Development & Communications Administrative Assistant bei Ceres Community Project

DEPARTMENT: Development & Communications

REPORTS TO: Development Operations & Project Manager

LOCATION: Primarily based out of Ceres’ HQ office in Santa Rosa with ability to perform some duties remotely

FLSA STATUS: Regular, Full-Time,
Non-Exempt

Position Summary

This position reports to the Development Operations & Project Manager and is responsible for providing general administrative support for the development and communication functions of the organization. The position requires someone with excellent organizational skills, attention to detail, and a proven ability to manage priorities and deadlines. A professional who loves being at the center of a dynamic and creative team will thrive in this position. This role requires frequent interfacing with donors and volunteers; the ideal candidate should have a warm personality, excellent customer service skills, and prompt and diplomatic responses to stakeholders. The Administrative Assistant ensures the efficient operation of the Development and Communications office and is an important representative of Ceres.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities

Gift and Order Processing/Acknowledgement

• Processes donations and prepare gift logs as well as electronic and mailed acknowledgement letters and other donor correspondence.
• Manages tracking, recording and acknowledgement of in-kind donations.
• Updates and corrects donor database records, maintaining integrity of Salesforce CRM.
• Sends year-end statements to recurring donors.
• Creates, reviews and updates accurate database reports including mailing lists.
• Answers donor inquiries or passes onto the appropriate party when necessary
• Manages online store in coordination with Ceres Operations Manager, including processing and tracking orders, coordinating shipping or pick-up, managing inventory, and handling customer inquiries and service. Completes annual physical inventory.

General Administrative Support

• Participates in department and team meetings, taking and disseminating meeting notes.
• Schedules meetings between the department and external parties.
• For new and departing staff and Board members, assists with onboarding and offboarding tasks such as (but not limited to) updating our website, ordering business cards, and making name badges.
• Maintains physical and digital archive of Ceres publications and outreach materials.
• Completes expense reports with accurate coding.
• Maintains communications supplies and re-orders as necessary.
• Schedules and supervises volunteer support for admin activities, plus aids in tracking departmental volunteer support.
• Acts as the office manager for the Dev/Comm team area; including keeping the communal space and supplies organized
• Monitors info@ and development@ email address.

Harvest of the Heart & Other Donor Events

• Supports the Development and Communication team with a range of activities including donor and sponsor ticket and table management, tracking and reporting, rental orders insurance and permit acquisition, and guest relations.

 Supports the Development and Communication team with other administrative tasks and projects as needed.

Qualifications

• A commitment to Ceres Community Project’s mission and operating principles.
• Advanced proficiency in MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams) and Zoom or other conference calling software.
• Ability to utilize and adapt to a range of technology.
• Experience preferred with Salesforce or other nonprofit donor database software, online fundraising platforms such as Classy, and event/auction platforms such as Auctria.
• Knowledge of operating standard office equipment such as phone systems and copiers.
• Excellent communication skills – written and verbal.
• Strong project management skills and the ability to manage many different tasks and to prioritize projects.
• Good attention to detail.
• Has a good awareness of self.
• Ability and desire to be in a work environment that values working as a team, relationships, and giving and receiving honest feedback.
• Ability to work some evenings and weekends.
• Ability and willingness to travel offsite for administrative tasks as needed.
• Previous experience a development and/or communications team preferred.
• Bilingual candidates are encouraged to apply.

Physical Demands / Work Environment

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a staff member to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand or sit at a workstation for an extended period of time; use hands and fingers to operate a computer keyboard and mouse; talk and hear to communicate with coworkers and clients over the phone.
• Light to moderate lifting of up to 30 pounds, bending, stooping and climbing a ladder is occasionally required.
• The work environment while in the office consists of moderate noise (i.e. nonprofit setting with office equipment, conversation from adjacent coworkers).

Operating Principles

• Heart Centered & Love Guided - We are committed to expressing love, trust, respect and integrity in our lives, work, and organization.
• Everything Matters - Nothing is left out. We work to have every action and choice lead to the greatest positive impact.
• Young People are the Future - Young People are intelligent, responsible, capable, creative, and caring, and must be central participants in shaping our collective future.
• Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive - We commit to championing policies and practices of social equity that build a diverse, inclusive, and healthy workplace and food system.

Ceres Organization

Founded in 2007, Ceres Community Project works to build healthy communities by restoring whole, organic and locally grown food to its place as the foundation of health, empowering youth, and connecting people in heart-centered ways to others and the earth.

Ceres Community Project's main program, Healing Meals for Healthy Communities, provides free and low-cost nourishing organic meals, nutrition education and caring support to people facing serious illness. All of the meals are prepared by teens that learn about growing, cooking and eating healthy whole foods and the connection between diet and health, develop life and work-ready skills, and discover their power to make a difference. The Healing Meals Program improves healthy eating behaviors among clients, teens and adult volunteers and educates the whole community about the link between healthy eating and the health of both people and planet. It also strengthens the social fabric of the community, another factor that is at the root of health. In times of disaster, Ceres is an emergency nutrition provider for our community.

In addition to operating three program sites in Marin and Sonoma counties, Ceres has trained 13 communities nationally to replicate our model. We are also active at the state and national level in advocating for policies that support equitable access to healthy food and health care, including reimbursement for medically tailored meals by insurers. For more information, please visit www.ceresproject.org.

Ceres Community Project is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All employment decisions at Ceres are made without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin/ancestry, age, disability, marital & veteran status or any other status protected by laws or regulations.