It’s intern season! As those bright, shiny faces show up at your door ready to learn about your organization and hone their skills within, be prepared to address the push and pull of engaging interns in your organization. Interns can be an enormous help when budgets are tight and resources are scarce. They can also be a huge time suck who never really accomplish anything. It takes very deliberate strategic planning to make a nonprofit markteting internship experience successful for all parties involved.
Using interns in a nonprofit marketing or communications department is especially difficult because you need that intern to be immersed in your mission in order to be effective for fundraising. That immersion could take the entire 6 or 8 weeks of the internship. By the time you’ve got the intern properly trained to write or create in your brand voice, they are leaving and nothing was accomplished. Here are some strategies to mitigate that risk.
- Be very specific on the job description. Don’t expect the intern to do everything. Most interns are not able to be marketing generalists, nor would they learn much in that kind of role. Focus on one or two very specific projects such as direct mail appeal writer or digital marketing specialist.
- Recruit an intern looking for very specific learning opportunities. Smart students are using these internships to learn about specific aspects of marketing that appeal to them. If you need a social media account manager, find an intern who is interested in learning about that aspect of marketing.
- Schedule out the internship in detail. Plan for training, “get to know you” meetings, check-in meetings, project work time, and reporting time. Make use of every minute of the day. If you hit a delay or speedbump, be prepared to pivot but keep moving forward.
- Brand immersion is critical for any marketing or communication intern. Create a training program that is comprehensive, integrated, and memorable. Include personal experiences for the intern within your organization so that they see your organization’s mission come to life. Also make sure to provide very specific brand guidelines such as brand books, style guides and clear examples of how your brand should be communicated and visualized.
- Make sure to communicate the concrete deliverables that you expect from each intern when recruiting. Reiterate those deliverables on day one. Remind the intern of those deliverables at every check-in meeting.
- Regular check-in meetings are critical. Ask for tangible evidence of progress at each meeting. Encourage your interns to share with you any issues or concerns they are having so that you can talk about them and offer support.
- If possible, find a way to retain your intern after the internship is over. If you can’t hire them, ask them to continue working as a volunteer. It’s a great resume builder for them and you’ll keep leveraging their expertise.
With a little strategic planning, interns can be an effective way to enhance the work that your team does. Don’t let past bad experiences deny you the benefits and resources that come from a successful internship program.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/managing-effective-internship-program-busy-nonprofit-georgiana-mba/
