Today we’d like to introduce you to Douglas Jackson.
Hi Douglas, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Humanitarian service has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. As a matter of fact, I was born in Algeria while my parents were doing some medical work. I quickly found out that I loved it! I’m actually addicted to it. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve watched somebody get their eyesight back or stood beside a parent as they bring in a child for cleft lip surgery, it’s always emotional and always makes me feel so fortunate to have played even a minor role.
In 1999, I was involved in a dental roll-up in Dallas, Texas with a few partners. We’d been quite successful and were managing several dental practices in the Southwest. I for some reason felt the pull to do something more meaningful. My father was involved with helping doctors perform charity surgeries around the world, so I thought maybe that was my opportunity. Maybe I could grow what was already in place.
I was lucky enough to find a couple of people that appreciated what my dad was doing, and they agreed to pay me to do some business work for them as I grew the charity on the side. Within a couple of years, things started to take off.
I really enjoy entrepreneurialism and I started to incorporate that into what we were doing around the world. To me, it seems imperative to find ways to make charity sustainable. Our doctors not only need to do humanitarian work, but find a way to make it sustainable. For perhaps the first time in the developing world, we began to implement good business practices and strategies for the private doctor. I find this discovery process exhilarating.
Being able to connect two of my passions – entrepreneurialism and charity have paid off. The model works and it’s a lot of fun. We now have potential partner doctors coming out of the woodwork. They want to help the poor, but they don’t know how to sustain it. We were soon doing around 50,000 surgeries a year and our board of directors came to me and said they wanted to pay me a salary so that I could do this full-time. So, I stopped doing my consulting work, and focused 100% on my true passion.
I’m often asked what I do for a living and the first thing I say is that I have the best job in the world. I get to help the poor, I get to travel to “exotic” places, and share the joy of giving with others. Helping a brother or sister in need is exhilarating. I am so grateful to those people who have helped me make this a reality.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I don’t know if anything worthwhile is without its struggles and challenges. For many years while I was living in Dallas, I had a desire to do something more meaningful, but it’s hard to figure out how to make it work and how to sustain yourself and your family. Charities don’t pay that well, or sometimes at all. Change sometimes requires you to walk into the darkness. If following your dream was easy, then everyone would do it. When you bootstrap anything, you are kind of all alone to a certain extent. There may not be a lot of infrastructures to support and guide you. For years I was just trying to figure it out. I really wasn’t quite sure how things should be done, how to fundraise, how to make partners accountable, how to hire employees overseas… Lots of learning on the job.
Of course, there are people around you, in my case a wife, who is supportive, but who are concerned about how long you should risk everything to follow your dream. I would say that all advice is worth listening to, however, when resistance and concerns come from immediate family….. keep them informed and onboard. In my world, those relationships are worth more than anything other success you might be able to create.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about CharityVision International?
My first job out of college was with a large international company in the hospitality industry. I recognized that I love people, I love to be around people, I love to make people happy. I also loved business, so customer service and interpersonal skills were my thing, and could succeed there. However, one of the first things I found out was that in a big organization, you are just a number. With changes in the market or company strategy, and for no fault of your own, you might be let go or not given the advancement you wanted. Instead of security, I felt insecure. I needed to become my own boss and be in charge of my own destiny. So I went back to school and got a master’s degree in accounting, not because I want to be an accountant, but because it provides a good business foundation.
Along with a few partners, in Dallas, Texas I began a dental roll-up. We bought one hundred dental offices in the Southwest and eventually had revenues of 45 million dollars/yr. It was a lot of fun! I found the beginning few years during the start-up phase were exciting and I didn’t mind the risk of making things up as we went along. As the company matured, it started to feel like a 9-5 job… I didn’t feel the autonomy and creativity anymore. I desired to go home at night knowing that I had made a difference in the world. I would think back on how much I loved our family humanitarian trips when I was a kid; helping the poor just resonates with my soul.
At CharityVision I love what we do. I love helping those that have nowhere else to turn, but I am probably most proud in the way that we do it. We didn’t follow the “manual”. We help people help themselves. We tie charity work with capitalistic principles; our partners overseas are more profitable because of their charity. “Brain drain” is a real thing in the developing world, and if you can’t find a way to keep doctors in their own community, then they will go someplace else and that community just got worse. Our model is unique and exciting.
Being the boss allows me to put my stamp on our company culture. I remember that I didn’t like working for larger organizations, I didn’t like feeling that I was just a number. It was difficult to balance my personal life with work-life; nobody at work understood or cared about my personal situation. At CharityVision we have a very nice balance. Personal and professional has to complement and support each other. We have created a family and I feel a great deal of satisfaction that comes with that.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
My advice for those just getting started is to first understand themselves, what makes them tick, and what things bring them peace and happiness. Once they can prioritize those things, then they can look for a profession that will jive. Obviously, you will be more successful doing something you are passionate about. Your passion will attract others. The other day I went into a bicycle shop because I needed to repair a flat. Well, the guy behind the counter was so interested in what I was doing and about my next race that it took me by surprise. He was animated and started talking about different tires and different terrains. He obviously loved all things biking. I walked out of there thinking, that I will never go anywhere else for my biking needs – I love that kind of attention and expertise.
My second piece of advice would be to trust your instincts. At CharityVision, I didn’t know how to run a charity or oversee medical work. I didn’t know how everybody else did it, I just knew what made sense to me. So we do it our way. There have been a number of times when people have told me to change and do it the “normal” way. I say, this is my vision and the model that motivates me. In the end, we have an organization that is extremely unique and that is run in a way that complements who I am and what I want to accomplish. The world and technology are changing so fast that your new ideas may very soon become the norm.
Contact Info:
- Website: charityvision.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charityvision/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CharityVision
- Twitter: charityvision
