Erik Muckey: From teen nonprofit co-founder to growing ‘an agency of hope’

Erik Muckey had a choice after finishing grad school during the pandemic.

He could return to the stability of a job in financial services and steady his income or go all-in with the nonprofit he’d supported since the end of high school.

Muckey chose Lost&Found — and with it, appears to have found his calling.

Lost&Found, an organization that aims “to do more to eliminate suicide among young adults in the United States,” is at 319 N. Main Ave.

Lost&Found has trained more than 400 young adults as mental health mentors and advocates while also providing digital resources to more than 5.1 million people since 2020.

Teen nonprofit founders

DJ Smith, Muckey’s good friend, began Lost&Found after starting a suicide awareness Facebook group as a senior project using applied technology. His idea was to “do more” than just an awareness campaign and teach people how to pay forward acts of kindness and save lives.

More than 3,600 individuals joined Smith’s Facebook group in the 2009-10 school year to achieve four goals targeted toward helping those struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts.

Smith presented his project at the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America national conference in Chicago. On the bus ride home together, Smith asked if Muckey and a few friends would help make his idea more than a Facebook group, Muckey recalled.

Muckey and four other high school students came alongside Smith as co-founders for the South Dakota nonprofit organization: “The Lost and Found Association.”

“The name Lost&Found was a play on words for DJ – it didn’t matter how lost you felt. You have to bring people together, no matter their journey,” Muckey said.

Muckey, who attended Corsica High School, graduated in 2010 and went on to study economics at USD. He and all but one of the co-founders attended USD in the fall of 2010. The group decided to turn Lost&Found into a student organization that raised awareness about suicide and provided information about the serious topic for students.

“Having a nonprofit at 18 … we didn’t have any idea what the hell we were doing,” Muckey said.

Beginnings at USD

Lost&Found became the first thing the friends started at USD, Muckey said.

“We gained a following, and the organization grew quite a bit in college. All of us were involved in different things, and it just spread,” Muckey said.

During their college years, the group developed its goals of helping friends who struggle with mental health and suicidal ideation, and the nonprofit became more concrete, Muckey said. They held meetings and worked with students at USD to spread awareness and combat stigma around mental health. By 2014, the organization opened chapters at SDSU and DSU.

Today, Lost&Found aims to prevent suicide through partnerships with community leaders, Muckey said. The organization provides training for peer advocates and mentors, measures prevention outcomes and offers digital education and policy tools for young adults and their support networks.

According to its website, the “comprehensive, evidence-based tools help … local leaders confidently choose suicide prevention programs that meet the needs of young adults and their support networks.”

Maturing leader

Rick Melmer started Leadership South Dakota in 2014 and mentored Muckey, who became one of the program’s youngest participants.

“My first memory of Erik was that he was mature way beyond his years. He was an undergraduate college student who thought like a Ph.D. candidate,” Melmer said. “I know that the early days of Lost&Found were challenging.”

Melmer remembers that Lost&Found had no money, few staff and a lack of understanding and awareness of the organization in its beginning days.

“But being the relentless leader that he is, Erik bet on himself and his belief system, and the organization has grown into a well-known agency of hope for South Dakota,” Melmer said.

The power of resilience

As Muckey’s college days came to a close, he felt burnt out. He had participated in many student organizations and activities, which left him feeling stretched too thin. Muckey said he felt disconnected from his loved ones and family.

It felt like he was leaving a place he’d learned to call home, and the transition period from college into the job force felt daunting, he said.

“I also didn’t have an immediate job prospect leaving college.”

He became depressed and continued to struggle up until graduation, even becoming part of the population his own nonprofit exists to help.

“I fell into a pretty deep hole that spring and considered taking my own life.”

After a season of struggling with his mental health and graduating without a job lined up, Muckey finally sought help with his mental health.

“After spending the past four years as part of Lost&Found’s early team and supporting families who had lost loved ones to suicide, I realized how far down I was and knew immediately I needed to get help.”

Muckey decided to move to Sioux Falls as he regained his mental health.

“I got my shot to work enter the consulting field for Citibank after undergrad,” he said. “I went into the field of project management and business analyst type work.”

After Muckey’s graduation in 2014, Lost&Found remained fairly stagnant until 2017, he said. He still carried on with Lost&Found as he worked in Sioux Falls, but it had stopped growing like it had in college. When Smith went to join Peace Corps, Muckey decided to step up and take over the board.

A move to Minneapolis

“My intention wasn’t to stay at Lost&Found,” Muckey said. “I had worked in Washington, D.C., in college and wanted to go in a policy direction. I had a very different degree from what you’d see for a mental health group.”

About the same time Muckey took over the board, he decided to pursue a Master of Public Policy and Master of Business Administration from the University of Minnesota.

“I got the itch to leave Sioux Falls for further education but with the sole purpose of coming back to South Dakota no matter where I ended up,” Muckey said.

His first class of grad school was a social entrepreneurship class, and it pushed him to reconsider Lost&Found’s role in his life.

“My prof had heard me talk about my role as chair for the board, and they encouraged me to not let it go but to really reconsider what the model could be,” Muckey said. 

He spent a semester learning about different models for nonprofits and began to test what they had done previously. Throughout his time at UMN, Muckey continued to grow Lost&Found, and two new chapters opened up at Augustana University and the University of Sioux Falls.

“Working from UMN opened us up to other funders, both in Sioux Falls and Minneapolis,” Muckey said. “And I learned a better approach to gather data for our organization.”

Lobbying foray

When he returned from UMN, Muckey used his lobbying experience to help form a coalition that successfully lobbied the South Dakota Legislature for $2 million in funding for mental health and suicide prevention programs.

“Erik loves South Dakota, and I rejoiced when he returned to our state,” Melmer said. “He is passionate about improving the lives of those in his world, and he will not quit pursuing that goal.”

As an advocate for HB 1079, Muckey said he recognized the need for allies. He said he learned not only to find allies but also to address the concerns of the opposition.

“I can’t put into words what kind of impact that (bill) will have for a decade or more, ” Muckey said. “For me to be in this position and to persevere through heavy challenges, taking care of my own mental health, finding funding … I just want to give people a better understanding of what it’s like to grow a nonprofit and sustain it.”

Muckey recently won the 4 Under 40 award from the Sioux Falls Young Professionals Network, recognizing the lobbying work that led the Legislature to help fund mental health and suicide prevention programs.

The choice to stay

Muckey graduated from UMN in 2020 and faced the choice of returning to work in financial services or continuing to build Lost&Found. Right before the pandemic started, Lost&Found secured significant funding from philanthropist Denny Sanford, and Muckey chose to take innovative steps forward. 

“I went full time with the nonprofit coming out of grad school … into the pandemic and continued to build Lost&Found out.”

Muckey lived in Minneapolis for a year and returned to Sioux Falls in the summer of 2021 to open the Lost&Found office. He started dating his now-fiancee, Sadie Swier, and went all-in with Lost&Found.

“It’s all just been a wild ride for the last couple years.”

Lost&Found growth

Today, Lost&Found has 600 donors, more than a dozen staff and dozens of volunteers.

Looking forward, Muckey said he is excited to expand the statewide peer mentorship program and continue exploring how the organization can help families with better suicide prevention and mental health data.

“People say there are too many nonprofits, and everybody is trying to solve the same problem,” Muckey said. “I want to spend some time helping the community understand the outcome we’re seeing today has been over a decade in the making.”

Muckey said the past year has been one of carefully investing funding, time and energy to meet the organization’s mission and become more sustainable.

“I like the phrase ‘mind the gap.’ I want people to understand there are needs and see what the community needs,” Muckey said.

Lost & Found also is working toward establishing a financial assistance fund.

“I believe it would be the first suicide loss, survivor financial assistance fund in South Dakota history … and maybe one of the first in the country.”