We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Matt Norris. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Matt below.

Alright, Matt thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? We’d love to hear the backstory the illustrates how you grew the firm

I lead a nonprofit program called Minnesota Afterschool Advance that’s on track to pay for over $1 million of afterschool programs for low-income Minnesota students this year. In the beginning of the program, though, reaching seven figures worth of programming seemed like a pipe dream

I was hired to build the program from scratch. We decided to pilot it in one small town about an hour south of Minneapolis. I spent many days on the ground in that community meeting with local leaders, schools, and families. I attended special events and handed out flyers. Despite these efforts, we ended up serving a grand total of three families and five students our first year.

Undeterred by the underwhelming start, program leadership chose to persist and take a more entrepreneurial approach. We would expand our presence to a few more communities across the state, each with different characteristics, and partner with a broader array of afterschool programs. The idea was to place several different bets, “fail fast,” and, through the process, find our true product-market fit.

Growth was still slow–we’d joke about “surging” when we’d receive a handful of applications per week. But during this time , I was forging personal connections on the ground throughout the state.

Those connections paid off when the pandemic struck. Families were in crisis, and community leaders needed somewhere to turn. Because of those existing personal relationships I had painstakingly built over the past two years, we were able to immediately step in with solutions for families. The result was a 2600% increase in program applications and a jump from about $15,000 paid out in 2019 to over $282,000 paid out in 2020.

Forged in the fire of those early years, I learned the importance of engaging the community, building trust, and listening to the needs of the people you serve.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My journey in the nonprofit world started when I was 16 years old. I was appointed youth liaison to the Citizen Long-ranged Improvement Committee by the mayor in my hometown. At the very first meeting, we looked at a citizen survey that found crime, especially juvenile crime, was the number one concern of residents. I suggested one of the reasons young people were getting into trouble was the lack of activities for them in our community. This launched me into leading a multi-year effort to expand opportunities for youth while reducing crime, and it worked! Violent crime dropped by 40% over a five-year period, and I was awarded the Key to the City for my efforts.

This early experience showed me the power individuals can have to impact their communities, and it set me down a road of various community service roles. However, I haven’t always taken the traditional path to get there. For instance, I obtained my undergraduate degree at the Carlson School of Management because I believe, no matter what field you’re in, you need to know how to manage people and money. I also earned a law degree from the University of Minnesota.

These varied experiences have allowed me to combine business, policy, and philanthropy to create community impact. The perfect example is my current role as Director of Minnesota Afterschool Advance. We use an innovative financial tool called program-related investments (PRIs) along with a state tax credit to help families pay for afterschool programs for their kids. In the past two years, we’ve served families in over 200 cities across the state. This type of impactful solution would not have been possible without weaving together the various strands of my background into innovative solutions for making a difference in the community.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In early 2020, the Minnesota Afterschool Advance program was just starting to gain traction. Some of the entrepreneurial “bets” we had placed were beginning to pay off, and we could see a path to how the program could help thousands of students access afterschool programs.

Then the pandemic hit and all the afterschool programs shut down. I spent several days devastated by the closures and wallowing in our unfortunate luck. At the same time, with our state and country facing a generation-defining process, I searched for a way to make myself and my work useful. Then the lightbulb went off: the same tax credit we were using to pay for afterschool programs could also be used for computer hardware. Many low-income families lacked the computer devices to transition successfully to distance learning.

Hoping to find any way to make an impact, we started offering Chromebooks. We received more program applications in the first 48 hours than we had in all of 2019. Soon, demand was quickly outpacing our program’s capacity. I began figuring out how to set up a Chromebook supply chain–buying pallets full of Chromebooks and finding a warehouse to store them, break them down, and ship them to individual families.

By the end of the year, we had shipped over 1,300 Chromebooks. And the newly gained name recognition meant families were streaming to us once afterschool activities started opening up again. Since that initial pivot, Minnesota Afterschool Advance has been on an incredible growth trajectory, and I’m proud of my rapid and innovative response to the needs of our community.

Any advice for managing a team?

Build trust. Successful teams will inevitably face difficult times. Building a reservoir of trust ahead of time will allow you to confidently and successfully take on the challenges. As a leader, you must work hard to earn the trust of your team by being authentic, truthful, and caring. You must also be intentional about finding opportunities for your team to develop those same characteristics among themselves.

Set high, clear expectations, and provide candid, rapid feedback. High performing teams require similarly high expectations. Where I find the breakdown often occurs is when those expectations are not clear. It becomes significantly harder to motivate and correct performance when your team members lack clarity on what you want them to achieve. To help in this regard, expectations should be measurable whenever possible. Then, once you’ve agreed to clear expectations, provide candid and rapid feedback as a leader. Never leave your team members wondering about their performance. When they do well, let them know right away. When something needs to improve, don’t avoid it. Addressing it head on and immediately allows for the best opportunity to improve performance and avoids larger headaches down the road.

Hire well and don’t be afraid to move on. Hiring people is perhaps the most important decision you will make as a leader. Let’s be real: it’s impossible for you to do everything yourself. This means a majority of the work is going to be done by someone other than you. Selecting the people who will do that work will determine how successfully it gets done. But even the best leaders can’t perfectly predict who will make a good team member. The selection process may overlook a key characteristic, the role may not end up being a good fit for reasons not understood initially, or outside forces may intervene. When they do, acknowledge that fact and split ways with the team member. It may be painful at the time, but, in the long run, you’ll be thankful and your team will be thankful. And, if you approach it the right way, the person you part ways with will also be thankful for the professional break that leads them to a situation where they’re better equipped for success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://votefornorris.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/norrisforminnesota/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MNforMN
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-norris-83514644/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mnfrommn
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE432qM2-8f4KLMNOwuodGQ

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