Let Go

Nonprofits need to utilize every resource and asset they have, so when we created the theater’s Most Important Spring Marketing Brochure, it featured a photo that, looking back, may have been a poor choice.

The season membership brochure was themed around local artisans. It boasted that our production staff were all local. The props, sets, costumes didn’t arrive in a truck along with a touring theater company -- they were built locally by our staff of local workers (all true, but also to obscure the also-true criticism that we hired mostly out-of-state actors).

This brochure, which announced in print our full season lineup of plays, prominently spotlighted one such artisan -- the soft-goods props manager -- to help tell the story of our altruism and general benevolence. This photo was perfect: It framed her concentrating face and sewing fingers captured mid-stitch as she held a gorgeous and colorful piece of fabric. It was the perfect way to tell our story. Upon seeing a draft of the brochure, a colleague pointed out that she was recently let go. But most people didn’t know she was fired, I reasoned. And I thought (obtusely) maybe she’d consider it an honor.

It wasn’t until about two years later, after I got caught in a round of layoffs, that I could appreciate how she probably actually felt.

It was fall, a few months after my departure from the theater, when the Most Important Development Email appeared in my inbox. They couldn’t possibly think I would consider donating, I thought. But the ask was followed by a letter, a reminder email, and a personal appeal. It wasn’t an oversight; they genuinely thought it was OK to keep me on their development mailing list.

I should not have been surprised: Nonprofits may cycle through their workforce, but they never really let you go…

- Maggie

Maryland