Courtney Simms
Here’s the latest installment in our series on the “Day in the Life” of nonprofit communicators, where we ask you to describe your day in your own words.
As director of development for Legal Services of Eastern MO (LSEM), Courtney Simms is responsible for planning, developing and maintaining a comprehensive fundraising and marketing program on behalf of LSEM. Prior to LSEM, Courtney served as the director of resources for Habitat for Humanity Saint Louis for more than ten years.
She gained much of her development and fundraising experience working in the St. Louis nonprofit community by serving on various boards of directors such as the AIDS Foundation of St. Louis and Metro Theatre Group for many years. Currently, Courtney serves as board vice president for Sherwood Forest Camp.
Here is her typical day:
Before 8:00 am: Check overnight emails, both work and personal accounts; rewrite daily to-do list; unload and reload washer, and load dishwasher. Out the door!
8:00 am – 10:00 am: Drive to work. Write notes from my board development committee meeting and distribute; follow up on 3 donor appointment requests who had not responded; answer a few emails; and prepare the agenda for my weekly meeting with my ED at 10.
10:00 am – 12:00 pm: Meeting with my ED, going over the previous weeks fundraising and marketing activities, and planning for the following weeks activities; leave for an 11:30 lunch meeting with a partner association; arrive at restaurant.
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm: Great meeting with a group of 7 people. Took notes on the follow up items discussed. Answered a few emails on the ride back to work. Excited that it wasn’t my turn to drive so that I could get a few more things done on the ride back to the City.
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm: Picked up mail on my way up to office. Met with my development associate for a quick 15 minutes regarding an upcoming donor event. Proofed the final version of the invite. Sent the invite out for approval to the committee chair. Sent out a few more emails and responded to a few more.
Completed the follow-ups from my morning meeting with my ED. Read through a few profiles of new board candidates so that I can weigh in with my opinion for my ED.
Sent a reminder out to board members on completing their donor thank you calls. Created the verbiage of a condolence card for a friend of the organization who recently passed away. Created Facebook verbiage for the same and posted an article about him.
Typed two thank you letters.
After 4:00 pm: Finish preparations for my day tomorrow as I am only in 1/2 day and won’t be back until Tuesday. Going over everything that MUST happen before I can feel comfortable being away from my email for 4 days. I will be someplace remote and unable to answer my emails.
Want to be featured in this series? Tell us what you do in a typical day as a nonprofit communications pro.
