My third week as a Summer Fellow with The Columbus Foundation was filled with exciting events that allowed me to gain a deeper familiarity with the nonprofits in and surrounding the Columbus area.

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to attend the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Annual State of Nonprofits forum with members of The Columbus Foundation at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum. During this forum, I was able to hear from insightful industry leaders about the landscape nonprofits are currently navigating—including deliberation on how public and private partnerships could work alongside these organizations to help achieve their goals. This was a great event, as I came away with a much better awareness of some of the most prominent nonprofits in central Ohio and the work they do.

The following day, I attended a documentary screening at The Columbus Foundation, created by Festa—a nonprofit that addresses many facets of poverty, but was specifically highlighting the outstanding results of their ESL programs. It was a wonderful opportunity, as we got to hear from a panel of those featured in the documentary and even had the chance to speak with Festa’s founder!

Outside of these explorations, my work at The Westerville Fund has been centered around gathering input on my various logo designs through surveys. Additionally, after many rounds of edits and changes in direction, we’ve landed on a design for our informational cards that we’re all happy with. On top of this, I have been coordinating tours of nonprofit sites where The Westerville Fund has made an impact through grant funding. These tours will be used to gather footage, quotes, and photos for social media posts that help members of the Westerville community better understand the fund’s reach and impact.

More to come soon,

Owen