Development Assistant

Beautiful Day is a gourmet granola and ethnic foods company with a mission to help refugees connect to their community through business, job training, and public education.

As a 12-year-old social venture, we have integrated adult and youth job training and, most recently, a women’s entrepreneurship program into the daily production and business activities of a gourmet granola and food company. We’re rooted locally in our state with our kitchen, fulfillment center, and offices located in Providence. We have an active, adventurous board of directors, and a diverse team of 8 full-time and 10 part-time staff, plus contractors and interns. We run an e-commerce store, ship products across the country, participate in area farmers’ markets and events, demo at and deliver to local grocery stores. Most of our production team are former trainees who graduated from our program. About 80% of our budget comes from foundations, grants, and private donations. For more information about our mission, vision, and products, visit our website at www.beautifuldayri.org.

Position Description:

The Associate Director currently manages a donor base of about 500 individual supporters and 40 grants. The Development Assistant will support her in fundraising and outreach activities to help reach our $1.4M fundraising goal.

At heart, this job involves researching and writing grants. A candidate who enjoys engaging with community groups to promote greater understanding of the crisis of human displacement would also have lots of opportunities to use those skills. We use Salesforce to manage our data and will train the right candidate. 

The successful candidate needs to be a team player, able to think outside the box, and willing to step in to help as needed. We work hard, but we also have fun and enjoy each other. We are supported by an active group of volunteers managed by our Volunteer Coordinator. We are also in the process of expanding our outreach to create a network of employers interested in supporting diversity in their workplaces so that refugee employees will thrive. These two components are an important part of our fundraising vision.

In addition to writing funding proposals, some of the duties of the Development Assistant will include seeking out and cultivating new donors, building and maintaining relationships with existing donors, researching foundations, and managing existing grants. Attention to detail is critical as all data must be entered and tracked in our data management system. 

This position would be a great fit for someone who wants to work in a diverse collaborative environment and has a vision for using their fundraising skills to improve the lives of refugees in our state.

Specific Responsibilities:

  • Assist the Associate Director with grant writing:  
  • Research grant opportunities
  • Write proposals
  • Manage existing grants
  • Write progress reports as required by the funder
  • Develop and maintain relationships with key contact people
  • Keep contact people updated on important events and happenings 
  • Assist the Associate Director with developing and maintaining partnerships with individual donors:
  • Identify and reach out to potential donors
  • Assist with Spring and Holiday fundraising campaigns
  • Assist with special events 
  • Maintain relationships with current donors through thank-you cards, phone calls, our newsletter and other publications
  • Database Management (Salesforce): 
  • Enter new donors into Salesforce (training provided)
  • Track donations
  • Produce reports as needed
  • Public Outreach
  • Connect with civic and faith-based organizations and school groups
  • Prepare presentations and speak to groups about Beautiful Day’s work with refugees 
  • Work with other staff members to organize tours, special events or other activities designed to educate the public about refugees

Skills and Experience:

  • Experience writing a successful grant.
  • Ability to connect with people through writing.
  • Ability to manage deadlines.
  • Comfort with the writing process (first drafts, revising, editing, etc.). Ability to accept constructive criticism.
  • Enthusiasm for engaging funders as real partners and listening to what they really want.
  • Research skills. 
  • Ability to find appropriate grants on our grant-search databases.
  • Ability to work independently.
  • Ability to plan and carry out projects from start to finish.
  • Comfortable speaking on the phone.
  • Teaching/public speaking experience is a plus.
  • A good team player. Good communication, collaboration, and networking skills.
  • Facility with technology. Familiarity with Salesforce a big plus, but we will train.
  • Good at building authentic cross-cultural relationships. Curious, resourceful, and not afraid to make mistakes.
  • A demonstrated commitment to social justice, refugee resettlement and/or community building.

Details and Negotiables:

  • Part time (10-25 hours) depending on your schedule, level of involvement, and final job description. We will consider outside contractors who want to work exclusively on grants.
  • We all prefer to work in person as we like being together and have good office space. But some of us work part-time from home. 
  • We offer part-time employees crisis sick pay, earned vacation, travel reimbursement, Simple IRA retirement contributions with 3% employer match.
  • Salary: $24/hour minimum, more depending on grant-writing experience. 

How to Apply:
Send a letter/email, resume, and writing sample to jobs@beautifuldayri.org with "Development Assistant" in the subject line. The letter you write is pretty important. We’d like to have a good sense of your personality, motivations and why you might thrive in a job like this. Tell us if you know someone who knows us. For the writing sample, we would prefer a copy of a past successful grant proposal that you have written. Please inquire if you have another type of relevant writing sample that you would prefer to submit.