Business is Hustle
Can you name a company where four members of their leadership team are graduates of SMU’s Cox School of Business? It’s time we introduced you to the leadership team of Mission Advancement. Jennifer Lehman ’96 is the CEO and president of Mission Advancement, an organization dedicated to helping nonprofits create strategic, relationship-based and sustainable sources of funding. The company operates off the premise that there is no quick, transactional approach to fundraising for nonprofits that creates ongoing growth. Instead, they believe each mission is unique and requires the development of deeply intentional donor relationships with individuals and entities.
We sat down with Jennifer to talk more about this unique industry she’s a part of and how she’s lucky enough to have three SMU alumni working with her.
Q&A
What is Mission Advancement?
Mission Advancement is a consulting firm that works exclusively with non-profit organizations to grow fundraising revenue.
What inspired you to start Mission Advancement and why is this work important?
My husband and I started it together. We’d both been in this industry for a while and had a real passion for the type of fundraising we teach, which is heavily a relationship fundraising approach, and we had the desire to build a team and build a culture and work with organizations that we’re passionate about to build a legacy. We both worked at other consulting firms and that’s where we’d met, but we were doing the work for someone else. We developed a slightly different approach and saw the need to bring that to the non-profit sector.
What motivates you to keep going; what’s your why?
You must love what you do to be an entrepreneur. It’s 24/7, not a 9-5 workday, so part of my why is loving to see the results of a non-profit that’s able to grow and to see the impact in the communities they work in and see those things come to fruition. Being a part of those success stories with non-profits is part of my why and helping others is what gets me up every morning.
What advice would you give young entrepreneurs?
Like I mentioned before, you must love what you do. Starting a business for the sake of starting a business won’t fuel your passion, so make sure whatever service or product you’re providing energizes you. You must be able to end the day really excited about the product or service you are providing, so focus on something that you love and something that brings you joy.
Is there anything you would do differently with what you know?
There’s probably a lot of things I would do differently, but one of the things I’m learning is the importance of surrounding yourself with good people. As an entrepreneur, there’s a lot you do yourself in the early days out of necessity, but once you get to a point where you can realize the skillsets and the talents you need to really grow your business, finding good people is a game changer.
Where do you see Mission Advancement in 10 years?
We just went through an acquisition of another small company, and my hope is that in 10 years we’ll be able to merge with another like-minded company and be able to expand our service model and serve more organizations. I’m not focused on a revenue amount or number of employees; it’s really based off how we can serve more organizations and expand our service models, so we’re exploring what that might look like, but my hope is that we’re bigger so we can offer more and help more.
What has being an entrepreneur taught you?
It’s reinforced that business is hustle. I went through the MBA program at SMU and gained a lot of academic knowledge and learned a lot, but when you’re an entrepreneur and it’s all you, at the end of the day the only way you make money is if your company is profitable. You’re not salaried or punching the time clock. It’s all about hustle and it’s about winning and making progress every day, and every day you start over. There were years when we wondered if we could make payroll and, in some ways, I miss those days because those were scrappy years and we had to hustle and figure it all out. Even today it’s a hustle every day, and you never take it for granted. I love the hustle, and that’s in any business because the business is you.
How did you end up with so many SMU alumni working for you?
I would say it wasn’t intentional, but maybe it was (laughs). The first hire was not. Scott Taylor ’05, ’14 came to us from another firm in Dallas. He contacted us and we were very aligned in a lot of ways. The next hire was a gal I knew of who graduated from the same program I did and that automatically made me want to get to know her. As I expected, she’s one of the best hires we ever made. The fourth hire came out of an internship with that same program – the Master’s of Arts and Master’s of Business Administration (M.A./M.B.A.) program. That’s the program I graduated from, and when I met Natalie and knew she had the same background, we clicked and then she and I pursued getting an intern from that program because we knew it so well. I really believe in the program, and I know the students who come out of that are smart and hungry and have the mentally that we’re looking for, so it made sense to look in that pool.
What’s one thing that’s difficult being an entrepreneur and one thing that’s rewarding?
One of the most difficult things is that it’s 24/7 and creating boundaries around work, family and personal time can sometimes all blend into one, especially because my husband and I started the business together so for us it’s on our brains all day every day. You must make sure that you balance everything because the business can consume your family life and personal life. The rewarding part is it’s a combination of the joy of the service or the product you believe in, and it’s humbling to look back and think wow we really built this thing. Today we are almost at 30 employees, which sounds crazy to me thinking about where we started, but just the reward and the joy of the customers we serve and knowing we really do something valuable. Having the ability to build a profitable entity that makes it is rewarding as well, and to be able to provide income for families as a healthy and stable organization is rewarding, too.
How has being an SMU alum impacted your business?
A big base of our work is in DFW, so having that SMU resume, and although not all our clients are tied to SMU, I think there’s something about being local. I grew up in the North Dallas area and there’s a respect for the University and the students who graduate from there, so being able to say I got my graduate degree from there brings credibility.
Anything you would like to add?
I think it says a lot that three of us are from that same program and all four of us graduated with our MBA from Cox and are now here at a small firm in a unique industry; most people don’t even know this industry exists.
Additional facts/questions
- What school did you graduate from and when?
- '96 Cox and Meadows M.A./M.B.A
- What do you like to do in your free time?
- I’m a musician; all the M.A./M.B.A students have an arts background. I was a music major, and I still love music and my daughter is a musician, as well. We love to travel as a family, too.
- Favorite SMU memory?
- As a graduate student, it’s a different experience, but my favorite place was Ozana’s because that was where my friends and I liked to hang out after classes. We had a tight group of friends, and we keep up with each other to this day. That was our go-to place. Also, just thinking of the group projects in the MBA program and spending long hours in Cox studying is a memory I’ll never forget.
- Favorite thing to do in Dallas?
- I used to love White Rock Lake because I was a runner for a while, and I love all the downtown arts organizations, from the symphony to the opera to the theater. Dallas is so fortunate to have so many arts organizations.
Other SMU alumni who work at Mission Advancement:
J. Scott Taylor ’05 and ’14
BBA - Management
MBA
Natalie Crane Voigts ’18
MA – Arts Management
MBA – Strategy
Chris Currens ’22
MA – Arts Management
MBA – Business Analytics