Internships
Administrative Volunteer or Intern
NICWA is looking for an administrative volunteer or intern who has good Microsoft Office skills, especially MS Word and Excel, plus some office experience.
This person will assist project support staff in producing or finalizing documents, researching and making travel arrangements, assisting with workshops and other events, and any other overflow from the support workload. Experience with American Indian culture or in Indian Country would be helpful.
Donor Relations Intern
The Donor Relations Interns will help assess, develop, and implement three new development activities aimed at increasing individual donor revenue to increase NICWA’s capacity to deliver core services to American Indian children and families. The Donor Relations Coordinator will work with development staff to create innovative ways of communicating with donors, develop and implement policies and procedures that protect the integrity of donor information, and utilize a creative process for developing unique and innovative marketing materials for new and potential donors. The Donor Relations Coordinator will also work with NICWA’s Development Manager and Executive Department staff to contribute ideas and efforts to the organization’s annual fundraising strategy, research and process for identifying funding sources, as well as write grants/funding applications.
The Development and Special Initiatives Intern will help sustaining NICWA’s major donor efforts. The Intern will work with development staff to increase and diversify the financial base for NICWA’s core programs. This includes working with private foundations, Indian tribes, and private donors.
Primary Responsibilities
- Assist development manager in developing and implementing major donor cultivation and solicitation action plan, including methods of identifying new donors and implementing solicitation strategies for current and prospective donors.
- Assist with cultivation activities, including house parties, with prospective donors and current major donors.
- Implement major donor solicitation and acknowledgment strategies in coordination with the development manager, the executive director, and members of the boards of directors.
- Assist in the implementation of strategies to upgrade and convert mail responsive donors to the major gift program.
- Work to ensure that information on major donors is comprehensive and up to date in Raiser’s Edge.
- Participate in the strategic planning for fundraising programs.
- Research information on giving guidelines for tribes and private foundations.
- Write donation and grant proposals and letters of inquiry to tribes and private foundations.
- Update giving guidelines for funders in Raiser’s Edge
Membership Relations Intern
The member relations intern, assisting the member relations manager, has the opportunity to work with tribal and urban Indian leaders and Native communities across the country. Part of the member relations manager’s job is to oversee NICWA’s membership services program and act as the contact person for members. The member relations intern will assist primarily with member recruitment and acquisition and support membership services activities as assigned.
Internship duties include:
- Tracking member records, sending letters, processing new and renewing members, communicating with and assisting members
- Researching and communicating with potential members, including organizing membership recruitment “asks” and exhibitions
- Compiling a directory of up-to-date contact information for tribal social services and Indian child welfare workers, including researching tribal agencies, initiating contact, and organizing data records
- Coordinating with Executive Department staff to develop membership services and expand outreach
Qualified volunteers or interns would have the following skills and traits:
- Above-average writing skills and knowledge of English grammar
- Typing and general computer skills (Word, Excel, etc.)
- Be highly organized, detail-oriented, and have the ability to juggle several ongoing projects at a time
- Excellent people skills and sensitivity to cultural differences
Library Sciences Internship
NICWA has gathered an extensive library, containing historical and up-to-date materials pertaining to all aspects of Indian child welfare. Part of the library has been digitized for online searches, and the remainder is only in printed form.
The library internship would focus on digitizing the most requested materials for maximum public exposure, ensuring that library documents are catalogued correctly and that the library and website contain the most relevant and applicable information available. Duties would also include responding to requests for information from workers in the Indian child welfare field and making sure that the proper copyright permissions have been obtained for presentation on the website and dissemination to the public.
The National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) works to address issues of child abuse and neglect through training, research, public policy, and grassroots community development. NICWA also works to support compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA), which seeks to keep American Indian children with American Indian families. NICWA improves the lives of American Indian children and families by helping tribes and other service providers implement services that are culturally competent, community-based, and focused on the strengths and assets of families. This work includes collaborating with tribal and urban Indian child welfare programs to increase their service capacity, enhancing tribal-state relationships, and providing training, technical assistance, information services, and alliance building.
Media/Communications Internship
NICWA has regular queries from non-Indian and Indian-owned mass media. A single nationally-syndicated story carries the potential for getting our message to a broad national audience, improving our advocacy relationships, and pushing American Indian/Alaska Native social issues forward. NICWA seeks to improve media understanding of our issues and our relationships with all media.
We would like an intern work within our offices to connect with established child welfare reporters who are writing for mainstream newspapers across the United States and orient them to NICWA. The intern would also help NICWA establish an accurate database of media contacts, across American Indian-focused publications, tribal publications, mass media, and child welfare publications by creating a descriptive profile of each one by basic research techniques and queries. It would require a self-starter, extensive online and phone queries, a pleasant phone presence, and ability to understand NICWA's media goals.
The National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) works to address issues of child abuse and neglect through training, research, public policy, and grassroots community development. NICWA also works to support compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA), which seeks to keep American Indian children with American Indian families. NICWA improves the lives of American Indian children and families by helping tribes and other service providers implement services that are culturally competent, community-based, and focused on the strengths and assets of families. This work includes collaborating with tribal and urban Indian child welfare programs to increase their service capacity, enhancing tribal-state relationships, and providing training, technical assistance, information services and alliance building.
Event Planning Internship
The event planning intern has the opportunity to work with tribal and urban Indian leaders and Native communities across the country. This intern acts as a direct assistant to the event manager, who produces NICWA’s training institutes, annual conference of 500-800 participants, as well as other meetings required by contract.
One part of the event manager’s job is to plan all logistical elements of the NICWA training institutes. These events consist of two to four workshops that take place over three days. Managerial responsibilities for these events include contracting with a facility, advertising of the event via direct mail and electronic formats, processing registration payments and receipts, preparation of the site, and providing on-site logistical support.
The second part of the event manager’s job is to oversee the planning and execution of NICWA’s large annual conference, which is a four-day event featuring daily keynotes, breakout sessions, and a silent auction/dinner banquet. The responsibilities in this area are similar to those of the training institutes but on a much larger scale. In addition, the annual conference requires working with all conference presenters and keynote speakers, assigning locations for vendors, the creation of the detailed agenda book, management of conference registration, providing staff with travel information, acting as on-site manager during the four-day meeting, as well as closing out the conference follow-up pieces after the conference.
Interns assigned to assist the event manager will have some or all of the following duties:
- Expand NICWA’s scope of advertisement through networking with other American Indian and/or non-profit organizations that can assist with advertising.
- Acting as an administrator for NICWA’s Facebook cause and creating e-mail communication using Constant Contact. Research other electronic means of communication and event advertisement.
- Overseeing the proofing and correction of all documents related to the various events.
- Communicating with hotels, vendors, and constituents on projects related to the execution of the event.
- Providing on-site support for the registration of NICWA’s local events.
- Database entry of NICWA registration information and processing of payment receipts.