I started my own nonprofit while working full-time. Now What?

I’m challenging the status quo and daring to have not a dream job but a dream and a job.

In the spring of 2021, I ran into a wall at work. I had just committed to transition fully into a social impact job and accepted a pay cut, reduced future earning potential, and quality of life with the faith that I would be happier and more fulfilled. And, I was.

The wall I ran into was realizing that the imperfections of corporate life exist vividly in the social impact space as well. The nonprofit industrial complex is another name for the same codependency the social impact space often inherits from balancing profit with purpose. Regardless of how well-intended decision-makers start, the mission to reduce cost and increase revenue will not only supersede equity objectives but trickle into hiring decisions and talent retention. While I continue to work in my full-time job, I craved building and creating a team of my own that tests the limits of the same imperfections that have failed to innovate and evolve to be authentically purposeful and profitable.

Growing Up Undocumented

For nearly a decade, I shared the deepest, darkest secrets of my life to the country during one of the scariest times to do so.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival, enacted through Executive Order in 2014 became a gateway to a temporary fix that quickly turned a nightmare when the Trump administration took over. It started when I became a New York Immigration Coalition DREAM Fellow, a scholarship program that offered financial support for undocumented students. Just as the Obama Administration pushed to rally a Comprehensive Immigration Reform, a more permanent, legislative solution to our nation’s broken immigration system, the bill died in the 113th House of Representatives.

On election night, I broke out in hives. I looked around my living room and started disassociating from my belongings. I was unsafe, and so were 800,000 Dreamers just like me who surrendered information such as their passport, home addresses, school history in exchange for the ability to work in a country that has chosen to reject my existence and joyfully chanted “BUILD THAT WALL

We are prey to the predators who now live in the White House.

Still, I refused to accept my new reality. I continued to speak at rallies, protest my heart out, appear on national television and write op-eds. I used my full name, I shared my journey, and as my stories circulated, my faith in advocacy and immigrant justice renewed. At the same time, my Facebook got hacked. I started receiving death threats and hate messages and was warned to keep my mouth shut because I am now vulnerable. I most certainly am, and almost simultaneously, I am reminded that the worst has already happened. What else do I have to lose?

Feeling “Less Than”

Over the years, I’ve been laid off after training my new boss, I’ve started my own business (and did very well), and I have worked 90 hours a week just to be told that my grammar in my emails reflect poorly on the company because “English isn’t my first language.” I’ve embraced all of my shortcomings wrapped in white supremacy and typical corporate stuff.

Despite achieving beyond my parents’ wildest imagination, I was seen as “less than.” It didn’t matter how instrumental I was at operationalizing a startup, reducing client churn at a historical rate, or beating moonshot annual OKRs; I still feel “less than.”

I am not “less than,” however. There were just “less” of me that was accepted and valued.

How ShopCauses.org Came To Be

Shop Causes came to be at a time of immense disappointment, frustration, and heartbreak. Like all of us, salaries and promotions, regardless of how graceful you’re expected to be, are a matter of upgrading your life or saving a little more to meet your retirement goals. It’s a zero-sum game and very important for the practical person I am.

While I’ve agreed to be paid less to do more mission-aligned work every day, I was disheartened by the pay gap disparity and blind spots that led to inequities the most well-intended folks still perpetuate. The responsibilities of correcting inequities often fall on the shoulders of those who feel the most pain, and without exception, this was the case for me.

Through tears and long conversations, my bosses and I made it work — for now. We hired a consultant to conduct a salary analysis and survey to ensure equity, we adjusted bonuses and rewards to reflect the participation of every employee distributed equally, and we even worked on publishing learnings that centered courageously on racial and gender dynamics that influence promotion and salaries, even when we try our best.

I wondered if I could build a better company.

For years, I’ve pondered how my first company failed to scale. It was a marketing consultancy, and I knew scaling it meant building an agency. I wasn’t interested in creating another agency, although I’ve spent most of my career building other peoples’ agencies — I became obsessed with building something more scalable, accessible, and amplifier for all the great causes that already exist.

Shop Causes combines the ease of gift registries and online shopping to connect donors with nonprofits in need. Starting with nonprofits serving immigrant and refugees community, donors can shop items that nonprofits have curated and shipped directly to relief efforts on the ground. By centering our platform on transparency and trust, Shop Causes envisions a future where every dollar donated translates into tax-deductible items purchased from socially responsible and sustainable businesses.

I might have started the nonprofit out of frustration, but which founders didn’t? I have big dreams for this organization, but I also have bills to pay. Taking a chapter from making business decisions that often don’t align with my values, I’m separating my passion from my paycheck. By creating a separate entity that I can build after my 9–5, I’m challenging the status quo and daring to have not a dream job but a dream and a job.

What’s Next?

As of November 2021, the IRS approved Shop Causes Inc. as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempted charitable organization. The paperwork was easy, and even though getting a tax-exempt status isn’t indicative of the organization’s success, there’s something to being legitimized by the government that feels like I’m finally starting to get even. This country may not approve of my existence. My whole self may not be entirely accepted at work. Still, Shop Causes has another shot at giving the booster nonprofits need to democratize through small-dollar funders and reduce dependencies from the big wigs (although if any big wig is reading and wants to donate to Shop Causes, please DM me).

Medical Supplies for Ukraine:

Shop Causes is partnering with Razom for Ukraine to fundraise and support medical response teams on the ground. No amount is too small, donate to our campaign here.