Origin Story: Part One
How this project came to be
Hello again, Dear Ones!
THANK YOU for being here.
I’m SO very glad to be in community with you, in this virtual space.
Yesterday, I had lunch with a couple of dear friends who are following along here, and they had some really great feedback for me about how I’m going about this project.
For one, they suggested sending the emails out at the end of the workday, rather than in the middle of it, so people are able to really spend some good moments with the writing, rather than it getting lost in the hustle and bustle of our typical days. So if you’re wondering why this is coming to you later today, that’s why!
Second, they suggested I write more about why I decided to start For the Love of Humanity. Today’s piece is a direct answer to that suggestion.
With Love,
Cecelia 💗
PS:
I want each of you — every single one of you reading this — to know that I am open to your feedback, too. What do you like… or not like? Do you wish I’d write about something in particular? Are you considering a paid subscription, but you have questions about it? Email me. I’d love that!
PPS:
As a reminder, I am publishing extra public posts on Fridays, in the coming weeks/months, as For the Love of Humanity gets established and continues to get the word out about what we’re doing here.
On that note: please spread the word! Tell others about what’s happening here! Share the site with them!
And do consider joining as a paid subscriber, so that you can fully participate in this community.
If you’d love to do that but it’s financially difficult for you right now, let me know.
I’d genuinely be happy to comp your subscription and welcome you into the fold — no questions asked.
Community is what we’re about here, and that’s what we’re prioritizing here, every day. Join us!
I got into fundraising like many do. Out of necessity. Almost as an after-thought. Through the back-door.
I had gone to graduate school for my Master’s in Social Work. I had made that decision because I realized how much I wanted to work in the community, with people.
My undergraduate degree had been in English (shout-out to my fellow English Majors! I know there are many of us in this field of work), and I had actually gotten a job in publishing (the ultimate “get” for an English Major).
I loved writing for work.
I still got to work with people, of course, as most jobs do.
But I wasn’t doing anything that really mattered.
I remember sitting at my computer — where I spent the whole day, every day — and looking out at people walking along the sidewalks outside (our office was in the middle of the city). I remember thinking, “Why do they get to be out there… and why am I in here? What kind of work do they get to do that they’re out there?”
I wanted to be out there more.
I wanted work that really mattered.
As I got clearer on what truly mattered to me, I decided to go for the MSW.
I was living in Milwaukee at the time, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee had what was called a “Double Methods” degree. This meant that I could take classes and have field work in both “macro practice” (big-picture, systems, policy, administration, strategy, planning) and “micro practice” (what most people think of when they think of social workers, which is working directly with individuals).
Focusing on both forms of practice at the same time really appealed to me.
I intuitively knew that, if I only focused on “micro practice,” I’d get frustrated by the way the systems my clients were living within were affecting their lives every day — especially when those affects were intractable systemic problems. But yet, if I only focused on “macro practice,” I’d start to get out-of-touch with what was happening “on the ground,” in the lives of real people in our communities.
As it turned out, I loved it.
I loved taking classes and doing field work in both realms, and I loved how much doing so set me up to do a wide range of work.
Enter Fundraising
From both my for-credit field work and the paid work I was doing while I got my degree, I was exposed to a lot of nonprofits, as many social workers are.
And I started to realize how important the funding was. None of the important work would be possible without the funding.
So my wheels got turning.
I had an English degree.
I was a well-practiced and well-taught writer and editor. And I kept hearing about people writing proposals for these things called “grants.”
What if I learned how to do that?
Maybe that was the way I could do social work in the community. Maybe that was my best way to help.
So I found a mentor, who was about the most perfect person I could have found (thank you, kind Universe!): she was a grant-writing teacher at several area colleges and universities — and she was also a consultant working with nonprofits. So I was able to consult alongside her, learning by doing, raising real funds for important work and gaining an amazing education from her.
Soon, this solid experience with grants opened the door for my first full-time, real job in fundraising/development.
Fast-forward…
…to well over a decade later…
… and I was BURNED. OUT.
Again.
I had already seriously burned out once, almost a decade into my career as a fundraiser. And now I was burned out again.
Only this time?
I just. couldn’t. find my way back to myself.
I rested…
… and I focused on healing…
… and I rested some more…
… and I focused on healing some more…
… and I just could not get back my mojo.
I tried and I tried — for about a year — to get to a place where I felt like I could again do the work I wanted to do. But I still felt like I was limping along. And I didn’t know when I might feel better again.
And then, it happened.
I got some of the worst news imaginable.
A diagnosis:
Breast Cancer.
What happened next, and how did it all lead to For the Love of Humanity… and the story you’re reading right now?