Posted August 29, 2014 by
Tags: The Liberal Arts Student Activities My Wheaton Global and Experiential Learning
Project World Impact: A Day in the Life of the 'Social Nonprofit' Network
When I accepted a summer internship at Project World Impact (PWI), I was grossly unaware of what working for a start-up company entailed. Although I had networked with alumni for connections, applied for internships online, and loitered around Wheaton's career development center for months, the opportunity to work at PWI actually came from a friend—PWI’s Vice President Grant Hensel, a senior at Wheaton.
Alongside founder Chris Lesner (a Taylor University graduate of 2013), we are building Project World Impact. PWI is a marketing company and social search engine run by 20-somethings. No, you didn’t read that wrong—my bosses are 21.
Our site is like a Facebook made exclusively for nonprofits, except instead of searching for a long-lost-friend’s name, you search for nonprofits by cause and by location. You can see profiles of these organizations complete with photos, videos, and written information about the work they do, as well as donor, staff, and volunteer testimonials.
Although our work seldom looks the same day-to-day, we begin each morning with a devotional at our office. After a team meeting and huddle (yes, it is as fun as it sounds to collaborate with people your age), it’s time to work. From calling nonprofits to writing content for the website, working on social media posts to building websites and apps, our team is often engaged in more than one project.
PWI employed 19 Wheaton students this summer, so I get to work alongside many of my peers. They also have several full-time staff members who are Wheaton grads. It’s not a myth that a liberal arts education is a valuable and versatile tool—PWI is a testament to its success in preparing students for meaningful, varied careers.
Because our work is multi-faceted and often changing, I am grateful for the diverse coursework and varied extracurricular activities I’ve pursued at Wheaton. While I have relied heavily on my International Relations work (my international politics and economic growth and development classes have given me a unique lens for my research for the educational portion of our website), I have also used my journalism experience with the Wheaton Record, and my work in calling alumni with Wheaton Phonathon. These activities have given me a valuable skill set to use to build PWI.
Although I didn’t know what working for a start-up company would entail, I have loved my experience at PWI and will cling to the knowledge that, as is true for most things, you will get as much out of an internship as you are willing to put in it. Stay tuned for the rest of Project World Impact’s story to be written—we currently have over 3,000 nonprofits signed up to build profiles, and will be launching our website soon.
Anna Morris is Project World Impact’s director of content development, and is a junior at Wheaton studying international relations and French. Middle photo: A morning devotional, led by Bill Lesner, in Adams Hall; Above: PWI’s sales team celebrates after hitting their mid-summer sales goal of 2,000 confirmed nonprofits.