Cydney Moore

I absolutely would not have been able to do any of it alone. My community has been the catalyst for all the things that I've done and everything I've been able to achieve. One of the most important lessons that I have learned is that we really have to learn to lean on our community and know that we just can't go it alone. If we're trying to make impact or meaningful change, we are always going to have to lean on our support network and our community to be right there alongside with us, whether that's our colleagues and peers in our field, whether that's our personal support network at home, our friends, our family. We need to make sure that somebody has our back and somebody is helping keep us in check. Somebody is there to say, hey, you might want to rethink that, or hey, you need to sleep because it's been too long and you've exhausted yourself now, or offer new insight to a problem that you could use a fresh perspective on. Leaning on community and maintaining your relationships in your community with the people that you trust and that you care about and that care about you is tantamount to success, it's just vital, it's just completely vital for any success.

As my mentors have told me, I'll credit Doug Hyatt with this one originally in telling me this: it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. We have a lot of work to do and we have to be in it for the long haul, and so we have to make sure to go hard but also pace ourselves enough to make it to the finish line. I have become very intimately familiar with burnout over my years of work. We do need to take care of ourselves, we do need to manage our own well-being in order to be our best and show up at our best for other people. It's something that a lot of us do kind of have to learn as we go along because when you're passionate about something, it's hard to take a step back and breathe. We have to try and take space for yourself as soon as you possibly can to recover.

I would first express appreciation because the nonprofit world is floating so many important layers of need in our community, especially in this country where we don't have as robust of a support network as a lot of other places. I would encourage them to reach out and connect with more people in the field to get feedback from people in the organizations that they are looking at or in the general field that they're looking at going into, to learn more about what that looks like, what the expectations are, what kind of load you're expected to carry. Not all nonprofits operate the same, and some are really invested in maintaining the well-being of their people and some are not equipped to do that as well, or they are equipped and they choose not to. You need to be prepared for that going in. I would also encourage folks that are interested in getting involved in the nonprofit world to consider volunteering. Get familiar with the field, get some hands-on experience, get connected with people who are already doing the work, make friends, learn about the fields, learn about the people you're serving. There's a lot of education options out there which are fantastic, but hands-on experience is honestly kind of its own reward. Getting yourself connected with the community that is doing the work that you want to be engaged in is great. I think that's a good first step.

We only get so much on this earth that we might make good use of it and hopefully leave something behind that is meaningful. I try and operate with intent. I like to make waves in the best ways and push for positive change. My validation mostly comes from the people that I respect in my own life and that I trust, and when I have their support, when they tell me I'm doing the right thing and I'm on the right track, that's the kind of validation that keeps me going. I'm not out here seeking validation, I'm just going and doing, and if it comes along the way, then that's cool. I think we need more women in leadership at all levels and in all industries.