The Borgen Project

Overall, despite the mixed reviews regarding working for the Borgen Project, I personally really enjoyed my experience here, it kept me occupied during the break from uni during the summer, and overall gave me a great insight into the journalism industry. Each week we had tasks to complete as part of the tracker , which were small and relatively easy to do. I would say that the main part of the internship was making sure that you completed your articles on time , and to a good standard whilst keeping on top of the editing. Furthermore,  in my opinion it is a relatively independent internship which requires hard-work, determination as well as self motivation as there is sometimes little to no contact with your manager apart from them giving feedback on your tracker. It is very good to balance alongside a part time job as you can plan to do your work as and when you please. I believe I learned how to write like a journalist , to work towards strict and tight deadlines, as well as how to edit effectively. The culture is very inclusive and welcoming of all sorts of backgrounds etc with the hardest part of the job most likely being the fundraising. This was particularly difficult as I am quite a shy person so putting yourself out there is challenging especially during a cost of living crisis, I believe that the donation side of things can make it a lot less enjoyable at times. It would also be nice if you could get paid for it.  The most enjoyable part of the job was definitely reading and researching about global poverty and spreading awareness about it on a wider scale and when your article is published there is a massive sense of achievement !!

TBP has dramatically increased the amount of intern they take on as students are seeking remote opportunities. It's obvious that this is a strategy to make more money, as more interns means more money as a $500 fundraising goal is a requirement for the program. 

This makes the program really disorganized because advocacy becomes more like spam. Many district offices have contacted TBP directly to schedule mass meetings because interns spam their offices with individual lobbying meeting requests (you are required to meet with your two senators and one representative). Other tasks are just busy work, such as tweeting leaders or celebrities about issues listed on  the website. You can even gain points by posting links to TBP website on social media as they want better results on search engines. Other tasks such as calling or emailing your leaders' offices are somewhat better, but the frequency you have to do them leans into spam territory again. You are also required to cold email 20+ organizations as well as classes to request to present and recruit more volunteers/interns. Some organizations, such as rotaries, have complained against this spam. Contacting radio stations and podcasts are also off limits now because of past spam.
 
Fundraising is not for direct aid, but rather to maintain their offices and employees, as well as workshops and trainings. Asking those around you for money during a recession is not a fun time. 25 hours over 8 of the 12 weeks are to be dedicated to fundraising. 

Some parts are not easy. If you're an adult, look to get compensated for your hard work elsewhere. 12+ hours a week for 12 weeks unpaid is not an internship, it's volunteering. Respect your time and hard work. 

I was an assistant manager (who was warned by a previous manager about upper management trying to squeeze you out, but alas.)  I was hired on in this capacity after completing an unpaid internship on the content team and writing for free for a year.  A typical day at work includes checking the email and answering questions, checking interns' work in their weekly tracker document (a to-do list), and meeting with interns for check-in calls.  I also went through pitches for the publication, and prior to the slow, suffocating end, could remove interns from the program when they ghosted us, or weren't meeting deadlines.

The internship is fine if you'd like a resume-booster or more publication credits (if you need them) but past that, I wouldn't stay on after.  Management is poor at communicating expectations to people and treat their volunteers awful. 

Management will not back you at all.  If you raise any concern with them, they'll sweep it under the rug or dismiss you.  Several times, management has told me to do something, and then reprimanded me for doing that same exact thing. 

I really enjoyed working with interns and trying to help newer writers, even under the strict, lukewarm restrictions of the publication, however, management is a major obstacle.



Like with every workplace, there will always be pros and cons, but overall, I enjoyed working for the Borgen Project. As a writing intern, I've gained valuable experience to help me in my next professional endeavors. I loved having relative creative freedom on my weekly topics and the flexibility of working remotely. However, there were some things the organization could do to improve the intern experience.

I thought I would be exposed to more team members, tools, and resources to promote the organization's content or create graphic designs. However, although I was a writing intern, I often felt that my real responsibility was to fundraise rather than write. I believe that in the long-term delegation of duties, there should be a specific position/department dedicated to fundraising rather than having the unpaid interns do it. Instead, if there was a department that exclusively handled fundraising, content interns could produce graphic designs and advertisements to help promote it. 

In addition, the organization should not harshly evaluate or think less of their interns for not accomplishing the fundraising requirement. They should instead look at how well they performed their primary responsibilities during the internship.

The Borgen Project means well but doesn't seem to have the capacity to execute everything too well. As an unpaid writer intern, I found that I was expected to provide quite a bit with little to no direction. Yes, the job is flexible, but a lot of your responsibilities are really just promoting and fundraising for the company. I found that the positivity-based approach to the blog posts meant almost falsifying information about the reality of global poverty, which was particularly frustrating. I have been finished with my internship for over a month now and have still received no review from my manager on my completed internship. I did, however, just receive an email regarding an article I wrote in the 9th week of my 12-week internship. This article has already been resubmitted once, and I have now been contacted by a different editor claiming I need to change it because it does not "fit" into the scope of global poverty, despite the topic being approved by a manager and this issue never previously being mentioned by the primary editor. 

I did this internship as a resume builder, and I'm hoping I get at least that out of it. I believe they lack capacity to execute things efficiently because they have so few paid employees managing a plethora of unpaid interns. If you're in a pinch like I was and need a remote internship, this is fine and gets the job done but isn't enjoyable.

This internship was a waste of time and effort and money, I basically learned nothing except for getting a few connections and networked a little bit. They ask you to fundraise $500 minimum for them even though there is no transparency of where any of the money is going, and the fact that we're in a recession and people are not the most willing to give money right now. There is little to no communication with any supervisor/manager (I had one half hour zoom meeting with my manager in the 12 weeks I was an intern), and the tasks are repetitive and can be completed at an hour maximum, not twelve. Even meeting with congressional staffers does not work because congressional staffers are overwhelmed with other duties and do not have time to communicate with college interns for 15 minutes. All this nonprofit does is hire interns, there is no mobility at all in this internship and no one can move up the ranks. There are probably like seven full time employees and then about 200 interns that cycle in and out every 2 months so that they can continue to get their money not put into any actual good cause but for "awareness." 
Good internship to put on your resume, and works for a helpful cause, but fundraising is a big burden, and the tasks they ask for to be completed are not helpful to skills in any way. 

I think the work that The Borgen Project is doing is great! And am stoked to me working for such a good cause. But the management is at best messy and at worst nonexistent. It takes days for anyone to respond about the assignments and when they do, often it’s with conflicting information. 

One example: there was a training scheduled for a certain day. It was an online training where you used zoom to log in - many of us logged in and waited for over an hour for the meeting to start. It never did. And despite many of us posting on fb and emailing the team, we got no response. Even after the fact, it was never addressed that the training didn’t happen - no apology for the lack of notice as to the training being cancelled. 

Despite that we are all working for free (some of us not for anything at all, not even school credit), they are inflexible with schedules and strict on the assignments, even when you try to work with them on priorities. When I’ve tried to communicate about how maneuver and balance how I can most efficiently help the organization, I wait days to hear back and then the answers are generally short and not very helpful. It’s been a frustrating experience overall. I think they’re doing great work, but there needs to be better/more structure and commitment on the side of management.

I spend most of my hours reading resumes and hiring candidates. My job requires that I spend at least 2 hours a week fundraising for the organization and finding strategies to raise over $500 during my term with the internship.
I love the training that the job offers in helping me know what to look for in a candidate, doing practice interview and determining if a candidate is qualified or not.
Im learning alot about decision making and strategizing by coming up with a plan to fund-raise $500 dollars for the project. Its a difficult process and it takes lots of creative thinking which is an enjoyable part because the organization gives us a list of ideas for fundraising and I get to choose a fundraiser that I would think to be fun and effective.
The organization is very good to communicate with me and hold monthly meetings to check on my progress, as well as training me on every responsibility that I have in the organization. The only con that I  can think of is that the organization does not pay its employees, but thats because its an organization that is raising funds to help reduce poverty around the world which I am very happy to do.

Working with The Borgen Project as a Political Affairs Ambassador has been a tremendous experience for me that I will never let go of; I have learned so much. I spent 3 months with the team and it flew by so fast but when I look back and see how much has been accomplished, it feels wonderful. I have enjoyed my time working with this campaign a lot, from meeting with my Congressional leaders to advocating for the world's poor and mobilizing and educating my community to step up and take action for what matters the most - the fight in ending global poverty. No human deserves to live in impoverished conditions and if we, as a leading nation, can step up and take action towards helping our neighbors while also helping ourselves, we can definitely make this world a safer and better place to live. I will say only one thing - if you come across this amazing opportunity, do not hesitate to take it. It is going to be for the betterment of yourself in gaining valuable experience while also helping the ones in need and, most of all, giving a voice to the voiceless. Because that feels incredible!

The job itself isn't bad. It's 10-12 hours per week and you receive a file with your weekly schedules for the duration of the internship before your first day so you can plan ahead and work the internship into your schedule.  You have to track your hours by activity and you have the week to get your tracker tasks done. The flexibility definitely helps. The downside to the position is the outreach and fundraising that everyone has to do regardless of which internship you applied for. You make weekly calls to congress and send letters every few weeks. The rest of the internship is a lot easier if you have an active social media presence, a lot of friends, and are naturally outgoing. You will have to get friends to call and email congress with you and there is a fundraising goal that you have to meet by the end of the internship. Beware of annoying your friends and relatives by asking them to contribute to the fundraiser or help with outreach.

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