Join Our Team
About the Community Empowerment Fund
CEF is a non-profit organization operating in Durham and Orange Counties that is working to end the racial wealth gap by supporting people experiencing homelessness or financial insecurity. We work alongside approximately 250 volunteers and 1,100 members in their pursuit of employment, secure housing, and financial stability. We are valued by Members and partners for our ability to meet people where they are and walk alongside each individual to achieve personal goals, as well as our collaborative approach to address systemic racism and oppression which causes gaps in our local communities. We are passionate about sustaining transitions out of homelessness, and combine flexible relationship-based support with innovative matched savings accounts, referral networks, resource databases, and programs to support Members in achieving their long-term dreams. Learn more at www.communityef.org.
Open Positions:
Strategic Planning Consultant
Request for Proposals: Strategic Planning Consultant
Submission deadline: June 15, 2021
The Community Empowerment Fund (CEF) is seeking an experienced strategic planning consultant to design and facilitate a participatory planning process that will create a 5 year strategic plan for the organization.
About CEF
The Community Empowerment Fund (CEF) is a non-profit organization in Durham and Orange Counties of North Carolina. CEF’s mission is to cultivate opportunities, assets, and communities that sustain transitions out of homelessness and poverty. Our approach combines person-centered support with financial services that pursue equity in order to reduce the racial wealth gap.
Planning Needs
CEF’s previous strategic plan ended in 2018 and we are looking for an external consultant to complete a strategic planning process that will guide the organization for the next 5 years. This plan should outline CEF’s goals, objectives, and activities and the creation process should engage a variety of CEF stakeholders, with particular weight towards Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and those with lived experience with homelessness or financial insecurity. Stakeholders include CEF staff, Members, Advocates, board members, and key partners.
We expect the consultant to participate in planning and development; information-gathering from stakeholders in the form of surveys, focus groups, and/or interviews; facilitation of a staff & board retreat for analysis and distillation into core goals; drafting a plan with input from staff; and a final presentation to CEF’s board.
A draft timeline for the project is:
August – November 2021:
- In partnership with staff, develop detailed timeline and plan for strategic planning activities
- Identification of CEF’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges
- Review of mission, vision, values
- Create tools for stakeholder feedback
January – February 2021:
- Gather stakeholder input via surveys, focus groups, and/or interviews
March – April 2022:
- Planning retreat to review findings and identify goals/objectives
- Small groups to draft plan activities
April – May 2022:
- Review, revising, and approval of strategic plan
Consultant Qualifications
We are looking for an experienced consultant who has specifically worked with organizations led-by and serving BIPOC and those with lived-experience with homelessness and/or financial insecurity.
Response Requested
If you are interested in being considered for this contract, please submit a brief (1-2 page) statement of your qualifications (a resume or bio is fine), your approach to strategic planning, and your proposed fee by June 15, 2021 to donnac@communityef.org. We will review responses and will schedule interviews for late June or July. If you have any questions, feel free to email Donna Carrington, Executive Director, at donnac@communityef.org
CEF is an equal opportunity employer, and strongly encourages applications from people of color, persons with disabilities, women, LGBTQI identified people, and people with lived experience with homelessness or poverty.
