Non – Profit Organizations: The Ups & Downs

Written by: Anna Martinez

I am currently interning for a non-profit organization named Tutors to Teachers. This non-profit is just starting up and is in the process of working with a new model. A lot of my work had consisted of searching for and writing grants for the program before it underwent big changes. Since then my duties have changed slightly. I have now been in charge of researching a new model. The organization will adapt to having a parent for-profit company. This would mean that there are two organizations one that is a company that is the parent to the non-profit. The company then supplies funding and can create grants for the non-profit organization. I have been researching what variations of this model exist and what different purposes they aim to serve. I have researched how having a parent company would help the non-profit such as with their taxes. I have also been reading a lot about state variations in policy when it comes to this model. I then create typed-up reports about what I have learned and I send them to my supervisor. After I submit my report I meet through a phone call with my supervisor to discuss my findings more deeply. Following this discussion there sometimes is a new topic of research and it at times becomes my new research topic for the following week. If this is not the case, then the executive director will provide me with other tasks such as writing up job descriptions. The new non-profit to company model is something that I had never heard of before. It was interesting to me that this model existed because I always viewed both types of organizations as being polar opposites. I would have assumed that this type of relationship would not be allowed. It was surprising that the non-profit organization would be making this change and building itself after this model. It was also surprising that this research would become my job. The shift of daily duties highlighted to me that there is more than one way to grow a non-profit organization and that the constant industry changes may mean that non – profits are also constantly changing. I was also surprised by the nature of my research, it has taken a lot of internet research on companies that have already done it and there is no end to the blogs available. It has been hard for me to find more concrete research which I did not expect. It is also interesting to be seeing the way an organization is built in this way, I did not come into it having been this way rather I am watching and helping it happen. I enjoy talking to the executive director about the insurances that have to come together, how and why. It is also interesting to talk about the board of the organization coming together and what they might look like. I am learning a lot of valuable skills in regards to non-profit organizations and how they are run.