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We’re halfway there!

Hello, fellow blog followers! I’m about half-way through my internship with the Chicago Children’s Theatre for the summer, and wow—I just realized that when I typed that! This internship has gone by so fast and I’ve really learned so much about marketing for non-profits like theatres. Last week, I was given the task of putting together a “yearbook” full of pictures from events this year from the theatre. This has been really fun because I’ve basically been sorting through loads of pictures for the past week, choosing my favorites, and compiling them in a format to print a physical book. As for my other projects, I am learning more and more about the correct language to use when posting about various promotional opportunities on social media in order to reach more people. I’m learning about some Facebook and Instagram analytics and how to run ads on those social media platforms, which is really important knowledge moving forward in the marketing world. I’ve also learned the important differences between PR, marketing, and advertising, and then consequently how those three things need to interact in order to make a successful business.

One thing that has surprised me is the size of the marketing department here after seeing how much work goes into what we do. Right now, it is just me and my boss—so when there are no interns, it’s just him. This puts a lot of pressure on us to get the marketing strategies correct, as we really have no one else to bounce ideas off of. Another surprising aspect of this job is just seeing the inner workings of not-for-profit organizations. A lot of what we do goes towards fundraising in order to be able to fund the classes and productions we put on every year. Obviously, I knew that fundraising was a huge part of non-profits, but it’s interesting to see these fundraising strategies work first hand.

A highlight from my week was going out to lunch with my boss, Patrick, and two other interns at a local Thai restaurant on Thursday. It was nice to get away from the work environment and just talk to each other about subjects outside of what’s going on at the theatre. It seems like Patrick really wants to teach all of us about working at not-for-profits like the theatre, and he’s a seasoned pro, so it’s really cool to hear his perspective on things. This was also a fun lunch, because one of my fellow interns tried sushi for the first time! And he did not like it. I’m happy that there’s a comradery between all of us, and I hope it grows even stronger during this second half!