Welcome to our newest blog series, A Day in the Life of a Nonprofit Communicator. This is the first edition in the series, which we hope will shed more light on what it’s really like to work in nonprofit communications today.
Autumn Burch is the Marketing & PR Coordinator for the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation at Patrick Henry’s Red Hill. She is a 20-something lover of all things design, be it graphic, interior, DIY projects or artwork. She has a “stay in the know” attitude about marketing and social media and is always engaged with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and blogs. Her hobbies are a love of cooking, reading, and her pug Bamboo.
Here is her typical day:
Wednesday, August 21st
Before 8:00 am: I am herding the dog back into the house, grabbing my lunch and putting on makeup as I try to get out the door. Mornings are always hectic, so no matter what time it is, I always feel in a constant rush to get to work.
8:00 am – 10:00 am: In the beginning of my work day, I check all my emails and make a list of things to do. I then fix a cup of coffee and log onto Hootsuite to get the social media juices flowing! I check our Facebook and Twitter pages to see what’s going on in the world of who we’re following and schedule several posts to go out.
10:00 am – 12:00 pm: The mid-morning consisted of the Development Coordinator and I pouring over our budget for an upcoming event and trying to determine if we can afford to order 120 more glasses. Really only 120 glasses… talk about number crunching (life of a nonprofit). Lunch was in our library with one of our retired long-time genealogists and curators, who brought a new piece to add to our collections! Those are always exciting!
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm: After lunch, I received an exciting phone call — that another company wanted to sponsor our upcoming event that we have been number crunching from the morning! This means we may actually be out of the red for the event (#nonprofitproblems)! YAY!
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm: The end of the day consisted of working on advertisements for the festival, answering phone calls, working on the agenda for one of our branch functions, and discussing other things that have to get done in the next couple of days.
After 4:00 pm: Our work day ends at 5:00 officially, but often times we are here much later. Work never ends for a nonprofit, but dedication is key to a striving organization!
Want to be featured in this series? Tell us what you do in a typical day as a nonprofit communications pro.
