The first quarter of 2017 was a wild ride to say the least. We were expecting a major grant competition to open any minute, one that only comes around every 3 years. I essentially built my professional reputation on this particular grant program and had multiple clients lined up to pursue it. We were also up to our ears in a capital building campaign which also includes a variety of grants.
And, I was expecting something else – a baby boy who was due at the end of March. Alas, my son inherited his mother’s patience and chose to make his debut in early February. In the midst of a 5 week hospital stay with a premie in the NICU, the grant competition opened.
Despite my being in a hospital two states away, March proved to be the single busiest month in our company’s history. There is no way this could have happened without the talents and hard work of our extraordinary vice president of nonprofit services, Carla Landreth, who deserves a very public and very heartfelt THANK YOU! (and a crown!)
Earlier this week, we learned the outcome of all of that hard work. Every single one of those March grants were awarded, totaling over $1.1 million for our clients. We can’t and won’t always tout a 100% success rate. This is extraordinary. But it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt to me that we have an amazing team that performs spectacularly under pressure.
Thank you for allowing me to share this story with you so that I can very publicly congratulate my team for a job extraordinarily well done. Ecstatic clients have been blowing up my phone all week, tears of joy have been shed, and we are overjoyed to be a part of helping make so much good happen!