By Hannah Dorn
In my short time working in the nonprofit world, I’ve come to realize the importance of all the background work that needs to be done for an organization to function at its highest level. Data must be tracked, gears must be greased, lists must be created.
In college, I worked for a small nonprofit where one of my main duties was to seek out places willing to post event posters for us. I was charged with the managing of these places for future use. With each new place found, a new line on my growing list.
Later on, I worked for the Journalism Institute at my university. I tracked technology; meaning I ran around the building to locate and label each and every piece of tech the Institute owned. Each item becoming one more line on a seemingly endless list.
Now, at ELM, I have a new list; a list I hope will never end. My new list is you; the Proclaimers, the supporters, and the volunteers.
Since I began in May, I have added 33 new faces to the growing list of Proclaim members, added nearly 500 new donors (thank you Facebook Fundraisers!), and logged countless new gifts. With each new person, a new account is created and a line is added.
While you could definitely say technology is complicated, nothing quite compares to the complexity any single human holds. These new lines hold more than any of my other lists before. These lines each represent a new face and a new story added to ELM’s mission. These lines represent one more reason for us to exist and to do the work that we do.
I get to see, firsthand, the growth that is happening within Proclaim and ELM as a whole. Each new name that comes across my screen fills me with joy as I know you are one more person touched by our work.
It is my honor to keep track of each and every one of you.
There are so many creatures on this earth, and somehow God keeps track of each and every one of us. I’m glad that I only have to keep track of a fraction of that!
Hannah Dorn (she/her/hers) is ELM’s Program and Administrative Assistant. She is a self-proclaimed master of our donor database and delights in compiling useful information. She is an avid rock climber and cat mom of Pablo and Lana del Kitty.