Meet Kimberly Raff | Executive Director and Founder of Foster Alumni Mentors.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kimberly Raff and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kimberly, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
Starting a nonprofit meant making an impact in the world the way I felt needed to be made. After aging out of foster care when I was 17 years old, I was left to figure life out on my own. It took me years before I finally stabilized, graduated college, and was able to start my life. I began working for child welfare to give back and do for others what my case worker did for me, kept me safe. I found teens were still aging out of foster care without a lot of support. That’s when I decided I was doing a disservice to those in foster care by not sharing my story of aging out with them. I realized I could make more of an impact with those aging out of care, building relationships, and reminding them they matter, even after foster care. I had reached out to some local nonprofits to see if they could create the nonprofit to fill this gap. What I was told was that it needed to be in my voice to make the impact. They could hear the passion in my voice. This led me down the path of learning how to start a nonprofit. The passion I have for those in foster care is compounded by my own experience as a teen who fell through the systematic cracks and then aged out of foster care, work as a case manager in child welfare, and as a kinship parent caring for my niece. Child abuse and neglect doesn’t go away in families just because there is a removal. After I aged out of foster care I experienced homelessness. I failed out of college twice. I went into the military and received a medical discharge after a short time of service. I went back to college and decided I needed to get my life on track. I was divorced and a single mom of a 2 year old. I graduated in 2008, so close to graduating with honors. I was on the Dean’s list and a member of Psy Chi National Honor Society. My degree is in Psychology. I always share that my degree isn’t in business but I sure can build relationships with others. I believe this is what has set apart our nonprofit. We work from the human perspective, rather than the business model. We want to ensure each individual we work with is heard and knows they matter to us. We work with them on achieving their goals and build those personal relationships with them. Transparency is important to us in that we want to ensure we don’t say anything we can’t follow through with and we let our members know we don’t know the answer to something if we don’t know but we are willing to find out. We walk alongside them. We state that we don’t do case management, 1. they aren’t a case and 2. we aren’t here to manage them. We are here to give them the tools and resources they need to be successful and achieve the goals they have identified that are important to them. We also reach out to our members to find out what topics they want to learn about. They have a say in what direction our organization goes. We recognized there were a lot of mom’s in our program who felt alone so we are working on creating a mom’s group where they can connect with one another. We do FAM Time to just get together with one another so they can have fun and build their community of supports, connecting through their shared lived experience in foster care. We serve those who are impacted by foster care or kinship care whether they were returned home to parents, aged out, or adopted. We uplift and encourage them to go after their dreams and find out what barriers they have to being successful and help remove those barriers. The most important factor behind our success I would say is relationship. That is the key factor to building trust and making sure each of our members knows we value them, they matter to us, they aren’t alone, and they have a community of support.

What should our readers know about your business?
I am most proud of stepping out of my comfort zone and learning how to start a nonprofit from nothing. I have had to research, learn, ask questions, find mentors, and dig deep to really get through all of this. I didn’t realize there was so much to starting a nonprofit. We started in 2017 with a fiscal sponsor and received our 501c3 status in March 2019 that was retroactive to 2017. I volunteered for my first 2 years, not getting paid. Then I was able to move to getting paid for 10 hours a week, working other jobs so I could keep going, too. Then I bumped up to 20 hours a week, then 30 hours, then hired an admin assistant 10 hours a week. This is our 6th year and we are now a staff of 3. Our numbers served have continued to double each year as well as our revenue. It has definitely not been easy. I have had to reach out and find mentors to help me along the way. My biggest challenge has been overcoming imposter syndrome. I just keep doing the work and making it happen, never giving up. When I find I am struggling with learning something I take a step away and focus on something else and come back to it the next day. I do a lot of self reflection to decide if I should be the one working on something, need to delegate it to a staff, or outsource it. I am also learning how to be a supervisor. I realized my supervisory skills are more aligned with my mentoring skills, I teach and model so it has been a learning curve to figure out what my expectations are in the workplace and why that is important. I want the world to know that I hope to inspire others to step up and do what they are passionate about and make a difference in their communities. No matter where we are or who we are, we can all make a difference. Be the Tony and Marie’s of the world. In 2022 I was honored to receive the Colorado Mesa University Distinguished Alumni award and I invited Tony and Marie to be part of the celebration with me. It was beautiful to see this come full circle what they did for me and now I get to inspire others to do the same.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would love to take them on a hike to the Mica Mines, a road trip up over the Grand Mesa, and a walk along the riverfront trails. For dinner we would visit The Devil’s Kitchen at Colorado Mesa University because they offer an amazing view and fantastic food, not to mention they are my alma mater! We definitely would need to do a drive up over the Colorado National Monument to see all the beauty and hopefully spy some of the fun mountain goats. Downtown Grand Junction is my favorite place because it’s so laid back and gorgeous. Kiln coffee bar is my favorite coffee bar to visit because they are so personable and all about relationship and making others feel seen and valued.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Shout out to Tony and Marie Martinez! They were the difference in my life. They owned the Dairy Queen I worked at when I was 18 and Tony asked me if I was interested in attending college. I said sure, even though I was working 3 jobs to try and support myself. They helped me apply, took me out to breakfast the morning of my ACT, and helped me enroll when I was accepted. They are amazing humans who just want to see people succeed in life. One time I was sick and they took me to their house and nursed me back to health. Good humans. Had they not asked me that simple question I don’t know where I would be today.

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Image Credits
Colorado Mesa University Ashlee Ficklin