When I served on the board of DC Abortion Fund, it was what people call a “working board.” I served as communications director, which meant doing it all — running our email and social media programs, managing our website, pitching press and hosting media trainings, creating peer-to-peer toolkits for our yearly fund-a-thon, enforcing brand guidelines, and designing almost all of our materials. It was an incredibly challenging and meaningful volunteer experience I will never forget.
First, the good: I learned so much about storytelling in this role. The role of an abortion fund can feel heavy on the soul — people call us because they can’t afford the cost of their abortion and we are one of their very last resorts. For the volunteer staff, logistics require a lot of grassroots grit (the overwhelming majority of donations comes from individuals and, at the time, the entire non-profit was volunteer run).
But there’s so much hope. I worked with the board to establish ethical story collection methods so we could share select stories from our callers — stories that ultimately drove more mutual aid and empowered callers to speak their truth. Some have gone on to become volunteers for us, coming full circle.
But I won’t pretend it (or I!) was perfect. I joined the board a week before the 2016 presidential election and I was immediately on-point for writing four versions of the “morning after” emails. Unfortunately, the email with the wrong call-to-action made it out the door the next day — one asking our supporters to volunteer with us, rather than donate. The good news is the response was enormous. We received responses from hundreds of passionate people in the DC area and our volunteer program quickly scaled up to meet the demand.
While it ultimately worked out, it taught me the importance of creating a solid email QA process and always having a second pair of eyes review email and texts before hitting send — a non-negotiable practice that I’ve carried into every communications role I’ve held since. (It also resulted in me writing a follow up fundraising appeal which was one of our top performers to date!)