Last week, we talked about asking for help. (You need to do this. For real. Ask for help.)

But asking is a whole lot easier if you have someone trustworthy to ask.

Which brings us to the importance of surrounding yourself with great people.

When things get messy and frenetic, having awesome people in your corner is critical. (For the quality of your work and your sanity, too.)

In the same way we all need friends and family to help us bear the load when our lives get hard, we need coworkers and team members who can do the same in the midst of work chaos. (And there will be work chaos. It’s inevitable.)

Who can you call when the proverbial s#!% hits the fan? Who will go in the trenches with you? Who will say, “No problem. We can get this done.”?

Building these teams takes effort and time, but the payoff is enormous. So this week, start looking for your people. If you already have them, say thank you. And if you don’t know where to start, give us a call. We’d love to be in your corner.

Maybe it’s just us, but the Q4 craziness that normally kicks off in October has creeped its way into our September and is currently overwhelming our calendars. The end-of-year hustle is (somehow) already upon us, so it’s time to get prepared.

Here are two tips that might just save your sanity this week:

1. Get organized.
2. Ask for help.

By organized, we don’t necessarily mean new tools or a color-coded notebook (though we do love a good notebook…and would definitely encourage a school-supplies-for-grown-ups shopping spree). We mean getting your head around what needs to get done — then making a plan to do it.

For our team, that means early-morning and end-of-day check-ins to keep tabs on the many disparate projects we’re working on. It means delineating as many tasks as we can think of — even the teeny tiny ones that we’re sure we’ll just remember (spoiler: we won’t). It means being honest about our capacity in a given day/week.

Which brings us to point number two: You cannot do it all. Sometimes, you’ll have to delete assignments completely. And even more often, you’ll have to ask for help. This is why you (hopefully) have a team to support you (and what we do for all of our clients if you’re looking for an extra set of hands!).

The busy season is upon us — and you don’t need to be a hero. Find people you trust you can carry some of the burden — then get to work.

(And for real, if you have a notebook you love, let us know!)

Sometimes, when work gets busy and the projects begin piling up, we can begin to treat each other like machines. Our teammates become producers instead of people.

This is your friendly reminder to remember that you’re dealing with real, live, living, breathing humans. Humans who may be homeschooling kindergarteners (bless you) or fighting mental health battles or having a really crappy week.

At the end of the day, your team’s human-ness is what matters most.

So today, ask someone how they are doing. Take five minutes to get to know what people are into, what they’re dreaming about, what they’re struggling with. Remember that real life matters more than any project — and in nonprofit world, remember that the lives right here need just as much care and concern as the lives you are serving there.

This whole thing (pandemic, fires, politics, life…) is hard. And one of the only silver linings is that we aren’t walking through any of it alone.

So slow down. Ask questions. Pay attention. Be a friend to your team. Remember that you’re a human, too. Take a breather.

We promise the work will still be there when you get back.

Well team, it’s September.

Somehow, fall is upon us. Kids are going back to school (maybe at your kitchen table). Stores are already stocking up on Halloween decor (too soon). And the fundraising world is preparing for its biggest season of the year.

Yes, that’s right. After six months of chaos, we are entering into…another four months of chaos.

Year-end is always a lot for us nonprofit folks, and we don’t expect this year to be any different. If anything, it will be more complicated (virtual galas, anyone?).

So here are two key reminders:

1. You can do this.
2. Take care of yourself.

This work is a marathon, not a sprint, so treat it that way. Take breaks. Go slow and steady. Remember that there is no such thing as a real emergency in our industry. Treat your team with boatloads of grace and patience.

And start brainstorming around Giving Tuesday and your Q4 campaign…because those things will be here before you know it!

Does anyone else feel like they’ve been trapped in a Groundhog Day loop for the past six months? Without vacations or birthday parties or work events or weddings, every day feels, well, the same.

Routines can be great — but they can also make it hard to feel creative or inspired. So our team has decided to take novelty into our own hands.

We’re disrupting our routines on purpose so that we keep our eyes open to the world around us. We’re taking risks and starting new habits to force ourselves to pay attention.

Because, believe it or not, this is real life. We’ve been in quarantine far too long to keep waiting for things to go back to “normal” before we live our “regular” lives. Today is the day you have — so you might as well make the most of it, quarantine or not.

So here’s a challenge: What can you do to change your perspective today? What risk can you take? What activity can you try? How can you shake up your current routines so that you pay a little bit more attention to things you may not have noticed before?

Change can be hard and disruptive, sure. But it can also be fun.