Charity Insights

So I thought I would do a quick round up of what I have learnt on my internship since I am at the end of my final week 🙁

• How to link data
• How to communicate the same information in different ways effectively for different people and purposes i.e Writing a report, a memo for a meeting and a PowerPoint on my project (oh and these blogs! This has been fun to do!)
• I think my touch typing has got better all this time at the computer
• I have learnt conditional formatting on excel and how to add data filters (forgotten skills from GCSE ….) ,kindly retaught to me by fellow intern Chloe
• Networking
• How to plan a project
• New experience of how businesses work – communication, IT, people skills and more
• How much words impact the meaning and reception of information

 

Advice for students hoping to apply to this wonderful and fulfilling programme next year (or interns working for charities in general)

• Do not underestimate getting to know people and creating networks – I would not have got my placement otherwise!
• Find a charity that you are passionate about, perhaps one that you already have links to?
• Communicate clearly, frequently and politely
• Ask questions about your project, make sure you are clear on the tasks and what the expectations are
• If you are not 100% sure –ASK! People are happy to help!
• Be aware that people working for charities often ( if not always) do more than their job description ,so are often very busy people with long to do lists. This due to charities using as few staff as possible so funds can go to those in need- therefore interns are valued you help get work done!
• Write yourself little notes to help you remember what you need to do and by when ( saves you bugging your manager too often and stops you forgetting stuff )
• Some members of staff may have to travel around an area the charity works in – Be aware of this and plan for any days like this so you have tasks to get on with when your manager maybe out of their main office on training/ meetings
• If your manager is busy try to give them warning of when you will need work checked over in order to complete the work to a good standard- it helps them out with planning what they have to do each day
• Charities are nice places to work: there is often a really friendly, open vibe about the office
• Make sure you know how to make tea/coffee – you know look after people, for example, if you are going to get a drink offer to make other people in the office one too ( but don’t solely make tea, this is not the aim of any internship).
• Get the work done properly and to a high standard!
• And Finally …. BE FABULOUS AND ENJOY! ( Oh, and get your application, CV etc into the internship service by the deadline, I hear it helps?)

Good Luck!

Thank you to everyone in People and Learning for supporting me in applying to the Charity Insights Programme and supporting me whilst on my internship – I have learnt so much!

 

 

Read Final week at the British Red Cross in Portsmouth in full

Ok, week 3 – What have we done?

I have finished writing up my report and have gone through and extended my points as Rachel had asked me to. I have checked all the spelling, grammar, punctuation and stats- so I think we are good to go! Phrasing of points is also key and parapharsing, though useful, can sometimes alter dramatically how well recieved the information is. It is funny how one word can totally change how people take things and since the report makes suggestions, this is important to consider.

I have a date set in my last week to allow me to feedback to the People and Learning team. I am going to have to make a PowerPoint to do that. I also had to write a memo for the area management team meeting, which Rachel has give out as a summary of my report before sending it out for real, so that it can be read and hopefully put into action by Senior staff ( Eek!!) and the volunteer council. So, hopefully, by making this report I will have helped the staff and volunteers of the British Red Cross in Hampshire Surrey and the Isle of Wight have their voices heard.

Some of the topics covered in my report have included Communication, People Management/ development and My Organisation. The aim is to find evidence for suggested improvements in the focus group, so that we can boost retention of volunteers. It has been a big project and a long one as it is sort of 3 projects in one . It started back in April and is due, well, next week! So it will be the end of a long process for Rachel and Chloe (the other intern), who have been working on it for 4 months collecting processing and writing up their work.

It has been lovely working here, and you do start to feel a part of the team, rather than just an intern who leaves in a few weeks. Members of staff do value your input if they ask for an opinion from past experience- it makes you feel like you are making an impact and genuinely helping the team on a project.

On a different note- how far do people commute to their place of work? For me it is about 40 mins on the train to Portsmouth from my family home ,which is great. I have been filling the time reading!

Read Week 3 at the British Red Cross in Portsmouth in full

Hi Everyone!

So it has been a busy and productive week here! Last Friday after I wote my Blog post I went over our huge, very detailed spreadsheet  with the other intern, also called Chloe! ( As you can imagine this is quite funny and creates a touch of confusion!) We came up with lists of errors in the data collection and searched the data again for evidence for my report.

I have been typing up drafts of my report  this week and have shown it to my Line Manager Rachel who has given me feedback after my first attempt, which has been really helpful. I was glad that I had a good structure to my report sorted and that the information and links currently down were not overlapping the work done by Rachel and Chloe.

Rachel and Chloe are both looking at the different sets of data individually and making very detailed points from our data in their reports. Mine differs as I have to link the 2 data sets together and look at the broad trends, which is very different as it is ingrained in us from GCSE Level upwards  ‘DETAIL MORE DETAIL!! BE ACCURATE, BE EXACT!!’.  So, when I had my initial table of: the areas of disscussion,  areas for improvement as suggested by volunteers, and detailed points from the retention study with percentages/ numbers ,and quick starting point  to expand for report; being told it was great, but too detailed for my report was mindblowing .  You can imagine my inner science geek threw their scientific calculator out of the lab and had a little tantrum.  As someone who is used to writing less on trends (though trends are none the less important!) ,then going into far more detail and refering to exact points on graphs to show outliers, refering to differences between  datapoints , and backing  all my statements up religiously …. This has been a bit of a shock to the system.

All this said, I very pleased that I am learning new ways of doing things and writing this report, I feel, has made me more confident in planning essays and how to put information and data from different sources together. Hopefully useful skills to take in to second year of Imperial and will help me improve my performance in assessment.

 

 

Read Week 2 at the British Red Cross in Portsmouth in full

Hi everyone!

I thought I would let you know what I have been up to on my charity insights placement and a little bit about me/ my project.

 

So why did you choose the British Red Cross as your charity?

Well I have been a Volunteer with them for 4 years as a Peer Educator in First Aid and love it, so it was an obvious choice. They are always keen to take on Interns to help out as well!

 

What is the project and why are you doing it?

I am working in the People and Learning department where I am linking two pieces of research data together, one on volunteer rentention ( quantitative) and a second on staff and volunteer engagement (focus groups). From this we hope to *reads off from piece of paper*: Aid Area Business planning, improve volunteer engagement and improve staff rentention of volunteers. So serious and important stuff.

 

So, What have you been doing?

Well I have been getting to grips with the project and fully understanding it as the outcomes have to be presented to the Area Management team (Ekk!). We also had to overcome some problems …. We found out we were missing data for the project. 3 months of data had not been sent to us! This meant that the spreadsheet with all of the data we had anaylsed was totally false. So Wednesday and Thursday were days of looking  at the spreadsheet and sorting graphs out and adding formulas to it. Thankfully we got it all sorted and I remembered how to work Excel again! We thought that we might have to wait until Friday to sort it as the spreadsheet had been created by another intern. I have also started to link the projects together by using a table as a layout for planning my report.

 

Overall, it has been a great first week and I have really enjoyed it and I am looking forward to the rest!

 

Read First week At Portsmouth British Red Cross in full