Marketing (environment/nature)

COMMUNITY PARTNER

Audubon Arizona

ABOUT THE INTERNSHIP

Duties

Non-profit Marketing/ Advertising/ Public Relations Internship
Audubon Arizona—Phoenix, AZ

Get your foot in the door. Rather than shuffle papers around or make thousands of copies, work side-by-side with experts. You'll enjoy the satisfaction of seeing your work make a difference while you gain valuable job experience.
Audubon Arizona is proud to announce the availability of an exciting internship with The Nina Mason Pulliam Rio Salado Nature Center in South Phoenix. The unpaid internship can provide school credit and offers valuable experience in the non-profit and marketing industries.
This is a great opportunity for someone looking for a career in non-profit work, marketing, advertising, public relations, public education, events, and/or the communications field. Candidate must be energetic, a team player, results-oriented, and dedicated to the achievement of personal and team goals. This internship requires a candidate with confidence in interpersonal communication, excellent writing skills, and a passion for the community.

The Marketing Intern's role will support the Outreach and Education staff in all aspects of marketing and education. Interns will assist with fall events, suchs as our annual spring and fall festivals, our summer film fesival, Audubon's Art by the River festival, and our new young professionals "River Nights" party at our

state of the art LEED certified facility.

RESPONSIBILITIES
The Marketing Intern's specific responsibilities include (but are not limited to):
* Help in planning and implementing special events.
* Assist with on-the-ground, targeted marketing strategies: addressing local community 
    groups (ie: PTA meetings, mom’s groups, etc)
* Assist with social-media marketing (facebook, meetup, etc)
* Assist with marketing materials: designing brochures and other print media
* Assist with day-of-event management.
* Attend planning meetings when possible.
* Help with the writing and distribution of press releases to local media.

Population served

As stated in the "community need" section, the marketing internship will specifically market to lower-income, under-served families in the South Phoenix area. The intern will gain real-world experience through an on-the-ground marketing strategies, including social media and grassroots strategies.

Additionally, the marketing intern will assist with Audubon's new engagment initiative to attract young professionals to Audubon.

Community need/impact

For various reasons—-mostly economic--children and families the communities surrounding the Río Salado Habitat lack meaningful access to nature experiences.  Phoenix public schools generally do not include environmental education in their curricula.  The average income of South Phoenix is around $21,000 (in comparison with a city-wide average of around $37,000), and lower-income families may not have the means to provide nature experiences to their children. Thousands of these children are enrolled in after-school care programs run by the City of Phoenix Parks Department and non-profits, such as neighborhood community centers and the Boys and Girls Clubs. All too often, for these children, the “outdoors” is a basketball court surrounded by a chain-link fence.

The marketing internship at our nature center will include tasks and strategies to directly target this under-served community, working to attract families, students, and young professionals in the South Phoenix area to participate in FREE outdoor experiences, as provided by the Rio Salado Audubon Center.

Research demonstrates that direct experiences in nature are a uniquely effective means of fostering interest in and understanding of natural science concepts as well as a deep personal connection with the environmental world. The marketing internship aims to foster these nature experiences by promoting our free nature center to communities who have historically been underserved.  The marketing intern's work with Audubon will have a long-term impact, helping the community connect with nature while assiting with Audubon's mission to foster the next generation of stewards and environmentalists.