Written by Sarah Smith
Have you ever wondered about the co-conspirators of Partner for Better? Lots of people know us from our many different nonprofit connections, but our origin story is a delightful one and has many twists and turns. It starts out with a shared passion and love for nonprofits and makes its way all the way to our little office on Walnut Street. Pull up a chair, folks.
This is the story about radical love for nonprofits and how Kasey and Sarah met.
Nine years ago in 2017, when Sarah Smith oversaw the Grant Writing Program (GWP) at the MU Truman School of Public Affairs, she hired Kasey, as her graduate assistant to help run the program. The GWP was an extracurricular program designed to pair teams of graduate students with local nonprofit orgs, for the purpose of writing a grant over the course of a semester.
It was a match made in heaven—their mutual love of nonprofits was evident in everything they did—but there was one thread of conversation that they had over and over: nonprofits need support. They need high-quality, affordable help in so many areas: grant writing, strategic planning, budgeting, board development, and more.
After the Grant Writing Program, Sarah and Kasey went their separate ways in work, while keeping in touch personally (plot twist: Sarah was Kasey’s landlord too) but the seed had been planted. They both continued to think about how they could help nonprofits in Columbia and beyond in a fair, meaningful, and paradigm-shifting way.
Here is another piece of the puzzle: in 2021, an organization offered a grant writing opportunity to Sarah that she didn’t have the capacity for, and she referred them to Kasey. That was all it took for the little spark to catch fire into a flame.
Fast forward to 2022: Sarah was changing careers, deep in being a mom, and simultaneously figuring out the next steps in her life, and Kasey was taking the huge leap of starting Partner for Better while pursuing her PhD. When Sarah called to congratulate Kasey on making this mutual dream come true, Kasey asked Sarah if she had capacity for any grant writing. That’s all it took.
Now, both are full-time co-conspirators at Partner for Better.
Everyday, we are able to serve nonprofits with the support they need, at an affordable price. Being able to act on our passion in a meaningful way is more than we could ever ask for.
Sarah and Kasey are deep in the work they love, along with co-conspirator Jessica Macy (but that’s another love story for another time, and this time it’s with cocktails).