Prior to working in the nonprofit sector, Kate Knight dreamed of a career in film.
She pursued that goal fervently, graduating with a degree in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin and eventually finding work on film sets in Los Angeles. Although she had accomplished what she once set out to do, Knight found herself feeling unfulfilled by the work and the potential future filmmaking offered.
“It’s one of those moments where you achieve your goal, and then go, ‘Well, this is cool, but maybe not forever,’” Knight said.
Losing her father to early-onset dementia later became a driving force behind her career pivot. Witnessing his sudden decline firsthand led Knight to realize that life was too short to dedicate herself to a career that didn’t feel meaningful.
“You’re not going to have one goal,” Knight said. “There’s not one finish line. It’s a hard thing to understand, particularly if you grow up in a high-achieving household where you’re always working toward the next thing.”
“It was a big shift in thinking to realize, ‘Oh, wait a minute. I can work toward something, and then I can work toward something else,’” she continued.
Through a ministry partnership with her church in Santa Monica, Knight traveled to Kilimahewa, a small village located at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. There, she met women not much older than herself who were raising three or four children and driven by the hope of creating better futures for them. Knight helped teach practical skills such as English, how to balance a checkbook and how to keep inventory ledgers.
Knight recalls one mother who had organized a roadside stand selling laundry detergent, toothpaste, chewing gum and fertilizer. Knight shared with her techniques for how to track the stand’s inventory and keep a ledger.
This seems like a small example, but seeing how these businesses were so transformative for these families was really inspiring for me,” Knight said.
After returning from Tanzania, Knight decided to enroll in the MBA program at the Texas McCombs School of Business after becoming excited by the idea that business could serve as a powerful force for good. Although she didn’t get in during her first application cycle, she persisted, taking community college courses to strengthen her foundation in mathematics before applying again.
“The reason I chose to strive for business school versus a different program that might have been less of a stretch for me was that I felt like I needed to flex these other muscles—to convince others and convince myself that I could do something else besides make movies,” Knight said.
“I wanted to feel confident in conversations with people and be able to translate the finance and business language that’s truly created to keep people out,” she continued.
After being accepted, Knight built her own version of an MBA experience, taking nonprofit communication courses at the LBJ School of Public Affairs alongside other program-focused classes. One highlight of her time at McCombs was participating in the Meadows Fellowship through the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service.
Through the fellowship, Knight joined a consulting team of six other MBA and LBJ School MPAff students. Their client was a nonprofit missionary organization operating in an extremely rural village in Haiti. Upon arrival, the team immersed themselves in the community, speaking with families and observing daily life to better understand the challenges residents faced.
They worked to identify which initiatives should come first—whether improving water access, building better roads, expanding healthcare services or supporting small businesses through lending programs.
“My dad was very service-minded and raised us to always be looking outside of ourselves for others,” Knight said. “He was the kind of guy who knew everyone on a first-name basis. That really stuck with me, along with the desire to give back to the communities that you’re benefiting from being a part of.”
After earning her MBA, Knight relocated to Dallas with her husband and began working at United Way, where she helped launch the organization’s social innovation program. In that role, she gained experience in fundraising while working closely with social entrepreneurs.
During her time there, Knight also became a vocal advocate for impact investing—the idea of aligning investments with personal values to drive social good.
“A lot of people assume impact investing is political, but it’s really personal,” Knight said. “It’s about aligning your money with your own values.”
Her advocacy connected her with like-minded leaders and ultimately led her to a role at the values-aligned Phillips Foundation. At the foundation, she now oversees the investment portfolio from an “impact-first” perspective, ensuring the endowment aligns with the family’s philanthropic goals and values.
Throughout her career, Knight has emphasized transferable skills such as advocacy, coalition-building and influence. She often draws upon lessons from John Daly’s advocacy framework course at McCombs, which taught her how to build buy-in and rally support around ideas.
“There is just a wealth of knowledge on the 40 Acres,” Knight said. “It’s just full of different resources. You just have to put in a little bit of legwork to find it.”