Communications Internship at Children's Defense Fund in Washington, DC

Overview: The Children's Defense Fund is an organization deeply committed to our mission to Leave No Child Behind® and ensure that every child has a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life with the support of caring parents and nurturing communities. For more than 35 years, CDF has combined education, policy development, leadership training and other efforts to protect children and encourage preventive investment in children before they get sick, drop out of school, suffer family breakdown or get into trouble.

The intern provides general support for the Communications Department. The intern also provides substantive research, compiles reports, monitors media, and helps with execution of public events, publication releases, media campaigns and other Department projects. The intern will work closely with other departments to develop messages that translate to a wider audience and motivate action. The intern is in charge of daily and weekly media coverage and production of weekly news summary.

Primary Responsibilities:
 * Assist in writing and editing publications, online communications and press releases;
 * Develop and maintain well-organized filing systems for video archives;
 * Perform other division, department, and organization-wide special projects as needed and assigned;
 * Be able to meet the educational component of the CDF Internship Program, including luncheons, seminars, and trips;
 * Monitors media coverage of CDF and children’s issues on a daily basis, alerts Department staff of key news developments and produces weekly news summary;
 * Assists in conducting of research on public policy, politics, media trends and coverage and other subjects as needed;
 * Assists on a range of Department projects including media outreach, event production, website and online campaign development and publications production
 * Assists in maintenance of organized filing system for all Communications Department products, including publications, DVDs, press releases, news clips, photos, story banks and ad campaign material.

Preferred Experience (Qualifications):
 * Ability to work effectively and calmly in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment with daily deadlines;
 * Strong organizational and execution skills;
 * Excellent verbal and written communication skills;
 * Commitment to social advocacy and CDF’s mission to be a voice for all children in America;
 * Must be familiar with database use and design (i.e. Microsoft Excel, Access, etc.);
 * Ability to organize facts and present issues in a clear, concise and logical manner, both orally and in writing, is essential;
 * Strong public relations skills and the ability to interact diplomatically and professionally with the news media, public and staff

To learn more about the Children’s Defense Fund, visit our website.

Apply here: http://bit.ly/vV0zKr