The Nonprofit Doctor: Maryland business woman helps spot pain points and solutions for local organizations

By Megan Sayles, AFRO Enterprise Author,
Report for America Corps Member,
msayles@afro.com

After 30 years of dedicating her life to serving nonprofit organizations, Maryland native Jaye Matthews is launching her personal consultancy, The Nonprofit Physician. The agency seeks to make sure organizations throughout the globe have the assist they should maintain themselves, thrive and fulfill their missions. 

Matthews, who grew up in Cambridge, received her first job at 14. She was a camp counselor for Delmarva Group Providers’ summer time camp for youth with developmental disabilities. 

She was paired with one younger individual, accompanying and guiding them by means of the actions of every day, and the expertise ignited the 47-year-old’s curiosity in nonprofit service. 

Though she adopted a premedical monitor in her undergraduate research at Morgan State College, because the time to use to medical college approached Matthews mentioned she felt there have been extra pathways to raised folks’s lives when a good friend knowledgeable her of a possibility to work in group organizing and case administration in 1999 for a challenge to redevelop Broadway Houses, a housing complicated in Southeast Baltimore. 

The challenge was a private-public partnership involving numerous stakeholders, and in the end, Broadway Houses was reworked right into a mixed-use housing constructing with greater than 100 residences. 

After taking part within the challenge, Matthews knew her occupation must middle on altruism. 

“I knew that if a cent is linked to one thing that isn’t for the higher good of different folks, then I didn’t need it,” mentioned Matthews. “I’ve to have the ability to know that I’ve helped somebody on the finish of the day and that I’ve finished good work for the betterment of the higher good.”

Because the COVID-19 pandemic, Matthews mentioned she thinks one of many largest challenges going through nonprofit organizations is an absence of capability. 

The pandemic exacerbated group plights, like meals insecurity, home violence, underneath and unemployment and housing instability, and nonprofits stepped in to mitigate these issues, serving bigger populations than they have been used to. 

Matthews introduced the launch of The Nonprofit Physician in July throughout a celebration celebrating her commencement from Walden College, the place she acquired her physician of enterprise administration in social affect administration. 

She got here out in scrubs, signifying her dedication to caring for nonprofits with the formation of her agency. 

The Nonprofit Physician will companion with nonprofit management, employees, boards and stakeholders to make sure they’re streamlining their companies and working successfully. Matthews will supply companies, together with strategic planning, monetary administration, fund improvement, program analysis and hole evaluation. 

She credited a lot of her success up to now to her mom, Alma Boulden, who raised her as a single mother. Though she didn’t have an training herself, Boulden all the time ensured Matthews acquired the assist she wanted to thrive in her research. 

She additionally taught Matthews to chorus from making excuses, personal her failures and use them to do higher sooner or later. 

Quickly, Matthews will go away Maryland for Clearwater, Fla. the place she’s going to develop into the manager director of town’s Group Redevelopment Company (CRA), though she plans to proceed increasing her work with The Nonprofit Physician. Appointed by Mayor Frank Hibbard, she’s going to begin her function this December and assist town’s small companies, making certain they’ve what they should thrive and serve their communities. 

“Each present that I’ve, each alternative that I’ve, I all the time say, ‘God let me be a blessing or a assist for one thing exterior of myself,’” mentioned Matthews. “I simply need to be a light-weight on this world, and I’ve been that manner from childhood.”

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