Although many people don’t realize it, almost every non-profit organization spends a considerable amount of time and resources on raising money. Some call it development, and others call it fundraising. Whatever you call it, it’s time and resources that charitable organizations have to direct towards something other than their missions. Global Impact is a non-profit organization that makes it its mission to raise money and awareness for other non-profit organizations. With the money that it raises, Global Impact works directly with U.S. based international organizations to help the world’s most vulnerable people. Despite the fact that Global Impact is all about fundraising, they still think that it’s important to limit administrative costs, which is why they’re able to give away 88% of the money that they raise while only 5.3% of their spending goes to administration and fundraising. Much of Global Impact’s proficiency in fundraising comes from their participation in and promotion of workplace giving programs. Global Impact is very selective about where their money goes, so member organizations are expected to meet very specific criteria before they are able to receive funds. Global Impact has Continue reading about Global Impact…
If you’ve been paying attention over the past few weeks, you may have noticed that I recently moved to Chicago. I’m trying to make a list of things to do and places to see, and one of the attractions that I’m excited to visit is the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. It’s exactly what you’d expect a nature museum to be – they have butterflies, praying mantises, and water snakes. They have all kinds of exhibitions and special programs that include daily animal feedings. It looks like a wonderful day to visit, and it also looks like a fantastic place to have an internship. And in case you were wondering Peggy Notebaert is the wife of Richard Notebaert, the CEO of Qwest, who donated $5 million to the construction of the museum with the stipulation that it be named after her (we really had to dig to find that). Continue reading about Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum…
Just because you’re in your last few years of school doesn’t mean that you have to be done with educational development. Even if you haven’t studied education for a second, you must have picked up something with 15-16 years in the educational system. At the very least you’ve lived in a thriving society, and you understand how education, health, civil society and economic development are the keys to a better life. Maybe you take these things for granted, but once you see what the non-profit Academy for Educational Development is doing, you’ll get a better understanding for how innovative solutions can help solve critical social and economic problems. AED has programs that focus on 7 specific areas – Education, Enterprise & Economic Development, Environment & Energy, Health, HIV/AIDS, Leadership & Democracy, and Youth – and they also take 7 different approaches – Behavior Changes, Gender, Partnerships, Research & Evaluation, Social Marketing, Technology Applications, and Training. It may sound like they have their hands full, and they do. AED is running “more than 250 programs serving people in all 50 U.S. states and more than 150 countries.” Continue reading about Academy for Educational Development…
Even though we’ve featured two non-profit organizations and their internships every weekend since February, we’ve barely scratched the surface when it comes to non-profits. There are thousands of organizations working to make the world a better place, and their numbers are constantly increasing. This growth has led to more and more non-profit organizations that exist solely to help other non-profits. One example is Globalhood, a New York City based non-profit organization that provides “incubation and consultancy services” with the mission of creating “innovative international development projects by bringing together people and knowledge from across disciplines.” Actually, Globalhood calls itself a “for social profit” not a “non-profit,” but legally it’s still a non-profit. Continue reading about Globalhood…
It’s hard to find an internship when you have so many different interests. You often have to pick one area to focus on and go with it. You can’t, for example, get an internship in marketing with a focus on environmentalism in the publishing industry, can you? Actually, you can. Island Press is a non-profit publisher that prides itself on being a provider of the best new ideas in environmentalism and a trusted source for information and solutions relating to the health of our planet. Every year Island Press publishes “40 new books on such vital topics as conservation biology, marine science, land conservation, green building, sustainable agriculture, climate change, and ecological restoration.” That’s not all that they do though, Island Press’ slate of expert authors and scientists also “host conferences, teach courses, and speak in the community on relevant environmental issues.” They’re an organization that is committed to keeping the world a good place to live, and they’re doing it through one of my favorite mediums – books. Continue reading about Island Press…
As we grow up and start looking for internships that will give us our first taste of the real world, we often fail to realize how easy we’ve had it. Although good grades and getting into college are important, almost all college students who are now looking for internships never had to worry about survival. It was a given. I’m sure that there are some of you reading who had very different experiences, but for most of you one of the biggest life “problems” is figuring out what you’ll do after you graduate. It’s easy to forget that there are millions of children in the world who live each day trying to survive. Save the Children is an international non-profit organization that focuses almost entirely on making the lives of children across the world better. They do so with a focus on 7 main areas: Economic Opportunities, Education, Emergencies, Protection, Health, Hunger and Malnutrition, and U.S. Literacy and Nutrition. Save the Children has spent the last 70 years fighting poverty’s effects on children through their unique self-help approach, and they’re not stopping any time soon. Continue reading about Save the Children…
Since diplomacy is “the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states” according to Wikipedia, one would assume that a diplomat is a representative of a group or state. Independent Diplomat is a non-profit organization that is trying to live outside that definition. Their mission is to provide the knowledge and experience of long time diplomats to countries that are disadvantaged or marginalized to the point that they don’t have the resources to effectively practice diplomacy. Started by a former British diplomat, Independent Diplomat has worked with nations that include Somaliland, Western Sahara, Kosovo, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to prevent and resolve conflict. They’re kind of like management consultants for diplomacy. Continue reading about Independent Diplomat…
Two Sundays ago we wrote about internships with Smokey House Center, a farming cooperative and outdoor classroom in rural Vermont. Today we’re going to take a look at another agriculturally focused non-profit, but today’s organization is located in the heart of Oakland. That’s right, City Slicker Farms is all about urban farming. Their mission is to “increase food self-sufficiency in West Oakland by creating organic, sustainable, high-yield urban farms and back-yard gardens.” City Slicker Farms is all about enabling people to directly improve their own lives through agriculture. Not only does urban farming provide delicious, nutritious food at a low cost, but it also makes the urban landscape more livable. Continue reading about City Slicker Farms…
When I first heard the name Whole Child International, I was a bit perplexed. I usually take for granted the fact that children are whole. I quickly realized that they mean emotionally whole, not physically whole (although that is important too, I’m sure). Whole Child International is focused on working “in existing children’s institutions to improve the quality of care and help prevent the bleak outcomes that await most children raised in the world’s orphanages.” They first started in Nicaragua, but they are now in El Salvador too. Their goal is to help children in orphanages develop the basic psychological tools that they “need to succeed in school, work, relationships, and families of their own.” They have a distinctive model for institutional change that aims to directly affect the orphanage administration and caregivers so that they can better serve the children in their care. Continue reading about Whole Child International…
A lot of people and organizations think that they know what it takes to keep kids out of trouble. They’ll go on and on about how this or that is the way to keep kids from becoming criminals. Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is a non-profit organization that takes “a hard-nosed look at research on what keeps kids from becoming criminals and put that information in the hands of policy-makers and the public.” They base their action on facts, not feelings, so that they can do the most to make our streets safer and the lives of our youth more meaningful. Continue reading about Fight Crime: Invest in Kids…
We’ve written about Andrew Carnegie’s generosity before on One Day, One Job – we discussed entry level jobs with the Carnegie Corporation of New York back in May. It is just one of many non-profit organizations that bears Carnegie’s name. Another is Carnegie Hall, which Andrew Carnegie built because of his love for music. It’s an architecturally beautiful building in the heart of Manhattan with a storied history and amazing acoustics. It’s also host to approximately 250 performances every year. Carnegie Hall is the “ultimate destination for music lovers across the world,” according to Sanford Weill, the Hall’s Chairman of the Board, and it’s hard to argue with him. Carnegie Hall is all about music at its best, and if you believe strongly in the importance of music, you should consider an internship at Carnegie Hall. Continue reading about Carnegie Hall…
It’s hard for me to imagine growing up without parents. The closest that I ever came to being orphaned was when my mom lost me in Toys ‘R Us for no more than ten minutes. I was about six years old, and when I realized that I couldn’t find my mother, I lost all interest in the thousands of toys surrounding me and frantically ran from aisle to aisle looking for her. It’s amazing how terrifying it can be for a young child to be separated from his or her parents for a short time, which makes it hard to fathom the emotional distress that orphans must go through. Jim Luce could see this distress in the eyes of one boy in an Indonesian orphanage, so he adopted him. His adoption experience gave him the idea to start a surrogate foster care system in developing nations based on the concept of small homes with only four children and a house parent at each dwelling. He wanted to raise orphaned children from toddlers to adulthood the way he was raising his adopted son, so he did it and named his non-profit organization Orphans International. Jim Luce describes the process in a wonderful essay that he wrote for the New York Times. Continue reading about Orphans International…
To most college aged guys the words “men’s health” brings up images of jacked guys on a cover of a magazine that claims that it will help you “Lose Your Gut in 43 Days” and go on the “Red Hot Sex Safari.” Others might think of the retired athletes who now appear in commercials about prostate cancer, but for the most part 20-something males don’t think about health issues too much (and for good reason, most of us are completely healthy). I was taken aback when I started reading Adam Frey’s blog. Adam is a Cornell University (my alma mater) wrestler who competed in the NCAA championships this spring. A few days after his wrestling season finally ended, he was in a horrible car accident, but walked away from it mostly unscathed. He went to the hospital and had some precautionary tests done including a CAT scan. His body was completely unharmed from the accident, but that the doctors discovered that Adam had testicular cancer. Since his diagnosis Adam has been blogging nearly every day about his battle with cancer. His posts are inspirational, and his honesty is sometimes overwhelming. He is doing a fantastic job of bringing light to men’s health issues, much like the Men’s Health Network, which is a non-profit educational organization that aims to “significantly improve the health, longevity, and quality of life or men and their families.” Continue reading about Men’s Health Network…
I bet that you have some friends whom you can listen to for hours – friends who can straight up tell a story. Whenever they speak, people listen. I bet that you also have friends (or quite possibly professors) who can make any story boring, no matter how good the facts of the story actually are. Storytelling is an art, but it’s also a skill that can be learned. It’s essential to making friends, getting internships, and persuading people. Everybody loves a good storyteller, and that’s why StoryCorps, an independent non-profit, is focused on honoring and celebrating people’s lives through listening. Here’s the story on StoryCorps and their internship opportunities. Continue reading about StoryCorps…
After only two years away at college, my family decided to replace me. My sister wanted a new brother, and my parents wanted a new son, so they decided to host an exchange student. They had heard good things about AFS, and our high school had typically hosted an AFS student every other year, so they looked through the book of students whom they thought would be a good fit with our family and picked one from Italy. Luca was a great addition to our family, even if he was supposed to be my replacement. We had a great time with him, and learned a lot. I’m not sure that we did much to achieve AFS’s goal of “building a more just and peaceful world through international student exchange,” but we certainly enjoyed the experience. Continue reading about AFS…
It seems to me that most college students reduce their TV watching when they get to college – at least the ones who don’t have cable in their dorm room. There are too many other things that you either have to do or want to do, so watching tv moves down the list. Still, communal dorm TVs get pretty crowded during primetime. I mostly used the TVs for watching sports, and trying to watch a Yankees game on a “good” TV night often required that I walk down a few floors to find a group of fellow fans who were already watching. Not once in my TV hopping did I come across any of my peers watching something with educational value. Had I been hoping to watch something like the shows produced by American Documentary, I probably would have been out of luck. If you are one of the kids who usurps the communal TVs and ensures that you get your weekly fix of PBS, then an internship with AmDoc might be a great way for you to spend part of your Fall. If you’re one of those kids watching primetime TV or ignoring TV for the better things in college life, but you still love PBS, you’d also make a great intern at AmDoc. Continue reading about American Documentary…
Four summers ago I had the pleasure of interning for Jill Weinberg, Midwest Region Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, or USHMM for short. Admittedly, my job consisted of a lot of clerical work. I became remarkably familiar with Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, and the paper cuts that you get on your tongue from licking envelopes over and over again; however, I also gained unforgettable knowledge and experience relating to crimes against humanity and genocide, both historical and current. The internship opened my eyes to world events, introduced me to compassionate and intelligent people, and gave me an excellent taste of what it is like to work for a non-profit, charitable company. Continue reading about United States Holocaust Memorial Museum…
Do you love history? Are you fascinated by the past? Can you spend hours with your nose in a historical biography and not even realize it? If so, an internship with the New York Historical Society might be a great way to spend part of your fall. Whether you’re a history major who is seriously focused on historical research or a graphic design student who happens to be a history buff, the New York Historical Society has something for you.
The Society is dedicated to presenting exhibitions and public programs, and fostering research that reveal the dynamism of history and its influence on the world of today. Founded in 1804, its holdings cover four centuries of American history, and include one of the world’s greatest collections of historical artifacts, American art and other materials documenting the history of the United States as seen through the prism of New York City and State.
Continue reading about New York Historical Society…
I don’t know about you, but in the relatively short time that I’ve been politically aware, I’ve become very skeptical of politicians. It seems that they spend most of their time begging for money – or fundraising as they like to call it – so that they can win their race and get the power to decide what to do with the money that we are forced to give them through taxes. I’m further confused by the fact that I can’t give a Senator money (read: bribe) to get a bill passed, but if I throw him a fundraiser and pay a lobbyist to “lobby” him to get a bill passed, it’s ok. If this bothers you too, an internship with MAPLight.org is a great way to do something about it. The MAP in MAPLight stands for Money And Politics. They provide a website that “brings together campaign contributions and how legislators vote, providing an unprecedented window into the connections between money and politics.” Continue reading about MAPLight.org…
John James Audubon loved painting birds. His seminal work, Birds of America, was a collection of 435 beautiful life-size prints. To this day, when you hear the name Audubon, you think of birds. Interestingly enough, John James Audubon had no direct involvement with the founding of the National Audubon Society. Audubon’s widow, Lucy, tutored a man named George Bird Grinnell and some of Audubon’s love of birds must have rubbed off, as Grinnell was one of the Audubon Society’s founders. To this day, the Audubon Society persists in its mission “to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity.” The Audubon Society works to achieve this mission through a national network of community-based nature centers and chapters and scientific, educational, and advocacy programs. Continue reading about National Audubon Society…
At some point in your life, you’ve probably had a conflict – an argument with your parents, siblings, roommates, or others. Humans inherently have conflicting interests, but that doesn’t mean that common ground can’t be found. Search for Common Ground is a non-profit organization that “works to transform the way the world deals with conflict – away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative problem solving.” Sometimes it may seem impossible, but most conflicts can be resolved peacefully through with the right methods. Search for Common Ground uses its 5 core principles to encourage attitudes that resolve conflicts across the world. These are: Conflict is neither negative nor positive; Conflict can be transformed; Finding common ground; Peace is a process; and Humankind is interdependent. If you want to know more about Search for Common Ground’s approach, you can take their Guided Tour. Continue reading about Search for Common Ground…
My first day of orientation at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations included a great story from David Price, one of CBS’s Early Show hosts and formerly the Fox 5 Weather Guy. He told us about how he spent 4 years living with an animal. The animal was his Freshman year roommate (whom he decided to continue living with for the next 3 years for some crazy reason). The best story about David Price’s roommate was when he ordered a sheet (sicilian) pizza after a long night of drinking. He ate about half of the pizza, but then realized that he was becoming very tired. Before he passed out, he decided to staple the remaining pieces of the pizza to the wall next to his bed. That way as he drifted in and out of sleep, he could enjoy his pizza by only slightly moving his neck to reach the pizza that was stapled to the wall. David Price is second only to Jane Goodall when it comes to living amongst animals. In case you aren’t familiar with Dr. Dame Jane Goodall, you should know that she spent a good part of her life living among chimpanzees to study their social and family interactions. She also founded the The Jane Goodall Institute, which offers some interesting internship opportunities. Continue reading about The Jane Goodall Institute…
To be honest, I’m not a theater guy. I’ve been known to fall asleep in the middle of plays, so I’m probably not the best person to tell you all about the Manhattan Theatre Cub, but I do know that they have a great internship program. The Manhattan Theatre Club is “one of the only institutions in the U.S. solely dedicated to producing new plays and musicals.” They were founded in 1970, and now MTC, a non-profit, produces 7 plays a year for its subscriber base of 20,000 in Broadway’s recently restored Biltmore Theatre on West 47th Street and at the historic New York City Center complex on West 55th Street. Continue reading about Manhattan Theatre Club…
When I was 6th grade, my entire Middle School class (all 51 of us) went on a whale watch trip. It was supposed to be a good way for the class to bond, but it ended up creating more cliquiness. The Cape Cod weather in September was delightful, but the seas were apparently a little too rough for whale watching. We spent a lot of time buying taffy and other novelties instead. On the last day we were able to get out for half a day of whale watching. The seas were still rough, so the teachers encouraged all of us to take half a tablet of dramamine. Being the manly 6th grade man that I was, I decided that I would take a full tablet. For some of my classmates the half tablet wasn’t enough, and they spent most of the boat ride with their heads over the railing technicolor yawning. I, on the other hand, fell right to sleep – a side effect of the dramamine. I woke up just long enough to see the 2 whales that we encountered, and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of my nap. Those were the first whales that I’d ever seen, but I’ve seen some since, and I’m always absolutely amazed by them. If you’re fascinated by whales (and not susceptible to seasickness), an internship with The Whale Center of New England might be a great way to spend this fall or spring. Continue reading about Whale Center of New England…
You would think that a non-profit organization named The Tank would be some new age, trendy think tank – a 20 something’s take on a policy institute. The Tank is new and trendy, but it’s about as far away from research and advocacy as you can get. “The Tank is a space for performing and visual arts emphasizing new work by emerging performers, designers, writers, directors and producers.” The Tank is mainly centered around performing arts such as comedy, dance, film, music, multimedia, and theater. Major events that they put on include the Blip Festival and the Bent Festival, while they also put on smaller scale events every week. Continue reading about The Tank…
If you’ve spent any time in New York City on a 100 degree day, you know it’s not a good place for your lungs. The air is thick and hard to breathe, the smell of the streets is downright disgusting, and the only respite is when you walk by the occasional open door of an establishment that has its air conditioning pumped up to the max. No outdoors loving kid would ever want to spend an entire summer there – especially if that kid has asthma or other pulmonary problems (which are much more frequent for city children). That’s why The Fresh Air Fund, a not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer vacations in the country to more than 1.7 million children from disadvantaged communities in New York City since 1877. Continue reading about The Fresh Air Fund…
If you haven’t read our article The Couch Potato’s Guide to Job Search, you should. We got the idea for it when we wrote about entry-level jobs at the American Association of Zoos & Aquariums. The short of it is that we saw that GEICO commercial (yes, we’ve featured GEICO’s entry-level jobs too) where the gecko is at the aquarium talking about the American Association of Zoos & Aquariums, and it got us thinking about finding jobs or internships while watching tv. We decided that watching tv is a legitimate job search method and that your mom can no longer yell at you for being lazy and not having a job when you’re parked in front of the tube. Anyway, we thought it was time to covers internships with the American Association of Zoos & Aquariums, so here we go. Continue reading about American Association of Zoos & Aquariums…
A couple days ago I spent most of the day with a realtor driving around downtown Chicago looking at apartments. I’ll be moving out here in a couple months, so I thought it was important to get familiar with the process, even though it’s too early to actually find a place that will let me move in on my desired date. The whole process is bewildering, and I’m glad that I have a girlfriend from Chicago to inform me about the ins and outs of each of the neighborhoods. I’m also lucky enough to have a budget that should put me in a pretty decent place. The decision of where to live is an important one, and it can be extremely difficult for anyone. It can be especially hard for people of low-income who often lack the information they need to pick the right location to look in. MoveSmart is “a start-up non-profit organization that fosters vibrant and diverse neighborhoods by empowering housing seekers to move to opportunity.” Continue reading about MoveSmart…
Poets & Writers is an organization for creative writers, by creative writers, and it provides a wealth of information and resources that not only help individual creative writers, but also improves the state of modern literature as a whole. We can appreciate that, since our daily posts about internships are a key part of modern American literature (yes, we’re kidding). In fact, Poets & Writers is the country’s largest non-profit organization that serves creative writers. They offer opportunities for writers to connect with each other and funding for “writers who give readings or conduct writing workshops.” Poets & Writers also acts as a resource and clearinghouse for information that creative writers will find valuable. They “compile resources with real value to writers,” while eliminating all the junk that might not seem so bad at first. Isn’t it nice to have someone digest information for you and then spit it back to you after they’ve given it a good once, twice, or three times over? Poets & Writers shares this information through their website and their magazine. Continue reading about Poets & Writers…
We hope you had a safe Independence Day. Unfortunately, every year people get hurt during the celebration. Fireworks are a lot of fun, but they can result in some really nasty burns and injuries. Since we encouraged you to blow stuff up yesterday, we thought we’d counter that by featuring a non-profit organization that helps children who endure severe burns. The Shriners Hospitals for Children do exactly that. Who are Shriners? They wear funny hats. They drive little cars in parades. They’re Freemasons. And most importantly, they help kids through their hospitals. That’s going to be our focus today, since college students likely aren’t that interested in being part of a fraternal organization that seems like it has an average age north of 60. Then again, you probably got all hot and bothered about your college’s greek organizations and secret societies. Continue reading about Shriners Hospitals for Children…
