Nonprofit Marketing Internships with Roots Interns

Roots Interns organized a five months voluntary job at Greenpop in PR/Communications in Cape Town for me. The experience was life changing.

Greenpop is an organization that plants trees and is active for our planet. At the same time it is all about having fun and a positive attitude. As a volunteer you can really make a difference. I supported the Communications team and handled the PR for different festivals that Greenpop organizes every year. For example, at the Reforest Fest hundreds of people plant trees during the day and at night you are all dancing under the stars.

We also started a donor program and there are tree planting days every week. These tree planting days are amazing: you go to public schools in townships and together with the kids you will plant trees at their school in a super fun way.

Not only do you make a difference for the planet, it is life changing for yourself as well. I became much more conscious about the environment and how to live more sustainable.

And last but definitely not least, the people I met at Greenpop, the schools, the festivals and everywhere in Cape Town are super inspiring and amazing!

I never imagined myself interning at a non-profit to begin with so this internship has really opened up my eyes to how to raise money strategically. This can be through writing, which is my passion so I have had a lot of hands-on experience on content marketing and how specific keywords can help raise money. It impacted me to now think more of non-profits, even to then think about pursuing a masters in visual anthropology in the future. I think future participants should know that the work done here can be impactful depending on what you make it. Sometimes the work may seem tedious and repetitive but it needs to be done in order to get the content out there and producing money for the non-profit to continue. It is a really great environment to work in since everyone is passionate about the organization's mission and really willing to put in the effort to raise funds. Everyone is excited and willing to work together for the good of the organization. There is always projects to work on for example writing a blog or experimenting with social media management.

I came to South Africa knowing no one and, apart from other transferable skills and work experiences in NGOs, little about the world of marketing. In short, I had my trepidations. What I discovered was a welcoming and warm environment of young and dynamic professionals who were passionate not only about the job, but the underlying cause of the organisation. I found that to be the case with Penda as well, where, despite my insecurities, I was a growing amount of responsibility over the time I worked there, as well as the freedom to take on or suggest new responsibilities according to my interests and internship goals. Above all, I feel that it was through the trust and mentorship of Penda's founder, Marleen, that I was able to rise to the challenges and to learn to trust myself and my ability to adapt and grow to fill my position within a new and dynamic organision. Overall, I am incredibly happy with my experience. I could not have imagined how much I would learn in just a few months, and it's thanks to this experience that I now approach jobs since then with a sense of confidence that has been vital in making me competent and trustworthy in any professional environment.