Spartan Fund Internship
Chris
Experience Information
Employer: Spartan Fund
Job Title: Intern
Major: Sport Management
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: No
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
The Spartan Fund is the fundraising arm of Michigan State Athletics and we serve as a link between the strategic initiatives of our self-sustaining athletics department and the philanthropic passions of 15,000 transformational donors. Through annual, facility, and endowment gifts, donors are creating opportunities in the classroom, in competition, and in the community for nearly 800 MSU student-athletes in 25 varsity sports. These opportunities allow Spartan student-athletes to earn an education while playing the sport they love and utilize the life skills they've learned to help propel them to success.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
I was responsible for donor prospect research, reaching out and thanking donors, answering phone calls, updating personal information, and helping out in any other way that the team needed. My three months here were a very busy time for us because we run on a fiscal year from July 1st - June 30th. I also did a lot of administrative work to help keep our office from falling behind. This work included folding thank you letters, stuffing envelopes, creating new donor packets, scanning in pledge forms, and doing mail runs.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
Some very important skills/knowledge that I took away from my internship experience is that leadership and communication are essential in a work setting. Strong leadership skills are necessary to lead your organization in the right direction and help the team succeed as a whole. Communication and developing relationship is also very important because it gives people a sense of being cared for. We deal with a lot of people during this job and its important to treat people as people and not numbers.
Favorite Part of the Experience
My favorite part of this internship was meeting new people and expanding my network. It was also cool to be in a business environment of the sport side of things.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
Working at the Spartan Fund has made me realize that it's tough to be in an office for 8 hours a day. I'm the kind of person who needs to be up and about every so often and being stuck in a cubicle all day can be rough. Overall, I would definitely say this is a step in the right direction in one day working in an athletic environment.