by Raeshawn Crosson, Vice President of Association Solutions
Beyond the Summer Internship: Building a Talent Pipeline That Creates Real Value
For associations, an internship program can be much more than an opportunity to bring in extra help for the summer. When thoughtfully designed, it can introduce emerging professionals to the association community, provide additional capacity for important projects, bring fresh perspectives into an organization, and create a pipeline of future talent.
That philosophy was at the heart of IMN Solutions’ summer internship program.
Rather than developing a program where interns simply observed meetings or completed administrative tasks, we wanted to create an experience that gave participants meaningful exposure to the work of an association management company while allowing them to make tangible contributions to IMN and the associations we serve.
Start With the “Why”
Before recruiting an intern, organizations should first determine what they want the program to accomplish.
For IMN, the goals extended beyond filling short-term staffing needs. We wanted to expose emerging professionals to the breadth of career opportunities available within associations and association management while giving them practical, resume-building experience.
The association industry offers career paths in marketing, membership, events, education, business development, operations, governance, research, communications, and more. Yet many students and early-career professionals simply do not know that these opportunities exist.
An internship program gives us an opportunity to change that.
It also creates value for our clients. Interns can provide additional capacity to research ideas, explore new markets, organize information, develop resources, and move forward projects that may otherwise compete with an association team’s day-to-day priorities.
Design the Work Before Recruiting the Interns
One of the most important lessons from our program is that the internship experience should be intentional.
Before bringing interns onboard, identify projects that are meaningful, achievable within the internship period, and connected to actual organizational priorities. An intern should understand not only what they are being asked to do, but why the work matters.
At IMN, interns were matched with projects based on organizational needs as well as their interests and skills. Their assignments included research, membership development, market expansion, corporate partnership identification, marketing support, and other projects supporting both IMN and our association clients.
For example, interns had opportunities to support research around nonprofit membership recruitment in new geographic markets, explore potential corporate partners, and contribute to initiatives designed to help associations expand their reach.
These were not hypothetical exercises. The research and recommendations could inform real decisions and future strategies.
Give Interns Exposure Beyond Their Assignment
A strong internship program should also help participants understand how their individual work fits into the larger organization.
Because IMN operates across multiple association disciplines, we were able to expose interns to different aspects of association management and client service. Meetings with team members and opportunities to learn about different functions helped demonstrate how membership, events, marketing, governance, finance, education, and strategy work together.
That broader exposure is important. An intern may enter the program thinking they are interested in marketing and discover an interest in events, membership, research, or association leadership.
Creating those connections is part of developing the next generation of association professionals.
Build in Ownership and Accountability
Interns should be treated as developing professionals.
That means providing clear expectations, deadlines, regular check-ins, access to the resources they need, and constructive feedback throughout the experience.
It also means giving them ownership.
Whenever possible, interns should have a project or deliverable they can point to at the end of the program and say, “I helped create that.”
At the conclusion of the summer, there should be an intentional opportunity to review what was accomplished, discuss lessons learned, gather feedback about the internship experience, and allow interns to present or summarize their work.
The wrap-up is just as important as onboarding. It creates closure for the intern while giving the organization an opportunity to capture recommendations and determine which projects should continue.
A Framework Associations Can Replicate
Associations do not need a large HR department or a massive budget to create a meaningful internship program. They do, however, need structure.
A good starting framework includes:
- Define the purpose: Determine what you want interns to learn and what organizational priorities they can help advance.
- Identify meaningful projects: Create assignments with clear outcomes rather than relying primarily on miscellaneous administrative work.
- Recruit intentionally: Develop a clear internship description and market the opportunity through universities, professional networks, industry partners, social media, and other talent pipelines.
- Match people with projects: Consider each intern’s interests, experience, and career goals when determining assignments.
- Create an onboarding plan: Introduce interns to the organization, its clients or members, technology, expectations, culture, and the larger industry.
- Assign a supervisor and mentors: Interns need someone responsible for their work as well as opportunities to build relationships with other professionals.
- Establish regular check-ins: Don’t wait until the end of the internship to find out that expectations were unclear or a project stalled.
- Create a final deliverable: Give interns an opportunity to demonstrate what they accomplished and make recommendations based on what they learned.
- Ask for feedback: Treat the program itself as something that should improve each year.
- Stay connected: Today’s intern could become tomorrow’s employee, volunteer, member, speaker, industry partner, or association leader.
Where an AMC Can Help
For many associations, the challenge isn’t recognizing the value of an internship program. It’s finding the internal capacity to build and manage one.
That’s where an association management partner can help.
An AMC like IMN Solutions can assist an association with developing the program structure, identifying appropriate projects, creating position descriptions, supporting recruitment and selection, developing onboarding materials, coordinating intern assignments, establishing supervision and reporting processes, and measuring results.
We can also help organizations think more strategically about how internships connect to larger workforce development and talent-pipeline goals.
An association might create an internship focused on membership research one year and expand it into a formal industry talent initiative over time. Another might bring in students to support conference programming, communications, research, or member engagement while simultaneously exposing those students to career opportunities within the profession the association represents.
The opportunity is bigger than summer staffing.
Investing in the Next Generation
One of the responsibilities we have as association leaders is to think beyond today’s workload and consider who will lead, serve, and strengthen our organizations tomorrow.
Internship programs provide a practical way to make that investment while creating immediate value.
When interns are trusted with meaningful work, introduced to professionals who are willing to invest in them, and given an opportunity to see how their contributions matter, everyone benefits.
At IMN Solutions, that’s the kind of experience we want to continue building; not simply an internship program, but an entry point into a profession and a community that many talented young people may not yet know exists.
And for associations interested in creating their own program, you don’t have to build it alone. IMN Solutions can help turn the idea into a structured internship experience that supports your organization today while investing in its workforce of tomorrow.
Originally published on October 1, 2026.
