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

Patrice, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

As it turns out, I am trying to do ALL the things differently from the industry standard, but that wasn’t what I set out to do. When I decided to start a nonprofit support business focused on grant writing, I wanted to make it accessible with equity built into the foundation…little did I know that would open my eyes to how things REALLY work in both philanthropy and for-profit businesses.

I had a lot to learn about starting and running a small business having spent over 15 years as a social worker in nonprofits, but the business strategies I was learning felt kind of icky and manipulative. There weren’t a lot of business models balancing purpose AND profit (certainly not purpose over profit) or Collaboration OVER Innovation. Fortunately, I eventually found some other folks who felt the same way and was introduced to other business practices and strategies that were centering people, planet, and purpose, even if it was challenging the industry standard and status quo.

As a grant writer, I have started asking questions about our profession that make people uncomfortable. Questions like, “Does our profession enable harmful practices to exist in philanthropy?” Philanthropy is a fickle thing and grant writers have a powerful opportunity to make real change in the world if we harness our positions for something bigger. As it stands, we primarily help nonprofit and mission-driven organizations hustle in a system that does little to help close the wealth gap in our country (a gap that is at the root of a lot societal problems). Philanthropic grant-making, as it primarily exists, is the practice of incredibly wealthy individuals and groups determining where they want to prioritize charitable dollars and they have complete control over who can access those dollars and what regulations come with them. Over $400 billion dollars were transacted each year over the last few years in philanthropic and charitable ways. A lot of folks don’t realize, though, most of that money goes to large education, hospital, and religious systems, not to grassroots, community-based organizations that do on-the-ground work to meet ever-growing needs in communities. Still, billions of dollars seem like a lot of money trying to do good in this country, right? Well…there are over a TRILLION dollars sitting in trusts, endowments, and Donor-Advised Funds accounts NOT being actively used to do good. It is untaxed, “charitable money” that can legally sit with very little regulation. I truly believe grant writers are just the people to help get more funds and resources to more communities. It won’t be easy or comfortable, but it is worth a try!

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

It was 2:30 in the morning, I was up nursing an infant (that spent the first year of his life refusing to sleep), and I was thinking about the proposal I was drafting to take on another grant writing client. I had been doing freelance grant work as a sole proprietor for a few years but had started getting more referrals and was worried about my capacity to take on another organization. I had specifically focused on small organizations that tend not to have the funds to hire other grant writers because I know how hard it is to grow small nonprofit organizations, having worked in many throughout my social work career. I also knew how hard it was to get entry-level grant writing work because the limited number of salaried positions out there require years of experience, and there aren’t many places to practice under the direction of an experienced grant writer.

So, in the middle of one sleep-deprived night, I decided to create a place these two groups could meet and grow – A Village for Good. People often ask me why I didn’t start my own nonprofit and the answer is, we don’t need more nonprofits. We need more connection and partnership. We need more for-profit companies building purpose and collaboration into their culture. We all need a deeper understanding of how philanthropy works and avenues to challenge practices that just aren’t making a positive impact. We provide grant readiness and writing services while advocating for real discussion and solutions combating inequities built into the fabric of our philanthropic systems. When we have the power and space to invest in ourselves AND our communities, everyone wins!

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Yes! In fact, I began collecting all the things out there making an impact on my thinking and progress and created a resource guide for nonprofits and grant writers. Anyone can access the guide from A Village for Good’s website. Some of my favorites are: Community-Centric Fundraising
The Ethical Rainmaker Podcast – Michelle Shireen Muri
Nonprofit AF – Vu Le
The Ethical Move
Reclaim Your Neighborhood – Majora Carter
The Anti-Racist Business Book – Trudi Lebron
Decolonizing Wealth – Edgar Villanova
Heal Your Way Forward – Myisha T. Hill
The Everyday Philanthropist – Dan Pollatta
Inequality.org
Fleur Larson’s Power With not Power Over Training
And so many more!!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

It’s been a combination of learning things I should have already known and unlearning the things that I should have never known. There has been a lot of personal reflection, identification, and acknowledgment in understanding purpose and privilege (and I have only begun to scratch the surface). I am a white, cisgender, able-bodied female who has an advanced degree, access to healthcare, enough financial stability to take a chance on creating a business, and a wealth of family and friend support systems. All of those identities come with privilege and opportunity – and that makes a difference.

A defining moment came when I was reading Majora Carter’s Reclaim Your Neighborhood and realized that most of my work as a social worker was probably helping fuel the “nonprofit industrial complex”. I have worked with a lot of people in marginalized communities. I have helped them secure housing, access food resources, get medical care, have safe pregnancies and deliveries, maintain independence in older age, and access education, just to name a few. But rarely did I pivot and directly challenge the systems that LED TO and PERPETUATED food insecurity, homelessness, inequities in healthcare and education, and disparities that plague so many in our society. Essentially, I helped folks be slightly more comfortable within their inequitable circumstances rather than helping change the circumstances surrounding them. It was a heavy realization and got even heavier when I began to understand the benefits I get from those circumstances. My position in a white-dominant culture affords me privileges others just don’t get.

For me, the lesson I needed to unlearn was that being a “good person” was enough. I can do more than not be racist; I can be anti-racist. I can do more than build a business for myself; I can help others build their businesses, too. I can do more than learn about the lasting harms of slavery, colonialism, sexism, ableism, and capitalism; I can specifically help folks who are most affected by those harms. My business can be a vehicle for making a better world.

**I also had to unlearn that my time is my own. As a mom of two small kiddos who works from home, my time is shared between work, momming, and every other little thing that comes up at home during the day. And some days, I just don’t get to choose where my time goes (no matter how hard I try). Also, when a toddler wants to color while you are on a Zoom meeting, things can get interesting.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.avillageforgood.com
• Instagram: @avillageforgood
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrice-shumate/

Image Credits
Calendar images – Calendar created by Oh Happy Dani