To be a fundraiser means you have a vital role to play at a nonprofit – even if it sometimes seems it’s a role that few people understand. As a fundraiser, I don’t manage families and adults who depend on Goddard Riverside’s services, and I don’t work on policies that affect their day-to-day lives, or the way that our hardworking staff delivers those services. I’m a salesperson. But as a salesperson, I have to do more than work hard to sell a product. I’m working for Goddard Riverside. I have to believe that what we do here is the absolute best thing, absolutely essential, and absolutely needed every day.
Without believing that, how can I convince others that what my agency does is worth supporting? As someone trained and experienced in professional writing, and with a background with nonprofits, I have to be able to let my words flow – not trickle – out. I think I do that best when I feel passionate about my organization’s mission and the work it does to change lives and environments.
Goddard Riverside makes that easy for me to do in many ways. It’s a place where, for more than 120 years, it’s provided a consistent, steady hub of help in a neighborhood that’s dramatically changed and grown around it. Goddard Riverside has survived by remaining true to its core principles: to serve our neighbors and to help each person in our community find the tools they need to develop and succeed. Goddard Riverside has taken in and on issues that few other agencies will address. Those principles and the willingness to reach out to every type of individual in our community is something I can believe in, and that I’m glad to promote whenever someone looks to make a world of difference on a local scale.
– Paulette Hodge,
Direct Marketing Manager, Goddard Riverside