Community Rescued Me From Burnout

COMMUNITY is everything.

My life changed for the better when I decided to connect and serve.

I was so burned out. And then I leaned into community. And I got better.

Here are three things your tight-knit fundraising community can do for you:

• Future-proof your career: your connections will help you find a new job, write a recommendation, lend an ear for venting rather than quitting :)

• Become your bona fide friends: It's HARD to make friends when you're a grown up. Your fundraising community members are looking for friends, too!

• Benefit from your learnings, background and experience: your community is waiting to hear from you and your unique POV. You can help them avoid pitfalls and level-up. We all feel good when we help others.:)

Here are three tips for building your community on LinkedIn:

• Connection requests on LinkedIn: don't overthink this. You don't even have to include a message. If you do, something like this will work: Hi Anne! I came across your profile/content/whatever on LinkedIn and I'd be delighted to learn more about you and your career. Let's connect and I'll keep an eye out for your content!

• Engage with content and people who inspire you. Comments on other people's posts are a wonderful opportunity to build a connection with the author AND put yourself out there for others to find you. You'll have great snack-sized conversations. And LinkedIn rewards commenters by sharing their content with more people. #algorithmhack

• Apologies for this sounding self-serving, but we do speed networking at our monthly Chill Meet-and-Greet for the Empowered Fundraiser community. You'll get to know the DOPEST colleagues around. 100%. Here's info on our next one, May 5.

BONUS TIP:

If you want to be show your gratitude for someone you admire or who has helped you, offer to write a recommendation or testimonial for them! It means the WORLD and builds your relationship with that person.

Here are two ways to do so:

1) LinkedIn Recommendation: go to the Recommendations section of your LinkedIn profile (scroll waaaaay down to the bottom). Hit the plus sign in the upper right corner of the Recommendation section and follow the directions. Remember to ask the person to write you a rec in return if appropriate.

2) Testimonial: offer to write a testimonial they can use in their marketing materials, other social media, as a reminder to to their boss, or a go-to pick-me-up on a bad day. Here's the format I use. (Feel more than free to share any kind words you may have about my content or my services as I build my brand!)

COMMUNITY, YALL. It will change your life in the very best of ways. Reach out and connect with people--you will not regret it, I promise!

If you happen to be curious about what the heck my company and I actually do to serve our community (other than show up and share hot takes), here's an overview. LMK.

XOXOXO to our community--thank you for showing up for us.

Warmly,

Anne

Founder and CEO, Empowered Fundraiser

P.S. Don't forget! May 5. Chill Meet and Greet (with hilarity and speed networking)

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