Project Research Associate Jobs

Project Research Associate

Summary

🔵 Location: Work-from-home within the 48-contiguous United States

🔵 Salary: $53,000 - $70,000 + benefits

🔵 Travel: 25%

As a Project Associate, you will:

✅ Enable the execution of research projects

✅ Support both qualitative and quantitative data collection

✅ Collaborate with our team to ensure timely project delivery

✅ Engage with clients and communities

Overview

Creation In Common is a team of strategic facilitators who help people lead and create together. For 21 years we have worked with regional and national nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies on organizational assessment, strategic planning, organizational development, collaboration advancement, and resource development projects. Collaboration is at the center of what we do and we pride ourselves on deeply connecting with and helping to strengthen communities through shared creativity.

Currently, we are a team of five employees and three contractors (who regularly work with us on a project by project basis). We operate a work-from-home virtual office. This position is open to anyone living within the 48-contiguous United States.

Most of our project engagements are 4 to 8 months. Some of our projects over the last 24-months have included:

• Conducting a comprehensive landscape analysis of the needs of people experiencing food insecurity in Sarasota County, Florida and Southern Colorado.
• Facilitating a national inter-disciplinary think tank on the potential and future of craft in America
• Developing a capability building strategy to advance co-created and community-driven workforce development solutions with new immigrants from Afghanistan and East Africa
• Leading strategic planning, organizational development, and evaluation projects with Arab American National Museum, Feeding America, Houston Food Bank, and We Are Water - a partnership of the Minnesota Humanities Center, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the Minnesota Departments of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources
• Developing efforts in Houston, Texas and the surrounding area to amplify the voice of individuals and families who are accessing or seeking to access emergency food services
• Collaborating with a nationally recognized BI-POC led theater company on the creation of the Center for Peace and Justice on the site where the Third Precinct burned during the uprisings that followed George Floyd’s murder
• Engaging with Minnesota tribal leaders on early childhood development strategies and resources for the families they serve
• Working on the Phase 1A rollout of COVID-19 vaccines for health professionals, front-line workers, and older adults

Our Values

Creation In Common is a minority and women-owned business certified by the State of Minnesota. We are a small yet nimble company with a team of five staff and three contractors. The work we do is very challenging, fun, and meaningful. Below are the values that our team strives to live each day.

See Strengths First

• Making abundance possible by harnessing everyone’s strengths
• Giving people the opportunity to share their strengths in their way
• Embracing strengths over power

We Are Colleagues

• Matching care for the team with achieving greater impact for our clients
• Engaging each other not by title or role, but as a partner and colleague
• Always supporting each other and investing in our team

Make Inclusion a Priority

• Making sure that individuals and communities we work with get to shape the strategy and services that impact their future
• Never making someone feel “othered”
• Creating environments that are welcoming, safe, and engage people to contribute in the ways that best represent who they are

Co-Create Through Every Interaction

• Including clients and key stakeholders as part of the collaboration to advance capacity
• Creating environments and situations where people feel fully engaged to develop solutions that impact their lives
• Creative collaboration among our whole team

Share Stories that Transform

• Actively seek out stories that rarely get heard
• Amplifying people’s voices through their own unique stories
• Being accurate in our facts and creative in our storytelling

Position Description

The primary objective of this position is to enable the execution of Creation In Common research projects including landscape assessments, organizational assessments, environmental scans, and evaluations. A successful candidate will be extremely organized, have attention to detail, and be able to manage multiple complex projects with lots of moving parts. In addition, this candidate will be proactive and thrive on the ability to adapt quickly to changing client needs.

Work will focus on the following:

• Support the Project Lead in developing and creating a project research design
• Create meeting deliverables including (but not limited to) agenda memos, meeting notes, and summaries
• Participate in and aid in the coordination and scheduling of research subject identification and outreach– building in-depth relationships with individuals, groups, and communities
• Work with Project Lead and Project Coordinator to ensure timely implementation of tasks
• When necessary, support research efforts with review of client documentation and summarizing of secondary research and literature
• Support Project Lead with the presentation of findings to clients and participate in client meetings. This position is client facing
• Ensure all meeting deliverables are proofed, formatted, and meet the highest standards
• Learn Creation In Common service delivery processes and participate in other aspects of the firm’s activities including meeting facilitation, strategic planning, and client coaching
• Support Project Lead with data analysis and summarizing of findings
• Participate in and support both qualitative (interviews and focus groups) and quantitative (surveys) data collection. This includes, but is not limited to: the creation of surveys and discussion guides, research subject tracking documents, fulfillment of data collection incentives, and capturing and tabulating research results

Qualifications

The candidate must have...

• High competency working with MS Word, MS Excel, and Powerpoint as well as the G Suite (Google) of productivity tools
• A minimum of three-years’ experience working on research projects and efforts that research is a part of the core activities
• Be able to work collaboratively with others (co-writing, planning, etc.)
• Excellent writing skills and the ability to proof and format documents
• A minimum of a Bachelor's Degree
• Skilled at doing outreach via telephone, email, and in-person

Ideal candidates will have some or all of the following…

• Master’s Degree or better with a focus on public affairs, organizational development, or nonprofit capacity building
• A minimum of five-years’ experience in a research role
• Experience with primary qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis as well as reviewing and developing findings based on the review of secondary research, a working knowledge of grounded theory and appreciative inquiry, and strong information organization skills
• Experience working with historically underrepresented communities

The successful candidate will be willing to travel. This position is 25% travel.

Salary/Benefits

This position will interact with members of the Creation In Common team as well as clients of the firm.

Salary range is $53,000 to $70,000 based on experience. This is a full-time (40-hour per week) position with a regular schedule. Included with the salary is a generous paid-time-off package as well as an additional $250 per month healthcare stipend to pay for insurance or go toward a health savings account. At this time, Creation In Common does not offer its own group health plan.

Creation In Common has always been a virtual office (work-from-home) organization.

To Apply

Please send a cover letter and resume to Dana Gillespie, Talent/HR Manager at [email protected]. Please send any inquiries or questions to the same email address. Deadline for submissions is September 1, 2023.

IMPORTANT: This is an early-career opportunity. If you are out of school within the last three to five years, in your cover letter please tell us why you are interested in the capacity-building field and how your education and recent experience prepares you for this position. If you are changing careers, please tell us why and how working in capacity-building is the right next step for you. Also, please help us understand how your past experience will translate to this work.

Thank you for your interest in Creation In Common. We welcome the opportunity to answer your questions and learn more about how you can add value to our team and clients.