One of my Starfish coworkers just brought me a little vase of zinnias to brighten up my desk as I sit here for hours today working on a major grant.
This one is for $100K and it's due on Friday at noon. Since I'm taking off for a long holiday weekend on Friday that means it's due by EOB on Thursday. (EOB here is used loosely... I'll be here Thursday until as long as it takes to get done...)
I think it's really sweet that she brought me these flowers since I've spent all week in my office. (9 hours monday... 8.25 tuesday... ??? wednesday).
We should be a good fit for this grant. A really good fit. I think that's making me more stressed than when I go after a more long-shot funder.
Also brewing in the background still, the Capital Funds grant to the United Way which could make my office a color other than blue, goes back to the committee tomorrow. Still keeping my fingers crossed on this one because I would much rather have a gray and teal? gray and lime green? office than this blue that's here now. (All our offices get feature colored walls in the plan... I don't know how to pick which accent color I want if we get the money...)
Back to work...
4 p.m. update: The money total now stands at $202,000.
8.20.2008
8.15.2008
It's too quiet...and too busy...
Our summer VISTAs left us last week and wow, has it ever been quiet here since they're gone. This is the bad kind of a quiet, not the finally-it's-quiet kind of relieved quiet.
It's the bad quiet because they brought a level of well, fun, to the office. It's not that the rest of us aren't fun, it's just we're all pretty focused on what we're doing. The summer VISTAs did things like send out memos declaring it Hawaiian shirt Fridays. Now it's Friday again... and no Hawaiian shirts.
I also miss their enthusiasm for tackling projects. There's so much we need to get done right now, we could really use the extra help. I won't even begin to run down my to-do list because it's overwhelming.
One piece of good news -- we got the capital projects request resubmitted yesterday so that's off my plate for the second time. (Hopefully, the second time is the charm.) I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for getting the Blue Office to be a color that's not blue and to have new, unbroken furniture and workspaces in here before my official VISTA time is over. (Two months and one week left...so says the ticker at the bottom of the page...)
Anyway... in a break from routine, earlier this summer I joined some of my fellow VISTAs for a fun video spoof project of the The Office. Click here to watch our short film.
It's the bad quiet because they brought a level of well, fun, to the office. It's not that the rest of us aren't fun, it's just we're all pretty focused on what we're doing. The summer VISTAs did things like send out memos declaring it Hawaiian shirt Fridays. Now it's Friday again... and no Hawaiian shirts.
I also miss their enthusiasm for tackling projects. There's so much we need to get done right now, we could really use the extra help. I won't even begin to run down my to-do list because it's overwhelming.
One piece of good news -- we got the capital projects request resubmitted yesterday so that's off my plate for the second time. (Hopefully, the second time is the charm.) I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for getting the Blue Office to be a color that's not blue and to have new, unbroken furniture and workspaces in here before my official VISTA time is over. (Two months and one week left...so says the ticker at the bottom of the page...)
Anyway... in a break from routine, earlier this summer I joined some of my fellow VISTAs for a fun video spoof project of the The Office. Click here to watch our short film.
8.05.2008
Money total
I haven't updated the money total for a while, because there hasn't been that much coming in.
Not for lack of trying, mind you, but things in the grant world are sort of between cycles and I've been doing a lot of planning and organizing for other things (United Way campaign, fundraiser breakfast, donor and Scholar newsletters, etc.)
Anyway, it's time to update the total.
Last time I reported in, I said I'd hit $250,000. This is just another example (ahem) of I'm a writer and not an accountant because accountants don't count the same grant more than once.
The actual total right now stands at $187,000.
Yes, it's less than $250,000 ($63,000 less, I know) but I'm still darn proud of that total. If I added in everything we've brought in this year including in-kind gifts, sponsorships, and individual gifts since I've been working on things, I'm sure the total would be very close to $250K.
The latest grant that came into today was a small one, just $1,000. Still, as my office mate said, "$1,000 is more than zero" and she's absolutely right.
I'm also proud of this one because it's a to a new funder -- a small foundation that's never given us anything in the past. I thought an application to them was a bit of a longshot, but it turns out, it wasn't! With their support, we can pilot a new program, which is always a good thing.
I've got about 2.5 months left on my year of service (WOW, does time fly!) and I'm still optimistic that I will cross the quarter-million mark before Oct. 22. In current outstanding proposals, there's more than a quarter-million dollars that we could get from things I've written, so I don't think my hope is misplaced.
Not for lack of trying, mind you, but things in the grant world are sort of between cycles and I've been doing a lot of planning and organizing for other things (United Way campaign, fundraiser breakfast, donor and Scholar newsletters, etc.)
Anyway, it's time to update the total.
Last time I reported in, I said I'd hit $250,000. This is just another example (ahem) of I'm a writer and not an accountant because accountants don't count the same grant more than once.
The actual total right now stands at $187,000.
Yes, it's less than $250,000 ($63,000 less, I know) but I'm still darn proud of that total. If I added in everything we've brought in this year including in-kind gifts, sponsorships, and individual gifts since I've been working on things, I'm sure the total would be very close to $250K.
The latest grant that came into today was a small one, just $1,000. Still, as my office mate said, "$1,000 is more than zero" and she's absolutely right.
I'm also proud of this one because it's a to a new funder -- a small foundation that's never given us anything in the past. I thought an application to them was a bit of a longshot, but it turns out, it wasn't! With their support, we can pilot a new program, which is always a good thing.
I've got about 2.5 months left on my year of service (WOW, does time fly!) and I'm still optimistic that I will cross the quarter-million mark before Oct. 22. In current outstanding proposals, there's more than a quarter-million dollars that we could get from things I've written, so I don't think my hope is misplaced.
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