At the beginning of this semester, I was searching for my first marketing internship via Access UT. After having applied to numerous organizations, I heard back from a couple of businesses and the nonprofit organization CPH that were willing to set up interviews. I met with Susan Chambers at CPH first and was immediately offered the position. I ended up canceling the other two interviews. Even though I had originally planned on taking some sort of formal business position, the duties described in the interview sounded alluring as well. I would be required to call on a number of businesses for various projects and “sell” them the CPH mission, as well as utilizing the computer and writing skills I already have in creating a new marketing package. It sounded like everything a marketing internship should consist of, along with a little bit of community service.
CPH is a relatively new organization, having been established in the early 1990’s. Their operations consist mainly of finding and providing housing to the homeless. Because of this, though, they have not made many attempts in marketing themselves, nor have they had any grand projects to make any sort of presence in the community. They had a brochure and website, and both were somewhat outdated.
Numerous meetings were held early in the internship. We used this time to get acquainted, as well as brainstorm new ideas and provide input. As one would expect, the primary focus of any nonprofit organization is how to fund its administration and