People often forget that Foodshare is a business, in addition to being a charity. But I’m definitely reminded in these early days of a new year. With a calendar year fiscal year, much of early January is spent on business tasks – closing out last year’s financial records, reviewing the results of last year’s work plans and goals, putting the finishing touches on the coming year’s work plans and goals.
Much of my time this week is being spent on employee performance appraisals. Every employee at Foodshare receives a written performance appraisal in both the middle and at the end of each year. While I don’t write them all, I do review them all and make decisions about compensation for each person. This is the hardest part of my job!
We have an incredibly talented team of people here at Foodshare and there is never enough room in the budget to pay them as much as I might like to. No one comes to work at a nonprofit organization expecting to get rich, but I recognize that they have families and other obligations. Trying to balance rewarding a job well done with the needs of the organization, and of the larger community, is a challenging exercise every January.
It’s also important work. To be an effective charity, we need to run the business side of our organization well. Not necessarily exactly like a business, but in a business-like way. We need to make good decisions based on solid information, manage our resources wisely, and plan for the organization’s future. It’s always been one of my personal goals that we do those tasks well. I hope I am appropriately balancing all of these competing needs.
Gloria
We have an incredibly talented team of people here at Foodshare and there is never enough room in the budget to pay them as much as I might like to. No one comes to work at a nonprofit organization expecting to get rich, but I recognize that they have families and other obligations. Trying to balance rewarding a job well done with the needs of the organization, and of the larger community, is a challenging exercise every January.
It’s also important work. To be an effective charity, we need to run the business side of our organization well. Not necessarily exactly like a business, but in a business-like way. We need to make good decisions based on solid information, manage our resources wisely, and plan for the organization’s future. It’s always been one of my personal goals that we do those tasks well. I hope I am appropriately balancing all of these competing needs.
Gloria
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