"The shocking advice I got when starting my nonprofit...”

"You should quit. Your idea is dumb."

After navigating confusing paperwork, investing thousands of dollars and waiting almost a year to start his nonprofit... this was NOT the advice Steven was expecting to get from his peers in veteran's services industry.

Steven's story will remind you that passion, lived experience and perseverance are more powerful than naysayers and negativity.

🇺🇸 Learn about Shields and Stripes 👉 https://shieldsandstripes.org/

🤝 Connect with Stephen 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-nisbet-89b5891a9/

✍️ Got your own story to tell? Submit a diary entry to be featured on the podcast 👉 https://bit.ly/4tXt0d6

🩷 Connect with our community on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/company/nonprofit-diaries/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Nonprofit Diaries, where we share the stories that don't make the newsletter. I'm your host, Kimberly Bottom, and this week's guest is the executive director and co-founder of Shields and Stripes, which is a nonprofit that provides whole person optimization programs that help veterans and first responders heal from not only physical but mental trauma as well. So he is a retired Air Force Special Forces Tactics team leader. His life was positively impacted by a similar program. And it's just so inspiring to see someone use that lived experience and generosity to now help others. So Steven reached out to me actually after watching a nonprofit diaries episode and he shared his unique experience founding this nonprofit. And it's a story that's got a few plop twists. So I can't wait for you guys to hear it straight from him. Please welcome my honored guest, Stephen Nesbitt. Steven, I am so thrilled that you're joining us.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

No, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Can't wait to share at least a little bit of my lessons learned of starting the nonprofit because there's there's a whole lot for the folks that are interested. I actually get them all the time of people that are, hey, how do you start it? Or they're just not confident enough. And I'd love to just kind of share my journey and how that that transpired.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

This it's so helpful. It's funny, Steven. Like the, you know, we talked about this, we scheduled the recording for this. And then like a couple days later, I met somebody through a nonprofit hive that was like, I'm trying to start a nonprofit. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm like, let me introduce you to my friend Steven. So this is like this is so helpful for people to hear, first of all, that like if you have an idea and a dream, like you can absolutely do it. Is it gonna be a completely smooth process? Probably not, but that's okay. Like, you know, we live and we learn, and hopefully people will be able to live through or learn through your lived experiences. So setting the stage for your diary entry, once you had the idea to start this amazing organization, a couple bumps in the road from the beginning, including some like paperwork issues. So share a little bit about that process.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Yeah. So I obviously spent my entire adult life carrying a gun in a med bag. I was a medic throughout my entire career. And um, I know what worked for me as far as the struggles that I had with with the PTSD and the physical injury. And I thought, man, I got I've got to bring that to somebody else. I want to, I want to bring that to the folks who don't even know that something like that exists. And then it can truly help them, especially your your conventional military folks, and then even the law enforcement, your first responders, all those folks. This they don't have access to that type of care. And I wanted to bring that to them. So in doing so, I leaned on some mentors and I thought, okay, let's start this non-profit, let's start a business, ultimately is what I wanted it to be. Now, the question of is it a is it a for-profit or a nonprofit entity was asked to me. And I didn't know the difference. I I I truly didn't know. I was like, well, with nonprofit, okay, so you don't make money? Like it doesn't, it didn't make people like that. Like it just didn't, how does that run if you get if you don't make money? I just don't understand how things like that don't run. So at that, I was just so ignorant at the time. And it was explained to me, ultimately, the question has to be asked, is the person gonna pay for it themselves or is somebody else gonna pay for those services? And so I was like, well, somebody else is probably gonna have to pay for the services because I wouldn't pay for it on my own because I'm uh I don't I don't have money like that. I don't uh the amount it costs for somebody to go through a program like this is about $15,000. I don't have $15,000 laying around that I can just use them myself. And I certainly, even if I did, I probably wouldn't do it. And most of the people in the service industry are feeling probably the exactly the same. So it's gonna have to be good-natured people. So I said, okay, well, how do you start this to my mentor? And like, is there a build, like literally, is there a building I go to? Is there a phone number I call? Is that like what do I do? And he recommended a certain or certain company that that helps with starting uh businesses, which I don't recommend, so I'm not gonna say it here. Um I used it. Um, and so when I started the entity, I started, I thought you take an LLC and you convert it to a 501c3. Wrong. So I started the LLC, and then I was like, okay, so does this convert over? And they're like, no, it doesn't. This is I was like, well, what do I do with this LLC? Whatever you want. I was like, well, I gotta dissolve it. So that was 800 bucks down the draft.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Oh, man.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

And so I was like, well, how do I start a 501c3? And they're like, we can do that for you, the same company. So we I went through them and they said, okay, now you have to apply through uh for your federal tax exemption. Um, and uh and there's an application process to do that. So I again I still had no clue what was going on. I got my articles of incorporation through the state of North Carolina through that company, um, which I that company was being my registered agent, which I learned later down the road I can be my own registered agent or somebody in the state could, and I don't have to pay that, and it's free. I don't have to pay this company the 250 bucks a year to be my registered agent. Um, and then finding the application itself. So I found a tax attorney to help me file the tax exempt, the federal tax exempt form to become a federally not uh a federally um approved nonprofit entity. And usually that's a six to nine month process, and I paid about two thousand or so dollars to to for this tax attorney to fill that out for me. And you and in that time period, um you get uh you you can receive money, you can receive donations, but you have to say that you're pending federal approval, right? So most organizations or most people are gonna go, ah, won't you let me know when you're federally approved? So it's very difficult to still receive funding because I can't write off, I can't give them a tax receipt.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

And if I get kicked, if I get rejected by the IRS, it's another six to nine months to be able to be federally approved. Now, fortunately, we were accepted within that first six months or so. Um, we became federally approved. Um, but before we started that, you know, my tax attorney was like, okay, um, here's a couple things that I need for the application. I need um, I need your board. Um, or he's like, I need bylaws. And I was like, what are bylaws? And he's like, Oh, it's the thing, it's like the constitution that governs your board. And then I go, okay, what's a board? He's like the people that help run the organization. And I go, where do I find those people?

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

He's like, wherever you want. And I said, All right, I looked up my best pals around me and I said, Hey, you guys want to be on my board? And so it was good for the time being for just starting the organization, but it was certainly not the board or the answer that I needed. So as we continued to grow, it was new seasons of change for the board. So finally we became an entity, and this was about a nine to twelve month process of figuring out all this paperwork and throwing money in different areas. So is of the total investment was about five thousand dollars just to get all of that done um and started up. Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

So you finally figured out the paperwork. Again, like I feel like that company that you worked with, it's like, why didn't you tell me I didn't need the LLC before I paid for it? Okay, there's probably something to be said there for what they get out of it. But anyway, so now you've got the paperwork figured out and you're just trying to figure out, okay, you know, like funding and all those other things. And you said you reached out to your network and you got some surprising answers and advice. What happened there?

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Yeah. So when I was figuring out, even in the in the beginning stages of like, hey, do I even enter into the realm of running a nonprofit? I wanted to make sure, hey, am I starting something that already exists? And if I am, let I'll just join that mission. And so I looked up a lot of different organizations and I was like, man, there's not really anything that does exactly what I am used to. This the standard of care that I'm used to, there's nothing that does exactly that. So it led me to creating it. So but I did want some advice from other veteran service nonprofits on hey, how does how do you refine donors? What does that look like? Well, how how do you run fundraising campaigns? I just didn't know anything. Where do you go? Who do you talk to? And just looking for just a little bit of guidance as a as a new veteran myself. And I so I made a list of 10 different organizations, very large ones. I'm not gonna list them here, but um very large ones that you would you would know the name of if I told them. Um and nine out of the 10 of them told me very negative things. They said, uh, don't don't do it. It's a stupid idea. Uh they said you should quit and come work for us. Um the veterans base, there's 40,000 other nonprofits. Why would you want to start another one? Do something else. Um, we're not gonna help you out because we like what we do, and I'm not gonna give you any. Pretty much told me to my face, I'm not gonna give you any leads because they're just gonna lead back to me and I'm talking to already, so I'm not gonna give you any help. And it just blew me away because these are visa veteran service nonprofit agencies that are very large, and they're telling me as a veteran that I should give up, I should quit, I should not do this, my idea is dumb, and then offered me jobs. And I was like, this is the opposite of what I thought a nonprofit organization or nonprofit suite would be like when when we're all supposed to be helping out folks, and there was only there was only one that was like, I will guide you and I will lead you through some of the pitfalls that I experienced and I'll name them Big Sky Bravery. Um, and so their their mission, they service uh specifically tier one operators. So I had the operator, uh, the opt opportunity to go attend the program and talk to Josh McCain, who runs the the organization himself, and just get advice. You know, what what should we focus on first? What are the if I had thirty thousand dollars, where should I invest that first to be able to market ourselves and get get more? So uh those are the different types of things. He gave me a lot of lessons learned. And so I I would appreciate his his belief in us and his advice above all others that were threatened by just the idea of us starting a nonprofit and entering into their turf.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

That's so crazy because you you're right, like you assume in the nonprofit realm where people are helping people, that people would help people, right? Like, you know, it's disappointing to hear that that happened to you. I'm really glad it didn't deter you and that somebody's kindness did eventually help you get to where you are now, because I mean, now you're rocking and rolling. You've got sponsors, tell us about, you know, all the things that you've accomplished since then.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

Yeah, exactly. And and you know, the the one thing is like they uh the I guess like most common thing that every one of them said was it's really, really hard. And like, well, hard is relative. Like things are especially for you, a veteran from the special forces, like Yeah, and so like they their version of hard might be a little bit different than my version of hard, especially like going through the selection courses that I went through, doing uh, you know, 10 different deployments and um you know working at the capacity that I worked at. Like, I think I understand hard and and I'll work through it and persevere through it. But um, despite a lot of their claims and a lot of the um you know negative the the negative, I guess, advice if you want to call it that, um, we just trudged through and found the need and we knew that the need existed. And so the first thing we did was set up essentially a pilot program or a pilot program, but a smaller version of what we do now, um, just to see, okay, what are the nuances that we need to work through. So we so right now we run a three-month total program. Three weeks of it is in person where they get full spectrum care, and then nine weeks you take that full spectrum care and then you transport them to their house. So they go home, but it's all in a virtual setting where they have a strength coach, a physical therapist, a dietitian, and a um therapist, a psych therapist. Um, and and we did it on a very small scale to say, okay, well, what are the things that we gotta think about when we bring somebody away from their home and we treat them and all that stuff? And when we saw that success, and one of the things that Josh told us is like, hey, you gotta market yourself because you might have the greatest idea in the world, but if nobody knows about it, it doesn't matter. So you got you have to be able to get comfortable telling people about it, and especially coming from a special operations world where everything is secret, very foreign for for me. It was very foreign, especially even now, for for us to so to quote unquote brag about what we do, but it must be done. So now since then, we've been able to raise about $1.7 million in in a matter of five years to be able to put on our programs. We I usually do these little alumni meetings to get people who have gone through the program together and just see where they are now.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

I think one of the biggest things they see is or that they say is number one, they're grateful for the opportunity because it's stuck with them for a lifetime. I mean, several of these people have this logo tattooed on their body, which is something that I could not have even imagined is you know, a logo that we designed to be permanently placed on somebody's body, which which is telling in itself. If somebody's willing to put a permanent piece of us on their body, then we probably had a permanent effect and an impact on her life.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Even with a couple road bumps, you figured it out, you're thriving, you've got people tattooing your logo on their body. Like clearly you're making an impact. I'm so honored that you shared your story with us today. And I'm so thankful that uh it ended up and in the triumph that we all probably knew it would be, even you know, despite the roadblock. So thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. And if anybody out there is feeling down and out, reach out to Steven and he will not tell you that your idea is stupid. He will not tell you that you should stop trying. He will be your your hype man. So uh hopefully that will that will come to fruition. You'll get some people reaching out who who just want to chat or or learn about your experiences. So that's what this is all about. So thank you so much, Stephen, for being here. For all of you nonprofit professionals listening. This is your reminder to hydrate and practice self-care in any way that you can. And if it's gonna help you out, there is a link in the description of this podcast to submit your own diary entry. We would love to hear your story and share it with our audience. We're all just here to connect and relate. Until next time, guys, have a great week.