The Spring Forward Podcast

The Business of Nonprofits

• Spring Richardson-Perry • Episode 39

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We unpack the critical business side of nonprofits with Karria Lawrence, founder of Pretty Girls Pray and Archetype & Co, exploring how strategic planning and organizational structure enable mission fulfillment.

Here are some key takeaways:

• Strategic planning serves as the foundation for nonprofit success by creating clarity, preventing mission drift, and identifying what moves the needle
• Properly documenting processes allows leaders to step out of daily operations and focus on strategic growth
• Identifying team members' natural gifts ensures people are placed in roles where they can make the greatest impact
• Breaking goals into shorter "sprints" (30-60 days) creates focus and urgency that leads to faster accomplishment
• Strategic plans should be living documents that can adapt during financial strain while maintaining core objectives

Connect with Karria Lawrence on all social platforms @karriaconsult, visit her company at arketypeand.co, or learn about her nonprofit at prettgyrlzpray.org.


Speaker 1:

Hey, nonprofit friends, welcome to the Spring Forward podcast, where we talk about all things nonprofit, from board discord to grant writing and strategic planning tips. If you're an executive director, nonprofit board member or just someone heavily involved in the nonprofit sector, then this is the podcast for you. Let's spring forward into excellence. Welcome, welcome, guys, to another episode of the Spring Forward podcast. I'm your host, spring Richardson Perry, and I'm super excited today to bring you Ms Kia Lawrence. She is the founder of Pretty Girls Pray, which is a nonprofit that's dedicated to empowering girls who have experienced trauma. She focuses on trauma recovery, self-esteem building and life skills development, and what's really awesome is that she also has a for-profit company called Archetype Co. Which is a strategic planning and operational consulting firm, and so she is really good at the business of business, and so that is what we're going to be talking about today the business of nonprofits, and so I am super excited to have miss Kariya on to talk to us about this, so welcome thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 2:

I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. I'm super excited to talk about this because this is one of those things that's always kind of overlooked in the nonprofit sector. Right is the business side, Because, yes, we're in it to serve, we're in it to help, but it's still a business and we have to be mindful of that. So I'm really excited to lift this up today to really talk about this, to share some insights that you have. But I want to start with first telling us what you do in your for-profit business and how it relates to the nonprofit side of things.

Speaker 2:

Yes, so in my for-profit company, Archetype Co, we actually come into small organizations and help them structure their company, build out processes and actually design their systems to put in place for them to either have more impact, create sustainability and also create some transparency amongst their team and allow, like the owner or the founder to not be the operator so much within the company, to begin to start delegating and delegate properly and even the people that they may have on the team for them to take ownership within their actual roles, so that way they can design KPIs, put you know real, true sales metrics in place and start focusing more on strategy than the doing of the thing.

Speaker 1:

Yes, that is super important, and I think people don't realize how much this makes sense and how much this actually moves the business forward, as opposed to you as either the owner of the for-profit or the founder of the nonprofit. When you're in the daily grind, it's hard for you to push the needle forward for the overall business machine itself, and so when you start to put these systems and these processes and these sound structures in place, it makes it so much easier for things to move forward and for you to really start to scale and to really start to see the business itself be a business. So I love to hear that, because I think people in the nonprofit world really forget about this. So I want to take a step back for a moment, though, and now talk about your nonprofit. Let's shift over to that part of things, because I want to talk about what your nonprofit is, what you do in it, but then also how you help nonprofits to really scale and structure and build sustainable organizations. So talk to us about Pretty Girl.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So Pretty Girls Pray is a nonprofit that was given to me, of course, like most founders, out of typically either pain or an experience that some of us may have had in life. So, personally, I'm a survivor of physical and sexual abuse from childhood and so I decided to. Physical and sexual abuse from childhood, and so I decided to. Not, I decided. Actually, god gave me the vision to start this nonprofit, probably a little bit over, probably when I was in my teens, to be honest with you, and I always wanted to be a director of a school board, but I never saw myself necessarily becoming an entrepreneur, so to speak. I just thought that the nonprofit would be something kind of small, maybe an after school program, something like that, but nothing to the scale of what the vision that he is currently showing me. And so, you know, we started the nonprofit basically just working with. First we start working with, like girls that I was just connected with through you know, friends of you know in my direct community, whether it be church or what have you. Then I got assigned to troubled youth through my church 10 years ago, so they were already coming out of detention centers but they were like in a group home. So I was assigned to them and working with them and then from there I just kind of grew and started doing navigating things on my own.

Speaker 2:

I had did my first like fundraiser, um, probably like eight years ago. It was a fashion show, and so I had never, I didn't have a platform, I didn't have, I didn't know anybody. It was in Atlanta, um, ended up being in Buckhead and ended up being a sold out show and I had over 50 volunteers. I did not hardly know anybody, but God had literally had designed people to crossing paths with people that, just you know, showed up and um and blessed and blessed me and so, um, so yeah, it was definitely a great experience.

Speaker 2:

The next one I did was at City Hall in Atlanta, um, and that was a true learning experience, because at that time I had over 107 volunteers and people didn't even know I was the one that was putting on the show. So from there I just be able to just do different things, from summer camps to just different programs and just outreaches for the girls. Right now I'm in Cleveland, ohio, partnering with schools and nonprofits as a resource. Well, that's what I do right now. So we went to like small programs to actually now partnering with schools and other nonprofits as a resource for trauma-informed services.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome. I love to hear those types of stories.

Speaker 1:

And you know, it's unfortunate that you have this experience. That causes you to reflect and be like what can I do to help others? So it's have doesn't what we have, doesn't the other right, because you experienced this trauma, which in and of itself is an unfortunate situation, but the blessing in it is that God gives you this vision to ensure that there's support for anyone else who's experienced a similar situation. And so I love, love, love what you're doing. We have a nonprofit, my husband and I, that is youth focused as well, and its focus is on young men, young boys, because we don't have a lot of focus on our young boys.

Speaker 1:

And so it's a life skills program as well, and I love to hear when you're focused on helping young people to develop into good human beings who are going to function well in society, despite whatever the circumstance is. And so, as I'm listening to you and you're talking about the fundraisers that you put together me in the nonprofit world, fundraising especially when you're doing an event, the planning behind this is nuts, and so you know this is, but, but this is what you do, right, the, the organizing, the strategic planning, those sorts of things. And so I want to, I want to jump into that and just kind of talk about strategic planning in and of itself and how important this is for nonprofits, and moving forward Talk to me about that.

Speaker 2:

I feel like strategic planning is probably one of the core pieces that needs to happen in any organization, but especially nonprofits, because you do have so many moving pieces and variables that could predict whether you know how many people that you are looking to connect with outreach impact, as well as how many donors or sponsorships that you may need for the year to sustain and what grants and opportunities and fellowships that are out there for you to connect with to be able to grow and to be able to grow.

Speaker 2:

And so strategic planning, I feel like, should be the foundation of what all nonprofits do, At least do, one at the top of the year and one maybe towards the end of the year. It has to happen. It allows the team to flow with clarity, for you to be able to assign and also look back on what worked well and what didn't work well, and put some language to you know and reminders as to why you're doing what you're doing, Because sometimes it can be very easy to get in the mundane of things in the day-to-day or have life happening if you're just doing your non-profit part-time and not really focusing on what needs to happen to move the needle. Strategic planning helps you identify what needs to move the needle in the business.

Speaker 1:

I love that, because I think this is a part that a lot of organizations miss, because strategic planning gets everyone on the same page.

Speaker 1:

It gets everyone on one accord to understanding this is what our vision is. This is why we're here to serve what our purpose is, because sometimes there's this mission drift right, where we've set out with one mission and let's say with yours it's helping young girls with trauma, right, but then in doing so, sometimes you start to drift over to oh well, we're helping them with trauma and then, instead of focusing on the life skills aspect of it, you start going more into mental health, and while that's a part of it, right, the overall mission, from what I'm understanding, is is the, the skills, the life skills, the tools, the resources to be able to really, to really be able to move forward and live a fruitful life. And so, you know, sometimes we just have those. We have those moments where we got to all sit down at the table again. We got to talk about okay, this is why we're here, this is what we're doing and this is how we see ourselves moving forward.

Speaker 1:

And I find that, um, I find that nonprofits don't put enough emphasis on this, um, and and they don't put enough resources aside um to do this, and not that it takes a lot of resources but, if you don't understand what strategic planning is and you don't really know how to do it and how to make it work for your organization, then you have to have resources to bring a professional in to help you. And so you know what I mean. And so I just think that I don't think that many nonprofits really understand how important strategic planning is and they're kind of just winging it. And it shows sometimes, you know. And so I want to say I want to say this, because this is something else that you mentioned right, it's stepping out of the day-to-day operations so that you can have a 360 view of what's happening in the organization. But how does the leader do that? How do you help them do that?

Speaker 2:

Well, it does take time, but it's just easily done, honestly, through one, getting everything out of your head that you do do and actually documenting the processes.

Speaker 2:

Once the processes are documenting, then knowing how to properly train and equip the right people and also finding the right who's that you need and understanding where your deficits are. So there are quite a it's simple, but it's quite a few just different steps that need to happen before putting someone in a particular role. The danger is, a lot of times, people, especially in nonprofits, just whoever can volunteer, whoever can get in. You know whoever can do this. You know we allow them to do it, but without identifying you know where their gifts are. Identifying you know where their gifts are, and so you could be putting somebody in admin that could be really gifted in just sales and outreach, that can be closing on some deals, and so it's just you know being able to properly equip yourself, to know how to identify the who's that are on your team and identify exactly where your deficits are and how you're going to, you know, employ those people.

Speaker 1:

Well, and that's super important too, and I want to talk about this because you know, like you said, you may have someone in the wrong space, right, because they may be gifted in one area, but you have them doing something else because you don't understand how to identify those gifts, right? So how do we identify that? How do we engage our employees or volunteers or whomever that is helping us? How do we engage them so that we can properly identify those gifts and put them in the right places?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so there are a lot of different tools and assessments that you can use, you know, to be able to identify where someone kind of like where they are, but also asking them. Sometimes people do want to volunteer but and they will have a heart to volunteer but also asking them what they like and what they don't like them what they like and what they don't like, you know, is this something that they like to do? And people would usually be honest with you. But also, people are typically, especially in the nonprofit space, they'll just be happy to help. So it doesn't matter, they'll just fill in the gap. But if you ask someone, is this something that you like to do? They may just tell you no or yes.

Speaker 1:

But sometimes, sometimes our gifts are not necessarily what we like to do, but we're super, super gifted at it and we can do it with our eyes closed yeah so you know there's a balance there. You know how do you go about that balance um, I don't think there's a balance.

Speaker 2:

No, no, I don't think there's a balance. I think people who think, people who are naturally gifted in a particular space, and if it comes easy for them, they usually might lean more into that than to what does not come easy it becomes frustrating when you're you begin unhappy, you're not fulfilled in in in that light, um and yeah. So I don't think there is a balance between like being in your gift and just kind of like, um you know, working in a particular space. I believe when you're in your gift it brings ease, even if the world around you is chaotic.

Speaker 1:

So I say that because I think about myself, right and for me, right, I can jump into educator mode in 2.5 seconds and jump in a classroom, start teaching a lesson and put in the activities together, without even having to have the proper preparation for it. Just somebody who's like, oh, she wasn't here today. I need you to do this, blah, blah, blah. Okay, no problem, Jump in and do it. But I'm going to be like, no, I don't want to, because this is why I got out of it, because then there's all these other things that go along with that. Then I'm just like, oh, I don't want to do this. So that's why I say how do you find that balance? Because what I think about again is things in education come so easy to me and people look at me like girl, how do you even like, how did you do that? I could never. And I'm like it's easy to me. But then there's the side of it where I'm just like this is why I left. I don't.

Speaker 2:

Well, even if it becomes easy and it's in your gift, you may have it, may that assignment may be over. So I think it's identifying if the assignment is still there and attached to you. You know what I'm saying, because that's where the drain can come in. As well, you could have evolved, so I think it's just learning how to, to say no to what has now become easy, what what has now like you've evolved from, so it's no longer like it's really having to divorce and say I'm no longer doing. While it does come easy to me, I'm no longer doing that anymore because I've evolved from that place. So I think it's more so an internal thing of where you're going back and forth because it does become easy, but just because it comes easy and if you've evolved from that place, then it's time to let it go place and it's time to let it go well.

Speaker 1:

This is a great point, too, when it comes to organizations, because you sometimes evolve into something different, right, and and because you started out one way right. Your goal is to grow and scale, and so how?

Speaker 2:

do you?

Speaker 1:

know when it's time to sort of shift directions and move into the next phase, the next level? How do you know when that's appropriate?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, when it's time to move into is typically. They're usually about two to three signs. One there's stagnation. So when there's a level of stagnation within the organization, then you know it's time to make some shifts. Two, if there's some level of retention that has happened. So if people are either falling off maybe volunteers are falling off, maybe clients or what have you if that's happening, then it's time to make some shifts. Also, if there's some level of chaos that's happening internally within the organization, where all of a sudden, like everything seemed to go smoothly and maybe certain things are starting to break, that's because you probably outgrown how you were doing things and now it's time to like, reinvent and bring something new in, and so those are typically key indicators of when it's time to make some shifts that makes sense.

Speaker 1:

That makes a lot of sense because you know when things are running smoothly, we're like you know what, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, we're just gonna keep doing this. It's working. But then, when the chaos comes, when things start to be like all right, this was working. Now I don't know what's happening, but we got to figure something else out that makes sense so yes, it's time to go back to the table right and get this strategic plan in place.

Speaker 1:

Um and I want to talk about this too, because here's another thing that I think people don't realize is that when you do strategic planning, there's the short term and then there's the long term. And so how do you set yourself up for those small goals that lead up to those big goals? Because I find organizations have a hard time with this too.

Speaker 2:

Yes, this is a part of planning, and so a project planner could help identify certain areas with this. So it's breaking down or setting up sprints. One could be setting up sprints, so sprints will allow you to be able to get a certain amount of projects or tasks done in a certain time frame, and then you have to break each sprint down, each part of the sprint down, into simple tasks that would allow the overarching goal to be accomplished. Then the beautiful part about this is that you can assign certain people to certain tasks. That way you're not necessarily doing all the things, but putting start dates and finish dates on these particular tasks, so that way you can get them done and that way they're just not a dream. Then also, an additional way to be able to do this is actually documenting, which happens in the sprint process.

Speaker 2:

But you don't have to necessarily do a sprint. You can just do a simple like, use a project management tool and just put all the goals that you have in place and just literally just document what has to happen and reverse engineer what the main goal is and then what all the steps that have to happen in order to get that accomplished, and then you know making sure somebody's overlooking and managing it, to make sure that things are getting done and then put a timeframe on it, don't you know? Say you know, at least by the end of the year. I would definitely condense it down because you can actually get way more done than I think most of us sometimes realize if we don't spread it out so long, like if you give yourself 30 to 60 days to get something done, and you'll be surprised how much you can actually get done in that 60 days versus in trying to push it out to six months versus in trying to push it out to six months, oh y'all.

Speaker 1:

So I hope you caught that. She definitely just broke down what a SMART goal is right, and so I love that you named this, though, because it makes sense, right. I find when I say, okay, Spring, you got two weeks to do this, right? Instead of me procrastinating procrastinating like, oh, I got next month, I got next month, I got next month I'm like, oh, I only got two weeks, and in those two weeks I got all these other things that need to get done. So I'll take a day and really focus and get it done. And so it does make sense when you put a timeline on it and you put a very real timeline, very realistic, you know, not stretching it out too long just say, oh well, let me give myself three months when you know you may only need three weeks. Right, I think that works better, like you said, because it forces you to focus, it forces you to cut the noise out and do the thing and then be done with it.

Speaker 1:

But you know, one of the things that I love that you named is that it's measurable as well, because a lot of times, I think people they have a goal in mind and they're like, okay, this is what we want to do. And then they kind of name something here or there that they can do to get there. But you don't have what success looks like in achieving that goal. Right, what when? When I get to this milestone, what is that actually going to look like? And that's one of my favorite things about strategic planning is is naming what success looks like. How are you going to measure that?

Speaker 2:

You know.

Speaker 1:

so I think organizations sort of miss that part of it too. But another thing I want to talk about here is this strategic plan in times of financial strain, because right now we know that a lot of nonprofits are really kind of feeling the pressure on their finances because of funding shifts that have happened on the federal level. It's just had this trickle down effect, and so I want to talk about that. How does the strategic plan really help you stay focused when you have that financial crunch?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the strategic plan can well one. The strategic plan is a living, breathable plan plan, so it can change at any time. That's the beauty. And so I believe in making shifts based upon what is realistic and then what is needed, and so it can create, I feel, like, a level of focus, but also identifying, but simplifying what's going to make the business shift and who exactly do you need to make those pieces shift. Right, I would. And then even how much money you need, how many people you need to impact, who do you need to meet? Who are the key players in the indicate? You know the key players that would allow the goals to be met of whatever the organization is trying to meet, and then allow space to God to do his thing in the midst as well. So I would say, simplifying strategic plan would just help simplify and then just allow you to just stay focused, you know, overall, I love that it does simplify things.

Speaker 1:

You have to let it simplify things, and that's what a good leader does, too.

Speaker 1:

Right Is to be able to take this document and say, okay, you know what, this is our roadmap, but we hit a little roadblock, so we got to take a little bit of a different route and this is how we're going to do that, right? So the goal is still the same, the overarching goal is still the same, but the road that you take to get there may be a little different, may look a little different, simply because there were some unexpected things that came up along the way. And so I think that's what really makes a good leader is being flexible to recognize in those things and then being flexible to make those necessary changes in the moment when it needs to happen. So I hope you guys are listening and taking these gems away.

Speaker 1:

I really appreciate you, karya, for coming on today and really lifting this up, because, again, I don't think organizations really realize how important the strategic planning piece is to the overall success of the organization and the mission itself. So I'm super excited to have had you on today to talk about this, if anyone wants to get in touch with you to learn more about what you do on the for-profit side, or if they want to add in some way shape or form to what you're doing on the nonprofit side. How do they get in touch with you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so, um, they will get in contact with me. They can either email me, find me on all social platforms, um, um, it's K A R R I A. Um consult is consult with Korea. Um, and then um on Instagram, on Facebook as well as on LinkedIn. And then on Instagram, on Facebook as well as on LinkedIn, priya Lawrence. And then the name of the company's archetype is A-R-K-I-T-Y-P-E-A-N-D dot C-O and the nonprofit organization is Pretty Girls with a Y, so it's G-Y-R-L-Z PrayIncorg.

Speaker 1:

I love it, and I'll be sure to link all of this in the notes, guys, so you can see it for yourself. You can check it out and, again, if you want to contribute to Kariya's mission, you can check out what she's doing and get in touch with her to see how you can help. And so I appreciate you so much, kariya, for coming on today and lifting yes, and lifting all of this up for us, and I would love to stay in touch with you to just see how things are going with the organization, because we have similar paths but in a different way, and so it'd be awesome to just kind of see each other's journey.

Speaker 2:

So please, please, please. Yes, we definitely have to stay connected.

Speaker 1:

All right, guys. Well, thank you so much for tuning in today and, as always, until next time on the Spring Forward podcast. Bye, guys.