What Advice Would You Give Your Younger Self

By Olga Moshinsky Woltman

 

I was talking recently with a recent college grad navigating where she's headed and what comes next. That’s where we all started. It got me thinking. What advice would I give my younger self? What do I wish I'd known?

The irony is that the further along you get in your professional journey, the more trusted colleagues and thought partners you have to turn to. So I reached out to a few thoughtful professionals that I respect and turned this same question on them. They responded thoughtfully and generously. A few themes kept surfacing. Here's what we'd tell ourselves.

You Don't Have to Have It All Figured Out

This is a long game. Several people led with some version of this, you won’t start out with all the answers, they come into focus over time. We learn as we go, collecting wisdom and skills with every experience and every knock. The people who stand out in this sector aren't necessarily the ones with the clearest plan. They're the ones who are willing to wing it, raise their hand, figure it out, and make progress.

Nurture Relationships

Find your people and keep them close. This message came back loudest and most consistently, almost every reply included some variation on this theme. They were not referencing aggressive networking, but building actual real relationships, the kind where you really get to know people, stay connected long after you’ve changed jobs, and build a trusted network.

Alice Hendricks, nonprofit technology strategist and founder put it simply: building your network really means making friends. Don't turn down a coffee or a Zoom. Learn about people's lives. The same principles, by the way, apply to relationships with donors. The emphasis is being intentional about staying connected over time, across organizations and professional roles. This sector is smaller than it looks and longer than you think.

It’s worth calling out nonprofit community more broadly. It’s about showing up and connecting through professional groups, organizations, events, formal and informal. None of us are figuring this all out alone. There are people who have already done the thing you're about to try, you can learn from their experience if you only know who to ask.

Stay Curious. Ask the Dumb Question.

Ask questions, including the ones that feel obvious or embarrassing. Once asked, don’t forget to listen to really understand and gain clarity. The so-called dumb question is often the one that sparks the most interesting conversation in the room. This curiosity will often lead you down the unexpected paths and it matters today more than ever. With immense knowledge and every resource at our fingertips, the most curious and resourceful have the edge.

This curiosity extends to paying attention to what's happening outside your own lane and getting to know all parts of the organization, not just your corner of it. That means mission and operations for all of us in the fundraising and marketing corner.

Let the Purpose Sustain You

“The fulfillment factor is real. When people opt into mission-driven work, they bring their whole selves.” Works can be stressful but even on a bad day, you know someone was helped. And you are surrounded by people who also chose to be there because they care about the mission and advancing social good in all the different ways.

But it is a double-edged sword. This work can be all-consuming and it has a way of sneaking up on you. Don’t forget to have fun along the way and make time for those in your life who also deserve your full presence.

A Few More Gems

For the lightning round, here are a few more pearls of advice that came up that didn’t fit neatly into a theme but were too good to leave out:

• "Big gifts add up faster." That’s just math.
• "Demand more accountability for defining the impact."
• "Designing Your Life is such a helpful resource for thinking through your own gifts and passions and experimenting to find your path."

A huge thank you to Allison Erdle, Pat Frame, Tabitha Glenn, Erin Hall, Alice Hendricks, Kat Landa, Leah Kral, Lisa O'Brien, Tim Parsons, Ronnie Tepp, and Jen Wasem — for your generosity, your honesty, and for being exactly the kinds of people worth holding onto.

 

Olga Moshinsky Woltman has worked with some of the most inspiring and transformative causes, including the American Heart Association, the ALS Association, the American Diabetes Association, and Special Olympics. As the founder of LemonSkies, Olga helps clients in the nonprofit sector build awareness, deepen connections, and raise funds through empathy and storytelling. In addition to her work with LemonSkies, Olga is a contributing editor at The Nonprofit Times and a frequent guest on industry podcasts. She also hosts the conversation series People of Substance by LemonSkies, highlighting thinkers and leaders in the nonprofit industry.