Over the past two weeks I have been working with several forms of City Futures’ funding. Last week I did work with the renewal of a grant from the Ira W. DeCamp Foundation. The Foundation gives grants to New York City based organizations, which specialize in community-based health care, foster care, and workforce development. The grant funds City Futures’ Child Welfare Watch publication and City Limits Weekly online articles. There are plenty of really great articles on several different topics so I definitely suggest taking a look. My task was to compile a list of City Limits Weekly articles that pertained to Child Welfare so that City Futures can display its use of the grant funds and its progress throughout the year.
Prior to this internship, I did have grant experience, but very little. I’m really enjoying the chance to get better acquainted with the idea of running a non-profit and all of the elements that go into making it successful. Without the help of grants and donations, City Futures may never have been able to reach the status it has and the citizens of New York City would never have been exposed to the issues that City Futures devotes so much to.
The rest of my week was spent working on letters to send to potential City Limits Investigates subscribers (mainly NYC Libraries), offering a complimentary issue. Once library users read the magazine, the library won’t have any choice but to subscribe since the magazine is truly unique and vital to every library collection. Now, I am in the middle of drawing up an Award spreadsheet, which lists the various awards that journalists and organizations can apply to. Some of these include monetary rewards and is yet another form of funding that City Futures relies on to continue to keep the company thriving.
Both internships have really taught me just how important it is to get yourself out there and to take every opportunity to gain exposure. Without that, funding is impossible and as we all know, without funding the company simply cannot survive. Thankfully, there are so many wonderful people that not only subscribe to the magazine but truly understand just how important City Futures’ mission is.
