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A Wider Circle Internship Opportunities
Our Mission
A Wider Circle is a grassroots nonprofit organization whose mission is to end poverty through on-the-ground programs and services, as well as through the development of large-scale solutions to its root causes. Our holistic approach focuses on the creation of stable homes by providing furniture and basic needs items, workforce development programming, neighborhood revitalization, and the creation of greater awareness and engagement by the community, as a whole.
Interns
Internships are offered for Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters. Our main requirement for interns is a passion to serve people and a belief that your work can make a difference in the lives of others. A Wider Circle is focused on providing meaningful learning experiences, where interns are trained on the fundamental job responsibilities of working in a nonprofit setting.
We foster professional growth by providing training, mentoring, evaluation, and supervision. Interns work between 12–30 hours per week, depending on their course schedule.
Internship Objectives:
  • To get an overview of the operations of a non-profit organization and its different departments and functions
  • To gain professional work experience that complements the student’s academic studies
  • To learn about the challenges faced by individuals and families living in poverty
Interns can choose to work in one of the following areas:
Client Relations: A direct service role in which you can assist individuals and families as they come to A Wider Circle to select basic need items and receive other services. Conducting confidential intake sessions, guiding clients through our process from beginning to end, documenting testimonials, and conducting confirmation calls for appointments are key parts of this placement. In addition, conducting confidential follow-up telephone interviews to identify how we can serve clients more holistically and measure the impact of our services are key parts of this placement. An orientation toward excellent customer service is necessary for this position. Internships for Fall, 2021, will be in-person with safety precautions in place.
Research: In this internship you will develop and hone research skills by collecting and analyzing investigative qualitative and quantitative data, which will inform research team members, staff, volunteers, and contributors about issues that relate to A Wider Circle’s programs. These issues may include research on furniture banks, programs related to our community-based programs, and other relevant non-profits. Other responsibilities include data cleaning and analysis of our programs.
Development: Interns in this role will work directly with our Development team, providing critical support for our fundraising efforts. Responsibilities include assisting with prospect research for potential individual, corporate, and foundation partners; assisting with development of draft language for outreach to prospective partners; supporting the administrative needs of the Development department; supporting A Wider Circle events and campaigns as needed; conducting in-depth research on A Wider Circle’s donor base focusing on major gifts and new donors; supporting lapsed donor outreach and follow up; creating presentations that highlight our core services; and organizing and managing branded materials inventory.
Marketing and Communications: This internship is heavily focused on photography and capturing video to help us market our work to the community. Tasks include taking digital photos and video daily of activities at all A Wider Circle facilities, uploading all photos and video to a central location, cataloging and sorting photos and video for easy searching, and adding metadata to each image/video to assist in searching. The intern will also help catalog and consolidate our pre-existing photo and video content.
Professional Development Center: A Wider Circle’s Professional Development Center provides professional clothing and accessories to 3,000 individuals a year. Clients also receive one-on-one and group workforce development support. Interns will directly support the continuous improvement and expansion of these valuable services to the community. This internship will focus on three main skills: Client Relations, Outreach and Development, and Data Analytics.
Workforce Development: A Wider Circle’s Workforce Development program, which operates both in our Silver Spring and Washington, D.C. locations, seeks interns who can support online job searching, completion of online job applications, research related to apprenticeships and training programs, and support data entry of client results. Experience with databases and online forms a plus.
Programs: A Wider Circle’s Programs department encompasses our Neighborhood Partnerships work in our two Washington, D.C., program sites in the Highlands and Shaw neighborhoods as well as our long-term individualized support program, the Partnership to Independence. The Programs team is seeking interns to support an array of tasks either at our headquarters or program sites. Tasks might include online research, preparation for workshops and trainings, data entry, neighborhood scans, outreach efforts, and potential client interfacing. Semester or year long projects are possible in line with skills.
Community Engagement (High School & College-level Internships Available): A Wider Circle engages 31,000 volunteers each year and coordinates efforts throughout the region to assist our neighbors currently experiencing poverty. In this placement, interns will work at our headquarters in Silver Spring, MD and receive a hands-on experience with volunteer management and community outreach. Leading volunteer orientations, overseeing and working to inspire volunteers at our center, and engaging in community outreach efforts are key aspects of this internship. A general comfort with speaking in front of small groups is helpful for this position.
To apply for an internship, please send a resume and cover letter to intern@awidercircle.org indicating your area of interest.  
For those applying to the Research internship, please submit a writing sample. Internships are unpaid, although many students receive academic credit.