Inventory & Warehouse Coordinator

ABOUT CRADLES TO CRAYONS: Cradles to Crayons® (C2C®) believes that all children deserve the essentials they need to feel safe, warm, ready to learn, and valued. Founded in 2002, Cradles to Crayons provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive—at home, at school, and at play—for free. C2C sets a gold standard of individual, family, and corporate volunteer engagement, and through its “Giving Factories®” provides unique, hands-on opportunities to directly help local families. Headquartered in Boston, MA, C2C opened in Philadelphia in 2007, Chicago in 2016, and New York City via an innovative online platform, Giving Factory Direct, in 2020.
How Our Model Works: Two in five children in the United States—20 million—are at risk of Clothing Insecurity and going without other basic essentials. Through its three Giving Factory warehouses, Cradles to Crayons collects new and nearly new children's clothing, diapers, school supplies, and other essential items through bulk purchases, community and corporate drives, and individual donations. These items are sorted and packaged by volunteers and then distributed through a network of nonprofit service partners, schools, and government programs. Cradles to Crayons is also known for its excellence in volunteer management, providing an efficient and engaging volunteer opportunity for 50,000+ adults and children—ages five and up—annually.
In 2020, Cradles to Crayons completed a strategic planning process to develop a digital solution to accelerate its national reach. The result was the design of an innovative new online platform—Giving Factory Direct (GFD)—which was piloted and built the same year. Donors with children’s clothing log on to GFD to be matched with a child who wears the same size and gender as their donation. The clothing is then packed at the donor’s home and shipped directly to that specific child. In early 2021, GFD launched on a small scale in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and NYC, and will be the primary vehicle for C2C’s national expansion.
Since 2009, Cradles to Crayons has earned Charity Navigator’s highest four star rating every year. Only 1% of charities rated have received this distinction, differentiating C2C from its peers, exemplifying the high standard of service at C2C, and indicating that C2C outperforms most other charities in the United States.
POSITION OVERVIEW: The Inventory & Warehouse Coordinator (The Coordinator) is responsible for inventory control and support for the operations of the Giving Factory (GF) in the Boston market. This role’s primary responsibilities lie within the GF as the lead person to drive inventory integrity to ensure the market is at acceptable levels for weekly production and operation, as well as long term needs. The Coordinator is also responsible for providing information to forecast long-term product and procurement needs. The role is approximately 40 hours per week. The usual roster will be Monday through Friday, with occasional weekend and evening hours. MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Model and lead a positive “One Cradles” culture, underpinned by Cradles’ Cultural Values and related behaviors.
• Inventory support for production in the GF.
• Responsible for restocking key stations to ensure weekly production and demand can be met
• Consolidate raw product in stations to minimize storage containers
• Consolidate and shelve inventory generated in the stations, and facilitate access to the inventory:
  • Totes of sized clothing
  • Off season clothing
  • Kitted items
  • Coats, hats, gloves
  • Shoes
• Administer the collection of inventory data from stations and record electronically.
• Maintain Long Term Storage in an organized, efficient, safe manner.
• Perform and maintain cycle count program to ensure that inventory counts are correct and updated and can be reported and reconciled as needed.
• Assist in Seasonal Swap process inclusive of off-site inventory coordination

Shipping and Receiving:

• Receive all deliveries and shipments that come into the GF and put away any product that gets delivered to dock.
• Check shipping invoices and packing labels for correct counts of product.
• Help prepare product and loading of truck for outgoing deliveries.

Provide support to Operations and Giving Factory production (as needed):

• Perform the duties needed to run the General Sort, Clothing Sort, Sizing, Outfits, Books, Shoes, SUP.
• Assist the Manager of Operations & Safety with the movement, organization and tracking of inventory.
• Order all supplies for GF.
• Organize and restock supply shelves.
• Other duties as assigned.

Other requirements:

• Schedule and optimize volunteer labor for projects.
• Assist operations/overall C2C’s team as needed relative to warehouse operations, volunteer management and special events in and outside of the “Giving Factory”.
• Ability to adapt to the ever-changing high-volume operations center while working in a cross-functional team environment.
• Keep supervisor up to date on areas of responsibility and report problems or issues promptly.
• Always work in a cooperative and productive manner and maintain a safe and secure environment for all staff, volunteers and visitors.
• Complete special projects and miscellaneous assignments as assigned.

PERFORMANCE MEASURES:

• Highest standard of customer service should be maintained.
• Distribution is timely, organized and data accurate.
• Good communication exists with other staff members, volunteers, in-kind donors and distribution partners.
• Work is done in a safe and responsible manner.
• Assistance and support is provided to others as needed.
• Management is properly informed of inventory related activities.
• Functions are completed in accordance with established C2C standards, policies, and procedures.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE/KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS/ABILITIES:

• 1-2 years of experience in a warehouse setting and/or inventory management is required.
• Read, speak, and write fluent English, with good verbal skills.
• Proficiency with Outlook, Word, and Excel and ability to perform basic math functions.
• Demonstrated excellence in organization, attention to detail, ability to follow detailed instructions, and be creative with problem solving.
• Candidates must also be physically capable of walking up and down stairs, standing for long periods of time, and bending, reaching, pushing, pulling and lifting up to 80 lbs.
• Ability to use a pallet jack in a safe manner.

COVID-19 Vaccines Cradles to Crayons has a COVID vaccine requirement for all staff. We are committed to a safe workplace and doing our part to address the pandemic. DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH: Diversity and Inclusiveness are core values at Cradles to Crayons, and we continuously strive to be a team where everyone feels welcome and supported. It is the policy of Cradles to Crayons to provide equal employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information and/or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. Individuals from underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply. WORKING CONDITIONS: This is a warehouse environment and normal changes in temperature are to be expected while working inside the warehouse or outside, on or around the loading dock. There are no hazardous or significantly unpleasant conditions. ACCOMMODATION: In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, it is possible that requirements may be modified to reasonably accommodate disabled individuals. However, no accommodations will be made by Cradles to Crayons which may pose serious health or safety risks to the employee or others, or which impose undue hardships on the organization.

About Cradles To Crayons Inc:

Cradles to Crayons (C2C), founded in 2002, provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive—at home, at school, and at play. We supply clothing, shoes, diapers, school supplies, and more, free of charge. Our vision is that one day all children will have the essentials they need to thrive. Two in 5 kids in the United States are currently facing Clothing Insecurity, going without basic essentials like pants, shoes, diapers, and school supplies during their critical development years. Three of the top 10 reasons kids miss school are rooted in Clothing Insecurity—just one example of the significant short- and long-term social and economic costs when these needs go unmet. Cradles to Crayons keeps Clothing Insecurity at the core of our mission and is the only large-scale nonprofit organization to focus on this resource gap. Since its founding, Cradles to Crayons has distributed more than three million customized packages of essentials to children in Massachusetts, Greater Philadelphia, Chicagoland, NYC, and nationally, through Giving Factory Direct—a first-in-kind online product donation platform launched in 2021. Cradles to Crayons takes a three-pronged approach to mitigating Clothing Insecurity: 1. In-person Engagement—through tens of thousands of children and adults volunteering at our Giving Factory warehouses to sort and package high volumes of new and like-new donations from our communities for our Service Partners to distribute to the children they serve. 2. Online Product Donations—Giving Factory Direct matches product donors directly to children who need the items they have to donate. GFD is currently available in a growing number of communities as we expand our reach nationally. 3. Advocacy and Awareness—Cradles to Crayons is uniquely positioned to raise Clothing Insecurity as a national issue through awareness campaigns, data/evaluation, and legislative outreach. Cradles to Crayons has earned the highest possible rating from Charity Navigator for 13 consecutive years. Only 2% of charities nationwide have received this distinction. C2C has a budget of $12.9M for FY22.