A lot of people devote themselves full-time to startup and run non-profits for certain missions. Midge Newth, a lady whom I recently connected on Facebook, is one of them.
Midge is an author of Children’s books, a life coach, and a caregiver for people with special needs. She is a co-founder of the non-profit organization called Creating Positive Change. Let’s see how she runs her non-profit and what can we learn from her sharing here, especially if you want to explore how you can go beyond of what you are doing, apart from profit-making.
Let’s dive in here!
Hi Midge, what motivated you to startup this non-profit organization?
I love helping people, and I started to write books that teach children how to become self-sufficient and to go after their dreams. That’s also how my life coaching and caregiver businesses come in.
How do you differentiate yourself from other writers who may be doing similar things in town?
I believe, my children’s book series Charlie and Nana, The Cookbook Series, and the TorI and Papa Handyman series,
are unique as they are children’s stories plus they have 2-3 activities that can bring families together.
Is running a non-profit very different from running a normal company?
I would say you have to make yourself to enjoy the journey. You are probably going into a new territory, that you have never experienced before; if not it will still be a different experience than any of the other endeavors you have taken on. You will make mistakes, we all do. Take the mistakes and learn from them. Take the time to glance back, at how far you have come, but do not stay in the past keep moving forward in your pursuit of building your business. Enjoy where you started. Then look ahead to see where you want to take your company. Then make a plan, a roadmap if you will, of how you will get there. It just takes a little planning with your board to start things rolling. You and your board should have the same goals for the company so hold on tight and enjoy the journey it is an exciting adventure you are embarking on.
What have you found to be your most effective way of finding your readers/audience?
I am still in the process of learning this. I just started doing Facebook ads. I post in different FB groups and i’m about to contact different groups that my books can help children learn about. An example from the cookbook series is Charlie, the main character, and his Nana, learn about diabetes. My newest book Tori and Papa Build Friendships is about Tori making friends with a girl who has special needs; they both learn from each other plus it has 2 crafts that the readers can make.
How do you keep yourself motivated during the difficult times?
There really are no difficult times, there are challenging times where I will come up with 5-10 ways to overcome the challenges and if I cannot come up with 5-10 on my own I ask people in my circle of friends and family what they think I could do that will help solve the challenge.
What is a day of your life like?
Hmmm, this is hard to answer because not one day is the same. My passion is my caring for people with special needs and depending what day it is I can be wrapped up with them all day. I do like to get exercise in, and think of stories to put into books, and now and again pushing myself to do things I fear.
As an entrepreneur, how do you see the “work-life” balance?
For the last 30 years I live with my work. I own, operate and live with the folks I take care of. So there is balance and as for the author part of my life I use “escape” for a few hours.
Do you have any tips for people who may be planning to startup a non-profit?
1. Create a vision of your non-profit and put it into a strong mission statement. Your mission statement is your vision and you are telling the government what you are going to be doing.
2. The government will supply you with a 1023 checklist…use it. It makes applying for your non-profit status much easier.
3. Form 1023 is 12 pages long (as of when I filled out my application) not including all the information you need to have accompanied with it. Make sure that you fill it out carefully and attach all the documents they want, in the order in which they want them. The neater your presentation of these documents the better chances of getting your nonprofit approved in record time. Now read it over again, I suggest having another set of eyes, one of your board members, look it over to make sure nothing has been missed. Then send it in.
4. Get all the little things that come after you get your nonprofit status all worked out first. Here is where we made the biggest mistake. We were told that it could take up to a year to be approved for our non-profit. Well, we were approved in a matter of months. We are still working on our website, and getting an accountant to help us with bank accounts and the ins and outs of donations. Do this ahead of time so that you are ready to go once you get the 501c3 status in your hands. We, unfortunately, are still working on getting all the small details into place. We are behind about 6-9 months, just because we did not think we would be approved so quickly. Please, learn from my mistake and get all your ducks in a row while waiting for the 501c3 approval to come in. We do not know how much revenue in donations, and fund raising we lost because we are not able to provide those services because of lack of hiring an accountant to guide us through the legalities of what it takes to have bank accounts and other options in place.
If anyone want to get in touch with you, where should we send them to?
Contact: Midge Newth
Website: https://mjdpublishing.com/
Facebook: MidgeNewthAuthor
Twitter: @Midge031316
The thing that I admire the most about Midge is her persistence in helping people in need, while she can also use her talent to write books and work as a life coach. Believe it or not, I do see a glimpse of St. Teresa of Calcutta when I look at Midge’s sharing again here – the love to take care of those who are left behind in the society.
It is a kingly act to assist the fallen. ~ St. Teresa of Calcutta. Click To TweetI hope Midge’s experience and her life of loving service to the needy, would inspire you and me to follow the same path. There are more valuable missions in this world apart from making profit. Don’t you agree?
