Odd Jobs: Community Engagement Specialist

Posted by Tera Wozniak Qualls, Program Coordinator in the Nonprofit Leadership Institute at the Johnson Center for Philanthropy in Grand Rapids, MI. Read more from Tera Qualls and Sam Davidson on Sam Davidson's blog.

The nonprofit sector is extremely diverse. Jobs can range from direct social service, to hospital administrator, to dancer. There isn’t such thing as a typical nonprofit job. Although when you think of jobs in the sector they typically get lumped into categories such as volunteer management, fundraising, marketing and communications, or administrator, there are plenty of other jobs in the sector. In this blog series, I will explore four nonprofit jobs you may not have thought of when exploring a career in the sector.

In this first blog post of the Odd Jobs series, I would like to explore the job of a Community Engagement Specialist.

A Community Engagement Specialist is responsible for, just as the name describes, engaging with the community. I would explain this position in the simplest terms as a tie between a Fundraiser and a Marketing Director. Staffers in this position are responsible for melding the old and the new, engaging continuously with the community through networking and social media, while also engaging them to enhance the services the nonprofit provides.

A Community Engagement Specialist is a position a lot of nonprofit organizations are putting in place to engage volunteers, donors, and educating the community through new means of communication and increased engagement. With donations and funding down, it’s important for nonprofit organizations to be fully engaged in the community and at the tops of the minds of those living in it.

Here are two different descriptions used to explain the work of a Community Engagement Specialist.

• Idealist.org: Community Engagement Specialist – Community Preservation and Development Corporation (open through 10/10)
• Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Job Postings: Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI) (deadline passed)

As you can see from these two examples, much of the job of a specialist revolves around the community and building relationships. The position typically takes traditional fundraising and service to a new level.

Check out the next blog in this series to get information on the nonprofit career of a Clinic Manager.