Office holiday party · The boss · Heartfelt · about a minute and a half
Nonprofit Holiday Party Speech to Staff (75 Seconds)
An executive director at a small holiday party in the office, with cookies and a borrowed coffee urn, who wanted to thank staff and volunteers together and had the learner's permission to tell her story.
Given by Sunita, executive director of an adult literacy nonprofit. 163 words. The names are made up.
The toast
Thank you for coming, and for squeezing into the front room, which tonight is also the coat closet. Fenna made the cookies, and I know I'm standing between you and them.
In September, a learner named Yesenia came in on a Tuesday night. She'd come to show us her driver's permit. She'd been working with Oksana twice a week for two years, and that afternoon she had read every question on the written test herself, and passed. She said I could tell you this.
She showed it to the front desk, to Oksana, and to the volunteers in the back room. Then she went home.
None of us did that in one evening. It took two years of evening lessons, volunteers who came straight from work, and staff who stayed late setting up rooms. Most of your names will never show up in a grant report. They're on that permit.
Please raise whatever you're holding. To all of you, and to Yesenia's permit.
Why it works: One sheet of paper stands for two years of work by people whose names never make it into a report. The speech says that out loud, thanks staff and volunteers in the same breath, and doesn't apologize for the modest party.
Make it yours
Borrow the shape, not the lines. Put your own people, your own year and your own detail in each spot, or answer a few questions and get a first draft built from them.