Giving What We Can September Internship

Summary: advert for students to do charity cost-effectiveness research at Giving What We Can.

Do you want to join the fight against global poverty and gain experience of research or communications at one of the world’s handful of organisations dedicated to improving the world as efficiently as possible? Giving What We Can is running a summer internship programme for students interested in promoting effective charitable giving. On the two-week programme (16th-27th September 2013) interns will gain training and experience in the area of their choice; either Cost-Effectiveness Research, Communications or Operations.

The date is cunningly placed sufficiently late in the year that students can do an internship with another company and then come to us afterwards; this is what I did last year.

The intership will take place in Oxford, UK. Housing and living expenses will be provided.

To apply

Please send us an email at internship@givingwhatwecan.org with your CV. The deadline for applications is 12:00 GMT on the 20th March 2013.

Roles availableResearch into charity cost-effectiveness

Giving What We Can conducts research to help people find the most cost effective charities to donate to, lead by our director of research, Overcoming Bias co-blogger Robert Wiblin. You can get a sense of the research here and see a full list of current projects here. Some sample areas of interest are:

Evaluations of how effective particular charities or programmes are.

Comparing efforts to reduce climate change to other ways of assisting the world’s poor.

Biomedical research which could offer vaccines or cures for neglected diseases.

Political Advocacy—how worthwhile is it to lobby for better government aid?

Requirements: A quantitative background is strongly preferred, especially in statistics, mathematics and economics.

Communications: Media content creation

Creating infographics, videos and other materials to communicate our message about the power of giving and research on effective charity.

Requirements: experience with appropriate software, such as vector graphics or video editing packages.

Communications: Outreach

Research and reach out to relevant groups, from organisations we could work with to websites and online communities where we could build a reputation and broaden our member base. This will require both research into the most appropriate and receptive places to contact, and establishing a rapport with them before suggesting that a partnership of sorts be made.

Communications: Online outreach

Work with our social media manager to plan and implement social media strategies, and research the most effective way to convey Giving What We Can’s message to other online communities.

Requirements: a good understanding of social media strategy and the dynamic of online communities.

Operations: Legal/financial research

We have many projects in this area, but an example of a major one is reporting on how our activities fit with formally recognised charitable purposes. This will involve working towards the reports we have to file with the Charities Commission. Other projects include registering us as a charity overseas.

Requirements: Having studied law is helpful, but not required.