As I begin the 7th week of my internship, it’s crazy to think about all the different things I’ve learned and seen so far. It’s been cool to see all of the inner-workings of TFFT and all that goes into making this organization so successful.
Since my last post, I learned how to navigate our new database, so a lot of my time has been spent entering accounts and editing them so that we have all of our donor information in one place. As uneventful and tedious as typing numbers into the computer is, I can see how important this database will be for TFFT…a little more efficient than the many different excel documents that house our donor’s information now. : )
Meghann, Kaitlin, and I also had a book club for “Lean In”, by Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook. The book was all about women in the workforce and women embracing and shooting for power, and given that TFFT’s U.S. office is run by all women, it was definitely an important and inspiring read.
Another thing we did over the past few weeks was a Personal Narrative Workshop. Rachel McGowen, who works for Teach For America, led us in a workshop to learn how to best tell our story with TFFT. It’s been so useful for us to each have our own organized stories about what got us started with TFFT and why it’s so important to us, and Meghann, Kaitlin and I have spent many afternoons walking laps around the parking lot trying to perfect our narratives.
I spent one afternoon unloading and packing up the hundreds of soccer jerseys collected by the Myers Park High School TFFT Club in their Jambo to Jerseys Drive! Thanks to the students at MP and help from the Harris YMCA, the club was able to collect enough soccer jerseys to outfit all of our scholars – maybe even all of Tanzania for that matter!! The Tanzanian culture really embraces making the most of what you have, and it’s awesome that the club recognizes this philosophy too!
A couple weeks ago we had our first committee meeting for the 8th Annual SOS Gala, which will be on November 9th at Founders Hall. It was so exciting to make plans for the décor, the auction, and everything that goes in to making the event the Best Fundraising Event in Charlotte! From locking in the theme to already securing auction items, the committee is on a roll! We are dedicated to making this event one of the highlights of your winter, so make sure to mark your calendars!!
Another one of my jobs was to make calls to all of our sponsors to check in and see how their sponsorships were going. I was really nervous, but I’m happy to say everyone I talked to was very nice and really excited about our work! My favorite part about the calls was seeing just how involved our sponsors are. It was so great to hear the sponsors talking about their student’s grades, their communication with their students, and even possible trips to meet their students! The personal touch TFFT has between sponsors and the children we serve is one of the things that makes this organization so special. Below you can see Helena beaming as she proudly shows a letter from her sponsors.
Lastly, one of my favorite jobs of the past few weeks has been helping to plan RIDETZ. We’ve been working really hard on coming up with ideas to make next summer’s ride the best one yet, and I think we are definitely on the right track. For all you potential riders out there…all I can say is if you’re considering doing RIDETZ…you should definitely consider it a little more because next summer’s is going to be great!!
Well, I’m off to go enter some more accounts into the database! I hope your week is off to a good start!