Hearts at Home

How Do You Run An Organization for Women in the Profession of Motherhood and Remain Committed to the Profession of Motherhood Yourself?

Over the years we have been asked this question.  It's a great question and it has some answers that explain just how we make it work.

Hearts at Home has been "God's Gig" from the beginning.  He sets direction for this organization through the foundation of prayer.  One of Jill's early prayers was "Lord, if this thing is going to be big, will you please give us enough people to do the work and not take time away from our families?"  God has indeed answered that prayer many times over.

How do we do it?  How does our structure differ from that of other organizations?  How do we keep family the priority?  Here is some insight to understand the inside workings of Hearts at Home.

• Hearts at Home is managed by about 25 part-time paid staff and over 140 year-round volunteers. In the corporate world, an organization of this size could probably be run by 30-40 full-time staff.  We don't have that, though.  Instead we have some part-time paid staff and hundreds of very committed volunteers. 
• The Hearts at Home staff and volunteers are taught how to restructure their job when it becomes too large to handle.  This is a very important part of our volunteer staff training.  As the organization grows, the responsibilities grow.  When a responsibility grows beyond a volunteer's ability to maintain a balance of family first, the job is re-designed to make it work with limited time requirements.  This means one job will now become three jobs, which, of course, means we always need new volunteers to handle the growth!
• The Hearts at Home office is used in a very unique way.  Hearts at Home has no full-time paid staff.  Therefore, we do not maintain 8am-5pm office hours.  The office is staffed from 9am-2pm weekdays, but everyone is out the door in time to pick up or be home for kids arriving after school.  Summer hours vary because of our commitment to family first.
• Most HAH volunteers consider HAH their primary community volunteer commitment.  Rather than serving as the chairman of the PTO, or the cub scout Den Mother, these men and women consider HAH their volunteer opportunity for this season of their life.

So what about Jill?  How does she carry her responsibilities and remain a woman committed to the profession of motherhood? 

Jill Savage

• Jill uses the time her children are in school.  Professionalizing Motherhood was written over 9 months while Austin (her youngest) was in preschool three days a week. With two kids grown and three in school full-time, Jill handles correspondence, meetings and other HAH responsibilities during the day in between chaperoning field trips and being room mom. On average, Jill is in the HAH office just one day a week.  Most of what she does, she does from home.
• Jill's speaking schedule is designed to keep family first.  Jill primarily speaks to moms groups within a two-hour drive of her home while her children are in school.  On occasion she speaks somewhere within a three hour drive, but never if it will keep her from her carpool responsibilities after school.  Jill's husband, Mark, is incredibly supportive and somewhat flexible in his work schedule, too.  When speaking at an evening event, Jill often takes one of the kids along for some one-on-one time with mom.  Jill's involvement in HAH would be comparable to someone with a home party business.
• Jill travels to distant speaking engagements only occasionally.  Remember that this is a woman who hates to fly!  Jill turns down far more speaking engagements than she accepts.  On occasion she does travel if it is to benefit Hearts at Home.  Jill and Mark make the decisions about her travel and often they use them as a getaway for the two of them or allow one of the kids to travel with Jill to give them the opportunity to explore a bit of the country they might not have seen before.
• Jill is an incredible delegator. She is very good at letting go and letting others use their gifts.  She also does not feel the need to be in charge of every little detail. She has also taught her staff how to do that, as well.

The best illustration of Jill's ability to keep family first happened several years ago when her oldest daughter, Anne, saw Jill responding to an email questioning how Jill could really consider herself committed to the profession of motherhood.  She said, "Mom, you mean people actually ask you that?  They think you’re not at home?  You're always at home!  I know where to find you all the time!”