I started my summer fellowship this week with Besa, a Columbus-based nonprofit, and it’s been a full and energizing introduction to the organization and the work ahead.

Besa’s mission is to connect more people to community service across Central Ohio. They curate so many volunteer experiences each month, serving as a resource for nonprofits, businesses, and individuals alike. My project this summer centers on their fill rate, which is the percentage of volunteer spots that actually get filled, and developing a data-informed strategy to increase it. To do that well, I need to understand the volunteer experience from the inside out, which meant getting into the community right away.

I volunteered with Ro’s Kitchen at Impact Community Action, a program building workforce readiness and financial literacy skills in youth ages 14 to 18. The program recently faced funding cuts that threatened its future, but through a partnership with Ro’s Kitchen, meal costs are now covered and the program continues. That partnership feels especially timely given that Local Matters, another key food resource in Columbus, recently closed. I also helped facilitate a corporate volunteer event with Worthington Enterprises, where 50 employees packed 500 birthday cake kits with handwritten letters destined for four nonprofit partners around the city. At St. Stephen’s Mid-Ohio Market, I restocked shelves, filled produce coolers, and helped serve around 300 community members. And at Central Community House’s Senior Tech Café, I provided one-on-one tech assistance to senior citizens, which turned out to be one of the more rewarding stops of the week.

Beyond the volunteering itself, onboarding gave me a real window into what makes Besa work. The team cares genuinely about the mission, and that shows in how they build relationships with nonprofit partners, structure corporate events, and approach their own internal culture. I’ve already sat in on program planning sessions and started getting a clearer picture of where I can contribute.

I’m leaving week one with a better sense of what fill rate data can and can’t tell you, and a lot of appreciation for the human side of this work that the numbers won’t fully capture. Looking forward to digging in further next week.