Roberto Germán [00:00:01]:
Welcome to Our Classroom. In this space, we talk about education, which is inclusive of, but not limited to, what happens in schools. Education is taking place whenever and wherever we are willing to learn. I am your host, Roberto Germán, and Our Classroom is official. Stenhouse publishers amplifies educators' voices through professional books written by teachers for teachers. Check out one of our hot off the press books, like the best selling Beyond February by Dawnavyn James. This practical guide invites elementary educators to teach Black History in truthful and meaningful ways that help young students understand the past, the present, and the world around them. With sample lessons, book collections, and an FAQ section, James gives you the tools to move beyond February and teach Black History all year long.
Roberto Germán [00:01:10]:
Use code STEN24 for 20% off the Routledge website through April 26. Welcome back to Our Classroom. Today I am joined by Witnie A. Martinez, founder and CEO of Absolute Impact Consulting, social impact advisory firm that helps nonprofits maximize their impact through expert consultation and professional development opportunities. Led by industry experts, Witnie thrives at the intersection of education, philanthropy and leadership. Welcome, Witnie.
Witnie Martinez [00:01:53]:
Roberto, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Roberto Germán [00:01:57]:
Well, it's my pleasure. It's my pleasure. I'm excited to learn more about you, learn more about the work that you do. Why don't we just go ahead and start by you sharing a little bit more about yourself and your role within the education nonprofit sector?
Witnie Martinez [00:02:13]:
Yeah, absolutely. So I've been in the education and nonprofit sector literally all of my life. I started out as a teacher. I am a certified principal for the state of Florida, but since then moved to Charlote, North Carolina, and kind of pivoted my career path a little bit to go back into the nonprofit space. And so I have been in the sector advocating for education, arts and culture for over 15 years now. And my life's work is really built around that. And the passion for that, Roberto, really comes from my upbringing. I have very humble upbringing.
Witnie Martinez [00:02:49]:
I was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, moved to the United States when I was the age of five. So English is actually my third language. I've been telling people my second language, but then I realized, no, you spoke French, then you spoke Creole, and then you learned English. And of course, I tried to learn all the French back right, years later. And so I've been in the space advocating for students because for me, if we are talking about the next generation and really focusing on the upbringing of the next generation and really solidifying what education looks like in the different spaces and places where our students are and so how can we do that effectively, and how can we take action behind it rather than just sit around and just talk about it? Right. There are so many education issues within this space, and we can't focus on everything at the same time, is what I've learned. Right. We have to take very strategic steps in order to meet our students where they are.
Witnie Martinez [00:03:44]:
And my work has really centered around that within the space.
Roberto Germán [00:03:48]:
Well, let's talk about those strategic steps. I'd love to hear more about how education nonprofits can maximize their impact. I think there are a lot of people in organizations that want to do good work, and I'm in touch with folks in the community, not just here in Tampa, Florida, where I'm at, but all across the country. And I noticed that there's a lot of people that they have the intentions to do the work, and sometimes they don't know how to make it happen. They don't know how to get the funds. They don't know how to maximize the potential of their organizations or the potential of partnerships or the potential of the dollars that exist out there that are not being tapped. So maybe you could help us with that.
Witnie Martinez [00:04:31]:
Yeah. And you hit so many nails on the head with that intro to the question, and it's a great question, but it's also so multilayered. I mean, I could probably spend the next 8 hours talking about this, but one of the things that you mentioned, of course, dollars are always an issue when it comes to not just education nonprofits, but any nonprofit. Right. There's always a need to maximize your financial resources. You get more money, you can have more impact, or you could grow your programs, you can grow your staff. You're able to build that capacity that you need to really maximize your impact. And so when it comes to the financial piece, what I tell nonprofits, I usually focus on two areas.
Witnie Martinez [00:05:10]:
The first is, don't bite off more than you can chew. I've worked with nonprofits who have had limited resources, and I'll throw up 500k. They have $500,000, a staff of eight who are underpaid, and programs that expand beyond the local community. And when we think about those factors, we know that pay equity is an issue within the nonprofit space. Right. But we also know, and many people are not going to want to hear this. There are many nonprofit leaders who are just not equipped to be running the business of a nonprofit. And I say that for so many different reasons and so many different things that I've seen during my time in this space.
Witnie Martinez [00:05:58]:
One, there's just a lack of knowledge about how to run a nonprofit like a business, because it is a business, right. Sometimes we forget it and we begin to run it like an after school club, not realizing that that 501 status, that is just your tax status, it is still a business and should be ran as such. Right. And so not having those prerequisites in order to run the nonprofit appropriately in order to maximize the impact because you are the leader of the organization, will have a detrimental ripple effect on the organization. Now back to the equitable piece, because this is a piece that I'm also passionate about. When board of directors bring on nonprofit leaders and expect them, particularly BIPOC and Black cultural leaders, and expect them to work magic for these education nonprofits, to change the numbers around, increase the impact within a year, increase the budget. Now we have a bigger problem, especially when those Black leaders and leaders of color are not being supported with their own professional development to get to where they need to get to, to be upskilled. Right.
Witnie Martinez [00:07:09]:
To learn and amass that knowledge that they need to run the organization. And so working towards that glass ceiling, there's a new term for that glass ceiling now. Like, it's not even a ceiling anymore. There's nothing there. We're trying to reach these heights that are just invisible as leaders of color. And I think that's where it starts, right? Being able to build that capacity for your nonprofit, recognizing that the need to bring in leaders that either have the skills to run it like a business, and if they don't, then provide them with the resources that they need to get there so that you are truly running your nonprofit in an equitable way. And the other piece we talked about, that programmatic element, right? When nonprofits don't have enough resources, it's so important to focus what you do have and maximize the impact of what you do have and really focus on the quality of the work that you're doing versus the quantity. You don't need to be in Atlanta.
Witnie Martinez [00:08:10]:
If you're based in Miami and you have a $300,000 budget, it just doesn't work. And a staff of ten that is being underpaid. So if we're really looking at this holistically and we are trying to be fair or equitable in the way that resources within your organization is being distributed, then we want to make sure that we look at those factors as well, and particularly when we're talking about the education space. And this is, thirdly, there's a different level of expense or extension of the self that we need to be cognizant of when it comes to this work, because as an education nonprofit, you can have a ripple effect on the community that you are serving. And when I say ripple effect, I don't mean you need to go work with every school in the school district. Focus your efforts, focus your financials, focus your resources and staff capacity on the one or two schools that you need to be working with or within the school on the one or two grade levels that you can make the most impact with. Collect the data, gather all of that information for 1235 years, whatever it takes, as long as you're maximizing your resources and truly making an impact in the lives of those students that you're serving. We don't want to dilute the effect of our mission when it comes to how we are expending our resources.
Witnie Martinez [00:09:43]:
You want to make sure you're staying focused on your mission, but you're also, again, focusing on that quality of your work versus the quantity.
Roberto Germán [00:09:53]:
Do you think people pursue the quantity because they feel like a certain type of pressure that if they don't, they're missing out on opportunities to secure funds? Is that part of what's going on? And I'm not saying that's right or wrong. I agree what you're saying. I think you should master the scope of your reach first. But I want to be fair to folks who are in that position and really wrestle with, like, man, is it that there's so much pressure to secure these dollars? And if you don't secure the dollars, then you're worried about, like, am I going to be able to run my program next year?
Witnie Martinez [00:10:33]:
That's right. And that's a fair question. And it is a lived experience of so many small nonprofits out there, particularly those ran by people of color. And so I'm glad you brought that up, because one of the areas that we focus on a lot in our work is this area of building equity around how nonprofits are funded. And this goes into a whole nother conversation around trust based philanthropy, right, where donors and funders are really focused on providing BIPOC leaders with the resources they need to run their nonprofits without having to jump through all of these hoops. In other words, trust us with the money that you're giving us so we can get the work.
Roberto Germán [00:11:21]:
Come on, speak in my me. I'm going to lose a star if I don't say this. I want to take a moment to give a quick plug to the flourish collective, because that's an organization. We're not a nonprofit. But that's an organization that funded our work last year to the tune of $5,000, and this year approved another grant for $10,000. And there's not all these strings attached. They see the evidence of our work. We're very visible.
Roberto Germán [00:11:53]:
We're not hiding anything. The evidence is out there. So they see it, and they're like, absolutely, we want to support what you're doing. And I mentioned this because you're saying something that I believe a lot of people and organizations really contend with. And I know, even me. Right. Even with multicultural classroom, there's been times that I felt discouraged about applying for grants because I'm like, oh, my goodness, it's going to be more work just to navigate through all the strings y'all have attached to this money that I might as well figure out another way to get this money.
Witnie Martinez [00:12:32]:
Yeah, let's figure out another way to do it. And that's the exact problem with philanthropy today. Right. We could probably have a whole nother segment on this, Roberto. Right. And exactly what you're saying with the funder that trusted your organization with those funds. That's what philanthropy needs to move to. Now, we're not saying, hey, nonprofits, we're not going to hold it.
Witnie Martinez [00:12:52]:
We're not going to hold you accountable for dollars you're using, but to have the notion that, hey, I'm not going to apply for this to maximize my capacity, because it's just too much work that we got to get rid of, that we just have got to get rid of.
Roberto Germán [00:13:08]:
Like, you all already know that we're underpaid and understaffed, but yet you're going to have. And I'm not talking about multicultural classroom necessarily. I'm just generalizing. But you all going to have all these strings that are going to increase our workload to the point that we might have to try to hire another staff member.
Witnie Martinez [00:13:28]:
That's right. Just to manage that grant. Especially when you're talking about those federal grants that take a minimum of 80 hours to write and submit. I mean, right? I have consultant peers, my colleagues, who charge $12,000 for one federal grant application. They submit that grant. That's right.
Roberto Germán [00:13:51]:
I'm about to start a whole new strand from multicultural classroom.
Witnie Martinez [00:13:55]:
We're in the wrong business. Right? Let's go. Let's go into grant writing. But it's so important for what I think, too, Roberto, was that a lot of funders, and I'm not making excuses in any way, they need to be at the table listening to these types of conversations.
Roberto Germán [00:14:12]:
That's why we're doing, that's why we're doing this.
Witnie Martinez [00:14:14]:
That's why we do it, right. That's why we're doing this. And it's not just for the nonprofit and we, to address one of your earlier points, now, you hate to use the word fear, but there is a connotation of fear there where we're saying, wait a minute, if I don't collect all of this data and all of these numbers, if I'm only serving one school, is that showing enough impact? And that's where it gets to be a really slippery slope. And to your point earlier, that is why so many small nonprofits do unfortunately have to kind of dilute their mission in some ways, right. And expand their resources beyond what their capacity truly is. And then it just becomes this vicious cycle of underpaid, staff diluted mission, because I'm going to submit these numbers anyway, and you're probably still going to think I'm not doing enough. So where do we draw the line to help these nonprofits, particularly our education nonprofits? Right. And I'm an advocate for all nonprofits, but my heart is really with education, arts and culture.
Witnie Martinez [00:15:18]:
But where do we draw the line to help these organizations with getting the resources that they need? Because we know in particular, education nonprofits are in our schools. They are helping our students. They are working towards student achievement directly. It's not just a little program that's happening. They are in the trenches day in and day out, working with teachers, schools and administrators to really affect change within the system.
Roberto Germán [00:15:47]:
It sounds like in the nonprofit world, it sounds like this crossover between what happens in the corporate world with the nonprofit world and what I mean by that is that in corporate world, there's this push to always scale. Like, bigger is better. And it sounds like maybe to some extent, that's happening in the nonprofit sector also, when it's like, no, we don't have to be the biggest organization out there. We don't have to be all over the place. You gave a really good example about not having to be, I don't know what I think you mentioned Atlanta or know when you're in whatever you're in Miami or you're in, hey, like, lock it down where you're at, right? Because Miami is big enough. There's enough work to do there. Tampa is big enough, there's enough work to so lock down your area. And once you do that, right, and in a sustainable manner, then perhaps you can consider expanding, whatever that means.
Roberto Germán [00:16:53]:
And it still might not be Atlanta. Right. It might be, right?
Witnie Martinez [00:16:57]:
That's right. And it might still be within Miami. Right. We're working with elementary now. We're expanding to middle school. And it's, I, I encourage folks to really think in concentric circles. And those concentric circles, believe it or not, they don't even start with the programmatic work. The first circle starts within your own organization.
Witnie Martinez [00:17:18]:
Right. So if you are looking at pay equity, for example, within your nonprofit, no matter the size, are you effectively tackling pay equity within your nonprofit? Right. Are you providing your employees and team members with pay that is fair for their line of work, for their potentially level of seniority, which many people have done away with? Right. Level of seniority is in many nonprofits, is no longer even considered for pay equity. And more about that later. But make sure you're starting internally with the culture of your organization, with the equitable standards you've established for your organization. Because if you're doing it in the work and you're not doing it within your organization, then we're hitting a line of hypocrisy that will filter out of your walls eventually when that team member decides to transition to another nonprofit or someone gets let go for whatever reason, that business is not going to stay inside of your we. And this transitions into a whole nother public relations, marketing, pr, reputation.
Witnie Martinez [00:18:35]:
Right. Segment. I think we've come up with about seven segments since I've been on here.
Roberto Germán [00:18:39]:
Roberto, you're just going to have to come back.
Witnie Martinez [00:18:42]:
Seven other segments.
Roberto Germán [00:18:45]:
We're going to make this a whole series.
Witnie Martinez [00:18:47]:
That's right. You know what? I've always wanted to have my own talk show, so I'll start here. And so looking at the operational pieces and how you're functioning internally is so important. And then you start looking at your program impact. Right. How you're having an impact within the community, looking at growth and scale. And you mentioned something, Roberto, a little bit earlier. You may need to reduce how much you've grown and know, there's so many times I've worked with nonprofits where I say we need to stop.
Witnie Martinez [00:19:19]:
We need to stop. And that is the hardest thing for a nonprofit to do. They have reporting coming up programs in motion. And what I mean by we need to stop, not just let's sit down and twitter our thumbs and take three months to think, but we need to stop. This notion of more is actually more because at some point you're going to bust at the seams because more is going to become less. Right. You'll never have enough money to do everything you need to do. I've never in 15 years come across a nonprofit that has, from our big boys, Big Brother, Big Sister, Salvation Army, Goodwill, down to our grassroots nonprofits.
Witnie Martinez [00:19:55]:
So it's so important to have that focus of how you're growing and scaling, because sometimes growing means you're going deeper. It doesn't mean that you are actually ending and scaling out.
Roberto Germán [00:20:09]:
That's good. We don't have to use that. Do you have an example of a program or initiative that significantly amplified its impact in the community?
Witnie Martinez [00:20:24]:
That's a really good question. So, across our nonprofit partners, I mean, there's been several examples of that. But I'm going to take that question for our education nonprofit listeners and combine it with part of an earlier question that you kind of asked, if that's okay, because I think it's so important to hit on this note. So, everyone knows many schools do the chocolate fundraiser every year, right? They do the chocolate fundraiser. Kids are coming out, buy one for a dollar. They're buying boxes right on the street. Knock it all your.
Roberto Germán [00:20:57]:
They don't be selling dark chocolate. I like dark chocolate.
Witnie Martinez [00:21:01]:
Well, that's another equity issue for another day, right?
Roberto Germán [00:21:06]:
Come on, now.
Witnie Martinez [00:21:08]:
Right? So they do the chocolate fundraiser. And so one of the schools, my son's old school was a title one school, and he's still in the public school system now, but he no longer attends a title I school. So within that school, we had a PTO, and that PTO consisted of three consistent members. I myself held two positions just on that PTO board. That's how small the PTO was. We had two or three other parents who came in for different events, a couple staff members who helped every now, and tiny, tiny, tiny PTO. So we held the chocolate fundraiser. I spearheaded that.
Witnie Martinez [00:21:43]:
And with my fundraising gene, of course, the school surpassed its chocolate fundraising goals more than ever. And so I think the school raised about $24,000 or so.
Roberto Germán [00:21:55]:
It would have been 25 if you sold dark chocolate.
Witnie Martinez [00:21:58]:
It would have been 25 if we sold dark chocolate. I'll agree with you there. And so, you know what? I think we actually had dark chocolate. But anyway, another episode. And so the notion with that, it wasn't just about the chocolate sales, right? It was about introducing something at a price point that at least one person in each of those students network could actually afford. Everybody knows somebody who could buy a chocolate bar for a dollar. And it created a fundraiser, really, through a lens of equity, where students could all feel like they could participate. Okay.
Witnie Martinez [00:22:37]:
And one of the things that really drove things forward for us was how we connected to community churches and local community organizations to really make that happen. Sometimes education institutions, schools in particular, public schools in particular, K-12, there are these barriers within the community because community folks who are engaged, they're paying attention to what's happening at the local level, politics wise. They know, right. We all know tax dollars are going to support our students. They're going to support our schools. So there's always this fine line of, wait, I'm already supporting the school because my taxes are going towards whatever's happening there. So it was always important for us to make sure we keep community organizations engaged in the work. Outside of parents, outside of school administrators and teachers, outside of the students, and selling chocolate at the churches.
Witnie Martinez [00:23:38]:
I think one church bought ten boxes and that was just one church.
Roberto Germán [00:23:41]:
Wow.
Witnie Martinez [00:23:42]:
And so making that happen for the school, in order for them to have the resources that they need, the PTO was there at the service of the school. And so the principal, administrators, teachers were able to come together and figure out the best needs for those students and make that happen. And I use that example because it is an easy reach. Know it's low hanging fruit. It's not something where you really have to go too far outside of what a school PTO, or maybe a couple parents who might be able to get together, even if you're not operating a PTO, might be able to do. It's really low hanging fruit. It's a free fundraiser. There's a couple of different strings attached, but it's a low hanging fruit example that any education institution can do.
Witnie Martinez [00:24:30]:
Raise $23,000, you got to give them a cut, of course. A pretty big cut, too, at that. But at the end of the day, it was 11,000 or 14,000 more dollars than we had before.
Roberto Germán [00:24:41]:
That's great. Might get my kids to go sell some chocolate bars after this interview is over.
Witnie Martinez [00:24:49]:
That's right, put them to work.
Roberto Germán [00:24:53]:
Let's talk about collaboration and the importance of collaboration within the sector for achieving maximum impact. And what are some of the best practices for fostering effective partnerships?
Witnie Martinez [00:25:05]:
Yeah, I love that. I love that question because to me it goes back and hinders on making sure that the school has a really strong parent support organization. PTA. PTO. I'm a fan of PTO because there's just more flexibility. But the problem with that is many schools don't have the capacity to even run a PTO. Right. Our title one schools parents are just too busy.
Witnie Martinez [00:25:35]:
They're too busy to come to extra meetings and come up with extra ideas and all kinds of fundraisers and big, extra cookies for whatever. Right? And so we find ourselves, and I'm going to focus on title one schools here, because I've had the experience of both. My son's current school is not title one, but there's 200 members of the PTO. Wow. At his school. That's right. Only about 20 are pretty active, what we call the PTO board. Of course I'm on it.
Witnie Martinez [00:26:01]:
I'm a classroom mom. But there's ways I really get in there, Roberto, because.
Roberto Germán [00:26:05]:
No, you got to.
Witnie Martinez [00:26:07]:
We have to. We have to be students, right? Because if we're not, then who.
Roberto Germán [00:26:15]:
Know? We can't just sit on the sidelines and expect change to happen if we're not active on the front lines.
Witnie Martinez [00:26:23]:
That's right. That's exactly right. And so one of the things I'm going to bring this back up, because it's been so critical, is having community support. And by community support, I don't mean getting community organizations just to donate money, because that is a hard pool. It is a hard sell. And quite frankly, sometimes it's not money that the school is actually looking for. It may be what they need, but they may need volunteers. They may need just extra support for a particular event.
Witnie Martinez [00:26:51]:
They may need a venue to host their teacher night out. Right. They may need some free coupons or passes for a bowling alley, which we had at our title one school, to hand out to students or prize packages for certain things. So there are many in kind donation factors that we can partner with community organizations with to provide for students and teachers and administrators. And that piece is so important because one, yes, it takes additional work, but having even one or two parents at the table who have the time, capacity, resources, or networks to actually reach out and gather those resources for the school is critical. I've been part of schools where, hey, I've written a grant. Not a huge grant for a nonprofit, a $2,500 grant. It's something, but it's not much.
Roberto Germán [00:27:43]:
Every dollar counts.
Witnie Martinez [00:27:44]:
Every dollar counts. But for a title one school, I mean, that's huge. It's huge. And so I think making sure if your school, I hate to shove this into the lapse of admin and principals, but to a certain extent, we have to. And we know they're at capacity. We know, I know the story. They're at capacity, teachers at capacity. But at some point, there has to be some type of prioritization that comes with having an organized parent group that can actually help support the school.
Witnie Martinez [00:28:15]:
Yes. The first year is going to be tough. The first year is going to be tough to build that momentum, get that group together. But once you have it established, now you're maintencing, you're growing, right? You're sustaining, you're no longer just reinventing the wheel every single year. And I think that's an area that title one schools need support with and one of the key collaborations I think I'm always thinking about, hey, what's going to come next? How can we make this happen? Because it's not going to happen quickly. It's going to take time. Title one schools, they need more help from the district and state level in order to make that happen. I envision a model where ptos are funded at the district level, and there is a PTO organization that oversees schools across the district and works with local PTO chapters.
Witnie Martinez [00:29:13]:
I think there needs to be some sort of organized funding structure that goes into funding these organizations to better support the schools, because even the ptos are strapped sometimes, right? My son's current school, we did a fun run fundraiser and raised $35,000 in just a couple of weeks. In this current school, $35,000. And that's just one fundraiser happened back in September. But imagine if more of our schools had those types of resources. Imagine if ptos shifted into a model where, hey, if your school can afford the resources to have a PTO, go for it. If you are a title one school and 95% of your parents are working one or two jobs, they just don't have the capacity. The district is going to provide you with a group that can help you with the fundraising resources you need, the community connections you need to make. But the model is going to have to shift if it stays like this.
Witnie Martinez [00:30:23]:
I'm sorry. Some of our schools are going to remain really stagnant and we can't afford to have that happen because it affects our students and their education.
Roberto Germán [00:30:30]:
It's interesting to hear you say this. Interesting to hear you use the term imagine. Earlier I was connecting with author J. E. Thomas, Jan Thomas, author of Control Freaks, and I mentioned to her before when I had her on my platform that I'm interested in having her and Jamila Dugan, author of Street Data, co author of street data on my platform, so that we can dream a bit. Yeah, Jamila has an excerpt in her book where she. I don't know. I don't remember if it's written as a poem or I just read it in poetic voice.
Roberto Germán [00:31:14]:
That's probably what happened. I read everything in poetic voice. I'm a poet. But the point is that excerpt talked about reimagining schools and having you talk about it now from the philanthropist lens, from the funding lens, from the, you know, it adds just this other layer of a conversation I want to have when we have this. And where J. E. Thomas comes in is her book Control Freaks it. Basically, she created this ideal school in her book that met the needs of all these different then, you know, Jamila, with what she's doing with Street Data and all the work that she's doing to support school leaders and educators across the country, she has a vision for how the schools should look.
Roberto Germán [00:32:15]:
And then you, with your experience in the education nonprofit world and funding and philanthropy and whatnot, and definitely in your experience being involved with PTO, you have this other lens to it. And I feel like we have all these brilliant people that need to come together and dream radically.
Witnie Martinez [00:32:39]:
Yeah.
Roberto Germán [00:32:40]:
Right. When we're talking about reform, like the stuff that they're talking about, reform, that ain't cutting it. We've seen for years that's been done through our us education system is not cutting it. So we need to have some other people at the table to have these conversations where we are dreaming radically.
Witnie Martinez [00:33:00]:
Yes.
Roberto Germán [00:33:01]:
And then thinking about and laying out some achievable action steps to start working towards that, however gradual that may be.
Witnie Martinez [00:33:13]:
I love it. I love that, Roberto. And two and a half years ago, I actually read Jamila's book Street Data. And it is an incredible read. It is an incredible read, but it's one of those you kind of got to keep going back to. I mean, there's so much information, so much information that can't be applied at the same time. But everything is. Yeah, definitely.
Witnie Martinez [00:33:36]:
Every administrator, school leader should be reading that book.
Roberto Germán [00:33:39]:
Well, we might have to get the three of you all together on this panel.
Witnie Martinez [00:33:42]:
Well, let me note that down for episode ten, because I think that's the 10th episode idea there.
Roberto Germán [00:33:48]:
Indeed, indeed, indeed. So what's shifting gears a little bit because we've covered a lot of ground, but what's the message of encouragement that you want to offer our audience or some advice that you want to offer our audience, individuals or organizations who want to make an impact in the education nonprofit sector?
Witnie Martinez [00:34:15]:
Yeah. One of the things I've always shared is we do this work from the heart. If we just cared about becoming wealthy or being rich, this is not the set. We wouldn't be a nonprofit and we certainly wouldn't be in education. Right. Working within the public school systems. Keep going. My advice is to keep going because despite all of the hardships that education, nonprofits, nonprofits in general, k through twelve public schools, are facing, continue to face, will continue to face and have faced the true measure of that success is going to be when that student comes back and remembers the impact you had on their life, or that student comes back to your nonprofit and remembers that they went through a mentorship program that used to come to their school that your nonprofit provided, or that they went to that literacy camp that changed their life.
Witnie Martinez [00:35:14]:
That is the true measure of success in its purest form, in an essence. So keep going because you are impacting someone's life every single day, whether or not if you know it.
Roberto Germán [00:35:27]:
Thank you. Thank you for sharing that.
Witnie Martinez [00:35:29]:
Of course.
Roberto Germán [00:35:30]:
Now, if you had the opportunity to have lunch with anybody, dead or alive.
Witnie Martinez [00:35:35]:
Who would it be and why I'd have lunch with. Maybe not. Maybe not. So I have always wanted to have lunch. And this might be very cliche with Oprah, if I could have lunch with Oprah, and I choose Oprah because she is a non traditional woman. She's a nontraditional, know she's gone through a lot of trauma in her life as a young woman, overcame insurmountable odds to be where she know she doesn't define your cliche Persona of what a woman needs to be or should be, is unmarried, never felt the pressure to get married. So to me, it's those things that I would want to ask her about a little bit more. I'd want to dig into her personal business a little bit more because the O Magazine is not cutting it for me right now.
Roberto Germán [00:36:28]:
Oprah, if you're listening right, lunch with Witnie. It's on you, though.
Witnie Martinez [00:36:34]:
Oprah, on you. Oprah on you. You got to work around my schedule, Oprah.
Roberto Germán [00:36:41]:
Well, where can folks follow you if they're interested in learning more about your work, connecting with you, asking you questions about educational, nonprofits, philanthropy, PTO, where can they follow you?
Witnie Martinez [00:36:54]:
Absolutely. So I am a LinkedIn guru. You can follow me on LinkedIn, or you can visit my website and fill out our questionnaire, form my emails on there as well. Witnie, at the absoluteimpact.com is my email. Our website is the absoluteimpact.com. So feel free to reach out to me through any of those channels.
Roberto Germán [00:37:14]:
Witnie, it's been a pleasure. Oh, there's so much that we touched upon here and so much more that we have to discuss. As you mentioned, we got nine more episodes that we got to map out.
Witnie Martinez [00:37:27]:
That's right.
Roberto Germán [00:37:28]:
Ten correct, including the panel with J. E. Thomas and Jamila Dugan.
Witnie Martinez [00:37:34]:
I love it.
Roberto Germán [00:37:35]:
I look forward to furthering our conversations and learning more from you.
Witnie Martinez [00:37:39]:
I do as well. Roberto, this was great. Thank you again for having me.
Roberto Germán [00:37:43]:
Thank you for being here. As always, your engagement in Our Classroom is greatly appreciated. Be sure to subscribe, rate the show, and write a review. Finally, for resources to help you understand the intersection of race, bias, education, and society, go to multiculturalclassroom.com. Peace and love from your host, Roberto Germán.
