West Coast Community Engagement Intern 2023

The West Coast Community Engagement Intern will help execute creative outreach activities and support the West Coast Community Engagement Manager on Bay Area partnerships. There is a lot of creative flexibility in this role and opportunity to initiate new projects, as suits your interest and capacity. This position will give you exposure to working with different types of organizations including city and state governments and agencies, and local community-based organizations. Currently, we partner with organizations like the City of San Jose, Latino Business Foundation, and Centro Community Partners. You will also improve on your public speaking and presentation skills as you will have the opportunity to represent the organization to our external stakeholders and participate in strategic meetings. The intern will report directly to the West Coast Community Engagement Manager but will work closely with other staff and teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Support in-person outreach efforts. The Community Engagement team conducts outreach at local events in the Bay Area. The intern will participate in these events as a representative of Start Small Think Big and engage with potential clients or partners. This can include distributing fliers, setting up a table, and encouraging sign-ups for our services and events. The intern will also support in identifying these events.
• Represent Start Small Think Big. The Community Engagement team is often the first point of contact for our partner organizations. You may be asked to speak about the organization at in-person or virtual information sessions, resource fairs, or meetings and provide thorough follow-up afterwards.
• Support on virtual events coordination. We host several workshops per month across all our programs. The intern will play a key role in promoting these workshops and supporting logistics where needed. 
• Maintain partnership database. You will help ensure that our Salesforce data is regularly updated to support our partnership development and impact reporting activities. 
• Research and prospect new partnership opportunities. You will help us identify new partners to connect with who meet our values and equity goals. 

Skills Knowledge and Expertise

• Spanish language fluency is required 
• Strong relationship building and communication skills, including the ability to work effectively across cultural differences and a demonstrated commitment to ongoing learning and reflection on one’s identity.
• Prior experience with Salesforce, Zoom, and Trello preferred (or comparable software). 
• Excellent attention to detail. Highly organized and analytical. 
• Ability to work independently and the willingness to innovate are strongly encouraged. 
• Commitment to inclusive community/economic development, social and economic justice work, and anti-poverty work. 
• Excellent and professional communication skills with multiple stakeholders.

A deep commitment to providing non-judgmental, culturally-appropriate programs and services across race, class, gender, gender identity and expression, national origin, ability, or any other identity marker with a strong sense of accountability to client experience 

This is a paid position for the Spring semester 15-25 hrs/week with possibility to extend for the Summer. Hours are flexible but some evening and weekend work should be expected. Work will be hybrid (in-person and remote). Course credit available where appropriate. 

Must be located in the Bay Area in California. 

About Start Small Think Big

Start Small Think Big is a non-profit on a mission to catalyze entrepreneurship in marginalized communities. We connect small business owners to our network of volunteer professionals who provide the best legal, finance, and marketing services money can buy — except it’s free. 

In 2021, Start Small supported over 4,000 businesses across our three tiers of programming. Over the next two years, we are working to build the infrastructure and programming to allow us to scale to serve tens of thousands of small businesses nationwide, with a critical focus on centering racial equity in both access to and impact of our services on the small business clients and communities we serve.  

As we continue to grow as an organization, we are engaged in an intentional process to identify, understand, and address bias at all levels and advance equity from the inside out.

Our Organizational Commitments

CONSCIOUS CURIOSITY: We remain open to learning and unlearning as language and the social and economic justice frameworks we are connected to our ever-evolving spaces.

EMPATHY: We communicate with our community and each other with respect, compassion, and acceptance.

CULTURAL HUMILITY: We are committed to examining our biases, prejudices, and viewpoints and strengthening our ability to understand and connect with diverse populations and cultures.

INCLUSIVITY: We appreciate our differences and embrace people of all backgrounds and identities. We oppose racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, or ableism of any form.

PEOPLE-FIRST: We put people first. People are at the core of our organization — above all, it is people who fuel our work — small business owners, staff, volunteers, and partners alike.

Our Partners

In order to connect small business owners with the strongest pro bono legal, financial, and marketing support to transform their growing businesses, build wealth for themselves and their families, and create jobs for others in their communities, Start Small Think Big has:

• Partnered with the majority of the top 100 U.S. law firms, including Cooley, Wilson Sonsini, Fenwick & West, Simpson Thacher, Weil Gotshal, Cleary Gottlieb, Debevoise & Plimpton.
• Partnered with some of the biggest and most well-respected financial and marketing corporations, including eBay, PayPal, American Express, Morgan Stanley, Google, Goldman Sachs, and Group Nine Media.
• Secured significant support for our work from some of the largest and most forward-thinking foundations in the space, including Kauffman, JPMorgan Chase, and Citi.