Today we’d like to introduce you to Seante Johnson.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Seante. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
In college, I studied hospitality, entrepreneurship, and nonprofit management. After working for only two years after graduating, I got laid off. With this lack of experience, I was constantly being rejected, I decided to form a startup 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. I had begun researching how to do this and writing my business plan in 2014. So, I pulled out the plan but I had a problem. I knew that I wanted to serve children, but I did not know the capacity in which I wanted to serve them.
One day, my mother told me a story about a little girl who had grand birthday parties that everyone would come to. In attendance was another little girl who shared the same birthday, but no one knew because she was not celebrated. My mother continued the story and said that the girl was very sad and always distant from the other children. Hearing about what the little girl went through made me want to start Birthday Bash Box. it did not sit well with me that some kids never experience having a special day because of misfortune.
After officially getting started in 2018, we have served over 180 children and continue to serve youth who need us most.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Any startup can have its complications, but for us, we have just had minor bumps in the road.
It has been a struggle to get the manpower we need to service the number of children in our forecast. We plan on expanding from only one school to serving multiple school districts in the surrounding areas. We need as many volunteers as we can get to reach our goals.
We also need volunteers to help us reach out to potential donors and clients.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Birthday Bash Box story. Tell us more about the business.
Birthday Bash Box is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit in Houston that gives children in low-income families a wonderful birthday experience. We do this by giving families everything they need to have a birthday party for their child. We also have monthly Birthday Bash’s at a local Elementary School for all of the children born in that month. Other similar nonprofits normally work with the homeless community, but what sets us apart is that we serve all children who are economically disadvantaged.
We are most proud of how everything is going. It is very cliche but the dream has become a reality.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I don’t really believe in luck but I do believe that all of this is a blessing. I feel so blessed to have gotten laid off because it gave me the time to pursue my dream. I also feel blessed to have run across people who have been instrumental in helping me achieve my goal of forming this organization.
They have given me advice, taught me skills or simply just cheered me on and wished me well in this journey.
Pricing:
- A donation of $5 gives one student at the elementary school a birthday gift
- A donation of $30 gives cupcakes to 36 students
- A donation of $100 gives 20 elementary school students gifts
- A donation of $250 gives one child a birthday party with their family
- A donation of $1,750 gives a school of 1000 students a semester of monthly birthday bashes
Contact Info:
- Website: BirthdayBashBox.org
- Phone: 281.636.8972
- Email: Hello@BirthdayBashBox.org
- Instagram: Nonprofit: Instagram.com/BirthdayBashBox
- Facebook: facebook.com
- Other: Seante (Founder): Instagram.com/iamseantemonique
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