If week one was the 100-meter dash, week two was a 10k trail run. The pace was far more relaxed and steady, but a lot more happened! This week, I felt secure and confident in my role as the summer reading coordinator. My volunteers and I had the process down to a science and we have all learned to work together as a team to make sure the kids get the most out of their time reading. I am beginning to memorize the names of all 61 kids who have attended so far, and a few of them have become good pals of mine! Mohamed is only in it for the prizes, but Reem loves to read Dr. Seuss specifically. Watch out for Massylia, she’ll sneak away with five prizes if you turn your head for one minute! It is so fun seeing them begin to feel comfortable and be themselves around the adults and their peers.

This week, I have started taking on more complex roles within the organization. I have attended two webinars hosted by our donor management software company to learn how to keep our data healthy and clean and develop a plan for building and maintaining recurring donors. I will begin working on a donor welcome series and ways to acquire and maintain a recurring donor community. I am also in charge of organizing a summer literacy camp in partnership with LifeSmart Education. This camp will serve kids K-2 the first week and 3-5 the second week, helping them develop and maintain literacy skills. I am looking forward to taking responsibility for this program and getting the full experience of planning a program, troubleshooting, marketing, and everything else that will be involved! This week, I was also able to apply for a fundraising “grant” of sorts and got to learn a little bit about how to concisely convey the mission, impact, and need of the organization in 300 words or less. I will be working on more grant applications beginning next week and I am looking forward to getting more experience with that kind of research and writing and being able to link organizations to appropriate funding sources in the future.

This week, I also started working on building our 2022 Annual Report. This process is different than my experience with the state, especially since the RIC is a smaller, newer nonprofit. When I interned at the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee, I helped with their biennial report and it was a massive undertaking. We had to condense the findings of hundreds of individual institutional reports, records of inmate grievances, and check everything against Ohio Revised Codes and Ohio Administrative Codes that are relevant to the committee and its purpose. Working on the RIC’s Annual Report is very different but many of the skills I learned at the CIIC definitely transfer. While the RIC is a newer nonprofit, it has grown exponentially in the last few years and has received more recognition. This means that data and financial reporting is becoming increasingly important. While we are trying to acquire more data and build structures for keeping it organized and healthy for 2023 and beyond, we are also sifting through older data to find what we need for the 2022 Annual Report. However, it is still interesting to see how we can convey the community-based nature of the RIC and acknowledge that some of the value created by the organization is not necessarily directly measurable. I am enjoying being a part of this process and learning how both qualitative and quantitative data are crucial for nonprofit reporting.

I look forward to each day and am enjoying getting to know my office mates and all of the neighbors – everyone is so kind and welcoming and it is special to see such a wonderful community grow in Columbus!