NGO Fundraising/Administration Internship

Tenerife Horse Rescue - NGO Fundraising/Administration Internship

Come and join our fun and "one-of-a-kind" office team on our Eco-sanctuary, where you will be learning about the day to day behind the scene runnings of a grass roots NGO, helping us to raise money and develop our fundraising and administration strategies, and living as part of vibrant community all dedicated to sustainable living and animal welfare.

Volunteering is a fun and hands on way to immerse yourself in a field of interest, invest in an area you want to pursue for study or simply a way to give back.

The ideal Office and Fundraising Intern needs to be enthusiastic, willing to learn, ready for a challenge and has the desire to take initiative in various roles from fundraising, to social media, to general administration. Care, commitment and patience are important qualities! 

The ideal candidate will have a passion for animal welfare, some experience in an office based or online environment and the motivation to chase projects, and WANT to meet the targets we set them, or they set themselves! The roles that you will be adopting in the team will generally be based around your motivation, and your areas of strengths, and you will be supported all along by the CEO, and other members of staff. 

Basics conversational Spanish is not required for this position, but is a HUGE advantage, helping us to continue to reach out further within our community.

You will be working with the office team in the day, and relaxing in our beautiful luxury Mongolian yurt by the evening, with your own private kitchen, bathroom and living space to enjoy.

As we are on an animal sanctuary, please be aware that dogs, cats and even chickens and a runaway donkey (!) can all be visitors into our office space, so you must be comfortable working around animals, and happy to have to brush the occasional cat off your keyboard :) 

About Us

We started as a couple with a dream to create a small self-sufficient Eco Horse and Animal Sanctuary in 2018. We are now a registered charity with over 6500 acres, volunteers from all over the world, and an even bigger 'finca' family of over 400 animals, including 22 horses and 3 donkeys.

• *Our Mission; To give a voice to animals who cannot speak for themselves, and a safe place in a sustainable eco-sanctuary providing education and collaboration with like minded associations to change the future of animal welfare forever.
• *Our Vision; To see animals living species appropriate lives, relaxed and free, no longer used, abused or exploited for recreational pleasure.
• *Our Values; To always make decisions that align with our mission, putting the needs of our animals first. Fighting for animal rights and law reform, and educating and inspiring others to join the fight with us.

We first opened as a horse charity, until we saw how greatly we were needed by many other animals on the Island, so we started to open our doors to a wide and wonderful variety of abandoned pets, stray cats and dogs, and rescued farm animals, from goats, to pigs, to Guinea pigs, to bearded dragons! 

Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do, and our ENTIRE sanctuary (or 'finca') is built from clay, scrap wood and metal, and waste material. We eat "freegan" as all of our food comes from supermarket and farm waste, and have an incredible kitchen team who turns all that "waste" into incredible meals for us twice a day. We also boast some amazing regenerative systems to keep us sustainable, such as our solar, wind turbines and water systems. We turn all of our food waste to compost, and even use all of our horse manure to heat the hot water pipes for our showers, we're like a sustainability power house!

Our project is beautiful but hard work, we get the balance of working as a team to make it happen but enjoying the experience of back to basic living. As we live in a community based on animal welfare and sustainable living you must be passionate about this and happy to live in a sustainable way without luxuries. We rely on animal and nature lovers to add their own beautiful ideas into this project, help us to grow and expand and leave behind their personal touch and legacy to keep the dream alive for many years to come.

We have up to 40 amazing volunteers coming and going from here at any one time, who all speak a great variety of languages, but to keep things simple we all communicate together for work in English. The age range can vary, our youngest volunteer was little Leo aged 8, at the same time as Roberto our 72 year old gardener!

Working in the office can be intense and mentally challenging and although we welcome people from all ranges of professional or non-professional backgrounds, a hard-working attitude will take you further here than a lot of previous experience that you might have. Tenerife Horse Rescue celebrates diversity from all areas, so please let us know before booking if you have specific needs or disabilities so we can discuss the possibilities and come to a conclusion that is inclusive but also guarantees everyone’s safety.

Community Living

We have an on-boarding video "How to Finca" for new volunteers to watch when they arrive here which explains our most important community rules. Most of these are common sense, but many that are in line with our morals connected to sustainable living.

To use as an example, every responsible adult understands that it's important to clean up after themselves, but not everyone is used to not throwing toilet paper down the toilet. We have a very sensitive septic system which is damaged by toilet paper and towels, so we provide bins to use in the bathroom which are changed daily. Following these important rules such as this are essential to keeping our community running smoothly; every hour a volunteer needs to spend unclogging the drains with toilet paper is another hour wasted that can be used to care for our animals, or build our sanctuary. You might find it a bit rustic living in such a way to start, but we are all here to support each other and make your transition in as smooth as possible. :) 

Language

On the finca we communicate with each other in English for work so that everyone can always understand. However there are many different languages being spoken here and we encourage each other to practise if you feel comfortable :) There are parts of the Island where English is a lot more commonly spoken, but it's always nice to have a little bit of basics before you come to feel more comfortable and make a bit of an effort with the locals!

No typical day is the same in our amazing office which is the beauty of it; we maintain a structure to keep things organised but you must always be prepared for a sudden plan change, a new rescue animal arrival or a phone call requiring immediate outreach.

Generally, the NGO Administration volunteers & interns observe and assist the CEO and the other office staff with basic office work, as well as in-community project support and administrative work and the coordination and supervision of our outreach programmes and fundraising events. 

However you may come with your own different ideas and niche, and we fully support listening and adapting your duties based around the skills that you can bring to our table. Most importantly, as a volunteer and intern you will furthermore help to ensure the wellbeing and safety of the animals we rescue, and help us to secure their futures.

Activities can include but are not limited to:

• Assisting with the coordination of volunteers, including conducting meetings 
• Giving a guided tour to our many visitors and influencers!
• Supporting the day-to-day running of the NGO and organising meetings with local companies, influencers and community members.
• Shadowing the director/coordinator in general administration and day-to-day tasks
• Working in financial accountability tasks such as financial planning and budgeting
• Attending operational meetings to discuss events at the sanctuary
• Participating in and remaining informed of all the sanctuary's programs and campaigns.
• Assisting the Social Media team with updating social media networks, content creation and story telling.
• Helping promote our cause online and practicing fundraising through social media, grant writing and dipping into corporate fundraising.
• Helping to create content and assisting with our monthly newsletter
• Activities for advanced Spanish speakers: Working on public relation projects designed to mobilize community support. These include, but are not limited to: radio broadcasts, participating in neighborhood council meetings, writing bulletins/columns, organizing community projects, working with locals to find new volunteer opportunities, translating newsletters and website information into Spanish.
  
  Whilst the typical working hours are from 9:00 to 14:30 pm, on occasion some of our office volunteers might have zoom meetings with international companies in the evenings, so can therefore start an hour later to make up for it. You might also spend your weekend attending an event in the name of Tenerife Horse Rescue, and could therefore switch a day in the week to make up for it. Generally the office team is better when we are united and bouncing ideas off each other, but you still have that flexibility to keep things fair.

There are many beautiful things you can do on the Island of Tenerife in your free time.