Nearing completion of my third week at Legacy Foundation, it’s nice to pause and reflect on the first portion of my internship as a CAPS Fellow. Prior to starting, I wasn’t particularly knowledgeable of Legacy’s work; in fact, my understanding of community foundations was fairly nonexistent. Thankfully, I’ve learned quite a bit so far. As my internship focuses on grant-making research and evaluation, my first project dealt with restructuring Legacy’s grant report form. I quickly discovered that grant reporting is a very critical component of the grant process, and must therefore be structured well in order to accurately measure outcomes. After researching several key questions that other foundations ask on their forms, I soon developed questions that Legacy could use. In addition to typical qualitative questions, Legacy seeks to evaluate specific data pertaining to grant effectiveness; in other words, quantitative questions must be incorporated in this process. Though the value […]

Throughout my first week working at the extremely friendly corporate office of National Lutheran Communities and Services, I have had the chance to get to know many of my coworkers. Of everyone I have established a relationship with, the person I have come to know most and the deepest relationship I have formed is with my supervisor Dan. Dan has many phrases and acronyms that he uses consistently, both in meetings and in daily conversations. Everyone playfully calls them “Dan-isms.” One phrase that he has said multiple times since we have joined his team, whether to us interns, his coworkers, or in business meetings with other high level executives is that he has the greatest job description of anyone; he gets paid to dream. As the Chief Strategist Officer of NLCS, a rapidly expanding nonprofit organization owning three nursing communities and building a fourth, Dan certainly has a lot to dream […]

I’ve been an intern at EMPOWER Porter county for a little over two weeks now and I feel like I’ve already really gotten in the groove of things. My desk is equipped with everything I could possibly need (pens, sticky notes, stapler, paper clips, WhiteOut, and, of course, granola bars). While EMPOWER Porter County was my first pick for an internship this summer, I was slightly bummed that I’d be in Valpo all summer. I was born and raised, and am still being educated in this town. When I got to the office, however, all of my fears disappeared. The EMPOWER Porter County office is tucked right downtown at the corner of Franklin and Jefferson in a office building. So I got to stay in my hometown and still get the slightly city vibe that I thought I’d be missing out on. Sure, downtown Valpo is no Chicago or DC, […]