Entrepreneurial

A chaotic kind of love: starting a successful non-profit

Katharine Herrup

Aug 6, 2010 10:38 EDT

This is part of an ongoing series of interviews I am doing with women entrepreneurs, and part of the kickoff to a series on social entrepreneurship.

Recently, I spoke with Linda Mornell, (pictured at left with a Summer Search student) the founder and former CEO of Summer Search, an educational and character building program that gives low-income students the opportunities and support to transform their lives. Linda, A former psychiatric nurse, spoke about the challenges of starting a non-profit organization, which now has seven offices. She also addresses the potential hazards of being too invested in your company.

What is Summer Search? Summer Search essentially became a leadership and character development program. We look for kids who shows signs of altruism. The alumni are incredibly self-aware and empowered individuals who are very committed to their own personal growth and helping others.

I got the idea in 1989 and the first group of students in San Francisco went out in the summer of 1990. I was 45 years old and my youngest had just started college. It began during a transitional part of my life.

What was your strategy for making your idea work? As I reflect back nothing seemed to be on purpose. It was just so random and chaotic. I was a nurse. I followed orders. I never thought in a million years that I would be an entrepreneur. I had no idea what to do with these kids. There was one program, Global Routes, that wanted one student to go to Bali. So I put him on a plane over there, to the horror of his school teacher. It was his first time ever on a plane. I hoped for the best.

John Osterweis, who was the first president of the board, was able to tolerate the craziness and change, which allowed me to go in 10 directions at once. He rolled with it. My goal was to have 50 high school students a year. The first year I interviewed around 20 kids and the second year I had about 50. By year three, there were 87 kids in the program. Now there are 800.

What contributed to the initial chaos? I couldn’t get the schools to nominate kids for the program. They didn’t understand it and they didn’t trust me initially. What I didn’t realize is how many people try and access public schools for their own gain. Everybody has a different program. By year three, I had four individual teachers that were committed to the program and referred individuals every year and that list continued to grow. Also, there was a language barrier — some kids didn’t speak English.