CAUSE High School Internship & Nonprofit Grant

The CAUSE High School Internship & Nonprofit Grant offers a unique opportunity for local high school students in La Plata County, Colorado, to engage in a hands-on, paid summer internship. This program pairs students with local nonprofits, providing them with mentorship from marketing professionals. Interns will work directly with nonprofit staff to develop social media campaigns and gain valuable skills. Nonprofits will receive an operational grant to support these marketing efforts, fostering a collaborative community environment.

The Community Foundation serving SW Colorado and the Business Education Connection (BEC) are offering an amazing, hands-on, paid summer internship program during the month of June with comprehensive learning opportunities for local high school students benefitting 12 lucky La Plata County nonprofits. Nonprofits will receive a complete marketing/social media campaign for your organization, as well as an operational grant to cover marketing expenses.
CAUSE (Community Action Utilizing Service Experience) is not your run-of-the-mill internship! It will include local marketing professionals as mentors for the students. The students, who must be rising juniors and seniors, will be coordinated by the work-based learning coordinators at the BEC and paid through the Community Foundation.
Nonprofits selected to participate will host a high school intern for 4 weeks in June. In addition to helping at the office, the interns will be assigned social media marketing tasks. At least one staff supervisor needs to be available throughout the month of June to create a fantastic learning opportunity for their student intern.
Required all-cohort, joint meetings for the supervisors and their interns will occur (TBD). Interns will be matched with their nonprofits in May.
Here is what the work week will look like:
Students will be onsite working directly with nonprofit staff, in person, on Monday mornings and all day Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.Students will be offsite working with local experts to create social media products for your nonprofit Monday afternoons and all day Fridays.
Nonprofits will be expected to provide an engaging professional work environment where the interns will learn professionalism and office skills. In addition to the intern and the marketing assets, the nonprofit will receive an operational grant (minimum of $2,500) upon successful completion of this program. This money could be used, for example, to execute marketing efforts related to the intern’s campaign.

Eligibility

To be eligible, nonprofits must be located in Durango, Colorado and be a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) or be a project or organization under the fiscal agency of a 501(c)(3). Nonprofits must have a professional, public office space with consistent staff supervision available Monday through Thursday throughout June.Nonprofits must already by approved on the Colorado Gives platform.Nonprofit grantees that participated last year ARE eligible to apply again.