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We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits
636. Making a Movement: Empowering Action - Jon and Becky
00:29:32
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- [00:03]
Becky
Our missions are made to move, to create change in the power of community. But change doesn't happen when we sit still.
- [00:10]
John
Hey, I'm John.
- [00:11]
Becky
And I'm Becky.
- [00:12]
John
Welcome to Making A Movement, a five part limited series from We Are For Good. This series is all about unlocking movement in your mission. We're weaving together the stories and lessons that have stuck with us from the movement builders, dreamers and doers who we've gotten to meet along the way.
- [00:27]
Becky
It's time to take that initial spark. Activity activated. And watch your movement take flight. We're so glad you're here. Let's get started.
- [00:35]
John
Hey, friends. Welcome back. You have reached the final episode of our Making A Movement series. You've built belief. You've shaped a message that's spreading. Now, how do you get people to really activate?
- [00:47]
Becky
I mean, enter Empower Action. It's the E and R move framework. Empower Action is where all of your strategy is. Meeting the real world and the best, best movements make that action clear, simple and joyful.
- [01:05]
John
I hope, I was hoping you're going.
- [01:06]
Becky
To say joyful, people want to repeat it. And when it is clear and simple and joyful, people keep coming back. And that is the essence of empowering that activation.
- [01:16]
John
Yes. I mean we, if we look back at episode two, we talked about making action easy and accessible. That looked a lot like creating toolkits and language and next steps. And we even highlighted how Movember has done this to support a global community that activates with these toolkits that are not fancy, they're like on a box.com link, but it allows people to mobilize with their community in a very peer to peer natural sort of way.
- [01:41]
Becky
Yeah. And I think another key component would be like, how do you equip your community to lead without your permission? We talked about this a little bit, I think in the second episode where we were talking about, it's not necessarily about here are the tools and here's exactly how to do it. It's like, here's the tools and make it yours. Like, make it work for you and for your community and giving community that agency and like just letting them go. This is hard for us. This is hard for Type A Becky to let go of control.
- [02:14]
John
Graphic designer John that wants to control the optics.
- [02:17]
Becky
Very good exercise for us. But really when you equip your community to lead without your permission, beautiful things happen. I just look at Impact Up, John. Like, Impact up is a prime example of just giving the power to the people and seeing what would happen.
- [02:34]
John
Yeah. Of like casting a vision of what would it look like for us to start a conversation globally and then bring it into communities by night. And I'll tell you what our expectation was is that there would definitely be a few people that raised a hand that wanted to do it. But what we couldn't be prepared for is that hundreds of people have surrounded this thing, thousands of people have attended and I think We've passed over 120 cities now have hosted an Impact up local meetup where people are just wanting to hold space for connection, for belonging, for talking about the hard stuff and just finding new friends for the journey too. And if we would have put a really prescriptive way that it had to be done out there, it wouldn't have spread. I can just tell you that. But casting a high level vision to say you bring your own light, you bring your own gifts, you bring your own wisdom to create this space is, and that's I think magnetic because everyone has ownership in that. It's not a top down, it's a bottom up approach.
- [03:30]
Becky
Yeah. And Impact up was not perfect. Like you guys didn't see all the stuff happening in the background that didn't work. And that is also a part of the movement is piloting and figuring out what is going to work. So I just think Impact up was such a beautiful example of and I want to pass that to you who is listening, because you are part of I our movement. You are part of this movement of change makers. And what starts here ripples. It's that simple. Come in, be generative. So equip that community to lead and just let them go.
- [04:04]
John
And I gotta bring up my favorite non buzzword which is voluntold. Right. Not to be a volunteer, but I think when you create these spaces that are not of obligation, but they're places that cultivate joy and value aligned engagement, that's the stuff that sticks and that people want to keep coming back to. Nobody wants another obligation to attend, but they want to be part of something that is meaningful and is joyful and uplifting.
- [04:29]
Becky
And every time you hear the word volun told, like my eyebrow quirks and I'm like, everybody knows what that means and how that feels. So I love that we're shifting out of that transaction. So let's get into some examples. We want to explore some like true community led campaigns who have really embraced this empowering action. And we have such a good one right up at the front.
- [04:53]
John
Yeah. I want to tell you all about Hannah Lowe. Remember that episode, Becky? So good.
- [04:58]
Becky
I love Hannah Lowe mom.
- [05:00]
John
Yeah, she's amazing. And her son Austin. Her story really proves that your community will carry your message when you make it clear and actionable.
- [05:08]
Becky
Yeah, and I just think about that story. Her son was born he with just a rare genetic disease. He needed life changing gene therapy. It's called LC and it's part of the muscular discrit fee family. And they could not find someone who was doing this research so they decided to raise the money on their own. And I'm telling you, $2 million they had to raise and they had to raise it fast. So they called on friends and family and local businesses and their community and they were super clear about two things. One, what they needed $2 million. How people can help by giving and sharing the message forward. That simple. Here it is.
- [05:56]
Hannah Lowe
In speaking with people, kind of the grand scope of that will be about $2 million, give or take. So we kind of set with this 2 million goal in our mind and then we thought, okay, how are we going to raise $2 million? Like we're not going to basically do it off of a bake sale. So what, what can we do? Yeah, we reached out pretty much to everybody we know, everybody we've ever met. We really broke it down into, okay, who are the people we grew up with? Who are the people we went to college with? You know, my husband went to grad school. Who are those people who, who have we worked with in all our various jobs and our families? And we either wrote emails or called so many people personally to say, this is what we want to do, will you help us? And as kind of the snowball effect got rolling and we spoke to more and more people, then it was people we didn't even know showed up for us. And that was amazing and just so heartwarming that, you know, if my sister's really on board and she reaches out to 10 of her friends, that maybe two of them are young moms as well. And it really resonates with them and they want to do something about it. You just never really know what part of the story might resonate with somebody. I've had people who are really into the science stuff and like, oh, this is great that we're like pushing on science. And then there's the people who are like, I can't imagine how you live your life day to day. We've met people who have had kids born on the same day as Austin reach out. Like, I don't know them, but they reach out and they're like, my child was born the Same day as Austin and the Sliding Doors, right? Like, your life could go one way or could go the other way. And, like, how does it. How does it really compare and pan out?
- [07:45]
Becky
So here's what happened next. Because that message was so, so clear and so easy to repeat, their friends and family picked it up and ran with it. And within four months, they had raised half a million dollars. Like, take a listen as the story continues to unfold.
- [08:04]
Hannah Lowe
So everything we heard from all the other rare disease families was, you have to have a video. You have to have a moving video. And we didn't really have the time or the resources to do that. So between like, an iPhone, a ring light, and my husband writing the script, we just knocked it out in a few takes. And if you watch the video, I think Austin either, like, blows a kiss at the end or something like that. We just tried it, and he just did it. And my sister added the captions and the music, and it was a family affair. So we. That was kind of our anchor piece of material, I guess, if you will. And then what we did was after having contacted so many people to tell them what we were doing, we invited everybody to a Zoom kickoff. And not only did we invite everybody we had spoken to, we just, like, mass emailed everybody we knew. We put it out on social media, like, come join us. See what we're doing. Come on this Zoom. And I think we had about 130 people on a Zoom on a Friday night. And we told the story and we said, this is what happened, and this is what we're doing, and this is how you can help. And we said, our plan is to raise $2 million for this research, and we cannot do it alone, and we cannot just ask you all here to donate. We also need you to ask everybody, you know, to donate as well. And we had pre chatted with people about creating teams and saying, like, this is going to be our friends from work team or our friends from home team or whatever. And we kind of had all that admin stuff, like, set up already so that on the Zoom, we could say, here's the link to join and find your friend group and join that team. And if you know something, that was very awkward for me, but I just pushed through, it was trying to say, like, on that Zoom, like, who can commit to doing this? Raise your hand and like, who can anybody commit to raising $10,000? And it was very crickets, really, but. But I do feel like it set the expectation that we were asking people to do a lot, and some People really were like, I don't think I could raise $1,000. But then they did, and they were so, like, so proud of themselves, and I was so happy for them. And then some people got really competitive and they were like, I'm gonna raise $10,000. Or like, we as a team are gonna raise $100,000 or whatever. It just sort of organically grew. We said, we're gonna do this for four weeks. We're gonna have a check in zoom every week. We're gonna have, you know, a theme for the week or an action item for the week. We're gonna send out email templates so you can email everybody easily. We're gonna send out social media posts so you can do all that. And it was sort of organized in that fashion. But, yeah, I think by the end of that four weeks, we had raised about half a million dollars, I believe.
- [11:04]
John
I mean, I love when we get schooled by non fundraisers about fundraising. Right.
- [11:09]
Becky
It is an extraordinary story.
- [11:10]
John
I mean, I just. You can't listen to this and not think that, man. People do want to help, but everyone wants to know what's the right next step. People want to know what's. What do I say? What do I do next? How can I be of service? And so if we don't give them the words that specific, the message is going to stop. And I mean, we've gotten to sit adjacent to some of the biggest generosity movements on the planet, looking at you Giving Tuesday. Friends and partners in this work. We had the chance to sit down with Celeste Flores and Amanda Liao, and you know, we were talking to them about how does something like this take root? How does a global generosity movement really ebb and flow? And I want to really double click here about what happens when an invitation to act comes, goes global.
- [11:57]
Becky
Yeah, that's just an extraordinary story. What started is this simple idea which is asking a question. What if right after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we created a day where everybody gives back instead? Like just again, bigger question. But it was never just about one nonprofit. I mean, Amanda gives is that example. Amanda is whisper Local. She is just one of these small organizations that's pouring into Giving Tuesday. But from day one, Giving Tuesday was all about being community led. So take a listen to this clip.
- [12:35]
Asha Curran
It's really an interesting backstory, and it's within our lifetime. Right. Eleven years ago, Asha Curran and Henry Timms, who were at the 92nd Y in New York City, decided that there should be a day around giving. You know, it started as a hashtag and it was, let's do this thing called Giving Tuesday. We have Black Friday, Cyber Monday. Let's just reclaim Tuesday. People need to start giving back. After a couple of days of consumerism, this is what this season is about. And calling people that they knew, organizations they knew, like let's try and create this day. It certainly looks very different 11 years later than the creators imagined, obviously. And now it is fast forward all this awesome stuff happened and 11 years later, it's a year round movement. There's actually an organization. We are an individual organization. But more Importantly, we have 90 countries celebrating giving Tuesday in a way that is meaningful to those local cultures and generosity habits instilling new habits around philanthropy. And we have a data commons that is one of, if not the only one that has a level of relationships with platforms and researchers and leaders in the sector to really understand where the sector is, where things are headed and how do we help use all this information that we possibly have to help the sector. We have leaders in those 90 countries leading an effort that is taking this unbranded movement and making it work for them. And you know, we, and it was intended that way that it was not going to be like there's this list of rules of how you do Giving Tuesday.
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Becky
No, thank you for that by the way.
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Asha Curran
No way. Yes, exactly. There's like no rules. You do, you take it. And people have done so many creative things with the logo and created campaigns that are meaningful and resilient and relevant for those organizations and those in those communities. And it's all about the leader community. So we don't have a big staff because it's the distributed leaders in areas that know what's best for them. Celeste does not know how a campaign should be created in East Africa, but my colleague in East Africa with other leaders in East Africa can. So it's grown into this global movement, but it really has then defined itself through values that we exhibit every day and so do our leaders around co creation and co ownership.
- [15:21]
John
Hey friends, here's a bit of real talk. This movement doesn't happen without community. And that includes our incredible ecosystem partners.
- [15:28]
Becky
Big gratitude to give butter, RKD group, donor doc feather whiteboard and so on. These aren't just sponsors, they're mission driven allies showing up to fuel change alongside us.
- [15:40]
John
Their support helps bring you the free tools, education keynotes and summits because they believe like we do, that investing in people is what powers real impact.
- [15:49]
Becky
So if you're searching for a new CRM tech tool, maybe a brand partner direct Mail partner or even an impact strategist. We'd love for you to start with our trust trusted Rex. We vetted them so you don't have to.
- [16:01]
John
You want to learn more, head over to weareforgood.com Rex that's weareforgood.com recs for VIP access to orgs and amazing humans doing really great work. Just so all about this. I mean so good. Love where she's joking that there's no rules, just an open invitation for people to take action in their own way. I mean it's the bedrock of how we talk about building with community, not for community. Allowing community to do the building itself is kind of the way. So I want to get real for a second as we start to think about how do we sustain action. We've talked about sparking it. It is one thing to spark a one time action, but we've got big, big goals, you know, that far, you know, surpass just one activation. We have to make it emotional. We have to make it a bigger hook where people might give, they might sign something they might share. That's that initial spark. But the question is then what? Like how do we keep people really engaged into something sustainable?
- [17:07]
Becky
And that is when the real work begins. Like the movement work is what happens after that first wave. So I want we got to talk about that, John, because I do think that the stoking, the drumbeat is such an important part of this work. So I think we, we got to talk quickly. Building and sustaining momentum.
- [17:31]
John
Yeah, there's like three things that really come to mind and I'll try to thread a little bit of like how this has shown up for us and starting we are for good and the movement that surrounded it because it's very present for us as well. Um, none of these are overly complex, but they're also not easy. So I want to just preface this that while they're simple concepts, they're not easy to do. Okay. The first one is reminding people why they acted in the first place. And newsflash, if you're the founder or a founding part of an organization, you got to stay in touch with your why of why you jumped, why you took the first step in the first place. Something that we come back to a lot. But it is a grounding, it's an emotional connection point to anyone that's come into your mission. There was a reason why Becky made that first gift to the Hope booth. If you listened to last episode, there was a something that happened. So reminding her of about that first introduction is Always going to be resonant. Number two, you show people what their action did and thank them. And this is really connected to one of our core beliefs, that it's not about giving, it's about belief. This idea that we can tangibly show impact, it shifts something within you. And this is very true from our fundraising careers that it's always hard in year one when you're kind of getting people to take a flyer on you. But you better make an imperative that once you've raised that money, that it actually does what you said it's going to do, because once it did, you've got stories, you've got social proof, you have literal proof of that.
- [19:02]
Becky
You got trust.
- [19:03]
John
You got trust building in real time. So when you show someone what their action did, that's a way that you're going to sustain and grow movement, which is why we always advocate for steward relentlessly. Show the thing, take the picture, even if it's grainy, take the crappy picture and send it because people want to see that there's been actual movement happening.
- [19:22]
Becky
I'm really proud of you.
- [19:23]
John
Use that as an opportunity to say thank you. I know it's really hard for me.
- [19:25]
Becky
To say grainy pictures are okay because nothing is not going to stoke exactly. Is going to keep that movement stagnant.
- [19:35]
John
So, okay. We're reminding people about their why, we're showing them what their action did. And step three is giving them a clear next step. And that step should feel as clear as the first. I know our friend Floyd Jones has come on the podcast. We'll probably say it again before we wrap again. Give your community the gift of activation. People want to know, what's that? Right. Next step. And if you can make that clear and you do these things on repeat, things are going to grow and spread and ripple. I promise. It's not overly hard, but it is kind of takes some intention to dial these pieces in.
- [20:11]
Becky
Yeah, I definitely think it's just a different way to do the work. And it's one thing to listen to the theory, but it's entirely different to say who's actually doing this and it's working within their organization. So we're going to lift this conversation with Amanda Liao. We mentioned her at the top with Giving Tuesday. She's the communications and marketing director of Spur Local in Washington, D.C. and here she's talking about the secret sauce for their campaigns, which is going deep instead of going broad. So take a listen.
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Amanda Liao
We're a small nonprofit ourselves. Our network is specifically focused on nonprofits that have budgets between 100,000 to $4 million. A lot of the organizations we work with don't have dedicated development staff, don't have dedicated communication staff. And one of the things we consistently see is how do you build the capacity to do something like Giving Tuesday and to do it successfully and with intention? And I would say for us, where we see the secret sauce is, is essentially how can you go deep instead of necessarily broad, really choosing, like, one thing that you really want to be focusing on this year, whether that's partnerships, whether that's expressing gratitude to the folks who are currently in your network. I think the way in which you personalize your message for people is really getting deep into, well, who are the people that you feel are core to your audience? What is it about them that you're already connecting with? And then how can you build on that? So, for instance, one of the frameworks that I've been trying to use is Priya Parker's the Art of Gathering, which I know it's about gathering, but I think it's interesting to kind of adapt and apply that to a communication strategy. So if you could think of your campaign as a party, for instance, right. It's really starting with the intention of what you want to curate. So who's going to be in the room? What would really make them excited to show up, you know, what would make them want to stay, and then what would make them want to attend your next party or your next gathering? So if it's even something like, yes, you're expressing gratitude to, say, your most loyal supporters, people who have been coming to you long term, people who have been giving recurring gifts, things like that? Could you send just really personalized emails? And that doesn't cost anything. Could you send things that are not necessarily costing a lot of money, like postcards that are customized to them, letters that you write? I think there are definitely ways, once you start getting into this question of how deep can I go in engaging this audience once I know them, to say there are ways that I can do this without necessarily having to spend a lot on my marketing budget.
- [22:50]
John
I mean, such wisdom here and got a lift and shop. Priya Parker's Art of Gathering book. I feel like I can host you. Every time that I hear this, literally in our host thread on LinkedIn just yesterday, it came up like, it is such a grounding resource for those of you that are wanting to gather and allow people to feel seen, find belonging, and ultimately take that next step with you. It starts with creating that kind of a space. So I love the analogy to a party to this movement, and the joy is in there, too. So as we think about that framework, we really can think this is leading to sustainability and building that ongoing momentum. It's super exciting.
- [23:29]
Becky
I'm just here for all of it. I'm pretty sure that book has been quoted more on this podcast than any other book, so please check it out. But as we're kind of wrapping with this episode, we want to close out with one final clip back from Celeste again. And she shared this beautiful one good thing, which is just a reminder for all of us who care about building movements of generosity that last. Here it is.
- [23:56]
Asha Curran
We can get really bogged down with processes and what we should be doing and what is expected of us. And when we're talking about organizations and talking about what we talked about today, it's really easy to get very tunnel vision on what you have to accomplish in a day. But if you look outside of all of that, remember that you are building bridges and you are providing connection and community, and that is your legacy. But remembering that because it can get. You can get down, you know, a road and you can have a particularly tough role year, whatever it is, and. And you get disheartened, and it's hard, but just pull yourself out of it sometimes and. And really look at what you have done. But I do think philanthropy and generosity and giving is what will change our civic society, what will bridge this division that we have that will. You are providing a connection or connections for people and building that sense of belonging. And so just remember that's what you're doing. It is not. I'm Celeste Flores. I'm a fundraising director, and I raise a million dollars for kids in the foster care system. That is so important, but you're doing something bigger than that. And just remember that Celeste hyping us.
- [25:27]
John
Up here at the end, right? She just, she understands at such a deep level what it looks like to really mobilize a movement. And as we're kind of rounding out this episode and this series, I want to leave you with a one good thing. And this is going to be a call to action to each of us. I teased it a second ago. But your next move is giving your community the gift of activation. Those words brought to us by our friend Floyd Jones, are literally at the heart of how things spread. But here's what I want to invite you into. It's not just about doing the one prescribed exact thing that's in your head, because that's even limited. It's inviting someone to bring their best, to bring that secret sauce that only they have their unique gift or talent or strengths. That combination is what is going to grow a ripple far beyond what you could imagine right now. It definitely has wowed us in the We Are for Good journey to think about. If we would have just created structured meetups around the world, it would have been very boring and probably not very impactful. But when you think of the faces of people that love their community, that know their community, that are bringing their strengths and creating a place of belonging that's unique for that city, that is how a movement takes root. So that's the opportunity that's in front of us. And it may not be visible yet to your community. So my question is, if it's not visible, is it just simply because you haven't asked yet? So invite your community to be part of your story and let's literally make a movement together.
- [26:58]
Becky
And I mean friends. That's it. That is how movements move. This is the series. I'm going to run through it one more time on this move framework. Number one, start with mobilizing. Number two, organize and optimize. Step three, really crystallize that voice and that vision. And step four, empower that action. When you can stack all of those together, it creates one of John's favorite words, some scaffolding around your mission. But it also creates drum like a drumbeat that just continues to hum and be that real magnet to other people who want to come in and be a part of something so vibrant and life changing.
- [27:49]
John
It all starts with belief, that spark from person to person, from community to community to city to city to country to country. This is how movements take root and they move. And friends, I hope you feel it in our voices. But we're rooting for you and the mission that you're trying to bring into this world. So We Are for Good is a place where you can gather and grow with like minded community. And so we want to make sure you're connected into resources because this work is hard. At the same time you shouldn't go alone. So lean into We Are For Good. Not only do we have a membership community at the very core of how we show up. So you could walk with us on a week to week basis with the most amazing change makers, but also we gather quarterly in cities around the world. Find your people locally, step up and lead in your local community if you want to grow this movement and just take care of yourself, right? This is always going to be a bedrock of this. It's a heavy lift, but we want you to do this work and be surrounded by support and taking care and taking care of number one.
- [28:51]
Becky
Number one, we're giving you permission. Please take care of yourself, because you cannot pour from an empty cup. And rest and recalibration are as essential as taking that first step spark. And that is, it is as much a cycle as we think about the donor life cycle. Like, you are a cycle in this. We need you healthy. And we believe that you can be a spark for your movement, for your organization, for the change you want to see in the world. So believe that it's possible. Come back to these frameworks. Thank you for being here, empowering this movement of the Impact Uprising. You make us believe every single day.
- [29:31]
John
So grateful.