← We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits
We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits
638. Leading Through Organizational Change: Practical Lessons for Nonprofit Leaders - Jesse Sanchez, The Neurodiversity Alliance
00:42:52
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- [00:01]
A
Hey, friends, you know we love powerful tech that tells a story of what's happening within your mission. But when that tech is incredible and free, we have to shout its buttery goodness from the rooftops. GiveButter is the easiest to use, all in one nonprofit fundraising platform that empowers millions of change makers like you to raise more, pay less and give better. Nonprofits use GiveButter to bring together multiple categories of tools including mobile friendly donation forms, fundraising campaigns, events, auctions, email marketing, a built in CRM, and so much more. And thanks to their 100% transparent tip or fee model, GiveButter's core fundraising features are free no matter how many contacts you have. Head to givebutter.com weareforgood to sign up for your free account today and get started in minutes. Hey, I'm John.
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B
And I'm Becky.
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A
And this is the We Are for Good podcast.
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B
Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more, and be more for the causes that improve our world.
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A
We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.
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B
So welcome to the good community. We're non profit professionals, philanthropists, world changers, and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
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A
So let's get started. Becky, what's happening?
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B
We're talking to my people today. I'm so excited. Neurospic, that is people. That's it.
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A
We cannot wait for you to get to spend the next little bit of time with our friend, Jesse Sanchez. Today we are diving into a topic near and dear to our hearts, very close to us as friends here on the podcast. But we want to talk not just about the mission, because it is incredible, but also like what? What makes a mission like this sticky? What makes it a movement? And you know, we're coming out of a Making a Movement series. And I think it's so important to get practical and hear from leaders in the space that are doing the work, that are gathering people. And that is what the Neurodiversity alliance is bringing to us today with Jesse. And so I am so excited to introduce you to him. He is the president today, but his journey started when the organization was called Eye to Eye. Now it's the Neurodiversity Alliance. In 2010, as a UC Berkeley student, Jesse found and led a ch of their flagship mentoring program. So in that he was supporting younger neurodivergent students While navigating his own path with ADHD and learning differences that just sparked this passion that shaped his future. So after he graduated track with me here, he joined Eye to Eye as a program coordinator and spent a decade in the tech sector. He was doing, like, all these amazing things in the tech sector while staying deeply involved as a volunteer. Then he founded the alumni board, mentoring on national conferences, and serving the board of directors. He's like your rabid fan. Like, I know we all have these.
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B
People in our wishes like this. Yes, yes. It comes full circle.
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A
It's so beautiful. And so when in 2024 rolled around, Jesse came on full time to lead the Neurodiversity alliance and became president just this year in 2025. He is a proud father of three, including a son who's on the spectrum. So Jesse's bringing in not only just his personal insight, but this strategic leadership and a belief in the brilliance of what every neurodivergent mind is bringing to the table. So we're excited to talk about the journey from founder to kind of a new leadership model. And just, like, what's it like to be part of a momentum and movement from the outside to the inside and everything in between? Jesse, to have you in the house means the world. Welcome to the podcast.
- [03:38]
C
Well, I'm like, full body chills, John. I just want to, like, bring you with me everywhere and, like, be my hype. Let's go. That. Give me that intro. Oh, I love it. It's so powerful sometimes to, like, hear your own story reflected back to you. Like some of the things you all talked about around, like, Like, Becky, you're like, rabid fan. I love that term now. I'm going to use that moving forward. But yeah, like, not only is that me for, it's just. It's our community. And so it makes the movement building so easy because another thing I heard you all say was gathering people together. It's almost like that's all it takes is, like, finding each other and gathering them together.
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A
Thank you for being here, Jesse. The way you walk into the room, the way you cultivate space is everything. And I think you've set the table for this convo, but we want to get the listeners connected with you and your story.
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C
I shared a little bit, but, like.
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A
Take us back to some formative experiences growing up. How'd you get from LA to New York and everything kind of in between?
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C
Yeah, I. I like to start at the beginning and I like to give a disclaimer to people right off the bat. That one. I'm an over sharer raising my hand.
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A
Becky.
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C
I'm also a crier. I. I realize I wish I was more funny, to be honest. Like, our CEO is such an incredible, like storyteller and he's so funny. And when I get on stage, I just be. People cry. So anyways, I'm working on that. So that's my, that's my disclaimer. But, you know, starting at the beginning, like, I come from humble beginnings. There's probably a better way of saying that. But, you know, my father immigrated to the US from Sonora, Mexico. My mother was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley in la. Neither of my parents had, as far as I know, even a middle school education. And my mother ended up being a runaway from her home by the time she was like 9 years old. Ultimately, they met, of all places, on the backside of the horse race tracks in Southern California. Fun, probably neurospicy related fact. My mom was a professional racehorse jockey. Like that's what she did her entire career. Total adhd, adrenaline junkie. And I love her and she's my hero. She's an incredible person. She's also an incredible grandma. I'm so glad that she's here in New York now. But, you know, she probably connected to her own childhood experience, you know, really struggle with addiction. And when she met my father, my father was frankly, he was really involved in organized crime as a cartel leader. And they got married, they had me, and by the time my mom, I was probably like 18 months old or so. My mom was just deep in this, frankly, like the dark underbelly of our society. And there was a lot of just danger. And she realized that she didn't want to raise her infant in that kind of environment. And it kind of set her on a path of eventually being able to, after a few different attempts, kind of escape that world and raise me as a single mom. And you know, she is incredible. Like I said, she's my hero. And, and yeah, you know, I think that has always given me a certain level of empathy, compassion, also a certain amount of like, striving to find a safe place in the world. And eventually we settled in the San Gabriel Valley of la and kind of fast forwarding to my neurospicy story. My entire elementary middle school experience had always gotten these report cards that said two things. It was Jesse's assignments are late and missing. And two, Jesse like, speaks out of turn and just is disrupting the class. And so finally, in the sixth grade, this is kind of like when I first kind of came to, you know, being identified with being neurodivergent, I remember distinctly sitting at my desk in my bedroom and after looking at my report card, having this report again after another year, my mom saying, hey, I'm just gonna come back and check on you in 20 minutes. Let me know how it goes with your homework. And so I had this white worksheet and I remember my, my attention and my eyes just like drawing over to the corner ceiling of my room and seeing where like the posters were lining up. And then all of a sudden being like, oh wait, I really wanted to do my homework right now. Like, let's just do that. And bringing myself back to my paper. And then shortly after getting lost in my thoughts from earlier in the day at school, and I was probably thinking about like my friends or girls. And next thing I know, all the time had flown by. My mom opens the door, she peeks her head in and she goes, hey, so how's it going? And I looked over at her with a completely unfinished blank worksheet after battling with my own sense of volition and ability in mind for I don't know how long, to be honest, a total timeline. And I looked at her and said, I can't get started. And I burst into tears. And that was when she decided to, like, get me assessed for learning differences. And it turns out I was identified as having, you know, learning and attention issues. But here's the thing. Nobody told me. There was no conversation. It wasn't until many, many years later, after transferring from my community college in LA to my four year university in the Bay Area, that I was like, what was all? What is all this? And as an adult, you know, as folks with ADHD and learning differences, even folks on the spectrum, we often build these routines and the scaffolding that were around us. And as soon as we do have a major life transition, like we move away from home and we go away to college, all that stuff we didn't realize we built around us falls away. And all of the challenges pertaining to learning, attention, energy management, they're all right in front of you, right? And that was my experience when I went to college. And I just wish when I was younger I had a community or a peer or an adult or a mentor to tell me, hey, Jesse, you're wired differently. You have incredible superpowers and gifts. But the way that the typical school environment and world is set up is not default design for folks like you. So you don't need to think that your struggles are really just a matter of your own moral failing or the fact that you're broken or incompetent. Because that's exactly how I felt once I went away to college. And it was the first time I was in like a very kind of like, competitive environment with other young adults, people who are very like, achievement oriented. And picking up on that, I kind of got this sense of, I mean, stacked with all the other imposter syndrome, right from like my life story, I was like, if I belong here, I should be able to do school the normal way, you know, and my first semester, I had access to the disability resource center at my campus. Things that helped me a lot, like someone who was a note taker for me, extended time on my exams. And I just had all this internalized stigma enableism around. Why did I need these things? Do I need these things? If I'm using these disability accommodations, it must be that I'm actually not really up to snuff or worthy of being a quote unquote, you know, UC Berkeley student, whatever that meant. And so my, my second semester of college, I was like, all right, I'm going to distance myself from my disability accommodations. And it became very clear to me how much I needed and benefited from those. Those accommodations. My grades tanked and my sense of self worth tanked, and I had no concept of myself other than that my brain was defective and broken. And I didn't know why, because no one took the time to tell me anywhere along the journey that like, hey, Jesse, you have adhd, and this is what that means. And so in this kind of dark night of the soul, feeling like I was a fraud and I was broken, I receive an email inviting me to start a chapter of the Eye to Eye mentoring program. And I thought to myself, I think this will be really good for me. I need something, you know, backing up to my family's story with addiction. You know, my mom, she's someone who really was able to build a manageable life for US through the 12 step program and alcoholics Anonymous. And as I like to tell people, simple. Grew up going to like temple or church. I grew up going to like AA meetings as a kid. And just the idea that, like, I could create a community of people in a safe, even anonymous space to explore this challenge that we're all sharing resonated with me. And that was one of the first thing reasons why I was like, I'm going to start a chapter now. One of the beautiful things about our program is at no cost to our student leaders, across the country. We fly them to a national convening every summer to train them and equip them to go and launch their own community of, like, rabid fans to, like, create nd healing and nd joy at their local school. And so for me, when I flew to this summit and I met all these students from around the country who knew they had ADHD clearly, or autism, or were dyslexic or were otherwise neurospicy, a couple things happened for me. One, it just normalized the experience, you know, and then two, I just saw so much of my own experience as people were describing their own versions of neuro spicy. And it allowed me to have that aha moment of, oh, wow, like, I need to go back to campus in the fall, connect with my university health system, and, like, get evaluated and see what this means for me. It just set me on this path for the rest of my life of understanding my brain and myself, doing it in community. And the beautiful thing about our program is that we equip our communities to go into local middle schools and mentor younger, neurodivergent students. So that experience was so transformational for me. As an undergrad, I took an offer to work for the national office of Eye to Eye right out of college, moved to New York. I spent a couple years doing that work. I pretty quickly just realized that I needed to. I needed to really, like, do basic things like pay off student loans, help take care of my mom, find a way to economically launch, which is a whole other topic I'm really passionate about, particularly for neurodivergent students, which is a major issue in terms of economic prosperity post college. And so I thought, okay, well, I should probably work in business, whatever that means. Like, I'm in New York City. There's, like, investment banks here. You know, I need to find a way, a path for myself. And I was basically really lucky. I got an offer for a contract position at Google in New York City, working in learning and development. I was doing really cool work coordinating Google's, like, internal MBA program for their marketing managers at the Wharton School of business at UPenn and learning about team dynamics and all these things that were really kind of lighting me up, the topics, even though the role itself was very much not a fit. And that really forced me to just have a ton of career conversations at Google and in New York around, like, where, where am I? Where can I fit into this. This work world? I was like, where is my neurospicy community? Like, I still need everyone. I Still need that support group now in this new environment in the workplace. And so I. That's how I started the alumni board of the organization and then went on to eventually, to the credit of our incredible founders, I joined the board as one of our first direct beneficiary board seats.
- [15:32]
A
Wow.
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C
So at the Neurodiversity alliance, we designate a board seat for someone who is a direct beneficiary of our community and our programming every year. And so that board experience was. It was just a way for me, as someone who'd benefited so much from the org, to like, step up and support its stewardship and its continued growth and support, making sure that it was continuing, continuously going and growing. Yeah. And you know, fast forward. My predecessor, my dear friend Marcus Sutra, who is the former president, decided to move on to the next stage of his career. And I reached out to him just to, you know, give him my gratitude. And he said, jesse, like, you should really kind of consider being my predecessor. Anyways, that's. That's kind of how we got to where we're at now.
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B
I just have to note that I see so much of my story in your story and I just have to believe because I've met so many individuals in the We Are for Good community and in the social impact space who like, whisper. Oh, yeah, that's me too. And I'm like, you don't have to whisper, friend. Like, we are an incredibly different group of differently wired individuals. We think differently, we feel differently, and we need that difference in this world to not only sustain us, but to help us thrive. And I want to. I want to create a space. Real quick, tell me your mother's name.
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C
Joy.
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Her name is literally Joy. She's Indie Joy. She is like, SJ is js.
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C
Yeah, she is.
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I just think, you know, what a heroic move by Joy to allow you to be the beautiful soul that you are. And so I want to get into the Neurodiversity Alliance. I want to talk about how you scale a national network to drive this, like, very poignant and personal, local and individual impact. Because. Because our core value, our final core value of our company is community is everything. And I feel you saying that. So talk to us and give us an overview of this incredible organization, your mission, your programs, and talk to us about the impact you all have had so far.
- [18:11]
A
Hey friends, here's a bit of real talk. This movement doesn't happen without community. And that includes our incredible ecosystem partners.
- [18:19]
B
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.
- [18:31]
A
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.
- [18:40]
B
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 trusted Rex. We vetted them so you don't have to.
- [18:52]
A
You want to learn more, head over to weareforgood.com Rex that's we are for good.com recs for VIP access to orgs and amazing humans doing really great work.
- [19:11]
C
Yeah. So, so happy and I appreciate the the invite. So at the ND alliance, our mission is to improve the educational experience of students who learn differently and really build a movement that ensures that all society values neurodiversity. The way we do that is primarily through our national network of student clubs on high school and college campuses across the country. Mind you, this is a really important moment for us as a community in that we're on basically the other side of our first year of really pivoting the organization. You heard me tell my story about our kind of legacy brand and program, which was our Eye to eye mentoring program, connecting our students at local high schools and colleges to mentoring younger versions of themselves at nearby middle schools. We still have that program, we still have that brand. It's so important. But just from a brand standpoint, people didn't automatically understand who we served and what we did. When you Google searched Eye to Eye mentoring program. Right. And so a couple things. One, we rebranded as the Neurodiversity alliance last fall and it's been an enormous help for us just in terms of scaling because right away it's a very intuitive name. You understand that this is a community for folks who are neurodiverse. And the second thing is we're really centering in our student affinity club program. So there's a lot of kind of like startup friction. It's hard to scale after school mentoring programs. There's a lot of logistics involved in finding, pairing schools, finding a sufficient number of mentors and mentees. It's kind of like a two sided marketplace in a way. And obviously during COVID after school programming was really, really impacted.
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B
Right.
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C
And so all of that drove us to really shift our strategy, our brand and pivot the organization in a huge, huge way last fall. It's been wildly successful. We're in over 630 schools across 46 states in just as a result of this first school year, we've had over 2, 700 students register to either start clubs or just be members of their local chapter club. And I think that you know, on one hand, huge shout out to like our incredible national staff who are stewards of this movement. Most of them like myself, are alumni of the community and have been, have been like they're just the rabid fans for whom this, this community transformed their lives. And when they were given the opportunity to come on the national staff, they're like, yes, sign me up. Like let me help gather people. So huge shout out to right. Like our ops team and our incredible COO CFO who's been with the organization for nine years through this transition to give us the systems we need to scale. But I think the growth for me it's indicative of just a cultural moment that we're in. Yeah, there is increasing awareness around neurodiversity, but that need for community and normalizing and healing in community and to get to joy about something, about your core identity and lived experience and oftentimes is a pain point when you're moving through school and you're moving through the world. It's just there's so much need. Right. And so I think the growth I really want to you know, give, I guess name the moment that we're in, in society. This is kind of an idea that has kind of met its time, I think. I do think we're also just getting started.
- [22:45]
A
I mean you look at the founders legacy of what's happened and you've kind of been tracking along as a volunteer. You're coming in as a new leader in this season of change, in the season of renaming. And I gotta think it's a lot of change. Bring us in behind the curtain a little bit of like what are some of those challenges to navigating that moment, you know, for an organization? Because I think a lot of people are standing on the precipice of change and they want to hear like what is, what does it look like on the inside for you to navigate that as a leader?
- [23:17]
C
I think it takes a lot of trust and care, probably starting with the executive team, but it's gotta involve every member of the community. You have to bring people along in the journey. I think there is a story about our organization and its moment of change. I think if there's one thing that I think stands out, it's. And maybe this is normal in the field. I don't know. Again, I'm kind of, like, new into the field in a way, like, being welcome.
- [23:46]
B
I'm so glad you're here.
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C
I'm glad I'm here. Qualified. But the fact that our leadership is so homegrown makes a really big difference. So, for example, we had our big National Student Leadership Summit two weekends ago at Denver University. We had hundreds of neurospicy students from across the country come together, and we held a focus group session for one of our big funders, the LEGO Foundation. Shout out to the LEGO foundation, coolest.
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A
Partner of all time.
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C
Oh, my God. Total beloved brand for the ND community. But our program officer flew out from Denmark, and she was really interested in spending quality time to hear and learn directly from our students. What do they feel they need to thrive? And how should the LEGO foundation be thinking about investing in supporting neurodivergent students in the US this year? And in that room was not just students, but it was about a dozen alumni. So these are folks who are just like myself, and they really want to be there. And we had this great focus group for LEGO foundation, and then we had a session afterwards, actually, where I was updating our community of funders and alumni and family members and supporters on the movement and the change we're going through and the growth we're experiencing and what our needs are for the coming year. And when I'm presenting kind of like the future plans of the org and I'm bringing them in, and I'm saying, hey, it's us now, right? Like, it's our cohort. It's our generation's turn to step up, to carry the torch forward. You know me, right? I know you. All right. Like, let's get really direct around the web, the wealth and the wisdom that we can collectively muster to help move this organization forward.
- [25:40]
A
Community. And that trust is like bedrock. When everything seems to change, what are those kind of core things we can come back to? Of course it's community. I mean, knowing you and the story, of course it comes back to that.
- [25:51]
B
And I just have to say that if you want to accelerate your process, I mean, we're talking about a rebrand. We're talking about completely overhauling, you know, a name and what it means. But if you want to accelerate that process, go straight to the front lines, exactly what you did, and ask the people who are there how they see your organization, what they want, how they see themselves fitting in. Because if you can integrate those words, those stories, those images into the brand, into the culture, into the movement, then it's not going to be hard to recruit because people see themselves in the movement. And so I'm so heartened that you did that. And especially with a community who has not felt completely seen and not felt known and not felt heard in, you know, indistinctly, in some ways, you are giving them a platform in such a beautiful way. And I, I just have to say, like, this is even for the people like me. I am very late blooming figure out that I was ADHD two years ago. And I don't even know if I've shared the story on the podcast. But I figured it out because my young daughter, I thought she had what I thought was adhd, which was just that hyperactivity. And when I'm filling out her paper, my eyeball eyebrow quirks, and I'm like, wait a minute. As I'm answering these questions, my eldest daughter has more of these. And then fast forward six months, I'm filling out her paperwork, my eyebrow quirks, and I'm like, this is me. Oh my gosh, this is me. And so if you are someone out there who is kind of struggling with this because you haven't been diagnosed yet, you've been diagnosed late, you're just figuring this out with your kids. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, Jesse Sanchez and the Neurodiversity alliance for making people feel seen, for making them feel known and accepted. And I, and I want to ask you about legacy here, because this, this organization was founded with the purest of intentions by good people. You literally are building your fan base as you go. Your alumni are your rabbit fans. How do you approach stepping into leadership while still honoring this founder's vision and legacy? But you're still going to make it your own, clearly. And I think that you have identified some of your super strengths here in your empathy and the way that you can unlock emotion and feeling. And so I want to know, like, what is the Jesse Sanchez legacy? And how do you honor the past too?
- [28:37]
C
Yeah, yeah, well, I will just to like be, you know, crystal clear, I have the great joy and honor of co leading, right, with one of our original founders, our key founder, David Flank, who's still in our CEO role even though, you know, my predecessor as president has moved on. But yeah, I mean, in terms of my legacy, you know, nonprofits are tough and because I've seen them, especially this community, specifically in like every angle, right? From like student to alumni, volunteer to donor to board member and now executive member.
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B
Right.
- [29:18]
C
I've seen the precarious eras for this community like the existential threat eras. Right. And all, all nonprofits, you know, especially small non profits like sub five, maybe million, you know, budget like ours have that, that risk. Especially during COVID I saw that. And I think for me coming from my career in commercial as a commercial software professional, I hope that my legacy of impact on the organization is really just creating a well oiled, predictable revenue machine for the organization. Really it's just about sustainability. Right. Sustainability for the organization and for the community. So that's a journey that we're very much on right now. And I've stepped in to take a lot more development and fundraising responsibilities since I officially took on the president role in the last few months. We are in the process of, you know, finding who is, who's going to be our probably like ahead of external affairs, someone who's going to oversee our development in the future. And so yeah, putting that out into the community.
- [30:32]
A
Awesome.
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C
But yeah, that's something that's super important to me. Just the sustainability of the organization. And I think the other piece is just this spirit of mutual aid. The fact that maybe you're a, you're a grandparent, a parent, a student, an alumni. Right. How do we pour out into one another and interdependence to be able to support one another, you know, and not be dependent upon, you know, the, the whims of a presidential administration or state funding. Right. For the resources that are supporting neurodivergent folks. How do we really become an autonomous interdependent kind of mutual aid community where regardless of where you're from across the country, what generation you're in, we're pouring out into one another. Right. We have donors who are sitting at career mentoring table sessions with our students who are now in email threads coaching them and advising them on how they could support them with their own non profit organizations. And so that kind of really pouring out into one another to support neurodivergent flourishing and helping our students really be able to achieve their version of the American dream after college. Like that's the thing that's super important to me.
- [31:51]
A
Yeah, I mean I love that you're focused on sustainability as you think about moving from founder led to really like founder inspired. How do we keep this thing going? And I'm going to also ask you about the community aspect of this because it's not just the money as we talked about, that's one denominator of it, but it's the people. And it's so interesting how y' all have created this national network of leaders who not only, like, give up their time week to week, but they hop on a plane and go, like, hang out with y' all in Denver, you know, and get amped up. But it's your story too. Like, it's so part of people's identity that we're really curious about. You know, what are those strategies that you would share that have kept local chapters and student leaders empowered and engaged through all these seasons? What are those? What are those real hallmarks of your program?
- [32:41]
C
Yeah, you know, a couple pieces. Obviously, our national staff is creating a platform. We're creating an infrastructure and tools so that any student at any high school or any college in the United States at any moment can go online, they can click a button, they can register to start a club, they can get a free club starter kit packet mailed to their dorm room or their home. Right. And they can get going. But beyond that, they have all the backing and the support from folks who have gone ahead of them to make sure that their club is successful. So we are very much a student powered organization. One of the things that I really shifted and committed us to when I came on as a head of program last year was how do we support students with transition from high school and college to career? And so we are growing to 100 paid internship programs. So we have 75 paid interns this year. But this is an area where we'll continue to grow. And they are managing and running all of our content creation and social media. Right. It's their voice, they understand the trends. It's their feeling like owners in this community and, and driving it. But they're also getting meaningful paid professional experience in a supportive environment with ND mentors and community around them. Right. We also have a paid leadership coach role for these students where the students themselves, who've already been successful at launching clubs and creating communities on their campus, have a portfolio of chapters and they are having weekly calls coaching and supporting their local active students to really run successful ND alliance clubs in their local community. And so really powering the organization from these student workers is a huge part of kind of connecting everyone across the country. And it's just so common for us to see these lifelong friendships of people who are like, you know, we have Lily Isley who is like a chapter leader in Wisconsin, who's like lifelong best friends with Lydia Pinto who was a chapter leader in North Carolina. Like, that's such a common story for us. And it brings me so much joy. And that was like a meaningful experience for me too. You know, I never really left my tiny corner of California growing up as a kid. Like, the first time I had really been to the east coast was actually getting on a flight and going to our national summit. But I have lifelong friendships from around the country from that trip and that experience, you know, 15 years ago.
- [35:26]
B
It's just such a beautiful story. It is a story that can be. So much can be learned and drawn from about building authentic community. The way you've centered human allows everyone to feel seen. And the expansion is, oh, I feel seen. I'm going to bring a friend, then the next time a friend brings a friend. And just the ripple that comes from this is a very powerful ripple. And people showing up is a big deal in life right now. Showing up. And I just, I think about how you're measuring impact right now. And we're, we're a community that believes that we should measure more than money. And I am really curious about how you are measuring the success and impact across your distributed network. What metrics have been effective for you? What do you look for? You have almost 100 paid interns. I'm curious what they're watching and how you're even kind of just seeing that your efficacy and your messaging and your connection is getting through.
- [36:31]
C
Yeah. You know, for us, our roots are in being a social, emotional learning after school program. Right. And so those real skills around positive sense of self identity, your own awareness around your own learning style, self advocacy skills, feeling like you even have a sense of belonging in community, these are things that we've been measuring for basically like 25 years. And so those things really, really matter to us. But ultimately it kind of boils down to like confidence, leadership, and advocacy. Those are the things that we're really measuring in terms of student growth.
- [37:08]
A
So.
- [37:08]
C
Good.
- [37:09]
A
Well, Jesse, I mean, you're a storyteller. I think at the beginning you were trying to say that you weren't, and.
- [37:14]
B
I'm like, you're so. I totally think that's incorrect.
- [37:17]
A
But I want to ask you about a moment of philanthropy in your life, because we believe in the power of these small gestures of kindness or generosity that stick with us. They kind of teach us things. I wonder if you would take us back to a moment of your journey where you saw philanthropy that you would want to share with our listeners today.
- [37:35]
C
Yeah, you know, my introduction to philanthropy for the most part was through this community. And after I had left the staff, you know, this was my first job out of college many years ago, working for Eye to Eye I felt a strong desire to give back and donate. And when I was first able to give what was, like, a really meaningful gift for, like, me and my family at the time, I did it in honor of someone who, to this day, is very much a great friend and mentor to me. She was my first friend who was basically just one of these, not just an incredible human, but also someone who just accomplished so much. She was proof to me what neurodivergent and neurospicy professionals are capable of. You know, she had double majored at, you know, an Ivy League university, like, twice, you know what I mean? And had an incredible success, incredibly successful career in the management consulting world at a very high level. And it was just such a breakthrough for me to personally know someone who in some ways, was an aspirational figure to me, but also shared that really vulnerable, neurodivergent journey and experience. And so I made that gift in honor of her. And on the back of that gift, there was an email sent to her, like, from our donor software. And she was like, wow, Jesse. Like, I had no idea that you would want to make a gift in honor of me. And it really drew us so close together, right, like, to this day, right, her kids and her, you know, husband will be over in our backyard, right during the summertime for barbecues. But it just really helped me see that philanthropy can draw you close to people in that whole notion of giving in someone's honor. So I would just. I would just share that one because it really set me on a journey of valuing philanthropy and that it's just so much more than cutting a check, but it's really about strengthening community.
- [39:37]
B
That's it. I think you nailed it. And just the connectivity, it can. It can deepen within each of us is a gift and reminds us of our humanness. So, Jesse, we end all of our podcast conversations asking our guests if they could give us a one good thing. It could be a piece of advice. Life hack. What. What would be your one good thing you'd leave behind for our audience today?
- [40:02]
C
Yeah, my one good thing, my piece of advice and life hack is when my twins were born two and a half years ago, I was at one of these kind of dark nights of the soul periods of my life. This was actually before stepping into my career transition and my work full time with the India alliance. And I was kind of just at the end my. Of myself and where. How far I could take myself in managing really challenging circumstances. You know, I'd done years of therapy, years of Coaching, you know, there were no more seminars or self help books that could get me to the next level. And I had the great joy of working with a coach at the time who now is a mentor and friend who basically shared with me that kind of once you're at the max of your limitations to managing things around you, the real next level of transformation can, can come from really engaging with a higher power. And that was a really transformational experience for me. Again only like two and a half years ago or so, but in this time where I think we all need hope and faith and there's a lot of challenge in the world, I just can't describe the level of hope and faith and peace and strength that comes from basically, you know, a faith practice and a power that's higher than you. And so that's, that's been the biggest transformational one good thing for me.
- [41:32]
A
How beautiful. I mean the joy and the legacy of joy in your life and I think even like the 12 steps, like the acknowledgment of a higher power too is such a powerful principle in that journey. It's all connected, my friend, and you exude that today. Thank you for the way you walk into this space. We would love for folks listening to get connected to you and your organization. Like what's the places to follow you online, find you online and get connected to the Indie Alliance.
- [41:58]
C
Yeah, definitely. Check out our website@the ndalliance.org you can fill out a contact us form online. You can follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram X. I'm very active on LinkedIn. You can find me if you just do. Jesse Sanchez. That's my LinkedIn URL.
- [42:22]
B
You are such a treasure. I am so glad you are in this world doing this work. You are a light keep shining so, so brightly. Jesse Sanchez. And thank you to Joy for being so brave and so loving and loving you the way that she did. I think these ripples matter just as much as anything else that we do. So keep, keep going my friend.
- [42:48]
C
Thank you Becky. Thank you John. Thank you Julie and everyone from where we're for good.