Day 5: Monday May 20th - 9am to 5pm

This week started off with a meeting first thing Monday morning. Stephanie and I sat with Ellen, Courtney and Laura (the two other development employees) to compile a list about everything left to do for Tribute to Women. The list, although lengthy, seemed manageable. Stephanie and I ended up with a quite a to do list for the week. 

• I ordered signs for the venue (Welcome, Raffle, Registration ext.)
• Organized sponsors and their emails into a spreadsheet
• Delivered invites to the last few guests
• Chose the menu for lunch
• Created the PowerPoint to play during lunch (listing awardees, raffle prizes, and sponsors)
• Created table tents for all sponsors and tables bought

Some of this was finished on Wednesday as well. Stephanie also hired an interpreter for the event and made corrections in the script before sending it over to Jennifer Abney. 

Day 6: Wednesday May 22nd - 9am to 4pm. 

On Wednesday we finished up to the to do list, but spent most of the day working on the table placements for sponsors. We had 60 tables of 10 seats, 29 with the best views, and 34 sponsors. It took us a few hours to place each sponsor based on their sponsorship level, what type of company they were, and what board member would be sitting close enough to welcome them. I learned quite a bit through this table placement process. We had to make sure there wasn't a bank next to another bank, similar types of law firms next to each other  and even makes sure the two office supply companies tables were not too close .

Also on this day I learned a bit of general event fundraising advice. 

Fun facts by Ellen 

• Determine an event focus: if your having a fundraiser (as apposed to a friend raiser) make sure you are going to make money.
• No tickets (just RSVP) allows for you to obtain everyone's email, address, name, and phone number at registration.
• Every check sent as a donation provides a name, address, and new donor information. Each should be copied and filed. 
• Create a Who's Who list of the important people at each table. Give that information to the board members to have them work the room and make connections with new/potential donors. 
• Key goals of a fundraising event: generating a prospect pool, creating visibility, and generating funds. 
• When ordering programs order the number of guests, plus the number of sponsor requests sent out this year, plus a few extra for a cushion. You will want to send a program book from this year with the sponsorship request next year. 

Day 3: Monday May 13th - 9am to 4:30pm

Writing the speeches for the Tribute to Women event was our main task this day. We had an example from last year to go off of, but had to create new dialogue for Marsha, Maggie, and Jennifer to welcome the guests, thank everyone, and give out the awards. This speech consisted of not only the dialogue, but the actions and the timeline of the day as well.

To write this speech, we first had to figure out who was sitting at the dais and where. This took a lot more planning than expected. We had to make sure the CEO and President of the Board were sitting by the appropriate sponsors and that the awardees were sitting in the correct order. Also, Jennifer Abney had to be sitting closest to the podium since she is the emcee of the event. 

Overall speech writing was an adventure, but I think we did an alright job. We also got to have some fun decorating our desks that day because a prospective board member was coming in. To get to the conference room and CEO's office, you have to walk right past us, so they wanted it to look nice. We hung old photos from the YWCA's history as well as some other things we found around the office.

Day 4: Wednesday May 15th - 9am to 5pm

The YWCA is working to put together a "Thank You" video to debut at the Tribute to Women Luncheon. The participants in the video will be asked to stand for recognition at the lunch, so we had to make sure to invite them. That was my first job on Wednesday. I had to find contact information for 12 participants and create invitations (since there were only 2 left over) to send to them. The invitations included the details of the event, an explanation about why they are getting a complimentary ticket, an RSVP card, and Ellen's card. We are still waiting to hear back about some of the addresses. This proved that when you need something done by someone else, make sure to leave at least a weeks time for it to happen.

The first week of my internship was a really great educational experience filled with responsibility. 

Day 1: Monday May 6th - 9am to 5pm

The beginning of my first day at the YWCA was a typical introduction. I met my co-intern, Stephanie. We went through a run down of all the major projects we would be completing. We got our computers set up, mapped several drives, and set up passwords. We went and got our IDs made and then had a meeting about the Tribute to Women event coming up on May 30th. 

Stephanie and I got our first assignment during this meeting. We were to create the Program Book for TTW (Tribute to Women). Our first task was to create the program notes. This is a layout to send to the design company so that they can put the book together for printing. It's a basic layout of page numbers and what is on that page. The tricky part is to put all of the ads in the right place. Sponsors pay a large sum of money for these ads and we want to please them all. We started by putting our high level sponsors ads in the front and then worked our way through the book, basing it on last year's. We matched up the bios of the awardees with ads that made sense to what they do. Some of the ads were actually congratulatory images for the awardees. Laying the book out to be visually appealing was also something we had to worry about. This was somewhat difficult since there were still several ads that had not been submitted. 

Our next task was to rework the bios for each awardee. We made them all consistent with using just first names and put them all in the same tense. Some were just a few adjustments and others needed completely rewritten. This took us to then end of our day and a bit into the next day. 

Day 2: Wednesday May 8th - 9am to 5pm

The second day began with finishing up the bios for the awardees from the day before. We really spent most of our day finishing up the Program Book (all other time was spent at lunch with Ellen and cleaning out our desks). At lunch, Ellen went over what we had done the day before on the Program Book and made some changes. She provided great advice about the best way to complete the job.  After lunch I rewrote the welcome letter from the CEO and President of the board. Stephanie and I updated the lists for board members, updated the bio for the Mistress of Ceremonies, corrected the list of sponsors, and created the table of contents after all of the other parts were in place. 

After all of this was completed, I sat down with Ellen to go over all of the sections before sending them out to the design company. She provided me with some helpful writing tips that make a welcome letter sound much more appealing to donors. 

• Don't use infinitives, they take away the personal connection
• Don't take the donors out of the equation. Instead of saying we, say together we. 
• List words in groups of threes based on length. 
• Always use a visual image over non-visual adjectives. Ex. forging a trail

Since my first year at Point Park when I shadowed Mell Steven-Cosnek at the YWCA, I have wanted to be more involved. After some trials and tribulations this year, I applied to the YWCA's Development Department for their Development Internship. I got the interview and immediately found out that I got the job. I am so excited to start working with this amazing nonprofit organization on Monday!

My semester will be filled with many exciting projects. The Tribute to Women lunch is quickly approaching, the donor files are overflowing (and in need of organization), and my fellow intern and i will be collaborating on even more projects. I will be working Mondays, Wednesdays, and some Fridays from about 9 to 5 at the office on Wood Street. I'm excited to be working down town all summer, right across from Point Park. 

This opportunity will hopefully allow me to get some real world experience in development, learn some valuable fundraising skills from my boss Ellen Sheppard, and learn about some of her intricate databases. Planning annual events, writing grants, and soliciting individual gifts will all be on the "to do" list this summer. I can't wait to get started. You'll be hearing more shortly!

Take care, 
Amie