We were lucky to catch up with Errika Flood-Moultrie recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Errika, you’ve got such an interesting story, but before we jump into that, let’s first talk about a topic near and dear to us – generosity. We think success, happiness and wellbeing depends on authentic generosity and empathy and so we’d love to hear about how you become such a generous person – where do you think your generosity comes from?
I am a military brat, let’s start there. My dad served in the United States army for over 20 years. In that 20 years I experienced a generosity that only the most generous do, serve in the military. My dad served during the Vietnam war and was deployed twice into the “action.” I wasn’t alive for that part of his life, but I was alive to experience the man he became because of that service. He never left a person behind. Most holidays we would have a guest or two from his unit, young men who weren’t able to go home for the holidays that we would “host.” My dad did not believe in anyone not having a place to go and enjoy the holidays. On those holidays where we didn’t have a “guest” we would go to the Mess Hall (that’s the cafeteria) and my dad would cook, we (my brother and I) would serve and then do a little cleaning.
Now, I can’t leave out my mom, Ms. Community for Killeen, Texas. She was an entrepreneur, Real Estate for over 30 years, a community advocate, a church leader, and really most people’s friend. I can remember being so embarrassed and irritated that she spoke to EVERYONE (something that now gets on my daughter’s nerves, because I know people and talk to them all).
Now fast forward to being an adult that lives in a world that needs more generous people. I work for and in the nonprofit sector where the work that is done is based in generosity, selflessness and empowerment. My entire career (ahem, over 30 years now), has been in the sector and I LOVE IT! I’ve always been in a place to be a servant leader, the nonprofit sector being the greatest place of them all. Because I’ve been in the sector since I was 5 (lol, just kidding, but who needs to know my real age), I’ve come to understand the imperative of generosity to others. I also love loving on people. The feelings of being available to listen, support, encourage, just being present not only lifts the person receiving the support, but for me it lifts me and builds a heart muscle that energizes the habit of generousness.
Finally, but not the least of these, my faith walk is the power behind my generosity. My faith in a Jesus that gave his life, the ultimate act of generosity, drives all the giving. Walking in a space of being refreshed by refreshing others is my happy space. Generosity looks different for everyone, but what’s the same is giving to others just to make the world a better place.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Connections Catalyst, that’s what my bio says about who I am in the nonprofit sector, it’s true. I love making connections. That can be person to person, organization to organization, or individual to self. I’ve been in the nonprofit sector a really long time (ahem, 30+ years). I’ve had the opportunity to serve in the sector focused on health and human services, arts and culture, racial equity, leadership development, and faith. It’s been an amazing life that wasn’t actually planned to be this way. My undergraduate is in Healthcare Administration. I was going to be a hospital administrator. I was going to go into the health care system and retiring after leading a health plan that served communities disproportionately affected by chronic diseases. Well, it kind of started that way without me knowing that a greater calling was coming. My first “real job” out of college was at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. I was on a path. What I didn’t know was that CMCD was a nonprofit hospital and that serving the children and their parents of the ESRD unit would lead me to a life long career in the sector. It started with a simple volunteer week at Camp Reynal and has now led to consulting with amazing nonprofit organizations across the nation.
This passion for the sector has now led me to my true passion of serving Black women in the nonprofit sector with leadership development and racial healing programming through my own nonprofit, Connections Multiplied, Too. As a Black woman who has led in the sector and experienced the inequities and biases, I wanted to create a space that was safe, courageous, empowering, and healing. This space is provided through CMT’s programming, Black Women in Nonprofit Leadership, Black Women Leading in Education and Leadership Connections. The programming is amazing, but what’s most important are the WOMEN served. These amazing women come and invest time in themselves to heal from traumas experienced in the workplace, connect and network with other women with similar lived experiences, and develop personally and professionally to best serve the communities they engage in their workplace.
Putting this on paper doesn’t allow for the emotions that come from doing this work. Every cohort session, every peer group meeting, every networking event brings me joy, excitement, thankfulness, appreciation, the list goes on. Remember that generosity question, these women are generous with me by allowing me to walk with them down this healing and development pathway.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back I know that being a military brat that had to move every three years in the most formative years of my life was instrumental in developing my resilience. To do this work, to meet and connect with the people, to ask for funds to support the work, a person must have resilience.
My second skillset would be to be “loquacious.” This is a story. When I was in the third grade I got my report card and on the back my teacher”s comments/notes were “Errika is very loquacious.” I was so excited to take this home to my mom because for the first time my report card didn’t say “Errika talks too much.” Joke was on me, yes it did just in adult language. Well, that talkative, supportive kid from the 3rd grade now speaks and talks professionally hoping to motivate individuals to invest in themselves, in community and in their generosity to others.
Finally, the final skillset, be a lifelong learner. There is always something to learn. I am ALWAYS learning and learning from multiple spaces and people in my life. Here’s a bonus about learning from others, learn from others, your age, older and younger, your ethnicity and other, your gender and other genders; your circle of learning needs to span the ecosystem.
One last thing, this journey takes time and it’s your time. You should NOT be on anyone else’s timeline except yours. What I haven’t told you is that it took me until my 40’s to know my true passion and to be able to walk in it (and now my age is showing). Please take all the time you need to really find that passion. My lived experiences helped to develop and focus me on my passion of serving Black women, elevating their voices in industries that desperately need their leadership, fearlessness, and creativity.
How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?
This is a great question. There’s not much I wouldn’t do, and really we should all be living this way anyway. Top things I’d do, spend as much time as possible with people I love and love them harder and deeper. Travel, travel, travel! AND work to make this world a better place for people in general. We are living in a time where we just don’t appreciate and care for people like we should. It’s interesting when I’m out and about and someone says good morning, or hello or whatever. I STOP and look them in their eye and say good morning, ask how they are and thank them for the short but satisfying conversation. I say this is interesting because you should see the people who are like “did she stop and actually speak to me?”or “she genuinely stopped and gave me time to see how I was really doing.” We need so much more of that.
What is your current challenge in the work you do?
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.connectionsmultipliedtoo.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allerrika/?hl=en
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/errika-flood-moultrie-46183a1
Image Credits
Wes Helm
