Hello everyone!

I am finishing up my third week at the McConnell Arts Center (MAC)!

On Monday, I had a day off since I had worked Saturday and Sunday at the Worthington Arts Festival. The arts festival was a great success this year as we had around 30,000 visitors between Saturday and Sunday and very positive feedback from visitors and vendors alike. We also had beautiful weather for the festival despite previous threats of rain and storms. I would have to say my favorite part about being a part of the entire festival process was getting to interact with staff, volunteers, and artists, and also being able to really enjoy and experience something that I was able to have a hand in creating.

On Tuesday, I started off the day by uploading a bunch of Worthington Arts Festival pictures to our OneDrive. Staff and volunteers, including myself, had taken the time this past weekend to capture wonderful moments at the festival for marketing purposes. Pictures of staff, volunteers, visitors, vendors, artwork. What you learn in marketing is that pictures and captured moments are crucial to drawing people to your organization. When someone opens your website, for example, they do not just want to see words describing or listing something. They want to see moments that illustrate what is written, a visual demonstration that tells a potential participant or reminds a former participant that they will get their time and money’s worth: experiencing the joy and wonder of the arts. On Tuesday, I also got the chance to continue with my scanning project.

On Wednesday, I started out my day by visiting three Worthington Library locations, as well as the Worthington Community Center, to drop off some marketing materials to these places to be displayed and distributed. It was nice to get a feel for the community and audience we serve and reach as a nonprofit. I then spent some time browsing some non-profit related websites to gather some pertinent information. I also got to explore some information on GuideStar and look at some 990s. I ended the day by helping our Development Coordinator with a donor acknowledgement task. She taught me how she goes about the process of mailing out donor acknowledgements from accessing the data, to doing a mail merge, to physically assembling envelopes. Acknowledging the people who donate anything to you as a nonprofit is extremely important work, so I enjoyed this task.

As an organization, we had Thursday off because of Juneteenth.

Today, Friday the 20th, I started off my day early with an event that was being hosted at the MAC. The Columbus chapter of the nonprofit Creative Mornings was responsible for the event. Participants were offered breakfast, coffee, and community to start off their morning. They then entered our theatre to hear a talk given by Joyce Chen on a topic connected to the monthly theme Punk. Participants then had an opportunity to have small group discussion based on offered questions, talk content, and personal experience. A little later in the afternoon, I walked some marketing materials to a nearby senior community center. I also finished prepping the donor acknowledgement letters for the mail.

Overall, I have had another great week at the MAC and in the nonprofit world!

Talk to you soon,

Graci Jackson