Records Management Intern

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Reports to: Manager, Operations & Logistics

Team: People & Culture, Operations

FLSA Status: Hourly, Non-Exempt

Employment Type: Student/Intern

Session: Summer

Location: In-Person Hybrid

Pay Rate: Hourly based on DC minimum living wage $17.95 per hour until June 30, 2026. Increased to $18.40 per hour effective July 1, 2026. This internship is intended for educational benefit, and we support receiving school credit for participation.

Final date to receive applications:The application portal will close at 3:00 pm ET March 31st

Americans for the Arts (AFTA) strengthens the arts from the ground up – supporting advocacy that empowers communities, develops arts leadership, and produces field-informed research. We shape national arts policy to reflect the realities and aspirations of artists, organizations, businesses, and communities nationwide. We champion the arts as a unifying and essential force in American life.

The People & Culture and Operations Team plays a key role in AFTA’s success as a mission driven organization who values its people and the physical and virtual environments they work within. This team considers every AFTA and Arts Action Fund staff member and each consultant its clients, placing their experience at the center of its decision-making process. Its mission is to create, implement, and support internal infrastructures, policies, and practices that are agile, inclusive, accessible, and responsive to the needs of its staff and supporting entities.

The People & Culture and Operations team is a two-person team comprised of a vice president of people and culture and manager of operations and logistics. We are ready to support a summer intern who has a desire to learn more about organizational internal infrastructure development, record management, and how a non-profit organization generally operates.

The Records Management Intern will conduct an appraisal of our written and digital records, identify records for destruction and retention, and assist in updating our organizational retention policy to align with the law and best practices. This position will engage in a variety of projects and have tangible opportunities to contribute to changing how staff navigate their digital and physical records.

Participation in this program provides the opportunity to attend our annual conference (AFTACON, June 2nd – 5th), working across teams to experience the behind-the-scenes organizational lead up and execution of hosting a national conference.

This internship encourages the exploration of the local cultural institutions in Washington, DC, offering a flexible schedule with hours that might fluctuate above and below our standard 37.50-hour work week.

The desired outcome of this internship is to understand best practices for records management and gain insight into the challenges of implementing those best practices through change management.

• Appraise the financial records and historical organizational physical files of Americans for the Arts and its predecessor organizations.
• Assess the records for preservation based on organizational retention and destruction policies, including their historical significance for organizational storytelling.
• Identify duplicate records for destruction and historical records for off-site archival storage.
• Research and identify records management best practices and provide recommendations for implementation of current policies.
• Digitize documents to create a digital archive or record.
• Research document retention software for use as part of our digitization process.

Candidates are encouraged to apply, even if they do not possess all the experience and skills listed:

• A commitment to advancing the AFTA mission, with a commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility and a passion for arts, public policy, and non-profit advocacy.
• Pursing (or recently completed) studies in History, Library Sciences, or Non-Profit Management
• A passion, curiosity,…