Get outta here!

Have you made your vacation plans yet? I hope so. Are you going someplace exciting, like Arlington, Virginia to visit the AFP National Office? (Maybe you can cross the Potomac and get a tour of CASE while you’re in town, too!) Now THAT would be exciting!

Okay, not really, and you know why. Vacations are to get away from what we do on a daily basis. Yet as someone in development, my guess is that you don’t schedule them enough, and when you do squeeze them in you’re tempted to “be available” in case any “emergency” occurs (like a crisis gift annuity that needs your input or visiting a prospect while you’re “in the area”).

How is this a career topic? Hey, if you don’t already know, you really do need a vacation. But just in case you need it spelled out: you, as a fundraiser or nonprofit leader, are most effective when you’re fresh and excited about what you do, not cynical and burned out from doing your job too long and with too much intensity.

So make your plans for this next vacation and the one after that, too. Get away and enjoy your family, maybe a new place or somewhere familiar. And no, they don’t give tours of AFP.