Hello, my name is Emilia, and in my final year of studying French and Spanish I completed an internship as a fundraising assistant with the charity Action on Poverty.
The charity supports vulnerable communities in East and West Africa. It works to tackle poverty, injustice and inequality. I completed this internship working for around 10 hours a week from January to May.
I found that this worked well and allowed me to balance working and studying. The internship was entirely remote and was a great introduction to working remotely.
I learnt that a lot of charities are now entirely or partly remote, so that they can cut down on office costs.
The role
As a fundraising assistant, I supported the fundraising manager with various tasks:
- I spent a lot of time on a fundraising campaign called ‘Break the Cycle’; a cycling trip through Uganda to raise funds.
- I helped create communications for this campaign, including social media posts and brochures. I also created spreadsheets with a communications plan, outlining different people and organisations to contact.
- Another aspect of fundraising that I worked on was researching various trusts and foundations that could provide grants to support the charity’s work. I learnt a lot about the grant application process which I thoroughly enjoyed.
- Through my internship, I gained valuable experience on Canva (a design platform).
- Furthermore, as the organisation was small I learned a lot about many parts of the charity.
Concluding remarks
I would highly recommend this scheme. It provides the perfect opportunity for gaining valuable experience in the charity sector. Often, charities need extra support in the field of fundraising and communications but do not have the funds to employ more people.
It can be daunting contacting various organisations, but the Careers Service provides amazing guidance on how to do this. The whole experience was definitely worthwhile. I feel very grateful that I was able to complete an internship with this charity. I got to work alongside passionate and dedicated individuals for a great cause.
Want to be an SME Intern?
- Find out more about the SME Internship Scheme on our website.
- Check out our “My SME Internship” blog series to hear more student stories.
- If you have any questions about the scheme, writing your application, or anything else relating to careers you can speak to us on live chat, or pop into 5 Tyndall Avenue.