Thanks and Gratitude Year Round

We received our first holiday card just after Thanksgiving day. It was from an old friend who we don’t see or hear from often, but from whom receive an annual card with pictures of family. We are very fortunate. While this might be the first, there will be scores of cards to be expected this year.

Every December, I am reminded how much I enjoy looking at the cards, seeing the pictures, thinking about old friends, and reading about where their lives are today. I’m always a little touched that someone would take the time to send us a card. It’s as if it’s a moment of gratitude for a friendship of many years or of a deep relationship from years ago. It makes me feel connected, particularly in this strange Covid year when social activity is so diminished.

Why is it that for many of us we wait until the holidays to do such an activity? If it makes us feel good to know others are thinking of us, why is this only a once in every 12 months occurrence? The same questions can be asked in our nonprofit professional lives as well. Why is it we wait for someone to make a gift before we say thank you?

After 25+ years in the nonprofit world, I have truly come to appreciate setting a goal of reaching out to someone, most likely a donor to a past employee, or these days a client, just to let them know I’m thinking of them, and to ask if there’s anything I can do to be helpful. Sometimes it’s just a phone call and a nice conversation. Sometimes it’s a written note. Sometimes it’s no more than a text message. I do this regularly because I want my clients and partners to know I appreciate them and what they do.

How we make people feel in those moments when it’s unanticipated maybe more of a measure of the sender (me/us), and of the relationship as a whole, than what we do when it’s is expected. I’m hoping to take the reminder of the Christmas cards and apply them more liberally throughout the year both personally and professionally.