As part of our mission to promote craft beverage and agricultural producers we host public events to raise the visibility of these industries among state residents and visitors to Maryland. There are often volunteer opportunities for these events. In exchange for your time and effort, we provide tickets to the event, before or after your shift, and sometimes discount tickets to future events. If you’re interested in volunteering for a specific craft beverage industry (breweries, wineries, distilleries), please visit their websites to sign up for their newsletters. Volunteer signups are sent out through the public newsletters. If you’d like to volunteer for any type of event or activity that we do, send a note to info@growandfortify.com.
Internships Available:
Each semester we look for enthusiastic and talented individuals for Government Affairs, Communications, Social Media and Events internship positions.
SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT INTERN
Are you creative? Do you have an interest in crafting stories about local alcohol and value-added agriculture businesses?
Grow & Fortify seeks a driven and creative intern to join our team. At Grow & Fortify, we cultivate an environment where craft alcohol producers and value-added agriculture businesses grow and thrive.
In this role, the right candidate will help manage the social media presence and voice of Grow & Fortify and our client businesses. This work will provide you with the opportunity to develop your creative skills in multi-media content creation and professional social media engagement.
The intern in this position reports to the Director of Communications and will use their creative skills to create and schedule content for Grow & Fortify, the Brewers Association of Maryland, the Maryland Distillers Guild and the Maryland Wineries Association.
This position is unpaid and is intended for current students requiring an internship in exchange for college or university credit. Due to the nature of our organization’s work with the state’s alcohol industry, the intern must be at least 21 years old.
Duties & Responsibilities
- Assist with the design and execution of social media campaigns
- Create weekly and monthly editorial calendars to promote initiatives using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube
- Create and distribute compelling content such as images, infographics and videos on social media
- Track social media engagement and gain knowledge about audience interests
- Support marketing objectives at in-person events
- Perform social media marketing research
- Assist with developing influencer campaign strategies
- Respond to comments and DMs on social media platforms
- Brainstorm and research ideas for original content
- Write social media captions that speak to our client’s target audiences
- Help create and edit short-form videos
- Develop new strategies for increasing engagement
- Assist with photo/video content shoots
- Ensure brand messaging and voice remain consistent
- Other duties, as assigned
Education & Qualifications
- Advanced knowledge of popular social media platforms from a brand perspective
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Highly organized and driven
- Ability to prioritize and meet deadlines
Please send letter of interest and resume to Jim Bauckman via jim@growandfortify.com.
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS: ALCOHOL and AGRICULTURAL PRODUCERS
Grow & Fortify (G&F) seeks one intern each semester to assist in its governmental affairs efforts. G&F represents non-profit trade associations in the alcohol and agricultural sectors.
The internship is unpaid and interns will work remotely, with attendance in Annapolis during the legislative session.
Scope of Internship.
While G&F is a small organization, the legislative and regulatory issues it encounters are often high-profile, and life-threatening to the clients it represents. G&F is charged with protecting the interests of the clients it represents, and thus, it must be vigilant during the state General Assembly’s legislative session every January through April.
Much planning goes into G&F’s work for legislative sessions. Planning begins in September in most years, though some larger issues are multi-year efforts. There are some years when Grow & Fortify and it’s clients have issues/legislation they have sponsored, and in other years G&F must simply keep watch to ensure no legislation is passed that would compromise the industry.
Maryland alcohol is regulated by the State via the Alcohol & Tobacco Commission, with some event-specific regulation by county liquor boards. Maryland agricultural businesses are regulated by the state and local health departments and department of agriculture.
Intern duties will include:
Governmental Affairs/Relations – Work with Executive Director to manage consumer relations, including:
- Attending Governmental Affairs conference calls (weekly during the legislative session).
- Developing single-issue policy statements for various audiences.
- Meeting with regulators and elected officials to further G&F client issues.
- Attending legislative events to discuss issues with attendees.
G&F Client Member Relations:
- Assist executive director in notifying members of regulatory or legislative issues.
- Updating our “action center” if members are needed to testify in Annapolis or attend important functions.
Additional Experience the Interns May Gain
- Contract Negotiations – G&F revises event contracts annually.
- Association Management – attend G&F meetings and manage internal communications.
Requirements
Successful candidates will have willingness to learn and engage in government relations and governmental affairs, and:
- Have excellent writing, editing and verbal communication skills;
- Be punctual;
- Respect deadlines;
- Be a self starter and be proactive;
- Be able to work in a goal-oriented environment;
- Thrive in a high pressure environment;
- Be a strategic and creative thinker;
- Have extreme attention to detail.
Due to the G&F’s promotion of the state’s alcohol industry, interns must be at least 21 years old.
Please send letter of interest and resume to Kelly Dudeck via kelly@growandfortify.com.
COMMUNICATIONS INTERNSHIP
Description
Grow & Fortify (G&F) seeks one intern each semester to assist in its marketing and communication efforts. G&F represents non-profit trade associations in the alcohol and agricultural sectors.
For this internship, the student will work directly with the Director of Communications to develop and execute communication plans covering industry news, programs, products, and events. Responsibilities will include:
- Expanding our current press list.
- Creating new opportunities for editorial placement in local and regional publications/online platforms.
- Meeting with media sales representatives to identify appropriate avenues for advertising and marketing the industry.
- Drafting marketing/public relations plans for upcoming events and festivals.
- Contribute to the planning and execution of press events for our clients
Requirements
Successful candidates will have willingness to learn and engage in government relations and governmental affairs, and:
- Have excellent writing, editing and verbal communication skills;
- Be punctual;
- Respect deadlines;
- Be a self starter and be proactive;
- Be able to work in a goal-oriented environment;
- Thrive in a high pressure environment;
- Be a strategic and creative thinker;
- Have extreme attention to detail.
Due to the G&F’s promotion of the state’s alcohol industry, interns must be at least 21 years old.
Please send letter of interest and resume to Kelly Dudeck via kelly@growandfortify.com.
