Carolyn DiPaoloAlso at Nonprofit Chamber summit, Goldlaw founder presents $100,000.
Leaders can reach more people by connecting their personal history to their organization’s mission, executive coach Ana Sasmiresan told Palm Beach County nonprofit CEOs this month.
The bosses sharpened their message at the leadership training presented by the Nonprofit Chamber for Health and Human Services and its partners.
“What has your life been about?” Sasmiresan asked them at the Oct. 1 meeting at the Manatee Lagoon Conference Center in West Palm Beach. She traces her career, built on helping leaders find their voice, to her childhood in Romania under a government that made it dangerous to speak out.
“You may think, ‘Well, my story doesn’t matter.’ Yes, it does,” she said. “How do you define yourself? What is the need that you see? You have experienced something in your life – personally or you saw somebody impacted by pain, a gap, or lack of something – and you just cannot stop thinking about it. You have to do something about that. And how does it connect to the vision?”
Sasmiresan’s assignment for the leaders: Tell that story.
- Andrew Haggin connected feeding souls in his past life as a pastor to distributing food to people as CEO of Boca Helping Hands.
- Ruth Mageria is inspired by her family’s history of leadership in Kenya to her service to families as CEO of Cros Ministries.
- Some leaders shared how challenges like a learning disability or addiction in their family shape their work today.
Sasmiresan urged the audience not to be afraid to be open.
“I was ashamed to have grown up in communism. I actually was trying to hide it for a very, very long time,” she said. “It does take a process to understand who you are becoming based on where you come from.”
Earlier in the program, Craig Goldenfarb, founder of Goldlaw, announced a $100,000 gift divided among the nonprofits.
Each nonprofit organization represented at the meeting received $1,000. Four organizations received $5,000: Bella’s Angels, Child Rescue Coalition, Inner City Innovators and Resource Depot. The nonprofit chamber received $20,000.
His contribution is drawing attention to the nonprofits.
Goldenfarb said he discovered the organization years ago when he was reading the Notables section of The Palm Beach Post. “I found out it was a charity that supports charities,” he said. “What a cool concept.”
The chamber was founded in 2012 to serve nonprofit CEOs. Its goals include providing them with a unified voice.
Members honored retiring manager Marlene Passell. She was the chamber’s first and longest-serving employee.
“When it all began back in 2012, the founding members realized that they couldn’t manage everything on their own. They needed help, someone to steer the ship,” board member Matt Ladika, CEO of HomeSafe, said. “This wasn’t any old ship full of passengers or cargo. It was, and still is today, a ship full of captains. Marlene was just the right person we needed to help launch this wonderful chamber.”
Passell recalled the early days of setting up the chamber’s website and connecting members. “It’s been the best part of my career to get to know all of you and really appreciate what nonprofits do,” she said
Emily Knowles succeeds her as manager of the chamber.
