Two weeks ago, someone asked me what about my work brings me joy and motivates me to get up in the morning. Without hesitation my answer was simple: relationships.
People are the driving force for just about everything in my life, and work is certainly no exception.
And it is why I love the grant profession so much. No matter what we are doing, we are people focused:
• Developing a grant proposal? We need to talk about the people of the community.
• Managing a grant? We report on people benefiting from the programs funded by the grant.
• Training new grant pros? We are helping the next group of people do the work, which leads to more people working with people.
• Coaching? We are mentoring people to find to find the passion in their work.
People, specifically our listeners and supporters, are also the reason the Fundraising HayDay Podcast is still going strong. Heck, we are celebrating five years of the show in November. And we are celebrating in a big way!
From November 1-4, Fundraising HayDay will be THE official podcast of Grant Summit in Kansas City, which is the 25th anniversary of the Grant Professionals Association’s (GPA) annual conference. We will join over 1,000 of our fellow grant professionals (in-person and virtually) for this year’s event. As you have probably guessed, I cannot wait to reacquaint myself with friends who have become near and dear to my heart.
When GPA announced the news in a newsletter to conference attendees, I squealed when I saw it. I knew it was coming. We had been talking about it for months, so it was not a surprise. And yet my reaction was to SQUEAL!
Why? It brought me such joy. Kimberly and I are excited to interview a wide variety of individuals at the conference, and then share all this learned knowledge with our listeners in Season 7, starting in January 2024.
Because it’s the listeners, our people, who will benefit from our chats with leaders in the field. And connecting people with helpful information and content that will make them more effective in helping the people they serve, well, that’s what motivates me every single day.
Check out all our episodes, and don’t miss any new ones, by subscribing on Apple Podcasts or Spotify today!
