You’re a Samantha!

"You know the volunteer fire department's calendar by heart. Strictly for outreach purposes."

You have never met an ask you wouldn't make. Some of them were even about money. You'd work a funeral for the organization and honestly? The contact list would be priceless. The school, the clinic, the feed store, and two county commissioners all somehow owe you a favor. You know the volunteer fire department's calendar schedule by heart, strictly for outreach purposes. And you once converted a total stranger in a funnel cake line into a volunteer, a partner, and a very memorable story ;)

Your strength: Fearlessness. Bold asks, big visibility, zero shame. Your org gets press, partnerships, volunteers, and rooms other nonprofits can't get into, because you walk in like you own the county. Half of this work is nerve, and you have all of it.

Here's what's going on: The organization doesn't have its own network, it just has yours. Every partnership, volunteer pipeline, and press contact routes through one person's charisma. The day you lose your voice, the whole operation goes quiet with it. And in a small community, one burned bridge with the local queen bee can freeze an org out fast, with no second person holding relationships to thaw it. The question isn't how to be more everywhere. It's whose voices the organization needs holding these relationships besides yours.

Do this in the next 24 hours: Write down the three relationships only you hold. A funder, the principal, the town clerk, whoever. Pick one and bring a board member or staffer into it this week. They'll do it differently than you. And that’s okay!

Share it: Send this to the leader who has everyone's number. Including unlisted ones.