meta-blog post

I am just finishing up my second week at The Foundation Center. These first two weeks have gone by so quickly! I can already tell that I'm going to learn a lot here. The Foundation Center does so many different things to advance the nonprofit sector that it's almost hard to keep track of! In fact, the senior staff recently created an "elevator pitch" to help employees of the center explain their employer to others. (The Foundation Center is the leading source of information about philanthropy worldwide. Through data, analysis, and training, we seek to connect the people who want to change the work to the resources they need to succeed).

I am working in the Educational Services arm of the Center, so I'm focusing on the resources that the center offers to people who want to learn about nonprofit management, getting grants, etc. The center offers free and fee-based courses on topics like "proposal writing basics", "grantseeker training", "grantseeking for individuals in the arts", and "Fundraising in a challenging economy". So far, I have taken some of these courses to get a sense of the curricula.

There are also special events. For example, last week I went to an event called "U R What U Tweet: Social Media for Career Advancement", which was about how nonprofit professionals can use social media tools to advance their careers. I actually covered the event for the Foundation Center's blog...so in a sense, this blog entry is kind of meta.

(newyorkblog.foundationcenter.org/2010/08/u-r-what-u-tweet-social-media-for-career-advacement.html)

I also helped edit the audio recording of the event for what will become a podcast on the Center's website.

My next project is compiling data from all five of the Foundation Center's offices (NY the Headquarters, San Francisco, Cleveland, DC, and Atlanta) about the attendance at free courses in the last quarter of the year (April through June). I'm also using some survey-processing software to analyze the evaluations that participants filled out after their courses. The data is housed in several different places and is labeled differently by each office, so this project is requiring some sifting through folders and some flexing of my (not so strong) excel muscles. I hope that in the end, though, the product will be a cohesive and comprehensive database.

I have been riding my bike to work (about 30-35 minutes from my apartment on the upper east side), which is a bit of an adventure everyday. I'm getting to be more saavy and bolder when darting between taxis, buses, and oblivious tourists. My office is also about one block away from the Union Square Farmers' Market, which is the largest farmers' market in NYC. It runs every M/W/F/Sat and it's so nice to wander around and troll for free samples. I'm think I may pick up some fresh crusty baquette for the weekend on my way out today. Looking forward to week 3!