S9E17: Scaling Your Nonprofit with Strategy with Jamila Trimuel

Most grassroots organizations never make it out of survival mode. Jamila Trimuel did the rare thing. What began in 2011 with six girls meeting at a Chicago public library has grown, under her leadership, into Ladies of Virtue, an organization now serving three thousand Black girls a year with mentoring, workforce development, and mental health support. In this episode, she and Laura break down exactly how she scaled, and the mindset shifts that made it possible. Jamila shares why a strategic plan is non-negotiable, how she borrowed her consistency model from Starbucks, the systems every nonprofit needs to move from reactive to strategic, and how she diversified into five funding streams. She and Laura also get honest about the power dynamics Black-led organizations face with funders, and Jamila’s refreshing “work what you can work” philosophy for finding the people who actually want to fund you.

In this episode:

The critical systems that move a nonprofit from reactive to strategic: a standardized curriculum, documented procedures, financial and CRM systems, and a learning system to keep sharpening your mastery
How to build and diversify funding across five streams, and how to navigate funder relationships with authenticity when the money flows less freely to Black women
Why relationships are the true backbone of scale, and how to build systems that sustain them so no key relationship falls through the cracks

About Jamila

Jamila Trimuel is a nationally recognized nonprofit leader, strategist, and advocate dedicated to creating pathways of opportunity for Black girls.She is the Founder and CEO of Ladies of Virtue, Chicago’s leading mentoring and leadership development organization for Black girls. What began in 2011 with just six participants has grown under her leadership to serve more than 6,000 girls and young women annually through direct mentoring, workforce development, and mental health support. LOV partners with major institutions such as L’Oréal, Northwestern Medicine, CME Group, Foot Locker, Social Venture Partners, Starbucks and CVS Health.

Jamila was named a 2023 Black Changemaker by PepsiCo, one of just 16 honorees across the country. She is a TEDx speaker, co-author of A Status Report on Teen Girls in Chicago, and a trusted voice in civic leadership. She currently serves as Chair of the Steering Committee for the Coalition on Urban Girls, leading collective efforts to enhance the lives of girls across Chicago. Her work and impact have been locally and nationally recognized. Ladies of Virtue was honored with the Top 100 Chicago Innovation Award and Jamila was featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show. Under her leadership, the organization is now poised to scale nationally, with a goal to serve over 5,000 girls annually and position LOV as a model for culturally responsive mentorship and leadership development across the country.

Connect with Jamila

Website: https://www.lovchicago.org/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamila-trimuel-6737b710

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lovchicago/

BWL Resources: