Name: Chloe Banks
Title: Manager, Child Protection
Years Working at Mother’s Choice: 5
(1) How many years have you been working at Mother’s Choice?
I have been working at Mother’s Choice for five years, first in fundraising and communications, then volunteer engagement, and now child protection.
(2) Which industry did you work in before joining Mother’s Choice?
I have always worked in the nonprofit sector – I studied international development and I began working in nonprofit fundraising and communications for organisations serving children without families. I’m glad I started my professional work in this field – nonprofit work teaches you how to be flexible, adaptable, and creative, and there is incredible space to grow and learn in this sector.
(3) Why did you first decide to work for Mother’s Choice?
I was drawn to the mission of Mother’s Choice to give hope and a future to our clients through the holistic nature of services that we provide, but I was actually most inspired by the commitment to tackle the core root of the problems that we face.
There are a lot of great nonprofits who exist to respond to a need, but an organization like Mother’s Choice cannot achieve our vision of seeing “every child in a loving family” through service delivery alone. High-impact nonprofits need to serve individuals, but we also need to work towards seeing community change on a macro level, as highlighted by this great article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review. One of the strengths of Mother’s Choice is that our frontline work helps inform our wider strategy. While we are absolutely focused on giving hope and changing the life stories of our clients, we also strive to live out our core value of being a catalyst – to inspire community transformation by engaging the whole community into being solutions to the problems we see on a daily basis.
(4) What are the things you love best about working at Mother’s Choice?
Our team is made up of visionaries and pioneers, implementers and executors – everyone has different strengths and we can’t move forward without team members who see the big picture, and also those who see the details. Through my role in child protection, I work with every department and almost every team, and I learn so much from my colleagues. Our vision to see every child in a loving family reflects a picture of the world we all want to build. It’s a vision that is so much bigger than us, no one person or organization can do it alone, and we each have a role to play.
I also love seeing the Mother’s Choice family all around Hong Kong – almost everywhere I go, I seem to meet someone whose life has been touched by Mother’s Choice. They might have been a volunteer for 20 years, or their nephew is adopted, or they mentor a young mother, or their neighbor is a foster family, or they are a monthly donor. I even met a Mother’s Choice adoptive family when traveling on the other side of the world!
(5) What advice would you give to someone who is thinking to work for non-profits?
A career in the nonprofit sector is a valuable career, and you can bring all of the skills that you have developed to the table – whether it’s communications, law, IT, sales, management, social work, child development, medicine, education, finance and more. I work with probono volunteers from all of these fields on a regular basis and the right partnership can move us forwards in leaps and bounds.
(6) Will you have to make some life adjustments to join the nonprofit sector?
Yes! You can’t stay in this field if you don’t believe in what you are doing. The way we define success is multifaceted. Our work doesn’t happen in a bubble and we need to continually adapt to meet the changing needs of our clients and wider community. Every day, we hear tragic and difficult stories, we face complex and immeasurable needs, and we have to constantly find the resources we need to keep our doors open. This work can be very challenging, but we also get to see and hear incredible stories of hope and miracles that we could never be witness to otherwise.