GIVING. PRAYING. FASTING
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stated, understood, realistic and ethical. We talked about smart
goals and those are tools by which you can determine your path
but all that ties back to your why so I just encourage people that
want to launch out to network, get to know other people who
are doing similar things to you, hear their story, figure out what
you can learn from them. What worked for them? What didn’t
work for them? I belong-because I work in a childcare center-I
belong to an organization that has directors’ lunches every
month and I go there and I network with those ladies and they
bring in presentations for us. They talked to us about curriculum,
knowledge development for children. They talked about health
and nutrition, safety, all things that are coming out in terms of
licensure, licensing changes for the state of Maryland, for our
county. They talk even about legislative things and that’s a great
opportunity for me to network with other people that are doing
the same thing I’m doing but in a different market, in a different
way, trade ideas, [and discuss] what’s worked to motivate
staff. What hasn’t worked to motivate staff. Challenges that
I’m having, I can glean from them and that’s a way to kind of
have mentoring, input, coaching and to broaden your network
of support and all of that’s free except for your time investment.”
LW: How does one build a successful non-profit or business?
Jackson: It just depends on what your-it, it’s just depends on your
goals. Non-profits are mission-driven and so profitability is based
on the service they’re providing. I used to run an educational
non-profit and we were involved in educational advocacy
and we would do trainings but most of our expenditures were
for print materials and other things and I actually wrote a grant
and I received $250, 000 to run the program and you know I was
able to manage it with volunteer staff but you know we were
underwritten by another company and so, it worked because
our missions were aligned and I hope that answers a little bit of
your question in terms of funding. So, for us, we were able to
accomplish the voter advocacy project that we were working
on to raise awareness on the need for education in minority