Perhaps you’re wondering what types of heroic things I mean…
Overtime.
Working on the weekend.
Turning a full vacation day into a half-day.
Those are all heroic things that happen in the nonprofit sector by heart-centered, passionate, driven individuals who regardless of their title want to ensure that the work that needs to be done to meet their mission, serve their community, and create the impact they are focused on happens.
And it is recognized at the moment (most of the time) by those around you and of course, appreciated.
But it puts individuals and teams in a place where they are working at an unsustainable pace, and worse, it creates a culture that breeds burnout.
That was why I was so excited to hear about the results of Jax Gitzes’ Agile journey. Jax works at MANNA in Philadelphia. Jax serves as the grant writer (or grant professional if you prefer) for the organization and has countless deadlines to manage each year that are set by the grantmakers and therefore out of her control.
That sounds like a recipe for heroic things, doesn’t it?
In our conversation, Jax shared what lessons have been learned along the way as the Agile journey for the grant team has unfolded at MANNA. A grant department of one within a larger development, it is a common scenario with a Development Director that is serving as the Product Owner (whether called that or not) that provides input on the priorities for seeking grant funds. That leaves Jax as the Scrum Master (again, whether called that or not) to facilitate the process and use the Scrum framework to help create twice the impact with the grant-seeking work in half the time.
Possible? Impossible? Grant revenue results are always slow…it’s the nature of the type of funding. But what isn’t slow? According to Jax, there is already a *significant* reduction in heroic things that are happening related to grant-seeking efforts.
You’ll want to hear about the journey and initial results directly from Jax, so you can watch the full discussion with here.
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