 Well, welcome everybody. Thanks for joining us and a warm welcome from TechSoup. And on behalf of TechSoup, we recognize that the work that nonprofits do every day. But today, in honor of Black History Month, TechSoup is featuring three Black-led organizations, and talking to our leaders about the work they do and the importance of the African-American representation. This is a brief assignment. I'm the Webinar producer here at TechSoup. Before we get started, I do want to make you aware of being recorded, and it's going to be emailed to you within 48 hours, and you'll be able to watch it on the replay and get some highlights. And before I do, let's talk about how we can engage today. If everybody would go on mute as you come in, you're already on mute. So if you can make sure that you're on mute. I would love to allow the speakers to do their presentation, and after each one, we'll open up questions, Q&A, for you to ask questions. But feel free to do that in the chat. If you need to close caption, just tap on that CC button at the bottom of your screen. And a couple of announcements today. I would love to know if you're an expert in any other area, if you serve, if you're a bookkeeper, even though you're a nonprofit executive director, you might wear multiple hats, because we always need feature speakers. So take a screenshot of this. I'll pop my email in the chat as well. I would love you to be a feature speaker. Next month is Women History Month. I know we have three ladies today, but we're going to do ladies again next month. But we are going to do men in the future, either May or June. So email me at asymus at TechSoup.org. I have a couple of announcements, and I'll move out of the way, I promise. GrantStation Promo. This is the one time that you can get access to GrantStation for $99 is normally $699. So if you don't have access to GrantStation, or you need to renew on February 14 and 15, we're going to have a big sale for $99. We have a link in the chat, and also GrantStation will be here for a webinar to give you a tour of GrantStation so you can see behind the scenes how to find those grants, how to make sure you're matched with a funder. That's going to be on February 8. I'll drop that link in the chat. Also, we have another highlight webinar coming up February 14. So if you are interested in getting public data, this is something that's new that we definitely need to take advantage of as a non-profit. So datacomments.org is going to share how you can make it easy and possible for your nonprofit to get access and use public data to share your stories so that you can use it to, you know, do the work and make an impact in your nonprofit. I'm going to move out of the way. I'm so excited to feature these three ladies. We have Danita Pineda. She is the founder of CARE. I'm going to let her tell you all about her at the same time, and I think you'll love hearing it from her. And we have Rhonda Brown. She's the president of the Black Mastermind. And then we have Tiara Moore. She is the CEO of Black and Marine Science. Welcome, ladies. Thank you so much for being here. And Danita, I'm going to turn to so much to you. And as Danita is bringing up her slides, continue to let us know where you are zooming from in the chat. We would love to know. I am very hopeful that this is going to work. So you guys just bear with me as we go through. We're able to see all of that on screen. I am delighted to be here. As Ms. Arita said, I'm Danita Pineda. I am honored to be the executive director for CARE. It stands for Children, Athletes, and Artists Involved in Recreational Events. It is a mouthful. That is why we utilize the acronym CARE. And again, just so happy to be here. I always like to begin, especially when we're talking about Black history. Everyone has a historical perspective of some sort. Mine is grounded in service and it comes from my grandmothers, one of whom was born in 1904. And the other who was born, Vera is down in the bottom, was born in 1918. And they taught me so many principles that I utilize in service every day. And those principles have to do with making good use of your time and the 24 hours that you're blessed with. And they talk about making sure that you educate yourself out of any set of circumstances. And of course, service to the community, which is so incredibly important, which is why this organization was founded. And with that being the case, we utilize those principles in what we do in serving our youth and families in the community. Our mission has to do with ensuring that young people obtain higher education. And with that being the case, we do it in a multitude of ways. Higher education, of course, looks different for all individuals. And as you celebrate even in Black history or whatever other months that come around or have you every day is a celebration of our youth of the families that we serve. So we utilize their skill set, arts, athletics, whatever that is, we fuse it with STEM and we make sure that our young people are enriched and that's pretty much the focus of our organization. And we do a lot of different programs here or some that we have in terms of what we deliver and there's so many more kids are in need of a multitude of things that parents just don't oftentimes have the opportunity to give it and it's through no fault of their own. They are out there and working. And so it's support systems, it's communities that come together in order to make sure that our young people know that they can utilize etiquette and they can use their table manners that they can do all of these other things that are out there to make them better prepared for the future and such. And so I know that we as an entity, as a nonprofit, we stand on the shoulders and the service of the unnamed. So that helps us to try to make sure that these statistics that are out there when it comes to first gen college students that sort of get up there go higher so it's not half of the students attending college. And so being the first in their families to do so. We want to make sure that they are able to do so much more across the board and that there are more families that don't have to look around and say, oh, this was the first member Kamala Harris always says, I may be the first but I shouldn't be the last in that particular position and so we want to make sure that there are a multitude of individuals going on to obtain higher education and again, it doesn't necessarily have to be college but we hope that students will go on to school. And so we, this is our an example of some of the things that we've done we have not gotten 2022 out as of yet but just as an example, we make sure that we meet the needs of the youth and families, whatever they are whatever the case what we were finding. So, whether you have found this as well, we found that young people, they may want to go to get higher education or what have you but you know what it's very difficult to study when you're hungry. When you don't have the proper materials or what have you so we try to make sure that we meet the needs of the whole child as an organization, and these are just some of the things that my grandmother had taught us and we definitely are using along the way. Again, as we celebrate black history, we know that you know we as a people we came from a mighty long way we have been entrenched in so many facets across the globe, and whether it be from the days that we were brought over to the sojourner truce to the opres, we, we can impact this this the neighborhoods that we lived in and the people that we serve. And so with that being the case I just know that we walk every day, knowing that we stand with and on the shoulders of those who are unnamed, and we don't take that lightly at all. So I it is my hope that as we, you know, use our mission, use our vision, and we were out there, we're doing the work, but that you partner with us as well. We want to make sure that you connect with us, make sure that you, you know that we're here, know that we exist. And just to give you a little bit, you know, Martin Luther King said that he is who he who is greatest among you shall be your servant, and we truly truly believe that we walk in it every day. So if you're prepared to, you know, kind of walk in that service thing come on, join us and join your, your neighborhood, reach out to your community and and make a difference because that is truly what black history is all about. Remember the people who came from the past, they didn't have 501 C threes, they just did the work. And so that is the model that we utilize and I appreciate the opportunity to be able to share a little bit about what we do and who we are. It is my hope that you'll join us on this journey as we impact the lives of young people. Awesome, Danita. I wanted to see if anybody else had any questions before I ask you a question. Feel free to use the razor hand option. If you can't find it, you can go ahead and unmute yourself real quick. And Danita what I wanted to know was kind of the primary question we brought up was, how do you feel being a black lit nonprofit founder being represented in your community do you feel like you're getting the resources that you need to feel like you're being seen do you feel like you're being heard I really want to know. I'm very grateful that you asked that question miss Aretha. It is difficult. I'm just going to be transparent it is very difficult to be seen to be heard in our community. It is difficult because we don't always have the resources that other organizations utilize and so because of that. It seems like you're silent or you're small or your, you know, whatever the case you're maybe looks like you're absent, but you're not absent it's the lack of resource. And I don't always think that resource comes in the way of funding. Right. I wouldn't even be. I'd be derelict in my duties to say, you know, I wouldn't want you to break your ankles running the care that organ make a contribution right that's, that's no, but it's not just in the terms of money. People have an opportunity to really help us to really engage with us that may not have anything to do with money coming out of your pocket. Can you make a phone call. You helped us with others. Can you get us into the room can you open some doors of opportunity. Those are things that help as well and they don't cost everybody everything. We, I think it's a lot with positioning and so when what we would hope that we would eventually look like is an organization that serves the community. We just happen to be led by someone who is black. It's a substantive difference and that's the direction that we hope to take it, but we need partners, we, we, I made no bones about the fact that we need assistance in that area. I don't know someone who can open the doors for your local nonprofit to happen to be black led open those doors do those things. Make sure you make those connections because those things are very important to us. Wow, everybody's in the comments saying so true 100% great. I'm sorry, the screen is up I couldn't see the comments but thank you so much for that I'm going to stop sharing. And if anybody else has any other questions. That was a hashtag transparency isn't it. You can go ahead and unmute yourself. Good afternoon, thank you so much. This is Loretta Williams Grinnell and I'm the founder and CEO of Supergirl Shine Foundation. We are focusing on equipping underserved girls with stem plus opportunities to early exposure. And I just wanted to say thank you. That's it. I really just wanted to say thank you for sharing your transparency and asking that very, very important question because that is a lot of times that we do have as founders and particularly for me as a black woman founder in my space. And because I show up in spaces alone. A lot of times in the stem stem world and so the second question that I have is well the first question I have is, is this going to be available the recording, because I just had a meeting with a potential partner and shared the same thing with her as a woman who is not about culture. And said that how I need for you to not just come and have a meeting with me, but I need for you to be an advocate when I'm not in the room. And so it just it's good to hear this so I can share this recording with her so that she'll understand how she can do it and share that with her other counterparts. Yes, it is. And will be emailed to everybody who's registered. Thank you so much. And I just want to add kudos to you miss Loretta. I know what it's like running the stem program that is one of the things that is so important our kids and tech, and it is exceptionally difficult so we can talk and see how we can strategize together. I'd love to do that. And, and of course, it wouldn't just be a conversation about all the ills would be stuck there. It would be how can we take steps and moving things forward, so that we're not battling the same thing over and over again. So anyone want to connect on that level I would love to have that conversation. Absolutely accept your invitation. If you want to. We're not going to take over this call. No, no. Some of your email, your phone number, we will connect within the next seven days. Absolutely. And I'll go ahead and miss Rita if you don't mind I'll put it in the chat. Everybody put your information. Erin's actually going to go next, because she's afraid of the noise she's in belief so she threw me from believe so we're going to actually let her share her screen and go next. So, Danita, thank you so much for the excellent job. And welcome Miss tear and more. Hi, everybody. Hey, y'all thank you so much happy black history month. As we know being a CEO you have to be in a lot of different places so I'm here on one of our sites, checking out some coral reefs and mangroves that we are restoring. So yeah, as she mentioned I'm Dr tier more I'm the founder and CEO of black and marine science. I identify as a black queer woman and I use she her pronouns. I'm a black and marine science. Who are we. We are a premier organization really aim to celebrate black marine scientists spread environmental awareness and inspire the next generation of scientific thought leaders so on the screen you're looking at the board of directors for the organization and we were founded in 2020. So black and marine science came from my own experience as a marine science so like I said I have my PhD in marine science I'm a marine ecologist. And so I study nutrient pollution how it impacts the ocean and how humans are contributing to that. And so as a marine scientist and as a black woman there was times where I will introduce myself as a marine scientist and people say things like oh you can swim, or you can swim your hair with and so it was this very like kind of negative experience like really y'all. And then so as I continue to grow in the field I really noticed that I was oftentimes the only black person in the room. So I really wanted to change that and so that's where the organization came from. So now we have a popping team that really does just a whole lot of different programming and outreach to really try to get this black people in general excited about the mission and saying hey you can scoop, hey you can swim you can scuba dive, you can be a photographer you can do all of these things to really contribute to the space we were just talking about stem. So, if you take look at our mission. First thing is celebrating black marine scientists so here's just a screenshot of one of our zoom meetings that we have, but we have a lot of programming so on the side you'll see all these different programs that we do you'll also see a barcode that goes to our BIMS TV, which is our YouTube channel so on our YouTube channel. We have now about 200 episodes of different black marine scientists talking about their research talking about the ocean talking about hurricanes, but pollution and plastics and fish and sharks. I'm really breaking it down and making it more accessible we have these BIMS bites these little small five minute versions that you can just get. Get your, your body filled with all the marine science that you're excited about. We also have kids versions we have dives which are longer seminar series where we bring in prominent black marine scientists across the world glow that maybe not get that representation or outreach, but we bring them to our platform and give them a whole hour to talk about the work that they're doing. We have BIMS reads and BIMS cares where we read marine science stories to kids and then also cares where we bring in a therapist to talk about mental health but also workplace trauma workplace stress being the only black person in your space because while we now have this community, we're still oftentimes the only black person in the lab so at work we're still isolated but we can come together after work and talk about this beauty. Y'all know how it goes. On top of that though we have some large programming where we have our BIMS week which is a whole week of outreach where we have programming networking workshops key notes is a whole virtual conference, all about black people in marine science. We have a tidal wave program where we're actually able to provide resources for students to take them to scientific conferences because we know that's a barrier for people to be able to get their research on a larger scale. Our BIMS week, one of my favorite programs is our BIMS immersion program which is our scuba dive program where we actually pay to get students scuba dive certified free of charge so they come with us, come diving with me for the week get their certification and then they're actually able to do research experiences like coral reef restoration or mangrove restoration or shark tagging. On top of that we are scientists so we do research we have active research project so I'm out here doing now. We do outreach in the community I have pictures of that later, and then we provide all types of paid opportunities to our members. So I mentioned our BIMS TV our YouTube channel, all of those videos that are up there. So I want to thank those folks as content creators to not just say hey come do this work for free but no hey, you are a scientist and we value you can you do this as a professional development opportunity and have this is something that you can now put on your resume. All right, second part of our mission, spreading environmental awareness. So here's just a snapshot of some of the programming that we've done over the year this is actually I think from 20 or 2020 programming. So you just different types of hey how can you build your brand in marine science how can you talk about marine joy how can you talk about what animals or, or how does it feel to be a scuba diver so really again just trying to get all of that information out with these different panels and workshops that we host. And then lastly, inspiring next generation of scientific thought leaders, that's my favorite we have. Really I say the next generation is really everybody so here I am a scientist but there's my grandma who is now inspiring scientists because she sees my work, and then there's my cousins who are excited about science because of this. Here at the top my favorite picture is actually our youngest members member at he. She's 13 years old now and she actually did an outreach presentation outreach day at her school, where we sent her some materials, you know say hey at here you go and she was out there to school and did a whole engagement on sharks. Here in the middle photo is a picture of our title wave program where we took these students to the conference, we had a dedicated safe space at the conference and in case any foolishness popped up they knew they could come talk to me directly because it's just not a lot of diversity at these conferences that will be honest, but we had this safe space and then all these folks were funded by the organization to go down here is our stem hands camp and this is a camp that we actually do for our death youth in Atlanta. They can have access to marine science as well because marine science is for everyone. All right up here is actually we're able to go to the essence festival this year this was amazing this is the one of the largest black events in America so we really want to, you know get more black people engaged in marine science we have to go where they are. And that was amazing because there was just so many folks coming in like whoa, we do this. This is exciting. Thanks so much. And then at the bottom is just our snapshot of our school of our scuba dive program. We had the students under the water and of course we have to take photos. So, a day in the life of me is a lot. I can be doing really any amount of things so like I said I'm out in the field so I can be out collecting samples or I can be out scuba diving. I also do a lot of talks. I've been able to travel around the world there's a snapshot of me actually in Africa, talking about black black and marine science because black people are everywhere. So I was able to talk about that work there. I might have been featured in several articles so I give my opinion about the work and also talk about just the state of the ocean in general. And yes your girl was involved. I always got to put Netflix out there because that was just like whoa, what. So when I think about our impact, but we now have about 320 members and 31 different countries so here's just a screenshot of the world and little pop up as well all of our members are. There should be another barcode down there if you want to grab that you can actually sign up right now to become a BIMS member. I'll wait a few seconds because I know everybody wants to join. All right, it's also on our website. For our BIMS TV, we have about 1.7 thousand subscribers and just about 30 over 30,000 views. And just here's a little glimpse of our BIMS TV. We have ASL on top of all of our episodes to make them accessible to our deaf community as well. As money impact we have raised over $2 million in funding. I'm in the past two years which has been phenomenal I have been in the streets talking to anybody who will listen to me about black and marine science and really saying like hey. We just got to call it what it is when we look at PhDs and marine science less than 2% goes to black people, I am one of them so we need to change that. Our largest funders are the David and Lucille Packard Foundation as well as the Nature Conservancy. The Packard Foundation just awarded us a large grant $750,000 to start the BIMS Institute, which would be a research and outreach and communications powerhouse, partnering with Hampton University so BIMS is booming over here doing some large things as of course we always want to shout out to our sponsors, and you can become one of them. Alright, and then the last thing I would say as far as our impact is that we have really changed the lives of over 500 black marine scientists and then here's just a little snippy of my thoughts. The ocean is so important, like it's so important it really runs and is the reason why we're alive. So I think what I'm trying to do is basically change how people think about marine science in general. I think that's the problem, it's seen as something lame, it's seen as something for white people and I'm like no, marine science is lit. So we actually have a campaign going on right now titled marine science is lit to really change how people think about STEM think about science in general because it can be seen like oh that's not for us that's not that's not what we do but actually it is. I literally have the best I'm literally in beliefs right now I was on a boat all morning. I get paid to go to these islands to be a scuba diver. And so I really want to change how people actually think about marine science and the just the STEM in general. So just I guess the last fight. Before I started this work, someone says to me, well before I started BIMS you know I was always vocal about just being a black woman in marine science. And someone said to me you know you're risking your career by being so vocal. And my response to them was well I'm risking my life by being silent. And so my, I guess charger message today is your voice is your power and now here we are three years later is that I don't have that same career working in a lab with all white people. I now have a career working and running my own lab and working with black people. So it definitely was a risk but it was a career move that was vital for me to be able to say in science to be able to have the excitement because it was a there was a time when I didn't have that so I'm really, as you can tell passion about this work, but very excited about the opportunity to engage the world about the ocean, because marine science is lit. All right, if you want to have any more information about BIMS here it is. Like I said I wouldn't be a good nonprofit CEO if I didn't have our donate link there is tax free. And there is all of our social media we are heavy on Twitter and Instagram, all of our programs and stuff is on our website where you become a member. If you have any questions for me, feel free to reach out. I am definitely very active on Twitter, most of all. Alrighty, thanks y'all. That was so excellent and I'm going to just a reminder I'm sending this replay out so you guys can get your screen share out they'll put their information in the chat as well. I've always wanted to go through the dive and so I gotta get with you. I have to I have to. So there's some questions in the Q&A for you, Dr. Moore. This is from Black Belt Community Foundation, he says, Dr. Moore, is your organization interacting at all with the growing number of offshore fish farms near Central America and Africa. They are trying to increase sources of food to the underserved community. We actively know, but we could. So these are the types of partnerships and things that we are looking at. And so right now just because my expertise is definitely based in nutrient pollution, coral reef restoration. That's what a lot of our and biodiversity assessments that's what a lot of our research is focused on, but we now have them members all over the world so they can definitely be incorporating other research projects that the communities are telling us about. So please reach out I think I put my email up there but I'll drop it in here in the chat. And Nia says, Dr. Moore, I'm here with my son, William, he's 11 years old. He would like to know what made you decide to pursue a career and stem and what advice would you give to a young black child who is interested in stem. Yeah, so that's a really great question because I actually went to undergrad pre made you know I thought you could either be a doctor or lawyer I was going to go be a pediatrician. I was taking all these courses and I realized I didn't really like working with kids like that sorry, but I'm like okay I didn't want to change my major because I was already in biology. One of the courses was these other courses that I could take in one of them was a tropical ecology course and I'll be honest I only signed up because they were going to Costa Rica for spring breaks I was like free trip let's go do this. But then we got on the boat and we were collecting water samples and doing these little experiments and there were senior scientists there that were instructing us. And so I'm like, are y'all getting paid like what is what is this career like what is this about and so that's where I was exposed to marine science and I came back from that trip changed my whole life and that's what I've been doing ever since I think it was that exposure to marine science and I didn't So I would say for you young man to really look at that black and marine science look at our YouTube channel, but also look at opportunities you can be doing in the summer we offer opportunities in the summer, but also aquariums your local community to really get involved and see if this is what you like because maybe you don't like being on a boat, but you don't have to you can be doing marine science from your computer is coding there's all types of things that you can do. And so I would say definitely get in that exposure and that's why the organization is so important because you really don't see that type of exposure in black communities at a young age like I literally had to wait, so I already decided that I was going to do something. Before I found out what this field was about so that's where we're trying to get it to kids younger. I have a question from an anonymous participant. I'm going to save your question for last because I want all the speakers to answer your question and I'm going to say the question so you all can be thinking about your answer. The question is what advice you have for young and emerging founders of black lead nonprofit so we'll put a pin in that and we'll let everybody answer that Tara wants to know Dr more. How did you start your own research lab. Thank you for talking. I mean so I think when we started when we found a black and marine science there was a lot of I'll just be honest white guilt money from 2020 and there was a lot of folks who say like hey, we're trying to do stuff like we just watched the harbor like whoa I think for the first time my colleagues were like, Hey, dear, we don't treat you bad right you know like they were like checking in and then I got to say. And so that was really where I started to use my voice and say hey we need resources to do different types of projects and so for a lot for the beginning there was a lot of this outreach and diversity money like hey let's find black people and bring them in. So I started changing the conversation about hey no we need larger resources to provide opportunities and training we need money to build a lab and I think what I talked about for a marine science is that regardless of where the lab is not only is it predominantly white inside of the lab is predominantly white outside of the lab if you look like scripts institution of oceanography what's whole these huge research institutions that were told we have to go to. In La Jolla in San Diego you can fit in the in the in somebody's driveway, and now I have to go work into that lab and so that's something that we're just not going to fix no matter how many black people you put in your cohort higher. So we need resources and we need a space a lab space for us to go where we can be safe. And so the pitch was how can we partner with an HBC you historically black college university to provide them with the same resources that they provide to scripts and which whole that they've done before. And so who else to lead amazing initiative like that than me and so that was really like hey how can we put marine science and the resources we need where the people actually are. And so the the BEMS Institute will be in Hampton, Virginia, partnering with Hampton University, my alma mater, of course. Awesome. Okay, I lived up that way for many, many years in Norfolk. Thank you so much, Dr. Moore, we appreciate your time. And next we're going to have Rhonda Brown with the black mastermind, and why she's getting ready to bring up her screen. I saw somebody with their hand up but then they put it down so if you still have a question you can do the raise your hand option or put it in the Q&A section. This has been incredible lots of comments in the chat from Danita's talk topic and then Dr. Moore appreciate you guys. Okay, Rhonda over to you. Can you all see my screen. Yes, we can. All right, my name is Rhonda Brown I am the president of the black masterminds. Black is actually an acronym for building leaders and activating collective knowledge. And so a group of us got together during the pandemic. And we were just looking for something to do so we're in this group. And late nights we were talking you know we wanted to connect grow our businesses learn and you know collaborate so we actually came up with our first event, which is the black Friday take over I'll talk about that later though. And we just decided to get together and we formed a nonprofit after the first event went good. Let me see. And so, we focus on four pillow pillars, entrepreneurship personal development tech evolution and Alliance building. So, with entrepreneurship we focus on like business ownership. Plotlights seminars, business sustainability, and for personal personal development. In the African American community, we have a high rate of hypertension. So we focus on, we're committed to providing resources and information to help educate others on practices for well being mental health. And just all around physical health. Tech evolution is our third one. And we recognize that technology is the future and as vital for its success of really any business whether it's a nonprofit or not. So we're committed to exploring and implementing and leveraging new technology and AI and other tools for success. And with Alliance building Alliance building helps us, curate the biggest outreach of the year, which of course is the black Friday take over, which is a 24 hour event is our biggest one of the year so for midnight on black Friday, and for 24 hours we have business spotlight demonstrations entertainment, where the primary focus is to circulate black dollars in the black community. We're going out in the shopping big name box stores and you know, putting all our money out there not really getting anything in return. We bring everybody together to learn to, you know, spend within our community. And so ways, ways to get involved. You can always donate. That would be helpful. You can always bring speakers in. It will help us do programs in the community. And also you can help us by sending speakers for the black Friday take over. So make yourself help us plan the take over because it's like I said it's our biggest event of the year. And it's a whole 24 hours straight of non stop like demonstrations and just you name it we have it. So we do need a lot of help with that. So yeah. I know it was short. I got talked a little fast. That's okay. I'm going to, I'm going to give you a shout out because I attended your black Friday take over, and it was incredible. I went to sleep woke up at two o'clock in the morning that online. Yo we're still going and it was awesome. I had some amazing speakers so that was that's a great idea the black Friday take over so I want to open this question up that's in the q amp a it's been burning I hope you guys have thought about it. So then, in the order that you guys have spoke the need a, then Dr more and then around there. So the question was, what advice do you have for young and emerging founder of black lead nonprofits to need a. Oh my goodness what an incredible question and I'm telling you, this is the answer. What is your business. No business. Take a business course and if you haven't heard me say, get into business, you a nonprofit is a business. If you have never, if you don't think of it that way. Stop thinking, think of it that way, it is a business. And because it's a business, you have to know all of the documentation you not to know how to get there with the state, you've got to know what to do with the IRS. The nonprofit is a business with a federal tax exempt designation. That is it. Other than that, you are running a business, you are running a corporation, thinking yourself like McDonald's, I don't care. Think of yourself as a business. So if you do think of yourself as a business then what you'll you'll want to do is you'll start reaching out score. Have you guys heard a score I hope that you have. Use the small business administration in your area. And because everything is online now, it doesn't even matter if you have a local score, they do things virtually so you'll be able to reach out, go into another state, if you have to, but reach out and find the fundamentals of business, because that will save you, it will save you so much effort, energy, all of that, if you understand how to appropriately run a business and then secondarily, get into technology. Join TechSoup, use your 501C3 to join TechSoup and become a member. And by doing so what you'll do is you'll have access to advanced programming. Your Microsoft licenses that a lot of small businesses and nonprofits are paying for, because they lack the information, you can go right to TechSoup and you can get those things, you can get discounted rates on a number of other software. Even your hardware, FYI, you can get some discounts on that. Use your ask for non, and lastly, ask for nonprofit pricing on everything that is related to your business. When you don't ask for nonprofit pricing, guess what you do, you pay the full price, and so you don't want to do that. You want to save your money, keep it in your nonprofits pockets, okay, not yours, okay, and you'll know that by running a business. Separate everything, do not use your personal and co-mingle, none of that. Oh, I did say it was the last thing, but here's one more. Let's get away from the verbiage of saying my nonprofit. Let's move away from that, because if it's a business, it is that it's a separate entity, and yours denotes, you know, a little bit of a high raising by the internal revenue service because what they're going to say is, they're not exempting taxes on the funds that are given so that we can have you be the benefactor. So it is ours, it's a collective, it's we. We work together, we do community, you know, things, so operate like that, but yes, this is a business and you must run it as such. That's my advice. Dr. Moore. Thank you for writing. Yeah, all of that was great. So I'll just add something different again. I would say for me, I was loud enough. No, stay true to your mission. I would say that is the most important thing. I would say specifically a black nonprofit leader just because there are people who see the work they want to grab they want you to do what you're doing for them. They want you to come work over here and do this other stuff. And then things get start getting a little cloudy and you're no longer making an impact in your community or making an impact to the people you said you wanted to make it to. And I'll just give you an example and I get I don't feel like I'm trying to be disrespectful or anything but there's a lot of say oh could you talk about like minorities, instead of black people. Well, my goal is to change and create space for black people why would I change up my message. And so if people with funders want me to change it and those are the funders that I want to work with. And those are the funders that aren't going to support my work and ultimately the freedom and liberation that I would like to see for my people. So I think you just have to be, you have to be clear with that and you have to be able to make those tough decisions like, am I going to walk away from this money because they're going to get me to change something that I don't want to do. And as a, you know, as a new organization, especially as one may not be used to like having all those resources, it is difficult to start like maybe I could do a little something maybe I can make it work, but it's never worth it. I promise you, because if you and if somebody would ask you to change your mission they never supported it from the beginning. Why would you really want to work with them and so I just want to just be mindful like, because there is money out here that is being dangling for environmental justice work for black lead organizations for all of that now. But again, like all all money is not good money I think we can take some money and we make impact with it but you have to be clear about what you're doing and if you're strong in your mission and unwavering, then they won't take it away from you. Well, okay then, just do it. And then you just keep getting that impact and more people try to support it. This is real over here is nothing fake about it over here. This is some real impactful work that's going to be done. So I would just say, again, understanding what it is that you want to do why you started the organization. And then I also would say when you do that, it allows you to be more impactful and more successful and then you don't fall into that burnout, because when you start saying yes to everything just for money, you get real tired. Okay, like just tired sweet and you can't really engage on the stuff like you finally get a brand for something that you really wanted to do, but you're tired because you've been doing. You can't even make the impact that you wanted with the brand that you really wanted. So really just think about what is that you want to do and take the time and you might be sad like dang you really didn't even 100k. But that's what a million will come if you stay on the right course. And so that is really what's going to be working. Okay, Rhonda, that was great. Thank you Rhonda. Okay, and I look, they said a lot. So I mean I have I have a few things. The very first thing is know your why, like don't forget why you started doing what you're doing, and don't let anybody get you off that course. Second, I would say get a mentor. I know we got one was one of the best things that we could have ever done. And lastly, we read this book who not how, and that just it changed everything. Instead of you working on everything, figure out who can help you with that who can do it other than you trying to do everything. So, I see a question in the Q&A but there was one down in the chat that moved up. So, just for a sake of time I'm going to go to the Q&A and then I'll try to find one that chat while you guys are talking. There's some founder and CEO of Sayyap in Africa, I hope I'm pronouncing it right. How can I ensure that they want to start 15 chapters 15 chapters and chapters and 15 African countries to celebrate BHM Black History Month. Also, we need free STEM curriculum where do I get these Africa after school programs. So, a couple of you work in STEM they want to know they want to do something in STEM they want free curriculum. I'm going to pop the link to our Africa chapter I'm not sure if you are if you are part of our Africa chapter of TechSoup operates in 236 country. Why don't you unmute yourself and let us hear you I don't know if you're in Africa and if you have a zoom, go ahead and unmute yourself. Hello. Can you hear me. Can. I can. Okay. Oh my God, I'm so happy. I don't want this, this thing to chat to end I don't I'm learning so much. And I'm screaming everything you guys are saying as the amen amen amen. Okay, so I live in, I live in California. I founded this nonprofit I'm from Africa was facing I was born in Africa. I am an attorney. So I work for the UN before for almost 10 years so I went back to my first love helping. And I founded this nonprofit, we are in 15 countries. And the STEM program is so huge, because helping girls to go in science technology is something that is so big my daddy didn't want us to learn that. So, I was kind of stubborn to become a lawyer, my sisters all of them are assistant secretary whatever which is good, but right now we need these girls to be in science. I just opened a STEM program that is empty we don't know what we don't know how to design curriculum that will help them solve local problem. So, if somebody has something to share with me. Honestly, I will take it and text to all the way. I mean, I love this company. They have helped us so much. We love to connect us connect me with whether you can so that I can continue working. I just you welcome I just put the link to one of our chapters in Africa, and feel free anybody who want to share the information in the q amp a or in the chat excuse me. So, an anonymous participant said what advice do you have for you or could we get that I'm sorry. What advice do you have for sustaining a nonprofit past the five year mark Oh, keeping, keeping and recruiting volunteers that somebody with some history here anybody want to chime in. I will love for the nonprofits to speak so feel free to unmute yourself. Yeah, so I can just say, so Vems was founded in 2020. So we're just hitting three years but what I will say as far as sustainability is us writing multiple year grants. We said again multiple year grand so when you write that one green, you're right you won't put on the same word. If you were to ask for one year so if you could go ahead and ask for five years and say hey I'm going to read this for a long amount of time. If you have that funding, then you know you have five years worth of funding that's just stored away versus you just writing a proposal for just one year. So I will say when I'm looking at different types of proposals and also when I'm talking to donors now. I'm asking for multiple years of support because why do the same work. You support me now you just need to go ahead and be supportive me, you know for a long term and I think that's the copy message and you can have when you're talking to donors like a, we're a new organization we're focused on sustainability. We want to make sure that I can, you know, have the capacity for my staff for three to five years so we don't have to worry about that and we can focus on those programs, we can focus more time on you know, engaging for that. So I would say definitely be focusing on like multiple year grants, you know, spending the same amount of effort on one grant you can get more money than focusing on like a one year grant. And I'll just do that. Okay, this is a good question from diamond. She has a US diamond diamond has a US based business. How do you ensure that when you're partnering you don't have infringement. We seek mission aligned partners only to our service stakeholders yet people try to replicate the framework, even with the NDA. So that can be anybody answer that. We do we put memo use all of our work memorandum of understanding. And so that's like an agreement about it's a contract between you and the parking organization that basically says whatever it is that you're working on. You can't put it out without our permission and have to be like cold published cold design you can't just go throw my face on your stuff without our permission so what is the really, you know, contract to protect yourself and you can put any type of language to say, you know, you don't use our stuff now as far as people trying to replicate. Yeah, I would say my grandma say often replicated never duplicated baby. So they can try to replicate and I guess maybe that's what we're trying to do to provide folks a framework to where they can do stuff better. I'll be honest because we've seen a lot of stuff that has just been done wrong so I wouldn't mind if folks start copying the work that we're doing at bands you know it's like yeah please do. And stop doing the other stuff so I would say you know you have to really protect yourself by, you know, getting those contracts in place but also you can say hey you know what maybe it's like this is what we need we need more folks, and we are actually the blueprint. But you also know that it's probably never going to be done as good as you were going to do it anyway so. But I would say that is that is that is tough with people trying to steal stuff so putting an MOU in place to help. And you just have to hope that the contract is going to be. You know people are going to adhere to it because people do breach on that, but can I just back up to one thought I had about sustainability, the sustainability portion actually comes with the business. So if you're set if you're in a business mindset, you're going to nonprofits tend to give their services right you look for the funding to come from the the grants, like Dr Tiero saying, you could also sell your programs so people charge for them so if you're a, I don't know you know a science center a science center will invite or will be invited out to schools, and the schools will pay for the science center to come out. So whatever it is that you are offering, why not look at direct invoicing as a revenue stream for your organization because that's what businesses do, you know, you don't walk into, you know, your salon and they give you their services for free. So whatever it is that you have are you setting up a model, a template, so that those programs are something that people would consider paying for, as opposed to you providing services that are free, it can't go across the board I do know that some people, you definitely have to provide your services at no cost. So think about adding in that revenue stream and they are for your organization. Nice. So Michael, he uses video games to waking kids. He feels this the best way to reach the kids with in high school. And also, with them being late to introduce them. He said I want to understand how community leaders feel about eSports education, and how many organization can help. Excuse me and how my organization can help black nonprofits to connect most of these opportunities are going towards white communities, and if our community isn't knowledgeable of this. We did better help educate our community on eSports and how it can lead to STEM careers. Ms. Danita. You are in my wheelhouse because we do athletics and arts and we definitely incorporate stem it is essential. So number one you're going to call me because we're going to have conversation about that. And number two, we're going to we really do as a collective. I don't want to just put in a business frame and call it marketing but it is really just telling people you educate them you have those conversations, any chance you get you drop those nuggets what are we doing in order to have a five minute chat just to say hey, did you think about it because if you start putting it in people's hearing, and then it becomes something that others talk about. So it has to start pretty organically. If you have a great social media presence, then push that out there and start talking with people who are in not only the schools, the colleges, the universities, of course, but it hit those organizations that deal directly with what you are doing and you are there and you happen to have someone who deals in the I don't know the name of it where you might be located but if you have an organization that does what you're doing, reach out to that organization. Let them know that this is what you're trying to train students for and see if you can come up with a collaborative effort maybe it's a once every six months that you bring students together and make them aware on their site. If they have those those that ability you you start thinking out of the box you you put the events together you organize you let people know that you exist and I think more people are going to take advantage of it so please I hope that you have my information and we'll talk about it too. I'm also going to send their information out with the video replay, but I do want to give you final last words. I'm going to start with Rhonda if you want to say anything. How to reach you or whatever you would like to say, and then we'll go to Danita and Dr more last. First of all, I want to thank you for having us. Secondly, if you want to get in touch with the black masterminds you can follow us on all social media at the black masterminds, or you can go to the black masterminds.org. Yeah, and look, please sign up to help us with the black Friday take over. Thank you so much. I do want to thank you, because I think that this conversation is so needed, and we wouldn't even be able to come together in a room like this were not for this opportunity so I am grateful I just want to leave you with the thought of making sure that you connect with someone, you know, on on this call today, or, you know, tomorrow, just stay connected. And this is how we're going to move all of these initiatives forward there's hundreds of us on here. So there's a multitude of initiatives that can can move forward. Let's let's stay connected and I hope that that will help us all in the end. So thank you. Thank you so much and enjoy your black history month. Alrighty, yeah, thanks so much. This has been an amazing opportunity for me, please do follow black and marine science subscribe to our YouTube channel. And also just think about the ocean just a little bit more, you know, now that you've met, like, wow, we'll be out here swimming in the ocean. Yes, we do connected with the ancestors, I really feel like, you know, on this black history month, everybody, every time I talk about marine science, you know, I have to think about our ancestors when they were almost both coming over here against their own will, and they made a choice right. They made a decision to jump into the ocean because that was a better freedom a better future for them than whatever was waiting. But I just almost feel like I feel a little hug from my ancestors saying hey girl, we was waiting for you, and we are here to provide you the answers to solve climate change solutions solve racial inequities, but also to bring people together. So again, thank you all so much for this opportunity. And I hope you have a great rest of your day. You don't want to be on screen, feel free to stay off screen awesome. Yeah, I love it. I love it. I love a group participation. This is beautiful. Oh my goodness. I love it. Awesome guys. I love it. I love it. Love it. Love it. Thank you guys so very much. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for sending me an email a simons at text.org. I want to see you become a feature speaker, even we have the same repeat speakers I want to see you drop an email let me know you want to be a speaker. Next month, women's history month let's go ladies, and then the men, I want you to come to have a great day everybody continue doing what you do. Thanks everyone. Hi, happy black history month. Happy Black History Month from the founders of Black History Month, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, check us out on asalh.org. You go girl. TJ music partnerships. Awesome. Bye bye.