Elise Heaton

I think that enjoying what I do is a big part of it, because enjoying what you do, I think, lends itself to you naturally just work harder because you enjoy doing it, and it doesn't feel like work. I really love that when I wake up and work every day, it doesn't feel like work, it doesn't feel like a burden. It's something that I enjoy doing. But also just working with a really supportive, positive team, and having that workplace culture that is really a collaborative team effort where you know that everyone is there to support you. It really helps you to be successful, too, because it doesn't hold you back from asking questions if you have any. You don't feel scared or nervous to ask for help or ask for questions. And that lends itself to always being able to learn and grow and expand your knowledge base so that you can just become more successful as you continue in your role.

My advice is to, you know, it's scary. It's scary to make a career pivot after almost 20 years, but at the end of the day, I think you always have to really love what you're doing. We spend so much of our lives working, unfortunately, these days, it's just the nature of our society. And so, I think with that, you really have to enjoy what you're doing in order to not get burnt out and to maintain that balance between your personal life and your professional life. So even though it might be scary, to not shy away from exploring other possibilities, if you start to feel like you are stuck or you need to do something different. To just go for it, and just trust that it's going to be okay, and that you can take your skills from one career to another and transfer them to continue to do something that, you know, is impactful and meaningful, but also still, like, fulfills you as a person as well.

I would say with the nonprofit sector, one of the things that we continue to struggle with is fundraising. We're 100% privately funded. We don't receive any government funding. Even though COVID was, you know, 6 years ago now, a lot of the ways that corporations fund through giving to nonprofits have changed, and they've kind of pulled back a little bit on that. And so, just in general, whether it's individual donors or organizations or companies donating, we're still feeling the effects of, you know, the little mini recession we had with COVID. Then, just the increase with the cost of living throughout Atlanta, with the lack of, you know, compensating increase in wages and salaries to go along with it. Just securing that funding through donors has become more of a challenge, just because there are competing priorities for money. So, just really working hard to maintain our partnerships and relationships, and really the impact that their contributions and donations have on the youth that we serve and the community of Atlanta as a whole.