The history unit of my 3rd grade classroom was notorious for being the most fun an elementary schooler could have. Each week, the entire grade gathered to watch an episode of Liberty’s Kids, the PBS program that follows three children as they explore Revolutionary America. While my classmates prepared to sing their hearts out to the theme song, I was always focused on the announcements that came before: This program is funded in part by a Ready to Learn grant from the US Department of Education through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and contributions to your PBS stations from viewers like you, thank you.
Though I would not learn what a “grant” or a “contribution” was until years later, these words stuck with me, and this dance around the world of development continued. By 8th grade, I would march confidently through the doors of my local PBS and NPR syndicate, prepared for a few hours after school each week to be spent answering phones for pledge week. That time had become a sacred routine for many years.
But time went on, and like many high schoolers, I became busy. Days that used to be spent happily chatting with each caller who wanted to pledge $20 a month to receive a Lawrence Welk Show box set became replaced with extracurriculars, studying for the SAT, and finally facing the dreaded question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” No one had ever said that this time I had loved so much could be a career, and so I spent my time in college trying to figure this out, bouncing between paths trying to find the perfect fit.
It wasn’t until my job at a local nonprofit that a colleague of mine took a chance and asked me to assist on a grant. A passion ignited within me that had been dormant for years, and as we finalized the submission process, I asked her how I could do this as my career. She kindly recommended I check out a program called the Bolz Center. The rest is truly history.
From that moment, I have been striving towards a career in development and fundraising. Through my work as a Development Associate with Madison Children’s Museum, I get to learn the details and intricacies of the fundraising process, while applying the knowledge I receive in every class. I can now confidently say to my 3rd grade self that not only do I know what a grant and a contribution are, but I know how to find them to support the causes I care about the most. And if I could tell her and any other kid with a bizarre fascination with donor acknowledgements one more thing: never stop looking for your fit. The right people, the right places, and the right program are out there to guide you exactly where you need to be.
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