SHERO Foundation: Honoring Monica Coburn

Former Vice-Chair of SHERO Foundation paves a way for upcoming leaders and remains a strong leadership partner.

For Monica Coburn, philanthropy is not just a large part of her life, but a calling. As a business owner and Nevada business advisor, with over 20 years in banking high net worth organizations of over 5 million in revenues, Monica saw great opportunities to give to causes in need. Monica and Kimberly met through their business endeavors. Kimberly was on the inaugural founding board for Dress for Success and engaged Monica to join the executive team.

Over time, the idea matured into a nonprofit concept with Monica Coburn as Vice-Chair of SHERO. The mission of SHERO is to serve young girls and women who have been in abusive situations, trafficked or exploited, and to help provide resources to get them out of the situation. A secondary arm of the foundation is the foundation’s Resource Center, which fosters a collaborative approach in conjunction with similar organizations serving Female abuse victims.

All too often, Coburn says, well-intentioned nonprofits end up metaphorically shooting themselves in the foot vying for limited donor resources. The idea to collaborate built on the concept of strength in numbers, with the backbone ideology being every nonprofit supporting abuse victims could in theory work together to help the same at-risk populations.

To date, SHERO has worked in conjunction with over forty other nonprofits to serve at-risk women in abusive or exploited situations (Some examples of these are Seeds of Hope, Project 150, St Jude’s Ranch For Children, and Rape Crisis Center.) The SHERO Foundation does a variety of direct outreach in the community, doing everything from providing hygiene kits to clothing and bus passes.

What’s the most rewarding part of serving on the Board for SHERO? “Being able to provide…whether it’s a bus pass to a student… or hygiene items… to a young girl who otherwise would not go to school… we’ve also featured survivors of trafficking and abuse who’ve been part of our annual gala, and to hear them share their stories of how SHERO made an impact…[it’s rewarding] knowing that we are making an impact directly,” says Coburn.

One hundred percent of SHERO resources are grassroots-driven, based on private and corporate donations, as opposed to government funding.

This year’s annual SHERO gala was virtual this year due to COVID, and organizers are already looking forward to next year’s fundraising benefitting local nonprofits, as well as direct funds to be dispersed from SHERO. What’s in the future for the foundation? Two major goals are a future brick and mortar resource center, as well as housing for displaced women and children.

For more information, check out SHEROFOUNDATION.org