Haley Bice, Channel One Regional Food Bank
Here is the latest submission for our Day in the Life of a Nonprofit Communicator series. This series lets you describe your workday in your own words.
Haley’s Bio:
Haley received her MA in Business Design and Arts Leadership from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2018. She also has a BA in Art History with a Fine Art minor from St. Cloud State University and an ASc in Graphic Design from Rochester Community and Technical College.
Haley works as the Communications Associate for Channel One Regional Food Bank in Rochester, MN and she volunteers on the board of Art on the Ave. in Slatterly Park. Along with these positions, she also does freelance graphic design and social media marketing part-time.
She is working in both the office and at home and this is their typical day:
Before 8:00 am: I get up at my alarm and take my energetic dog for a short walk. I live in a townhome without a fenced in back yard, so he need plenty of walks throughout the day.
8:00 am to 10:00 am: I start my work day between 8 and 8:30, checking emails and looking at the nonprofit’s social media for a little while, just kind of easing into my day. I do have a to-do list that I keep as a sticky note on my desktop, but I don’t typically look at it for the first half hour of the day. I’ll usually leave the projects I’m working on open in InDesign or Word, so when I’m ready I can just switch to those apps on my desktop.
10:00 am to 12:00 pm: I will usually get a snack around 10, maybe with some caffeine to keep me going, and make lunch around 11:30. I really enjoy working from home because I can cook a full, healthy meal. I used to bring a boxed lunch to work every day and microwaving food just isn’t as satisfying as cooking it and eating it in my own home.
12:00pm – 2:00 pm: I’ll usually get a phone call or an email from my coworkers at some point in the morning and I’ll take some time in the afternoon to respond (unless it was urgent). I can go into the office whenever I need to print anything or communicate something in-person, but otherwise the dev-com team has bi-weekly catch up meetings to keep up to date on projects we’re all working on.
Right at noon, after 
eating, I take my dog outside again for a longer walk if its nice out (and a shorter one if its not). I’ll also inevitably throughout my day have to stop and fish a tennis ball out from under the couch, because despite having six others, my dog wants that specific one.
2:00pm – 4:00 pm: I’ll usually try to finish up anything I was working on in the aforementioned apps from 2-4, but if I don’t finish, I leave the app open for the next day so I know where I left off. Since I do both graphic design and PR communications for a food bank, sometimes my afternoons are spent taking photos or speaking with clients using our services to get stories, as well.
After 4:00 pm: I usually stop at 4 exactly because my dog gets hungry and won’t let me work any later! I used to be the type of person who would work until 4:30 or 5 to get something done, but I’ve gotten much better about setting those boundaries and only working the hours I have set out (since I’m a salaried employee) – and my dog is especially responsible for that.
Thanks for sharing your day, Haley!
Want to be featured in this series? Tell us what you do in a typical day as a nonprofit communications pro by filling out the form below.
Can’t see the form? Try this.
