During my internship on the strategy and business development team at ClimaCell.co, I was focused on the initiative to spinout a nonprofit, ClimaCell.org, to bring their technology to Africa. As part of that focus, I worked on several projects, including building a new website for the .org, to convey the refined mission and work. I wrote a concept note for ClimaCell.org’s solution for the locust plagues in Africa, a well as submitted proposals for additional grants and prizes, all within the scope of ClimaCell.org's mission. Additionally, I helped refine the .org mission and prepared an updated fundraising deck to present to donors and created an organized pipeline database for all potential funding and partnership opportunities. Another project I worked on with another intern was capturing the potential in modernizing national met services in Africa, identifying the different corporate structures to execute such a project and understanding and quantifying the social and economic benefits. As the nonprofit is still in its early stages, I helped the organization create content and marketing materials, and refine strategy and written proposals for different grants and prizes. I hope my efforts will assist ClimaCell.org in executing their mission to provide weather intelligence to all in Africa and create a climate-resilient economy.

I applied both skills and knowledge acquired during my time at CBS. First, from different courses I took from the social impact curriculum: High Performing Nonprofits with Amy Houston, Social Entrepreneurship: Global Perspective with Melanie Edwards, and Global Philanthropy with Melissa Berman. All three courses were relevant and valuable to almost all aspects of my work, from refining the logic model, to fundraising efforts, to thinking of the path to being financially sustainable and how to tackle a system change. Understanding key concepts and frameworks for the nonprofit and social enterprise world was invaluable and allowed be to bring value relatively quickly. Moreover, my experience in consulting with a nonprofit in Ghana as part of Pangea was very helpful, especially in order to understand the importance and relevance of the cultural differences. Additionally, being a part of the Microlumbia management team for two years provided me with real-world experience and an understanding of the funders’ perspective, which was invaluable to my internship.

My main challenges were around working remotely in a time everyone is learning how and working in a very early-stage nonprofit.ClimaCell.co had four main offices before COVID-19, as well as several employees working remotely from other countries around the world. So, as an organization the transition of having all employees work remote seemed relatively easy. The people I worked with were very attentive and willing to help, however it was obviously not the same, and working via Zoom didn’t allow me to create as many relationships as I did in previous internships where I worked physically in the same space as the rest of the team. The second challenge was joining a nonprofit that is still in very early stages of its existence. Many things that I assumed would be formed and known were not. However, this challenge was also a blessing, since it allowed me to be involved in strategizing and forming the business from its foundation.

My summer at ClimaCell, and especially with the focus of working on ClimaCell.org, was an incredible experience. My main goal for this internship was to experience working within an organization and be closer to the impact, after several internships from the investing side. My experience at ClimaCell gave me exactly that and much more. I enjoyed working in a fast paced environment with many cross-team collaborations, working on redefining the strategy, goals, and how to convey that mission. I learned a lot both about the development world, working in collaboration with organizations such as the World Bank and the Red Cross, and the commercial startup world, as ClimaCell.org is backed by its technological commercial partner, ClimaCell.co. It was interesting to work in a tech company, seeing firsthand the possibilities to improve and tailor solutions so quickly. I am very happy I got the chance to work within a nonprofit, understand the tensions of a social mission and being financially sustainable, and how to bridge the gap between different cultures, as well as developed and developing economies.