Episode 72: Sherifah Munis

Join Lori and her guest, Sherifah Munis, as they talk about creating new waves for the new generation while also continuing the first one that started it all. Sherifah is the founder and executive director of the NewWave Foundation, which helps young people learn the ropes of real life through scholarships, holistic health care, finances, and other services. 

Here are the things to expect in this episode:

• Sherifah continuing her late dad’s legacy of creating a positive impact on other people. 

• Her process of finding her vision for NewWave Foundation.  

• How does being a girl scout translate into creating social impact?

• And much more!

Connect with Sherifah!

NewWave Foundation: https://newwave-foundation.org/home/our-team/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nwfoundation
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNewWaveFoundation/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newwave-foundation/

Connect with Lori Kranczer!

Website: https://www.linkphilanthropic.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorikranczer/

Episode Transcript

You're listening to the positive impact philanthropy podcast where we share the journeys of everyday philanthropists as they incorporate philanthropy into their lives. Philanthropy is a personal journey. Through the stories we will share here, we hope that it sparks something in you, and how you can make your own philanthropic impact in the world. I'm your host, Lori Kranczer, attorney, philanthropic advisor, and legacy giving strategist. Today, we're going to explore what it looks like to be an everyday philanthropist and make a positive impact on the world. Before we get started, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a new episode, posted on Wednesdays. So today I'm really excited to meet Sherifah Munis she is the founder and executive director of Newwave Foundation. Welcome.

Thank you so much, Lori. 

So Sherifah, why don't you tell us a little bit about you.

Okay, um, like you mentioned, my name is Sherifah Munis, and the Newwave Foundation is a nonprofit organization that has a mission to inspire the next generation to rise to their highest potential, and we do that by creating opportunities for educational equity. And some of the things we do include providing scholarships, we do workshops. We literally just had our annual Money Talks, a webinar yesterday, where we empower both students, their parents, and we've now extended it beyond that, on just the importance of financial literacy in making decisions that will take them throughout life.

What age group do you mainly work with?

So we mainly work with high schoolers through college graduates, so it's, I would say that's the spot. I would say it's a wide range from 14 to 24. Because, you know, we we walk with you through high school, and through college, and we just don't drop you. We just help you ease into the whole concept of adulting you know, so yeah.

I did not know how to balance a checkbook until I was in law school, so yes.

Sounds about right with a lot of people.

Right. So tell us what inspired you to start this organization.

I will actually say that it was, you know, giving back and the whole concept of community service has always been something that I've always enjoyed and loved doing. And I remember writing many years ago that I would love to have a nonprofit someday, but it seemed so far away. And then 10 years ago, after I lost my dad, and my dad was the biggest champion of education. I mean, when I tell you he was the biggest champion of education, I mean BIG, okay. My dad loved us. I'm the first of six kids, and he loved us so I never doubted that however. Growing up if you're feeling sick, and you couldn’t go to school, the first thought is, Oh, what about your homework? What are we going to do? I have to reach out to your teachers, you know, so, you know, and he would say that and then he would be like, oh, yeah yeah yeah, let's see if you have a temperature. You know, get you to the doctor. So I'm just saying education was such a big thing for him. And so I remember just going to his funeral and having both strangers, and family, and friends and like just, you know, letting me know, like, if it wasn't for your dad, I, you know, wouldn't have been able to finish high school. I wouldn't have gone to college. I wouldn't have the job that I have right now. And I'm thinking I knew my dad was a generous man, but who's this man you're talking about? He truly truly made an impact that even after his passing, people are still talking about what that impact was. And that's really what set the fire in my bones to say, I want to keep that legacy going. And that's when I took that step of faith, and started the Newwave Foundation to really continue that legacy of education in honor of him.

And that's incredible. I love to hear the stories of legacy. We're going to talk about your legacy in a little bit. I want to know more about what were you doing before. 

So, I have a background in econ and have an MBA and so I was actually working initially in the financial services industry. And then after that, I actually, when I started, we started having kids. It was a great opportunity to join forces with my husband who is an IT you know, and I see guru and he had started IT consulting firm at the time. And so, I joined in and it was beautiful because I could handle the financial and operational side of things and he could do what he did with technology without us killing each other. So it was awesome.

Yeah, I can imagine working on my husband who's in finance, but yeah, we're just too separate. His office is down the hall right now for me. Yeah. So when you had the inspiration to start this so you're working in the IT consulting business with your husband? What prompted you, what was the catalyst to say now's the time I'm doing this?

Well, so while working within you know, the IT company, I always made sure that whichever platform I found myself, I was able to infuse community service, community development and things like that into the organization. So when I was in financial services, any opportunities to champion organizations to volunteer I did that. But now being in an organization where I could truly make an impact, I was able to set up a CSR department, that's corporate social responsibility. I was able to make sure we had things like paid volunteer time off, where you could actually be compensated to volunteer at an organization of your choice. You know, so things like that were part was part of the culture. So that had already started. So like I said, after losing my dad, it was just that push I needed to do what I had always wanted to do, because I think I had already started to lay the foundations to make it easier to take that next step.

Yeah, well, it seems like social impact and legacy is baked into everything that you do. So it's probably an easy transition to do that. But I wonder, for those that are thinking about doing something, and they have these ideas in their head, what process did you go through to identify this as the mission that you wanted to go for. Like that was your vision and how would you actually put it together?

So for me, I think it's still an evolving process. And so I definitely want to encourage anyone who, you know, there are people who are very set and saying, this is exactly what I want to do. But for those who are a little bit torn, I just want to just encourage you and let you know, there's hope. Because just like in life, where you find yourself in different seasons of life, sometimes too, as it relates to your career or even with respect to your nonprofit you might find the same. So for example, when the Newwave Foundation started, it started in a two fold approach where we were focused on education. And I, as I mentioned earlier, education was really in honor of my dad's legacy in the sense that he was a big educational proponent, and something he had passed on to myself and my siblings, but then the, you know, the IT consulting firm that I was working, it was an IT consulting company, which, you know, it's actually called Newwave. So, you can understand the foundation, and so I figured, okay, you know, we'll focus on health and education, but I'll be honest with you, my heart and passion was so clear after we've just focused on the educational aspect. The health would be an afterthought like, oh gosh, we gotta do something health related, because we're supposed to be health and education. And literally, within two years, I was like, nope, I'm dropping health. That's not my passion. That's not you know, I'm tired of trying to make it work. Education is just natural and it comes easy for me. I am passionate about it. I'm excited about it. That became our focus there after. And so when it came to education, originally, we were focused more on the scholarship giving and then we started to incorporate the workshops and then pivoting as everyone else did in 2020, to the webinars and things of that sort. But it also became evident with the kids that we work with and their families, that the financial aspect of things was very critical too, it was one thing to say here you go, go to college, but you know how do I sustain myself in college? Now I've left college then what? How do i maneuver this whole aspect of you know, adulting? With that birth, the financial literacy program, which we are now working on, called Money Talks, so as you can see, there's been an evolving there, but it's not far fetched from each other, but it's still interrelated. But you know, there's just that consistent growth. 

Well, yeah, it’s amazing. And you’re meeting the needs of your constituents, right, like your understanding especially for a newer organization. It needs to pivot sometimes. So I, I can see that is a great need for financial literacy for that age group. And that's what you focus on. Of course, it's also your background. It combines with the financial and with education. So it seems like a perfect fit for you. Um, how, how are you growing right now? After you've established it's been 10 years?

Actually, we started in 2015. 

Okay. 

2015. So I lost my dad, in actually 2012. And so I formally launched the organization about three years after.

To share with us the impact that you're making, how is it growing over the years?

So, it's grown, as I said earlier, from just not focusing on just scholarship giving with our kids, but the holistic aspect of the individual. So, we work on not only providing scholarships, we partner with organizations that actually provide mental health and wellness to the kid. I will give you an example. I mean, you have kids who are like have gotten into college, but they get there and they're thinking of dropping out. They're like, I don't know that I can actually stay you know, because you have kids that come from different own lives and backgrounds where it just, you know, makes it hard for them to feel like they can be in school, whereby their loved ones are finding it hard to to eat and to make ends meet. And they feel like maybe I should drop out and work so I can help support my family. This is not fair, that I'm doing this. So there's a mental health and wellness piece to help them understand that what they're investing in is going to actually help them help their families even better, in the long run. So there's that aspect of the mental wellness that we've partnered with. And then like I mentioned, we're now starting on the financial aspect of how can you limit having to take student loans, you know, where can you get not only scholarships or grants, and if you do have to dabble into taking loans, what strategies can we put into play to make sure you have a plan to pay? So those are the kinds of things you know, that's how we've been kind of kind of growing.

And are you, is it a virtual program? Or is it in person?

Um, so right now, we've been mostly virtual, just because I will be candid, since you know, 2020, we kind of pivoted to a more virtual platform, and it's really worked out well for us. And we do plan to start having some programs because we do sponsor programs like you know, sometimes quota thoughts, you know, resume building, you know, workshops and things like that, but mostly right now, it's been virtual.

But it's more accessible, and it's virtual. and I when we all went virtual years ago, I started getting people into my programs from Malaysia, and Africa. It was just incredible. And so the impact we could have is, you know, is broader. So that's, that's fantastic. So, so you have this very long history of social impact. And I'm just being curious I know your father was very inspirational and impactful for you in your life. Are there any other things that you think of when you were growing up or in school, things that you were doing that at that social impact? Did you realize at the time that you were getting involved with?

Yeah, I remember growing up and elementary school. I remember being a brownie, which is part of like, you know, the girl scouts, and I was one of those kids that was obsessed with getting as many badges as possible. Okay, I needed to have my sleeve and my stash and everything filled with badges. So I was just like, Oh, I gotta get my readers badge. Okay, let's get this badge. And you know, I was just like, chomping at the bit so I could just walk on and everyone could be like, oh my goodness, look at her. I never realized at the time that getting my badge, whereby I had to, like, you know, make sandwiches for seniors, and you know, where I actually had to, you know, you know, clean up the park and things of that sort. I was just focused on getting my badge but I didn't realize I was making a difference as well, reading to kids and, and stuff like that. So I think that's one of the earliest times that I truly was making a difference but didn't quite realize that.

That's so interesting, because there's someone else on the podcast that I interview, that she one of her earliest memories was her mother would send her down the street to bring meatloaf to an elderly neighbor, and she did it on a regular basis. And she could, you know, at that age, you really felt like doing that you want to hang out your friends that and she realized what her mother was doing and it really had an impact with her for the long term and how she started giving back. So, um, so are your children, I know you have children, are there having any sort of social impact as well?

Yeah. So my daughter also joined Girl Scout because love and you know, she is very entrepreneurial in college right now. And so, it's interesting, she volunteers a lot with, you know, the newwave Foundation and the work that we do, but the piece that really got me that almost, you know, made me a little teary eyed is as a very entrepreneurial, spirited girl who is working on her pitches and her apps for her business that she's looking to launch someday soon. She has a social component to it, where she's built in where a percentage of the proceeds is going to go into causes that she's really passionate about. And it was such a no brainer for her to do that. It was such an important piece of what she's doing. And it just like blew me away. You don’t realize like some of the things you do, how it impacts your children, you know, in that way. So that's, that's awesome.

Well, this leads perfectly into our next question, which is what do you consider your legacy to be?

Um, this is such a really good question and one that I think about, you know, from time to time, and I will say that, as a woman of faith, you know, I've always wanted to be what you call a proverbs 31 woman, which is a virtuous woman, and that is one whereby my legacy is such that my husband, my children, my family and friends, you know, would look at my life and say, you know, that's a woman who served her family and her community and did it with humility, integrity, and courage.

I love that, thank you for sharing that. And I think that your  that is your legacy. It's already and it's, I see it as an extension of your father, as you've described. That's a wonderful legacy. So we have to wrap up now, but this has been amazing to hear everything about the Newwave Foundation, where can people find out more information about you and foundation?

Okay, so, you can find out more information on our website at Newwave, which is spelled newwave-foundation.org, or on social at nwfoundation_.

Fantastic. Thank you so much, Sherifah, for this. It’s been wonderful chatting with you, and hearing about your social impact. And for all our listeners, thanks for listening and you can catch new episodes on Wednesdays. Thank you. 

Thank you.