Tell me about your vision. Sure. So I own Inovant
consulting. We're a non-profit consulting firm.
We're not a non-profit. We consult for non-profits
and work with a variety of organizations to help them with their
grant writing and development needs primarily in the grant space.
I started the company in 2016 really because I had a vision of
being able to support local non-profits at that time. It's
really where it started with their grant writing needs because I
could see such a huge gap in the need for having funding to be
able to do programs in our community and help our community
and the ability to just have the time to write those grants and like to get the
applications and to get that funding. So my vision was to be able to support
them and kind of be that missing staff member that just came in,
sent the grant application in and was out without being a burden on their
salary or their operating expenses. So that was the initial vision.
My vision has grown since then obviously years later now
to be really a non-profit, like no wrong door
approach type of organization. So any non-profit, any stage of development can
come to us and get something to support their goals and
their needs. So we do low ticket items,
everything from like digital downloads and templates to hire,
you know, we do all of their grant writing and grant management. We like to
take over at their grant department. So that's really the vision is to just
have this, like in one sentence, a no wrong door
approach for non-profits. I love that idea and it's important that
you say that you are a consulting firm that works with
non-profits, not a non-profit consulting firm.
Right, yeah. Very different thing. We are not a non-profit, but we work
exclusively with non-profits. Where do you think your vision is going?
So I don't focus very much on financial goals because we work with non-profits
and you really have to kind of, I mean you do have to consider
money because obviously I need to hear my employees, but also
like I think I get more value from and more
drive from like the number of non-profits we help or the
number of grant funds that we bring in or are successful in obtaining.
Or one of the new things for me is like working with non-profits outside of the
U.S. So we've got two in other countries right now and I really
love to be able to say like we're working with non-profits in the U.S.
and also in Africa and in Central America and I'd love to add to that.
I like that. I think it's cool. Just to grow.
Yeah, that's where it's headed now and then we also, we just
launched a new coaching program. It's like an exclusive membership program for
non-profits. Leaders who are kind of new to the
space, so like if you just founded a non-profit you've got this passion,
but you're not really sure what, you know, how to move forward because running a
non-profit is really a lot different than running any other
type of business. So we just launched this membership
program where like non-profit founders and people that are new to leadership
can come in and get the resources that they need. We have like this robust menu
of things to help support their goals and their growth and their organization.
So I'd say that helping more organizations is the vision, but also
having this deeper sort of membership program
with lots of value is also the vision. Why do leaders hide from funding their
vision? I think, can I speak from like a non-profit
leaders space? Absolutely, you speak from wherever you
want to think about. I think because it's difficult, right? Like I think out of all
the things that we do that non-profits do, I'm
loop right in there with them. I'm at the front line.
Funding's the hardest because in a non-profit you're asking for it, right?
You're not necessarily doing, you know, trading
services for financial gain or selling a product really.
You're literally often just asking for the money and
that's a difficult thing to do and it's uncomfortable if you're not
used to it. It can be uncomfortable when you're used
to it. So I think that that's really difficult and then I think it's
also not the fun part, right? Like when we start a non-profit we want to
think about like what how good we're going to do and like the stories we're
going to tell them, the slides we're going to impact.
Not like the money in the bank. Like that's not fun.
It's not the fun part. It's just not. It's the difficult, the most difficult part of
running a non-profit and the most challenging. So I think
that that's why sometimes leaders don't want to face it
head-on and it's a good day. I'm really happy that you tuned
into Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these
episodes continue to move forward. This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have
more and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to
participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time and
attention. Have an excellent time building out your
vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.