Anti 9-to-5 profile: Whitney Smith

February 20th, 2007

Whitney Smith — who’s featured in The Anti 9-to-5 Guide — is founder and co-CEO of Girls For A Change, a California-based nonprofit organization that teaches middle and high school girls to work for social change. Since 2002, Girls For A Change has served more than 4,000 girls, grown its volunteer staff to 500+, and increased its paid staff and annual budget tenfold.

How I transitioned to doing this full time: Although Girls For A Change hired its first paid (part-time) staff member in 2002 to help launch the program, I kept my 9-to-5 job as director of the Santa Clara County Office of Women’s Advocacy while working on my nonprofit baby 20 hours a week. Looking back, I wish I had taken the plunge and started working for Girls For A Change as my primary job earlier. I was scared at the time of leaving the 9-to-5 and the steady check. I love what I do now, and it is so satisfying to do this work. I only deferred my fear by waiting until 2004 to work full time for Girls For A Change. Looking back, I see that I could have done it earlier.

How I got my baby off the ground:

• Passion. First, and most important, you must have passion for what you are doing.
• Determination. It’s important to stay true to what you believe when others tell you that you are crazy… and they definitely will do this.
• Strong sense of self. This is something I discovered along the way. You must remember you are talented and that you do know what you are talking about. And you have to remember that very few people know truly what they are doing and have all the skills they need. What is truly important is that they are doing it.
• Balance. When you are trying to escape the 9-to-5, it is easy, ironically, to completely lose balance with your own venture. Remember not to do this!

My top tips for hopeful nonprofit founders:

• Get a coach. Seek out a paid life coach or executive coach who will be your voice and cheerleader and help you develop these skills. It is hard for people to invest the money in this, but there is truly nothing like having someone on the “payroll” who is a super-skilled coach who can unravel it all with you.
• Learn from others. It’s as easy as offering to take someone you admire out to coffee.
• Surround yourself with supportive people. Spend time with the ones who love you and won’t throw doubts in your path.
• Fake it until you make it. Not a lot of people will tell you this, but it is true that we all figure it out as we go along. I am definitely not telling you to misrepresent yourself or pretend you are someone you aren’t, but know that it is OK to assess yourself when presented with a challenge and to take that challenge on even when you aren’t sure you know how to do it.

What’s that link again? Girls For A Change, where donations and volunteers are always welcome.

[posted by Traci Macnamara]

Entry Filed under: Anti 9-to-5 profiles