We were lucky to catch up with Veronica Eyenga recently and have shared our conversation below.

Veronica, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

We are a nonprofit organization and we were having a difficult time getting significant grants or funding. We had an extra space that we weren’t really utilizing and decided to convert the space into a community space that could be used to host private events and parties.

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?

Working in the nonprofit sector has always been a passion of mine and being able to work with young minds to help mold them, brought a certain amount of joy in my life. I saw our teens struggling with their self esteem and self worth. I saw them getting into youthful trouble due to having too much time on their hands and lack of resources. When I decided to start the nonprofit program, it was to help combat these social issues and to also teach critical life skills along the way like college-readiness, entrepenuer, financial management and independent living.

We were 7 years into the establishment when I realized that I was the one funding for everything and that the level of support we were financially receiving was never going to be enough for the organization to be self sustained.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I think if I could’ve envisioned the difficulty of getting a nonprofit funded from the beginning, I would have opened up with the event venue at the onset. Sometimes we get so passionate about our vision that we don’t always think through all the challenges we may face before we leap into it.

I am glad that I was able to come up with a Plan B with the event venue, but I feel like I lost 7 years on the front end by using my personal resources.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I have had to learn that nonprofit work is humbling work. You don’t do it because you’re gonna get paid….not at all. In fact, you’re lucky if you’re even able to get a dollar from that type of work. But because you are so passionate about it, you think everyone will see and feel that passion and also jump onboard— oh but how wrong of an assumption that can be!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mlounge.org
• Instagram: m_lounge_events
• Facebook: mloungeevents