My name is Margaret Anne Hines and I am a Art History and Painting double major. In talking to both my art history and painting teachers, I found one common link between the two different professions. Whether I end up writing, researching, teaching, or painting, grant writing is an inevitable aspect to my success in any field I might go in to. When I first started looking for an internship in grant writing I immediately reached out to a good family friend, Elise Eplan, who has extensive experience in philanthropy and non-profit management. Elise Eplan put me in contact with her peer professional, Points of Light’s Executive Director Richard Dubose, who, after talking with me via e-mail and phone, put me in contact with Beth Kargel, Vice Present of Foundations and Government Fundraising. She had never had an intern, but needed the help with her large workload and was open to teaching me the ins and outs of nonprofit fundraising and grant writing. Points of Light (POL) is a Global nonprofit organization that functions as a catalyst for connecting projects with funds and people with volunteer projects. POL is the largest nonprofit in the United States and because of this far reaching national presents, the Foundations sect is pressed to spend just as much energy networking as they do actually
writing grants. Just like in the job-hunting world, nonprofits do very little cold calls; rather success heavily depends on connecting with people in the same employment arena as you.
Beth Kargel, the Vice Present of Foundations and Government Fundraising, is my direct supervisor. Kargel is in charge of all of POL’s foundation and government grants. She holds all the current non-corporate accounts, fosters relationships with the foundations, writes all the foundation and government grants, researches funding opportunities, and briefs all the big successful past grants for internal circulation.
I assist Beth Kargel with most of her assignments. She makes sure to brief me in all the projects, even the ones she doesn’t need help with. I mostly do research for upcoming grants. I also attend a lot of meetings focused on the larger strategic picture of the work Points of Light does. Sometimes I brief former grants for the Foundation Directors or Tracey Wallace, the president of Points of Light. I have been able to answer some questions of current grants and editing Beth Kargel's grants before submission. I am most proud of the professional relationships I have developed in the work place and the hard work I have put into important nonprofit work. My biggest take away has been learning about the current market’s demand for networking in every field. The most important thing that I have learned is my dislike for working long hours in an office, no matter how much I enjoy the projects I’m working on or belief in the company I work for. At least as a long term job.
I feel confident navigating the grant finding and writing process. I am also interested in possibly working in fundraising as a short-term job between undergraduate and graduate school.
