Welcome back to the second episode of our weekly show Summer FUNraising! This week I hosted a special edition of Summer FUNraising that coincided with my birthday.
If you’ve been a reader of this blog for any length of time, you might recall that every year on my birthday I post an annual reflection essay. Here’s the one from 2016 and one from 2014. This year, I decided to bring the reflection to Summer FUNraising.
In this episode, I shared five lessons I’ve learned about fundraising and a few that I’ve personally learned. I hope you enjoy this week’s episode!
I mentioned a few resources during this episode that you might want to look up.
The Woman’s Retreat Book by Jennifer Louden – This book has radically changed how I think about taking the time to pause and reflect. It’s also given me plenty of ideas for designing and creating space for reflection.
The DIY MFA – During this show, I talked about how I like to create a personal and professional development plan for myself each year. I think about things I’d like to learn and what I can to do in turn to learn them. This book was a big inspiration that helped me think outside of the box. It shows you how you create your own Masters in Fine Arts program.
The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry – I read this book a couple of years ago, but it’s one that I often return to. One of the key tenets of the book is learning how to be more creative (and not just in the artistic sense). I really benefited from the exercises that are in this book as well as the suggestion for on-going professional development.
I also mentioned during the broadcast that I would share my personal and professional development plan with you all. It’s a work in progress, but I identified a few areas that I’m working on this year.
#1 – Acceptance
This one is really important to me. In the last few years, I realized that every time I went through a multi-day or multi-week stretch where I felt truly frustrated it was a direct result of not accepting what was. This year, I’m committed to working more on accepting the present and also accepting myself.
#2 – Developing life supporting habits
As I mentioned during the broadcast, this last year was a tough one for me health-wise. Now that I’m back to feeling resilient and physically healthy, I’m ready to re-instill life supporting habits that can help me be my best self. This includes finding a fitness routine that I love (so far spinning is the winner), making food choices that are mindful of my intolerances and allergies, taking regular “unpluged” weekends, and scheduling retreats for myself.
#3 – Expand my knowledge of email marketing and fundraising
This is by far the most explicitly professional one on my list and it’s here because I have a real passion for email and all things digital. I already spend a ton of time learning about email marketing and fundraising practices, and this year I’m hoping to parlay that into great results.
These are just some of my initial thoughts and I’m sure there will be more to come. If you are interested in following along with my personal and professional development, let me know in the comments below. Perhaps I’ll make it a regular blog series.
