Today we’d like to introduce you to Becky Mendoza.
Becky, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’m an action sports lawyer, I moved here from Miami, Florida in 2007. I started working in the surf industry in 2009, when I started my business, Action Sports Law Group. I love surfing myself and had a solo trip planned to Nicaragua and sprained my hamstring a little over a month before my trip.
I had to decide whether or not I would still go, even if I couldn’t surf. I decided I wanted to do something more, so I turned to Facebook and asked my friends if they knew of any service projects I could get involved within Nicaragua. I was introduced to Waves for Water and created a fundraiser to help fund the purchase of some water filters to take with me. That was when the travel with purpose work began for me, it was so easy to help.
The following year I traveled to Mainland Mexico for a wedding and made a little surf trip out of it with my friend Sam. We took some water filters and started the Clean Mexi-Agua project. About a year later, Changing Tides Foundation was born, with Clean Mexi-Agua being the first project. We didn’t want to limit ourselves to just clean water, so we added social, environmental, health and safety matters to our mission.
Nearly 2 years later, we’ve become an amazing organization with some amazing projects and partners in a handful of countries and everything is growing so quickly. All of the founders and board members have other jobs and at this point, we have all just been volunteering our time which says a lot about all of our commitment to growing our organization. It’s definitely a full-time job running Changing Tides Foundation but the currency it pays with is passion, and that is invaluable.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Changing Tides Foundation has not been easy or smooth. We have hit lots of bumps on the way and have learned twice as many lessons. None of us have administrative experience with non-profit organizations, so from filing the initial paperwork to fundraising to compliance has been a lot to juggle. I’d say our biggest struggles are related to fundraising.
We haven’t really gone for many grants, as we don’t have a grant-writer, we mostly do pop-up retail events and we have an online shop to cover the basic operating expenses. We have had several big fundraiser parties specific to a cause which have helped generate funding for our projects. We also have our online crowdfunding platforms, but mostly we have people that see our vision and individuals and brands that are generous. If everything were easy, we would never learn anything now, would we? 😉
Changing Tides Foundation – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Becky Mendoza is an attorney and founder of Action Sports Law Group, the premier law firm for artists and athlete US visas and endorsement and sponsorship dealing specifically with the action sports industry. She works with top professional surfers, snowboarders, skiers, wakeboard, motocross and other Olympic and action sports athletes, photographers and cinematographers.
She is also the co-founder and Executive Director of Changing Tides Foundation, a California non-profit whose aim is to create a platform for travelers to be able to serve while on their own adventures. Changing Tides Foundation was founded by 5 female surfers and is premised on the idea that if we were all given the opportunity to serve, the world would be a better place.
Becky is an avid surfer, snowboarder, hiker/backpacker, she enjoys growing her own food and is an environmentalist, clean water and gender equality activist. She can be found on Instagram @actionsportslaw & @ChangingTidesFoundation.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Tough question! With Action Sports Law Group, it was probably when I started working with renowned surf filmmaker, Taylor Steele. That was a breakthrough in my career. I had been working with surfers already but when people found out I was Taylor’s lawyer, it gave me instant credibility.
With Changing Tides Foundation, I feel like I’m having proud moments almost weekly: every time an article is published, every time we’re mentioned as having influenced someone to pay more attention to their plastic waste. I’d say organizing the experiences and projects that we have done internationally and taking some my best friends along with me to do incredible work fills my heart with pride.
The gift of giving people the tools to have a life-changing experience that will live with them forever is pretty unbeatable. Another pretty epic moment for me was when pro-surfer Stephanie Gilmore posted about her participation in the Plastic Swear Jar Challenge. Another proud moment was when pro-surfer Tatiana Weston-Webb won a contest where she was allowed to pick a charity to donate $5,000 to and she picked us!!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.changingtidesfoundation.org
- Email: info@changingtidesfoundation.org
- Instagram: instagram.com/changingtidesfoundation
- Facebook: facebook.com/changingtidesfoundation
- Twitter: twitter.com/changingtidesfndn
Image Credit:
Eunique Deeann @euniquedeeann, Duke Loren @doooker, Ashley Barker @barkerfoto, Erin Hogue @erinhogue, Jianca Lazarus @jianca_lazarus, @johntocallaghan
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