VISTA, Community First Fund, Lancaster (Posted February 5)

Build Communities in Central PA!

Community First Fund provides personalized and comprehensive financing and assistance. We are revitalizing downtown business districts and neighborhoods and bringing prosperity into our communities.
Community First Fund accomplishes its mission of lasting economic growth through its offering of loan products for entrepreneurs, community organizations and affordable housing developers.
Community First Fund’s experienced lenders help assess business and project readiness; our Women’s Business Center provides business development training to emerging entrepreneurs.
Community First Fund’s five offices serve 13 counties in central Pennsylvania. The offices are located in the region’s core cities of Lancaster, Harrisburg, Reading, York and Exton. Our clients represent people from varied economic and cultural backgrounds with a focus on women and Persons of Color. In our 16-year history, we have provided more than $23 million in loans to clients.
As an AmeriCorps VISTA member at Community First Fund, you’ll get hands-on experience in the world of community development, microfinance, fundraising and marketing, business lending, and nonprofit operations. We have a variety of VISTA positions available for a summer start date. Responsibilities vary per position, but possible tasks include: Development: assist with researching new opportunities for funding; help develop our new initiatives in marketing and communications, including newsletters, annual report, and Web site content; media and public relations, event planning; Finance and Technology: provide support in the development of financial management and oversight processes to increase department efficiencies; provide support to development department with e-marketing; Lending: assist Business Lenders and Counselors in providing outreach and marketing to low income communities regarding the education and counseling services and loan products; assist with new loan application processing and underwriting; establishing standards, policies and procedures for community development and affordable housing lending; Loan Administration: work in this new department on updating and improving loan operations using an industry specific database and hard copy files of loan applications; developing tracking and tickler system to ensure each file contains needed documents and renewals as applicable; Women’s Business Center (WBC) /(Pennsylvania MicroEnterprise Coalition (PMC): WBC —provide support in developing new entrepreneurial training curriculum for current and potential borrowers, assist in developing related marketing materials; PMC — work with the organizational membership to obtain operational funding; expand awareness of PMC and microenterprise among economic development leaders in the state.
Visit www.commfirstfund.org and www.americorps.gov for further information.

Additional Qualifications:
Qualifications:
-U.S. Citizen or Legal Permanent Resident of the U.S.
-BA/BS degree, min GPA of 3.0
-Effective written and verbal communication skills
-Strong analytical, time management, and organizational skills
-Computer literacy in word processing, data base and spreadsheet programs, preferably Microsoft Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint. – Motivated individual with high level of initiative – Bilingual (Spanish/English) a plus

How to Apply:
This position is an Americorps*VISTA Volunteer position. It requires a one-year full-time commitment and offers a living allowance, health insurance, education award, loan deferment. In addition, Community First Fund provides a housing and daily food allowance and reimbursement for any work or training related travel. Go to http://www.americorps.org for more information. We would prefer that you apply via the AmeriCorps website, however we will accept resumes with cover letters sent to the attention of Stephanie Kessler at P.O. Box 524, Lancaster, PA. 17608 or emailed to skessler@commfirstfund.org