A few years ago, Vandy Van Wagener was looking for a new volunteer opportunity, so he did a simple Google search on mentoring and microfinance. These two keywords led Vandy to RMMFI, and a partnership was born. Today, as a result of that partnership, we are celebrating RMMFI receiving a prestigious grant from the P&G Alumni Foundation!
Vandy’s connection to the P&G Alumni Foundation comes from 20 years at Procter & Gamble. His history also includes a few entrepreneurial adventures and a love for business innovation, which go hand in hand with his other passion: working with people and organizations. He has always gravitated toward executive and board roles and now is transferring those skills to mentoring. For the past few years, Vandy has been active in RMMFI as an innovation business adviser and a Business Launch Boot Camp mentor. You may remember him as the mentor for Jim Kerr (The Total Jim Experience) and Jim Dorkins (Doc Goodbeard). Vandy says he loves working with RMMFI Entrepreneurs because the RMMFI program can “change lives by introducing people into economic success they didn’t know was possible.” Vandy especially enjoys seeing Entrepreneurs’ skills and confidence blossom in a matter of weeks during Boot Camp.
Last year, through a nomination by Vandy, RMMFI applied for the P&G Alumni Foundation grant, and we are pleased to announce that the application was successful! With P&G’s support, RMMFI will be able to further evaluate our programs’ impact on the communities we serve. RMMFI does good work, but with the help of Vandy and the P&G Alumni Foundation, we can put numbers and specifics to that work. RMMFI is excited about this partnership and is already hard at work implementing the evaluation process.
We are honored to have Vandy in our RMMFI Community. He knows, like we see everyday, that RMMFI “can change lives by introducing people into economic success they didn’t know was possible.”
Our Community supports RMMFI in a wide range of ways: volunteers, mentors, donors, advisors – the list goes on and on! We couldn’t do this important work with them, so next time you see Vandy or another RMMFI supporter, give them a high five and a big THANK YOU!
Click here to read more about the P&G Alumni Foundation and its support of RMMFI!
