As I sit at my laptop I’m full of all sorts of emotions.

Joy. Pride. Excitement. Gratitude.

Yesterday was Give to the Max Day. For Minnesota nonprofits it is the day to ask your supporters to donate their hard-earned money to keep your mission alive. I hate fundraising and Give to the Max Day stresses me out to the max.

Last year was my first big Give to the Max Day. As a new-ish employee at Canine Inspired Change I was thrust into contacting previous donors, sending newsletter blasts, and constantly posting on social media all in hopes that folks would feel inspired to fund social-emotional therapy dog programs. Due to COVID our team worked from own home offices. Throughout the day we would constantly hit refresh on our web browsers to see the most up-to-date donation totals. I spent the whole day simmering in anxiety.

Millie, Larry, Maple & Wallace living their best lives.

Last year’s anxiety sent me into prep-mode for this year. As I prepared the dogs to head into the office for a full day of fundraising, I just thought to myself, “Today is going to probably be stressful and that’s okay.”

Nonprofit work is hard. It is rewarding and hard. You hope and pray the public, family foundations, grant programs believe in your mission and want to float you some cash to help the organization move forward. I do not manage well with this constant reminder. Luckily, I have a great boss and mentor who constantly reminds me, “If we have to fold the organization then we have to fold the organization. The work we did is the important part.” (I hope everyone has a wise person like my boss in their life.)

Yesterday morning I had amped myself up for an anxiety-filled day and the build up ended up being unnecessary.

Thanks to a pack of puppies, I spent most of Give to the Max Day watching adorable dogs romp through our training facility. Lots of dogs in one space means managing lots of dog personalities. My time of scrolling through social media, updating posts, and refreshing our fundraising page was extremely limited because I was too busy watching dogs tug on toys and race around after each other.

Don’t get me wrong. Work was done. Between puppy play times I would hop on my computer to give social media followers updates and remind folks that we had matching donations to meet. My anxiety would start to swell but then Wallace’s bark would snap me out of it and I’d be back to my role as puppy wrangler. And after a full day of puppy romping our team hit refresh on the web browser one more time. We had raised almost $20,000 for social-emotional therapy dog programming. Rather than feeling stressed I was left feeling invigorated and in absolute awe of the community’s generosity.

This morning I’ve been reflecting. How many times have you worked yourself up over the outcome of a future event? How many times was that build up unnecessary? And what would happen if you just hit pause and watched some dogs play?

This is exactly why programs like Canine Inspired Change work. Young people and adults, even if just for 25 minutes once a week, have the opportunity to step away from their devices and pet a dog, teach a dog to sit, and troubleshoot a dog training challenge with their peers.

And maybe it’s not dogs romping around together! Yoga, running, meditation, painting, fishing. It’s important to consider: What helps you stop scrolling, take a step back, take a breath, and just be?