Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Andrea Barclay. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Andrea, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.

“When you think about what you can’t do, it distracts you from what you can do” (Pastor Kevin Myers – 12Stone Church – November 2013)

Thank you. I agree with your statement that small businesses or non-profits like us help create a more inclusive and just world for all of us. For us at Because One Matters, serving the underserved community is about making a difference. It’s about trying to change the trajectory of those we serve. It’s about us helping those that we serve to have a bright future. It’s about helping them to see that they matter and that they are loved.

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

Hi, my name is Andrea Barclay, and I am the Founder and CEO of Because One Matters (BOM). BOM was conceived in 1990 after the loss of my daughter to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and was birthed in 2015. After my loss, I realized that the extension of my parenting journey could continue through the lives of others. Through the love and support of family and friends and compassionate prompting by God, through the words from my Pastor (PK), I carefully selected a governing body to aid me in forming an organization that would forever change not only my trajectory but also improve life paths for hundreds of disadvantaged children.

BOM’s mission is to positively influence the trajectory of foster children and young adults from economically disadvantaged communities. We envision a world where all youth, regardless of their socio-economic background, experience enormous opportunities for life success

Each day, we fulfill our mission by working to promote programs, services, practices, and procedures that foster equitable learning and life outcomes for these vulnerable young people. We provide wrap-around services to foster children when they come into care, while in care, and transition out of foster care. Our services bring joy, a new experience and restore dignity one heart at a time.

Our program offerings include serving the Foster Care community & providing mentorship to youth from the underserved communities. Under our Foster Care program, we have our:

Wrapped in Love Foster Closet: This service provides foster parents an opportunity to shop for free new and gently used items. In addition, it also provides children entering foster care with a duffle bag containing (new) essential items to increase comfort and security during their earliest days of placement.

Home for the Holidays: In partnership with YESS4Youth, this service helps to ensure foster youth in Independent Living programs experience Thanksgiving and Christmas in their home by providing full-course meals, Christmas trees with decorations, and gifts.

Celebrating Milestones: We use this service to celebrate foster children’s birthdays with a party! Many of these kids have never had a birthday party or celebrated their birthday. Sponsoring prom, providing scholarships.

Youth Outings: To increase youth exposure to cultural arts and sporting events, we prioritize outings for foster children each year. Past outings have included Disney on Ice, Baseball Games, Georgia Aquarium, back to school bashes where children shop (for free) for all their school supplies needs!

Mentorship: We believe that education is essential for financial and personal success. However, statistics have shown that students from communities or homes with economic disparities are not being afforded the same opportunities as their peers in more affluent neighborhoods. We help high school students draw the important connection between higher education and future success and expand their capacity for a college-going or workforce-ready mindset. Our college mentorship program provides the opportunity for college students to gain work experience in their field of study to prepare them for the working world better.

I think the thing that sets us apart from others is our ability to build strong relationships with those that we serve and our business partners. Our relationships give meaning and richness to our work and lives.

I am most proud of the impact we are having on those that we serve. Our work is not about making the company successful. It’s about enriching the lives of those we come in contact with. It’s about making a difference in the lives of the children that we serve. It’s seeing the smiles on their faces when they receive a birthday gift they requested but didn’t think they would get. It’s about seeing them browse our clothing closet and selecting clothing items they want. It’s about seeing them running around and screaming on the bounce house. It’s about seeing their beautiful smile after getting their face painted by the face painter. It’s about seeing them running with excitement up to Santa Claus to hug him. It’s hearing that their internship experience with us led them to a full-time job.

I want our volunteers and donors to know that we appreciate them, and that we could not do the work without them. I want those we serve to know we are here for them. That everything we do is from the heart, that we see them and that we understand their needs and only want what’s the best for them. That we will continue to grow and learn on how to better serve them. To our potential donors, followers, and fans, please take some time to learn about us. Reach out to one for a one-on-one meeting on how you can get involved. We are a difference maker and would love for you to join us in making an even greater impact on the lives of those we serve.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Volunteers make up a considerable percentage of our organization. They are a valuable resource for us and a component that helps fulfill our goals for the greater good. Without our volunteers, it would be almost impossible for us to successfully do the work we have done for the past seven years. I would advise other nonprofits to always treat their volunteers with respect. Build deeper relationships by getting to know your volunteers. I try to introduce myself to our volunteers when we have an event. I thank them for their service and try to remember their names so that throughout the event, I can refer to them by their name. (I am not good with remembering names, so I use name association 😊). I also try to send a thank you note after the event. I also send an end-of-year thank you message. If possible, try to make it personal. Reflect on their volunteer time, and mention one or two times they volunteered with your organization. Make sure your team (paid staff and board members) is doing the same thing.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Starting a nonprofit organization is an inspiring way to give back to your community and help those in need. However, it requires tenacity and resilience. It’s important to understand all the steps involved and know that growing and sustaining a nonprofit may take years of effort and determination. As a small nonprofit, we face adversaries daily. Lack of funding is a major adversary for us. However, my faith in God and a strong board have kept the organization and me going. There were many times when I wanted to throw in the towel because I didn’t know how we would fund an event we had coming up, but God always stepped in and provided a way out each time. 2020 is an example of this. We were in the middle of planning our biggest fundraiser of the year (our 5th-anniversary gala). It was to occur in April, but COVID happened, and the country went into lockdown in mid-March. We had to cancel the event, and we didn’t know what we were going to do. Again, we are a small organization, and our services were important, but they weren’t what was needed at that time or considered “essential.” So, no funding was coming in because the focus was on helping everyone stay alive, helping to cover expenses for those that needed it, etc. Which was the right thing (most appropriate thing) to do at that time… but we still had an organization to run. This was a very unsettling time for the organization. We didn’t know what to do, and I personally wanted to give up. It was just too much (at least, that was what I thought). Still, again, God stepped in and provided us with several donors and an individual that believed in our mission and wanted to help propel the organization to another level.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, Resilience is “the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.”.

The moral of my story is don’t give up on your dream. Keep God first in everything you do, and things will fall into place. Starting a nonprofit organization is an inspiring way to give back to your community and help those in need, but it requires tenacity, drive, and resilience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://becauseonematters.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/becauseonematters
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BecauseOneMatters/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/because-one-matters
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNZLVvYbT2sKVGGNu53YPYw/videos