Stop Doing it Broke: How -$1.36 Changed My Life

I believe that in order to be a successful grant writer, you have to have a level of empathy for your clients—where you can truly put yourself in their shoes.

As a nonprofit executive director, I know all too well what it feels like to need funding and not have the knowledge or resources to find it. I know what it feels like to be flat-out broke… and still paying for everything out of pocket.

I remember in 2018 when everything changed about my approach to funding.

I was paying for I Am A Queen’s I Am Enough Teen Empowerment Conference out of my own pocket—and I was broke.

Not the kind of broke where payday is a few days away. No. This was the kind of broke where I was working full-time as a state employee, getting paid once a month… and still had weeks to go.

I remember cutting the conference budget down drastically, but I still needed $600 to pay the Subway caterer.

I checked my bank account. It was at -$1.36.

And I already knew that $36 overdraft fee was coming.

I felt like giving up… and honestly, I think I did—for about five minutes.

Then something came over me. It was that feeling—you know the one—when you’re being pushed into a faith walk. I picked up the phone and started calling anybody and everybody, asking for $20 donations.

I was begging.

The bill was due the night before the conference, and the owner of Subway—who has been supporting me for 14 years—worked with me. He discounted 200 sandwiches down to $600.

And to this day, the girls at every conference still have Subway sandwiches.

The money came in—different people, different ways—and the bill was paid.

The conference? A hit.

We received major media coverage on Fox 8, and people were so inspired that they started donating immediately afterward.

WGHP Buckley Report

But even after all that…

I was still broke.

And I was broken.

I was so embarrassed. I had just pleaded with people for $600 to feed my girls. I was ready to move out of the state, change my name—just disappear.

And then suddenly… a shift happened.

God gave me a dream and told me to drive to a local gold jewelry store.

In the dream, I thought He wanted me to sell something so I could get groceries—because yes, I was still dealing with an overdraft account.

When I got there, the store was closed.

I sat in my car, confused.

While I was sitting there, my phone rang—twice, back-to-back. I ignored the calls. I was still trying to process what I had just experienced in the dream.

Right before I drove off, I checked my email.

It was the same woman who had just called me.

She said she wanted to start a nonprofit and had been referred to me by someone who only knew me from Facebook.

We talked for two hours—about faith, about purpose, about building an organization.

That same day, she asked for a contract and an invoice.

And she paid it.

Immediately, I understood.

God needed to remove me from my normal environment so I could hear Him clearly.

Something woke up in me that day.

I said out loud: “I will never be broke another day in my life. And I will never beg someone to help me feed my kids again.”

In 2019, I raised $10,000 in private funding—just to prove to myself that I could do it.

In 2020, during the pandemic, I became a grant writer. Funders were ready to support I Am A Queen, and I had to learn how to complete multiple applications quickly and strategically.

And that’s where everything shifted.

So my message to you is this:

You have to change how you think—and stop doing this work broke.

This work requires strategy. It requires positioning. It requires you to stay ahead.

I am a witness—God will not leave you.

But He does need your attention.

He needs your ear so you can hear His voice.

I pray this blesses you.