Development and Marketing VISTA - PAID Opportunity

Location: Idaho Youth Ranch – Emerald Site | Boise, Idaho

Service Term: Approximately one year (start date TBD – confirm with AmeriCorps program officer)

Schedule: Full-time

Focus Area: Capacity Building

Living Allowance: biweekly, plus a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award upon completion

About Idaho Youth Ranch

Idaho Youth Ranch has spent more than seven decades helping Idaho’s most vulnerable youth and families find hope and healing. From residential treatment and outpatient counseling to equine therapy and a beloved network of thrift stores, Idaho Youth Ranch provides a continuum of care for youth and families in crisis. This VISTA role sits at the intersection of marketing, fundraising, and grant strategy—building the organizational capacity that fuels every program we offer.

Position Summary

The Development and Marketing VISTA will build long-term organizational capacity across three critical areas: social media and influencer marketing (approximately 40%), event and donor development (approximately 30%), and grant readiness (approximately 30%). This is not a maintain-the-status-quo role—you’ll create scalable systems, documented playbooks, and reusable tools that strengthen Idaho Youth Ranch’s ability to raise funds, tell its story, and sustain mission-critical programs long after your service term ends.

Please note: This is a capacity-building role focused on creating sustainable systems and infrastructure—not a direct-service or administrative support position.

What You’ll Do

Marketing & Influencer Partnerships (~40%)

You’ll conduct landscape research to map influencer categories aligned with sustainability, thrift culture, youth advocacy, and mental health awareness, then design a comprehensive Influencer Engagement Framework covering eligibility criteria, partnership tiers, messaging guidelines, and brand alignment standards. From there, you’ll develop outreach templates, onboarding materials, partnership agreement templates, and content expectation guides that staff can use independently. You’ll also build an internal tracking system for influencer prospects and performance metrics, create a campaign planning calendar aligned with organizational priorities, and compile everything into a formal Influencer Partnership Manual for long-term sustainability.

Events & Donor Development (~30%)

You’ll develop standardized event planning workflows, master checklists, and documentation toolkits—including budget templates, vendor comparison matrices, risk assessments, and post-event evaluation frameworks—for Idaho Youth Ranch’s recurring fundraising and community engagement events. On the donor side, you’ll design stewardship frameworks outlining communication cadences, recognition tiers, and engagement pathways, and draft reusable templates for thank-you letters, follow-up emails, and sponsorship acknowledgments. You’ll also build a tracking structure that maps donor and sponsor engagement stages, research new funding sectors, and compile all materials into a Development Systems Playbook.

Grant Readiness & Writing Support (~30%)

You’ll conduct grant landscape research to identify funding opportunities in youth mental health, trauma-informed care, youth homelessness, workforce development, and related areas, then build a centralized grant research database with standardized evaluation criteria. You’ll create reusable narrative libraries—organizational history, program descriptions, theory of change, impact statements, and boilerplate language—along with program-specific case statement templates. Finally, you’ll develop a grants tracking calendar and workflow system, a data compilation framework for outcome metrics, and a comprehensive Grants Process Guide covering everything from opportunity identification through submission readiness.

Ideal Candidate

• A strategic thinker who loves building systems and toolkits that other people can pick up and run with.
• Excellent writing skills—you’ll draft everything from influencer scripts to grant narratives to donor thank-you letters.
• Comfortable with research, analysis, and organizing complex information into clear, actionable formats.
• Experience with or strong interest in social media marketing, nonprofit development, or grant writing.
• Organized, self-motivated, and able to manage multiple workstreams with overlapping timelines.
• Genuine passion for youth mental health, community impact, or the nonprofit sector.
• Bachelor’s degree preferred but not required; relevant experience and enthusiasm matter most.

VISTA Member Benefits

• Modest living allowance paid biweekly, plus a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award upon completion.
• Health coverage option, childcare assistance (if eligible), and choice of end-of-service stipend or additional education award.
• Non-competitive eligibility for federal employment for one year after service.
• Professional development, networking, and mentorship within a mission-driven organization.