How Boulder Colorado and Michael Strahan Led me to Fundraising: My Story
Let me take you back to 2006.
George W. Bush was president. Both Sexyback and Hips Don’t Lie were on BIllboard’s Top 10. Twitter sent it’s first Tweet.
I was a junior in college and just wrapping my stint as president of my sorority (I know, I know). Looking to fill my extra time, I told the woman I babysat for that I was looking to volunteer. She told me about There With Care, a nonprofit focused on serving families with critically ill children. It sounded like important and meaningful work - so I signed up for a volunteer orientation.
Little did I know, I had walked into There With Care’s very first volunteer training - ever - and that my life was to be forever changed.
I jumped into volunteering with two feet. What started as delivering groceries or babysitting siblings whos brother or sister was in the NICU tuned into me managing cases, working with social workers and acting as the right hand woman to the Executive Director and Founder, Paula DuPre Pesmen.
I can’t say this is unique, but Paula wrapped me up, hugged me tight, and gave me a ton of responsibility that I probably shouldn’t have held. Looking back - it’s a little crazy that a 22-year-old, still in college, with no formal training was the first call a family would make if their family needed something urgent like a carseat to transport their new baby home, food for their family, or rides to and from the hospital.
Paula is a unicorn angel. Although we haven’t stayed in touch too frequently, I still consider her my greatest mentor. A Hollywood producer turned nonprofit leader, Paula founded There With Care while working on the set of the Harry Potter films. After working to grant some Make-A-Wish experiences for some super sick kiddos and getting to know the families - she learned it wasn’t just their one day on-set that made the difference. It was the friendship and resources Paula gave to them - doing their laundry or making a home cooked meal - so it was one less thing on the parent’s plate to worry about. Paula is obsessed with giving people exactly what they need, which in most cases, is time. Time to be focused on their child.
After graduating from college a year and a half later - I was officially brought on to the There With Care team. In fact, I was the first paid employee (yes, Paula paid me before paying herself). I think my title was: Volunteer Coordinator, but with a staff of two, I did everything from recruiting and managing volunteers, to overseeing a caseload of 50+ families, data entry, event planning, so-many-trips-to-the-food-bank (which I loved!), direct service with families, and working with social workers. I remember saying to Paula’s husband one day that I would love to just once start my day without breaking into a sweat to which he replied, “I think you picked the wrong job.”
I loved working at There With Care and to this day - still love and follow along with all the good work they are doing. To think that when I was involved we were at case numbers in the double digits and now they have surpassed hundreds if not thousands, blows my mind. I remember thinking: If didn’t need to work - I would still want to do this everyday. How lucky is that?
But after some time working there, I started to notice that I would get in too deep with families. I had no boundaries - no tools to know how to shut off and recharge from what could be really intense work. My cell phone number was available to everyone, nights and weekends were up for grabs, and I became numb to a diagnosis. Hearing things like, “the child has leukemia or neuroblastoma or born at 24 weeks” became normal to me. Looking back - I see that I just didn’t have the maturity to set parameters or ask for help when I felt overwhelmed. It’s also the curse of being a “yes” person.
After an opportunity and a need for me to come home brought me back to California, with Paula’s encouragement, I actually went to freelance as a production assistant in Hollywood. Talk about a switch-a-roo. What an eye-opening experience - and so different from the one I was coming off of. Within a few short months I had learned that Jared from the Subway commercials takes six shots of espresso in his coffee and Michael Strahand practically drove a bat mobile. It took me a total of two commercials to realize that I wanted to get back into the nonprofit sector. After really thinking it through, I had to map out how I would be sustainable in a profession that can be emotionally intense a lot of the time.
What came up for me, is that the thing I enjoy most about working in the nonprofit sector is the relationships. I thought: if I can be the storyteller compared to working the frontlines - I might just have a shot at having a long-term career in this industry. Luckily, there is a side of nonprofits that I hadn’t really explored: fundraising. This also happens to be the side that people avoid like the plague.
Slowly, but surely, I dipped a toe and then a foot into raising money. When I wasn’t getting my master’s degree in nonprofit management, I was honing my marketing and storytelling skills at my internships or putting on event fundraisers as a volunteer. I quickly learned how important customer service, building real relationships, delivering impact, and gratitude all add up to a donor making a gift and then multiple gifts over time. I learned that you can’t just do something once and expect results - it takes many many times of high level effort to raise resources. It takes discipline and consistency and creativity.
As I started professionally raising money, I also noticed a trend: not a lot of people want to be fundraisers and not a lot of people are great at raising money. This was an especially bad combo when I was trying to learn and improve my skills (I have a habit of wanting to be the best). It took me discovering my own extended education, attending conferences, purchasing webinars or forming my own cohort of peers to become good. It took me inserting myself at my job, asking to accompany my boss on donor meetings and practicing (and failing) over and and over to get better and better. Now, I am a tester, an analyzer, a creator and a risk taker because I believe in doing what works not just what’s always been done.
Since I’ve started fundraising, I can roughly say I’ve raised over $22M for various organizations. What I know for sure is this:
Fundraising for an organization is meaningful work
We all need our tribe
We can always be learning, growing and improving our skills
In the coming months, I plan to roll out something I’m very excited about. Without giving too much away, it will be a place to not only hone your fundraising skills, but making learning an ongoing practice. Remember that tribe I talked about? What if you had one? A place to connect with other fundraisers who straight up get it? Yep - that will be in there too.
If you have any thoughts or ideas on areas you’d like to improve or things no one ever taught you - I’d love for you to comment below or email me at: Jess@outintheboons.me. The idea is to elevate the industry, one fundraiser at a time and raise some serious buck-a-roos for the causes we love.
xo,
