are protected by law (i.e., race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, family status, veteran status, physical or mental disability, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic data, and age).

 

About Ag Innovations Network

Ag Innovations Network (http://aginnovations.org) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Sebastopol, California founded in 1999. We are dedicated to building a sustainable food system that serves farms and farmers, families and communities, and regenerates the environment upon which all life depends.

Our approach is unique. We create powerful coalitions of leaders and then lead them through the best processes we know to unlock creativity and generative thinking. Our combination of process skills and understanding of food system issues has proven to be both valued by stakeholders and effective in creating change.
We lead coalitions working both at the intersection of agriculture and the environment (the California Roundtable on Agriculture and the Environment, and the California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply), and on human systems (such as the Regulations Affecting Agriculture project and the California Ag Workforce Housing & Transportation project). We also consult and work in local communities on regional food system issues, train transformative leaders in collaborative change-making, consult as facilitators to a variety of public- and private-sector food-related clients, and act as a fiscal sponsor agency to a number of other related initiatives across the country, including the Sustainable Food Lab and the Academy for Systemic Change.

 

Position Location

This position is based in Ag Innovations Network’s Sebastopol, California office. The work environment is challenging, learning, collaborative, fun, and intentional. The office is located in downtown Sebastopol on the edge of a burgeoning food, art, and wine district known as the Barlow. Sebastopol is located in western Sonoma County, about an hour’s drive north of San Francisco. The coastal climate and landscapes make for great farming and some of the most stunning scenery and best outdoor recreation (hiking, cycling, surfing) opportunities in the world. While the region is most widely known for its world-class wines, western Sonoma County also has a long history as a hot spot in the sustainable living, green energy, intentional communities, and organic agriculture/local food movements. All in all, the combination of a unique job in an evolving organization and fabulous location make this an ideal opportunity for professional growth, personal satisfaction, and overall enjoyment. We welcome and strongly encourage you to apply and come be a part of our team and life at Ag Innovations Network!

 

To Apply

Send your cover letter explaining how and why you can effectively facilitate social innovation labs and multi-stakeholder initiatives to create a better food system for all and your résumé showing your training and experience in multi-stakeholder facilitation to jobs@aginnovations.org. This position is open until filled.
 

The Sustainable Ag Jobs List was first created by EcoFarm Board Member Thomas Wittman.  Thomas also created the GE News service in 1991 to provide the latest news about genetically engineered foods and the movement advocating for labeling and public awareness.  To sign up for EcoFarm's other email lists, click here.
 
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