ABOUT MAURICE W. EVANS

Built through experience. Driven by mission.

Long before IDF-SBA, before the businesses, before the training programs and before the titles, Maurice W. Evans was already learning something that would follow him for the rest of his life: resources can change what becomes possible.

It started earlier than you might expect.

Maurice was born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1974 and moved with his mother to Tampa Bay, Florida, in 1986. His mother came from the world of music and performance, singing during the Motown era, touring the world with the Tiffany's, The Crystals. and the Marvelettes.

Creativity, communication and the ability to move people were part of the environment around him early.

Fundraising was early too. Maurice has joked that he was a top fundraiser as far back as second grade and again in high school. What began as something simple eventually became a much larger pattern: learning how to connect people, ideas, resources and opportunities.

An inside and outside track at the same time.

Maurice also grew up watching the traditional grant process from the inside. His mother was deeply involved with nonprofit, church, ministry and faith-based organizations, and grant writing was often one of the ways she helped them pursue funding.

He watched her spend enormous amounts of time researching a single opportunity, writing narratives, preparing budgets and financial information, gathering attachments, revising everything, and finally submitting the application.

Then came the waiting. Weeks could become months, with the organization carrying all the anxiety that comes from placing so much time, effort and hope into one decision that could still end with a no.

At the same time, his mother was deliberately teaching him both the nonprofit world and the business world.

By 16, Maurice was already actively involved with nonprofit organizations. At 18, he was serving as a director and helping manage a faith-based nonprofit while also managing and working inside the family's for-profit talent agency.

On one side he was learning boards, programs, volunteers, grants and the realities of keeping a mission alive.

On the other, he was learning talent management, marketing, promotion, sales, corporate relationships and profitability. He learned very early that nonprofits and businesses often speak different languages, and that tremendous opportunities exist for someone who understands both.

An opportunity can change a life.

One of Maurice's most formative experiences came at Lakewood High School in St. Petersburg, Florida, through LAMP, Lakewood Associated Media Personnel. Beginning in 1989, students were trusted with real technology and real responsibility: multimedia production, early Macintosh and Amiga systems, graphics, video, sound, lighting, staging, projection, live event production and journalism.

They did not merely watch adults do the work. They did the work themselves.

That experience gave Maurice practical skills, confidence and a glimpse of a different future at a time when he needed one. It also left him with a conviction that still shapes his work today: sometimes people do not need another lecture about what they lack. They need access, responsibility, tools and a real opportunity to win.

Building, losing, rebuilding and building again.

By 1992, Maurice was working professionally in marketing and entrepreneurship. Over the decades that followed, he built, bought, sold, advised and supported businesses across marketing, media, technology, events, education, community building and organizational growth.

The path was not linear. He rebuilt after being homeless twice. One of the companies that followed grew from zero to 10 employees within two years and surpassed $1 million in revenue by its third year.

That experience matters to the way Maurice approaches nonprofit leaders today. He knows what it is like to have vision before you have infrastructure, to build while resources are tight, and to need the next practical win more than another abstract theory.

Building together.

Maurice married Smirna DeJesus in 2004. Over the years, Maurice and Smirna have built, led, taught and worked side by side across businesses, organizations, programs and initiatives.

Their work together eventually included creating Powernality™, a strengths-based system designed to help people understand themselves, communicate better and work together more effectively. That same belief in practical tools, human potential and better alignment carries into the work of IDF-SBA.

More than money.

Maurice's experience with funding has never been limited to writing checks or pursuing traditional grants. His work has included business revenue, fundraising, sponsorship, corporate support, donated media, in-kind resources, technology, relationships and other forms of value that help organizations accomplish more.

That broader view is central to IDF-SBA today. A nonprofit may need cash, but it may also need a credible website, professional email, technology, printed materials, stronger leadership systems, donated products, corporate relationships or simply help finding opportunities it did not know existed.

“I just want to see you funded.”

As Maurice moved into nonprofit leadership himself, he eventually experienced the same funding struggle from the other side of the desk.

As a director, CEO and executive director of grassroots organizations, he had real missions, real needs and real people depending on them, but the organizations were not always what traditional funders considered “grant-ready.”

They did not always have years of operating history, audited financials, a large staff or the budget to hire an experienced grant writer.

Out of necessity, Maurice began looking elsewhere. Long before everything moved online, he found companies willing to support legitimate nonprofits through simple requests, faxed applications, local managers and community programs.

One company might provide cash. Another might provide food, gift certificates, products, advertising, software, volunteers or services.

Over time, he realized these were not isolated opportunities. He had discovered an entire funding channel hiding in plain sight.

That experience eventually became the foundation for what he now calls Corporate Community Funding Programs, and it is a major reason he refuses to equate “not grant-ready” with “not ready to be funded.”

Why IDF-SBA now?

IDF-SBA was founded in 2007 around practical financial and business assistance. Its current nonprofit focus brings together much of what Maurice has spent his life doing: finding resources, building systems, making complicated things usable, helping people present themselves credibly and opening doors that can create momentum.

He is particularly passionate about newer and grassroots nonprofits because they are often doing meaningful work while being told all the reasons they are not yet ready for larger opportunities.

Maurice sees it differently.

"You may not be ready for every grant. That does not mean you are not ready to begin getting funded."

That is the philosophy behind the YES Grant, Funding Booster PLUS™, the Nonprofit Tech Suite, the Resource Warehouse, the Funding Lab and the larger IDF-SBA ecosystem.

Start with what is accessible. Get the first YES. Strengthen the organization. Build credibility. Keep going.

"The mission is the reason. Funding is the fuel."
-Maurice W. Evans, Founder, IDF-SBA