August 2024

It's not the lack of resources that cause failure, it's the lack of resourcefulness that causes failure.

-Tony Robbins

July is over … What does that mean for Platform? Massive community outreach.  It is the month where we hit the streets and rally the youth to sign up for our leadership program, Activism@Work. We would ideally like to start the outreach at the beginning of the year by developing relationships with schools, nonprofit organizations, local businesses, and the city of Aurora but with a very limited budget, that is just not possible.

But we are doing what we always do, come up with creative ways to use the resources we do have.  What are they? Well, with a very limited budget, we are asking a number of people to reach communities they are familiar with, whether it be an email, sharing the flyer, swinging by their office, or volunteering at their organization. We are essentially doing grassroots organizing with people who have full time jobs or juggling multiple part-time positions and responsibilities.

Creativity takes a little more energy than relying on cash reserves to hire people for traditional roles. Lately, my brain feels like it is about to explode.  So we are also applying for grants … But what is my experience with grant writing process? Well, you need to be somewhat established to receive money.  There are some foundations which fund startups but we’re not technically a startup.  We’ve been around a few years on a very limited basis because of the pandemic.  I completely understand why most foundations are not wanting to support startups.  The success rate is low since financial sustainability is always problematic. How can you sustain an organization in a very competitive environment where nonprofits are fighting for every cent? Here, I am relying primarily on the expertise of Angelita.  She will hopefully help us get over the hurdles of applying for grants.

What do we have in our favor?  Luckily, we have streamlined our operation so that the budget mainly covers the part-time consultants. This is not really sustainable in the long term.  It is extremely challenging to supervise multiple part-time workers whose primary focus is everything but Platform.  Until we have more financial stability and reliable team members who can devote more time to Platform, we will be resourceful like we always have been.

Sam Joo

CEO and Founder

July 31, 2024