Why Chris Simonsen Walked Away from $3B to Lead a Nonprofit—and Never Looked Back

[0:00]  when you see somebody whether it's a young person or someone else that's on the streets homeless just uh don't rush to judgment about that person you know most likely they've experienced tremendous trauma whether that's being a veteran of the Armed Forces or coming out of foster care or domestic violence situation uh you know their individuals they people they're members of our community and they deserve respect and they deserve our empathy and compassion and uh just just maybe look through a different lens when you encounter them and you know one of the best things our youth says about us is just that we take the time to listen to them and acknowledge them and say good morning and say hi and hey what's your name you know it's little things like that that

[0:49]  can make a big difference most people chase higher salaries and corporate success but you did the opposite you took a massive pay cut to work in the nonprofit world listen I have a question Chris what made you actually take that leap how did you know it was just the right decision well pleasure to be here Efron and uh you know it's something that just really fell in my lap and it wasn't anything that I had planned necessarily I was experiencing a lot of success in

[1:37]  the corporate world in my finance career but there were a lot of things that I wasn't happy about in my situation uh trying to spend time with my young family uh feeling like I was appreciated and valued uh just being part of a a really healthy culture and wasn't sure what I was going to do actually and then out of the blue I got a letter on my desk about a nonprofit that needed a Chief Financial Officer and I said look this must be a sign that I should look into this because this doesn't happen every day and uh when I went to meet with everybody at Orangewood Foundation I just really immediately felt a connection love the mission of

[2:25]  serving young people that are really struggling in our community and that was something that I had done with my kids you know being a part of lots of youth programs and so it just seemed like this is what I'm meant to do I could help them a lot with my expertise they had some big plans things they wanted to accomplish and they could help me get my life back in balance and enjoy what I was doing and I remember you saying that how important it was to gain that time back to be with family right it's not always about the the money because at the end of the day man we leave here and then and then what you know we have all this money for what but those memories that you get to spend with your kids and the things that you built I really want to dive into not only the before we even dive into the incredible work you do today I want to

[3:13]  take it back who was Chris before you were CEO of orangew wood who was Chris what was it like in the corporate world for you well you know I had kind of mapped out what I thought a finance career would look like for me if I was successful and really I just kind of knocked off all those markers steadily over 18 years going from you know working at a big accounting firm to becoming the CFO of a very very large corporate entity you know3 billion dollar in revenue and making tons of money and you know really having a successful career so it had all gone according to plan but but what wasn't working out for me was just that

[4:04]  balance in my life and yeah could I have gone to another corporate job and still made money similar to that maybe probably but like I said when I got this letter and went and visited with the people from Orangewood Foundation it just seemed like that's where I was meant to be and I was so excited about the opportunity and you know I tell my friends that are now retired from my last place I worked yeah all I gave up was money really that that's it but I gained so much as far as time with my family meeting amazing people working with an incredible team uh that everyone at our organization has a good heart they care about others they want to help others

[4:51]  whether that's our staff our volunteers our donors uh Our Community Partners I mean to be surrounded by good people day and day out I mean you can't put a price on that I love it not 100% man and you took a big risk really stepping into that nonprofit world not a lot of people to go from you know the for-profit world to the nonprofit world what was that transition like like were there any big surprises or challenges and shifting from that corporate mindset to that purpose-driven leadership you know nonprofits are a business also you know and and sometimes people forget about that so the same things that I worked on previously they were all there as well at Orange wood foundation just on a smaller scale uh and I guess challenges do exist because you have

[5:42]  fewer resources generally and so you have to wear a lot more hats which I'm fine with that uh the biggest challenge was really nine months after I started the recession of 2008 hit and we were not as an organization prepared to weather something like that uh for a lot of different reasons and so the next couple of years we had to take some real drastic action as an organization just to continue our services and to keep going um we had been around 30 years but like I said we weren't really prepared for something like that so that was the biggest challenge I had was kind of leading our organization through that big downturn that really impacted us and uh once we got through that and things started getting better

[6:30]  uh we we jumped on our big project to build our charter school and uh yeah everything's gone well since then I love it and for those that don't even know what Orange Wood is you're serving the youth coming out of the Foster uh system trafficking survivors as well as homeless young adults what does it take to build an organization that truly makes a difference well first off you just have to have great people involved your staff your board of directors they have to be passionate about the mission and the work that you do it's not like Corporate America where you might have some of your employees that are just kind of going through the motions they they don't like their job necessarily but whatever they like the pay or they're just waiting to retire we need everybody to be Allin on who we

[7:20]  serve and what we do and so that's really the first big step in being impactful and and really helping those in your community that are most vulnerable and so as an organization we are constantly looking to see how we can do more how we can have a bigger impact where are the gaps in Services who needs more services you know what role we can play in doing that or can we partner with other nonprofits in our org in our County that maybe have better expertise than us so you know it's it's not all about how big can orange would get it's really you know how can we have the biggest impact and that doesn't necessarily mean us getting huge yeah it's um you know using all of those resources that are around you in

[8:09]  the community to give your young people all the support they need yeah I love it I think sometimes it's just conversations as well you know I was recently in a situation where um the the foundation I was a part of wanted to provide more scholarships but we had a great opportunity to have a really great speaker so to me it was like do we Empower hundreds of kids with one speaker right that could last a lifetime or are we focusing on providing a $500 scholarship and to me it's like I rather make the impact on reaching hundreds of kids in an auditorium where maybe that story does resonate with them because a lot of times it's that is seeing someone that looks like them someone that can actually speak your language um and and seeing that versus just that $500 that probably last a book at times right so I love the focus on you saying it's not so

[8:55]  much as I want orange wood to be this Global phenomenon but I want to make sure sure that we're hitting every area that we can that we're really making impacts and and I would actually want to go into that foster care because I think I told you I was adopted so it's a very uh you know sweet space for me um I love to to know that you're in this space helping and we know that foster care could truly be breaking heartbreaking when you look at the statistics only 3% of foster youth graduates college and 66% face homelessness within a year of Aging out why do so many young people actually struggle after leaving the system well it's not really a huge mystery uh you know they've been put into the child welfare system with no fault of their own uh they weren't in a stable situation with their

[9:43]  families and I don't know about you uh but most young people when they turn 18 uh to tell them that they have to go out first graduate high school which is not a given with Foster youth because they move around so much uh only about 60% or so graduate high school which is a terrible statistic but if they do graduate high school then you have to you know figure out where you're going to live you going to need a job to pay for that place that you're living at and you're going to need to maybe potentially go to a community college or a four-year school to get your degree or get into a trade school to learn a trade and get a certificate that's that's a lot to ask of an 18-year-old when you don't have parents that can support you and help you you

[10:32]  know coming up with thousands of dollars for a deposit on an apartment uh you know most of them don't have a car they can't afford a car or the insurance so how do you get around to school and work and home you know you have to use public transit or a bike or a skateboard I mean it is just so many things stacked against them so you know we're trying to give them those resources that they need try to level the playing field for them and uh you know it's not all about resources though too you know they haven't had a lot of adults in their life that have been there and you know had those stable adult relationships so they're you know on top of the trauma that they most likely

[11:21]  encountered when they were a child which got them into foster care they don't trust too many people and they're they are very skeptical of of everyone so at our organization our first step with every young person that we meet is just meeting their immediate needs and just showing them that we care and over time we start building that trusting relationship they realize hey this is a safe place that I can go to they aren't judging me uh they listen to me they care about me and sometimes that takes week sometimes it takes a month but ultimately we do a really good job of getting those young people to the point where they say okay you know what I can

[12:09]  open up a little bit about what what my goals are what I want to accomplish what I need help with because there's no Playbook with these young people everybody is an individual with different experiences as a child different circumstances in their current life and different goals in their future life Soh we really uh are passionate about it's the life that that young person envisions for themselves that we want to help them achieve and it's not telling them what we think is best for them it's helping them do what they want to accomplish I love that and if I give you this magic wand this thing that could change something um in society to help

[12:57]  Foster our our youth what would that actually look like you could change one thing about society that actually supports fary youth wow that is uh it it would have to be a very big wand I think I mean the foster care system is complicated uh you know and I think most counties and states are trying to do the best they can but it's just it's just really tough to try to find the people to take care of of the Foster youth while they're in in foster care but the the exit from Foster Care is just something that is just unrealistic for most young people to accomplish and so we need to give them better resources during that

[13:46]  transition so that they don't have to worry about their safety and and their next meal and all those basic things you know if you if you're worried about all those basic things there's no way you can start thinking in the future about bigger goals like like getting a college degree or or getting into a career I mean you're just trying to survive day to day and and you know it's up to us as a community to make sure that that isn't the case and uh I don't know exactly what all those resources would look like there there are some programs that have been helpful that have been implemented you know HUD the housing agency for the United States created a fost youth for independent Housing Voucher about five or six years ago nice so that has been

[14:35]  extremely helpful where they can get three to five years of subsidized housing which allows them to have stability to save money to potentially buy a vehicle to focus on education or career so those types of programs uh you know the more of those that we can create I think the better our chances are to have better outcomes for these uh young people hey real quick have you enjoyed the podcast we first want to say thank you and we also just want to give you a little insight of what we're up to at Francis some don't even realize that we're working with organizations to help them use AI to create that real human communication experiences whether that's actually supporting your your families those patients or the entire Community we're actually creating Tech that

[15:24]  connects check it out francis. I like that especially now when um things are so expensive you know for for everyone you know but just imagine when you that's the baggage that you carry along with you as well where you don't have support you don't have family you don't have someone you can go and spend you know a night on their couch uh per se um having something like that is I can see where it's so beneficial because I've experienced those that come out of the foster care system and as you mentioned they're just lost they don't they don't know what's next um I'd be very transparent I remember um having a friend that soon as he aged out of the system he had two things either he can because I guess I'm not too into the uh what they provide because I was adopted and I don't know if I get the same treatment I just didn't know I never even looked into it but I did see that

[16:12]  um I had a friend and when he turned 18 they were giving him so much money a month and the foster mom said well either you go find your own space which is going to be very hard this young kid was still in school he was 18 or you can pay $500 and he was sharing a room with others like four others something like that and I I remember that you know at that moment I I was young myself but I had a um five bedroom house that I had rented out don't ask me why you know I was young okay but I said yeah just moving on my friends when I heard his story and what was happening I obviously allowed him to move in with me you know and pay only $300 a month now he has his own room helped him get a car helped him get a job and you can really see how he flourished in a sense you know and and and he was just so someone cared someone was willing to take the time you know so I I love that you're in this space and

[16:59]  not just so much for the Foster youth but you know anyone that is dealing with trauma in their lives at a young age as as a young adult it's so crucial that they have leaders like yourself Chris and I'm so happy that you made um the decision to leave that Financial world that you were doing for so long and I'm pretty sure you were really good at but to give your your purpose to something even bigger because there's individuals like myself you know and I have I'm out of Boston but there's 10 of us that are adopted on my mom's side and then you have the eight on my father's side so there's so many kids that are are struggling with these type of issues and now learning so much more I'm hoping that someone is listening to this that is going through this and understand that there there's resources out there for you you just have to um go look for it yeah you know you were a fortunate one you were adopted and you know

[17:46]  unfortunately once Foster youth get into their teenage years the chances of them being adopted by somebody are very very slim and um you know they're on their own really and yeah there are sometimes there are housing allowances and things that are provided for several years you know between 18 and 21 for example but it's not enough to live off of and uh you know we're a unique organization in Orange County because we do so many things and have so many programs and services to meet the needs of the young people you know we've got four of our own Housing Programs we've got a Workforce Development program we've got a scholarship program for college we have a dropin center for young adults to get their basic needs met we've got workshops for

[18:37]  living skills we've got all sorts of programs um and most areas of the country nonprofits will focus on maybe one or two of those things and so it's quite beneficial for our young people to kind of go to a One-Stop shop to get all of their needs met we're we're providing also link to Mental Health Services to their physical health um all the things that they need and when the when those services are fragmented once again they don't always have transportation so getting around to try to see all these different organizations to meet all my needs that's tough and the other thing that's nice about the model we have is they really have one primary care coordinator

[19:27]  that's an orange wood foundation emplo employee MH that they build that relationship with and they then help direct them within our organization to other parts of our uh company that have housing or financial resources or education or Workforce so they're not dealing with four or five different organizations with four or five different case managers they've really got one person that's looking out for their best interest and that that's been really successful for us I can see especially you know you being it's already kind of it's hard to already open up so you put me in front of so many different people and I'm having to kind of repeat myself it's it's a little tricky there but if you have that one person that they can go to that's always

[20:13]  going to be that go-to person I I see where that's beneficial I love that you guys have that model I want to take it to AI really quick everyone's in the industry is kind of in this space because AI is taken over but how is Orange Wood actually using AI to improve his impact yeah so as an organization we're always looking to be as efficient as possible uh because you know we fundraise about 60% of the money to provide our services and programs and so we want to stretch our donor dollars as far as possible and uh maximize the impact that they can have so AI is something that we've been evaluating for the past nine months looking at different tools trying to understand how they could be integrated into our

[21:01]  operations and the two main areas that we're focusing on is uh you know our marketing Communications area which is pretty common for most businesses but the other piece is how we can streamline and automate our documentation process for our case managers our care coordinators they we want them to be spending as much time as possible directly interfacing and interacting with our young people we if we can eliminate two hours a day of them keying in their notes into the system and documenting their all their activities and the goals that the youth are setting and their progress if we can automate that then that's two hours that they can be spending building relationships with

[21:49]  young people so that's the primary area that we're focusing on and we're uh pretty close to I think selecting a tool and kind of building out a a little trial model to see how well it works but love that it'll never replace the human interactions that an organization like ours has to have with uh our young people I mean that that's the basis of everything that we do is is that trusting relationship so we never want to try to replace our staff with automation if anything if we can make ourselves more efficient maybe we can hire another care coordinator uh because we're saving so much time in some of these more clerical administrative areas I I love that and I and you know

[22:37]  the way I look at uh Ai and Technology um is that co-pilot it really just as you made it makes more efficient but never losing that people skills because it's so important um even this conversation I love the conversation but just imagine what it feels like when we're in person and we're having a different conversation the energy in the room has becomes a little different so I'm definitely a a advocate of never losing that people mentality um because we already got lost a little bit in the social media right we we already got lost we don't go outside anymore like Chris they can't take away the people the people interaction that's right but if if how comfortable are you saying that you have a AI expert or agent to be something your client Community can actually access to be trusted good information such as maybe a website where you have a 247 um somebody's always answering those questions that

[23:24]  maybe someone has at 2 3 o' in the morning yeah you know uh oura care coordinators are amazing people and they care deeply about the young people that they serve and they are available generally at 247 I mean you know we don't want them to be working all the time of course but when an emergency comes up that's who we want our young person to call and uh that also validates that they trust us and that they um are willing to reach out for help so if there's a question that comes up that that that person can't answer and we've you know like any organization we've got a great it team that supports all of our users our youth

[24:15]  all the students at our charter school and they're uh spending a lot of time learning uh the ins and outs of AI and the benefits it can have and so uh we we do have a lot of uh Independent Living skills workshops that we hold at our organization on a variety of topics financial literacy credit budgeting relationships you know uh your health and wellness and you know the use of technology and how to use it safely and how to protect yourself from fraud and identity theft those are workshops that we hold regularly to make sure that our young people are educated and that they because you know their their phone is attached to their hip in

[25:03]  their hand all the time and it can make them very vulnerable if they you know do something click on a link that they shouldn't or you know visit a website that could then cause them a lot of issues open up an email right that that looks like it's a legit email but it's really not Walmart always tries to do that to me um Walmart you both could fear that's fulfilling but it wasn't always a safe Choice what advice would you actually give to someone who feels that maybe they're stuck in that corporate you know job that 9 to5 but probably afraid to take that leap into something more meaningful like you did well when I was working at my previous employer before orangew wood uh I wasn't the only one that was miserable

[25:52]  and uh the thing that I didn't do that others did is I didn't live beyond my means and I didn't even live up to my means even though I was getting promoted and making more money I was putting a lot of that aside and saving it and not buying the bigger house or the fancier car all those things so uh it was easier maybe for me than others to leave because you know I could use some of that money I saved and my salary at Orange Wood and I could still do all the things I need to do for my family and myself but you know I I used to tell those guys this isn't a prison you can leave whenever you want so it's just up to you to make the call to make the decision and you're

[26:40]  right it can be scary it's risky right um I mean I did I had never worked for nonprofit before and you know they had $7 million of Revenue versus $3 billion do of Revenue where I was at before so uh but I think you just have to trust your gut Trust your heart like what feels right probably is right um and as scary as it is I mean there's lots of quotes out there you find them on the Internet about you know the the the best decisions are sometimes the riskiest decisions and you know there's there's no certainty with anything uh but you know I think it's sad when people just fall into a rut in a routine and just go through the motions and they're counting down the weeks or months for the next 15 years

[27:29]  until they can retire I mean that that's not living your life to the fullest and so um I've gained so much by making that move you know of course all the things I talked about earlier with spending time with my family and getting to see those four children grow up to be young adults and and all of all the time I got to spend with them and the experiences I got to create but I've met so many incredible people through Orangewood Foundation that I never would would have met before um including my current wife uh through an orange wood event but you know celebrities and and athletes and and just amazing donors with super interesting backgrounds and stories and and and young people that are just so inspiring the adversity that they've

[28:17]  been able to overcome uh you know to get their master's degrees or to become doctors or lawyers Against All Odds you know I mean it it's it's not even like going to work quote unquote every day you're just you're going to this place to help young people and support them with a bunch of other great people that you work with and so um yeah that's aweet spot that's a sweet spot about nonprofit every Pro nonprofit leader I spoke to especially when they made a transition from for-profit to nonprofit they all say the same thing I'm much happier it doesn't seem like work I'm just changing the world one day at a time yep I to age y I love it what keeps you personally motivated like I can only imagine there's the ups and the downs but what really keeps you

[29:04]  motivated every day to continue this work well frankly I don't need a lot of motivation I just love what I do and there's so much need out there I guess I just want to do more help more young people we just finished up uh building our next strategic plan for the next 3 to four years and you know we've identified five areas that we really want to accelerate our impact in those areas and provide more resources and uh that's my drive I mean I I tell our team you know if you're complacent and you're standing still as an organization pretty soon the needs have changed and you're not even in touch with those or others have passed you by and they're more effective and impactful

[29:52]  than than you've become and then all of a sudden donors are redirecting their money and youth are going to to other organizations because you're not in tune with what's going on and the services you're providing aren't as valuable so you know we have to constantly innovate constantly check ourselves make sure that what we're doing and how we're delivering those programs and services still are meeting the needs of our of our young people we really focus a lot on youth voice and getting their input and feedback into what it is they need it it's not for us to try to guess or figure out what they need there're we have thousands of them that we're serving every year let's ask them hey what are we doing well what could you use more of you know where are there gaps in in the services we provide and

[30:41]  and then it's up to us to figure out is that something we can do and if so how do we do it yeah what you mentioned that there are some things on the horizon what is next orang wood like what are the big goals what are those initiatives well uh we've built one very successful Public Charter School Sewell academy uh 7th through 12th graders some of them who were are in the foster care system but most very lowincome uh young people of color that need a different type of opportunity for their education we we'd love to do more uh more of that uh with our school housing is the biggest challenge we have uh and most counties and States all have

[31:29]  the same affordable housing Challenge and lack of inventory for uh people that they're trying to serve so we're going to take it upon ourselves to create more housing inventory and opportunities for our young people whether that's us building or buying our own uh housing or partnering with other nonprofits or partnering with affordable housing providers but that's a big uh big goal of ours and and and then we're going to focus a lot on advocacy we we do advocacy but it's kind of in a halfhazard way so really developing a strategy around how to advocate for our Organization for our young people um to get those influential decision makers in local and state

[32:18]  government to become aware and knowledgeable of the challenges our young people face and then get them to direct more resources or legislation to support them Chris we're coming up to the the fun part of this podcast which is that blind question before we get to that blind question for those that are still listening how can they actually support orang Wood's Mission well whether it's mentorship donations or just getting involved yeah I mean if if you are someone that lives in the Orange County or Southern California area you know go to our website and see if there's different ways you might want to volunteer or participate in some of our events that we have we also need uh Foster families for a program that we have at our school uh which is very unique and not like

[33:06]  traditional foster care um if you're out of the area hey get on our social media channels on Instagram and YouTube and and others and and follow us and of course we always are looking to grow our services so we do need financial support uh but you know just being educated and being advocates for young adults I mean we've talked a lot about foster care in in this interview but we also serve survivors of human trafficking which are another very vulnerable population that need more uh awareness in the broader Community about the fact that they those aren't prostitutes those are people that have been enslaved into this life and they need support getting out of that life and then after they leave so um and and

[33:56]  just maybe when you see somebody whether it's a young person or someone else that's on the streets homeless just uh don't rush to judgment about that person you know most likely they've experienced tremendous trauma whether that's being a veteran of the Armed Forces or coming out of foster care or domestic violence situation uh you know they're individuals they're people they're members of our community and they deserve respect and they to serve our empathy and compassion and uh just just maybe look through a different lens when you encounter them and you know one of the best things our youth says about us is just that we take the time to listen to them and acknowledge them and say

[34:42]  good morning and say hi and hey what's your name you know it's little things like that that can make a big difference I was gonna say just the little things man just make them feel like they're worthy of something right that they have value a lot of the times I think uh when they don't see that that's when they really feel um less than when they speak less to others um and it takes time all these walls they put up now people got to go back and try to knock down those walls to really get to to them let them know that there is helped and Chris I can't thank you enough again for making the transition you did um I transition to that blind question man thank you so much again but let's let's say you had 60 seconds to give advice to your younger self to Young Young Chris to give advice to your younger self right

[35:31]  before taking the leap into a nonprofit leadership what would you tell Young Chris well I think I would I would say that you know what building a career on a certain path is it's great you need to have goals you need to set goals but you also need to be willing and open to making it a pivot to changing to constantly re-evaluate your situation and whether it's bringing you joy and happiness and if it's not then it's time to look for something that would make you happier and more fulfilling and uh I I just I it really bothers me and I feel bad for people that aren't always in a the situation that maximizes their enjoyment in life

[36:23]  and and they're settling whether it's a job or a relationship or or something else they they just feel like they're stuck and you're never stuck unless you're in in in a prison cell you you have options you can make decisions you can change your life and and don't be afraid to do that well Chris we appreciate you and everything you've done to continue just transforming lives the young lives at the Orangewood foundation for those that are still watching please make sure that you guys do share and uh continue to let people know that there's resources out there like orange wood that is trly wanting to help not just those on who in the Foster system but those that have also been um in the sex sex trafficking system um those that that just need assistance that are going through things and maybe

[37:10]  feel like they're alone there's so many different organizations such as Orange Wood and Chris again thank you so much for your time for doing this with us if you guys haven't already make sure that you guys do like share subscribe we'll see you guys on the next episode thanks e all right we'll catch you guys on the next one