Building Community

The deadline to host an intern in summer 2013 has passed. Please check back in the fall for information about the summer 2014 program.

The Denver Foundation's Nonprofit Internship Program strives to develop the community leadership of college students, especially those from populations traditionally underrepresented in the nonprofit sector, by offering meaningful internship opportunities with Metro Denver nonprofit organizations. 

“This was a phenomenal experience during which I think my staff and I learned as much as [our intern] and while doing so, we were able to move several projects forward that I am not sure would have been accomplished as well without her.” – Host Organization, 2012, OMNI Evaluation Report

The Nonprofit Internship Program will provide 10 grants of $5,700 each to nonprofit organizations in the seven-county Metro Denver area.  The grant must be used to pay for expenses related to hiring a summer intern.  Specific requirements include:

• Pay the intern a wage of $12/hour for 330 hours over the course of the summer ($3,960 total). Interns will work for 300 hours at their host organization, and the remaining 30 hours will be time spent at Nonprofit Internship Program Leadership Gatherings (described in more detail below).
• Pay the intern as an employee of the organization, notas an independent contractor.
• Pay related payroll taxes for the summer intern.
• Use up to $100 for professional development for the intern.
• Use up to $100 for professional development for the intern’s supervisor or the organization generally.

Funds remaining after the intern's salary and payroll taxes have been paid may be used to cover a portion of the supervisor's salary, and/or additional administrative expenses associated with hosting a summer intern.

ELIGIBILITY
Eligible organizations must:

• Be a recipient of a grant from The Denver Foundation's Community Grants Program
• Submit a clear job description for the intern that provides learning opportunities as well as an opportunity to contribute to the organization in a meaningful way
• Demonstrate capacity: have a designated, experienced supervisor, appropriate work space, etc.
• Provide a structured and interactive opportunity: ideally, opportunities will engage and/or expose students to several aspects of the work of a nonprofit organization, such as programmatic work, fundraising, governance, etc.
• Have a clearly articulated commitment to building inclusiveness and diversity and engaging organization constituents, and be engaged in strategies to become more inclusive as an organization.
• Organizations that received a grant to host an intern in the past are eligible to apply.  The exception is organizations that hosted an intern during the previous year’s program (summer 2012 only). Those organizations must take a year off before applying again in 2014.  
• Pay students as employees of the organization and not as independent contractors. 

GRANTEE COMMITMENTS AND WHAT TO EXPECT

By submitting a proposal to The Denver Foundation’s Nonprofit Internship Program, organizations agree to the following conditions and requirements if selected to host an intern.

Selecting an Intern

Host organization grantees will interview up to five pre-screened candidates for an internship opportunity. Interviews will take place in March and early April, after a review of intern applications by The Denver Foundation and the Internship Program Committee. It is required that selected organizations interview all intern candidates sent to them. Students with an existing paid or volunteer relationship to an organization may not apply to work with that organization. Likewise, organizations may not select an intern with whom they have an existing paid or volunteer relationship.

Paying an Intern

Using the $5,700 grant, organizations must pay their intern a wage of $12 per hour for 300 hours of work and 30 hours of time spent at Leadership Gatherings, for a total of 330 hours and total intern pay of $3,960. Organizations must also use $200 of the grant for professional development activities -- $100 for the intern’s professional development and $100 for the organization’s or supervisor’s professional development.  Grantees should use remaining grant funds (~ $1,000) to pay costs associated with the internship –employer portion of payroll taxes, portion of supervisor salary, supplies, etc.

Interns must work 300 hours over the course of the summer. Additionally, interns will spend 30 paid hours in Nonprofit Internship Program activities. There will be 10 weeks of formal intern activities, including a kick-off, leadership gatherings, a leadership retreat (unpaid), networking session, and closing session.

The intern’s supervisor will attend the Inclusiveness Learning Workshop (date TBD) and the Closing Session (date TBD). The Leadership Gatherings and Leadership Retreat are key components of the Program, and provide additional information about specific topics in the nonprofit sector as well as opportunities for peer learning and community building.

Questions

Please contact Holly Kingsbury, Philanthropic Partnerships Associate Program Officer, at hkingsbury@denverfoundation.org or at 303.300.1790 ext. 147 with any questions.