Hello everyone! This past week was a more relaxing week with the Center for Disability Empowerment. Since the event I have been working on was last Friday, I took this week as a sort of reflection and reset week for going forward. Jackie and I had a ‘debrief’ of how we thought the event went. We both thought it went very well and were pleased with the work that we put in and the results it produced. I have been working this week on completing some post-event tasks such as writing thank you emails to our sponsors, volunteers, attendees, etc. and updating/creating donor and media contact lists for the CDE that may be referenced for future events. Once I finish these tasks, I think the final three weeks of my time with the CDE will look a little different, and I am excited to explore different aspects of the nonprofit. I hope to learn a little bit about what Jackie does with grants, as well as spend a few days in direct services to see a more direct impact of what CDE does and provides for the community. 

Since communicating with donors has been a large part of my role with the CDE so far and Ruth Lomax and Emily Savors discussed fundraising last week at the Columbus Foundation, I have been reflecting on fundraising as a role within the nonprofit space. Though I would not have expected that I would be very good at something like fundraising before this experience, I have been surprised at my success communicating with donors, and can see how those skills could be used for fundraising. I do not think that fundraising is something that I am particularly drawn to, but it is a great skill to have and could come in handy in any number of ways in a nonprofit career. It was interesting to hear about fundraising and philanthropy in such an honest way, and I learned a lot about what to truly expect when it comes to those things. 

Until next week, 

Rachael McCague