Something that I have seen a lot of online has been uplifting posts reminding us all to have grace with ourselves, our neighbors and our families during this trying time. I tend to remind myself to have grace with myself when I am in my quarantine pants munching on a snack I probably shouldn't be. My body, just like all of yours, is living through this traumatic time. I can treat it to a sweet treat every now and then. It is doing a lot of work after all.
Well, we at Sharpshooter embody grace in our work too.
With a commitment to excellence and integrity, SC personnel are also ready to exhibit grace to ourselves and others when falling short of expectations. This includes being honest with all involved about the situation, communicating our own feelings, being quick to accept apologies and letting go of resentment, anger or hurts.
Grace goes hand in hand with integrity. We are forthright when mistakes are made. We take criticism in strides. We are honest even when a lie would spare feelings. Now with that, we value grace because that is how we take care of ourselves and our clients.
An example I'll give is that not too long ago, we sent an application to a client for review. This was a large ask from a large funder who had historically supported this client for years. Our client had become to rely on those vital funds. In short, this is an application we do not want to miss the deadline on.
Well, we did.
This was earlier in the pandemic when everyone was beginning to panic. Fundraisers were being cancelled left and right. Phones were ringing off the hook as more and more people were reaching out to nonprofits for support. Every single person was stretched thin, and every single moment was an emergency.
During this time, Sharpshooter was also in a frenzy. Our usual workload tripled as we wrote emergency grant after emergency grant, and we worked to provide peace of mind for our clients.
Unfortunately, our client was pulled in many directions providing life-saving services, and we were moving through projects as efficiently as we could. What ended up happening was that we sent the application for review, however we didn't follow up when we should have. The client didn't see it as they were responding to emergencies. And the deadline came and went.
Without grace, mistakes continue to sting.
Instead of beating ourselves up or trying to use the pandemic as an excuse, we were forthright. Furthermore, we extended grace to ourselves and to our client as we worked to rectify the situation. (Fortunately, the funder understood and allowed us to turn in the application late, and we hired another full-time staff member.)
Never before has grace been so vital than right now. The pandemic has not gone away, and uncertainty (and at times panic) has only continued. We remind ourselves every single day about grace when a client has to wait until the last minute to review an application or when we don't hear back on a decision as quickly as we like.
However, you can trust that we at Sharpshooter will go above and beyond to provide you with the grace and care you need to save lives.