Interview: How I Balance my Purpose with Making A Living

26 May Interview: How I Balance my Purpose with Making A Living

We are happy to share this interview with Melissa Richardson Banks by Chris Cattie of Founders Coffee Club. 2021 marks the 20th year of CauseConnect. While the firm originated in 1999 as a monthly networking association called Sponsorship Professionals Association (SPA), it wasn’t until the tragic events on 9/11 that Melissa Richardson Banks started CauseConnect (partnered that first year with her then-colleagues John Good and Angela Easton) and began producing workshops to help nonprofits work with corporate partners. A year later, in 2002, she took on the full-time leadership of the firm and changed the types of services, focused on working with companies interested in “doing business while doing good,” and added new projects and capabilities. She shares that she has never looked back: “It was the right choice and the right time to become an entrepreneur and I am happy with what I chose to do.”