Age: 45
Married: Yes
Children: 16 and one off to college next fall.
Household Income: $180,000
Location: Anytown USA
History: Kayla has her bachelor’s degree in business, and her masters in public administration. She has a robust work history in the nonprofit realm with roles ranging from small agency executive director to medium agency program management to finance management. She transitioned to her current role as a community foundation director only a year ago, and has spent the majority of her first year learning and networking. She has brought her years of experience to the role and draws upon that experience to determine programming needs and grant funding support that will be meaningful for the nonprofits the foundation supports. During her time, she has managed to passively increase YoY fundraising totals for recipient agencies, and started a new initiative to train up aspiring young community leaders.
Daily Routine:
Kayla tries to wake up before her kids (around 6:00) every morning and drink her coffee while scrolling the news on her phone. She then wakes up her kids to get out the door for school with the help of her husband, Ryan. When Ryan works at the office (3 days a week) he brings their kids to school. The other 2 days, Kayla brings them, and strives to arrive at work every day by 8:00. Her commute is 20 minutes, and she listens to her favorite leadership podcasts on her way to and from work.
Kayla leads a staff of 6, and they have weekly Monday strategy meetings, and shorter morning huddles the other 4 days. The rest of her days are filled with meetings with various partners, networking events, and site visits to the various nonprofits her foundation supports. She also keeps an ear to the ground for strategic needs nonprofits may not see yet, but her foundation could fill the void.
She leaves work most days at 4:30, and goes to kids’ sports practice or games – both kids are in two sports each year. On weekends, she gets chores done and runs errands, meal preps, or gets her nails done.
Kayla spends evenings with her family, streaming shows with her husband and yelling at kids to get homework done, while catching up on social media. Weekends are filled with traveling to sporting events, hanging out with her small group of girlfriends, catching up on work, and planning for the week ahead when errands and chores are done. She and her husband are approaching empty nest season, but they don’t have time to figure out what they will do with all the free time – they’re still too busy and beginning to orbit vs. connect.
Favorite Brands/Stores: Target, Whole Foods, Jeep, Local Coffee Shops, J. Crew, Apple
Media Habits: Kayla uses her phone for news, banking, and social media. She watches her streaming shows on her TV and uses her laptop for all things work-related. News: NY Times, Apple News. Social: Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Facebook.
Professional needs: The foundation Kayla directs is in decent shape financially, but they are set in their ways thanks to the founders and long history of philanthropy in the state. She would like to see more outside-the-box thinking, especially when it comes to implementing new technology, supporting their existing nonprofits, and finding creative ways to support startups.
Pain Points:
- Kayla constantly feels like she aspires to do more than her team and board members think is necessary. She wants to shift their mindset from just being a funding source to being a support structure for the nonprofits they serve, but she doesn’t know how.
- Coming from a career in nonprofit operations and finance, Kayla is frustrated by the decisions that some of their nonprofits are making and wants to provide more help in the form of education.
- Kayla is hearing of more and more local nonprofits shutting their doors or severely cutting back due to funding shortages. She wants to be a resource, but understands that it is going to take more than new revenue streams for some of them to be successful.