This week was one of the most intense weeks I’ve experienced at City Year this summer. I had many more meetings and conversations regarding prospective donors, development at non-profits and interactions with our board.

One of the reasons that this week had an increase in meetings was that we officially hired a new Development Team manager. We had to catch her up on all things City Year and Development, so it was interesting for me to talk about City Year to someone newer to the organization than I am. Having another team member has been a joy, especially because she seems to fit in well with the organization and her questions already show how crucial her perspective will be for the organization as we move forward.

This week was also a busy time because our Kiwanis Regatta hosted a 12 hour challenge and I was tasked with getting the word out for this specific challenge. I was able to create social media asks via all our platforms and engaged with our board members to ask them directly to donate during the specific timeframe. Although we did receive an amazing turnout, we unfortunately lost the challenge. That did not sadden me too much, however, because I was able to get support from staff in hyping up the event. One of the ways they supported was letting me take a picture of a puppy named Hank:

Prospective research was another big conversation for this week, since the new fiscal year started and we have a high fundraising goal for this year. I am still fairly new at this part of the position, but it seems that I have approached it properly so far. Today, I spoke with one of the prospective research team members and he was able to give me so many resources on “high-brow stalking” (as he called it) in order to obtain as much information publicly available on potential donors. With these new tools, I hope to increase the depth of the scope of my work as a Development Summer Fellow in the remaining weeks.