It Always Happens...

It's been a running joke around the office that many of the times I leave the office, be it vacation, a seminar, maternity leave, etc, some form of a substantial donation comes in.

For instance:

Last year I went home to Georgia, and the day I left, I got a call from Noelle telling us we had been awarded $25,000 by the GAR. And though the GAR had been consistently funding us in the previous years, I was still pretty nervous about it. (Foundations who tend to support a particular organization annually will often take a break from support for a year here or there to ensure that the organization can survive without them. I had feared this would happen to us last year.)

Then while on Christmas vacation, we received numerous one-time donations from individuals. Great encouragement to complete 2012!

My next substantial break was my maternity leave. Because I knew I would be gone from the office for so long, I worked really hard to crank out a lot of grants to make up for my time away. We had received one grant before I left, but I had sent out 20.

So because of the pattern that had obviously been previously established, I was hopeful for my leave that we would received answers from several grants. And the tradition held true. The GAR again awarded us funds for the year, the Ronald McDonald House Charities awarded us funds for equipment for the students, another small grant came in, and we were rewarded our full asking amount from a Teen Moms grant.

Why does this happen? Honestly, I think God is trying to remind me who is really in charge of First Glance's finances. Even though I do work to get these grants out of the door, He is the one who opens the hearts of the funders and individuals. He sustains this organization.

So maybe I should leave more often? I do have another trip to Georgia planned for the end of this month...I guess we'll see what happens!