Justice Fellowship

 The Justice Fellowship at Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI) introduces early-career professionals from communities that have traditionally faced challenges accessing capital or business ownership opportunities to the work of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) and entrepreneurship development, with a focus on rural regions and small cities. 

The Fellowship program will welcome a cohort of 2-3 Fellows to work at CEI, with a start date of September 22, 2025, through September 30, 2026. This is a one-year, full-time, benefit-eligible position with a salary of $56,000 a year and substantive opportunities for growth and networking in the CDFI industry.

You will work with a sponsoring team to develop and carry out a project that supports CEI’s work growing good jobs, livelihoods and diverse small business ownership using the tools of community development finance in rural communities. You will also experience valuable opportunities for professional development, mentorship, and networking, including attendance to the Opportunity Finance Network Conference from October 20 - 23 in Washington, D.C. along with members of the CEI team.

Positions for the Justice Fellowship 2025-2026 are: 

Business Development Services (BDS) Fellow: CEI's Business Development Services team provides advice, non-financial support and tools to help Maine entrepreneurs start and grow their small businesses. As we improve our processes and get familiar with new systems and tech, your project will focus on data integrity, validity, consistency, and analysis; ensuring that CEI’s Business Development Services data is collected, maintained, and presented in alignment with our organizational mission and intentionality. This will be achieved through continuous improvements and system development in Salesforce, aimed at ensuring data integrity, providing data analysis, enhancing operational and administrative processes, and administering and analyzing client satisfaction surveys across the BDS team. This approach will help determine if our efforts achieve the desired outcomes.Moreover, improved systems in Salesforce will help align efforts across CEI, both in BDS' impact and role within sector work, as well as in our ongoing efforts to streamline intake and support of lending and advising clients into the CEI support network. 

This Fellowship will support you in the Salesforce education with training, and obtaining the Salesforce Associate Certification if you wish to pursue it. You will understand how to review, correct and validate large amounts of data, and will offer strategic suggestions on improvements and processes to ensure the data is both accurate and 'clean' for periodic reporting. You will also draft standard operating procedures for data entry and validation, as well as conduct internal training on these topics. This Fellowship will require a data analyst with experience in data management using databases, word processing, spreadsheets, and experience working with adult learners (your teammates). As a Fellow you must have excellent organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills, the ability to prioritize multiple tasks. Experience with any CRM system is required, and knowledge of Saleforce is preferred. 

CEI Ventures Fellow: The primary focus of this role will be to assist in the creation of our sixth social and environmental impact venture capital fund. This will be an opportunity to learn about the impact of venture capital business and how we raise funds for it; we expect to be in fundraising and development mode and the Justice Fellow will help with presentations, research of potential investors and preparation of data requests. Additional duties might entail supporting various business operations in support of the sixth venture capital investment fund. 

CEI Ventures, Inc., a subsidiary of CEI, is a Maine-based community development venture capital firm dedicated to social and environmental impact. Since 1994, CEI Ventures, Inc. has been investing in companies that generate positive returns for both investors and communities nationwide, with a focus on Maine and Northern New England.

In this role, you will gain hands-on experience in the venture capital industry, contribute to the creation of a fund that aims to drive positive social impact, work with a team of experienced professionals dedicated to innovation and equity, and will find opportunity for professional growth and development.

As a Justice Fellow, you will work closely with our investment team to support the development and launch of our sixth fund, collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to gather necessary information and insights, assisting in the drafting and reviewing of key documents, including fund structure, investment strategy, risk factors, and financial projections, as well in the preparation of supporting documentation and marketing materials.

Open Project Option: We want to hear your ideas about how CEI can boost community development or reduce barriers facing entrepreneurs in Maine or rural regions nationally. Our entrepreneurial spirit goes beyond providing financing and business advice to our clients and community members. We believe in innovation, and most importantly, we believe in the power of your perspective.  If neither of the fellowship positions above is a match for you and you have an alternative proposal for how, as a one-year Justice Fellow, you could work with our team to make a lasting impact advancing economic opportunity and equity through community development finance in the rural regions CEI serves, we would welcome hearing your idea for a project that you could carry out during your one-year fellowship at CEI.  Our decision to accept an “open option” Justice Fellow will be based on the potential of your proposal (please describe your project idea in one page or less), its alignment with CEI’s mission, and CEI identifies a willing sponsor for the project from the CEI team.