OMNI Institute is a 501c3 nonprofit consultancy that works with nonprofit organizations, philanthropies, government agencies, and social ventures to accelerate positive social change toward a more equitable society. We provide research, evaluation, and capacity-building services through a 100% fee-for-service project-based consulting model. We have 50+ staff in our Denver HQ and in 17 other US States. Our primary focus areas include Community Health, Behavioral Health, Justice, Economic Security, and Children & Families.

In the development of our EDI plan and commitments as a business, OMNI Institute identified a challenge in the field of social science: a lack of diversity in the research field that limits the ability for research firms to reflect the communities they aim to serve. In addition, the existing fellowship programs focused heavily at the PhD level and did not provide early career opportunities to those who are not yet pursuing a research path. As part of our EDI investment, we created a research fellowship to give students with diverse identities the opportunity to gain early career experience working as researchers and to provide a platform to explore career interests and hopefully pursue impactful careers in the social sciences.

We strongly encourage applicants who identify as people of color, LGBTQ+, or the first in this family to attend college to apply for this position. This fellowship is also specifically designed for recent undergraduates with a BA/BS degree, ideally graduating in the 2023-2024 academic year.

OMNI Fellows will work as a full-time Research Assistant supporting research tasks and project administration across a diverse set of client engagements. In this role, you will have the opportunity to work in a research and evaluation consulting nonprofit on client projects across the organization by supporting our project leads and conducting research tasks. Approximately 70-80% of your time will be spent working directly on our project teams in a research assistant capacity, supporting our clients in state and local agencies, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropies. The balance of your time will be spent on internal projects and in learning and professional development opportunities across our organization.

This fellowship is a two-year program, beginning on June 2024 and ending on June 2026. During the first year of the program, fellows will spend approximately 75% of their time working on client projects as research assistants and 25% of their time learning about our business, research & evaluation methods, and exploring career pathways. In January or February of this first year, each fellow will meet with our fellowship program team to discuss their interest in the program to date and performance as a fellow. If mutually agreed by OMNI and the individual fellow, the fellowship will extend into a second year during which fellows will spend 90% to 95% of their time in a research assistant position, with a greater emphasis on work as a researcher at OMNI with additional support available for career planning and next steps after the fellowship. After completing the fellowship, we expect that our fellows will be well-positioned to apply for entry-level research positions or seek further academic training. (Please note, while we hope to have opportunities for our fellows to stay with OMNI Institute as Research Associates after completing the fellowship, those decisions are made on a case-by-case basis and dependent on our staffing needs and business conditions.)

• A passion for solving pressing social challenges.
• Experience working collaboratively on project teams with a commitment to meeting timelines and communicating clearly and effectively. Our interdependent project work demands that our staff be able to meet timelines and communicate honestly and openly about their work.
• Alignment with OMNI’s core values:
• An innate sense of personal accountability for your own work and the desire to hold your own work to high standards.
• The inquiry to look at problems from different perspectives and a sense of curiosity to want to find a solution to the challenge you face.
• The agility to adapt quickly to new projects and contexts and to pick up new tasks to help your teams, and ultimately your clients, to achieve their goals.
• A sense of care and Connection in your work; the desire to truly understand your clients and their communities; and to support your project teams personally and professionally.
• Some experience in, or exposure to, academic research with a sincere desire to explore a career in research and evaluation.
• A recent (2023 or 2024) bachelors degree.
• Experience with Tableau or R programming language is highly desired.
• Bilingual in English and Spanish is a plus.

In 90 days you will have:

• Completed our on-boarding process to learn about how our business operates, how consulting in research and evaluation works, and the tools and systems we use to manage and execute our projects.
• Received your initial project assignments, learned about key project goals and deliverables, and understand your specific role supporting the project.
• Met with your internal mentor for the year and developed a plan with the goals you hope to achieve through your fellowship.
• Begin contributing directly to projects and working with your project teams.
• Participated in our annual in-person fellowship week, where you will have the opportunity to meet with senior OMNI staff, connect with your cohort of fellows (likely 2 to 3 total), connect with OMNI’s 2nd year fellows, and spend time learning and participating in career development opportunities.

Some of what you will do as a Fellow:

• Meet with OMNI’s leadership team to explore and understand their unique career pathways.
• Participate in career learning opportunities provided by OMNI’s internal learning and development team, other research staff, and other external resources and advisors.
• Make tangible contributions to consulting projects, such as:
• Taking team notes in meetings, documenting next steps, and following up on tasks
• Reviewing and processing survey results
• Helping to clean and analyze data
• Managing and updating project work plans and timelines with your project leads; drafting, as appropriate, summary communications, agendas, or other project progress documents.
• Managing project research incentives
• Contributing to and editing deliverables
• Attend client meetings with project leads; shadow leadership team members in client or proposal meetings; support staff leading stakeholder interview processes in focus groups, community meetings, or other direct interactions with community stakeholders.
• Engage in internal projects that support OMNI’s consulting business, including supporting proposal processes, market research, and other internal projects.

We are an equal opportunity workplace and believe a diverse team is fundamental to living our core values. We encourage people from underrepresented backgrounds to apply, particularly people of color, those who identify as LGBTQ+, those who were the first in their families to attend college, and those from low-income backgrounds.

https://www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit-internship/95c6722e71774abd9ad4f2ad6639a911-research-fellowship-omni-institute-denver?utm_source=symplicity&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=listings-api