“On A Mission” showcases leaders who are going the extra mile each and every day. Each of the people we interview is on a mission to serve, inspire and educate. Our hosts highlight their impact and explore what motivates, engages and fulfills individuals and teams to be more productive, more effective, better at what they do, and happier to do it. Today our host, Morgan Allen spoke with Amiee Sadler, LMSW.
Amiee Sadler, LMSW
Executive Director at Miriam’s Promise
Website Address: miriamspromise.org
Short company description:
Miriam’s Promise is a licensed, nonprofit child-placing agency based in Nashville, Tennessee, providing comprehensive adoption and pregnancy support services since 1985. The agency offers compassionate, nonjudgmental counseling to expectant parents facing unplanned pregnancies and works with prospective adoptive families through education, home studies, placement, and lifelong post-adoption support. Grounded in ethical practice and a commitment to child permanency, Miriam’s Promise prioritizes informed decision-making, openness, and the long-term well-being of children and families.
What is the most important lesson you’ve learned over your career?
The most important lesson I’ve learned over my career is this: clarity is kinder than comfort.
Early on, I thought being a good leader — especially in social work and adoption — meant softening hard truths, absorbing tension, and protecting people from discomfort. I’ve learned that’s not leadership. That’s avoidance dressed up as empathy.
Families deserve clarity about timelines, risks, expectations, and capacity. Staff deserve clarity about performance, boundaries, and decision-making authority. Expectant parents deserve clarity about their rights and their options — not optimism, not persuasion, not vague reassurance.
When we withhold clarity to “keep the peace,” it always comes back louder. In adoption work especially, ambiguity creates harm.
The second piece of that lesson is this: mission does not excuse dysfunction. Just because the work is meaningful doesn’t mean the systems get to be messy. High calling still requires high standards. If anything, it requires more.
The organizations and leaders who last are the ones who pair compassion with structure. Heart with accountability. Vision with execution.
If I had to distill it into something actionable:
Say the hard thing sooner.
Document more than you think you need.
And never confuse being liked with being effective.
That shift changed everything for me.
What nonprofit do you have a heart for and how do you support it?
Our’s!
What’s your favorite way to get involved in the community?
Volunteering and showing up anytime I’m called on.
If you could be remembered for one thing, what would it be?
If I had to choose one thing? I’d want to be remembered as someone who made people think better. Not louder. Not more impressive. Not more comfortable. Better.
Transcript:
Morgan:
Welcome back to another episode of On A Mission, where we highlight those who are on a mission to make an impact. I’m Morgan Allen, joined today by Amiee Sadler with Miriam’s Promise. Amiee, thank you so much for joining us today.
Amiee:
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having us.
Morgan:
Yes, so tell me about Miriam’s Promise. What is she promising, and what is the mission?
Amiee:
So Miriam’s Promise is a pregnancy support and adoption agency. We were started 41 years ago as a satellite office for Holston Home for Children out of West Tennessee and then became our own nonprofit. Our goal was to ensure the well-being of children through support of them and their families. We do pregnancy support, options-based counseling, and non-judgment counseling, which I think is the biggest part of the work that we do.
When you find yourself in an unintended pregnancy, sometimes it’s just terrifying. You don’t know what is going to happen next, and you need someone to walk through that with you. Our promise is to do that without judgment and with our full support.
We also operate an adoption agency. Not only do we work with parents who come to us seeking to make an adoption plan, but we also work with families who are wanting to foster, adopt, or adopt through other agencies. So supervision helps. That is all the things.
Morgan: That is absolutely amazing and so needed today. So tell me, how did you get involved? How did you get into it?
Amiee:
So it’s funny. I was working at a different nonprofit doing nonprofit management and teaching nonprofit excellence. Then the role that I was in, the grant was eliminated. So I was kind of like, okay, what’s next?
I had 27 people send me the job description for the executive director, and I was like, okay, maybe I’ll apply. I’m a social worker, and I had always said growing up I never wanted to be a social worker. I never wanted to be in child welfare. That was not for me. And here I am now.
But I applied and had really good conversations with our board, and I realized that lots of things in my life had led me to this moment. I was a young mother, did not have a lot of support, and didn’t really know what my options were. I say very candidly that had I known I had options, my outcome might have been different.
My daughter will be 20 this year and she’s amazing, the light of my life and my one perfect thing. But knowing that I would have had support could have made a big difference in both her life and mine. But it brought me here, and it’s been an amazing journey.
Morgan:
Oh, that is an awesome story. So, tell me, what are some of the things that you guys do to offer support for these women?
Amiee:
Sometimes the support is just responding to a text message at 2:00 in the morning because you don’t have anyone else to talk to. But some of our more tangible supports are offering rental or housing assistance.
We had some expectant parents who were unhoused, so providing temporary shelter for them in an extended stay hotel for about a month while they were able to figure out what their next steps were.
Sometimes it’s providing services for car repairs or matching with other agencies. Sometimes it’s as simple as Hot Cheetos and Sour Patch Kids when someone has a pregnancy craving.
So we want to be the bridge between what current services exist at other agencies and the things that our expectant parents need.
Morgan:
That is amazing. So tell me, how do you guys get your funding right now for your organization?
Amiee:
We are mainly funded by donations, and we are at the time of year where we have a budget but not necessarily the money to fund the budget. So it’s having donations from people in the community.
We have sponsorship opportunities for corporations and businesses. We have a grant from the state that allows us to do a lot of the work we do with our pregnancy clients. And there is also some small revenue from adoption services.
We are the lowest priced or have the lowest fees in the state for adoptions. Most adoptions start at $50,000. Ours are maxed at $20,000 because we want adoption to be affordable for families who want to grow their families through adoption. Financing and fees should not be the barrier for that.
Morgan:
Yeah, absolutely, and adoption is such a beautiful thing. Especially these days, there is a large population, and the more that we can adopt, it’s a beautiful process, so, thank you for that. And, tell me, what is the thing that you love most about this organization?
Amiee:
The thing that I love most about the organization is our heart. People come to us at all different stages, both pre and post pregnancy, and at all different stages of the adoption process.
From just trying to figure out if it’s an option, to someone who adopted a baby 20 years ago and now as an adult is trying to help them navigate the world.
Regardless of where you are in your journey, we meet you where you’re at.
As a matter of personal preference, my favorite is holding the babies.
Morgan:
I completely agree with you, and I love holding babies as well. Serving at the church for the six month olds is my Sunday gig, so I completely understand that part. Well thank you for the work you are doing, is there anything I didn’t ask about Miriam’s Promise that you want the world to know?
Amiee:
I think the biggest thing is that we wouldn’t exist without you. There are things that we would love to do more within the community that we serve that we are unable to do because of limited funding.
But in a world where people are always losing options, your support of our organization means that we’re able to give those options back to people.
Sometimes there is a very small line between “I can do this” and “I can’t raise my child.” When people contribute to Miriam’s Promise, we have the opportunity to close some of those gaps.
We don’t exist without you, so we are just thankful to be part of your orbit.
Morgan:
Aw, well thank you so much for the great work that you’re doing. And viewers, if you’ve heard it here, share it. You know, you’ve heard the word from the bird. Go ahead, share this post, get this out to your networks. We want to spread the word about Miriam’s Promise so that we can help more women, people, families, children, babies, all of the things. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of On A Mission, and we’ll see you next time.
The Daily News Network, Buzz Tv News, and DAILYBIZBRIEF highlight business professionals, nonprofits, veterans and community leaders on over 40 TV Segments including The Horse’s Mouth, Legacy of Leaders TV, Veterans Buzz TV, Finding Your Frequency, and Buzzworthy Businesses.
Teal, The Agency, powered by Client Focused Media, offers marketing agencies a full-service white-label solution to scale their services without the cost or complexity of building large in-house teams. Tailored for small and medium-sized agencies, Teal specializes in relationship-driven lead generation, advanced CRM workflows for personalized client engagement, and end-to-end project fulfillment. With powerful integrations like HighLevel, Stripe, and Zapier, Teal simplifies your operations while optimizing efficiency—saving you valuable time and resources. While other tools on the market like Vendasta, RocketDriver, and DashClicks, may require contracts, Teal provides flexible, no-contract pricing, giving you the freedom to grow on your terms. Ready to elevate your agency’s impact and efficiency? Explore how Teal can help you deliver exceptional results and better serve your clients. Apply on BeTeal.com today to start your journey toward becoming a marketing powerhouse by understanding digital marketing strategies for agencies, SEO best practices for marketing agencies and scaling a marketing agency.
