The Courage to Imagine Your Impact

From the Founder | Antoine B. Richards

What if the greatest things we’re building are the things the world can’t see yet?

This past weekend, while visiting Chicago, I stood in front of an exhibit at the Obama Presidential Center that simply read: “Imagine Your Impact.”

Three words.

I stood there for a moment, taking it all in. Not just the entire experience. Not just reliving a story of hope and change. Not just the words, but the weight of what they meant. The exhibit spoke about the power each of us has to create the world we want through everyday actions, beginning in our own communities. I couldn’t help but think about Seed Change Collective and the timing of the message.

I have always believed in timing and symbolism. I think often about why we are in certain places, at certain times, among certain people, and value those moments because it’s everywhere we are supposed to be in that moment. There is a purpose….in THAT moment. In this moment, I thought about the vision. The people. The possibilities. The countless conversations that brought us here. But I also thought about something we don’t always talk about when we’re pursuing our dreams.

Fear.

The fear of failing. The fear of not being enough. The fear of making mistakes. The fear of people seeing you struggle when your presentation has always displayed success. The fear of believing so deeply in something that you put your name, your reputation, your resources, and your heart behind it, without any guarantee that it will work. The fear of uncertainty.

And perhaps the most uncomfortable fear of all: What if I see something so clearly that others simply don’t see yet?

I believe in Seed Change Collective with everything in me. I believe that generosity should never be reserved for those with extraordinary wealth. I believe that small donations can create extraordinary change. And I believe that when everyday people come together with purpose, we can transform communities around the world, but believing in something doesn’t mean you don’t wrestle with the uncertainty of building it and I always want to be transparent about that journey.

The Reality Behind the Vision

October has been an incredible month for Seed Change Collective.

We’ve continued strengthening our Board of Directors, welcoming new perspectives, experiences, and leadership to help guide our future. Our Marketing and Public Relations team is growing, bringing creativity, strategy, and a shared commitment to telling the stories that matter. We’re developing partnerships, building relationships, creating content, and laying the groundwork for the work we know is possible. Most importantly, we’ve experienced an overwhelming amount of encouragement from people who believe in what we’re trying to accomplish and who believe in me – something I never take for granted.

To every person who has donated, shared a post, offered advice, made an introduction, joined a conversation, or simply told us to keep going: Thank you. Your support has meant more than you may ever realize, but I also want to acknowledge the other side of building something new.

There have been no’s.

There have been conversations that didn’t lead where I hoped they would. Opportunities that haven’t materialized. Moments when I’ve questioned whether we’re moving quickly enough, reaching enough people, or doing enough to turn this vision into something tangible. There have been moments when I’ve had to remind myself that just because something isn’t moving at the pace I imagined doesn’t mean it isn’t moving at all. That’s a difficult lesson for someone who is accustomed to making things happen. It’s even more difficult when you’re asking others to believe in something that is still taking shape.

Finding My Voice in the Process

One of the greatest personal challenges of this journey has been learning to step further into the forefront – to step into being Founder & Executive Director.

I’ve spent much of my career helping build programs, support organizations, strengthen communities, and advance the visions of others. I’ve always believed that the work should speak for itself – and it did! I’ve built amazing global partnerships, won numerous awards, changed local and federal policies, and have an Emmy to my name for tremendous work that I have touched over the years all from the safest place for me – in the background!

But Seed Change Collective is challenging me to grow in ways I didn’t necessarily anticipate. It’s asking me to be more visible. To share my story. To use my voice and my face to advocate for something bigger than myself. Truthfully, that isn’t always comfortable. There’s vulnerability in standing before the world and saying, “I believe this can make a difference, and I’m asking you to believe it too.”

There’s vulnerability in inviting people into a vision that hasn’t fully materialized. There’s certainly vulnerability in doing all of that while knowing that not everyone will understand, support, or embrace what you’re building. Honestly, a few years ago, if someone told me you can build a house for $2,400, I wouldn’t have believed it either, but I know it to be true. If someone told me, $2,000 could fund a year’s tuition and scholarship for 20 students, I wouldn’t have believed it, but I know it to be true, even if it sounds unreasonable or far-fetched. I know because I have seen it, and because I speak to people around the world constantly about the possibilities if they only had the support.

I’m learning that leadership isn’t about having every answer. Sometimes, it’s about having enough conviction to keep asking the right questions, enough humility to acknowledge what you don’t know, and enough courage to keep showing up anyway. Hope doesn’t eliminate fear. Hope gives us a reason to move forward despite it.

The Strongest Roots Grow Where Nobody Can See Them

Building Seed Change Collective constantly has me constantly thinking about clever ways to tie what I am building to terms like planting, sowing, and growing. Thinking about how seeds become trees and never looking beyond the beauty of nature around us. There’s something profound about how nature teaches us to understand growth.

Think about the most magnificent trees you’ve ever seen. The ones that tower above everything around them. The ones that have weathered storms, endured changing seasons, and stood for hundreds of years. We admire their height. Their branches. Their beauty. The shade they provide and the fruit they produce. Rarely do we stop to appreciate what made all of that possible.

Their roots.

Long before those trees became something the world could admire, they were establishing themselves beneath the surface. Growing deeper. Spreading wider. Finding stability. Building the foundation necessary to sustain everything they would eventually become. Nobody was standing around applauding the roots. In fact, no one could ever see what was becoming underground, and even as trees grow, those roots still remain sturdy, but unseen.

Yet without that unseen growth, the beauty above ground would never survive. That’s where Seed Change Collective is right now. We’re growing roots.

Our governance structures. Our Board. Our team. Our relationships. Our partnerships. Our systems. Our identity. Our understanding of how to turn everyday generosity into meaningful, measurable impact.

Some of that work isn’t glamorous. Some of it doesn’t translate into an exciting social media post or an immediate fundraising milestone. Some of it doesn’t even move people (yet) because they’re waiting to see the tree. However, all of it matters because we’re not building something that we want to last for a season. We’re building something we hope will outlive us. That requires patience, discipline, accountability, and the willingness to celebrate the foundation just as much as the fruit.

Growing in Public, Learning with Purpose

One of the commitments I want to make as Founder is that we won’t only share the beautiful moments. We’ll share the learning, too. We’ll celebrate our successes, acknowledge our challenges, and remain transparent about the work required to turn our ambitions into reality. We’re not going to pretend that building a nonprofit from the ground up is easy. We’re not going to measure our worth solely by how quickly donations arrive or how many people recognize our name and we’re certainly not going to confuse visibility with impact.

We will continue to ask ourselves difficult questions. Are we building responsibly? Are we listening to the communities we hope to serve? Are we honoring the trust of those who support us? Are we creating something sustainable? Those questions matter because the people and communities we’re working to support deserve more than good intentions. They deserve our best and sometimes giving our best means being willing to learn, adjust, and grow in full view of the people who are walking alongside us.

From Who We Are to What We Do

As October comes to a close, I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished. I also recognize that there is room for improvement. There is room to step out beyond the blogs, the beautiful graphics, and reveal more of who I am beyond those that may know me.

This month has been about introducing Seed Change Collective to the world. Sharing our identity, our philosophy, our people, and the belief that drives everything we do: Small donations. Big impact.

We’ve spent this month helping people understand who we are. As we move into November, our focus will shift toward something equally important: What we do and who we serve.

We’ll begin bringing greater visibility to the communities, grassroots leaders, and initiatives that give our mission its meaning. We’ll share more about the realities facing those communities, the opportunities that exist, and how collective generosity can help create meaningful solutions because ultimately, Seed Change Collective was never meant to be about me.

It was never meant to be about building an organization simply for the sake of having one. It was created because I believe there are people doing extraordinary things in communities around the world who simply need someone to believe in them, invest in them, and help their work grow. I believe everyday people deserve the opportunity to be part of that transformation.

Imagine Your Impact

As I stood in front of those four words in Chicago, I thought about the legacy we all have the power to create. Not everyone will build an organization. Not everyone will lead a movement. Not everyone will have their name attached to something that changes the world, but every one of us has the ability to plant something that matters. A dollar. A conversation. An opportunity. A moment of encouragement. A simple act of generosity.

We may never know how far those seeds will grow and that’s what makes the journey so beautiful. I’m still learning. I’m still growing. I still have moments of uncertainty. And yes, I still carry, but I’m also more hopeful than ever.

Not because everything is happening exactly as I planned, but because I’m beginning to understand that the things worth building often require us to grow before they do. So, as we close October, I’m choosing to celebrate the roots. The unseen progress. The difficult conversations. The lessons learned. The people who continue to show up. The doors that have opened, and even the ones that haven’t because I know we’re planting something meaningful.

While I can’t tell you exactly how tall these trees will grow, I can tell you that we’re committed to giving them the strongest roots possible. The orchard may not be visible yet. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t growing. That’s really the beauty of Seed Change Collective. We aren’t seeking to simply invest in what we see is already impactful (the orchard), we are investing in the possibility of what will be (the roots).

Antoine B. Richards
Founder & Executive Director
Seed Change Collective

Small donations. Big impact.