Sunday, October 24, 2010

Primacy: THE END

In my world of working for a non-profit, there is an annual cycle to fund-raising. In September and October (or "Primacy" as we call it) we raise almost half of our entire annual Community Campaign. What is half? A mere $7 - 8 million. In eight weeks. And, lets not forget, this year our offices were closed for 15 days in September. So as you might imagine, its a tad busy and crazy around the office. Tempers flare, nerves are frazzled and much coffee is consumed.

As last year, I was again graced to be one of two lead staff persons working on our annual Phonings Week. Only this year I was working with someone who actually behaves in a professional manner and doesn't make me want to quit at the end of every day. I actually really like the person I collaborated with and it was amazing! Phonings Nights were last week (Oct 18-21) and were a HUGE success. We had over 300 volunteers over the 4 nights and raised over $750,000. There is so much work that goes into these four nights--all told its only 12 hours of people making phone calls to donors, but we work for weeks to get everything pulled together. And then at the end of the week, we're absolutely exhausted. The only time last week I wasn't working on Phonings was when I was sleeping. And that's God's honest truth.

But Phonings Week is sort of the traditional last hurrah of Primacy, so the end of this maddening time of year is about to come to and end. And maybe I'll ride my horse again. And go to the gym. And cook a real meal. All important things since I plan to ride a Combined test New Years weekend, and I bought a beautiful dress for Hunter's wedding thats about 1/2 a size too small, but I'm sure the gym will fix that... and I can't remember the last time I made real food (as in... no portions were previously frozen).

When my life gets back to non-Primacy insanity, I will have more updates!