Not-For-Profit Distress

I have tried to be pretty upbeat in my blog (minus the blogs on global warming, or is it global climate change? That's more PC these days), but today I feel a bit distressed. Distressed about money, or the lack of it. It's part of the "business" of not-for-profits, maybe of all businesses, but I think small not-for-profits struggle more than others. We go along for awhile, doing well, feeling momentum, then we hit a dry spell. Where donations are down, fundraising efforts fall short, and we just don't have what we need to make it from week to week. As the Director of a not-for-profit, that's a lot of pressure. I am partially responsible for raising the money to pay my own paycheck as well as 5 other employees. I write grants; of which statistically about 6% of requests are funded. I ask the County for money- hello Mr. Santulli?? I work on fundraising events, programming, talking to prospective corporate members and more, yet somehow, since we are pretty much on our own (we don't get any Federal or State funds) and we don't sell thneeds, which everyone ,everyone, everyone needs (The Lorax- Sr. Seuss), we don't always make it.

We educated over 14,000 children last year. We made our building available with a plethora of unusual and wonderful live animals, and our 9 miles of hiking trails, free (but with donations encouraged) for the public to enjoy. People really are starting to see the value of having a place like Tanglewood for their quality of life, because we are seeing more of them up here, but not everyone supports us like I believe they should and we are struggling at the moment. Distressing.