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 of this grant reporting change has yet to be determined, it will hopefully prove more informative to both grantees and Legacy as the grant process will be better examined.
I’ve also enjoyed internally observing Legacy and noticing similarities to topics discussed in my courses at VU. As a Philanthropic Leadership and Service minor, I’ve taken fantastic courses that concentrated on past and present issues in philanthropy. While it’s great conversing in class about these subjects, my learning is heightened through taking part in these experiences. I truly realized the difference between outcomes and outputs, as this is an essential part of grant reporting. I also noticed that money is always a burden to nonprofits, reporting to the Board takes a great amount of effort, and there are dozens of fantastic organizations in this area doing awesome things.
Another neat component of Legacy is its location in Merrillville. By administering grants and scholarships to Lake County organizations and residents, Legacy pursues great opportunities to invest in this community. As a Valpo student, it’s nice to see more of Northwest Indiana and the neat collaborations that are taking place here. Not to mention that Chick-fil-A spontaneously dropped off free mini chicken sandwiches to our staff today for lunch (yes, I am smiling as I write this).
I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to be part of the 2015 CAPS cohort, as this internship has already proved insightful and thought-provoking. I look forward to continued learning at Legacy, as well as stories from other Fellows.