The check was in the mail

I'm sitting in my executive director's office when another staffer brings in today's mail. The ED flips through the stack, slices one letter open and hands it to me. "This is always fun," she says.

The letter is from the Shaw-Burckhardt-Brenner Foundation, the first foundation I sent a full proposal to back in early November. I had sent some preliminary proposals out already, but this was the first full one, from scratch. I didn't really blog about it at the time, but it was bit stressful. I found out about this foundation late in their funding cycle and had about two days to pull together a whole proposal. There was a last-minute rush trip to the post office to get it in the mail (priority) and then it was out of my hands.

Until today. When we received their check.

Knowing their meeting was in early November, I figured that not hearing anything by mid-December was not good news. I guess I gave up hope too soon.

It's not the biggest check in the world. Money is money though and we'll put their funds to good use.

The point is though that somebody sent agreed with my proposal, deeming Starfish a worthy recipient of their dollars. Bottom line, my grant proposal worked.

This is a huge encouragement for feeling confident that I'm writing good grants. As my ED also said, "It's like getting an 'A' on your paper."

Yes, yes it is.