Fundraising Intern

The Fundraising Intern will learn and assist with spearheading events and stewarding individual donors for monthly giving campaigns and gifts up to $1,000, helping to meet our financial goals now while preparing for future growth.

This role is an excellent opportunity for candidates who are personable, eager, and goal oriented in a fast-paced environment. If you love pursuing strategy and goals, writing, details, deadlines, and tracking progress along the way, this may be the role for you! For a creative and resilient learner, the technical fundraising skills can be learned on the job.

The Fundraising Intern will work hand in hand with the Fundraising Team and CEO, who is deeply engaged in fundraising as well. The Fundraising Intern is responsible for some of the back-office of development, marketing, operations, research and reporting on gifts and events. The CEO plays the more external fundraising role with our largest donors and champions. The Fundraising Intern will manage and grow a portfolio of smaller donors, which they will get to manage directly.

What You’ll Learn

• Set and Achieve Fundraising Goals
• Achieve annual fundraising goal overall and goals by funding streams (small grants, individuals, in-kind)
• Steward our donors’ experiences in order to retain/renew 75% of donors annually
• Assist in executing the overall development operation using best practices and effective development tools
• Fundraising Plan
• Weighted pipeline
• Donor acknowledgements
• Tracking systems (analytics)
• Directly manage a portfolio of small gifts
• Develop newsletters and social media posts to engage donors
• Assist in leading SOUNDS Academy events such as The Speakeasy and The Benefit Concert

Must-Have Skills and Talents

• Systems Thinker and Visionary: You think and operate in systems that allow you to see the big picture and every detail of the funding campaign as well as how they fit together. While you’re grounded in the current reality, you don’t accept it as a limitation for the future.
• Continuous Learner: You’re committed to identifying what you need to learn and growing quickly. In this dynamic and growing organization, our fundraising strategy will evolve quickly to capture new opportunities.
• Organizational Stewardship: You center the mission and goals of the organization in all of the decisions that you make. You proactively identify and solve areas where program and fundraising are in tension with one another, and find solutions that work for all stakeholders.
• Drive to Achieve Results: You do what you need to do to achieve your goals, including being open with your manager about where you need help, anticipating problems, brainstorming solutions, driving work forward, and course correcting where needed.
• Creative Problem Solving: Proactively develop solutions to challenges and roadblocks, including by constantly looking at big picture progress across programs and flagging potential upcoming challenges.
• Team Player and Proactive Communicator: You value relationships, both with the team and board at SOUNDS and also in the community. You demonstrate respect for colleagues and partners through proactive communication. You commit to no surprises.

Qualifications:

• Pursuing or Completing a Degree, BA, or BS in the fields of Nonprofit, Arts, or Business Management, Business, Marketing, Communications, or related fields preferred.
• Minimum of 1 year experience in successful non-profit marketing or fundraising
• Proven track record and achievements in attaining goals
• Ability to work with diverse populations
• Strong written and verbal communication with equally strong presentation skills.

To Apply

Please submit a 1-page letter describing your interest in this position, a 1-page professional writing sample that speaks to the skills required, and your resume to info@soundsacademy.org by April 24, 2026.

The part-time pay for this position is $15 – $19/hour. This is a hybrid (work remote and in-person) position, based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Development/Marketing Intern will also need to plan to attend in-person staff meetings as well as be able to be at our various locations for content collection in the Metropolitan Phoenix area.

SOUNDS Academy provides equal employment opportunities for all applicants and employees. We do not discriminate against our employees or applicants on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender (including pregnancy and childbirth), national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other classification protected by federal, Arizona, or local laws and ordinances. SOUNDS Academy will ensure the fulfillment of this policy with respect to recruitment, hiring, training and development, promotion, transfer, compensation and benefits, social and recreational programs, discipline, termination and all other conditions and privileges of employment in accordance with all applicable federal, Arizona, and local laws and ordinances.

Finally, thank you for taking the time to read this job description. We’re looking forward to getting to know you.