Hi, everyone.
Thanks so much for coming to our LEAP panel.
A few bees have joined us--
thought I would announce that just in case anyone
is allergic out there, looking at my mom in the back.
[LAUGHTER]
All right.
My name is Carrie Clowers.
I'm a senior here at Mount Holyoke.
I'm an English major.
And I have a Nexus minor in journalism, media,
and public discourse.
So today, I'll focus on four aspects of my LEAP experience.
And for the first-years and sophomores in the crowd,
I'll tell you a little bit about how I found
and secured my internship.
I'll then tell you about the organization I worked for,
what specifically I did there, what I learned,
and then how that will inform my plans moving forward.
So a little bit about how I found my internship--
for the past three summers, I've done various internships
and nonprofit work located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
So my journey with greeNest actually
started two summers ago.
Two summers ago after my sophomore
year, I actually worked under a young Mount Holyoke alum
organization called World Relief,
we were taught ESL courses to refugees in my hometown.
And while I was doing that, I put in a few volunteer hours
at an organization called greeNest down the street.
So last summer, after I was approved for my LEAP funding,
I reached out to the founders of greeNest.
And I asked if they would be willing to create an internship
position for me.
They had not the internship position in the past.
But because they had met me and knew what kind of work I did,
they were willing to take me on.
And so that's something to consider
if you're looking into an internship in non-profit work.
So a little bit about greeNest--
there's a fire alarm going off, not here.
We're OK.
A little bit about greeNest-- it's
located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
It is a relatively young non-profit.
It was founded in January of 2015.
So we're still in our terrible twos,
but it will be turning three in January.
And then their mission is to help furnish homes
for individuals and families moving from unsafe living
conditions into sustainable housing.
So how do they do that?
When people are transitioning into sustainable housing,
oftentimes, furnishing is an afterthought
or it's financially out of the question.
And you can imagine them moving into an empty apartment that
doesn't have furniture, blinds, curtains, cookware, dishware.
It just doesn't feel like home.
So by offering everything from shower rings to sofas,
greeNest strives to become that link
between the actual acquisition of housing
into truly independent home living.
So in order to do that, greeNest accepts and repurposes
donations from the local community.
And then we place them into show rooms.
And then clients and participants
from our partnering agencies can come through with a caseworker
and select what they need for their new home.
So up here, you can see a few of our show rooms
and some of the objects that people
have donated in the past.
And so in our showrooms as well, we also
organize smaller donations into premade packs and baskets.
So when you're coming through and picking out your bedding,
you can have a set of linens that
match even if they came from three different places--
same with cookware, dishware, and dining packs.
So people come to greeNest for a variety of reasons.
And a lot of them have various levels of needs.
Some of the most common reasons people come to greeNest
are if they are transitioning out of a state of homelessness,
young adults aging out of the foster care system,
families recovering from natural disaster relief.
We cater to a large community of veterans
as well as refugee families in the area,
and then many survivors of domestic abuse and violence
fleeing their home situations.
So I'll tell you a little bit about my specific role
within the organization this summer.
Because I did create the internship
alongside the founders, I had a lot of freedom
in what I wanted to do.
So one thing I was considering when
I was outlining the position was that I
wanted to create a position where
I could see the administrative management
side of nonprofit work without losing sight
of the day-to-day footwork and community interactions
that drew me to nonprofit work in the first place.
So a few of my administrative responsibilities--
I attended board meetings.
I created promotional materials to aid
in the strategic marketing plan.
You can see the little holiday card I made up there.
I shadowed financial meetings with
a certified public accountant.
I made spreadsheets of our large-scale donations
and their values.
And I did a little bit of fundraising and event planning.
And then my day-to-day work, I helped with office work.
I managed the furniture warehouse.
I redecorated showrooms, helped participants
shop and select furnishing for their homes.
I gave tours of the organization and interacted with donors.
I helped field those donations when they would arrive.
So doing this type of work has taught me
a lot about how the non-profits work,
not only on a day-to-day basis, but long-term as well.
And more notably, I learned about how
non-profits in Winston-Salem adapt to a growing need
by working together.
So 78% of the non-profits in North Carolina
reported a growing demand for their services
in the past year.
So the question became, how do they
cater to that growing need while maintaining budgets
that are typically static and volunteer
bases that are not growing?
And so I learned that in order to cater to this demand,
they call upon and share resources
with other non-profits in the community.
So that takes on many forms.
Sometimes it literally means trading or sharing
physical resources.
Sometimes it means sharing intellectual material,
advertising together, doing strategic marketing plans
in tandem.
Sometimes it's referring clients to partner non-profits
when you run out of resources.
And a lot of times, there's a lot
of trading volunteer bases as well.
So for the sake of this LEAP presentation,
I'm calling this observation the nonprofit network.
And I'm going to tell you specifically
how greeNest operates within this network.
So greeNest itself was actually created and modeled
after the Green Chair Project in Raleigh.
This is a great example of sharing intellectual material.
greeNest and the Green Share Project
both share a board member.
They told us how their organization
started, how they grow it.
We model our fundraising events after theirs.
And then we also do advertising in tandem with them as well.
We use Goodwill and Habitat ReStore
to trade physical resources.
So when greeNest gets volunteer donations that we can't use,
we put them in these blue bins, give them to Goodwill.
And Goodwill in return gives us gift cards
to buy things we do need.
Habitat ReStore donates furniture
that has been sitting in their show room for a long time.
And we redirect donations to them as well.
We helped to do a lot of advertising and fundraising
for the Shalom Project this summer.
And in turn, we got great community visibility
to help grow and expand our volunteer base.
And then, of course, we have our partnering agencies.
So up here, you'll see that they cater
to a lot of very specific populations.
We have a lot of veteran associations
that cater to people with disabilities.
You'll also see a lot of religious organizations
that help, not only with clients but by providing
volunteering youth groups as well.
You'll see both national and local organizations.
And many of our clients would actually
be in constant with multiple organization at once.
So it was interesting to see how those non-profits kind of
formed a web-like support system, where each organization
relied upon the next.
And clients kind of could rely on them
to help fill the gaps that public support programs left
open.
So that kind of leads me to what comes next.
My collective experiences of working in non-profits
for the past three summers have illustrated to me
the consistent lack of governmental policies
and program that support those in need,
specifically within my hometown.
And it kind of solidified my plans
to go into the world of politics after graduation
to help grow those public support programs
and alleviate the incredibly high need
for these non-profit services.
With that said, even though non-profit work
isn't what I want to do professionally,
it's something I hope to remain involved
with throughout the entirety of my life.
I am excited to go home at holiday break
to continue working with greeNest for their holiday
fundraising program.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]