Connecting with the community is a point of pride for Nicole Bishop.

She serves as the philanthropy manager at Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners, commonly known as SNAP, and serves on the Spokane Public Schools Board of Directors, where she identifies community needs with an emphatic drive.

As SNAP's philanthropy manager, Bishop relates her public-spirited efforts to her experiences growing up in Spokane with a single mother with limited means. She recounts days spent at appointments and applying for resources, as her family’s stress compounded with each errand. 

Bishop says she and her family often relied on food banks for meals, and those memories have followed her through adulthood.

“Of course, there were times when our needs weren’t fully met," she says. "You know, maybe our water was off for a few days, or maybe we had to walk or take the bus because our tire was flat. But those memories don’t stand out (as much as) the positive memories of being cared for by the people in the community.”

As a member of the Spokane Public Schools Board, her role allows her valuable insight to pinpoint the needs of students and families within the district. She notes there's a range of wealth between families, as well as the scope of opportunity gaps for students with higher needs.

“Those students will need more support from the school district," Bishop says. "It gives me the opportunity to ask, ‘What does that support look like? How can we work with the community to come together and create policies that put those support systems in place?’”

Bishop holds an undergraduate degree in political science from Amherst College, located in Amherst, Massachusetts. She is currently studying to earn a graduate degree in public administration at Eastern Washington University, where she has completed a certificate in program evaluation.

Bishop didn’t initially plan to work in the nonprofit sector. In college, she interned for the office of Sen. Maria Cantwell, and for former President Joe Biden, who at the time of the internship was serving as vice president during former President Barack Obama's first administration.

She initially sought to be “the next great political strategist,” however, she says she felt a need to give back to her community in a way that was directly impactful.

“She could have chosen any number of career paths. Instead, she came home to Spokane with a clear purpose: To lift her community and expand opportunities for others,” says Kamran Moshfegh, Bishop’s brother.

In 2016, Bishop pivoted from politics to nonprofits.

"I think nonprofits just speak my language," she says. "How can we serve more people? How can we meet people where they are? That’s exactly the impact I wanted to make, and it’s still a great way to align my original interest of communicating, and sharing that with more people, and making messages palatable.”

In the nonprofit sector, that type of palatability translates to care and respect for clients. Bishop says she remembers her family feeling the most supported when resource providers didn’t treat them as less-than. She has a fond memory of a childhood birthday, when the food bank gave her a cake to sweeten the day.

“It was such a small gesture, in the grand scheme of things, but it meant so much,” Bishop says.

Her brother has seen Bishop carry life's challenges with grace, rather than letting them harden her, Moshfegh says.

“Raised in poverty by an incredible single mother, Nicole has never forgotten where she comes from,” he says.

At SNAP, Bishop developed the nonprofit’s annual resource carnivals, one-stop resource fairs curated to help families with children. She says the events offer food, games, face painting, and haircuts — all for free. Parents get an opportunity to access resources and vendors, while their children play and eat cotton candy, before going home with back-to-school outfits, shoes, and backpacks filled with school supplies.

“It was just so nice to see that impact," Bishop says of the resource fair. "It was something that I think made my child heart happy, imagining what a relief something like that would have been for my mom and imagining how fun something like that would have been for me.”

Her work developing resource carnivals has been what Bishop is most proud of in her career, as it gives her the opportunity to blend her interests in community outreach and fundraising in a way that is personally fulfilling. 

Bishop encourages more community members to contribute in whatever ways they can, even if what they can afford is their own time.

“I hope we can begin to approach our city and the people in it with more empathy, looking beyond surface-level fixes and working together on solutions that address the root causes," she says. "Real change happens when we combine compassion with action.”