We recently connected with RJ Swist and have shared our conversation below.

RJ, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Chatting on the phone with a Veteran Marine friend, he expressed to me that he was going to do himself harm. Struggling with mental illness, he had a gun in hand to take his own life. March 2021 is when the spark for our mission began. I knew I had to do more to support, serve, and make sure our heroes know they are not alone. This is why we began our selfless journey serving our brave as they sacrificed so much for us.

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?

RJ’s Mission Foundation provides essential provisions to our Veterans, first responders, and their families such as hot meals, nonperishables, toiletries, paper goods, clothes, and supplies. The supplies and food are vital to survive each day. Our focus is making sure those in heroes benefiting know they are not alone. Our foundation is grassroots and we are supporting and helping more each day.

We have been blessed with the opportunity to give back to our community to our national crisis of food insecurity. Each week, our organization picks up 75+ lbs of donated Chick-fil-A. With that food donation we are able to fill a blessing fridge for those that need food. There is so much to go around that we are able to provide food for local senior home meals, and deliveries to our local fire stations.

Our mission is simple – caring for our brave and community through providing essential provisions. Our volunteers and supporters keep our programs going above and beyond. Funding is always tough, but the key is consistency and focus on those we serve for a greater cause then ourselves.

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

As a grassroots nonprofit, most of our risk is not having enough funds to continue our programs. Our foundation is 100% voluntary and most times donations come from our regular job paychecks. There is such thing as nonprofit burnout and it does get tough sometimes. You begin to doubt yourself, stress levels can grow, anxiety hits in, and you think there is no answer to help the foundation going.

Someone once told me, “If they say no, move onto the next person. And just ask.” That was the answer and the path forward. We figured a plan forward where our foundation could start spreading the word and building awareness for the support our Veterans and first responders need.

When feeling overwhelmed as a founder, volunteering and serving is always going to be the easier action. The hard part is learning to ask for help and building your team of volunteers. I had to learn to give up control and that was hard because of my passion for serving. I had to have Achilles tendon surgery that was going to sideline me for 3 months. That surgery was the most humiliating for myself as I had to ask for help and our volunteers stepped up.

Building a team around you is a primary goal that should be set forth right from the beginning.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funding is always the hardest goal for small nonprofits. Our foundation began with self funding until we started getting out into the community and spreading the word. We started by meeting with local businesses to get the community involved. Once a few community partners were onboard, RJ’s Mission began to slowly grow.

Our organization started doing pop-ups, farmers markets, and speaking at events. Then I figured it was time to have a fundraiser and that was when we gained momentum. Was it easy? Nope, but we believed and the community was our resource.

RJ’s Mission Foundation is a slow and steady journey that consistently shows up to support and provide for our brave. Funding is always a constant items at the forefront for any nonprofit. We can only plan so much, but our passion and service keep us on track remember why we started.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rjsmissionfoundation.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instargram.com/rjsmissionfoundation
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RJsMissionFoundation/