Because nonprofit organizations are typically under-funded, employees of nonprofits must be trained to perform numerous and varied tasks, many of which are not always in the same domain of activity. ABC is no exception.

Cassandra Johnson is someone who wears lots of different hats and covers many bases here at ABC, all of which are essential to the organization’s daily operations. She initially started working in various administrative and editorial areas. Her responsibilities in those capacities have included editing HerbClips, working with the Development Department, and acting as receptionist—all at the same time. With a journalism degree from the University of Texas, her work for ABC has continued to gravitate towards editorial programs. Over the past year, Cassandra has acted as the managing editor of HerbalEGram, ABC’s monthly electronic newsletter for all ABC members.

Cassandra also is involved in maintenance of the ever-growing ABC Web site. This includes posting the new FasTraks HerbClips and HerbClip News to the Web site twice monthly. She edits the Web site in response to requests from staff, which includes updating the home page, correcting any typos, posting press releases, and posting new items to the ABC conference and event calendar. She is also in charge of maintaining statistics on Web site traffic and usage.

Her other varied tasks include helping to fulfill requests from ABC members and ensuring that they receive their many benefits. She also performs editing work for the Education Department. Recently, she was assigned the task of managing book reviews for HerbalGram.

As if all this were not enough, Cassandra also assists the Development Department in many ways, including preparing new member and renewed member acknowledgement packets for mailing and maintaining donor records for the Combined Federal Campaign, a program through which federal employees can identify nonprofit organizations for donations via payroll deductions. And she performs numerous other development-related tasks. All these duties are handled by Cassandra reliably and efficiently, with no complaints as to her heavy workload.

The bottom line is that Cassandra Johnson performs many different functions for ABC that cross a wide spectrum of activities, helping to ensure that ABC continues to grow and function properly while providing its many members with increasing benefits.

—Mark Blumenthal