Project-Based Communications Internships

The Columbia Pike Partnership supports economic development, placemaking, and community engagement in the 3.1 mile long Columbia Pike Corridor in Arlington, Virginia.  Our mission is to foster a vibrant, safe, connected, and diverse Columbia Pike community and to be the convening body representing the interests of all those who live, work and visit Columbia Pike.  You can learn more at www.columbiapike.org

The Partnership seeks experienced and creative project-based communications interns to build and implement a lean, AI-assisted, and automated communications system. The goal is to reduce ongoing staff time while improving content quality, consistency, and responsiveness.

The ideal candidates will review and incorporate our existing communications strategy and brand with additional research on best-practice strategies for similar organizations focused on economic development.  The team will create systems that will automate newsletter and social media scheduling and distribution through researching AI tools and recommending tools like Buffer or Hootsuite.  The team will create and organize content and content systems using news alerts, existing assets and develop additional content tools based on the strategy.  Finally, the team will create performance dashboards tracking key metrics.  

We are looking for candidates with social media, creative, writing, AI/systems, and analytics experience.  CPP’s Executive Director will directly oversee this project and will provide support and guidance throughout the project.

While this is an unpaid internship, small stipends may be available and CPP will support project members earning academic credits if possible. CPP will provide relevant and marketable experience for candidates interested in nonprofits, economic development, and communications related fields.

The project will ideally start by July  31st, 2025 and be completed, in phases, by October 31st, 2025.  The team will meet weekly via Zoom and each project member is asked to commit to a minimum of 5 hours per week to support the project.  

Key Deliverables by Workstream:

1. Content System Setup
- Automate existing newsletter templates for 2-3 bi-weekly e-newsletters
- Establish content buckets and AI prompt libraries for social media
- Develop a 3-month content calendar

2. Design & Creative
- Organize and improve our existing Canva Pro template and Brand  library (newsletters, events, social)
- Setup and test AI-generated visuals (e.g. DALL·E, Midjourney)

3. Operations & Automation
- Configure Buffer or Hootsuite with Slack + Asana integration
- Automate newsletter scheduling and distribution
- Set up breaking news alerts → Slack pipeline → draft creation

4. Reporting & Analytics
- Create performance dashboards
- Automate monthly reporting (social + email KPIs)
- Build quarterly review templates for content strategy updates