Kimberly Troup
Welcome to 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.
We’d love to feature YOU in this series! Don’t be shy – tell us what you do in a typical day as a nonprofit communications pro.
Kimberly Troup was brought up in a Christian home and was home-schooled from 1984 – 1993, a home-school pioneer! She joined Christian Friends of Israeli Communities in March of 1998, as a ministry coordinator, and in 2002, became the Director of the US Office. Her faith in God’s promises to Israel fuels her passion and initiative as the leader of CFOIC Heartland’s North American office.
And this is her typical day:
Before 8:00 a.m. – My alarm goes off at 5:15 am every weekday so that I can get my 6th grader up at 5:30 am. She has to get on her bus to school at 6:30 am.
I spend 45 minutes with a cup of coffee and my morning devotions. Then I exercise in my living room using one of my favorite exercise walking videos with Leslie Sansone.
At 6:45 I get my 3rd grader and Kindergarten kids up (if they aren’t up already).
At 7, I hand my husband his lunch box, as he walks out the door for his 45-minute commute to work. While the two kids get themselves dressed and unload the dishwasher, I cook breakfast for them.
This morning it was raining so I drove them to the bus stop at 7:45 am. I came home, showered, and ate breakfast.
I came home, showered, and ate breakfast.
8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m – My office is in our basement, so my commute only takes a minute for me to walk downstairs. This morning my assistant called in with a sick kid, so I’m on my own today. I had to pick up some of the stuff that she usually does, so I had to scan the incoming mail and donations and email it to my data entry employee who works off-site so that she could get donations entered.
Then I sat down and went through my email, I had a ton because the office was closed for Good Friday, and I made a conscious effort to “unplug” from work over the weekend, so I hadn’t looked at any emails all weekend long on my phone! Nothing too serious, just a donor who needs a DVD mailed out to replace a defective DVD they had ordered, that I sent to my assistant to take care of tomorrow when she comes into the office.
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. – Today, I have two priorities. First to go over – my website and get a list of all the final tweaks that need to be made, so that I can send it to the guy who is redoing my website. We are 95% there, but the new website needs to be launched ASAP. The old website is not mobile friendly and is extremely hard to make donations on. He has done a great job, but now it is time to finish the last few minor things that don’t look good, and get it fully launched! My original goal date was January 31, 2017, so it is only 3 months behind schedule…
I got my list compiled, and then took a short break for lunch. If it is nice, I try to go for a 10 – 15 min walk, just to get outside and get a fresh perspective. Today it was too cold, so I opted for a quick look at the tomatoes I planted over the weekend in my greenhouse.
12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. – I came back after my lunch break, and got started on my second priority which is gathering all of the paperwork I need to give to the CPA to file our tax paperwork with the IRS. My deadline to send it to them is tomorrow, everything looks to be in order so happy to have that chore knocked off of my to-do list!
2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. – I stop to give the final proof for our weekly email that goes out every Tuesday. There are some formatting issues with the article on our website, so I fix those and then make sure all of the links and donate buttons work on the email before I schedule it to send tomorrow morning.
After I get done with that, I go into our CRM and move all of the checks that have been entered into QuickBooks and then send donation receipts by email to all of our donors who want them by email. The printed receipts take a bit of format fixing, so I send those to my employee to fix. We’ll get them printed and in the mail tomorrow.
After 4:00 p.m. – My kids get off the bus at 4 and at 4:30, I usually try to work until 5:30, so they have an hour where they are working on homework, getting a snack, and doing their chores.
I’m clearing off my desk and getting myself organized for tomorrow when I have to send all the paperwork to the CPA. We are also starting our monthly mailing this week, so making sure that the letter is ready to print, the inserts are printed. I have a volunteer who will be here on Wednesday and Thursday to help stuff the 1,500 envelopes that will get mailed out this month.
It’s now 5:30, so time to close up shop and head upstairs to make dinner, help with homework, do a load of laundry, get kids in bed, and then go to bed by 9 myself so that I can get up and do this rodeo all over again tomorrow!
Thanks for sharing your day, Kimberly!
Want to be featured in this series? Tell us what you do in a typical day as a nonprofit communications pro.
