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Sean Goode

Nonprofits & social impact

Sean Goode(he/him)

Founder · Movement Makers

AA Highline College, Board Member United Way of Puget Sound, Parent/Youth Counselor, YMCA Seattle, Board Member Fare Start`

I create spaces for leaders, teams, and communities to return to presence, restore rhythm, and carry awareness into aligned action. Through Movement Makers, I partner with organizations through coaching, facilitation, retreats, and curriculum-based experiences that cultivate performance rooted in presence, relational trust, and intentional practice. The work is for people carrying meaningful responsibility: founders, executives, educators, nonprofit leaders, community builders, and teams doing human-centered work under pressure. At the heart of my work is a simple question: Who is checking for the leader? Movement Makers does not reject performance. We reject performance as the measure of human worth. Performance can be beautiful when rooted in presence. It becomes costly when driven by proving, urgency, fear, or disconnection. Through The Practice of Return, I write about presence, wholeness, leadership, belonging, and becoming. Through Movement Makers Foundation, we are expanding access to practices, relationships, and communities where people return to themselves, remember one another, and build what becomes possible together. People are possibilities, not problems.

Their story

What impact are you seeking to create? Sean Goode can help

18 min

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Key quotes

“I'm a big believer that who you are matters. And if you can be your whole self in what it is you're doing, then that's the place that you should go.”

Sean Goode, Executive Director of Choose 180

“We've all been in places where we've made poor decisions and had to make these pivots. I call them pivot moments. And for most of us that have a community of support around us, we pivot to the right thing. For folks that don't have that support, they often pivot the wrong direction.”

Sean Goode, Executive Director of Choose 180

“When I was in honors classes, none of the kids looked like me, and so I didn't feel comfortable being in that space, so I dropped out of them.”

Sean Goode, Executive Director of Choose 180

“In absence of like the sales gig, Home Depot and the Y, the work that I get to do today wouldn't be possible. I wouldn't have the skills necessary to be able to operate in this space.”

Sean Goode, Executive Director of Choose 180

“If nobody's there, then what we end up with is prison systems that are populated with young people who deserve the second chance that never got them.”

Sean Goode, Executive Director of Choose 180

Career highlights

Your character matters more than your job title — figure out who you are first.

Sean says people always ask 'what do you want to do when you grow up' but rarely ask 'who are you being?' He believes character stays consistent across every job you'll ever have.

Every job teaches you something — even the ones that feel like survival mode.

Sean connected the dots between selling home theater systems, working at Home Depot near minimum wage, and eventually running a nonprofit. Sales taught him to listen deeply and build real relationships. Home Depot taught him gratitude and consistency.

You don't need a traditional or 'on-time' education path to lead — but more education does open doors.

Sean got his associate's degree in his mid-30s and is now working toward his bachelor's and eventually a master's and PhD. He says it wasn't required, but it 'would have smoothed out the process' if he'd had it earlier.

Community isn't a soft idea — it's what keeps people from making decisions they'll regret.

Sean's whole organization is built around the idea that workshops are great, but what happens after is what matters. Without ongoing community support, people default back to old patterns.

Nonprofit work is meaningful but be honest with yourself about the money — it's a real consideration.

Sean says executive directors earn anywhere from the 50s to the 250s depending on organization size, and that you choose this work for the impact, not the paycheck.

Find spaces where you can show up as your whole self — that's not a luxury, it's a requirement for doing your best work.

Sean says Choose 180 is the first place he's ever been able to show up completely as himself, and that's part of why the work is so meaningful to him.

Student summary
Sean Goode is the Executive Director of Choose 180, a nonprofit in Seattle that diverts youth and young adults away from the criminal justice system and connects them to community support instead. His job is to build relationships — with donors, city officials, other nonprofits, and most importantly, with young people who deserve a second chance. He advocates for a world where no youth are detained, and where adolescent mistakes are met with support rather than punishment. Sean's path to this work was anything but straight. He grew up in a home shaped by his father's schizophrenia and addiction, his mother's trauma, and siblings who faced incarceration and substance abuse. He was bullied as a teenager, dropped honors classes because no one looked like him, became a father young, and at one point was sleeping in a Home Depot parking lot while working minimum wage and getting his paycheck garnished. He sold home theater systems, worked a front desk, promoted nightclubs, and seriously considered illegal side hustles just to survive. He didn't get his associate's degree until his mid-30s. What changed his trajectory wasn't one magic moment — it was people. His brother intervened when Sean was getting pulled into gang life. A pastor let him confide during hard times. A friend's father talked him back from the edge when things got really dark. A woman named Alison Weary gave him a shot at the YMCA with no formal experience, and he stayed seven years, learning program management, budgeting, fundraising, and leadership. Every job, even the ones that felt like setbacks, built skills he uses today. For students of color thinking about careers in social justice, nonprofits, or community work, Sean's story is deeply relevant. He talks honestly about money (executive directors earn anywhere from $50K to $250K depending on org size), the patience required for slow systemic change, and why character matters more than job title. He also names something many students of color feel but rarely hear acknowledged — that being in honors classes where no one looks like you can make you shrink, and that the environments where we feel seen matter for how we perform. Sean's core advice is to know who you are before you decide what you want to do. He believes your character stays consistent even when your career changes, and that the most important thing is finding a space where you can show up as your whole self. His story shows that a non-linear path, a late degree, a hard upbringing — none of that disqualifies you. Sometimes it's exactly what prepares you.