You Too Can 2.0: And an Intern Shall Lead the Way

[Author’s Note: Facebook and MySpace and Twitter, oh my! While I’m not the yellow brick road to lead you to the Emerald City of social-networking Utopia, I am a real, living, breathing, Facebook-surfing, Gen Y, nonprofit professional. My goal for this column, which will appear bimonthly in FundRaising Success’ Giving 2.0 e-letter, is to help nonprofits understand the who, what and why of Web 2.0]

“Social networking is great, but we just don’t have the time or staff for that kind of thing.”

Does this sound familiar to you? It probably does, because it’s become the motto of many an overworked, understaffed nonprofit organization. So rather than make a proposal for additional staff or increase the job descriptions of your communications department, you might try proposing an alternative.

There is a gigantic resource ready and waiting to get your 2.0 efforts buzzing — for free. Meet the college student. The college student in search of an internship and the organization in search of staff — sounds like a match made in heaven!

Like most college seniors, I spent my last year in college earning credits toward graduation and beefing up my resume by hunting for internships, participating in research projects and volunteering for anything and everything in my field of study. Each year, a new group of people that are technologically savvy and hungry for opportunity are waiting for a chance to utilize their knowledge and learn the lessons that cannot be taught in a classroom.

Here are my top three ways to utilize budding, young professionals before they hit the ground running.

1) College visits. They aren’t just for those looking to attend colleges, but for those looking to recruit from them as well. Search your surrounding area for universities that offer degrees relating to nonprofit work. For example, many schools in the Chicago area have majors called nonprofit management, theater management and arts management, etc.