Project Coordinator - Forest Legality Alliance, Washington

Overview

The World Resources Institute's Forests Program is seeking a full-time Project Coordinator for the Forest Legality team. The Project Coordinator I will assist the Forest Legality Alliance, an international, multi-stakeholder initiative designed to achieve better forest governance and biodiversity conservation by reducing demand for illegally harvested forest products and increasing the capacity of supply chains to deliver legal wood and paper. To this end, Alliance partners pursue a series of activities including: (a) education and capacity building related to timber legality requirements in the United States and other major timber producing and consuming nations; (b) development and deployment of practical, interactive and freely accessible tools for exercising due care and keeping illegally harvested forest products out of the market; and (c) demonstrating through pilot tests with members how compliance with timber legality requirements can be feasible and cost effective; and (d) identifying practical ways to reduce potential burdens on importers and producers.

Launched in 2010 in partnership with USAID, FLA will enter a second phase in mid-2014, with enhanced focus on engagement in key producer and processor countries, as well as continued focus on forest legality issues within the U.S. market. More information on the Forest Legality Alliance can be found here: http://www.forestlegality.org/

The Project Coordinator will provide a variety of support functions to the Forest Legality team, including: financial management, contracts coordination, donor reporting requirements, communications efforts (e.g. producing newsletters), administrative tasks, event organization, database management, research support, funding prospecting, and proposal development.

Responsibilities

• Oversee internal financial management, to include: create, manage, and update project budgets, review and track project expenses to ensure costs are recorded properly;
• Monitor and manage contracts and payment requests for all subgrants and contracts ensuring all paperwork is up to date and that payments are made in timely manner;
• Manage project grants to ensure compliance with grants and funder rules, responsible management of funds, meeting funder reporting deadlines, invoicing partners, and preparing financial reports;
• Help organize Forest Legality Alliance semi-annual membership meetings and other internal and external events in collaboration with partners;
• Produce quarterly newsletters for FLA members, soliciting contributions, editing guest submissions, summarizing news articles and publications, and providing a brief update on FLA activities;
• Assist in internal project planning and reporting processes, including by drafting annual project plans, and quarterly project and financial reports;
• Coordinate outreach and develop communications materials around project events, publications, press releases, web development, and blogs;
• Assist in fundraising tasks, including tracking online fora for pending grant opportunities, contributing to project proposals, creating budgets for proposals, and more general donor stewardship (outreach around events or publication releases, etc); and
• Support the project staff with other administrative duties as needed: maintaining FLA members contact email list, scheduling team meetings, drafting correspondence, taking and circulating meeting notes, ensuring follow-up on action items as appropriate, booking travel, tracking project deliverables and timelines, etc.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree;
• Minimum 1 year experience required, internship experience may be counted as experience;
• Assertive, detail-oriented, and highly organized;
• Self-motivated with an ability to juggle multiple priorities, handle assignments independently, and work under tight deadlines;
• Demonstrated capacity to work well under pressure with competing demands;
• Excellent writing, editing, and oral communication skills;
• Strong computer skills, including high proficiency in Microsoft Office, web-based communications (Skype, GoToMeeting, etc.), and internet research;
• Ability to write in an organized, clear, and articulate manner;
• Strong interpersonal skills;
• Results focused, with a strong team orientation, and the ability to work well under pressure toward a tight deadline;
• Commitment to WRI's mission and institutional values; and
• Proficiency in a relevant foreign language, especially Spanish, French, or Chinese, a definite plus.

Final candidates will be required to take a budgeting and writing test.

Salary and Benefits

Salary is commensurate with experience and skills. WRI offers a generous, comprehensive benefits package.

Location

Washington, DC

Qualified applicants should apply online at www.wri.org/careers. All applications must be submitted online through this career portal in order to be formally considered.

The World Resources Institute ( http://www.wri.org/wri) is an environmental and development research and policy organization that creates solutions to protect the Earth and improve people's lives. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, it is WRI's policy to recruit, hire, and provide opportunities for advancement in all job classifications without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, parental status, or disability. WRI's global agenda requires a staff that is diverse – with respect to race, gender, cultural, and international background. Diverse perspectives and experience enhance the way WRI selects and approaches issues, as well as the creativity and applicability of WRI's policy research and analysis. WRI, therefore, encourages applications from U.S. minorities, persons from other countries (especially developing nations), and from women of all backgrounds.

About WRI

The World Resources Institute is a global environmental think tank that goes beyond research to put ideas into action. We work with governments, companies, and civil society to build solutions to urgent environmental challenges. WRI's transformative ideas protect the earth and promote development because sustainability is essential to meeting human needs and fulfilling human aspirations in the future.

Established in 1982, WRI is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization respected globally by policymakers, NGOs, and corporate leaders because of the rigorous quality, balance, and independence of its work. With its think-tank roots, WRI values innovative ideas, working collaboratively, and thinking independently. WRI employees see the results of their hard work and have the satisfaction of making a significant difference in the world.

Currently a $50 million organization with an international staff of approximately 250, WRI works with more than 400 partners in 50 countries. WRI provides objective information and practical proposals for policy and institutional change that foster environmentally sound, socially equitable development.

Values

In its day to day work, WRI is guided by several core institutional values:

Innovation: To lead change for a sustainable world, WRI is creative, forward thinking, entrepreneurial, and adaptive.

Integrity: Honesty, candor and openness must guide WRI's work to ensure credibility and to build trust.

Urgency: WRI believes that change in human behavior is urgently needed to halt the accelerating rate of environmental deterioration.

Independence: Our effectiveness depends on work that is uncompromised by partisan politics, institutional or personal allegiances, or sources of financial support.

Respect: Our relationships are based on the belief that all people deserve respect.

Approach

Everything WRI does is built on four key elements:

Focus on Results: WRI organizes all of its work to produce powerful and practical solutions, strategies and tools, policies and partnerships.

Analytical Excellence: WRI identifies problems, drivers of change, economic incentives, and consequences to arrive at comprehensive, incentive-based, practical solutions.

Partnerships: WRI works with scientists, governments, businesses, NGOs, and international institutions worldwide to create incentives and pressure for change.

Communications: WRI fosters change by disseminating their solutions and ideas to targeted audiences.