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How to be a Founder During the Hard Times

January 2020 has been one long month.

The first day of this new decade brought a huge loss. A loss that on this 31st day of the month my family and my friends are still trying to cope with.

We lost a very close friend, former co-worker, humanitarian and mentor. My husband and I had traveled the world with him on many humanitarian trips providing youth development to those in greatest need. Our relationship felt a lot like family to not only him but also his kids and extended family. His name was Karl and he did amazing things in his lifetime. At only 52 he succumbed to a very aggressive pneumonia in just a matter of days.

He was living in rural Mexico, Baja working with indigenous people. He was developing and building his own youth center and was making a difference alongside his wife. He was “Livin’ the Dream” as he was most often quoted.

I posted a fairly short Instagram post on the matter and how I traveled with our closest friends just hours after hearing the news to be with his mourning family in Mexico. We drove all night switching off drivers and resting for just a few hours, making it to the quickly planned memorial service just minutes before it took place. We left the next morning in a stupor and in tears.

I came home exhausted and had left my husband behind as he wanted to be with the family for a few more days and help out. One week later my husband came home and we began to mourn the loss of a friend and inspirational mentor.

And that was not the end of January. About a week and half ago we lost another great man. My husbands great grandfather. He was very close to my children, and was extremely close to my husband. Back in September 2019 at the age of 80, he had an accident on an ATV that led to a broken back, a punctured lung, and multiple broken ribs. It had been a tough recovery but it was finally looking positive. Until a sudden and quick passing left us once again reeling in grief.

Why am I sharing all this bad news with you?

Because when you’re the founder of anything these are the type of things that can really throw off your progress especially in the beginning stages. When you’re doing all the work and there is no one else to step in a lot can hinge on moments like this. We powered through tears some days, and other days we wept as we worked, and some of the days we just sat and mourned while embracing the suffering and the emotions that we have.

Here is what I did and if you think its worth a shot in the dark times then give these a try:

3 Steps to be Somewhat Productive in Difficult times

  1. Rest when you feel like rest is needed. Real rest. Shut the screens off and let your mind rest.
  2. Allow the emotions to come and go. Don’t fake it when your grieving. Your body and mind are processing a real tragedy and if your don’t let your mind get the emotions out it can lead to more issues like depression and physical sickness. This is called Emotional Agility.
    1. Read Emotional Agility by by Susan David PH.d for more information
  3. Make a list of what the most important tasks to complete and choose those that are the easiest to tackle first. in my list below all but one were difficult — but we had people to help me on the day of so I was not doing it all alone (our youth center preview night).
  4.  BONUS STEP: Rest — this one needed to be said again because well that’s the sad truth.

These are the few things that did get a few things done (I have a couple of planned blog posts for some the things below )

  • Launched this blog! (It was a fun thing to do in a dark time)
  • Got to the first draft of my Form 1023 (This one took me way longer than it would have — because I rested so much)
  • Purchased and set up our youth center equipment and furniture (This was a get out the house activity for us. Shopping can be theraputic right?)
  • Had our first preview night at the youth center (this would have been HARD to do with out the help I had — we have good people who love us.)
  • Planned out our 2020 Winter/Spring/Summer Calendar (This was just necessary and we waited the entire month to do this — because we rested)

In between all of this loss and progress, our kids and even both my husband and I have experienced 2 winter viruses. We have 3 toddlers who love to share the germs. In fact I currently have a child on the couch next to me with a fever and a belly ache!

It has been hard, real hard. It has been sad and it has been inspiring. But I am ready for January to end and February to begin. We start it tomorrow with the celebration of a 1st birthday and a small sigh of relief that we did so much considering the great loss.

I have faith that this whole month will teach us and strengthen us. I have faith that the suffering we are feeling will not be in vain. I have faith that the nonprofit will move forward even when its dark and cold. And it will thrive when its bright and warm.

These are the tenants of the teachings that I try to express to the youth we work with. Many of who have already experience great amounts of trauma in their lives. I am preaching to myself this time around that all hope is not lost, it is just a matter of time and persistence.

–Raquel

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Why a “No” Can Prepare You for the “Yes”

Well, I got my first official “NO!”, I have had these types of “No’s” before, in my work with other nonprofits, but this one was different because it is for MY nonprofit. The type of “NO” that I am talking about is “No, we will not fund you.”  

This “NO” was for a small start-up grant. A grant that seemed too good to be true! When I went to the grant seminar and they explained the funding parameters I left the place thinking “EASY!!!” Ohh to think so grandiose about something like that. HA! 

To be honest when I wrote the final draft of grant I was in major crisis mode. My life was filled with family health issues, but grant deadlines don’t move for your circumstance. So, I went ahead anyways with the proposal, writing it with tears in my eyes, because I was dealing with a lot of personal stuff and I was beyond exhausted. And still I thought, “DONE DEAL. That grant is mine.”  

And then I went and curled into a little ball, as I prepared my self for a very difficult weekend. 

November was a CRAZY month. I lost my grandfather to parkinson’s disease and my husband’s grandfather was in and out of ICU several times. Needless to say I had a lot of confidence but was clearly distracted, and for good reason! 

I had done exactly what I had done before on other grants, I proof read the final version, had a colleague  look it over and then sent it off. At least that’s what I thought I did. Little did I know I had a major email fail and it got stuck in my outbox. Which I promptly noticed the following Monday after it was due.  

If you are fearing a “NO” don’t worry! Its part of the process to learning how to do this better.

I called and tried to plea my case and even was honest that my life at the moment was not going smoothly. Then they gave me a chance, a chance that I still think matters. 

 In my tear filled confidence I honestly thought “I am going to get this.” But when phone call came in and the voice over the phone said so delicately “We unfortunately will not be funding your proposal.” I was disappointed. 

I did however find some pride in the “NO” a few hours later as I talked it over with some friends. A pride which stems from the fact that I was able to find clarity in my fundraising pitch. A clarity that I was able to put words to, that just this morning, turned into an offer for funding for our first event we plan to do!  

Writing the grant forced me to hash out all the things that I had in my head, my vision, my experience and my legitimacy. It helped me to find important words through the prompts that I responded to, words that I have used multiple times this week in networking meetings.  

It forced me to research and define sources for the data that I know to be true. And it forced me to open up and be honest with strangers who have money that I want for my nonprofit. 

 “Thank you grantors for your consideration” is how I ended my email when I finally got it submitted, and today I say thank you again! Because your consideration may have led to a “NO”, but your opportunity for funding led me to better communicate who I am and why I am doing this.  

If you are fearing a “NO” don’t worry! Its part of the process to learning how to do this better. Keep the grant proposals that you got a “NO” on and use them to make the next proposal a “YES!”. If you truly did a good job in explaining yourself and answering the questions then they were in right to say “NO” because that means the proposal doesn’t actually fit their parameters. AND if they offer to explain why it was a “NO” take the feedback and swallow your pride because they are obviously impressed enough by you to give you more of their valuable time.

–Raquel

 

 

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The Start of a Nonprofit

Over my nonprofit career I have learned a lot, but this new adventure of starting a nonprofit is a whole new game. I want to share with you all the excitement and experience of starting a new nonprofit, from the very beginning.  

Starting the nonprofit didn’t begin the day I registered with my state secretary’s office. Nor did it start the day the incorporation letter came with my state’s approval. It didn’t start the day we purchased the web domain or when we came up with the name in a stroke of genius. It didn’t even start the day that I told my husband about my idea.  

The process started back in January of 2018. I was a nonprofit development director for the same youth nonprofit that my husband worked for. I worked as a full-time volunteer and stay at home mom to two toddlers. Working from home with toddlers was a job that as a new mom, that I was learning how to do! Learning the very careful balancing act of timing naptime & homeschool lessons with webinars & phone call meetings. And so, the house was as you would imagine it, a laptop precariously placed on the edge of a sofa, note pads strewn, alongside the sippy cups and piles of laundry & toys.  

And so, the day that I spoke the dream out loud was the very beginning.

The work I did from home was to raise the funds for the very modest west coast salary my husband received as a program coordinator. In addition, I assisted the executive director with vision and program implementation. It was great work and it was always the intention of the executive director and my own, to eventually pay me an income once enough funds were raised to allow for additional salaries. But even without the paycheck I enjoyed the work as a “glorified” volunteer, because I believed in the good that it was bringing to the youth of the cities we served. Because of the efforts of the team I worked with, the impact of program we ran was getting notice from the larger communities and even local governments. This was an exciting time.  

In January 2018 we were preparing to move to a home in an older part of our neighborhood. The home was built in the 1940’s requiring a full renovation of the kitchen, wood floors, yard and bathroom. Despite the work needing to be done, moving to this neighborhood was a dream come true. When we first put an offer on the home, I wrote a letter to the owner of the past 35 years, telling him how we were helping the youth of our city. I explained how this home would serve as a home base for the fundraising and program development for innovative youth work. I described how I worked from my small desk alongside my beautiful toddlers to ensure that youth are afforded the same opportunities regardless of their socio-economic status. The homeowner loved the letter and soon the home was SOLD to us.  

Every day for one month I drove through the neighborhood while we renovated the old home DIY style and made it our new home. In those days Joanna Gains was my daily inspiration – and I even joke that my husband became her with his vision for beautiful design. I remember reading her book and finding similarities between her entrepreneurship and my nonprofit development. The streets surrounding the house and the boulevard that is adjacent to the historic neighborhood, to the home we had purchased had befallen to great poverty and disarray nearly 30 years prior. Very similar to the neighborhoods that the Gains were conquering on their popular TV show. The problems of the neighborhood had made the home affordable for a single income household like our own, but that meant that plight and poverty were present on every corner of the boulevard.  

 

Driving past that plight, empty buildings and issues that the streets were filled with, I felt compelled to look closer. And finally one morning my heart breaking for my neighborhood, I said out loud in a prayer & proclamation, that I would start a youth center on the boulevard, because it wasn’t fair for the kids that lived in that neighborhood to not have a beautiful space to grow into young adults and citizens of our city.  

And so, the day that I spoke the dream out loud was the very beginning.

When I told my husband he was receptive, but the path to this new dream was unclear. Our work was going well with the organization that we worked with and the programs that we had both helped to develop & install in several local schools were thriving.  

A youth center was different direction that we had envisioned up to that point. With this new dream, our work in the schools could translate into a permanent space for youth and help our neighborhood in a small way. Another factor to overcome was that I had yet to be able to raise the funds for my own income, which our growing family could desperately use! I have college loans looming over my head every day, and often I was choosing to start a new program rather than starting to pay myself first. This is a topic I hope to explore more in this blog soon.  

Needless to say there were MORE reasons to stay where we were, but the dream had been had and now it was up to us to see it through.  

–Raquel

 

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