Journal Entry - Week 6
- Jeffrey Schultz
- Jun 23, 2018
- 2 min read
Internship Dates – 6/19 & 6/22 (Total of 5 hours)
The Community Food Bank of Citrus County has provided me this week with my first real experience working with grant writing. While I have had some courses that went into certain aspects of the process, I have not been exposed to working directly with grants myself. The executive director, John Autry, has been working on two grants that are due over the next two weeks, and it’s been eye-opening working with him and attempting to fulfill the requirements for consideration.
In reflecting on the process for grant writing, one major frustration for me is that one can do all of this work to apply, and yet they are not guaranteed that they will be the recipients of the grant. It takes a lot of time to compile the necessary information for this process and that time is needed right in the middle of the daily tasks that a director must tend to. Compared to other forms of fundraising, I can see how this process can disillusion someone and make them elect to pursue other forms of raising the necessary income for operation. Sharing this does not mean that I personally would write off the importance of grants, especially since I truly find that there is great value in this form of assistance for non-profit organizations.
I have been able to see time and time again that one of my strengths is positivity and I have been able to encourage the staff in the midst of different setbacks, such as with our recent fundraiser. While the fundraiser was successful, the company who orchestrated this campaign shifted the matching rate from an approximate one to one matching ratio, to a rate much lower. A lot of work went into that campaign and I have seen how disappointing this has been. Even so, I continually have reminded the staff of how successful it truly was, regardless of the overall amount raised. While positivity was a strength that I have previously seen in myself, I appreciate being able to encourage others and impact the climate at the Community Food Bank.
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