Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

This week, Eric was on vacation. Even still, I made sure to find things to work on. For starters, I continued working on adding grants to the Microsoft Word document I created. I added five more grants to the list that OWP can apply to. While I am not the biggest fan of using AI, I did find it helpful in narrowing down specific companies and business that offer grants that OWP would be eligible to apply for. I described my nonprofit’s mission and mentorship program, then asked AI to list 20 companies that offered grants that aligned with OWP’s mission. I went through each suggestion on the list and read through the requirements to make sure Overwatch was able to apply. A lot of them were repeats and some of them were invite only, so I asked AI to filter those out. That is how I narrowed down the five businesses offering grants. Another thing I did was add more mentor and mentee feedback responses to the Excel sheet I made. It was overwhelmingly positive! The mentors said the communication with their mentees was going great, which I was glad to read. 

This weekend, I am volunteering with OWP to help run a booth at an event called Shootout for Soldiers. It is a 24-hour lacrosse tournament held for veterans at a park in Bexley, Ohio. Overwatch will have a booth set up from 12-6pm, and I will be at the booth from 3-6pm. I have never watched lacrosse before so I am actually very excited to see it in action. I’m also excited to interact with a lot of new people and make some new connections! I am sad that I already have less than a month left as a Fellow. The work I have been doing has been so rewarding and a lot of fun, and it makes me look forward to what the future holds. 

Until next time, 

Kindall Benjamin

Hello everyone,

Happy week 7! I ended last week’s blog post with the Columbus Book Festival, and this week I will start with it.

The Columbus Book Festival took place last weekend on Saturday and Sunday at the Columbus Metropolitan Library and Topiary Park. The MAC was one of a few arts organizations that attended the festival this year, and we did very well for it being our first time. Both days, I worked the morning shift at our booth from 10am-2pm. The Saturday shift I worked with our Executive Director Kim Goodman, and the Sunday shift I worked with our Administrative Assistant and Lifelong Learning Coordinator Kristin Kummer. During these times, the weather was beautiful but extremely warm and sometimes buggy. The most exciting thing about the festival was how much traffic our booth got from all kinds of people at different levels of engagement with our organization. We interacted with locals who had never heard of us and then people who had heard of us but wanted to learn more. We even interacted with out of own people who still showed interest in learning about our organization even if they do not live in the Columbus/Worthington area. Both days, I helped to set up the tables in our booth, sell merchandise, and most importantly engage with the people! This is my third festival I have done this summer, and I have learned a whole lot about outreach. I have gained experience in the logistics of preparing to host a table and setting it up so it is inviting. I have gained experience in selling merchandise out of a tent. Most importantly, I have gained greater experience in talking to a variety of people of different ages and backgrounds, and not only talking to them, but knowing how to peek their interest about our organization. It is a unique skill to be able to read people and decipher how much information a person might be willing to digest. Some families might have kids who are interested in getting stickers and a mermaid coloring sheet or, on the flip side, there might be families who are really interested in learning how they can get involved. Overall, I had a wonderful experience.

On Wednesday, this week at noon, I got to attend a Columbus Metropolitan Club forum. This week’s forum was called Three Million People, One City’s Future and the main topic of discussion was whether or not Columbus will be ready for 3 million residents in the next 25 years. The speakers included Rob Dorans (President Pro Tem, Columbus City Council), Michael Wilkos (Senior VP, Community Impact United Way, Central Ohio), Monica Tellez-Fowler (President and CEO, COTA), and Jordan Laird (Politics and Government Reporter, The Columbus Dispatch). It was a very interesting and engaging topic as this is something that impacts every single person in Columbus and Ohio at large. I was also honored to meet, while there, current President and CEO of The Greater Columbus Arts Council Tom Katzenmeyer and Director of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at the CMC Krystopher Scott, and other very talented and kind individuals.

That Wednesday afternoon, I attended our third MAC on the Road tour which occurred at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum on OSU’s campus which happens to hold the world’s largest collection of comics and comic related materials-right here in Columbus! Before heading to campus, participants first enjoyed an engaging presentation from a cartoon instructor at the MAC. We then had a wonderful tour of the museum with our largest MAC on the Road group yet.

On Thursday, we had a staff lunch and a brainstorming session in which the entire staff brainstormed how to reinvent their signature special event, Arts Enchanted. It was a great lunch and creative ideas were flowing freely.

Today, on Friday, I worked later in the day so that I could assist some of our staff in hosting the Worthington Community Theatre’s production of Cinderella, in the evening. My main role was acting as an usher while also getting to have some down time with fellow staff as the show went on. Another highlight this week was being able to sit in on some more meetings surrounding another final report for a grant. I also got to walk around old Worthington distributing our new exhibition postcards and taking back any old marketing materials. One last highlight from this week, was getting to sit in on a meeting with the MAC’s Director of Marketing and Communications, Event and Theatre Manager, and Development Coordinator to make some adjustments on our website, specifically on our volunteer website page.

Overall, this week has been a rewarding week, and I am excited to see what the rest of the fellowship holds!

Talk to you soon,
Graci

This week at Green Columbus I submitted a grant application for the first time ever which was very exciting. Green Columbus applied to an Arbor Day Foundation grant and I helped prepare the extended responses for the grant application. I also started another grant application for Green Columbus’ community tree planting program which was exciting.

I feel like I have applied so many concepts from my college classes in this internship which is always a great feeling. I have been asked a lot by older adults what I “plan to use” a degree in Environmental Policy for as if my major is useless, and it’s great to now have a response to questions like that. I think this internship has also dispelled the myth that degrees in the humanities or social sciences are useless because there’s “no real world application” but I have found this to be far from the case. I have learned so much about environmental justice in my classes and it has been 100% applicable to my job. I also have learned quite a bit about how local government functions which is so important for any local nonprofit. I feel that I am equipped to articulate the importance of environmental projects because of my major which has been very important this past week when applying for grants.

I’m excited for next week because we have a fundraiser coming up and I will submit the other grants for Green Columbus!

See you next week,

Emma

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 

Hello everybody! Week 7 at ETSS Tewahedo Social Services was a short one because I spent the first couple of days with my family. Nonetheless, we’ve made some good progress toward Youth Summit planning. The volunteer signup platform is live and buzzing. I put my (heavily Canva-reliant) graphic design skills to good use to create a slideshow of pictures of the kids at summer camp. I’m also working on a seating chart based on the average attendance figures from the different sites.  

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of eating at Lalibela, an Ethiopian restaurant in Whitehall and longtime catering partner of ETSS. They have given us a generous discount on lunch for the Youth Summit. I also requested and picked up gift card donations from Northstar/Brassica and Chipotle, which we will raffle off in October at our largest fundraising event of the year, Evening of Promise. I picked up cases of bottled water that Trader Joe’s generously agreed to donate as well. I’m feeling proud of my fundraising successes this week.  

I received some unfortunate news today about our funding for the Youth Summit: a sponsor, whose logo we had been given permission to use and whose contribution made up a large percentage of our budget, has dropped out. Also, Fiscal reached out to let the Youth team know that we are in a budget deficit from last year’s Youth Summit. This throws a major kink in our plans for the event, which will now be operating on a much smaller budget than previously anticipated. I will likely be shifting gears to focus more on applying for last-minute event sponsorships rather than small in-kind donations such as gift cards. It’s not totally clear how this will affect the event yet, but we’re collectively mourning the loss a bit.  

Until next week,  

Sanay  

This week marked a major milestone in my summer at LifeCare Alliance, I completed my 23rd interview for the Meals-on-Wheels Customer Journey project. It feels surreal to be wrapping up this core portion of the project, having spent the past several weeks speaking with a wide range of volunteers and staff members. My final volunteer interview was with someone who has been delivering meals for over a decade, and it was a fitting close, thoughtful, candid, and filled with reflections on long-term service. I went through the transcript, created the final playback sheet, and uploaded it to our shared project files.

With interviews now mostly complete, I shifted my focus to preparation for the upcoming half-day session, where we’ll share insights and co-develop solutions with employees. I finalized employee personas and began creating volunteer personas, fictional yet representative profiles that reflect recurring themes from my interviews. These personas will be used in group activities to bring stories to life and spark conversation. I also worked closely with Andrea and Molly during our weekly meeting to review key findings, refine slide decks, and finalize the pre-work recap for the session. Together, we identified a few remaining stakeholder interviews to complete with leadership members to round out the project.

Outside of the Customer Journey project, I helped out with the Beat the Heat Fan Distribution campaign which turned out to be our largest distribution event to date, where we handed out 152 fans to individuals. On Friday, I participated in the 10TV Fan Drive, helping collect fans, register donors, and load trucks. It was a full-circle moment, watching Roberta, our new head of marketing, capture the energy of the day through content creation and media interviews. It gave me a new appreciation for the storytelling power behind mission-driven events. The day turned out successfully with a total of 156 fans received with and additional $130 in monetary donations.

From a marketing perspective, I continue to learn the importance of tailoring communication to your audience. One of my interviewees, shared that a mandatory training would have deterred her from volunteering altogether highlighting the need for accessible, optional support materials. This inspired ideas like including laminated guides or QR code-based FAQs in delivery bags. I also started thinking about ways to highlight volunteer and donor appreciation more consistently on Instagram, through dedicated story highlights or tagged content from partners.

It’s hard to believe there are only a few weeks left. With preparations underway for the half-day event and the next Customer Journey project on the horizon, I’m grateful for the chance to keep learning, building, and contributing to something meaningful.

Until next week,
Kat Jolley

Hi again everyone! Week 7 was an extremely active week with lots of meetings and incredible opportunities.

We started off this week with a meeting with our videographer. We went to a cute coffee place in German Village and started brainstorming ideas for our annual filming day. This day, which will be occurring next week, usually consists of bringing in clients and asking for their stories as well as their experience at Netcare. We talked through what we wanted to do differently for these testimonials as well as filming shots of our building and facilities for our website. For the past few weeks, we have been working on our campaign that focuses on staff interviews. Our videographer even offered to film some of these interviews for us so we could get started on posting this content!

Another big meeting we had this week was our foundation board meeting. This was a very interesting meeting to sit in on as we talked through big events as well as our important updates and future goals. Unfortunately not many board members attended this week so we were not able to vote on important matters, but it was still a great experience to see how it was run!

I also had the opportunity to meet with more staff members this week including our director of community programs and the directors of forensics. These were such great opportunities to learn more about Netcare programs while also getting advice on this field. Through speaking with the directors from forensics, I learned that one of the hard parts of their jobs is not getting to see the progress people might make as they just have a small role to play in their lives. I realized that not getting to see a direct impact might be something that would also be hard for me and maybe this is not the path I necessarily want to go into. From speaking with the director of the community programs, I was able to almost shadow and see exactly what her day-to-day looks like. It was extremely fascinating to learn more about what she does and the impact all of these programs have on the community!

I spent my free time this week working on some tiny projects as well as starting on a new campaign that I hope to speak more about next time! Overall this week was an extremely fun and busy week with incredible learning experiences. 

Best,

Anaika

Hello again! This week at OYO has been all about creating alignment between platforms, between projects, and most importantly, between us and our audience.

With the season announcement post ready to go, I focused on making sure the launch feels seamless across all touchpoints. I met with Mike, our website contact, to update both the ticketing and season subscription links, ensuring that everything from the social post to the email to the site connects smoothly. Our goal is to reduce friction so that when someone sees the announcement and wants to learn more or buy tickets, it’s an easy and intuitive process. It’s small details like this that help us build trust and momentum as we roll out the season.

Beyond the rollout logistics, I’ve been thinking ahead. I’ve started planning flyers and social media content for our Children’s Dance programming, hoping to get a head start on outreach for that series. Since this program serves a different audience (families, young dancers, and new community members) it’s important that we tailor our messaging early. I’m excited to start brainstorming visuals and tone that feel warm, energetic, and kid-friendly while still aligning with OYO’s overall aesthetic.

This week felt like a quiet but important pivot. From just getting everything in place to truly thinking like a communicator: How do we guide people through the season? How do we spark curiosity and make every post, link, or flyer feel like a doorway into the work we are doing?

As the weeks go on, I’m continuing to look for ways to not only promote, but connect and to make sure each piece of content speaks to the people we want to reach.

This week at The Overwatch Partnership, I had a number of tasks to complete. The main one was to create an Excel sheet that complied all the responses I received from the mentors and mentees I emailed. So far, I have heard back from a lot of the mentors. I was really glad to see that their feedback was mainly positive! A lot of them said that their communication and relationship with their mentee was going very well. One mentor expressed that they would like to talk to other mentors to share experiences. This would be helpful for the mentors so that they could learn methods that do and don’t work when it comes to supporting their mentees. Unfortunately, another mentor has been having consistent communication issues with their mentees. Reading all of the responses made me realize how important gathering feedback is. There is always room for improvement, and you should always look for ways to make things easier and more beneficial for all parties. 

Another task I had this week was to create a mentor playbook. The playbook is meant to be an outline that they can reference or follow during the 9-month mentorship period. It will be especially helpful for first time mentors. I have never created a playbook for programs before, so I did a lot of research and looked and preexisting playbooks to help me create one for OWP. I really enjoy doing these kinds of tasks. It makes me feel like I am really making a difference and helping people. I am still researching grants that OWP can apply to. It has been really hard trying to find grants that are local to Ohio. Overwatch does not fit a lot of the specific requirements to receive a lot of local grants, but I am still trying very hard to find some! I see how hard it is for small nonprofits to receive funding. And unfortunately, with the way things are going I don’t think it is going to get any easier. 

To end on a high note, I also created a document containing the responses I received from each board member I met with. They all aspire to grow OWP so that many more veterans can receive mentorship and support. One even had the idea to provide support to military families as well, which was something I hadn’t even thought of. I am really excited to see how Overwatch grows, even after I am no longer a Fellow. 

Thank you for reading, 

Kindall Benjamin 

Hi Everyone!

This week at Green Columbus was eventful, I attended my first board meeting and litter league night. I also published the tree giveaway sign up sheet on the Green Columbus website, which means that the giveaways are right around the corner!

The July board meeting was on Thursday night at the Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District office in a fancy meeting room so I felt very professional. I got to meet the majority of the board members at the meeting and see how a board meeting is conducted. A consultant for Green Columbus was also at the meeting and it was so interesting to hear about all of their ideas for Green Columbus. I also learned that most boards follow Robert’s Rules for voting and introducing motions.

Green Columbus is preparing for its annual tree giveaways in the fall and is hosting giveaways at three different locations throughout Columbus, so I applied for permits for two of the locations. I had never applied for a permit before so it was good to get the experience. I also reorganized the tree giveaway links on our website and published the sign ups for the giveaways which was really exciting because residents can now start signing up for trees!

This week showed me how much work and planning is required for nonprofit events to be successful and support the community. Even for smaller organizations, it is no easy feat to plan successful events year after year. Like Dr. Lomax said in this week’s session, nonprofits and philanthropy are how so much aid is provided in the U.S. because for so many issues like healthcare, the environment, and housing there isn’t any policy protecting an individual’s right to healthcare, housing, or a clean and healthy environment. This makes the work that Green Columbus does even more important and I’m grateful to have had this opportunity to help.

Until next week,

Emma