About us:

Farm Commons is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering agricultural communities to resolve their own legal vulnerabilities, within an ecosystem of support. We are proud of our sought-after expertise, excellent resources, authentic reputation, and strong success in reducing legal risk for sustainable farmers and ranchers nationwide. The Project Coordinator is a key member of our small and mighty team.

Please consider joining us in this powerful opportunity to make a tangible difference in the lives of farmers, ranchers, and producers nationwide. Working together, we can create useful educational opportunities that build a more sustainable and inclusive agricultural community. This is work is more important now than ever.

About you: 

You are an efficient and organized person with a process-driven mindset. You value following checklists and standard operating procedures, but can also help to create the checklist and fill in gaps in procedure as circumstances develop. You know that change is inevitable and can plan for it. You work as part of a team, and can accommodate different working styles and needs effectively. You see yourself as a support person. You take the initiative to be helpful and can identify ways to effectively support others without necessarily being told what to do. You conduct traffic from different directions without getting overwhelmed. A messy desk doesn’t scare you- it inspires you to generate clarity. You welcome the opportunity to create and bring others on board to improved systems. You are happy to be the first person in this role at Farm Commons and are eager to help build the position.

Does this sound like you? If so, please keep reading because we would love to consider you for our team.

About the role:

A successful Project Coordinator achieves the following:

1. Ensures members have a positive experience with onboarding and accessing or scheduling their member benefits.

2. Ensures barriers to effective utilization of our website materials are identified and resolved, timely.

3. Ensures folks who reach out to Farm Commons are greeted warmly, directed appropriately, and that their needs are addressed.

4. Ensures the material written by Farm Commons staff is effectively distributed to the public, free of typos and formatting issues, online and as a pdf, in English and in Spanish.

5. Ensures smooth recruitment, onboarding, meeting administration, and honorarium payment for various advisory teams of farmers and farm educators, in partnership with our educational staff.

6. Ensures the Executive Director has access to various standard reports on a regular basis.

7. Ensures the Executive Director has administrative support on selected communications and development tasks.

To achieve the above, the Project Coordinator does the following. 

1. Manage all front-line communications coming in from our general email address, phone number, and web forms. Respond to inquiries in a timely and appropriate matter, including forwarding and follow up with other staff members. Assist other staff in responding to requests for general information that come into their email or phone.
2. Monitor our website for new and renewing membership; welcome new members; conduct new member orientations.
3. Schedule member webinars to staff persons; provide members with effective outreach and info resources for the webinars.
4. Take resources written in MS Word or Google Docs and produce resources for distribution on our website. This includes a) arranging proofreading, b) arranging formatting, c) arranging translation into Spanish, d) entering text and visual resources into our WordPress based website using templates and adapting those templates as necessary to meet the material’s needs, and e) arranging for pdf development and posting pdf resources to the website.
5. Manage the process for putting resources on to our website including documenting processes and troubleshooting with design and development contractors.
6. Prepare videos of recorded webinars for distribution on our website and conduct follow up with webinar attendees.
7. Maintain up to date and accurate records on our educational resources, events, scholarships/coupons, SOPS, and memberships, including collecting information from staff, website, and other sources.
8. Assist education program staff in convening various advisory committees including but not limited to a) recruitment and outreach, b) conducting initial screening, c) onboarding with signed MOUs, d) scheduling meetings and coordinating agendas, e) assisting with follow up communications, f) making payment of honorariums.
9. Assist ED with carrying out communications (newsletter and social media) strategies as well as development work including conducting research and maintaining records of communications.
10. Other duties as assigned.

The following qualifications will position you for success as our Project Coordinator:

• Proven skill in working as part of a dynamic team with variable and sometimes-shifting duties that evolve as the work develops.
• Excellent organizational skills including ability to assemble and maintain record-keeping systems and standard operating procedures.
• Experience planning events and/or otherwise establishing timelines, task lists, delegation and accountability as part of a very small team which includes playing a role in assisting others in recognizing and adhering to timelines and task lists
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in a wide variety of contexts from phone, to email, to in-person and online communications. Emphasis on creating welcoming, clear, and comfortable spaces for a wide variety of audiences and in physical and online environments.
• Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and experience applying these values to organizational conduct.
• Experience managing WordPress and other web content or customer management system.

This position has no degree requirement.

We welcome candidates who are currently running, or have in the past run, their own business including an agricultural business.

Workplace Hours and Facilities

This is a fully remote position and you will be joining a team of 4 (plus contractors) that has always worked remotely. Our work necessitates consistent and high-speed access to the internet at your location. You may work from any location that permits the successful achievement of the position objectives to include regular appearances on camera. Availability during standard business hours within a time zone of the continental United States is required. That being said, you are not required to be available for every business hour within your time zone; work schedules that include evening/weekend work are negotiable.

Workplace Environment

Success in this role requires the ability to thrive in a very small organization that is entirely remote. Each team member operates with little oversight while initiating coordination and collaboration with others without hesitation. We cultivate an emotionally intelligent environment where colleagues are supported in understanding and conveying their own needs to the team.

Individuals who relish predictability and do their best work when provided with clear instructions and solidly delineated roles before the project begins may not thrive at Farm Commons. Our goals and objectives are always clear; how we achieve them often evolves as circumstances develop.

The Project Coordinator receives the following regarding salary, benefits, and compensation:

• Hourly pay of $27.68/hr for an expected 30 hour workweek. This position is flexible in terms of how the 30 hours are structured but 5 days per week at 6 hours per day is ideal.
• 60 hours of vacation, 20 hours of sick time in first year
• 8 paid holidays per year (6 hours per holiday)
• 5 day paid winter holiday break (30 hours total)
• 3 hours of paid vacation per week beginning with the first Monday after Memorial Day and ending the Friday preceding Labor Day
• Health insurance reimbursement in the amount of $400 per month
• SIMPLE IRA eligibility with employer match at 3%
• Stipend for technology upgrades and office furniture
• Reimbursement of $40 per month for internet and phone access

Commitment to Equity 

We strive to create an equitable hiring process that allows strong candidates to shine. To assist us in creating a fair process, we ask all candidates to apply by completing a short form, linked here with URL pasted below.

https://questionpro.com/t/AOj0MZ73kD

To assist us in maintaining a blind application review process, we ask that you do not reveal identifying information such your name or any protected characteristics (gender, race, etc) in your application responses. This form requests that a resume and cover letter be uploaded as a single PDF file. Of course, the resume and cover letter need to identify you by name and you are welcome to identify any characteristics relevant to your suitability for this position there. Please use the resume and cover letter as an opportunity to expand on your personal experiences that prepare you for this position. But, don’t feel the need to repeat anything you are also sharing in your responses to our specific application questions. Cover letters and resumes may exceed one page but we believe brevity is a virtue. References will be sought from candidates who advance to an interview. We are hopeful that the right candidate will be able to begin work quickly, around mid-March.

The application form may be saved and completed at a later time. We recommend writing responses offline and pasting them into the application so you have a copy of your responses. Character limits for each response are indicated.

The deadline for priority consideration of application materials is Feb 13, 2025 at midnight, Pacific. Submissions made after that time may be considered if the application link is still open. We are very busy; we apologize if we are unable to respond to requests for a phone consultation.

Farm Commons is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diverse perspectives among our staff. We work to create hiring processes that eliminate barriers to full and fair consideration. Candidates are assessed on the basis of their potential to succeed in contributing to our mission and as a member of our team without regard to race, gender, disability, or other protected class. Applicants from underrepresented populations are strongly encouraged to apply.