We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kenita Smith a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kenita thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with 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 founded H.O.P.E, Inc. (Helping Other People be Empowered) organization based on my personal life story. I was a single parent in college, a sophomore when I had my first son. It took me ten years to complete my college degree due to the lack of resources and support for single parents attending a two- or four-year college and working. There were many outlets for homeless single parents or even those obtaining a diploma or a certificate, but not those of us pursuing an Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree. I remembered being denied childcare assistance from the government program, CAPS because I was attending a four-year college, but I was told if I was obtaining a certificate or diploma they could help me. I remembered thinking how backward that was.

As a result, I switched majors several times and finally completed my degree in Business Administration, concentrating in Healthcare Management. I was thriving in my career at a local hospice company when I found myself trying to discover my true passion. I asked myself, “what is it that I could do every day and not be paid for it?” I quickly realized that I was a giver. I’d given shoes off of my feet and have always enjoyed helping others. Out of this realization, I created the H.O.P.E. program and wrote up a description. I gave it to a doctor friend of mine and asked him what he thought. He said, “. . .you have to start this program, and I will give you the seed money to get your 501c3.” I filed on my own and it was approved in three months. The rest is history.

Thirteen years later, we have assisted 102 single parents, 271 children! We have an 80% graduation rate, and our graduate’s incomes increase by at least $31,000 annually after graduating from college. A HUGE impact! We also have grown as an organization from a volunteer-only organization to a staffed nonprofit business, and we are expanding into Birmingham, Alabama.

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?

I founded H.O.P.E, Inc. (Helping Other People be Empowered) organization based on my personal life story. I was a single parent in college, a sophomore when I had my first son. It took me ten years to complete my college degree due to the lack of resources and support for single parents attending a two- or four-year college and working. There were many outlets for homeless single parents or even those obtaining a diploma or a certificate, but not those of us pursuing an Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree. I remembered being denied childcare assistance from the government program, CAPS because I was attending a four-year college, but I was told if I was obtaining a certificate or diploma they could help me. I remembered thinking how backward that was.

As a result, I switched majors several times and finally completed my degree in Business Administration, concentrating in Healthcare Management. I was thriving in my career at a local hospice company when I found myself trying to discover my true passion. I asked myself, “what is it that I could do every day and not be paid for it?” I quickly realized that I was a giver. I’d given shoes off of my feet and have always enjoyed helping others. Out of this realization, I created the H.O.P.E. program and wrote up a description. I gave it to a doctor friend of mine and asked him what he thought. He said, “. . .you have to start this program, and I will give you the seed money to get your 501c3.” I filed on my own and it was approved in three months. The rest is history.

Thirteen years later, we have assisted over 100 single parents, 271 children! We have an 80% graduation rate, and our graduate’s incomes increase by at least $31,000 annually after graduating from college. A HUGE impact! We also have grown as an organization from a volunteer-only organization to a staffed nonprofit business, and we are expanding into Birmingham, Alabama.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

It certainly was not a smooth road. I did not have any nonprofit experience when I started H.O.P.E, Inc. I had no donors and no foundation support, but I grew the organization from an $11,000 annual organization to almost $500,000 organization. In addition, the year I founded H.O.P.E, Inc. my late husband was battling bladder cancer for the second time. I was not working so I was able to put all of my energy into the organization. I also was not paid a salary for the first three years. However, the skills I learned in forming my nonprofit allowed me to contract my services to make ends meet until I grew the organization enough to be given a salary. I later lost my late husband to a continuous battle with bladder cancer and fought my own battle with breast cancer just two years ago. Therefore, there were many obstacles that could have detoured me, but my desire to help my single-parent participants kept me going. Nonprofit business is not like for-profit business. To me, it is much more difficult because you don’t have a product that you can scale, you have a mission that you have to touch hearts with over and over again. Thankfully, the mission I chose sells itself and has a great impact in the community overall.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

Starting My Nonprofit is a consulting business. I started helping others start their own nonprofits and grow them successfully. I use my experience with starting H.O.P.E, Inc. (Helping Other People be Empowered) and growing it over the last thirteen years, and I put that knowledge into eCourses, one-on-one consulting, and fundraising coaching. I have written grants that have awarded my nonprofit over $2.5 million dollars and I have a 100% success rate, helping over forty nonprofit leaders successfully file their 501c3 paperwork. I know what it takes to grow a nonprofit from the ground up. I talk about that in my eBook “How I Started My Nonprofit From The Ground Up” and teach leaders about what they need to do to get grants in my eBook “Are You Grant Ready?” Readers can visit my website at startingmynonprofit.com to book my consultation, 501c3 filing services, or order any of my eBooks. My eCourses will be launching on Teachable this month.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hopbe.org
• Instagram: @HOPEInc1, @startingmynonprofit
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HOPEIncDuluth/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/h-o-p-e-inc-helping-other-people-be-empowered-/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/HOPEInc1
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@HOPEINC07