Kim Berry Jones

I attribute my success 100% to relationships. I really believe everything comes down to trust and relationships. I'm a very open person with integrity who does what I say I'll do, so I've had a lot of success building trusted relationships in every job I've been in. In all the different career areas I've been in, I've recognized that it all comes down to having solid, trusting relationships. That's how I think we succeed, but it's also how we build something that's meaningful and effective - by being trustworthy, doing what we say we'll do, and respecting other people and what they bring to the table.

In my very first job, I was 22 years old and was promoted to a management position just over a year after I started, which was insane now that I think about it. The Human Resources Director at the time looked at me and said, 'You'll never apply for another job again.' I didn't know he meant - it made no sense to me at the time - but that's been true. I've never actually had to apply for a job. I've created my own pathway. That wasn't so much advice as permission. It stayed with me because it reminded me along the way that there are different ways to move forward and up in a career besides applying for jobs and looking for other ones. There are other ways to manifest that, which I've really experienced.

I think always have someone behind you and someone ahead of you. Always have a younger woman behind you that you can mentor and support, and then have someone you can look up to as an example and someone that can mentor you. This has been probably one of the biggest pieces of advice I give myself and to every other woman I work with. It's an important way to give back, but also to receive.

I think the biggest challenge in philanthropy is that we're still operating under very traditional models that have been in place for probably 100 years, and they don't work in today's environment. It's the very traditional power-over structure of philanthropy, where you have to prove your worth as a nonprofit to the folks that are holding the money. In my opinion, it's just clearly not working. It's not helping nonprofits be sustainable. I think things need to shift, and there are folks working on that, including me in this space, but there's a long way to go.

I think that we're people before we are employees, and it's always people over programs. I always approached that in the nonprofit with my team - I always told them, you know, you're people before you are the program that you lead. I think that's about balance. I personally had a health crisis coming out of the nonprofit space because I didn't have good balance, and so now I advocate for the well-being of nonprofit leaders. I do a lot of talking and work around that, and we do very specific work at the foundation to support our partners' well-being. Learning to have a good balance is so important. I actually had a young professional just reach out to me and say she had heard me tell my story, and it had really changed her idea about success and how to move up in the world, because she was doing it at a personal cost to her well-being. When I talked about that, she said it impacted her trajectory, which was wonderful to hear. If I can help someone avoid the pit I fell into by doing really important, valuable work, but at my own expense, then I'll feel really happy about that.