← Nonprofit Nation with Julia Campbell
Nonprofit Nation with Julia Campbell
How to Engage Younger Donors with Bhumika Regmi and Mahina Martinson
00:42:12
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- [00:00]
Julia Campbell
Convincing your board to invest in nonprofit tech can feel like a challenge. And that's why Neon1 created Six Steps to Sell your board on nonprofit technology. This guide walks you through identifying your needs, showing how technology can streamline operations, and tackling common objections, all to make your case confidently. Just visit neon1.comjulia to download it free and empower your mission with the right tools. That's neonone.com Julia. All right, on to the show. Hello and welcome to Nonprofit Nation. I'm your host, Julia Campbell, and I'm going to sit down with nonprofit industry experts, fundraisers, marketers, and everyone in between to get real and discuss what it takes to build that movement that you've been dreaming of. I created the Nonprofit Nation PODC to share practical wisdom and strategies to help you confidently find your voice, definitively grow your audience, and effectively build your movement. If you're a nonprofit newbie or an experienced professional who's looking to get more visibility, reach more people, and create even more impact, then you're in the right place. Let's get started. All right, welcome, welcome, and welcome back to Nonprofit Nation. I'm your host, Julia Campbell. Today's interview has really been a long time coming. I've been trying to coordinate and usually it's always my schedule that is somehow screwed up with the following two guests to have them on the podcast for quite some time. And I'm just absolutely thrilled. Today we're going to talk about how to, you know, leverage TikTok and other digital platforms to engage younger audiences and promote things like girls education, promote advocacy worldwide. And my guests are Bumika Regmi, digital director at Malala Fund, and Mahina Martinson, digital coordinator at Malala Fund. And we're really going to discuss the challenges, the rewards of working on these youth centric platforms and hopefully get some insights. I know we will on how to stay innovative in the incredibly fast paced and ever changing world of digital. So, Bumaka and Mahina, welcome.
- [02:34]
Bumika Regmi
Thanks, Julia. Happy to be here. Excited to be here.
- [02:38]
Julia Campbell
Yes, I am so thrilled to have you. So, Boomaka, let's start. How did you get started in nonprofit work and maybe talk a little bit about what your job entails today?
- [02:50]
Bumika Regmi
So I went to school for international development and social change. That's kind of what my education background is in my undergrad. And then as I was doing that, I knew that ultimately that I still wanted to be in really creative spaces because that is just naturally who I am. And so I was trying to figure out like, okay, how does this happen? And So I did my higher education and comms and then I was just kind of looking for things in the nexus of that kind of work. And when, you know, when I saw Malaland was hiring for a social media job way back when, it just clicked and it was just the perfect fit for me because I know that, you know, it's a more youthful organization. I really resonate with Malala's story and it just was the perfect fit of kind of doing creative work while still having impact, especially amongst young people. So it just was the right fit. And then I joined and I have been here ever since and just really love what I do.
- [03:53]
Julia Campbell
That's amazing. What about you, Mahina?
- [03:54]
Mahina Martinson
Yeah, I think my story is kind of similar to Vumika too. When I was an undergrad, I studied international relations, but in that time period I was also like very involved in different, like art activities and publications at my college, doing things that are really creative. I was also involved in a lot of advocacy work for my community in the Pacific Islander community. And when I was looking for an opportunity kind of post grad, I knew I wanted to do something really creative and I knew I wanted to do change based work. And that's kind of how I found my first internship in comms and then found this role where I really get to blend all things creative, whether that is through my role and creating. I'm the digital coordinator, so handling all things social media. So I have a lot of kind of creative freedom and flexibility while also doing work that I really resonate with. Get to work with a lot of young women activists, which I think have been the most fulfilling parts of my job.
- [04:46]
Julia Campbell
So I got the idea to invite both of you onto the podcast because I follow Malala Fund across all of the social media platforms and I'm just always so impressed with the deep and really meaningful nature of the content, but also the way that you use the platforms as they're meant to be used and the way you seem to really understand how to use the platforms. So for older people like me, probably like many of my listeners, how did you develop the strategy and how did you decide sort of which platforms to focus on? And Bumaka, maybe you could answer that question. And then Mahina, maybe you can talk about how you think about creating content.
- [05:26]
Bumika Regmi
Yeah, absolutely. So nice to hear that you like our stuff and that you follow us. Always good to have you. I think for us it has always been Malala's voice, like really thinking about who Malala is. And when she started this organization, she was Very much a young woman, and she still is. It was important to the brand that her voice kind of came through. Maybe not her voice exactly, because she has her own voice, but this youthful nature of the organization and her and who she is came through. And it was also important to us that we're. We're kind of not just thinking of young women as, quote, unquote, in this nonprofit and development world, beneficiaries or people we support, but young women should also be our listeners. They should also be the demographic that we're talking to and kind of want them to be excited about Moala Fund, because ultimately this work, everything that we do, is for them. And so that's kind of thinking back, like, that's kind of the ethos behind everything that we do. And of course, organizations are ever evolving, but, you know, that's kind of the backbone of how we thought about our work. And I would say, given that everything that we do, that ethos lives through in all of the different tasks that we take on, the content ideas that we come up with. But ultimately it's about meeting people where they are. And for us, it's been meeting people like meeting donors where they are, meeting advocacy folks where they are, meeting leaders where they are, but also meeting young women where they are. And so naturally, we gravitate towards platforms and really make sure that as new platforms are coming up, we're making. We're establishing ourselves in those platforms where young people are. So TikTok, of course, was a natural, kind of like not migration, but a natural expansion of the work that we do on digital, because that's where young people are, and we want to meet them there, and we want to meet them there and on other platforms in ways that they want to engage. So really kind of staying engaged and having close ears on all of the platforms and knowing what young people are talking about, what people are talking about, and general making sure that we are not dated in the way that we're thinking about platforms is really important to the kind of work that we do. I'll pass it over to Mahina to talk more about the content itself.
- [07:46]
Mahina Martinson
Yeah, I think one of the special things about our platforms too, is that we've built a really dedicated audience of young women on a lot of these platforms. And they're really what I look to for inspiration, like, what are they engaging with, what posts, who they follow, what content is really exciting to them. And so that's kind of when I'm thinking about content and when I'm thinking about kind of the things that we do next, that's always kind of top of mind for me. And I think the way in which we approach creating content is really different from kind of other spaces in the sector where I think the norm for a while has been to kind of talk about young women as opposed to kind of really consulting with them and understanding what they want. Because ultimately that's like, when we're talking about content that we're creating with them, we want it to really accurately and authentically represent them. So I think our approach to content is really a collaborative process with young women. Like, anytime you see a video on our TikTok, on our Instagram or on other platforms, it's really been kind of thoughtfully created with a young woman. So jumping on a call with her, seeing kind of what she wants to get out of our platforms, how she wants to be profiled and what she's comfortable with, and then kind of co developing a video with her or a social media post kind of profiling her. So that's kind of the thought process when we create content, especially with young women is keeping that in mind, no.
- [09:02]
Bumika Regmi
Matter who your audience is, even if your audience is not your target audience, is not young people, ultimately you have to think about your social platforms as a conversation. You're not talking at people. You really never should be talking at people. And that might be kind of, you know, it's seen a lot of brands do that. And I think if you think of social as it's a community space and you're having a conversation, then work backwards to think about, like, how can that conversation happen? Depending on who your audience is, I think is important. So, you know, it should come through in your copy that you're not talking down to or talking at people. It should come through in the process of when you're creating something. So like Mahina said, instead of just assuming that like, oh, this would be a cool content piece, like really consulting with, if a young woman is a subject of your video, she really should be the one informing what's going to work for her. And so, yeah, similar to what Mahina said, it's really just like trying as much as possible to create authenticity on your platforms. And authenticity can only come if you're informed by the people you're trying to target.
- [10:07]
Julia Campbell
Absolutely. And I want to throw out this question. How do you balance storytelling with advocacy actions, with fundraising calls to action, with sort of all of the different content types? That's something that I know a lot of my clients and a lot of my Audience, they really struggle with all of these different competing things that they need to get out into the world. And they want to balance it with storytelling and this kind of transparent content, like co created content. How do you balance that in your overall strategy?
- [10:41]
Bumika Regmi
I think that first I would say it's important for us at least not to think of fundraising as just this, like certain moments or certain pieces of content. This is for a donation appeal. And that's what our fundraising is. How we think of it a little bit, maybe a little bit different is that ultimately everything that you're doing on your platforms is an attempt to funnel audiences to basically like in marketing terms, convert audiences. Right. So to do something. And in the for profit world, that might be, you know, you convert them into consumers. Obviously that's not what we're doing here in the nonprofit world. You're converting them to either take action, be involved in some way. Maybe they want to work for Malala Fund because they're so excited about the work that we're doing, or they want to donate. So in a way it's like everything that you're doing in every way that you're engaging your audiences, it's ultimately funneling them to care about this work, be excited about this work, and then take some sort of action towards this work. And so even if you're creating, let's say we put out a video with a young woman and it doesn't have any kind of like donation or fundraising ask attached to it, ultimately that video is a tool in getting people to care about the issue that we're covering in that particular video, or care about education and girls education, which then might kind of have them much more in tune with our platform. And then the next time we make a donation appeal, they're going to remember the kinds of things that they've been seeing on our platforms and be excited about it and feel that this is authentic, this is real and I want to contribute to it. And so you have to think about everything that you're doing in one package. It's never advocacy fundraising. This is just a story. And so if you think of it that way, then you might be opening up more room for yourselves to be creative. That's how I would think of it. But Mihina, I would love for you to give a little bit more information about the ways that you might bucket as you're creating, creating content or just, you know, approaches maybe to if something is more advocacy heavy or maybe not leaning towards a young audience versus when it is.
- [12:51]
Mahina Martinson
Yeah, I would say again, Kind of, as Mika said, like, we're telling this story of Malala Fund and all the different kind of players that are within it. It is kind of like, the easiest example for this and like, thinking through balancing different types of content for different audiences is with Malala Khan's work in Afghanistan. So right now, Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls can't access education. And so a lot. A huge portion of our work now is really fighting to codify gender apartheid into international law and hold the Taliban accountable. And so there's different kind of ways in which we've tailored that to get different audience to care about it. So one is creating, like, this advocacy, heavy content, but again, it's like, we don't want to talk at people, or like, this is a really wonky concept, like, what is gender apartheid? And so taking it and making informative content that is really accessible, kind of using different Malalphan staff to kind of explain it in an engaging way, while also pairing that with storytelling. So working with Afghan girls to kind of, like, tell their stories, how they're being impacted by the Taliban's decrees, while also pairing that with kind of different stories about our grantees that are working in Afghanistan to use that kind of fundraise and engage support. So it's kind of creating this, like, holistic package for parts of our work. And they all feed and tell this kind of story, right?
- [14:09]
Bumika Regmi
Exactly. So in the example of Afghanistan, we might share about girls experiences in their own voice so people can really understand what. What impact. What impact the takeover from Taliban has had on young women's lives. But then ultimately, the question is, okay, and so what. What is the actual needle that we can move? And Malala Fund's answer to that right now is really working towards and supporting activists who are trying to get gender apartheid codified into international law. And so everything that we're doing, of course, ultimately ladders up to that goal. But in order to reach that goal, storytelling is a huge part of it, because you need constituents to care about this particular issue if you want policymakers to care about it. And so it's like mobilizing and getting people to have an emotional connection with something that you. You want them to care about, and then that ultimately funneling up to and laddering up to leaders who care about what people care about. So, like Mahina said, it's sort of this, like, package. When you're thinking about your work and your content, it shouldn't be this separation.
- [15:15]
Julia Campbell
I agree. I do know just in my work With a lot of nonprofits, it's all very siloed, and it's sort of the fundraising department is using the channels to run a campaign, and then the marketing department, or maybe there's one person. But it's very compartmentalized. I love the approach that Malala Fun takes in that it's really. You're telling a story, it's very holistic, and everything is sort of in this ecosystem of trying to, you know, achieve this vision that you have. So it's all a piece of that puzzle. And I do agree, social media is really best used to be raising awareness, changing hearts and minds, sharing stories, getting people interested, getting people passionate and motivated and excited. And then when it comes time for a fundraising appeal, they're energized, they're informed, and they're much more likely to take an action or if it's an advocacy action. So I think another question that I have, and also really a big reason I wanted to have you both on, is that people, nonprofits, tend to make a lot of excuses about why they can't be on social media. We don't have stories, we don't have visuals, we don't have children or dogs or cats or things like that. And I think in the work that you do, it's a tough topic. It's not like a fun dance trend you can just jump on. You know, you're not doing these challenges that are so popular on TikTok. So what kinds of content, what kinds of information, other than other than storytelling, Storytelling, super effective. Are you sharing that? Maybe you were surprised, is getting a lot of traction. I don't know, Boomuk, if you want to answer that, because I think people have a misconception that TikTok is purely entertainment and fun when we know that other types of content can work really well.
- [17:05]
Bumika Regmi
Totally agree with you. I think it's a big misconception that young people are just looking for entertainment or that anybody is using a platform like TikTok or Reels just for entertainment. In fact, what we know from our partners at TikTok is that there really is a big desire for educational content on these platforms, especially TikTok. TikTok is a huge educational platform. Personally, I'll say I've learned a lot on TikTok that. That, you know, I don't think I would have been able to elsewhere. It's a huge information source, and so I would really encourage organizations to think of it that way, that this is your tool to inform your audiences.
- [17:44]
Julia Campbell
It's a search engine as Search engine.
- [17:47]
Bumika Regmi
It absolutely is a search engine. And so if your work is around climate change, use these platforms. And if your work is around climate change and you're working with young people, which. Which I hope organizations are, then you already have this, you know, plethora of content that. That already exists that you can be inspired by. Young people really care about climate. And so there's already a pool there. But let's say, okay, maybe climate's not a good example. Maybe you're working in health care and, you know, you want to really establish yourself on social. The healthcare system is so complex, people don't know a ton. So getting somebody to be maybe the face of your platform and kind of being this informative resource that breaks down these really complex healthcare systems, how does your insurance actually work? Get somebody to really explain that in a way that people can digest and understand. Understand that that in itself is what TikTok is great for, is being this informative space. So what we've heard from our partners at TikTok is even for us to make a lot more educational content, kind of breaking down concepts that people might not already quite understand. I think the challenge there is, you know, really knowing how to do that kind of storytelling. Well, like, how do you break down information in a way that's engaging, that people want to stick around and watch is key, but I think that that could be a great resource. But other than that, other than educational content, I also think, like, for us, what's always worked really well is instead of us kind of speaking to our audience as an organization or as an entity, especially on platforms like TikTok, we kind of take ourselves out of the equation and we let you know, for us, young people speak, our girls speak on the issue of education, speak on all the intersectionalities of education, whether that's related to menstruation, whether that's related to even things like, one of my motivations to be in school is are my friends. Even for Afghan girls, we've heard so much that the things that they miss the most about school is just having camaraderie with other girls in that girlhood and so letting girls kind of speak on that. So whatever your issue is, sometimes it's really helpful to kind of be really organization forward and be like this informational entity in the way that, let's say, like National Geographic does. Right? But sometimes it might make more sense for your brand to kind of step back and like, let people be the ones that are. That are speaking to your audiences. And if you have a community that is kind of like who you are working towards. For us, it's girls. For you it might be somebody else. Maybe they're the face of your platform and they're kind of giving your audiences an insight into their lives. So I think it can work both ways and it's just about figuring out what it is that you're trying to achieve on these platforms and who your audience is and then working backwards on a strategy that might make most sense for you. And I will also say, like AB testing is something that we do as well. Kind of trying to figure out, like what is landing, what isn't landing. Doing variations of similar content is helpful in terms of like research and trying to figure out what is resonating with your audience, what's working, what's not. So I would encourage that as well.
- [21:02]
Julia Campbell
That's so important. I want to pull out something that you said where you encourage nonprofits, where appropriate, to sort of take themselves out of the equation. That is so important for people to understand. Especially when you're talking about a cause, you want to get people excited about the cause. And once they get excited about the cause, then you can be seen as that go to resource in that field, in that industry. But if you just put yourself on TikTok and start talking about your specific non profit, it's going to be a lot harder to get people excited about an organization than it is about a cause first. So like lead with the cause, lead with the North Star, the vision first. I love that. Mahina, I have a question around roi, like return on investment. This is another huge question I get all the time. How do you measure sort of your, your roi, your. Your metrics of success on digital?
- [21:55]
Mahina Martinson
That is definitely a good question. I think our metrics of success may not necessarily be all the time. Like who has like especially on TikTok. I think views are something that people think about a lot of, like how many views this video got. But for us, especially when we do informative content, like Vumika said, like sometimes saves and reshares are a lot more important. Like if we're doing an informative video, seeing that people are sharing it, seeing that people are saving it, forwarding it to other people is actually a better metric than just how many people viewed the video. And I think also success for us, especially when we work with young women or we work with our grantees is also kind of how they feel best represented. Like it's not necessarily what we got out of the content as an organization, but also kind of what that Process was like, does the grantee that we work with, the young woman feel like her story was represented in a way that was really authentic and kind of that process is also really important to us. So not only thinking about engagement in terms of engagement in itself, but also kind of that process and improving on it is what I would say.
- [22:58]
Bumika Regmi
Yeah, that has longer term implications, I think. Like yeah, you have one video that could do really well and then you could have 10 other videos that really don't get any views at all. So you know, kind of thinking of it like is that success? But if, if that one video got views, but it was also like it really spoke to people or people really engaged in the comments and had a lot to say and interacted with it. You might of that more of as success than just like few things that went viral. Right. And I say that it has longer term implications because if you're working especially for us, if we're working with young women and they feel like their voice is represented in a really authentic way, in a way that dignifies them on our platforms, that's likely to come across to other young women as well. That's likely to get other young women to engage with our content and want to create with us. So we do a lot of GC style content that in terms of success, when we can really have authenticity in our content and that leads to other young women wanting to create content with us or wanting to tell their stories on our platforms or pitching to assembly. That is success for us in many ways.
- [24:09]
Julia Campbell
Yes. And I want to talk about the assembly. So talk about this platform, sort of how it came about and how Malala Fund is using it.
- [24:18]
Bumika Regmi
Yeah.
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Mahina Martinson
So assembly really started, as you may know, kind of in Malala's story. She initially started her activism blogging for the BBC and kind of using that was her platform as a young woman. And so assembly kind of takes from that and really is a space for young women around the world to share their stories on any issue they care about, whether that is education, whether that is kind of gender based violence or shared their story about their own personal activism. So really it is kind of this platform for young women and we've kind of like focused that and it's really branched into this like really great community of young women that we've gone on to create videos with different social content. And just they're honestly the most engaged people on a lot of our platforms are the people that we see in the comments see sharing different things too. So that's kind of the Origins of Assembly. I don't know, Bumuka, if you want.
- [25:10]
Julia Campbell
To speak on more and can anyone participate?
- [25:13]
Bumika Regmi
So assembly has a submission form where you can pitch your story. And we have an editorial team that kind of looks through pitches and figures out how to take them forward. But assembly is also a platform for us to talk about the young women that we're impacting through the organization itself. So the young women that work with our grantees that are being supported by our partners and our grantees. So often, you know, we have our grantees kind of, we reach out to our grantees to see if they're young women who would want to write for assembly. And we grow our pipeline that way too. So there it's twofold in that, yes, there's a submission form and young women can kind of submit their stories through it. But we also are working to kind of build the network of assembly by talking to our partners and grantees on the ground who work with young women. And so a lot of times we feature our grantees work through the voice of young women on assembly. And in that way, it's been a really great tool in terms of like impact storytelling as well.
- [26:14]
Julia Campbell
I think it's just fantastic. So I will put the link to that in the show notes. Now, I have a question about trends. So first off, I'll probably throw this to you, Boomica. What do you see as the sort of some upcoming trends or things that are really working right now on social media to reach young people? People?
- [26:35]
Mahina Martinson
Yeah, I think I just in general and also as a young person, like authenticity is something that I don't think is going away anytime soon. Like, I think young people especially can very much tell when content is this kind of scripted, curated thing as opposed to something that is really authentic and are really good at gauging that. So I don't think that's going away anytime soon. And I think in terms of like upcoming trends or things to look out for, kind of what had said, kind of what our partners at TikTok have said. Informative content, like young people want to be informed about different issues. They care about things that impact them and their lives and their futures. So I think nonprofits really can capitalize on that. Like, whatever issue you're tackling, whatever community that you work for, being able to kind of inform young people on how and why they should care about that will be really important and finding engaging and creative ways to do that. And I honestly look to young women creators especially for our content, but I think just kind of being active on these platforms, seeing what other creators, maybe not necessarily other nonprofits, but also just kind of keeping the scope really wide. Like, what are different influencers? How are they kind of leveraging and using their platforms and kind of drawing inspiration from not just people in the sector, but also kind of anyone across the gamut. That's what I would say.
- [27:51]
Bumika Regmi
Yeah.
- [27:52]
Julia Campbell
Amazing.
- [27:52]
Bumika Regmi
I can add to that. I think it is difficult a lot of times for nonprofits to be resourced in a way that they can do content creation. Where Malala Fund is really naturally, just because we work with young women, having young women also be kind of like storytellers, that is a resource that we have. And of course not everybody's going to have that resource. And it's not going to make sense either for young women to be kind of like the, the faces of your platforms. But I think what, what I'm seeing, and I have read a little bit about a shift in trend also is that, you know, for a long time we've been hearing like videos, videos. Videos are what the all platforms are videos first, right? Instagram, TikTok, even on Facebook. Like it's just videos everywhere. And that's kind of like the thing, short form videos. But those can be like, there are creative ways and doing videos. But it can be very, very much of a time suck and very much something that you need to be well resourced to do. You're going to need a video editor on your team. Maybe you don't have that. But I think a pleasant trend now that I'm reading about and I don't know how true it is, but hopefully it is, is that there is like now more this, like going back towards static a little bit in that like, you know, videos are a lot of times it's a lot of noise quite literally and also just like theoretically, meaning you're scrolling through platforms and it's just like audio after audio and having to watch everything in detail, right. And spending time with that piece of content. And so what I'm seeing now is that people are kind of like gravitating towards like if you're scrolling on your feed, you're gravitating towards something that's static because you can have a quick look at it. It's like a time to take a break from just like watching videos and maybe it's a carousel and the action you're taking is just scrolling and reading a quick caption. So I've been seeing this like some narrative by social experts on how static might be kind of this like Safe space away from videos for audiences, for lack of better words, but for audiences right now. So maybe that's going to come up more. And right now as that's becoming a trend and it isn't quite yet, like equipping your organization to think about. Okay, like if we're not well resourced to do a ton of videos, what are creative ways in which we can make our static content really engaging? Right. So what does that look like? Maybe it looks like really thinking through, like if you're just putting photos out there and that's not working for you, should you resource yourself or have staff on your team who's a really great graphic designer and can kind of like tell a story through static images and graphics? Would that be valuable for you? And I think that it would. I think, you know, that's outside of TikTok. Like a lot of news organizations use static and sort of like carousel format to tell stories. And I think that that can work for nonprofits as well. Something that we have done before and do frequently is graphic novels to share a story. And of course again you need resource in that you need to be able to have a vendor who's, who can do that for you. That costs money. So those things come into play. But if you have, you know, I think just being create. My point is that you can be creative about what kind of resource do you have and what might be the best way to utilize it for your team and for your organization. And for some it might be really resourcing your team to be able to create video content. But if that's not possible, maybe it's thinking about how to do static content really creatively. Maybe it's about thinking about having utilizing your resources to have vendors come on board to do different kind of content for you. So I think it's really like it's not just video. There is a lot out there. It's just about like exploring what might be effective for you.
- [31:44]
Julia Campbell
I think that's such great advice because there's this immediate wall that goes up for some organizations, if they're small, say that we can't do short form video. We don't have time to learn it, we don't have time to source it, we don't have time to do it. But I think I love carousels on Instagram. I agree with you. If I'm scrolling on Instagram and everything is a video, it gets to be like a lot of noise. If everything has music in it, if everything is someone talking, if everything's trying to grab Your attention in that first second, like YouTube, you know, it's, it does get exhausting sometimes. So I wonder. You're right. I think that there might be a trend going back to that and kind of a follow up question and maybe, you know, you can answer this Mahina as well. How do you stay on top of trends? And that is another question I get all the time. Do you follow other nonprofits? Do you follow creators? How do you stay on top of what's going on in the social media space?
- [32:38]
Mahina Martinson
Yeah, I would say for me, unfortunately I'm just kind of chronically online and.
- [32:42]
Julia Campbell
If, yeah, I would think for like a digital coordinator. Yes.
- [32:45]
Mahina Martinson
I feel like even too like in my, when I'm on like my personal channels after work too, like I'll see something and I'll be like, oh, this is like really exciting and I'll save this for work too. So I feel like it's kind of just being in this digital space unfortunately at a, at a long time. But I think for me it's like really kind of following trends not only and finding inspiration not only within kind of the sector, within other nonprofits, but also different creators and not even just creators like in the US if you're a US based nonprofit, but also in Asia, also in different countries and kind of seeing what is trending, what are like creative ways that people are doing graphics, doing videos and drawing inspiration from that. I think it's kind of limiting to just stick to sector. And I think there's so much inspiration out there from so many different creators across continents. So that's kind of what I would say is just staying online, following people that are really exciting and creating content that you really resonate with. And also for me too, like we're working specifically with Malafun. Like we work with girls around the world, whether that is in Nigeria or Pakistan. And so for me it's also seeing like what content they're engaging with, like what creators do they follow, what kind of trends are different off gun creators doing or Nigerian creators doing and kind of drawing inspiration when we're like working on videos with them. So that's what I would say is like especially for us, keeping a global lens, but also kind of drawing inspiration from different places that you may not have thought of.
- [34:12]
Bumika Regmi
Oh, I love this Slack channel. What is it called? Is it called TikTok please or Slack Channel where we just share random. The safe space to just share anything and it doesn't need to always relate to work. But the reason that we do that is because we might see something. It doesn't have to be TikTok, but like, even, like the ways that people are using graphics or creating graphics to tell stories or whatever, it is, anything cool that we see or think that, like, that's something that grabbed our eyes personally, we just put it on that Slack channel so that we can come back to it and say, like, you know, this particular story we're doing on assembly, or this particular story that we're trying to tell. Remember that graphic format that we saw that could work really well for this? So we do that kind of like back and forth a lot and kind of like archive and save different inspirations that we're seeing. That's kind of been helpful, I would say. Do you agree, Mahina? We always go back to those at some point or another.
- [35:07]
Mahina Martinson
Yeah, we do. And it's like anything from like a graphic on Emily in Paris to like a video that a creator has done. Like, it can be anything.
- [35:14]
Julia Campbell
Yeah, it's inspiration. It's like an inspiration board.
- [35:18]
Bumika Regmi
Exactly. It's like an inspiration board in a way. And so you should be doing that. Definitely don't stick to one sector or one few people that you're getting inspiration from. You really should have a wider horizon of what you're looking at.
- [35:30]
Julia Campbell
So my last question revolves around sort of mental health and wellness. If you're. You're in this digital space constantly, you are dealing with a very heavy, important topic, but clearly can be controversial, I'm sure can be polarizing, which I would be shocked if, you know, I. I don't think that it's polarizing, but anything is polarizing. Saying you like apples on TikTok is polarizing. So how do you combat negativity? And then how do you also just preserve your sanity a little bit after constantly, I'm sure having to read the comments, go into the comments, deal with the DMs. Just that that constant being on and getting feedback, especially being such an international organization.
- [36:18]
Mahina Martinson
Yeah. I think for us, I'll speak first on kind of like dealing with negative comments. I think for us, fortunately, we've developed a pretty wholesome community, especially of girls, I'm thinking on TikTok and on Instagram, especially assembly Instagram. So the community is usually pretty supportive, especially when we're doing content about young women. But of course, when you're doing content in any sort of feminist space, there also is negative comments. But I think fortunately we've also been able to kind of spin those too. Like, I know in the past on TikTok we've created videos kind of alluding to negative comments we'll get or kind of clapping back on, like, more misogynistic comments or things as well. So kind of finding a way to kind of use them in a creative way, too. But I think especially on the topic of mental health. Yeah, I think a lot of us, especially people that do social, are on online all the time. Not only on your 9 to 5, but also kind of using social in your own personal time. And like I was saying, like, I feel like when I go on social, I've never clocked out. Like, I'm always like, oh, this is, like, really cool content that I could use, or this is a creator that I could draw inspiration from. But I think it's a lot about kind of setting boundaries with yourself. For me, it's kind of staying off social when I can, or, like, finding different hobbies or ways to be offline because it can be really overwhelming and it can feel difficult, I think, to clock out when social is your job. But, yeah, for me, that's been watching TV shows, reading a book, taking my dog on a walk, and finding different ways instead of, like, being online all the time. But, yeah, I don't know, Bumaka, if you have anything or tips.
- [37:45]
Bumika Regmi
No, that's.
- [37:46]
Julia Campbell
That's great.
- [37:47]
Bumika Regmi
It's all really good feedback. I think also another thing sort of on a broader level is like, as organizations, it's also. It's easy to panic, right? Like, if you think you've done something wrong or it doesn't have to be wrong, but maybe you put something out and it didn't quite resonate with people or they had something to say, like, oh, my gosh, like, why would Mulan talk about this? Or why, you know, whatever. Whatever it is, it's easy to panic and think, oh, gosh, like, this is it. You know, we screwed up or something. But it's never like that. Just like the news cycle, social media and even more so it's easy for people to kind of just like, jump on something and make a comment. But the truth is that, like, a couple of hours later, they've probably even forgotten the things that they've commented on. It sticks with you, but it's not even really sticking with your audience. Is what I'm trying to say that, like, it can seem like, you know, something didn't do well or it got some negative feedback and therefore, like, it's harmed your reputation as an organization or it's harmed your ability to.
- [38:45]
Julia Campbell
Permanent damage. Yeah.
- [38:47]
Bumika Regmi
Yeah. I think it's easy to feel like that. Especially like, if you're on, you know, especially if you're a social media manager and you're looking at that stuff or maybe your leadership and you're like, oh, gosh, like, I saw that we're getting some negative feedback on something. I guess know that, like, it's okay. Like, you just learn from, you're learning from your audience in that way. Like, you're kind of understanding what's sticking with your audience, what's not. And then you're taking, you can take those as data points and think about, like, how to do things differently the next time. But people also move on and, you know, and that, that's okay, I think, you know, of course you should hold yourselves accountable always. But also not, not taking things too seriously when, like one video gets negative feedback or whatever it is. If you're seeing an uptrend of just people being upset with what you're doing, then maybe it's time to reevaluate your strategy or like reevaluate how you're coming across to your audiences. But I wouldn't let like one or two videos having some sort of like, negative feedback kind of deter you from, from continuing to do creative things.
- [39:51]
Julia Campbell
Oh, I love that. Well, we're coming to the end of the conversation. This has been phenomenal, wonderful. And just I'm so excited for my audience to hear it. So how can people find out more about Malala Fund connect with you? I'll put all the links in the show notes, but how can, how can people connect?
- [40:10]
Bumika Regmi
There's Malala.org our website. People can go there to kind of check out the work that we do. So I think that's, that's a good place to start. But Mahin and I are both on LinkedIn. If people are interested in touching base, connecting in any way, they can find us there as well. I don't know, Mahina, is there somewhere else you want to take people?
- [40:32]
Mahina Martinson
Yeah, well, I wouldn't be doing my job as a social person without plugging Social Malalafund and socialafund. But yeah, that's a great space where you can also so kind of see what we're up to, what kind of work we're doing as well.
- [40:44]
Julia Campbell
So. Yeah. And get inspiration. Thank you both so much. Just not only for being on the podcast, but for the amazing work that you do and just for just being so, you know, excited and enthusiastic about girls education and promoting it around the world. Really an important topic. Thank you both for being here.
- [41:03]
Bumika Regmi
Thank you for having us. It was really, really nice chatting with you. Finally we got I know.
- [41:09]
Julia Campbell
All right, thank you both. Foreign thank you for tuning into my show and for listening all the way to the end. If you really enjoyed today's conversation, make sure to subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast app and you'll get new episodes downloaded as soon as they come out. I would love if you left me a rating or review because this tells other people that my podcast is worth listening to and then me and my guests can reach even more earbuds and create even more impact. So that's pretty much it. I'll be back soon with a brand new episode, but until then you can find me on Instagram. Juliacampbell77 Keep changing the world, you non profit unicorn SA.