Tuesday, 11 January
Arrived: 9 am, sharp
Hours worked: 8
Checked out: 5 pm, also sharp
Today was far more productive than yesterday. I came into work and gave myself a desk right away. It's been a bit of a struggle finding myself a seat since I left the Executive Assistant position, but with the gaps in our Development Department and the holidays everywhere, I've made myself nice, impromptu homes. And anyway, the network here allows me to log into any computer within it and have access to the entire server (or, at least, to the departmental files I need anyway).
The greatest portion of my day was spent working on reserving a space for one of our upcoming panel discussions on February 17th. I was the unofficial logistics coordinator of our last panel discussion on December 7th (referenced in my prior post) and I offered my assistance to the coordinator of Discussion #4 (2/20/05), though I can't tell you exactly what the discussion is on, just that the title is, "Conversations with the Experts."
As I mentioned in my previous post, the series of panel discussions will be the topic of one of my research papers, though, no further details have been discussed.
Also today, I sat down to work on a grant proposal for a foundation. Here's how our development department works: We (the Grant Writers) are responsible for soliciting (accumulating and accounting belong to other positions within the department) revenue for the Partnership. The Partnership acts as an umbrella organisation that mothers smaller, more client-based programmes; these programmes are Positive Step, Peter's Place, Furnish a Future (FaF), the Family Resource Center (FRC), and the Senior Aides Programme (this is a very simplified and streamlined list). Our job is to find foundations into which our services fit their service interest areas. Our primary sources are our pre-existing files (two enourmous filing cabinets filed according to foundation/government contractor/trust name) and the Foundation Center, a website that has mostly updated information (though, boo hiss, we've discovered that all of the information is NOT up-to-date).
We have a master list of prospective foundations and also a master list of upcoming due dates for grant proposals and interim/final reports for grants that we received. Interim and final reports go out to foundations, etc. which request an update on how their money is being spent, the progress of our organisation and/or programmes, etc.
As my CEO's grant writer assistant (the position I have assumed since I left the Executive Assistant position), I've been charged with reviewing those lists and, due date by due date, reviewing the files on existing granters and researching prospective granters, surmising the information for his perusal so he can decide which foundation to request XX amount of money for one of our programmes. At first he asked to see all the information I dug up first hand. As we progressed in this process, I was able to answer his questions without showing him the information because I knew which questions he'd be asking. This allowed me to slowly learn this decision-making process and, ultimately, give him recommendations on which foundations to try for, how much to ask for and for what programmes.
As I was saying, there were two grant proposals that the CEO liked; one for the GP Foundation and the other for the Taconic Foundation. GP was very cut dry, short and to the point, the other more narrative style, emotionally pulling. He wanted me to find a way to blend the two of them together. I sat down, read through both (a tedious job considering they both include an overlap of information) and began the process of weaving the two. I was under the gun to complete this because we had/have a few Foundations that this proposal would work for and looming deadlines (one of them tomorrow). I completed the task and showed it to the Grant Writer, who was quite impressed.
Tomorrow I have two lectures, hosted by the Foundation Center, on Proposal and Budget Writing Basics. The Gimbel Foundation deadline is tomorrow and I haven't pulled the file on it. It's hard to decide who's responsible for what; my CEO will talk to me about something, but I'm unsure if the Grant Writer is ultimately responsible for completing it. I'll have to sit down and talk to him about the overlap between the two of us. It would be great if she and I had a system of handling our assignments so there was no confusion about who's doing what. I should sit down and talk to her about this.
Hours worked: 8
Checked out: 5 pm, also sharp
Today was far more productive than yesterday. I came into work and gave myself a desk right away. It's been a bit of a struggle finding myself a seat since I left the Executive Assistant position, but with the gaps in our Development Department and the holidays everywhere, I've made myself nice, impromptu homes. And anyway, the network here allows me to log into any computer within it and have access to the entire server (or, at least, to the departmental files I need anyway).
The greatest portion of my day was spent working on reserving a space for one of our upcoming panel discussions on February 17th. I was the unofficial logistics coordinator of our last panel discussion on December 7th (referenced in my prior post) and I offered my assistance to the coordinator of Discussion #4 (2/20/05), though I can't tell you exactly what the discussion is on, just that the title is, "Conversations with the Experts."
As I mentioned in my previous post, the series of panel discussions will be the topic of one of my research papers, though, no further details have been discussed.
Also today, I sat down to work on a grant proposal for a foundation. Here's how our development department works: We (the Grant Writers) are responsible for soliciting (accumulating and accounting belong to other positions within the department) revenue for the Partnership. The Partnership acts as an umbrella organisation that mothers smaller, more client-based programmes; these programmes are Positive Step, Peter's Place, Furnish a Future (FaF), the Family Resource Center (FRC), and the Senior Aides Programme (this is a very simplified and streamlined list). Our job is to find foundations into which our services fit their service interest areas. Our primary sources are our pre-existing files (two enourmous filing cabinets filed according to foundation/government contractor/trust name) and the Foundation Center, a website that has mostly updated information (though, boo hiss, we've discovered that all of the information is NOT up-to-date).
We have a master list of prospective foundations and also a master list of upcoming due dates for grant proposals and interim/final reports for grants that we received. Interim and final reports go out to foundations, etc. which request an update on how their money is being spent, the progress of our organisation and/or programmes, etc.
As my CEO's grant writer assistant (the position I have assumed since I left the Executive Assistant position), I've been charged with reviewing those lists and, due date by due date, reviewing the files on existing granters and researching prospective granters, surmising the information for his perusal so he can decide which foundation to request XX amount of money for one of our programmes. At first he asked to see all the information I dug up first hand. As we progressed in this process, I was able to answer his questions without showing him the information because I knew which questions he'd be asking. This allowed me to slowly learn this decision-making process and, ultimately, give him recommendations on which foundations to try for, how much to ask for and for what programmes.
As I was saying, there were two grant proposals that the CEO liked; one for the GP Foundation and the other for the Taconic Foundation. GP was very cut dry, short and to the point, the other more narrative style, emotionally pulling. He wanted me to find a way to blend the two of them together. I sat down, read through both (a tedious job considering they both include an overlap of information) and began the process of weaving the two. I was under the gun to complete this because we had/have a few Foundations that this proposal would work for and looming deadlines (one of them tomorrow). I completed the task and showed it to the Grant Writer, who was quite impressed.
Tomorrow I have two lectures, hosted by the Foundation Center, on Proposal and Budget Writing Basics. The Gimbel Foundation deadline is tomorrow and I haven't pulled the file on it. It's hard to decide who's responsible for what; my CEO will talk to me about something, but I'm unsure if the Grant Writer is ultimately responsible for completing it. I'll have to sit down and talk to him about the overlap between the two of us. It would be great if she and I had a system of handling our assignments so there was no confusion about who's doing what. I should sit down and talk to her about this.
posted by Ruth at 4:40 PM
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