FundRaiser Blog
Happiness Happens Day at MaineShare
Because MaineShare does most of its fundraising through workplace giving programs, they are acquainted with a wide variety of workplaces. Company culture is important to them. Their satisfaction with FundRaiser is based both on the software and on their experience of the company, as well.
“We love your holidays, for instance that you have the first day of spring off. We feel like you have a good workplace and we like working with other places like that. We feel your love,” says Sarah Fagg, Campaign Coordinator and the main user of FundRaiser at MaineShare.
“There are just the two of us here in the office at MaineShare, myself and Hildie Lipson, the executive director, and we try to have fun at work. We have spontaneous days when it is too good to pass up going outside. Summer is in full glory here right now and the blueberries are getting ripe! I’m planning on picking a few at lunch today. Our office is located at a 250 acre arboretum and we know where all the berries are. It’s a nice place to have an office-- hiking trails right outside our door for lunchtime walks and even better in the winter we have groomed cross country ski trails that Hildie and I ski on after work.
"We both love to ice skate. There is only a very short time when you can do that here, and you don’t know when it is going to happen. You have to be prepared to drop everything and just do it. Because I live on a lake and I know when the conditions are just right, and when they are, we go skating!” says Sarah.
One year, just after the FundRaiser Happiness Happens holiday, Hildie wrote FundRaiser a note. In it, she said how reading about the FundRaiser offices’ celebration of that holiday had inspired them both to celebrate their own Happiness Happens day. Hildie wrote:
It had been hot here in Maine for part of July (well, hot for us), and we don't have A/C at our office. When the weather broke and it became so beautiful-- typical Vacationland weather-- upper 70's, low humidity, gardens in full bloom, ripe raspberries and blueberries, etc, we decided to declare a Happiness Day for our office. Both of us stayed at home and did the summer things that we love to do. I walked, picked both blueberries and raspberries at friend's houses, took a bike ride, made Dilly Beans from my garden, and generally enjoyed all that our home state has to offer and that attracts so many summer visitors.
The day following Happiness Day first thing in the morning I went to the doctor to get a prescription refilled. The nurse took my blood pressure. It was 98 over 66, the lowest it has ever been (and I am approaching my 50th birthday).
Coincidence? I think not. Thanks for the inspiration to do good work and enjoy life--both at the same time!
Best wishes,
Hildie of MaineShare
I'd love to hear from other organizations about how you make your own workplace special and happy.
