As the summer comes to a close, it is now time to wrap up projects that I have been working on as an intern in the advancement department at Concordia Place. Since my last blog post, I have done a lot of short term projects and a couple of long term projects. One of the highlights from a short term project that I worked on was creating flyers for a gala that Concordia Place is having in November. While I was creating the flyers, I surprised myself because I didn’t think that making flyers would be something that I would enjoy. I actually put flyer making as the last thing for me to do on my to-do list, ironically. I had no idea that I would like it so much! I loved being creative and being able to create different looks to advertise the gala. 

Additionally, in relation to the gala, another task that I was assigned was to research different jazz groups and auctioneers in Chicago to perform at the gala. I also found this to be a fun task because I was able to look at a bunch of different bands and read reviews to see if they would be a good fit for the gala. 

As far as the long term projects, which I am still working on wrapping up, they have been very time consuming. As with any nonprofit organization, funding for programs and projects is a must. There are a lot of different foundations that offer grants and in-kind donations to nonprofits, and there are some foundations more suited to nonprofit organizations than others. One of my long term projects was to do an evaluation on all of the foundations and organizations that Concordia Place is requesting funding from. To do this, I researched all of the foundations and filled out prospect worksheets for each. In the prospect worksheets, there was information such as the foundation’s mission statement, who they give to, how much they give, their priority areas (such as education, human services, arts and culture, etc.), and how to apply for the grant.

As a part of the evaluation process, my job was to produce a list of foundations, based off of my research and the prospect worksheets, that I believed Concordia Place should continue applying to for grants, stop applying to, and foundations that the team should discuss whether or not to continue or discontinue applying for grants. With this long term project, I received the chance to head up a meeting about my findings and that was a great experience for me. 

Coordinating with the foundations evaluation project, I was able to create a grants status calendar for the 2023 fiscal year in Excel. That was a fun experience because I was able to use the excel skills that I learned from a class that I took this past semester in school and apply them to a real life situation. 

I have done a lot of short term projects in my internship throughout the summer and I appreciate the chance because what I was able to learn and experience was more than just fundraising for a nonprofit. I also appreciate the couple of long term projects that I have worked on because they taught me patience and consistency. A lot of times in life, I want things to be done quickly so that I can just get it over with and move on to the next thing. With the long term projects, I wasn’t able to do that because that wasn’t what they were designed for. I had to work to accomplish the task and not throw something feasible together just to say that it’s done. Patience and consistency; that is what I will take away from my time as an intern with Concordia Place.

– Justine Dorsey, Concordia Place