Written By Chrissy Munafo
My decision to do an internship this semester was a little last minute, but luckily I was blessed to be connected with Next to New consignment. Next to New consignment is has been part of the outreach ministry program of St. David’s Episcopal Church since 1959. Empowered by its community driven mission, the nonprofit transforms the revenue from consigned items into grants awarded to individuals experiencing vulnerability, or organizations designed to support vulnerable populations at large.
The outside of Next to New Consignment on Burnet Road. As intern, I am brainstorming ways to increase its visual street presence.
Working with N2N and my supervisor, Carrie, has been such a comforting and inspiring experience. From day one, the team of employees has embraced my ‘fresh perspective’ as a college student. There is a conscious effort to avoid language that implies power dynamics : we are all team members, on the same team working towards the same goal. This is extremely comforting as an intern donating my time and energy – I always feel respected, heard, and valued at Next to New Consignment. In addition, they have structured this internship experience to be highly collaborative and mutually beneficial. They teach me about the ‘ins and outs’ of consignment, nonprofit work, grant writing, and collaboration with other organizations. As the intern, I provide them with ideas and share technology resources that I use as a student, such as ‘Slack’ channels, how to use Google forms for analytics/organization, etc. It is very cool to realize that already at this point in my life I have value to bring to professional conversations.
Its fun to get creative for a good cause!
I would describe my ‘day to day’ at Next to New as a consistent variety. There is always a lot to do and accomplish and no two days are the same. However, most days involve a combination of independent projects and working the sales floor a little. Normally, when I arrive to N2N I will sit at the back desk and pick up on whatever project I am working on at the time. I just completed my first independent project, which was to create fashion and home decor trend reports for 2022-2023. I am using these trend reports both to make graphics and to inform sales report analysis. It is interesting to see that these concrete business skills are actually vital for the nonprofit’s success, as they inform which items will be accepted as consignment in order to reach the yearly revenue goals. As mentioned before, all revenue goes back to the community. I am currently working on creating a volunteer outreach network, with contacts from local service organizations and mutual aid initiatives. They are really excited to collaborate with St. Edward’s students, due to the shared values of social equity!
As a community centered organization, N2N donates their ‘ expired’ items to other nonprofits in Austin. As an intern, I have built relationships with representatives from organizations such as St. Vincent de Paul and Austin Creative Reuse, both of which are longtime recipients of N2N overflow. I am currently working on a project, highlighting the impacts of this communal sharing of inventory that will be on the home screen of N2N’s new website. I love seeing how local organizations work alongside eachother, instead of in competition.
It is also interesting to see the surprising ways to which consignment connects to my Global Studies degree. My general understanding of world history, regional Latin America history, and markets makes for really interesting conversations. For example, there was an antique map that sparked a conversation around ‘ Why is “North”, North? Why is “South”, South”, – questions asked frequently in Latin America Global Studies classes. People genuinely are interested to hear this perspective, and it makes me glad that I can invite people to do their own investigation.
