Meet Community Member: Charee Godwin-Smith
Published
This month's Community Member spotlight shines on Charee Godwin-Smith with Ascension Academy in Amarillo, Texas.
“I'm just a small-town Texas girl raising a family and trying to leave the world a better place than I found it.”
That’s how Charee Godwin-Smith describes herself in her blog. But, I have to say – I’ve interviewed a lot of people for Blackbaud and as I am getting to know Charee, I can tell you she is far from ordinary.
She is, in fact, a small-town Texas girl. That I won’t dispute. Charee was born and raised in the Texas panhandle and that’s where she still calls home. If you’ve ever been to or driven through Amarillo, Texas, you know that it is a bit of an oasis in the middle of a flat, long drive. You might also know about the Cadillac Ranch…
(Courtesy: Google)
They love a lot of things in Texas: a big steak (there’s a 72oz steak there you can have for free if you can eat it in an hour or less), big trucks, cowboy hats, and most of all, they love their families.
(Courtesy: RoadsideAmerica.com -- almost all the things in one pic!)
Charee is the proud mother of two teenage girls and a full grown man. Yes, you read that correctly. Charee and her husband adopted a 23-year-old into their family a few years back, and he’s now 28 years old.
Her family was even featured in “O” Magazine about their decision to adopt.
If you want a good cry or if you just want to read something that will pull on your heart strings – read all about the adoption HERE on Charee’s blog or “O” Magazine’s version HERE.
When Charee’s not busy being the most awesome mother ever, you can find her gardening. She loves planting the staples: black-eyed peas, tomatoes, okra, squash, and zucchini. The self-proclaimed “dork” also loves reading and doing activities indoors.
(Charee's Garden)
Her journey to work for her current organization started with a passion for working with kids. She got her start in nonprofit by raising money for the Presbyterian Home for Children. That’s where she was first introduced to eTapestry. She’s an early adopter of the product – having started with it back in 2002 (eTapestry was founded in 1999).
In her current role, she still works with kids, but in a different capacity.
(Courtesy: Ascension Academy's Facebook Page)
Tell us about your organization? “Ascension academy opened in 2000. We are a private college prep school with around 217 students in grades 6-12th. The founders of Ascension Academy’s goal was to have a college preparatory environment with a moral compass. We aren’t associated with a specific religion, and yet we have several religious classes. Our main goal is to prepare them for college. We have amazing stats on scholarship offers. Our last class had 25 seniors and the scholarship offers that came in were around 2.5 million dollars. We have high scholarship offers because they are prepared for college and work really hard. We are one of the few private high schools in the Texas panhandle, and we strive to be the best at what we do.”
(Courtesy: Ascension Academy's Facebook page)
"We have a data base of about 3,000 records. I try to keep it pretty clean. Parents, grandparents, alumni, foundations, people in the city, that sort of thing. I try not to put a bunch of random people in unless there is a connection that makes sense.”
What is your role at your organization? “I am the Director of Development and Communications. I do all of the day to day development. I handle the website along with public relations and communications for the school. I am also the sponsor for the school newspaper. I am basically their “Girl Friday” - I do what they need me to do. I do special events, annual funds, grant writing… it sounds like a lot, but in a small non-profit everyone does a lot of things. You often have to double up.”
(Courtesy: Ascension Academy's Facebook page)
How does eTapestry fit into that? “I use eTapestry to keep track of donations; I use it to run reports for different things. I use it pretty heavily for special events. For example: we just had a Grandparents Day. I generated a list in eTapestry and sent out invitations. I use it for communications a lot and generate all of my thank you letters through eTapestry. We use it as a checks and balances for our accounting. I put my information in, they put their information in, and we compare once a month to make sure we are all on track.”
(Courtesy: Ascension Academy's Facebook Page)
“I also have an online giving page – our ecommerce page, I love that it has been very helpful to us.”
“It’s a great tool to keep track of your data. Data tracking is just.. hard. It’s complicated and it is messy and there is so much. I love the simplicity of eTapestry; I love that I can go in and just get my information.”
What advice do you have to people new to eTapestry? “I talked to someone into signing up for it. I told her it was the easiest and most organized way I know to keep track of my donors. I feel like the back room work that you do using eTap, not just for today, but for the people 20 years down the road who need to look back at your data... eTapestry is the best way to do that. You can run a report easily, so when you are talking to a donor you can speak with authority and you have the information about what they did to help your organization.”
(Courtesy: Ascension Academy's Facebook page)
“eTapestry is spreading! I would imagine eTapestry has an unusually high number of customers in the panhandle. I can think of 6 or 7 organizations that use it just off the top of my head. It’s been a blessing to the panhandle.”
What’s the best part of your job? “I think the best part of my job is connecting donors to their passion – in our case it is students. I really like helping them find a way to passionately give to a cause they care about.”
And after all, sharing is caring! Thanks to Charee for sharing her experiences with us.
To find out more about Ascension Academy in Amarillo, Texas, check out their website: www.ascensionacademy.org.
You can also connect with Charee right here in Community by clicking on her profile and sending her a friend request.
Feel free to leave her a comment, ask this long-time Veteran of eTapestry a question or two, or just tell her how much you enjoyed reading about her by leaving a comment below!
That’s how Charee Godwin-Smith describes herself in her blog. But, I have to say – I’ve interviewed a lot of people for Blackbaud and as I am getting to know Charee, I can tell you she is far from ordinary.
She is, in fact, a small-town Texas girl. That I won’t dispute. Charee was born and raised in the Texas panhandle and that’s where she still calls home. If you’ve ever been to or driven through Amarillo, Texas, you know that it is a bit of an oasis in the middle of a flat, long drive. You might also know about the Cadillac Ranch…
(Courtesy: Google)
They love a lot of things in Texas: a big steak (there’s a 72oz steak there you can have for free if you can eat it in an hour or less), big trucks, cowboy hats, and most of all, they love their families.
(Courtesy: RoadsideAmerica.com -- almost all the things in one pic!)
Charee is the proud mother of two teenage girls and a full grown man. Yes, you read that correctly. Charee and her husband adopted a 23-year-old into their family a few years back, and he’s now 28 years old.
Her family was even featured in “O” Magazine about their decision to adopt.
If you want a good cry or if you just want to read something that will pull on your heart strings – read all about the adoption HERE on Charee’s blog or “O” Magazine’s version HERE.
When Charee’s not busy being the most awesome mother ever, you can find her gardening. She loves planting the staples: black-eyed peas, tomatoes, okra, squash, and zucchini. The self-proclaimed “dork” also loves reading and doing activities indoors.
(Charee's Garden)
Her journey to work for her current organization started with a passion for working with kids. She got her start in nonprofit by raising money for the Presbyterian Home for Children. That’s where she was first introduced to eTapestry. She’s an early adopter of the product – having started with it back in 2002 (eTapestry was founded in 1999).
In her current role, she still works with kids, but in a different capacity.
(Courtesy: Ascension Academy's Facebook Page)
Tell us about your organization? “Ascension academy opened in 2000. We are a private college prep school with around 217 students in grades 6-12th. The founders of Ascension Academy’s goal was to have a college preparatory environment with a moral compass. We aren’t associated with a specific religion, and yet we have several religious classes. Our main goal is to prepare them for college. We have amazing stats on scholarship offers. Our last class had 25 seniors and the scholarship offers that came in were around 2.5 million dollars. We have high scholarship offers because they are prepared for college and work really hard. We are one of the few private high schools in the Texas panhandle, and we strive to be the best at what we do.”
(Courtesy: Ascension Academy's Facebook page)
"We have a data base of about 3,000 records. I try to keep it pretty clean. Parents, grandparents, alumni, foundations, people in the city, that sort of thing. I try not to put a bunch of random people in unless there is a connection that makes sense.”
What is your role at your organization? “I am the Director of Development and Communications. I do all of the day to day development. I handle the website along with public relations and communications for the school. I am also the sponsor for the school newspaper. I am basically their “Girl Friday” - I do what they need me to do. I do special events, annual funds, grant writing… it sounds like a lot, but in a small non-profit everyone does a lot of things. You often have to double up.”
(Courtesy: Ascension Academy's Facebook page)
How does eTapestry fit into that? “I use eTapestry to keep track of donations; I use it to run reports for different things. I use it pretty heavily for special events. For example: we just had a Grandparents Day. I generated a list in eTapestry and sent out invitations. I use it for communications a lot and generate all of my thank you letters through eTapestry. We use it as a checks and balances for our accounting. I put my information in, they put their information in, and we compare once a month to make sure we are all on track.”
(Courtesy: Ascension Academy's Facebook Page)
“I also have an online giving page – our ecommerce page, I love that it has been very helpful to us.”
“It’s a great tool to keep track of your data. Data tracking is just.. hard. It’s complicated and it is messy and there is so much. I love the simplicity of eTapestry; I love that I can go in and just get my information.”
What advice do you have to people new to eTapestry? “I talked to someone into signing up for it. I told her it was the easiest and most organized way I know to keep track of my donors. I feel like the back room work that you do using eTap, not just for today, but for the people 20 years down the road who need to look back at your data... eTapestry is the best way to do that. You can run a report easily, so when you are talking to a donor you can speak with authority and you have the information about what they did to help your organization.”
(Courtesy: Ascension Academy's Facebook page)
“eTapestry is spreading! I would imagine eTapestry has an unusually high number of customers in the panhandle. I can think of 6 or 7 organizations that use it just off the top of my head. It’s been a blessing to the panhandle.”
What’s the best part of your job? “I think the best part of my job is connecting donors to their passion – in our case it is students. I really like helping them find a way to passionately give to a cause they care about.”
And after all, sharing is caring! Thanks to Charee for sharing her experiences with us.
To find out more about Ascension Academy in Amarillo, Texas, check out their website: www.ascensionacademy.org.
You can also connect with Charee right here in Community by clicking on her profile and sending her a friend request.
Feel free to leave her a comment, ask this long-time Veteran of eTapestry a question or two, or just tell her how much you enjoyed reading about her by leaving a comment below!
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Blackbaud eTapestry® Blog
10/30/2015 2:03pm EDT
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