We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful C. Michelle Harrison. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with C. Michelle below.
C. Michelle, appreciate you joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
I started my charity organization in my mind first. It went from an Idea to Execution. It started through many years of being a volunteer at various other nonprofit organizations. I’m the type of person that loves to volunteer my time, talent and treasure. When I see a need, I try my best to do what I can to help. While volunteering at other charities and events over the years, I would see things that I thought would be great to implement, regarding adding more, helpful community services and programs. This sparked the idea of starting my own charity organization. So I started doing the research. I started looking up information online and going to free events about “How to start a new nonprofit. After a lot of research, bit by bit, I found out what I needed to do to get registered with the state and the necessary steps that needed to be taken to obtain exempt status for my nonprofit or 501c3. I ended up hiring a charity startup consultant to assist me with the whole process, to ensure that everything was in place and done properly. I was super excited when I was approved for my 501c3. Once that was done, I started researching how to obtain funding for a location and how to apply for grants. I quickly found out that it is not an easy process and I still had a lot of work to do. Although it’s a lot of work, it is well worth it.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
The name of my charity organization is 4 My Destiny Community Arts Center Inc. My good friend and I thought of this name together, after considering many other names. Our Purpose is to reach At-risk youth & young adults through Performing Arts and to Promote Positive Change. To introduce future generations to Live Theatre, Music and Art. We plan to bridge the gap between our communities.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
The advice that I have for managing a team and maintaining high morale is to lead by example, set a pleasant atmosphere at all times, be a great team player, let everyone know that you appreciate them and all of their hard work. Also plan team building and company wide outings and give perks
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
So many people told me that it was a bad idea to start a nonprofit organization. I heard all kinds of stories like, it’s so hard to fund raise and it’s so hard to get volunteers and if I don’t meet my annual budget I’ll have to close my charity. It was just negativity coming from everywhere. But I decided to follow my heart and do what I knew was right and that was; to step out on faith and start my charity. This was one of the best decisions that I have ever made. Serving my community and help those in need is my passion. I’m able to serve my community in many different ways through my nonprofit
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