Hi everyone! This week at ETSS Tewahedo Social Services, I worked on some more event planning duties as we get closer to the August 8th Youth Summit, which is officially less than a month away! Some of my tasks include: negotiating discounts from restaurants and place catering orders, analyzing our Summer Youth Enrichment Program site rosters and pairing cohorts from each site with age-appropriate workshops from various community partners, ordering branded merchandise and medals for the soccer tournaments, coordinating with the DJ to provide him with MP3 files of backing songs for the kids’ cultural dances, finalizing volunteer roles and creating a signup through our volunteer management platform, and keeping track of our event budget as new sponsorships and expenses pop up.  

Our Fellows Learning Session this week focused on fundraising, a topic that the cohort was enthusiastic to learn about. Emily Savors from the Columbus Foundation and Ruth Lomax from City Year graced us with their presence. It was fascinating to hear from both sides of the grantmaking process, with the Columbus Foundation distributing money from donors to nonprofits like City Year. Their insights are helpful to me as I gain fundraising experience, especially the old “fundraising is relationship-building” adage. I personally found it reassuring that even more introverted people can find meaningful work on the grantmaking side of things!  

A fun coincidence: On Monday, I met with a wonderful local artist Richard “Duarte” Brown, who will be offering a workshop for our Summer Youth Enrichment Program students at the Youth Summit. After I introduced myself as a Summer Fellow, he asked if I had seen his painting in the Columbus Foundation building, and I wasn’t sure. It turns out that I have been sitting directly in front of his painting at all our Learning Sessions!  

Until next time,

Sanay