Intern, Knowledge & Insights

Team Information

Transform Singapore into a Giving Nation through developing insights to inspire action via meaningful, impact-driven research. We seek motivated candidates with the passion to make this happen, where the ability to make a difference at national level is a reward in itself, with meaningful work at the intersection of non-profit, public and private sectors.

You will be supporting the Knowledge and Insights team which conducts national-level research on the giving landscape, volunteerism, philanthropy and other forms of giving. This includes both quantitative survey research and qualitative studies.

For this internship, the intern will be involved in strengthening our research work by developing systematic literature reviews of academic research on topics relevant to our studies. These literature reviews will be used internally to drive the design of future studies. Interns may choose a topic area which overlaps with their own dissertation or thesis research.

Systematic Literature Reviews on Giving

This project aims to produce a series of systematic literature reviews of academic and ‘grey literature’ on topics relevant to NVPC’s research. The broad topic areas are:

1. Predictors of volunteerism and donation
2. Outcomes (for individuals, communities, and beneficiaries) of volunteerism and donation
3. Predictors of effective non-profit governance
4. Predictors and outcomes of corporate philanthropy, CSR, ESG and corporate purpose

Interns will be free to choose one or more sub-areas within these themes, in consultation with their supervisor. They are encouraged to choose a theme which is helpful for their dissertation research, or otherwise informs their future research trajectory.

Responsibilities

• Collate academic and ‘grey’ literature on a topic of your choice (from the above list).
• Prepare a systematic literature review in narrative form, with a comprehensive bibliography.

Deliverables

• Interns will be expected to produce a comprehensive, long-form literature review document, including a discussion synthesising and analysing the various strands of evidence and argumentation in the literature, and a bibliography in standard academic style.

Requirements

• Research Degree/Masters or PhD students in any social science (psychology, political science, sociology, anthropology, economics, etc.).
• Experience preparing a literature review, as part of an undergraduate thesis, masters dissertation or PhD thesis.
• A self-starter who is comfortable using online resources (such as Google Scholar) to find sources; able to quickly skim articles to glean important points; with attention to detail.
• Excellent English writing skills, at an academic level.
• A keen interest in social issues and/or the non-profit space, with a research interest linked with at least one of the four topic areas listed above.

Learning Experiences

• Interns will acquire detailed and up-to-date knowledge of the research area covered by their literature review. Where possible, we will tailor the focus so to contribute to each intern’s own personal research trajectory (for example, to inform their masters or PhD thesis).
• Interns will be given guidance on how to improve the quality of their literature review, thus improving their overall academic writing and research skills.

We are looking to hire 3 interns who are able to commit for 6 months.