Internship Description
Justine Chausson ’20 worked with West Side Campaign Against Hunger senior staff to help capitalize on COVID-19 efforts as a springboard to building a stronger, more engaged organization. Specifically, she supported the executive director to transform board member engagement through board fundraising training, staff communication with the board, and building a framework for stronger recruitment and tracking board member activation. She also supported the development director and the finance/admin senior director in efforts to strengthen teamwork across the organization.
I worked with West Side Campaign Against Hunger (WSCAH), a 40-year old NYC-based nonprofit combating food insecurity in NYC by providing access to healthy food (through on-site and mobile pantries) and supportive services to all New Yorkers. WSCAH has always been at the forefront of innovation, developing the first customer-choice supermarket style pantry in the United States in 1997, and recently, under executive director Greg Silverman, piloting a collective purchasing model with four NYC-based anti-hunger organizations to achieve unprecedented savings in food purchasing.
This summer, I worked directly with the WSCAH board of directors and the executive director to analyze current, and develop new, board governance processes relating to the arc of a board member’s tenure (recruitment, onboarding, engagement, and offboarding). Through in-depth research into best practices on boards of other nonprofits, and analysis of governance practices on the WSCAH board, I was able to develop clear processes and tools specifically tailored to the WSCAH board nominating and governance committee.
Throughout the summer, I relied on key learnings from several courses, primarily Organizational Change and High Performing Nonprofits. Professor Jick’s ten commandments laid the foundation for my approach to developing the processes and tools. Professor Houston’s session on leadership and harnessing board talent was invaluable to understanding the landscape of nonprofit boards at large. Luckily, I was also able to speak with both professors independently to discuss my project.
Prior to working with WSCAH I had minimal knowledge of nonprofit board governance. As such, the learning curve was quite steep. However, that knowledge gap was quickly bridged by the honest and robust feedback from interviews with board members and executive directors of various nonprofits who generously gave hours to discussing the topic of board governance.
Working with such an incredible organization, which in the wake of COVID-19 has been able to grow exponentially to provide crucial support to New Yorkers, has been a truly rewarding experience. This fellowship has left me feeling even more compelled and better equipped to look for opportunities to serve on the board of a nonprofit in NYC tackling food insecurity and fighting for social justice.