Institutional Partnerships and Grant Strategy Intern

inara

Boston, MA, USA

Published: 6/14/2022

Education

Full Time

Job Description

Company Description

inara is a structured community capital platform that enables institutions to run Community Capital Access Programs that expand access to meaningful lump-sum capital. These programs focus on building saving behavior, financial resilience, and long-term financial stability rather than relying on loans, interest, debt, or credit scores.

Access to capital is created through structured contributions and demonstrated contribution behavior, making support more inclusive and predictable. Community organizations, universities, workforce development programs, chambers of commerce, and other institutions use inara’s infrastructure to manage participation, engagement, reporting, completion tracking, and program administration.

The platform is designed to help organizations measure outcomes and community impact, reflecting inara’s belief that financial resilience should be built before a crisis and should not depend solely on income or credit history.

Role Description

The Institutional Partnerships and Grant Strategy Intern is a full-time, hybrid position based in Boston, MA, with flexibility for some work from home.

This role supports the development and growth of inara’s institutional partnerships and funding strategy, with a focus on universities, community organizations, workforce development programs, philanthropic funders, and other organizations that may sponsor or support Community Capital Access Programs.

Day-to-day responsibilities include researching prospective institutional partners and grant opportunities, supporting relationship development and outreach, developing tailored partnership materials and proposals, preparing grant applications and reports, and coordinating with internal teams to align program opportunities with partner needs.

The person in this role will help manage a pipeline of partnership and funding opportunities, participate in outreach meetings and presentations, maintain accurate records of institutional engagement and next actions, and support follow-up throughout the relationship development process. They will also help track impact metrics, support communications with partners and funders, and contribute to the broader strategy for expanding inara’s institutional footprint and Community Capital Access Programs.

This is a hands-on internship with meaningful ownership and direct exposure to institutional partnership development, grant strategy, community engagement, and the commercialization of an early-stage platform.

Qualifications

Strong analytical skills to research institutional partners, grant opportunities, funding priorities, and community impact strategies.

Strong interest in developing partnerships with universities, foundations, community organizations, workforce development programs, or other mission-aligned institutions.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to contribute to proposals, grant applications, presentations, and external outreach.

Ability to research prospective partners and funding opportunities, organize findings, and translate research into clear next actions.

Interest or experience in business development, institutional partnerships, grant strategy, philanthropy, social impact, community development, or related work.

Familiarity with grant writing, philanthropic funding cycles, nonprofit development, or impact reporting is a plus, but not required.

Knowledge of or interest in community capital, financial resilience, inclusive finance, or related fields.

Ability to manage multiple priorities, maintain organized records, follow through consistently, and work with a high degree of ownership.

Comfortable communicating directly with institutional partners and contributing in a collaborative, early-stage environment.

Currently pursuing or recently completed a degree in Business, Public Policy, Economics, Nonprofit Management, Communications, Finance, or a related field, or able to demonstrate equivalent relevant experience.

Comfortable using CRM, productivity, research, and collaboration tools to manage partnership and funding pipelines.

Ability to work full-time in a hybrid environment in Boston, MA.

This is an unpaid, full-time internship offering hands-on experience, meaningful ownership, and direct exposure to institutional partnership development, grant strategy, and early-stage company growth. Strong performance may lead to consideration for a full-time position with inara as the company grows and expands its institutional deployments. .