Strategy & Special Projects Intern

About the Community Economic Defense Project (CEDP) & CED Law 

Our Mission

We partner with low-income and working people to build economic and racial equity. We do this by confronting economic abuse and investing in community wealth. We use an ever-evolving set of legal, economic and advocacy tools to challenge and dismantle unjust systems, building quickly towards a world where all people have what they need to live and thrive. 

Our Organization

The Community Economic Defense Project (CEDP) is a Colorado-based nonprofit. Launched in 2020 as the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project, our organization was formed to keep our neighbors housed during the pandemic. Working with clients, we built a deeply integrative approach to eviction, foreclosure, and homelessness prevention that centers the legal and financial needs of housing-insecure families and uses a variety of tools to keep them housed. 

Our team now serves more than 1,000 people per month, bringing together housing lawyers, economists, data analysts, policy-experts, organizers, and technologists to serve our clients. We have served more than 68,000 low-income Coloradans across 54 counties, distributing more than $280 million in emergency assistance. We have also contributed to the passage of major legislation to prevent eviction, stop economic abuse, and make credit and life-saving medication cheaper.  CEDP’s model has been cited as a best practice by the White House and HUD in 2022-2023, think tanks like the Urban Institute, and in the media.

Building on our work to stop evictions, CEDP has further expanded its integrated services model to include disaster response, predatory towing, debt collection, benefit access & navigation, long-term rental assistance, and homelessness response. Similar to CEDP’s work on rental housing, these efforts offer a continuum of care that includes navigation and advisory services, targeted payments, legal support, and the ability to participate in advocacy.

More about the Strategy & Special Projects Intern Role:

We are seeking a Strategy & Special Projects Intern to help CEDP scale emerging initiatives, make data-driven decisions, and raise funding for critical programming. In this role, your focus will be on short-term, high-impact analyses and business development projects with a bias toward measuring program outcomes and discovering, sizing, and implementing new revenue opportunities for CEDP.

You will manage, plan, and execute key initiatives that align with the organization's broader mission to build economic and racial justice. Examples of projects led by this role could include: building scorecards to measure the efficacy of our housing and supportive services work; drafting communications and marketing collateral for a new loan program; or drafting a major federal grant application in partnership with senior program leaders. These projects will leverage analytical and technology skills, as well as interpersonal and presentation skills.

You will be a close collaborator with the leadership team and attend leadership meetings where you will learn first-hand how to build, run, and scale a social impact start-up. You will work closely with the CEO, VP of New Ventures, VP of Program Operations, and others on revenue opportunities, data analysis, and programs. Our CEO and VP of New Ventures are former management consultants; they understand how to offer the opportunity to achieve maximum impact, and will invest heavily in the individual’s professional development.

In this role you will:

• New Ventures Support (35%)
  
  
  
  
  • Help scape new, innovative programs that focus on economic justice, housing, and community wealth-building for low-income and working people
  
  
  • Build and execute on roadmaps for New Ventures initiatives, including proprietary software tools, contract services for government agencies, and lending activities
  
  
  • Support administrative activities such as contract review, grant reporting, and other communication needs
  
  
  • Facilitate fundraising efforts to finance the development and growth of New Ventures
    
  
  
  
  


• Business Development (35%)
  
  
  
  • Author proposals, review contracts, assess pricing, and provide negotiation support for emerging opportunities
  
  
  • Build pitch decks and demo materials for investors, funders, and external stakeholders
  
  
  • Source new contracts and sales opportunities (e.g., government bids) and perform supporting analysis to shape pricing structures and other commercial terms
  
  
  • Author drafts of grant applications, including research on the housing landscape, legal aid for renters, and the effectiveness of public human services programs
  
  
  • Conduct market research to help us understand the fundraising ecosystem, target high-priority funders, and inform our organization’s development strategy
    
  
  
  
  


• Analytics & Data (20%) 
  
  
  
  • Build data pipelines and dashboards to monitor key program metrics and outcomes (e.g., daily, weekly, and monthly call center performance dashboards)
  
  
  • Perform analyses in service of strengthening fundraising narratives and compiling grant reports requested by funders
  
  
  • Analyze the efficacy of CEDP’s work to measure short-term efficacy and longitudinal progress (e.g., housing stabilization after 12+ months) for our clients
  
  
  • Support program, policy, and other internal analytics needs on an ad hoc basis 
  
  
  
  


• Public Policy (10%) 
  
  
  
  • Contribute directly to CEDP’s policymaking agenda by researching and drafting proposed bills related to eviction and foreclosure prevention
  
  
  • Attend legislative sessions at the State Capitol and shadow CEDP courthouse clinics when opportunities are available
  
  
  
  

Position Requirements: 

• 2+ years professional experience in management consulting, BizOps, corporate strategy, or equivalent roles


• Be currently enrolled in an accredited graduate program


• Be eligible to receive academic credit or participate in a school-sponsored internship program


• A background working with diverse communities and a diverse set of stakeholders


• Passion for social impact and mission-oriented work


• A bias towards building and a comfort with strengthening a minimum viable product


• Comfort with ambiguity in a fast-paced, all-hands-on-deck environment


• Outstanding analytical and problem-solving skills and facility with numbers and data


• Strong oral communications skills and the ability to influence leaders through logic, data, and presentation skills


• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to manage complex stakeholder environments


• Exceptional analytical ability in Excel and data science skills are a plus


• Proficiency and/or experience with CRMs such as HubSpot or Salesforce is preferred
  

Why Us?

• We are a social enterprise with a sustainable business model focused on one of the most important issues in society – keeping people in their homes and maintaining access to affordable housing
  


• Opportunity for local involvement while making a statewide and even a national impact


• Unlimited growth potential within the organization


• The opportunity to step into a new organization six years after its founding and play a substantial role in its growth
  
  

Additional Details: 

• Preference will be given to individuals residing in Colorado, ideally within the greater Denver Metro area
  


• The estimated internship duration will be 10-12 weeks 


• Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis but must be received by May 1st, 2026


• The estimated time to complete the recruitment process will be by May 15th, 2026
  


• As in-person work is required, all employees at CEDP & CED Law are expected to maintain current vaccination status in keeping with CDC recommendations.


• CEDP is an equal opportunity employer, committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.