Internship: The Work

Korrin B.

June 10, 2010 - 7:04 PM

I am nearing the end of my first week interning with The Carter Center in Atlanta and am already amazed with the many directions this opportunity has presented me. I have learned things in terms of culture, socializing, nonprofit theory, on the job tasks, and many more. Therefore, I have decided that initially, the best approach to this blog is to split my internship up into the different learning points that create its entirety. I'm not always the type to be super into structure like this and, on general principle, prefer a more creative approach to my blog, but we'll see how this goes. First topic, well, the work.

I am interning in the Major Gifts division of the Development Department. The team that I am now a part of is in charge of researching potential and current donors, so that The Center can more easily cultivate relationships with them. Our group organizes our findings into reports to provide to giving officers and even President Jimmy Carter himself!

So far, I have completed one project and am beginning another. My first project involved doing some research on one of The Center's recent donors and creating a report on their relationship to different businesses, foundations, people, etc. I also looked at other places this individual had donated before and explored the history of The Center's correspondence with them. I learned right off the bat that this type of work involves a lot of potentially sensitive material. It is important to maintain high ethical standards when doing this type of work.

This was a very fun project for me as it opened my eyes to how much information is really out there and how so many things connect. I love doing research projects for my classes at the UO for similar reasons. Once you start looking into one topic, you easily find so many articles, books, websites, and more that are all interesting and all related. It gets to the point where you could just go on researching for days and be completely content! Or, maybe that's just me. Regardless, it was a very eye-opening task and I can tell that this position is going to help me, in general, become a better researcher. Any tidbit of information could hold the entire future of an organization's relationship with a donor. I also got to use a few new databases and new software during this project, which was a great learning experience.

The project that I am working on now involves doing some research on different corporate foundations. The Carter Center has a database of all of the organizations and individuals that have given to The Center before. There is also a list, however, of corporate foundations that have not yet given to the organization, but could have potential to. My job is to do the research to see how likely of a candidate they would be to do so and whether they should be added to our more permanent database. I look up information such as who the foundations have given to before, what geographic locations they give to, what their main focuses are, and what their business is about. I then take this information and compile it into a well-organized report to give to my supervisor to review.

Since I have just started, I haven't gotten to do too much work yet, but I have already gotten the hunch that I will be learning some really great skills this summer that I will be able to use in future careers as well. I am also excited because on June 25, The Carter Center is scheduled to have a Board of Councilors meeting. I will have a role in organizing this event - an event that President Jimmy Carter will be attending!

Things that still need to be covered in the blog: socializing with the other interns, orientation, extracurricular intern activities/events, Atlanta, The Carter Center building, the staff, ongoing fabulous stories and adventures through town.