Name of Student: Florence
Pathway Programme: Pathways to Charity and Development
Internship Role: Individual Giving Assistant Intern
Summary of Organisation: Alzheimer’s Society are the leading charity in the UK working to end the devastation caused by dementia. We provide crucial support to people living with dementia and their
loved ones over the phone, online, and through our expert dementia advisers. We also fund ground-breaking research to improve the diagnosis, care, and treatment of dementia, and campaign for change to make sure dementia is a priority for key decision makers.
Please briefly outline the project/tasks/responsibilities you worked on during your Professional Pathways internship.
I was assigned many different projects and tasks throughout the internship which helped me to gain a greater understanding of the charity sector. One of these was a call listening task where I went through and quality checked calls to regular givers asking for an upgraded donation, making sure that the principle of thank, update and inspire was consistent throughout the calls. This helped me to understand the process of asking for an upgrade or gift as well as the stewardship involved in regular giving.
I also went through the forget-me-nots where people had written why they donate to Alzheimer’s Society (AS) and looked for trends and strong quotes.
My largest task was to conduct market research of paper and digital Christmas appeals from across different charities in the sector and look at the strengths and weaknesses from these to create my own strategy for the AS Christmas appeal which I then presented to 3 of the managers within my team.
Finally, I was set a few different copywriting tasks, the first of these was to write an email letter to be paired with a paper letter for this years Autumn appeal about the new research around the Alzheimer’s drugs. I then also wrote a email regular giving conversion letter again focussed around the new research and the importance of giving regularly. I also helped to give feedback and review a letter written by the prize team explaining the increase in the lottery price.
How has the Professional Pathways programme helped you in taking the next steps in your career?
Before the programme I was unsure of what sort of career I wanted to pursue, however the combination of the training and the internship has helped me to narrow down my career plans and confirm that I want to go into the charity sector. During the training week the different speakers all suggested different ways to apply for jobs in the sector as well as being transparent about their own career journeys. Additionally, I received lots of career advice during my internship from my managers. I also had meetings with the charity’s creative agency which has helped to open up other internship opportunities.
Why would you recommend the Professional Pathways programme to other students?
The programme is a great way of finding out more about a specific career sector, the training week helped me to gain greater knowledge and understanding about the charity sector which I was then able to apply to my internship. Additionally the group task during the training week was useful for improving planning and presentation skills as well as a good opportunity to work as a team. During both the training week and my internship I heard lots of different talks from professionals in the sector which widened my understanding of the sector, whilst helping me to narrow down my own career endeavours.