Internships: Emerging Fundraising Intern, Office of Innovation, IF Hub, Helsinki, Finland, 26 weeks (onsite)

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, innovate…

UNICEF’s Innovative Finance Hub, founded in 2022, aims to catalyze global capital in support of children to fill the SDG gap and radically accelerate progress towards the SDGs. We sit at a unique vantage point where an organization working on global issues meets the startup thinking, new ideas, and partners to turn this energy into scalable solutions.

We aim to understand and solve a pressing challenge: why is finance not working for children? On one hand, the funding gap to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) continues to grow (currently at over 4 trillion USD!), where children are particularly vulnerable to the educational, health, protection and climate challenges the SDGs try to address. On the other hand, children are seldom considered in the investment practices of investors, even the most responsible and socially conscious – even though virtually all companies have material impacts on children’s lives, as consumers, through their employed parents and caregivers, as community members and as future leaders.

To continue our expanding work, the Innovative Finance Hub is looking for one (1) Emerging Fundraising Intern who will report to the Finance Manager, who provides overall leadership in Emerging Fundraising.

How can you make a difference? 

In support of the 2022-25 Strategic Plan, UNICEF has launched its Global Innovative Finance for Children (IF4C) Strategy and is ramping up coordinated endeavors to foster and promote the wider use of IF.

As part of this strategy, the Innovative Finance Hub works on two Pathways – Innovative Financing, and Emerging Fundraising (EF), where this internship will sit.

The EF Pathway focuses on leveraging the potential of new technologies to unlock fundraising innovation for the UNICEF global ecosystem. The main focus is on solutions, technologies, and business models that are new or yet to emerge for the global fundraising community.

The EF Pathway performs research, innovation, and incubation of solutions that open completely new domains and models for fundraising and unlock UNICEF’s fundraising potential. These solutions have the potential to transform the way development aid is done, bringing end-to-end transparency of transactions and purchases, a new level of efficiency in logistics, and enhanced and transformative donor experience.

The Intern will provide a broad support to EF Pathway projects. The expectation is to introduce the intern to UNICEF’s work on Emerging Fundraising and involve him/her in support functions with the team, following a learning-by-doing model.

Main Duties / Responsibilities

After a comprehensive onboarding, the Intern will be expected to perform support functions including:

Reporting Results:

• As part of the EF Pathway team, the intern will be responsible for summarizing the team’s achievements and challenges. This involves compiling project information and creating concise reports that highlight key points about the projects.

Internal Communication: 

• The intern will create a dedicated SharePoint site where team members can collaborate, share documents, and track project updates. This involves organizing folders, permissions, and ensuring smooth access for everyone.
• The intern will also explore the possibility of creating newsletters to keep UNICEF stakeholders informed about the Emerging Fundraising Pathway’s activities. This could include project highlights, success stories, and relevant news.

Documentation:

• The intern will assist in maintaining the Monday.com workspace used by the team. This involves organizing and categorizing documents related to Emerging Fundraising projects.

Research Tasks: 

• The intern will conduct research to identify potential collaboration opportunities with Finnish universities and other institutions. This includes mapping their expertise, ongoing projects, and areas of interest related to Emerging Fundraising.
• The intern will assist the EF team in various research tasks. This could involve gathering data, preparing background information, and contributing to concept notes and proposals.

Team Overall Support:

• Team Overall Support: Given the diverse range of projects within the IF Hub, the intern may be called upon to assist with various tasks related to innovative finance, either directly or indirectly, as needed.

Expected Deliverables

• Report of activities supported during 6-month process, including internal support, communications and other support functions as agreed with supervisor.
• Presentation materials, analysis reports, and communication support as requested by the team.
• Research briefs on sustainable finance frameworks, a database of contact and partners, and other research agendas as agreed with supervisor.

Please see detailed Terms of Reference (ToR).   TOR_IF Hub_EF Internship 2024 v2.pdf

To qualify as a champion for every child you will meet the following requirements…

• Enrolled at a university at a master’s level, undergraduate level or a recent graduate (within the past two years) in Communications, Media, Information and Communications Technology, or a related field.
• Previous work experience, including internships, in the communications, media and technology field would be considered an asset.
• Demonstrated interest in working with frontier technologies like blockchains and artificial intelligence in fundraising. Solid understanding of distributed ledger technologies and their use cases, Web3, and other relevant technologies is desirable.
• Strong capacity to work effectively in inter-divisional teams.
• Excellent analytical, organizational, interpersonal and communications skills.
• Ability to conceptualize, plan and execute ideas as well as to manage projects.
• Fluency in English is required.

Conditions 

• Individuals must have proof of medical insurance covering the time and location of their internship.
• This internship expects a full-time commitment.
• Individuals are expected to provide their own laptop.
• Selected candidates will receive a monthly stipend (unless already in receipt of any support for the internship from a third party).
• Individuals must fund their own travel and living expenses.
• Individuals are responsible for arranging any visa or immigration requirements.

Applications must include: 

• Cover letter
• CV

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• Have good academic performance as demonstrated by recent university or institution records.
• Have no immediate relatives (e.g., father, mother, brother, sister) working in any UNICEF office.
• Have no other relatives in the line of authority which the intern will report to.
• Individuals must have proof of medical insurance covering the time and location of their internship.
• This internship can be delivered on a full-time or part-time commitment.
• Individuals are expected to provide their own laptop.
• Selected candidates will receive a monthly stipend (unless already in receipt of any support for the internship from a third party).
• Individuals must fund their own travel and living expenses.
• Individuals are responsible for arranging any visa or immigration requirement.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks: 

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable graduates are encouraged to apply.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

Contact: For any queries, please contact: swe-ooi-recruitments@unicef.org