Marilyn Jones

I would say, first, my parents in teaching me to give back. My family, we were all raised that way and wanted to give back, so going into the nonprofit space allowed me to be able to give back, but also to be able to make a living, to be able to give back to the community financially and of my talent. I also had great mentors coming through the system as I was going through. I worked with so many high-profile volunteers and community leaders who took me under their wings to help me understand the community, understand how our system was all put together and how it worked, how they identify what's priority, and how to connect with different people, and also how to connect people to the work that I do. I had a wonderful group of volunteers and mentors who have helped me to craft, to hone my skills and to be able to find my niche here in the nonprofit space.

One is to always be your true, authentic self. Also, give more than you receive. And whenever you can, be a voice for someone who feels they do not have a voice. And they often remind me, Marilyn, you have to sometimes you have to go slow rather than go fast. Take your time, and bring people along with you.

Explore, go out and visit and see. If you're interested in this, go out and visit and see. Volunteer in the nonprofit space to see if this is really what you want to do. Do your research to see if there's a field out there that aligns with what you want to do. Ask for a mentor. Identify someone in the nonprofit space that you admire and that you think are really having success, and ask them if they would be a mentor or else be a coach and meet with you, just to give you some guidance. And I always tell them to make sure that you focus on how you're able to communicate with a wide variety of people in a variety of ways. Not all texts, not all emails, but being able to pick up the phone and engage in a conversation. You will get an answer back, more likely, if you put the effort in to reach out to them and ask them, as opposed to just sending them a text and waiting for them to respond.

I would say right now, the funding landscape is changing simply because there are so many more needs, and the funders have a limited amount of money in which they can invest. There is more competition for dollars, and some of the needs that were at one point covered in other areas, maybe through government grants, are receiving reductions. Some of our funders are saying, we will continue to support you for girl leadership development and helping them understand and find experiences in STEM, but we've got to take care of the basic needs of providing food, shelter, and housing for the community. So you're seeing some areas you may not get funding continually. Some are saying, where we used to fund you on an annual basis, we're going to go to every other year, or we're going to go to every 3 years. We're seeing that shift. We're either seeing some funds go away, or else they're starting to become less, simply because the needs are so great, and they're trying to cover a broad landscape of needs, particularly those basic needs. Another challenge for me and for our organization is making sure that people understand truly what we do. A lot of people know us from our cookie program, so my challenge is to make sure that our donors know how their dollars are making an impact, and also to know the breadth of services that we're providing for young girls.

The values for me, one are integrity, that's top of mind for me. Integrity, doing what you say that you're going to do, and doing something when people aren't looking, being the same way you would be if someone was not looking at you. I would say definitely integrity, definitely accountability. Also, another value for me is understanding and appreciating differences. And I also value honesty. Those are the ones that really I try to live by each and every day.