Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Kamin.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My grandmother taught me everything I know about fundraising and volunteering in the nonprofit space. She was the main breadwinner for her family in the 1940’s, and by “saving her pennies,” she was able to purchase apartment buildings in LA and raise my family out of poverty. All the while, she made it a point to give away 40% of her income to nonprofits and taught me the importance of giving back. As a result, I have been working and volunteering in the nonprofit world since my college days at UCLA.
After I got my MBA in nonprofit management, I moved to New York and served as Executive Director of Palisades Emergency Residence Corporation (PERC), a homeless shelter for adults and families. After 6 years on the east coast, I moved back to Los Angeles and took over the Los Angeles Youth Network in Hollywood (LAYN), which is a homeless shelter for youth. After 2 years at LAYN, dealing with the same issues as I fixed at PERC, I founded Envision Consulting with my partner Allison.
After 24 years working in the nonprofit arena, I have learned that we may have amazing missions, provide incredible programming serving communities of major need, but we are hampered by poor leadership, strategy without data, and staff who aren’t trained to be leaders. Every day at Envision Consulting, we strive to provide executive recruiting and strategy that galvanizes a strong leadership and creates actionable strategies to strengthen the impact and create sustainable growth in our industry.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
One of my favorite questions is: “would you rather have luck or skill?” I would take luck over skill every day of the week. There was never a doubt that I wanted to work in the nonprofit space, and it was my goal to become an executive director of a homeless shelter. Due to incredible luck of being in the right place at the right time, finding my first executive director job was pretty much meant to be, but once in the position, running the agency was the real challenge.
Unfortunately, at PERC, I found that my board had struggled to bring in funding, and without the ability to meet our budget, we did not have the capacity to serve all the needs of our clients. In addition, the board members had not been provided with the guidance or strong leadership to create a viable vision for the future.
In my opinion, Board members and executive leadership need to learn how to work together as a strong team and trust each other to serve the needs of the agency.
Fundraising is always an issue, but having committed leadership can solve most of these issues. After a few months creating a plan, we were able to recruit new board members, kick off those members who were not interested in change, and start working on our strategy to grow the agency.
I am incredibly proud of my accomplishments at PERC, where we built affordable housing and provided apartments to over 50 homeless adults, opened the first family homeless shelter in the county, built a thrift shop to serve the shopping needs of our neighbors, and opened an after-school program for children.
I am incredibly proud of my accomplishments at PERC, but it could not have happened without the trust and support of my Board of Directors.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Envision Consulting – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We have learned that it takes just the right combination of leadership, talent, and strategy to make missions work. What started as a consulting company focused on interim management has blossomed into a suite of comprehensive leadership services designed to empower nonprofits to better leverage existing resources for stronger results.
Envision Consulting is the only nonprofit consulting firm providing a comprehensive suite of executive leadership and strategic services that integrate us into the current nonprofit landscape. Our staff is former executive leaders within nonprofit organizations who have been awarded and administered county and federal grants, capacity awards, operating grants and who have built and implemented strategic plans. Because we understand the nonprofit arena, Envision Consulting is uniquely positioned to attract and engage passionate and experienced leaders and has the current context to assess fit.
In addition, we are a thought-leader in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion in the nonprofit sector. Our principals deliver private and public speaking engagements on the subject on a regular basis and address the subject in our blog and social media.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I am most proud of our newest venture, called CauseCupid. Since we work with so many nonprofits looking to build their boards of directors, we have created a board matchmaking event, which connects community leaders and local organizations over cocktails and conversation. We encourage all participants to “seek, sip and support each other” with outstanding professionals ready to start impacting their community through board service. It’s a great way to leverage our nonprofit network to benefit the community, plus I always love any opportunity to take part in shaping missions at nonprofit organizations, even indirectly,
We have started to take CauseCupid nationally, with an event in Boston and Denver this year. Our future plans are to continue to expand across the country, and along with CauseCupid events, bring our executive search opportunities to each city. Last month, we were able to close placements in New York, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Boston.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3231 E Foothill Blvd Pasadena, CA 91107
- Website: http://www.envisionnonprofit.com/
- Phone: 626-714-7577
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/envisionconsultingllc
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/whatdouenvision
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/envision-nonprofit-consulting/?trk=company_name
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