About Alliance for Smiles
Alliance for Smiles is a registered 501c3 nonprofit with a mission to forever improve the lives of children and communities impacted by cleft by providing free, comprehensive treatment while building local capacity for long-term care.
It's little known that children born with cleft conditions in many countries face tremendous physical, emotional, and social challenges. Approximately one in ten are killed by their own families or communities for being born with the condition, as it is often considered a curse or spiritual punishment. Those who survive have difficulty breastfeeding, are prone to other serious medical conditions, and are often shunned, bullied, abused, or abandoned.
The solution is a relatively quick surgery (often around one hour) after which the children’s lives and opportunities are transformed forever. Unfortunately, most of them do not live in areas where trained surgeons are available, and if they do, the surgeries are often unaffordable.
That’s where Alliance for Smiles (AfS) comes in, offering free surgeries for children impacted by cleft lip and palate in underserved regions of the world, training the medical teams that serve them, and establishing Treatment Centers to provide long-term, sustainable care for these patients.
AfS and its medical work is powered by a lean team & board, along with almost one thousand volunteers, including both medical and non-medical volunteers. We’d love for you to join us in this life-changing work!
About the role:
Change lives forever with Alliance for Smiles!
At AfS, we are passionate about transforming the course of children’s lives, one smile at a time. We’ve provided surgeries for over 7,000 children to date, and none of that would’ve been possible without the incredible support of some amazing volunteers. Join us in this mission!
Event/Gala Internship: Every year, Alliance for Smiles recognizes & celebrates a few key people who make the magic happen at our annual "Night of Smiles" fundraising gala. This includes people who have volunteered with our organization, raised or provided funds for our life-changing surgeries, or gone above and beyond for the children & communities we serve.
The gala also helps us fundraise to continue providing surgeries for children in underserved areas of the world and training/equipment for the local medical teams who serve them. We do this through 1) an online campaign, 2) an online auction, and 3) an online event. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this was a glamorous in-person event, but for the time being, as you can see - we’ve shifted to online.
It’s fun & action packed, and though it takes months of work in the lead up, the whole event is over in about an hour.
We need people onboard to help us:
- Reach out to individuals & businesses to help get donated items to include in our silent auction or bring on sponsors
- Create and edit short videos we’ll screen during the event
- Assist in tracking donations/pledges before & during the event
We have a great team and gala committee working on this, and we all step up to help out - so it’s a very fun and collaborative project/event to work on. If you have time, energy, and/or skills - we’d love it if you’d join us!
Our internships are part- to full-time (approx. 10-40 hours/week; depending on availability, and this one will end in early to mid-May. Scheduling is flexible.
While internships with AfS are unpaid, it is possible to receive a small stipend to cover any relevant costs. Normally, interns are provided a desk, computer, etc at our office in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco, however, the AfS team is currently working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
About you
Internship candidates should:
- Be a minimum of 18 years of age
- Be fluent in English; additional languages are a bonus, as we partner with communities around the world
- Be able to commit to a minimum of 8-10 hours per week through early to mid-May
- Be empathetic, socially aware, and values driven
- Be open-minded, flexible, and ready to have fun with a small, friendly, and high impact team
- Be excited to be a part of this wonderful annual event!
About the benefits
An internship with AfS will give you hands-on learning with a lean, resourceful team of dedicated, friendly staff, who are committed to changing and saving children’s lives who have been impacted by cleft conditions. While this role is an unpaid internship, there are still some great benefits for our volunteers.
You will:
- Gain experience working with an established and meaningful international 501c3 nonprofit
- Work with a manager/mentor to undertake an/or design projects that help you hone the personal and professional skills you want to develop to continue your career development
- Be part of a large community of people committed to an inspiring mission, and join the many social events and networks that come with it
- References for successful candidates; we love to help our interns create & showcase projects that will help them further their career goals and learn the skills they need to succeed
Learn more at www.allianceforsmiles.org . If interested, please send your resume and cover letter to info@allianceforsmiles.org . Feel free to call (415) 647-4881 with any questions and thank you for considering a role with us!
A diverse and inclusive workplace where we learn from each other is an integral part of AfS culture. We actively welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives. We are an equal opportunity employer and a great place to work. Join us and help us achieve our life-changing mission!