Summer Intern

Undergraduate Student

About Robin Hood 

Founded in 1988, Robin Hood finds, fuels, and creates the most impactful and scalable solutions lifting families out of poverty in New York City. The largest poverty fighting organization in New York City, Robin Hood partners with top nonprofits in New York City and invests in legal services, housing, meals, workforce development training, education programs, and other vital services that give New Yorkers in need the tools they need to build better lives. The programs it funds are often the first of their kind and serve as demonstration models to identify what works before being replicated in other cities. Because its Board of Directors covers 100% of all administrative, fundraising, and evaluation costs, every dollar donated goes directly to organizations helping New Yorkers in need.

While Robin Hood's primary focus is on New York, its impact extends far beyond the borders of the city. Its pioneering, metrics-based approach has become the gold standard for charities around the nation as Robin Hood works to understand and evaluate the impact of its partners to ensure that its philanthropic dollars are utilized to maximum impact. Robin Hood also supports its community partners and their leaders with financial and strategic support and management assistance that allows those organizations to maximize their impact.

Building on our 35 years of experience, Robin Hood is expanding our impact with an explicit focus on lifting families sustainably and measurably out of poverty through supporting the most effective community partners; influencing public policy; raising our thought leadership profile; importing and exporting effective ideas and strategies nationally; and building new collaborations with strategic partners. As New York City emerges from the worst of the global pandemic, we are focused on getting families back on their feet; getting kids back on track; and getting New Yorkers back to work.

Robin Hood also understands that if we are to support families living in poverty and find permanent pathways out of poverty and towards financial independence, we must become an effective partner with government, especially at the City and State levels. We do this by leveraging the expertise of those who are closest to the challenges of poverty, including community members, community-based organizations, and others with specialized skills and knowledge. We also aim to collaborate with New York City government to fund program and policy innovations that hold the promise of expanding economic opportunity in New York City – providing nimble "risk capital" for high-potential strategies. In this way, we seek to leverage our philanthropic investments by finding ways to advance the highest-impact strategies at scale.

Given its long-standing reputation among influencers and support of roughly over 200 New York City non-profit organizations annually, Robin Hood has the unique ability to be a catalyzing force for households experiencing poverty, bringing distinct constituencies together to develop and spread the most effective strategies to advance economic mobility in New York City and beyond. 

Position Overview

Robin Hood is constantly searching for innovative approaches to poverty fighting. This position is a critical part of our research, development and grantmaking endeavors. Undergraduate interns act as members of the program department; assisting Robin Hood's team leaders in the completion of discrete projects and initiatives. They will also be involved in conducting analyses and due diligence across several issue areas. Undergraduate interns will work in partnership with program department staff to support the needs of the organizations we fund. This may include conducting needs assessments and providing input on recommendations on a variety of decisions, investments or field-building and management assistance efforts that we are considering. The undergraduate intern will have robust exposure to strategies for poverty alleviation, proposal assessments and grant-making determinations, and a variety of nonprofit management issues.

Potential initiatives include assessing organizations or interventions we could support or launch, solving operational challenges for community partners, tackling, and presenting evaluation matters and results through examining and analyzing data, or creating a new methodology to measure or forecast Impact or helping to project manage efforts already in place. There may also be strategy projects or assessment projects for Robin Hood and its community partners, including exploring the success of a post effort, or investigating new approaches to revenue generation, asset management or cost analysis. Past projects have included assessing new funding opportunities in the community college system, the public housing system, and the ed/tech field, examining the successes and challenges of earned income efforts, developing a pilot program in the shared economy, building a tool for sharing our program metrics with stakeholders and facilitating a merger among our portfolio organizations.

Summer intern program will take place for 10 weeks from June 8, 2026 – August 13, 2026. Interns will be required to work from the office three days per week with Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays as the mandatory "in-office" workdays.  

Responsibilities

The undergraduate intern will be placed on a team within one of Robin Hood's Departments (Program, Policy, Bespoke Initiatives, Communications, Development or Administration) to work on 1-3 defined projects within the vertical. The intern will see the effort through from development to conclusion including:

• Developing a detailed work plan, laying out the optimal activities and a timeline to facilitate Robin Hood's decision-making over the course of the assignment.
• Envisioning, designing, and executing a data collection strategy including surveys, interviews, focus groups, financial analysis and secondary research.
• Synthesizing findings and developing recommendations with a clearly articulated rationale, including benefits/costs or rate of return information.
• Supporting the development of action plans with next steps and timelines.
• Preparing and presenting final work product.

Qualifications

• B.A. or B.S. candidate with commitment to social justice, human services and urban affairs and an interest in focusing on strategy development, research and analysis and policy matters and/or administration in social services, non-profit and government sectors.
• Strong project management abilities
• Ability to structure and analyze qualitative and quantitative data and draw insightful conclusions. Ability to synthesize and present, in written and verbal form, persuasive and compelling arguments using information from multiple, diverse sources.
• Strong abilities in critical thinking, succinct writing and oral presentation.
• Probing curiosity. Interest and aptitude for projects involving social ventures.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Robin Hood is committed to promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and representation in all aspects of its work. As New York City's largest poverty-fighting organization, Robin Hood believes that building a diverse team is fundamental to its ability to effectively serve and strengthen organizations serving the most vulnerable communities in the city, and to influence the policies that affect them.

Robin Hood believes in the potential that diversity creates – deep and responsive relationships with its community partners; the ability to solve complex problems efficiently and effectively; and, most importantly, the ability of its diverse staff to work to its full capacity.

Robin Hood builds diversity, inclusion, and equity practices into all aspects of its work. Its practices, values, traditions, and beliefs are embedded in the inclusive culture that it creates. Operationally, its formal and informal structures support a work environment that advances the professional development of staff at all levels, allows for innovation, and grounds its work as poverty fighters.

In its workplace, diversity equals representation. Robin Hood seeks to attract and retain a staff that reflects the communities that it serves. Racial and ethnic diversity matter to it, as does diversity among other cultural identifiers (ability, educational background, generation, gender, gender expression religion, immigration status, military status, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status).

Diversity within Robin Hood's staff is enhanced by its efforts at meaningful inclusion. It ensures that team members are empowered to make decisions, offer actionable feedback, and share credit for team success. Further, Robin Hood seeks to develop its talent professionally and has created an intentional focus on mentorship and sponsorship, particularly of junior staff. its goal is to encourage long term talent retention and engagement, while fostering a culture of innovation. 

Robin Hood Guiding Principles

As an organization committed to economic mobility, our work is grounded in the following Guiding Principles :

• Diversity, equity, and inclusion 
• Proximity and humanity
• Risk-taking and innovation

Our professional community reflects myriad demographic characteristics, perspectives, and backgrounds, which includes various identities that reflect diversity in gender identity and expression, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, ability, and socioeconomic status.  Our colleagues have access to opportunity and advancement, as we promote fair and equitable treatment and have encouraged participation by underrepresented groups. As a team, we promote a sense of belonging, high levels of engagement, and shared respect.

• Robin Hood puts people first. Always.
• Robin Hood is unafraid to take action and create solutions.
• Robin Hood is data driven and heart led.
• Robin Hood works the coat check.

Robin Hood is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants from diverse backgrounds and identities are encouraged to apply.