It Takes a Village: Investing in Skills for Tomorrow’s Leaders

What inspired you to join NextGen Thriving’s Board of Directors?

I’ve known Richard and Janice Ricks, the founders of NextGen Thriving, for a long time – I think almost 20 years! I’m their pastor, and Richard asked me to serve on the Board of his new foundation starting up in 2019. So, I’ve been there since the beginning.

But that’s not what inspired me to join. I love the Founder’s passion for being what I would consider to be: outrageously generous! More specifically, towards providing vocational skills to underserved youth in America.

How does the mission of NextGen Thriving align with your personal values?

This one is easy. I believe we are put on this Earth to serve and not to be served.

And we all have a brief period to do that. So, the help that we’re providing to our partner organizations and the youth they serve – we are building for a better future. That’s how it aligns with my values.

Can you share a personal story or experience that influenced your decision to get involved?

I have a child who’s graduating college at the end of this year, and I have one entering college. I have been just stunned by the cost of higher education in America. I’ve done some research over the past four years and found out that nearly 90% of kids in the US graduate high school. Of those graduates, 60% will go to college and 32% of college students drop out every year. And a lot of it has to do with finances. I can’t imagine how hard it is for families who may have even one or two factors working against them.

And so, supporting organizations delivering vocational skills and experiences is vital for future generations. Skills training is essential in our day and age, and that’s why NextGen Thriving serves a critical role – where college is not necessarily required.

What do you see as the biggest impact NextGen Thriving has on the communities served through its Grantees?

It’s been so incredibly encouraging to see the work by our partner organizations to help students get set up for the future. Our foundation is small and nimble, which is fortunate for us to witness our grantees making an impact at such a granular level in their communities.

For instance, our church partners with over 14 different organizations in our community here in Beaufort County, SC. NextGen Thriving’s grantee, Code for Life, is another great example of deep impact. They help kids learn all different kinds of computer coding. It’s not my background, so I don’t know that much about it, but I do know that there are so many employers out there looking for these skills. And if not for Code for Life, these kids might not have the opportunity to learn coding anywhere else. And these small organizations with deep impact rely on donors and foundations like NextGen Thriving to achieve their outcomes.

It takes a village, as they say.

In what ways have you contributed to the foundation’s mission during your time on the Board, and what are you most proud of?

For me, the accomplishment that I’m most proud of is being a part of Code for Life right here in our own backyard. I’ve gotten to know the Founder, Chris Troy, and his team, because he is starting a Code for life branch in Beaufort County, SC, where I live.

Chris has been working with high school students in New York City for years – particularly kids who would not have the opportunity to develop coding skills anywhere else. Chris and his team have figured out exactly how to deliver the training in an engaging way, how to capture their hearts and minds with skills that will set them up for success in the future.

How has being part of NextGen Thriving impacted your life personally or professionally?

On a personal level, there is a young woman who has been a part of my church since she was 3 years old, and now she’s about 22 or 23, going to college for coding and working two or three jobs. Her goal is to work in cybersecurity. The reason I’m telling you this is because she would have been a perfect candidate for Code for Life’s trainings — if we’d had them in Beaufort County back then. And by the way, I talked to her about volunteering for the organization! The point is, there are so many young people like her that just need to be given the opportunity to thrive. She’ll be getting her degree in the next couple of years, and I can’t wait to see what she does with it. It’s been a privilege to be a part of her journey.

On a professional level, my wife Cynthia and I planted Hilton Head Island Community Church 18 years ago. It’s given me perspective to be a part of something that I didn’t start, to see it through a different lens. It’s caused me to think bigger about vocational skills training and how it doesn’t rely on formal or traditional education, but rather, it can run parallel to it. It has helped me understand a different way of doing things, and I’ve incorporated some of these learnings into our church activities, and vice versa.

What lessons have you learned from serving on the Board?

A well-run organization leads to success. It’s the flywheel that Jim Collins talks about in the book, Good to Great. I think our board has set us up well for the future. Honestly, the early days in the life of any organization are challenging. You must push through the tough times, which may be slower or more arduous than you want them to be. There’s a lot of patience involved, but once you get the flywheel going, it really is set up to thrive – just like in our name.

Have there been any particularly memorable moments in this role?

We were really excited to make a few internal changes this past year when we decided as a Board to expand our operations and become a private operating foundation. This would enable us to deliver our own programming and start fundraising to grow our grants program. We all celebrated when we got our new 501c3 status in record time!

But let me also say that among the most memorable moments are when we make funding decisions. Who is going to be the next grantee of NextGen Thriving? To be able to see the grantee’s response and what they accomplish with our support when they report back to us – it’s inspiring!

Where do you see NextGen Thriving in the next three to five years?

I see us really going far beyond where we are now in terms of grant dollars, although I really leave that to the guys that are better than I am at the money side of things. More importantly, our goal is to become true, long-term partners with all our grantees. That’s our future, isn’t it? We’re not just an organization that hands out money and never glances back. The real impact happens when we come alongside them and support them along the way. We are investors in their future, so we’re sticking around for the finale! That’s greater than the dollar amount or the number of organizations that we fund.

Quality over quantity – and that’s rare these days.

What do you hope to achieve in your time as a Board Member?

I want to see us impact as many kids as possible, in as many places that might not have the opportunities. NextGen Thriving is really building a support system for the future of students in the US who might not normally have access to it.

How can others, whether individuals or businesses, support NextGen Thriving’s mission?

Let’s see…like and follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook, subscribe to our mailing list. We’ve got a great name and a great mission. Help us share our story and spread the word about why this work is so important.

While there’s little help that I can provide with financial strategies (we’ve already got people working on that!), my real passion revolves around the vision, mission, and values of this organization. In creating the kind of environment that gets people excited to contribute. I’ll always be an advocate and a champion for what we do.

I’ll end with this: NextGen Thriving is a relatively new organization in the formative stages. But I see us as being uniquely positioned to have a great impact in the future. So, you’ll be hearing more about NextGen Thriving, I’m sure of it!

Join the Movement

Why Fund NextGen Thriving?

• 100% of donations are allocated to our Grants Program thanks to our corporate sponsor, Silver Tree Consulting & Services and the generosity of our Founder, Richard C. Ricks
• An investment in NextGen Thriving is strengthening an ecosystem of high-impact nonprofits, driving sustainable, scalable change for historically marginalized youth
• Our Board of Directors is deeply engaged and 100% invested in the mission
• Demonstrated operational excellence through legal compliance, monthly financial reconciliation and expense tracking, Conflict of Interest Disclosure Statements submitted annually by the Board, and Standard Operating Procedures

Our Grants Program does more than fund organizations aligned with our mission—we invest in their long-term success. We have already made a measurable difference since our founding in 2020:

• $550,000 total funds disbursed to 4 nonprofit organizations
• 1,953 total youth (ages 16-24) engaged through our programming
• How We’re Preparing Youth for the Future
  • Vocational training in baking and coding languages, including Web Basics (HTML, CSS), JavaScript, React, Node.js, Mongo dB, Python and Machine Learning
  • Job placements and career training on financial capability, education and career support services
• Geographic Communities Served – Harlem, Brooklyn, The Bronx, and Staten Island, New York; Atlanta, Georgia; Houston, Texas