Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

This week, I continued my work on two core projects at Zora’s House: organizing the library and developing a program evaluation report. Both are behind-the-scenes efforts, but they play an essential role in supporting the mission and impact of the organization.

The library project involved labeling and categorizing the collection to create a more accessible and intuitive system for members. As I worked through the titles, I was reminded of how thoughtfully curated the space is—filled with books that reflect the voices, identities, and experiences of women of color. Organizing the library is not just about order; it’s about honoring knowledge and creating pathways for discovery and growth. I am also developing a standard operating procedure (SOP) so that when I leave the organization as an intern, there will be a document detailing what I did and the resources I used to create the library. This will be helpful when someone else takes on the task in the future.

I also made progress on the evaluation report for several ZH programs, including Leadership Fellows, Wealth Builders, WoCo Market, and Membership. Drawing from survey responses and interviews, I began outlining key takeaways that will help Zora’s House measure its impact and identify opportunities for growth and deeper engagement.

To end the week, I attended the Collective Care Member Event, a gathering designed to celebrate and pour into Zora’s House members. It was a beautiful reminder that our members are the heart of the organization. Many contribute in multiple ways, from volunteering and donating to advocating, and events like this reinforce how important it is to value and care for those who make this work possible.

Until next time,

Asia

This week, I went to St. Charles Preparatory School to help run a booth at the Shootout for Soldiers event. It was a 24-hour lacrosse game, and Overwatch ran a booth from 12:00-6:00pm. I was there from 3:00-6:00pm. It was nice getting to talk to people about Overwatch and the mentorship program when they stopped by. I also got to hand out OWP’s flyers and business cards. Some of the people that came up to the table expressed wanting to share Overwatch with friends and relatives, which I thought was really exciting! I hope OWP expands and gets to help as many veterans and their families as possible. 

Other than that event, this week I met with Eric. He looked over the Mentor Playbook that I created and he loved it! I was very pleasantly surprised that he didn’t see anything that needed to be fixed or changed. I spent a lot of time on it so I’m glad that my work paid off. Eric gave me two new tasks for next week. First, he asked me to research local businesses in Columbus that make poster boards. I have been working on creating a list of these businesses and listing how easy/difficult it would be to buy from them, how much they cost, do they have poster board mounts, etc. The other task I’ve been working on is finding national/local veteran specific companies that give out grants. A lot of businesses have specific requirements for their grants that don’t include veterans, so it would be easiest to find companies that donate specifically to veteran nonprofits and organizations. 

I can’t believe we’re already on Week 8. I’m so excited to see what the future holds after this. 

Thanks for reading, 

Kindall Benjamin 

Hello everyone!

We have now reached the end of week 8. This fellowship has gone by so fast!

This summer, the MAC has switched over from Arts People, a fundraising and donor management software, to AudienceView, an event management and ticketing software. This switch has been a process for all the MAC staff, and everyone has put in a lot of work to make this switch a success. One of my main tasks this week has been to make sure that all annual fund donors have been uploaded to AudienceView and that all spouses are connected to one another, specifically for future mail merges connected to acknowledgement letters. It is important to give proper acknowledgement to those who gift annual funds, no matter the size, because in reality all contributions equal impact.

Something else I got to do this week was sit in on a strategic planning meeting with some of the MAC staff. The purpose of this meeting was to continue to work on a strategic plan that can help the MAC move towards becoming a designated museum. What I found interesting, about this process, is that each part of the strategic plan falls under a certain department (education, performing arts, operations, marketing, etc.) and each department has a role in engaging a certain goal or strategy to produce a certain outcome. This, overall, ignited a lot of brainstorming for me as I felt personally attached to the goal of the MAC wanting to draw in younger audiences. This process brought forward another task for me as I was asked to find examples of current museum’s collection management policies and to do some research on them to help the MAC, in turn, draft its own.

On Wednesday of this week, we had our last MAC on the Road tour which took place at
the Ohioana Library. The Ohioana Library is a very unique and special place that dedicates itself to all thing’s literature connected to Ohio. This includes books, graphic novels, scrapbooks, maps, sheet music, and much more. As a part of the experience, I got to see a miniature Bible about the size of my thumb, an original copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, letters written by Langston Hughes, and a poetry book written by a talented poet who tragically died in her high school years. The amount of materials connected to Ohio is astonishing and the amazing thing is that it is all being preserved and celebrated by this nonprofit organization.

This week, I also had some time to reflect over what I have learned this summer at the MAC. I have really gotten a strong grasp on what nonprofit is and the different roles within a nonprofit. I understand a lot more, then when I came in this summer, about what it really means to be a nonprofit, what it takes to run a nonprofit, and the amount of dedication and passion it takes to be employed in a nonprofit organization. Not only this, but I have come to understand how people-centered the nonprofit sector is. If a nonprofit does not engage its mission through people, it is not really making an impact in its community.

Until next week,

Graci

This week at Green Columbus I assisted Green Columbus’ Executive Director with grant applications and continued planning for the upcoming fall tree giveaways.

On Monday, my boss was out sick so I spent most of the day working on social media and prepping for the LSAT. Balancing studying for the LSAT while working has taken more effort than I had thought it would this summer but I’m grateful to be taking the LSAT soon and being able to work at Green Columbus.

During the rest of the week, I continued working on grant applications for Green Columbus’ community tree plantings. Green Columbus has planted 500 trees at schools around Columbus and I have gotten to visit several schools and check on the trees. Seeing the trees at the schools was very impactful for me and I’m excited that I get to help apply for funding that way Green Columbus can keep planting trees at schools! Applying for grants does make me a little nervous because of the possibility that I could be responsible for Green Columbus not receiving a grant, but I think this feeling should go away as I continue to submit more grants.

Next week Green Columbus has an exciting meeting with a community partner, so I’m excited to attend that meeting and share about it on the blog.

Until next time,

Emma

Good evening Fellows! 

I hope all of you had an amazing week at your host sites. As this fellowship is quickly coming to a close, I wanted to at least share some updates that have occurred during my time at Big Brothers Big Sisters. So, this week I completed creating the staff survey for the upcoming event that BBBS is having early August. I sent an email to my program lead, stating that with our learning session coming up and some new team members recently joining, I’ve put together and framed the approach of the game to sound like a short, fun survey to help everyone get to know each other better. It includes lighthearted questions about work habits, favorites, and team culture, which are all designed to keep things engaging and a bit of a surprise for the activity. This is to keep the surprise of the game and to ensure that staff won’t be suspicious of the survey/responses. From there, I sent over the drafted survey for her to send out to all BBBS. We will be using the responses to create a game in mixed of “Family Feud and Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader/BBBS Specialist?”. The best yet unexpected part about this email being sent out was that my program lead gave me a shoutout on the email for building the survey. While I am only a temporary employee here, I felt like part of the family, which was amazing. 

I have developed a one-page document, regarding yellow and red matches, or matches that are at risk or currently vulnerable and need immediate attention and support. For a match to become green, this means to be healthy or with minor to no challenges. My team requested me to address and formulate a process for documenting critical indicators & yellow/red matches. Also, to receive completed survey with critical indicator result and update survey name to include critical indicator and if intervention is in progress or resolved. The example of this would be “John Doe SOR 7-11-2025 CI Safety In progress”. This process would be done by Match Support Specialists or (MSS) going to match page and put match into Yellow or Red. Then, filling out match details page to include “survey CI reason and date put in yellow”. If no CI and just putting yellow/red, list reason why in match details and date. BBBS states that it must emphasize convo with supervisor and before putting resolved or back to green. Lastly, is when putting it back to green is to add that to the match details along with the date and reason why it went back to green the same when making it yellow/red. While my director and one of my program leads has not been able to fully take a look at the completed document and will plan to by Monday morning, my program lead informed me that just by a quick glance, it looks lovely. Well folks, that’s all that I have for you. Until next time! 

Here’s to Week 8! Let’s go Week 9!

As always, Onward and Upward! 

Courtney Moore

The past two weeks at OYO have been all about creating smoother systems, elevating visuals, and thinking ahead for the upcoming 2025–2026 season.

I started Week 6 by meeting with Mike to update the website with the new season information. We also began laying the groundwork for online season ticket sales which was something that needed to be updated on the website. It’s exciting to help move OYO toward a more seamless and user-friendly experience for our audience.

To prepare for fall, I also created pre-registration forms for both the Children’s and Adult Dance programs. The goal of this was to make the actual registration process less chaotic when it goes live. These forms are simple, accessible, and already making it easier for families and adults to express interest in our offerings.

On the content side, I put together a series of creative filler posts that OYO can use year-round such as celebrating National Dance Day or giving shout outs on National Ballet Day. I also made a graphic thanking GCAC and our sponsors, which is an important piece of keeping our supporters in the spotlight.

Week 7 brought a shift in design direction. Rachel, OYO’s director, met with a marketing professional from another organization who offered fresh insight. One of the topics they discussed was that we needed to tone down the heavy graphics in our promotional flyers and lean more into real performance photography. I redesigned materials for both our One Light holiday performance and Sleeping Beauty: A Family Show, replacing stylized backgrounds with real images, dancers and moments from our stage. The results feel much more aligned with the heart of the company. Honest, human, and connected.

I also wrapped up flyer designs for the Adult Dance Program, focusing on clarity and accessibility without losing the vibrant personality of OYO’s brand. There’s something really rewarding about being in the middle of creative work that has an immediate impact. Not only for the design of it, but helping build tools and visuals that move the company forward. I’m proud of how much more streamlined and aligned our materials feel now, and I’m excited to see how the public responds once everything goes live.

Hello everyone! This week, I got to experience what direct service with the Center for Disability Empowerment looks like. I joined Ann Heilbrunn, the CDE’s employment specialist, for a couple of days and accompanied her to a training session, meetings with consumers, a consumer intake, and she showed me how CDE data and records are filed and organized online.

On Thursday morning, Ann and I attended a Columbus Chamber of Commerce training session for their Inclusion Series. This particular session was focused on mental health in the workplace, and how mental health intersects with DEI. This was super interesting, and showcased different perspectives on mental health and wellbeing in the workplace through a panel of speakers. The panel included mental health specialists from Ohio Health, Health Without Limits, and Somocom Lab, as well as the Executive Director of A Tribe for Jazz. Something that stuck out to me from the program was the concept of ‘psychological first aid,’ and how individuals can learn simple concepts and adopt certain attitudes which create a culture based on community and support in the workplace. Ann also uses these events as a chance to network and inform people about the CDE, so I was able to meet a lot of people from various organizations in Columbus. 

On Thursday and Friday I joined Ann for her routine meetings with consumers, which is how the CDE refers to people who use their services. Even though Ann is officially just the employment specialist or job coach for consumers, I noticed how she had genuine connections with all of her consumers and cared about them deeply as people beyond her work. I also observed Ann do a consumer intake, which is meeting a consumer for the first time and identifying their needs, goals, and how best the CDE can serve them. Ann is incredibly personable and I admired how she made the consumer feel safe, heard, and positive about the future. All of the interactions Ann and I had with consumers showed me the personal impact of the CDE on individuals’ lives.

I really enjoyed the direct service I did this week. While I found the administrative/event planning interesting and gratifying as well, I liked the human connection aspect and quicker pace of direct service. I can definitely see myself doing nonprofit direct service in the future. 

Until next week, 

Rachael McCague 

Week 8 at ETSS Tewahedo Social Services is finished, and I cannot believe there are only two weeks left until the Youth Summit! Event planning is fully underway, with many meetings to finalize every aspect of the day. I have been finalizing our catering orders and negotiating discounts with restaurants, using a grant we received this summer to order ETSS-branded book tote bags as goodie bags, and checking on our volunteer platform, where roles are being snapped up. I participated in a meeting of the Youth Council to hear about our student representatives’ experiences and suggestions for ETSS programming in their own words.  

On Tuesday, we held a walk-through of the Youth Summit venue, the Ohio State-Central Ohio Technical College campus in Newark. We talked through the schedule, and I took down room assignments for workshops and seating arrangements. It was a wonderful chance to meet representatives from many of our community partners who are holding workshops, such as the Port Authority, Columbus Museum of Art, and the Audobon Center. I had also never visited the beautiful OSU-COTC campus.  

Because of our unexpected funding changes, I’ve doubled down on grant applications to secure funding for the Youth Department. Submissions require director approval, and I have to request information such as line-item budget breakdowns and demographics to answer many of the questions, so it is a slow process. This week I applied for another grant, as well as working on several applications that the Youth Department will be able to submit in the fall after I leave ETSS.  

This Friday, I visited our site at Sullivant Elementary School, which hosted a cultural exchange day with the students from Whitehall. They performed a song (“Count on Me” by Bruno Mars, a personal favorite), showed off their Ethiopian and Central American garb in a fashion show, played basketball and soccer, hit a piñata, and made new friends while learning about each other’s culture. Thoroughly adorable!  

 Until next week,

Sanay

Week 8 at LifeCare Alliance was filled with preparations for our upcoming half-day session and further development of ideas for the Customer Journey project. The week began with the Advancement staff huddle where each team shared updates and priorities. I spent much of the day reviewing and preparing the physical materials for next week’s event: printing graphics, organizing large-format sticky note sheets, and beginning to assemble visuals for the group activities.

On Tuesday, I met with our Customer Journey Core Team for a planning session. We walked through the slide deck for the half-day event, revised language on the activity guides, and talked through facilitation strategies. I also shared key takeaways from my (now 24) completed interviews so Claire and Leah could better understand the staff experiences we’ll be exploring next week. Later that day, I interviewed the head of LifeCare’s Chief Human Resources & Inclusion officer, Andy Nowlin and created a playback sheet using the interview recording and transcript. Andy had some great insights, especially around volunteer branding ideas that could double as marketing tactics for LifeCare. Some of these ideas included magnetic car signs or branded gear for volunteers. I also began creating visual mock-ups for journey maps on a platform called Mural to guide participants during the event.

Midweek, I continued designing activity visuals, created a large printed agenda for the event, and explored Operational Excellence materials in preparation for my next project. I reviewed tools like DMAIC, Kaizen, and root cause analysis frameworks including Fishbone Diagrams and the 5 Whys. These frameworks will help inform process improvement strategies for the Meals-for-Kids program and the Frozen Choice meal packages.

I ended the week by visiting Conference Room 2 at Harmon, the space we’ll use for the session. We evaluated the setup and started mapping out where printed materials would be displayed. The week was a strong balance of creativity, logistics, and planning, all tied to the larger goal of improving the Meals-on-Wheels program experience for both staff and volunteers. I’m excited to see it all come together in the upcoming event.

Until next week,
Kat Jolley

Hi everyone! I can’t believe we are already done with week eight and only have two weeks left! It has been such an incredible time at Netcare and I can’t wait to make the most of my last two weeks at the nonprofit. This week I dove into our newer fundraising campaign and watched a couple of webinars as well.

Our new fundraising campaign is about donor-advised funds, more commonly known as DAFs. DAFs are a type of account where individuals can keep money, stocks, or assets and then can give these investments as grants to different organizations. In fact, The Columbus Foundation is one of the organizations that serves as a sponsoring organization. There seems to be an increase of DAFs in the nonprofit sector, so our upcoming mission is to increase the amount of support and donations we get through this new form. 

For this campaign, I spent the week drafting up a rough calendar of when we would want to post and send out content starting in September and spanning the first few weeks of October till DAF Day. After creating this calendar, I made many different graphics and caption ideas for content, as well as created an email that we could send out to our supporters on DAF Day encouraging them to create an account. This was a very fun campaign to start and I hope that my mentors are able to continue it once I leave.

I also had the opportunity to watch a couple of virtual webinars about AI in Marketing. These were super interesting as marketing is predicted to take more of a shift with the introduction of AI. We learned how to use AI to create content calendars as well as what are the most effective methods of storytelling when it comes to increasing awareness and support. Both webinars were very fun and good learning experiences as well.

Overall, I had another amazing, more relaxed week and got to make a lot of progress on my campaign project!

Best,

Anaika