My second year LIA was done at Olga’s List, a nonprofit that serves Ukrainian refugees in the Massachusetts area. I sought to help them wherever I could and then take ownership of a few key streams of work, if possible. I arrived in late June, five months into the current Trump administration’s reign. During these five months, there were near-weekly changes in the status of nonprofits – for example, reductions in federal funding, and threats to their tax-exempt status; the rights of refugees; and even the visa rights of interns like myself. This meant that Olga’s List had to keep on its toes and adapt as the earth was shifting beneath it. In light of this, I took on the challenge of helping to diversify the organisation's funding methods, as the Trump administration was slashing budgets across the board via the actions of various government departments that touched on our organisation's work. This was particularly true for the then newly minted Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which cast an ominous shadow over the future of the non-profit industry.
So, I went about applying to various grants that any applicable grant-making organisations had available, focusing in particular on foundations, as their future was more secure than that of government grants, which Olga’s List had previously benefited from. This involved communicating with and meeting with staff at foundations, learning the basics of grant-writing to try to have the best chance of success, and then engaging in the various bureaucratic processes – differing in style, but not in substance – that each foundation demanded. Being primarily in charge of my own actions was certainly a great experience and definitely tested my self-motivation. Often, I needed to check in with various other Olga’s List members, along with some other key stakeholders, in order to get key information or asks that were required by grants. I was able to utilise and further work on my communication skills throughout this process, which has been a goal for me from the beginning of my Laidlaw journey. The impact of the grant writing itself remains to be seen, as often these grant-making organisations take a considerable amount of time to review all the various applications in order to determine where their money can be most impactful. However, having had some great engagement, I am sanguine about the prospects despite the huge increase in non-profits seeking to diversify their revenue streams, given the seismic shifts that have been keenly felt across the US non-profit sector, and indeed, albeit to a lesser extent, across the world, following the culling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Further, my hope is that the organisation and the people it serves will, in the future, be able to benefit from the various relationships that I started building with different US foundations, along with accessing and using the various documentation that I have created as either a template or as something to iterate on top of, when applying to various potential grants in the future.
Another key element of my work was interacting with the population Olga’s List serves and documenting the ways in which the organisation helps them and the impact that it has on their lives. I met with them at various Olga’s List related events, excursions and more. Documenting their interactions with the organisation really allowed me to get a feel for their lived experiences, and required me to try to engage with them in an authentic and meaningful way, as the whole purpose of the exercise was to be able to document the impact that the organisation had on these populations in a non-sterile, personable manner. Throughout this I got to meet some really interesting Ukrainians, from whom I learned all sorts of interesting and great things, be it about Ukraine’s geography, culture, history, their experiences in the US, or indeed their personal interests and hobbies – something that I enjoy learning about people regardless of their background, but something that is especially interesting for those from different cultures that may have very different interests than I am used to, given their different set of life experiences. I think it benefited all the stakeholders involved, as it allowed the refugees to tell their stories, it allowed the organisation to try to humanise their message – something that is very important but that can be difficult to get to if you are constantly busy with various immigration related admin; finally, it also allowed me to get the chance to interact with some great people and to try and craft compelling narratives about their journeys and how Olga’s List benefited them.