CFED Internship

CFED is a national nonprofit with offices in Washington, DC; Durham, NC; and San Francisco, CA. We foster widely shared and sustainable economic well-being by promoting asset-building and economic opportunity strategies--primarily in low-income and distressed communities—that bring together community practice, public policy, and private markets in new and effective ways. We are seeking an intern to fill a full-time, paid position during the summer of 2008 in our Durham, NC office.

The intern will work primarily on the Savings for Education, Entrepreneurship, and Downpayment (SEED) Policy and Practice Initiative. SEED is designed to develop, test, document, and impel progressive matched savings accounts and financial education for children and youth in low-income families. The primary goal of SEED is to set the stage for a large-scale, universal, progressive policy for asset building among American children, youth and families. For more information, see http://seed.cfed.org/.

The general tasks associated with this position involve providing research, writing and analytical support to the SEED team. In particular, the intern will:
Assist the SEED team and CFED’s policy director in researching public assistance asset tests that may affect SEED accountholders and design state-level strategies for modifying such limits or working to eliminate them altogether.
Assist in compiling a toolkit on how to implement children’s savings account programs.
Assist in efforts to create an analytical framework for assessing and comparing SEED financial platforms and delivery systems.
Assist with other SEED-related projects, depending on interest and time.

Candidates should be graduate students in public policy, planning, public administration, economics, business, or a related social science field. Experience in conducting timely and thorough web-based research is essential. Knowledge of the fields of economic and community development preferred. Excellent written and verbal skills as well as strong analytical abilities are necessary.

Interested applicants should send a cover letter, resume and writing sample by March 15, 2008 to: Cecilia Cuthbert, CFED, 123 West Main Street, Suite 210, Durham, NC 27701 (phone: 919.688.6444; fax: 919.688.6580) or by email at cecilia@cfed.org.