Posted on August 16, 2012

print

Financial Fellow

The Financial Clinic, a nonprofit financial development firm devoted to improving the financial security of working poor families and stewarding economic reform, is recruiting civic-minded recent graduates or graduating seniors — our future leaders in business and finance — for The Fellowship Program.

The Fellowship Program is a high-impact social innovation model for scaling the Clinic's outcomes-based financial coaching development services. Financial Fellows will provide financial services to the working poor, fostering a sense of civic engagement and social responsibility, and innovating solutions to the socio-economic problems they encounter.

MISSION: To exponentially increase financial security for working poor Americans, and steward service and inspire social innovation among our nation's future leaders in business and finance.

VISION: The Clinic envisions an America where everyone is financially secure and where our leaders take great care in their fiduciary responsibility to all Americans. The Fellowship cultivates this vision by:

• Developing Economic Change Makers: By fostering a sense of civic engagement and social responsibility at the start of their careers, Financial Fellows will gain a greater understanding of the exponential effects business and economic decisions have on all Americans, influencing the start of their lifelong stewardship of financial equity;
• Fostering Social Innovation: By leveraging their finance and economics backgrounds, Financial Fellows will innovate a new generation of products, technologies, processes and services with the goal of stemming America's growing income gap and responding to and fostering economic equality.

In addition to providing direct financial services to the working poor over the course of their service year, Financial Fellows will be expected to write at least one white paper per month on a salient socio-political topic, and to research, design and develop a business plan for a social innovation that will be presented at the end of the service year.

All Financial Fellows will be paired with a Mentor from our Advisory Group made up of professionals from the private, nonprofit, and public sectors. Mentors will help ensure Financial Fellows are on track for leadership positions by providing them information, guidance and networking opportunities, as well as advising them on their social innovations.

The Fellowship Program is a one-year service commitment that will run from August 2012 through July 2013.

PROSPECTIVE FINANCIAL FELLOWS ARE: Civic-minded recent college graduates or graduating seniors with degrees in finance, business, or economics. Candidates must:

• Have excellent analytic, writing and communications skills;
• Envision themselves as future finance or business leaders;
• Be able to handle and manipulate large amounts of data; and
• Be prepared to travel to work with diverse, low-income communities.

GRADUATES WITH PENDING JOB OFFERS: If you have been offered a position with a major institution, please discuss with your recruiter whether or not they would allow you to defer your offer for one-year in order to serve as a Financial Fellow. As per initial discussions with some major consulting and financial firms, many are amenable – and excited – to offer their recruits the opportunity to serve the neediest communities before starting their career.

RESPONSIBILITIES: Over the course of their service term, Financial Fellows must complete two key, macro-level deliverables: Financial Coaching and Social Innovation.

• Financial Coaching: Financial Fellows will serve as Financial Coaches, working one-on-one with customers, providing them a range of financial development services to help them develop skills in asset-building, improving banking, repairing or establishing credit, managing debt, and tax planning;
• Social Innovation: Financial Fellows will innovate a new generation of products, technologies, processes and services provided to working poor Americans, with the goal of stemming America's growing income gap.

Within these macro-level responsibilities are a number of important micro-level deliverables, including but not limited to:

Financial Coaching:

• Understand performance targets and create a work plan to reach them efficiently;
• Ensure that all customer information is documented in the online data collection system on a daily basis;
• Provide monthly reports;
• Monitor progress of customers to ensure that no-show appointments are minimized and customers are following the Clinic's financial development model;
• Refer customers with legal issues to staff attorneys when appropriate;
• Work closely with the host sites' to ensure the project's success;
• Represent the Clinic at community outreach events; and
• Attend and participate in project check-in calls and staff meetings.

Social Innovation:

• Participate in an intensive leadership, social innovation and financial coaching training;
• Attend off-site bi-weekly Symposia, where Financial Fellows come together for knowledge sharing and innovation, conduct group presentations and brain-storm improvements;
• Write at least one White Paper per month on a given socio-political topic; and
• Develop a Social Innovation Plan--an income gap-stemming business plan – that will be presented at the Clinic's year-end Social Innovation Contest.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Fluency in Spanish is a must;
• Demonstrate a solid foundation in macroeconomic theory, as well as a basic understanding of financial and/or business management;
• Be a compassionate self-starter with evidence of an ability to work independently, especially in challenging circumstances;
• Proven capacity for a high-level of productivity while attending to detail and ensuring quality services;
• Enjoy working with a diverse customer base in close relationships;
• Embrace challenges in a fast-paced work environment and is sensitive to deadlines;
• Flexible, open to change and enjoys mobility in the workplace; and
• Ability to perform detailed and careful documentation of cases with ability to input data into an online data collection system.

Travel may be heavy during the week as Financial Fellows may need to travel to different sites. Hours are generally working hours from Monday to Friday, but participation in workshops/presentations/ information session and events during nights and weekends will be occasionally expected. Hours during the tax season to be determined.

Term: August 2012 – July 2013

Stipend: $25,000 for the one-year term. Generous benefits package is available.

To Apply: Qualified applicants should send the following application requirements tomgarcia@thefinancialclinic.org with “The Fellowship Program” in the subject line:

• Cover Letter
• Resume or CV;
• Transcript (unofficial is OK);
• Sample essay.

Job Type: Finance
Organization Type: Nonprofit Organizations