Young Nonprofit Leaders Sobel & Rojas
What we will discuss:
Starting a Non-Profit and structuring the organizations.
Mission and Purpose of Lazarus Rising.
Creating a Volunteer College Network of Students.
Challenges faced by the organizations.
Building up resumes for start up profit v homeless and at risk individuals for non profits.
Power of bootstrapping.
Outside involvement to build leadership, character and values.
Partnerships formed to expand organizations. From board of advisors, to local chapters at other college campuses.
Utilizing free resources.
Skills learned from outside involvement in other organizations that contribute to the non profit success.
What we learned:
Lazarus Rising is a non profit organization that helps provide job interview skills, online job portals, on-line application resume building and formatting to those who are at risk and homeless.
Sobel and Rojas are the two young leaders and Co-Founders behind the Lazarus Rising. College students are constantly applying for internships and jobs online so those skills can transfer to helping at risk and homeless individuals and families.
The two Matthews complement each other by providing there own expertise. They met on student government. Together they combine business acumen, smart minds and compassionate hearts. The free resume building workshops they provide are conducted at local homeless shelters.
When starting Lazarus Rising they used the easier more streamlined process to file for their 501(c) (3) as the initial revenues would be under a certain threshold amount. James 'Jim' Sealy, is the organizations CFO who helps with research legal and financial sources writing small grants helped them easy easier 501(c) (3) status.
The challenge at first was will they eventually have enough volunteers. Other on campus student groups from the Blue Hen Investment Club (long equity fund) at the University of Delaware get involved with volunteering. and the endowment foundation provides support by providing some resources.
The opposite of investment banking might be building volunteer networks.
They have also used the free resources available at the library.
We talk bootstrapping whether for profit or non profit resources on campus to help them continue to grow organizations.
Matt Rojas is involved with bible study and Marine officer candidate school with core training to become 2nd Lt. upon graduation. These outside interest help him develop skills that he can also use in Lazarus Rising. They teach critical thinking under extreme stress and pressure, lead people in different backgrounds, create values, set up a course on how to inspire, honor courage, commitment driven, adaptive flexability under different circumstances and help grow under all types of situations.
Matt Sobel provides many words of wisdom for those who Listen Up: never give up, you are always going to encounter difficulties but starting something and having an idea so you don't pass the buck, take initiative, try to solve problems, it will work out with all different types of people with different thought processes, learn from your differences through open mindedness and mutual respect.
Lazarus Rising combating homelessness by offering solutions resume building and job placement skills. The non-profit continues to grow with ten chapters at other colleges across the US and they are rapidly expanding. expand. The program model is scalable at universities and shelters across the country.
Found that the job application process can be standardized to provide job training to homeless and at risk individuals. As college students they are naturally prepared to teach resume building and interview skills f...
View all episodes
