Habitat for Humanity of Archuleta County’s 2023 build season is well underway, and we’ve got more exciting news to share with our community — we’re building our staff!
Habitat Archuleta has had a growth spurt in the past few years, thanks in large part to our over-achieving Executive Director, Lori Henricksen. In 2022 the Board of County Commissioners enabled us to hire another staff member to facilitate USDA Direct mortgage loans for the whole community, by designating a portion of Archuleta County’s America Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to Habitat Archuleta to hire a mortgage loan packager. We’re shifting gears again this fall, when we’ll hire and train a new part time employee, with plans for the position to go full time January 1, 2024.
Habitat Archuleta is one small office of a much larger nonprofit organization. We have marketing support and notoriety from the international Habitat for Humanity organization, but the operations and expenses of Habitat Archuleta are handled just like any small local contractor’s business, and there are a lot of moving parts. Add in the nonprofit element, and you find yourself wearing a lot of different hats.
As any small business owner can attest to, one must be able to make hard decisions, think creatively, work hard, and turn on a dime. This role will be dynamic and inspire gratitude for this community, the donors, volunteers, and beneficiaries we partner with.
Office staff at Habitat Archuleta work Monday through Friday 8am to 5pm. Our job involves networking and meetings after office hours, building relationships with community leaders, local business owners, subcontractors, and other professionals in the local construction industry. Our community relationships are very important to us!
The staff member we’re looking for will be responsible for administrative tasks such as answering phone calls, managing technology, and logging volunteer hours and other data points that contribute to statistics used in grant applications. The position will start part time September 1 as some of our staff shift their roles. Come January the position will either become full-time, or an additional part-time staff member could be hired at that point.
Writing skills would be a great asset if our new staff member wanted to lean in to grant writing. Or if they think better in numbers, the new staff member could facilitate USDA Direct mortgage loans or repair loans in our office.
We need social media and marketing skills, volunteer coordination, budgeting, help permitting and seeking estimates, familiarity with Microsoft Word, Excel, and Adobe. This list goes on and the role is flexible. We just need to find the right person.
The beauty of working in a small nonprofit office is the ability to follow one’s passions. Habitat Archuleta is in year two of a five-year plan, and we’re discussing what the next long-term project will be. Do we move away from modulars and back to stick builds? Do we focus on repairing existing units, or open up a retail space called Habitat Restore, and repurpose furniture, appliances, and construction materials?
Something unique about the nonprofit world is that our funding dictates our projects. (We’re looking to you too, cash donors!) For example, if we were awarded a hundred-thousand-dollar grant to repair existing homes in the community, we’ll need someone to re-boot our repair program that took a backseat when we moved to triple our new home capacity in 2022.
If you or someone you know may be interested in this position, please send a resume to director@habitatarchuleta.org and give our office a call to introduce yourself at 970-264-6960. We look forward to hearing from you!
Leah Ballard is Homeowner Services Coordinator for Habitat for Humanity of Archuleta County.