Recently, I came into some money that I didn't know I was getting. Well, I knew there was a chance, but not much of one. We get annual bonuses at work. My bonus is based, in part, on how many wins I bring in. Every year, all of us in business development get what's called a scorecard. They set certain financial goals, along with other business goals. When I came back in June, I got the scorecard for my position. The financial goals were, I thought, completely unrealistic. But I didn't have a say in the matter, and I've always tried to remember that bonuses are just that - a bonus. One should not rely on them.
When I did the calculation in January, I knew I was in trouble. I'd had a few nice wins, including one really nice one, but I hadn't come close to meeting the goal in my scorecard. I'd met the business goals - managing my team, building good relationships with my colleagues, and helping to develop a CONOPS for my new role. Those were goals at which I knew I could succeed. But the financial one is much harder to meet. After all, you can write the best proposal in the world, but if the customer doesn't want you, they will find a way to judge it not as good as someone else's.
So when I got the call with the amount last week, I was pleasantly surprised. Rather than just put it in the bank, I wanted to do some good things with it. Not just for me, but for others.
A few months ago, in the midst of the holidays, I had gotten a solicitation from George Mason University in the midst of all the other end-of-year solicitations. In this case, an alumni was offering a "bonus" donation of $100,000 to the university if all the members of the advisory groups at the university donated before June 30, 2011. I serve on the advisory board for the College of Health and Human Services. Our board is a pretty active one, and we all had contributed in the past year to the college. I wasn't sure I was prepared to donate again so soon. But I kept the solicitation and assumed that, after the holidays, I would make at least something of a donation. With this unexpected windfall, I was able to make a more substantial contribution.
Likewise, I routinely get solicitations from the animal rescue with which I volunteer. It's a cause in which I sincerely believe, and I know how much good money can do in this case. It costs several hundred dollars per animal for a spay or neuter. And because there are already too many stray animals in the world, our rescue spays and neuters all dogs and cats before they are eligible for adoption. Period, end of sentence. So the rescue outlays that money for every animal. They also pay for checkups, shots, and many other veterinary needs. They recoup most of these costs in the adoption fee for reasonably healthy, young animals. Most but not all. And if an animal needs additional care - say, it's in the rescue longer and needs more shots as it gets older, or comes to us with even something as innocuous as a bad case of fleas - the adoption fee doesn't cover the expenses. The rescue relies on donations and the proceeds of the three restaurants owned by the founder. So I decided to make a more substantial donation to the rescue than I had at the end of the year.
It warms my heart to do these things. When I was a struggling grad student, earning barely enough money to live on, I never thought I'd get to the point in life where I had everything I needed. I worried about the money to buy a car, much less a house. Now, I live in a very nice house, earn a very nice living, and really can afford to buy for myself whatever I might need. I don't take that for granted. Instead, I try to be responsible about it. I'm saving for retirement. And I try to give back - to use my money for good things. Because it's the right thing to do. And doing the right thing feels good.
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