Investor Relations & Funding Partnerships Intern

About Make Me Visible

Make Me Visible is being built for people who become invisible when families, healthcare systems, employers, professionals, law enforcement, courts, and other institutions fail them.

The platform centers on evidence, witnessing, continuity, protection, accountability, and real advocacy. Its purpose is to ensure that vulnerable people are not abandoned simply because one system refuses to listen, act, investigate, or preserve what happened.

Make Me Visible is developing a model that brings together evidence organization, case development, legal advocacy, investigative research, media engagement, technology, relationship development, and public accountability.

The Internship

Make Me Visible is seeking an Investor Relations & Funding Partnerships Intern for a fast-paced, hands-on, 3.5-month educational experience.

The intern will learn how mission-driven organizations identify, research, qualify, approach, and maintain relationships with social-impact investors, philanthropists, foundations, family offices, angel investors, corporate sponsors, advocacy funders, and strategic partners.

This is not a list-building position. The intern will not simply download names and send them to the founder.

The work requires determining which funders have a genuine reason to support Make Me Visible, understanding what they have previously funded, identifying the person with decision-making authority, finding a credible path to a conversation, preparing leadership for that conversation, and documenting every next step.

The intern’s work will complement Make Me Visible’s funding and partnership efforts without replacing an employee, independently controlling external relationships, or participating in securities-related activity outside the approved educational scope.

The Matters Behind the Mission

Make Me Visible is developing its model through real, document-heavy matters involving disability, financial harm, institutional inaction, and failures of protection.

One matter concerns the disparity between a multimillion-dollar family estate and a disabled adult currently relying on disability income and food assistance. It raises broader questions involving access to justice, trust and estate systems, possible undue influence, fiduciary responsibility, medical vulnerability, and whether existing systems adequately protect a disabled beneficiary.

Another matter concerns a Nevada financial-fraud case involving the loss of more than a quarter of a million dollars. Although the matter resulted in criminal prosecution, the disabled victim has received no meaningful financial recovery after extensive contact with attorneys, financial institutions, law-enforcement agencies, and government authorities.

These matters expose a larger problem. The person most affected by institutional failure is often expected to organize the evidence, find the professionals, finance the response, coordinate disconnected systems, and create accountability alone.

Make Me Visible is being built to change that.

Funding and Partnership Audiences

The internship may include supervised research involving:

Social-impact investors
Philanthropists
Foundations
Family offices
Angel investors
Corporate sponsors
Disability-rights funders
Civil-rights and access-to-justice funders
Victim-support and financial-exploitation funders
Civic-technology and legal-technology funders
Healthcare and patient-safety funders
Investigative-journalism funders
Research institutions
Universities and law-school programs
Advocacy organizations
Technology and institutional partners
Eligible grants and non-dilutive funding programs

Investments, charitable contributions, grants, sponsorships, and strategic partnerships are different relationship categories. Each requires different research, materials, requests, decision-makers, and legal considerations.

What You Will Learn and Contribute

Funder Research and Qualification

Research social-impact investors, philanthropists, foundations, family offices, angel investors, corporate funders, and mission-aligned funding programs
Review each funder’s priorities, portfolio, previous grants or investments, funding range, geography, stage, and recent activity
Determine whether the funder has supported disability rights, legal access, civic technology, financial protection, patient advocacy, institutional accountability, or related work
Verify current roles and decision-making authority
Identify the partner, program officer, director, principal, trustee, or advisor responsible for the relevant area
Distinguish a qualified opportunity from a famous but irrelevant name
Document the public evidence supporting each recommendation
Identify disqualifying factors before leadership invests time in the opportunity
Apply a consistent qualification and ranking system

Relationship and Access Mapping

Identify credible introduction paths through portfolio founders, grantees, advisors, board members, attorneys, advocates, healthcare leaders, universities, and shared professional relationships
Evaluate the strength and credibility of each potential connection
Research whether a funder accepts unsolicited proposals
Identify alternative routes when direct proposals are not accepted
Map direct, warm, portfolio-based, event-based, and institutional paths to a conversation
Explain which route is recommended and why
Identify opportunities to build a relationship before making a funding request

Funder Profiles and Briefing Materials

Prepare individual profiles explaining who the funder is, what they have supported, why Make Me Visible may matter to them, and how the relationship should be approached
Identify the funder’s likely priorities, questions, objections, and decision criteria
Prepare briefing materials before conversations
Organize approved facts and supporting information for leadership
Distinguish verified public information from assumptions
Update profiles when a funder’s role, priorities, portfolio, or activity changes

Funding and Partnership Materials

Help prepare supervised funding summaries, organizational descriptions, founder materials, impact narratives, meeting notes, follow-up materials, and due-diligence checklists
Translate Make Me Visible’s mission for different funding audiences
Explain how the platform connects evidence, advocacy, technology, accountability, and protection
Review materials for unsupported claims, inconsistent descriptions, and missing information
Help organize approved documents for potential due diligence
Identify questions that require legal, financial, or leadership review
Protect confidential case, medical, financial, and personal information

Outreach and Follow-Through

Draft individualized outreach for review and authorization
Explain why Make Me Visible is approaching that particular person or organization
Develop appropriate introductory requests and follow-up sequences
Participate in supervised outreach after approval
Record every approved introduction, message, response, referral, meeting, request, commitment, and next action
Track deadlines and responsible team members
Prevent promising conversations from disappearing because the next step was not documented
Analyze why an approach succeeded, stalled, or failed
Recommend a stronger person, message, route, or request when the first approach does not work

Meeting Preparation and Follow-Up

Research meeting participants and their relevant work
Prepare concise briefing documents
Identify likely questions and information gaps
Organize approved talking points and supporting facts
Attend selected meetings when appropriate to the educational experience
Prepare accurate meeting notes
Document commitments, information requests, deadlines, and next steps
Draft follow-up materials for review
Track the relationship until a clear outcome or responsible closure is reached

Reporting and Strategy

Maintain an organized funding and partnership tracker
Produce weekly reports distinguishing activity from actual progress
Track qualified opportunities, access paths, approved outreach, responses, referrals, meetings, information requests, pending actions, commitments, and completed outcomes
Report honestly on what is working, what is not working, and what should change
Identify patterns in funder interest, objections, and decision-making
Recommend improvements based on evidence

Educational Structure and Supervision

Each intern will receive:

An Individual Internship Plan identifying learning goals
Orientation covering Make Me Visible’s mission, funding audiences, confidentiality, responsible communications, and relationship boundaries
Weekly instructional and funding-strategy meetings
Defined assignments connected to learning objectives
Regular access to a designated supervisor
Feedback on research, funder qualification, profiles, outreach, and briefing materials
Opportunities to revise and strengthen work
A midpoint evaluation and final skills assessment
Coordination with an academic institution when credit is requested
A final summary of the professional competencies demonstrated during the internship

Internship Milestones

Weeks 1–2: Foundations and Funding Landscape

Complete confidentiality and responsible-communications orientation
Review Make Me Visible’s mission, model, audiences, and development stage
Learn the differences among investment, philanthropy, grants, sponsorships, and strategic partnerships
Review examples of qualified and unqualified funding opportunities
Complete an initial skills assessment
Establish an Individual Internship Plan

Weeks 3–5: Funder Research and Qualification

Develop a funder qualification scorecard
Segment funders by type, fit, stage, and purpose
Research an initial supervised group of opportunities
Document the evidence supporting each recommendation
Identify decision-makers and credible access paths
Present ranked recommendations for review

Weeks 6–8: Profiles, Materials, and Messaging

Prepare detailed profiles for selected funders
Identify likely questions, concerns, and information gaps
Draft audience-specific outreach
Develop follow-up sequences and meeting requests
Review funding materials for consistency and missing information
Revise the work following feedback

Weeks 9–12: Supervised Relationship Development

Participate in approved outreach
Track responses, introductions, referrals, and next actions
Prepare meeting briefs and follow-up materials
Organize information requested by qualified funders
Evaluate what is producing interest and what is not
Recommend evidence-based changes to the strategy

Weeks 13–15: Capstone and Responsible Handoff

Complete a prioritized funding and partnership strategy
Present the strongest opportunities, access paths, risks, and recommended next actions
Complete a due-diligence readiness checklist
Produce a redacted portfolio-quality work sample
Complete a final skills assessment
Transfer complete relationship records and pending actions

Measurable Learning Deliverables

By the end of the 3.5-month internship, the participant should be able to demonstrate meaningful progress through work such as:

A segmented funding and partnership landscape
A documented funder qualification scorecard
A ranked matrix of qualified opportunities
Detailed profiles for selected funders
Decision-maker and introduction-path research
Audience-specific outreach and follow-up sequences
A founder meeting-brief template
A relationship and next-action tracker
A due-diligence readiness checklist
A written analysis of what generated interest and what should change
A final funding and partnership strategy
A capstone presentation
A redacted portfolio-quality work sample
Documented improvement between the initial and final skills assessments

Every material statement about a funder must be connected to a reliable source. Work will be evaluated for accuracy, judgment, relevance, discretion, organization, initiative, responsiveness to feedback, and completion of agreed learning milestones.

Investments, grants, sponsorships, introductions, meetings, partnerships, and other decisions controlled by third parties cannot be guaranteed and will not be the sole measure of performance.

What Success Looks Like

Success means the intern can demonstrate that:

Every recommended funder has a documented reason for being selected
Qualified opportunities are separated from irrelevant names
Decision-makers and credible access paths are identified
Leadership receives useful information before conversations
Approved introductions and next steps are accurately recorded
Meetings are properly prepared for and followed through
Information requests and deadlines are not lost
Unsuccessful approaches produce thoughtful changes
Confidential information is handled responsibly
Another team member can understand and continue each relationship
The intern develops stronger research, strategic, written, and professional judgment

Non-Negotiable Work Standard

Make Me Visible is being built for people who have already experienced dismissal, silence, abandonment, and institutional inaction. The team cannot repeat those patterns internally.

Interns must be able to take a defined objective, identify missing information, conduct responsible research, and return with supported findings and recommended actions.

Initiative does not mean making unauthorized promises or funding decisions. It means investigating the opportunity, presenting a thoughtful recommendation, communicating obstacles promptly, and continuing to work when the first route does not succeed.

Repeated missed deadlines, unexplained silence, incomplete work, unverified information, generic funder lists, mishandling of confidential information, or claims of progress without evidence may result in reassignment and may lead to the internship ending under the written agreement.

Who Should Apply

Apply if you:

Are pursuing or recently completed studies in business, finance, social impact, entrepreneurship, economics, public policy, communications, nonprofit management, law, advocacy, or a related field
Understand or want to learn how investors, philanthropists, foundations, and family offices evaluate opportunities
Can distinguish a qualified opportunity from a famous but irrelevant name
Conduct detailed research and verify what you find
Write and speak with confidence, discretion, and professionalism
Are persistent without becoming careless or aggressive
Maintain accurate records and follow through consistently
Can communicate about vulnerable people without exploiting their experiences
Accept substantive feedback and improve work through revision
Take responsibility when the obvious route does not work

Prior fundraising or investor-relations experience is helpful but not required. Strong research, careful judgment, professional communication, organization, and a willingness to learn are more important than exaggerated claims of expertise.

What You Will Gain

This internship provides supervised experience in:

Social-impact funding and partnership research
Investor and funder qualification
Philanthropic and foundation landscapes
Angel investor and family-office research
Decision-maker identification
Relationship mapping and warm-introduction strategy
Funder profiles and meeting briefs
Funding narratives and impact communications
Due-diligence preparation
Relationship tracking and follow-through
Meeting preparation and professional correspondence
Analyzing funding strategy based on evidence
Communicating a public-interest mission to sophisticated audiences
Receiving substantive feedback and improving work through revision

Interns will not be given meaningless list-building assignments simply to fill time. Work will be connected to defined learning objectives and supervised opportunities to develop practical, transferable skills.

By the end of the internship, participants should leave with stronger professional judgment, tangible work, clearer evidence of their capabilities, and a deeper understanding of how mission-driven organizations build responsible funding and partnership relationships.

Important Internship Boundaries

The intern will not:

Offer, recommend, sell, or negotiate securities
Provide investment, legal, accounting, or tax advice
Discuss investment terms unless specifically authorized and supervised
Make financial, legal, programmatic, or outcome guarantees
Accept investor funds or handle securities
Receive compensation based on capital raised or the outcome of a securities transaction
Represent themselves as an officer, broker, investment adviser, attorney, or authorized spokesperson
Send external communications without authorization
Disclose confidential case, medical, financial, organizational, or funder information
Place protected information in personal accounts, unapproved platforms, or AI tools
Independently control active investor or funder relationships
Replace the work of a paid employee

All external communications and capital-raising materials must be reviewed and authorized before use. The structure and scope of any securities offering must be determined by Make Me Visible and qualified legal counsel, not by the intern.

The internship does not create an entitlement to future employment. Either party may end the internship in accordance with the written internship agreement. Confidentiality, return of access, transfer of work, and deletion of protected information remain required at departure.

Proof-of-Ability Requirement

Applicants must spend no more than 45 minutes completing the following:

Identify three funders who may be genuinely relevant to Make Me Visible
Explain why each funder is relevant
Provide public evidence of what each has previously funded or supported
Identify the person who appears to influence or make the decision
Describe a credible path to a conversation
Explain what Make Me Visible could appropriately ask from each funder
Draft the opening three to five sentences of an outreach message to the strongest candidate

The exercise is for candidate evaluation and will not be used externally without the applicant’s permission.

Generic investor lists, unverifiable claims, guessed contact information, copied biographies, and names without a specific reason for inclusion will not be considered.

About the Founder

Sweta Patel is an entrepreneur, investigator, and advocate who built Make Me Visible after years of doing the work that failed systems left undone. She preserved evidence, connected critical information, found the right professionals, and pushed serious matters forward when others would not.

She created Make Me Visible to turn that experience into something larger: a structure that helps people document what happened, build a credible account, and reach those with the authority to act. Her leadership is grounded in persistence, judgment, and the refusal to accept that a complicated case is an excuse for leaving someone without protection.