Careers

Join our team and be on the frontlines of Environmental Justice in DFW!

We encourage women, LGBTQIA+ candidates, and BIPOC individuals to apply. 

Part Time Development Coordinator

Overall Function

Reporting to the Director, Development Committee Chair and Board Chair, the Development Coordinator is responsible for administrative, data-related and communications tasks for giving campaigns, events, and individual donor appointments.

Location

This role can be performed in the DFW area on a flexible / hybrid arrangement, onsite 1 day a week at our Dallas office located at Good Coworking. 

Key Responsibilities

  • Organize once-a-month Happy Hours to build community amongst existing donor base and increase donor base through outreach
  • Building and maintaining list of donors, with an emphasis on local DFW area donors
  • Scheduling appointments with those Donors, ensuring to coordinate with the Board Chair to meet donor relations goals
  • Events organizing: Graduation /End of Year appeal/Giving Day strategy and other annual events as needed
  • Works with Development Committee/Chair/Attends Weekly meetings and monthly Board meetings
  • Schedule and coordinate program presentations for Development.
  • Participate in organization-wide initiatives, projects, meetings, retreats and other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will have:

  • Bachelor’s degree a plus
  • At least 3 years’ work experience within planned giving and/or fundraising
  • A minimum of 2 years’ experience as a program or project coordinator
  • Ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously along with a strong understanding of how and when to prioritize
  • Proven organizational skills
  • Sensitivity with respect to handling confidential documents and financial data
  • Proficiency with Microsoft Office; demonstrated expertise in Excel
  • Experience with fundraising databases and report-writing software strongly preferred
  • Demonstrates self-awareness, cultural competency and inclusivity, and ability to work with colleagues and stakeholders across diverse cultures and backgrounds

Hiring Range

This is a part time position with the expectation that the coordinator will work 15 hours per week. This initial contract is for 1 year but extensions will be granted as funding is secured and based on the performance of the coordinator. The compensation is $25,000. 

To apply, please send the following information to downwindersatrisk@gmail.com 

  • Resume
  • Writing sample
  • Interview
  • Letter of recommendation from former employer/supervisor

 

 

Title: Executive Director, Downwinders at Risk Education Fund 

Compensation: $45,000-$65,000 depending on experience and qualifications (Benefits Package: negotiable) 

Description:  The Executive Director is the spokesperson and public face of Downwinders. They manage all program activities and administrative duties. They work alongside an active volunteer Board of Directors and are responsible for overseeing all contracted assistance and additional hires. With the Board, the Director is responsible for creating and implementing the organization’s strategy for winning its community campaigns. Because of this, the Director must have the self-discipline to draft and carry out their work plans on schedule. Reliability is prized. 

The Director should be highly-motivated, results-driven, and imaginative. They should have an appetite for addressing injustices creatively and effectively through the application of grassroots community organizing principles. This is a great job with lots of latitude to get into good trouble on behalf of righteous causes. We don’t need a lawyer. We don’t need a scientist. We need a confident, articulate organizer who can parachute into a situation, think on their feet, visualize victory, and build a campaign to deliver it. If successful, you’ll be able to deliver real change most elected officials would envy.

Responsibilities Include but not limited to:

  • Short and long-form reporting and commentary on campaign events and developments
  • Design and content of outreach materials in all media
  • Participating/Partnering in original scientific research on environmental health and justice problems
  • Maintaining constant and reliable social media presence across all platforms 
  • Helping raise funds for the group via individual donors, events and grant writing 
  • Public speaking, advocacy, and lobbying 
  • Facilitating meetings, retreats, and campaigns
  • Drafting strategy and tactics for social justice campaigns 
  • Drafting policy recommendations, including new ordinances, codes, legislation, etc
  • Event planning 

Qualifications:

  • Minimum 2+ years fundamental community organizing experience (“Alinsky School” preferred)
  • Bachelor Degree in a “relevant field” (environmental science, public health, political science), or be prepared to tell us in what way the degree you did get assists you in doing this job
  • Experience with fundraising and grant writing 
  • Familiarity with Environmental Health issues in education or experience (preferred)
  • Bilingual English/Spanish (preferred)

Skills:

  • Experience navigating complicated interpersonal and political dynamics with multiple stakeholder groups (politicians, scientists, frontline residents, board members etc).
  • Community organizing and strategizing to win environmental justice campaigns with fenceline communities
  • Demonstrated project management skills over multiple projects with ranging timelines and demands
  • Strong writing skills for blog posts, grants, research reports and correspondence with elected and appointed officials
  • Public speaking at meetings, in outreach/engagement settings, at public hearings with local government and state/federal officials as needed
  • Working knowledge of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Canva, MSW, and/or equivalent platforms (preferred)
  • ArcGIS mapping (preferred)
  • Basic video editing 
  • Lifting loads of at least 25 pounds 

Applicants should have access to a vehicle and phone. Laptop provided. 

Applicants must submit 2 examples of writing and one piece of printed outreach material you designed or video you edited:

Short-form

Long-Form

Flier/brochure/post or video 

We encourage women, LGBTQIA+ candidates, and BIPOC individuals to apply. 

About Downwinders at Risk: 

Over almost 30 years Downwinders at Risk has acquired the reputation of being one of the most effective grassroots groups in the country. We pride ourselves on working with, and on behalf of, those most impacted by air pollution. We show a fierce, unwavering dedication to our constituency. We advocate with imagination and creativity. We use the best science. The Executive Director is expected to embody Downwinders’ culture of being the group that “undoes done deals,” “moves mountains” and “sends polluters packing.”

Founded in 1994 by Midlothian and Southern Dallas County residents living next to the largest concentration of cement manufacturing in the US, Downwinders at Risk led the national campaign to close EPA loopholes that allowed cement kilns to operate as cut-rate hazardous waste incinerators. In 2008, hazardous waste-burning in Texas cement kilns ended and in 2010 the last obsolete “wet kilns” were closed. Downwinders became Dallas-Fort Worth’s full time clean air watchdog. In 2010-11 we assisted Frisco residents in shutting down a 50-year old lead smelter that had been operating illegally and emitting dangerous levels of lead-tainted air pollution. In 2012-13 we led a successful campaign among Dallas residents to write and pass the most protective gas drilling ordinance in Texas, essentially banning it in the city. 

In 2017 Downwinders centered its work around the reduction and elimination of Particulate Matter air pollution. Because predominantly BIPOC neighborhoods suffer from disproportionate exposure to PM, our focus on eliminating that pollution means we’re working to actively dismantle the institutionalized racism responsible for so many disparate health outcomes in those neighborhoods. We’ve partnered with overburdened neighborhoods to defeat new batch plants, led the fight to close and clean-up the infamous “Shingle Mountain,” and worked to roll back racist zoning in Southern Dallas. We’re one of the few groups in the nation using land reform to clean the air. We’re the leading Environmental Health and Justice organization in North Texas, an area the size of several New England states. 

Downwinders at Risk Education Fund is a 501c3 group. Downwinders at Risk is our 501c4 organization.

Our mission statement: 

“Downwinders at Risk Education Fund is dedicated to taking effective action on behalf of those being harmed by air pollution. Our goal is to build a strong grassroots constituency and create new strategies for clean air in North Texas. We do this by informing, connecting, and mobilizing citizens to become active participants in the decision-making that affects the air we breathe. In doing so, we improve both the quality of our air and the quality of our democracy. 

We’re committed to working for environmental justice with communities impacted by the worst pollution; to deliver the best science to those communities; to make decisions about pollution and polluters more democratic; to provide solutions to the problems we spotlight, and to funding staff devoted to grassroots empowerment.”