Jewish Vocational Service Inc., Boston, MA
This summer, I had the pleasure of working with the Development Office in the executive suite of Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) in Boston, Massachusetts. I served as a data development intern who would be working with the individual giving manager and the marketing head on assignments. My main tasks involved using software like Raiser’s Edge and Microsoft Excel to enter data, pull donation history, create constituent profiles, research other organizations, and keep the database organized. Additionally, I worked with their data team in another database called ETO. Once a week, I would go to the next office over and help the two chairs of the data department with “one-off” tasks that mostly dealt with tidying up loose ends and updating the profiles of former and current participants that were enrolled in one or more of the many programs offered at JVS. I also volunteered some of my time as a tutor. When available, I would go upstairs to the designated classroom during lunchtime and work with the students on their projects using the comments from their teachers as guidelines to follow. Other than that, I took care of one-time assignments other departments needed an extra hand on and spent some time organizing and indexing leftover supplies from past events.
To help with understanding my jobs and further references, I will breakdown what I believe JVS is after spending a few months with them. JVS is a non-profit organization that is committed to helping refugees, immigrants, and anyone seeking assistance in bettering their life by offering programs and workshops to these individuals. Their slogan is “Skills. Jobs. Careers.” This is a short description of their mission to provide the tools necessary to further one in their path toward their dream. Services include English classes for those who do not speak it, career and pharmaceutical workshops, interview tips and simulations, and diploma and bridge programs to provide adults a high school equivalent and help them attend full-time colleges. They provide full on celebrations, not graduations, sometimes at the statehouse which are very emotional and inspiring to witness. I had the pleasure of attending two of these and loved the way they were conducted and saw the pure joy of everyone completing a step in their journey.
In addition to this side of JVS, there is of course the more administrative business realm where less hands-on work is done and more discussion about money and plans for the fiscal year are discussed to keep the organization afloat and progressing. This is where I spent the majority of my time. I spent much of the beginning of my internship learning how to process gifts and what certain names meant from the individual giving manager (IGM), Kara. I also took several three-hour courses online via Blackbaud to get a foundation and understanding for the Raiser’s Edge database with which I would be spend a lot of my time working. I will say that while Raiser’s Edge (RE) has many useful capabilities, like most things not much of it was used often and the most helpful way to learn how to use it was from actual exposure and trying my hand at it.
One of the central assignments for me was gift processing. I would receive a paper detailing a person or organization and their donation (where they wanted the money to go, the form of payment, when it was received, etc.), taking copies of the form over to accounting, entering a brief overview of the gift into an Excel sheet, entering the full breakdown into RE, sending a stewardship email to the CEO, CDO, and IGM, so they would send thank you letters, and filing the forms into folders. Summer is not particularly busy in terms of fundraising for JVS, so there was not a gift entry every day; but when gifts came it, it was definitely something that took time and meticulousness. Another one of my personal assignments was to update the whiteboard in the Chief Development Officer (CDO), Karin’s office with updated totals for different campaigns and how they differed from the goal for the fiscal year. This was a tedious process, as well. With time, I came to enjoy these seemingly menial jobs. My favorite part since the inception was the bi-weekly development meetings with all members of the department. This was because I got an inside look into what conversations and dynamics are had in the higher levels of administration.
Overall, I have good feelings about the organization. At first, I was not a fan due to my disinterest in the data entry tasks and working alone in my cubical. It wasn’t a bad thing, though, because it made me question whether this type of office-life is for me. However, with every passing day and the maintenance of a positive outlook, I saw value in individual cubicles. I was able to challenge myself and enjoy alone time. It also showed me the importance of organization and encouraged me to stay focused on the work in front of me. In regard to the atmosphere, the employees were very amicable, yet verbal communication about issues and friendly conversations about life outside of work were minimal and often I found the workplace very quiet. I do believe that this was just by the nature of the workplace and cubicle arrangement.
This internship is very valuable to me in that it reinforced how significant language and connections with people are. It was very awesome to see how a treasured relationship with someone from a few years ago could amount to a large donation to you and your mission. Thanks to multiple dialogues with Kara, I also learned how the way in which people do things and how much they give tells their patterns, and it is critical to reflect back to them that you know who they are when you address them. The head of marketing, Kimberly, opened my eyes further to the impact of branding and potential messages your appearance may give off and what you want to avoid. Lastly, this internship enlightened me about abstracts like time and planning.
My exposure to JVS will be greatly useful to me while at Williams and beyond because it furthered my interest and passion for being the head of a business and getting a greater look into the mind of a Chief Officer. I was also pleased to see a non-profit doing good work and with positive and enthusiastic behind-the-scene staff. Their openness to growth was refreshing and reminds me of how other people can, indeed, value backgrounds of those who differ from them. Finally, this internship has a direct influence on me because I am a computer science and psychology double major, so my exposure to office life and extended research has provided me with a frame of mind to use in the future, but also some footing from which I can start.
I conclude by expressing great thanks to Mr. Robert Kraft P86, P89, Mr. Jonathan Kraft ’86, and Mr. Joshua Kraft ’89 for their generosity as their Kraft Family Fund for Internships scholarship program is what helped fund this experience. I also extend enormous gratitude to the Williams College ’68 Center for Career Exploration for approving my application and granting me the ASIP award for this summer. Without their generosity and support, I would not have been able to commit to this experience and gain valuable insight from the time spent. I am truly blessed, and I hope more individuals have the privilege of receiving ASIP grants and can intern at places like JVS. Thank you again to the Kraft Family and I hope I was able to express my gratitude and my takeaways in an appropriate manner.
Megamenu Social