Episode 80: A Different Approach to Earned Income for Nonprofits

A Modern Nonprofit Podcast

John Renouard is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit organization, WHOlives. Like many nonprofit entrepreneurs, John’s career path wasn’t centered around becoming a 501c(3) director. For him, the journey truly started after he became curious about his son’s humanitarian and missionary work in Africa. The curiosity drove him and his wife to travel extensively through Mexico, Central America, and South America before diving deeper into exploration with a trip to Africa.

Through their previous trips, John had witnessed impoverished communities, but nothing comparable to the realities of 4am wake up calls to walk 3-4 miles for, not clean, but dirty water. When he imagined his children experiencing this problem, this struck a chord and he wanted to do something about it.

His thought was simple, if only they could problem solve and fix the water crisis, then they would ultimately eliminate existing healthcare problems because of the lack of water. Inturn, this would create more opportunities for the individuals in Africa to go to work, experience community engagement, and much much more. Can you imagine walking miles every morning, just to get water?

John couldn’t either and so WHOlives was created.

WHOlives’ operations model is a piece of their business that truly sets them apart. This really begins with John’s ‘why’. He didn’t want to only put a band-aid on the problems he witnessed, but he wanted to solve them. What began as serving and volunteering his time, changed to wanting to create a difference and sticking to it.

John and his team have developed one of the most unique formats of a nonprofit that exist today, yet their operations are extremely effective. Aside from their operational structure or the actual ‘how to’ of what they do, we can also learn from the strategies they have implemented.

• Involving people in the problem-solving process gives them a sense of purpose, ownership and empowerment.

• Giving away things can create dependency, while creating ownership opportunities invites independence and growth.

• Economic empowerment and principles create future opportunities and equal opportunities

To learn more about what John and his team achieve, visit their website WHOlives.org

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