Recently, BroadPR’s Raychel Moore had the opportunity to interview Thomas Keown, founder of Many Hopes, about what Many Hopes is, why he started it and what he sees as the vision for the organization in 2018 and into the future.
(Continued from part 1):
Raychel: That was excellent. It was great to hear how that partnership formed, and how you realized that it was more than money, but the power of leadership. You are building leaders and how that’s going to really impact the country of Kenya. What do you believe are some of the biggest challenges? If you could share with us a bit more about [what] some of the biggest challenges leaders face in the non-profit world [are], that would be terrific!
Thomas: It’s a very strange, I hesitate to say, industry. It’s a strange business leading a non-profit organization. We’re expected to deliver excellence in a way that for-profit businesses are not. It’s almost impossible.
Here’s what I mean by that. When people are looking to spend philanthropic dollars they will often look at one thing only when they look at a charity. They look at a pie chart that shows how much money this charity spends on fundraising or management or administration, versus how much it spends on its mission. No one looks at Coca Cola and says how much are you guys spending on marketing or admin or management versus how much are you spending on the taste of the drink that you’re producing. No. A Coca Cola buyer will buy because they like the taste.
It’s very tough in the non-profit world to be judged by your product or output. People instinctively have been conditioned to measure the impact of the success of a non-profit based on its numbers, versus its impact or its outcomes. We’re a volunteer driven organization. We exist in America to move resources from here, where they are, to Kenya, where they’re needed. Anybody can do that. Organizing events where you are, forming a volunteer chapter of Many Hopes where you are, setting a fundraising goal for the year and chasing it, that is how children get off the streets into homes and from homes into schools in Kenya. We need you!
Raychel: If people were listening to this and wanted to get involved with the organization, what would you leave us with?
Thomas: I would do what we all do in these days, I will give you a link to a website and an email address: to find out more or contact me please visit http://www.manyhopes.org or send a note to thomas@manyhopes.org. I would say that if you think that the problems of extreme or grinding poverty on a continent far away is too big to tackle, it is if it’s just a few of us, but it isn’t if there are many of us. We’d love to invite you to be part of what we’re doing right where you are. You know people we don’t. We’d love to know them, too.
We’d love to invite you to be part of what we’re doing right where you are.
Raychel: Thank you for joining us today. It’s been a great conversation about how Thomas and Many Hopes are making an impact in the community they serve in Kenya as well as in the lives of the volunteers that serve them worldwide. I hope you’re encouraged to make an impact, too.