Name: Andrea Marcos College/University: Northwestern
1. How did you hear about The Generation Project?
I heard about The Generation Project through the MMSS listserv. An email was sent through the listserv saying that they needed summer interns and it seemed as a perfect fit for my interests.
2. What are you working on right now?
Previously, I had been on the Research team where we researched on the strategies of non profits to get donations and what incentives proved to be the most powerful in past studies. I am looking at the incentives and approaches that transform interested people into donors. I am now in the Advertizing team, where I am in charge of keeping our AdWords account updated and studying the effectiveness of the Ads and keywords in increasing traffic in our website. In the Strategic Business Relations team, I am also reaching out to small family-owned businesses to get them involved as donors. This consists of traveling around the various neighborhoods in Chicago and going from door-to-door to meet business owners and put our name out there!
3. What's the most interesting thing you've leaned while working withThe Generation Project?
I have learned that donations from the general public don't come by themselves. E-mailing to potential networks (even through insiders) is not enough to get people interested, especially for such an innovative approach of donating.
I have also learned that running a non-profit needs a clearly defined central authority. If it is one person, that person must be on top of everything all the time. If it is a team, that team must be in constant communication and have complete transparency. I realized the potential of volunteers in maintaining an entire organization with very low costs.
I also learned not to be afraid to take the lead in a project. You never know your potential until you apply your skills outside the academic world.
In a nutshell my passion would consist of research methodology, managinga non-profit, micro-finance in indigenous communities, the payoff from investment on women, urban public education reform, salsa, flamenco, tango, and the credibility of econometric models when the proper factorsare taken into account.