Vanessa and Antoinette discuss why nonprofit founders burn out: they try to run organizations part-time without paying themselves, and they chase funders whose missions don't match theirs. Vanessa has raised over $30 million in grants and says the key is finding your niche. They're offering a grant-writing program at $750 for the first 50 people.
You know, I've been talking a lot this week about heartbreak and some of the things that's just been breaking my heart. And one of the things that I had just hurt— break my heart this week, really broke my heart this week— is that I, I look at people and I see them on online, you know, touch people in the community, and people are so— there's—
they're—
they have this purpose and their passion, and they want to start a nonprofit and build it so bad, but they're struggling and they are so frustrated. And it breaks my heart because they have a service that's probably needed and really needed, and then they want this so bad and they know this is how they're supposed to be walking, but they're just having so many challenges. And I just sit back because I know how it feels to be in that position, you know.
Yeah. So today, um, that brings us to this episode of Everything Nonprofit. We're going to be presenting it by the— the Keeping It Real Girls. That's what Vanessa and I are calling ourselves today. And we want to just kind of talk to you about the realness of running and owning and founding a nonprofit. And one of the first things we want to talk about, I just kind of want to open up the discussion. I know that you saw a post recently from someone who, who shared that she's doing everything she can to get her nonprofit off the ground and none of it has been successful. And people think like, you know, well, what's the big deal? You just follow your dream, you just stick with your mission, and you just keep putting your mission out there. And what she found was, and what she shared was, I'm sharing my mission, I'm following my dream, I'm sticking to it, but it's not working.
Yeah, yeah. And it is, it's challenging because we always talk about mission-driven, mission this, mission that, but let's get real, okay? We start a nonprofit, we want to help people, but we also— this is our— it will be our bread and butter to our livelihood. Because if you're going to run a nonprofit, you can't do it sometime, you can't do it part-time, and you cannot just do it anytime. If you're going to make it successful, you have to do it full-time. And in order to do it full-time, you need a salary in order to do this full-time. No one should expect you to do it for free. Your funders don't expect you to do it for free, and the, the community should not expect that either. So you, you, it's, it's so frustrating when you know that you're doing it and people are like, okay, I'm mission, I'm following my mission. So one of the things we have to take a look at when we follow our mission is we need to look at the mission of where we're trying to get our funding from, right? And so what we find is that people are like, you know, I, this is my mission and I'm going after this funder, but your mission and this funder's mission are not aligned. The funders also have their own mission, right? Yeah, so your mission unfortunately cannot supersede the mission of the foundation or the corporation. Yeah, because what it does, that you get more frustrated because you're like, it's not— they're not lining up. It's like, they say, they, they say they provide services, they fund youth services, and I have youth services, but just because two people have same youth services doesn't mean that their mission is in line, right?
Right. I think also the other thing that is real that people have to remember is Um, people give a lot to various causes. So I mean, you know, I, I have a little, um, free, um, conference call number because I know it isn't really free, but I want to, you know, I want to come keep it free for most people, or at least keep the cost reasonably. I give a little bit to them, I give a little bit to other charities, I give a little bit to church, you know. So people are giving everywhere, and running a nonprofit it, you kind of start to feel like you're always the person with your hand out, you know, like, can you give me a nickel? Can you give me a dime? Can you give me a penny? Also, people— you start to feel like people only see you that way. So, you know, again, in the spirit of keeping it real, I'm just gonna say that's sometimes true. You are out there because, like you just said, nonprofits don't run themselves, and they don't run themselves for free.
Yes. And then it's so much to, to really building and running and starting and growing a nonprofit through all the life cycles of a nonprofit. So we can only touch on so much here, but I think Antoinette and I, we're going to make this a series. We're going to keep this going. Let's keep it real. Let's talk about all the intricate details, but we need to know what you guys are frustrated with, right? Because it's so important, especially funding is huge. And what Antoinette was saying, you can't just keep going out there and you can, you know, for me, I wasn't comfortable constantly asking people for money. So I learned how to write grants. I learned how to write grants and get $30+ million in grants to run my nonprofit, to get that puppy running and going. And so people need to find out what their jam is. So a lot of what we're going to be talking about in this platform is what those grants look like, how you can build your nonprofit and not feel like you always having to have your hand out. You're going to always be asking for money, right? But it's not going to be your primary thing if that's not what you're primarily comfortable with. And if you are primarily comfortable with that, go ahead and do that. But you're going to have to leverage those grants somewhere along the line. So we're going to be talking about how to leverage different funding sources to really get your program up and running, and not just your mission, but the mission of everybody who's given a dime. They all have a mission.
You know what, you just said something, and so I want to challenge people who are listening to reach out to us and say, I want to learn how to write a grant. And the first 500 people who say, I want to learn how to write a grant, we'll give— well, I mean, maybe I should change that because this is Vanessa will be leading this class. So the first 50 people who say, I want to learn how to write a grant, will get grant writing— our grant writing program, which is $1,500, will get it half price. So just say that you saw this video today, the July 22nd, '22 video, and you will get that grant writing course with Vanessa for $750.
What's she giving me away? Gee, ain't that something? We didn't discuss that.
I think it's a fabulous idea.
It is, because you know what, there's, there's billions of money getting out, and $425 or more billion is just giving from the corporations, foundations, individuals. The government, they are giving out so much money, it is not even money. So if you guys want to learn about where some of this money is, also hit us up in this, no matter when it is. If you see it, if you're watching this live, if you catch the replay, put it, put in there, say, I want to know where the money is. Yeah, but you guys don't give up, keep going, because if you have a purpose, you have it, it's inside of you, you can do it. You know what they say, people say, well, if you— if I can do it, you can do it too. I was 21 years old when I came up with my nonprofit, and it's still in existence I say, you see this gray hair, which I'm cutting off tomorrow? I'm cutting off my locs tomorrow. This gray hair. So I've been doing it for a long time. So if I can do it, you can do it too. And you, the real girls, are here to teach you how to do it.
