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Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Dignity Moves

Elizabeth Funk

Woman

of the

Month

FROM

A TEEN’S

POINT OF VIEW

By Miya Schaffner

Served on and chaired over a dozen nonprofit and social enterprise boards

Background

“I did my undergrad at Stanford, and then went to work at Microsoft. After that I did business school at Harvard, and came back as one of the early employees at YAHOO!, so I was always in product design and tech management. Following that, I joined my husband as a CEO in a public company, and then became interested in micro-finance, which are small loans to the poor. That led me to running an investment fund in micro-finance. By the time Covid hit, a group that I belonged to decided to learn about homelessness together. The more I learned the more I became inspired. I had a vision that was the answer to homelessness. So I started my organization not because I wanted to start a nonprofit, but because it found me.”

What inspires you?

“I picked a very specific part of homelessness (unsheltered), and that’s a part that has been really neglected and nobody’s been focusing on it. I truly believe that this part of homelessness is solvable, which gets me going and inspired constantly. Another thing that inspires me is that in this stage of my career, what I’m doing is really controversial. Many are really opposed because they see it as a misguided strategy, but I respectfully disagree, and that gets me really excited. The more controversy makes me more confident I’m right!”
You’re already achieving controversial goals but how does being a woman affect that even more?

“Being a woman is definitely both helpful and not helpful in certain ways. Women really believe in each other and we really support each other. So quite frankly being a woman right now in business is a big benefit with all of your allies cheering for you just because of your gender.”
How can teens make a difference with homelessness, specifically in communities?

“The first thing is to demand that it goes away. We have become so complacent about this problem that we have just accepted it as a normal course of the world, and that is absolutely not okay. We should not allow that we are in one of the richest places in the world in the richest time in history and yet people still sleep on our streets. So really you need to speak out about how it's not okay. It really is a choice to allow this to happen, and while people always think that solving homelessness would be so expensive, but it would cost us half of what it costs today to clean up after homelessness.”
Advice for younger generations?

“In your generation, as you're thinking about what you want to do, remember that you're young and your career will have many changes. Think of it as a tool kit rather than a decision. And there are some skills that are applicable across all of those things regardless of what you want to do. To me, the most important one is people skills because the thing that is going to differentiate a successful career is your ability to influence people and to convince people to follow you even if they don’t work for you. To be influential or a negotiator will apply to your career whether you’re selling toothpaste or starting a new business.”

Fun Facts & Passions

“My kids are my passion, and right now they’re home from college. A fun fact is I was a competitive ice skater growing up. Something about performing and competing was always amazing! I also love public speaking, unlike most. I love the feeling of standing up in front of everyone and inspiring people.”
What do you want to do that you haven’t done yet?

”I mean, I’m always jealous of my friends who are in this stage of life that are retiring and traveling. I think I’d enjoy it for one minute, and then get bored the next, so someday maybe. Right now, I want to get this finished, and I may not rest until we get everyone indoors.”