IRC Wichita Grants Management Intern (Unpaid) - Spring Semester

At least 15 hours a week, for at least three months, for no pay. That is the arithmetic at the center of a new internship posting from the International Rescue Committee’s Wichita office, where a Grants Management Intern would track grant databases, chase deadlines, draft donor-facing materials, and research potential funders — all while the organization describes the role as unpaid.

The posting, carried by rescue.org and listed on both impactpool.org and builtin.com, is aimed at current undergraduate or graduate students — or recent graduates — in communications, marketing, public relations, nonprofit management, business, or related fields. It promises real exposure to the machinery of a major humanitarian nonprofit: the pre-award process, proposal development, funder engagement, and the IRC’s Resettlement, Asylum, and Integration programming in Wichita.

Spring Semester or January? The Sources Don’t Agree

The three outlets describe the same job with details that don’t line up, and the differences matter for anyone planning around them. Rescue.org lists the start as the spring semester and the organization as operating in over 50 countries and 28 U.S. cities. Impactpool.org and builtin.com, by contrast, list a January start date, a duration running to December, and describe the IRC as working in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities. Both versions agree on the core structure: roughly three months at a minimum of 15 hours per week, with an opportunity to renew, and no compensation mentioned anywhere in the posting.

The organization behind the listing is hardly obscure. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world’s largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations, responding to crises and supporting refugees across its U.S. offices with food, shelter, clothing, and pathways to self-sufficiency, according to impactpool.org. That scale is exactly what the posting sells: a chance to practice grant management inside a large international organization and keep its Wichita operations funded.

What the Intern Would Actually Do

The day-to-day work is concrete. The intern would maintain and update the local grants database so tracking and project management stay accurate, schedule grant-related meetings, and send programs reminders about upcoming deadlines. They would develop external-facing materials — one-pagers for staff and donors, boilerplate language documents — coordinating between program staff and distributing the finished pieces to donors, community partners, and internal staff. They would also conduct prospect research following the IRC’s method for engaging potential new funders, plus miscellaneous support on other grants management projects as feasible, according to the listings on impactpool.org and builtin.com.

The learning objectives read like a syllabus for a nonprofit career: grant management and funder engagement principles, the basics of proposal development, proactive responses to business development needs, and an in-depth understanding of IRC resettlement, asylum, and integration programming. The requirements are standard for the sector — strong English writing and communication skills, excellent organization, comfort with research and liaising with staff, basic Microsoft Excel and Office functions, and a self-motivated, independent work style.

The Application Gauntlet

Getting in is a process, not a click. Rescue.org lays out the steps: attend one of IRC Wichita’s volunteer information meetings — mandatory before any application proceeds — with dates available by emailing [email protected]. Then submit the volunteer/intern application online, interview with the volunteer coordinator if selected, and clear a background check and reference check before placement is confirmed. The IRC encourages, but does not require, a $40 donation toward the cost of the background check. Orientation is required for all interns and volunteers before they begin.

Who Bears the Cost of “Experience”?

Fifteen hours a week is a part-time job’s worth of labor, and the posting labels it unpaid in its own headline. The strongest argument in the internship’s favor is the one the listings make themselves: for a student hoping to move up in the nonprofit sector, grant management experience inside an organization operating in dozens of countries is a credential that can open doors, and the skills — proposal development, funder research, database tracking — are genuinely transferable. Defenders of unpaid internships in the nonprofit world argue that stipends and paid entry-level roles are scarce in a sector built on thin margins, and that structured, supervised experience still has real value on a résumé.

Set against that is the arithmetic of who can actually take it. A student who needs wages to cover rent, tuition, or family obligations cannot donate 15 hours a week for three months, renewable. The mandatory info meeting, the background check, and even the encouraged $40 donation add small costs on top of the larger one: foregone income. So the posting, whatever its intentions, functions as a filter that favors students with existing financial cushion — the very demographic least in need of humanitarian aid, and the one best positioned to volunteer it.

None of the three listings states whether the internship can convert to paid work, whether a stipend exists under any circumstances, or how many of the IRC’s Wichita grants staff began as unpaid interns.