← We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits
We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits
647. Your Year-End Campaign Playbook: Launch Your Most Generous Season Yet - Jon and Becky
00:40:44
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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.
- [00:55]
B
And I'm Becky.
- [00:56]
A
And this is the We Are for Good podcast.
- [00:58]
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.
- [01:16]
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.
- [01:27]
A
So let's get started. Becky, what's going on?
- [01:31]
B
Hey, John, it's just us today.
- [01:33]
A
I know. This is like a throwback. We used to do Friday convos. Now this is a Monday convo.
- [01:38]
B
I'm here for it though.
- [01:39]
A
Yeah, we wanted to hold space, y', all, because this change maker community, we feel us all walking into year end and this year's been a lot. It's actually kind of nuts that we're at year end or kind of stepping into it. If we've held space for impact up pause, it's really a time to like reset and recharge. We'll, we'll share a little bit about that today later, but we wanted to have an episode that we just like, talk about year end and could we give you a playbook if you're feeling overwhelmed by it, if you feel like you've tried some things in the past but you don't know how to pull it all together. We hope we can just be your hype squad for the next little bit and talk about what we've seen work personally, what we've heard through amazing conversations, and we're going to thread a lot of this and make it really practical for you.
- [02:20]
B
Yeah. And I think there's, there's a ton of playbooks for year end out there. And we hope you're leveraging, you know, whatever resources, whatever professional development is out there. But this conversation is going to be grounded in a sort of movement minded conversation because we want you to launch your most generous season yet. So we are your hype squad and we are down and psyched to bring in some conversations we've had in the past, bring in that worksheet, give you this framework, set you free, and watch you go soar to the moon. So let's do it.
- [02:53]
A
Yep. And we have pulled together combos from the podcast from Impact up, and we're going to thread all of this together into a conversation today. So we're excited you're here. We even put together, like at your end of your campaign checklist. I mean, Becky, we've been working hard on this.
- [03:07]
B
I love a good checklist.
- [03:09]
A
Yeah. Because we want you to feel like you can be empowered to check through these things and you're going through it with us. You can grab all of that@weareforgood.com EOY that's for end of year. Go grab that. Or you can click the link in today's description. So should we dive in?
- [03:22]
B
Okay, we're going to start with data and donor trends and we're going to kick it back to my friend Woodrow Rosenbaum. And if you're looking for a data guy who can really make sense of what the numbers are saying and forecasting, it's Woodrow. And when we had our first Impact up gathering Impact up power, he shared some fascinating insights about how people are giving. So take a listen.
- [03:46]
C
We hear a lot in the sector about the, the what's up against us, that people aren't giving as much and there are economic factors that are suppressing their giving, that people just aren't generous the way they used to be, that we need to focus just on big donors because people don't have the capacity to give and that this is somehow something that's happening to us and that's really disempowering for nonprofits and fundraisers to think about. How do I navigate this if I've got all of this is stacked against us, but the data don't really support that. That's the situation. In fact. Sure, we're seeing that in some very important ways. Giving is down. We're seeing fewer donors giving less money to nonprofits. And that's been a trend we've seen now for a few years following 2020, and we get into a lot of the nuance and the detail there. Our own data show that there's less fundraising activity. But our mission is to generate data that can help us understand the stories, the behaviors, the motivations for generosity more broadly, to get a pulse of the sector and the entire experience of human generosity. And when we look at it in that context, much more holistically, we find, in fact, generosity and giving are not in decline. And so this tension between what we're experiencing as nonprofits and fundraisers and what's actually happening in the giving economy is. Is really important to unpack. So we use a project, a program we call Giving Pulse to look at the ways Americans give every day. We ask Americans each week about their previous weeks giving behavior and a lot more. We got an enormous amount of real time data about what that environment looks like. So Giving Pulse, it tells a much different story. Generosity Behavior is in fact holding really steady that volunteers are being retained as donors very strongly and really critically. In this most recent report, we see that there's a substantial portion of people who we predict would have given if they were asked. And this is really key. What we see time and time again is that when we show up as a sector and engage much more broadly, rather than a hyper focus on just large donor competition, that people respond with giving, they respond with donations. We have agency. So this is the good news. There's. We have actually the power to shift this result for ourselves. We believe the data can show us how to do that. We have agency in this situation. So now it's up to us to do something about it.
- [06:31]
A
Okay, what amazing mic drop by Woodrow. Not only the best dressed man always, but he's like so much data coming in. So if he can give us a story of hope, like there is hope, y', all, there is a lot of opportunity. And it's not lost on me that he not only said generosity is steady, but he did say people will give when we invite them. It's not just passive. We can't just hope and pray that it's just going to fall in the door. We actually have to invite people in with an ask. So I think that's something we want to take forward in this conversation. Right?
- [07:02]
B
Yeah. And. And I think he was also saying if you're looking at these reports or AKA if you're only measuring dollars, it is going to paint a picture of what's actually not happening. Bene beneath the iceberg of generosity. I mean, I saw a stat the other day John that said, volunteers contributed almost 5 billion hours in 2023. Guess how much that equates to $167 billion worth of savings to our sector. We've got to measure currency in other ways, and using the data to really understand those behaviors I thought was a really solid point. So good on Woodrow.
- [07:39]
A
So good. I mean, I feel amped for this next part because we want to get into like building a playbook and how do we really get activated. So to get started, we want to hop in and highlight a conversation we had with one of our favorite humans, Caroline Griffin, over at Marketer on Mission. And when we pulled the stats, it's one of the most popular episodes we've ever had on the podcast and it's easy to see why. Listen to this clip.
- [08:00]
D
Yeah, I love this time of year because it's such a fun time to create campaigns. You can infuse your end of year campaigns with so much joy, with humor. Everyone's in the spirit. It's a really opportune time to try new things and yes, to light a little fire under everyone's bum. Now is definitely the time to be thinking about it. Where to begin. I would say we still have two to three to four weeks here to be developing something that you've never tried before that's going to delight and surprise your existing donors and fans and also bring new people into the fold. It's an awesome time when people are in the spirit to find some new fans and say, hey, if you're feeling generous or you really care about this cause, come on in. Right? And you don't have to have a lot of money or a ton of planning or a big team to do that. In fact, when I was in house with a nonprofit, I was the marketing and comms team of one. I had to fight and make the case for every marketing dollar that I got. So I've been there. You don't have to do something massive. You can have a small ad spend or a small amount of money to spend on artist or to create a video asset and that can go a long way. I am typically a proponent of having one goal, one specific goal for every campaign. I think if you have the bandwidth, end of year is a great time to actually do two things at once. The first thing is up level your existing donors and fans and give them a very specific opportunity to do that, whether it's really hammering, why they should start giving monthly to you and be a monthly donor starting in 2022. Or maybe you're asking them for A specific dollar amount that's a bump up from what they've given in the past. So communicating with those folks is kind of its own track. Right. That's a little different from goal number two, which is how are we going to introduce ourselves to new folks who are interested in what we do, who are feeling generous in a really fun or unique way or surprising way. Because it's a crowded time, people are bombarded with sales and deals and asks. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be right in the mix playing the game. You just have to think of a way to stand out a little bit.
- [10:24]
B
Okay. Caroline is such a master. So good marketing at understanding nuance. And did we all just take a little breath there when she was like, you don't need a big budget, you don't need a huge team to have a really formidable impact. So what is a way we can stand out from just the very normal noisy space that exists between giving Tuesday and year end? And there are ways to do this and there is nuance within your mission that no other nonprofit or organization has in the world. Double down into that. That's where you're going to find your sweet spot.
- [10:57]
A
I love it. I was thinking secret sauce and you said sweet spot. I think put them together, same brains, you know, I mean, so we've been asking this question. In fact, it was just a couple months ago when we talked to one of our friends, Jeff Rosenblum. He's the founder of Questus, if you don't know him, which is this leading digital marketing amazing team that works with some of the biggest brands. And we ask him@impact up movement, like how are these brands thinking about breaking through in a crowded market and media landscape? And here's what he had to say. Hey friends, here's a bit of real talk. This movement doesn't happen without community. And that includes our incredible ecosystem partners.
- [11:36]
B
Big gratitude to gift 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.
- [11:48]
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.
- [11:57]
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.
- [12:09]
A
You want to learn more, head over to WeAreForGood.comRECS that's WeAreForGood.comRECs for VIP access to orgs and amazing humans doing really great work.
- [12:28]
E
From a neurological standpoint, the human brain is exposed to 11 million bits of information every single moment that we're awake. 11 million. So if we were to pause for a second, you would be able to sense your chair against your back. You might sense the feeling of your shoes on your feet. You might hear a car in the background, a lawnmower, the air conditioning. But your human brain blocks all that out so you could focus in on this content and move your career forward. As a matter of fact, what happens in the 11 million bits of information that we're exposed to, we only consciously process. 50. 50 out of 11 million is as close to zero as you can possibly get. So how do brands win? We have to break through that cognitive spam filter. Brands are no longer a story. People are no longer sitting around complacently listening to your 32nd spot. Brands are a cognitive shortcut. They break through all of the cacophony, all of the noise to help people understand what makes you different and why. Is what you're offering worthy of their time, their attention, their ratings, their reviews, their dollars, their donation? So how do we do that? And I work full time in marketing, but trust me on this, doesn't matter what kind of nonprofit you're running. Everybody is working in marketing. And now it's exciting because some of you guys are probably running some fairly small organizations. But now, thanks to AI, you can make content and ads that historically would cost millions and millions of dollars and now we could do it for pennies on the dollar. But we can't use the playbook of yesteryear. We have to understand what content do people want and then deliver it to them. Which leads over to the second half of this equation about how brands win. If the first half is create empowering content, the second half is deliver that content in the moments that matter in the consumer journey. So let's say you're looking for donations. Very rarely is somebody going to see your request and instantly make a decision. Often what you find is in your space. People spend 10 to 20 hours conducting research before they make a donation. Certainly sometimes people say, oh, 50 bucks, no problem, oh, 200 bucks, that person's need, no problem. But when you're looking for bigger donations, that decision making process, it could take weeks, it could take months. I've certainly seen data that says it can be nine months of decision making, 300 pieces of content that are reviewed, and 10 to 20 hours of actual decision making spread over those months. So what the best brands do and what you can do as a nonprofit is actually map that consumer journey. In marketing, you've probably heard of this, the sales funnel, awareness, interest, conversion. The issue with that is that's how brands look at the world, right? These three key stages, just awareness, interest, conversion. But if you look at the world through the lens of your audience, it doesn't have these three big stages. It tends to have many, many very granular stages. They might be dreaming about how they can make an impact. They might be conducting research about how they can make an impact. They might be analyzing all the different nonprofits that are asking for their dollars or their donations or their ratings and reviews, and that'll keep going all the way, not just to the point of donation, but all the way through to becoming a loyal donator, all the way down to being a brand champion. Where they're leaving ratings, reviews. There are bars or restaurants or conferences actually proselytizing for you. So as you map that out, you're probably going to find something like 12 really granular steps in that consumer journey. And this is what all the best CMOs are doing at the biggest and the best brands in the world. They're starting to map out that consumer journey. Look at those granular moments. And then the second thing they're saying is, what are the unmet needs at each of those moments? Very often what you're going to find is in the beginning, you need some inspirational content, but what you need to do is couple that inspirational content with functional content. What do you stand for? What do you believe in? What makes you different and better than the competition? How exactly are you going to make an impact on the world? How exactly do you help your constituents once you've got them engaged emotionally? How do you then follow those latter stages in the journey and ultimately figure out what are the questions that they have and how do you answer them from a functional standpoint? And if you could look at that totality of the journey, understand every channel that they're using, from video to social to email, how can we inspire them emotionally? How can we answer their questions functionally? Ultimately, what we're doing is not repeating the same message over and over and over again, but we're creating an empowering journey. We're not interrupting their journey. We're carrying them through the journey with the right information, at the right place at the right time.
- [17:34]
A
I mean, there you have it.
- [17:36]
B
Were you today years old when you found out you were a marketer Congratulations, community. Everybody is a marketer. Everybody is a storyteller, because the way that we show up and share our mission with people, that is marketing. That is human connection. But I love what Jeff is saying here, that there are much bigger questions and there is a journey that we have to respect that every donor is going through at a different time, in a different place in every single one of their lives, and having that bigger knowledge base, because you're talking to your audience, you're asking questions, you're watching those behaviors that Woodrow referenced, you know, at the. At the very beginning of this discussion, and we're watching them and getting nuanced insights out, and that is building to how we can integrate them more seamlessly in a way that works for them, in a way that works for us into our missions.
- [18:31]
A
Yeah, I mean, I love that we can challenge you on this podcast, because it's challenging to us, too, listening to Jeff's approach, because it's a lot to think about, but what a great future state to start taking steps toward it, to think there is a better way to go about this and think about your own journey with whatever you're buying or whatever you're donating. There's a lot of steps. It's not so simple, but we do want to get practical. And so I want to, like, transition the convo for a minute, because we want to help get you unstuck for that for year end. And it makes. It comes to mind the storytelling framework that we've taught for several years, it's very much integrated into We Are for Goods content. But it's the idea of the power of one. We created this to really get you activated right away, because we all know one person who has been impacted by our mission. I would even say, what's your gut check moment of who's that person that has been impacted in a deep way? Maybe it's what we call a believer. You know, somebody that has had an experience at your organization, and then it's, like, changed, and they're, like, telling everybody about it. Or maybe it's a really interesting staff member that has had an intersection with your mission, or maybe it's a board member or some of those traditional roles, too. But here's the thing. If we can get one story and we can really unpack why your mission showed up, how they showed up, what it did for this person's life, that is really interesting content because we can lead from a lot of different angles. We can lead from an angle of the uplift. We can lead from the angle of the pain point. We can lead from just the humanity. And so really understanding and getting really strong within one story is something that we want to get in your tool belt going into year end. And so what we've done is we've built a worksheet to help you. After you've identified the person, ask a few questions. And these are questions. Maybe you need to go interview them, which is a great step. We always encourage that. But you may know it if you're close to their story. And here they are. So there's five specific questions. The first one is tell us about the human. Not just their name, definitely not just their title. What do they love? You know, what lights them up? What are their passions, their interests, their hobbies? Who's that human? Number two, what is that challenge or barrier that they faced? That's number two. Number three is how did your mission intervene? This is a chance to show the secret sauce that we talked about, about how your mission actually helps. Where's that moment? Like, let's talk about how did it change that person? And then number four is, let's talk about the transformation, man. Because of this experience, what's possible now? What dream did they always want to have that now is right in front of them? Then number five, what's the ripple effect of that change? Because a story of one, in the context of your mission, of any campaign, is just one. But there is so many people behind that. There's so many people that when they hear someone bring up their story, they feel the permission maybe that they didn't need, but they. They now feel empowered. That man, that's my story too. That's my aunt's story. That's our family story that we never talked about. How can we humanize what our mission does in a very authentic way? Because that story will become this North Star. And we feel like if you can lead with one powerful story, it's going to help keep your campaign very personal, authentic. At the end of the day, connecting with people, this is what we're all looking for. In the age of AI, how can all the tech lead to just more connection, more relationships? So we want a story in your bank that does that, that cuts through and builds humanity and this connection that you're going to build from. But we're not going to stop there, right, Becky? Like, we never just stop.
- [21:56]
B
That in itself is going to be game changing that. That will be a record scratch. Because I like that you added all that in there. Because the one story could be the story of many and so we want to connect that story to, to the campaign, to the impact, to the call to action. Don't just share with zero guidance on what's happening next. Like, tell them what to do. And P.S. don't give them five things to do. Start with one. Just one singular thing that you want them to do. Put the button right there, make it so clean and easy. But also ask yourself, how does this story represent what our mission will unlock within this campaign? What can be achieved in this campaign? Help someone see themselves as the conduit, as the way to get to whatever that North Star is that John was just referencing. Take it from the one and drop it into the many. Because I want to be a part of making what was bad before better now or what was good before great and extraordinary now. I want to be a part of moving this mission that I believe in so deeply from good to great. And so I really think that if you can connect that campaign, connect the impact, and connect the CTA after that story, from there, you'll realize that the story of one is going to yield not only the dollars that you need, but it's going to yield more believers, it's going to yield more story, it's going to yield gratitude, it's going to foster trust. There is so much to be yielded from this approach, and we know you can do it.
- [23:37]
A
And I mean, can I just like build on this to say that clarity of goal is really important to pair with this because we love a good undesignated fund. You know, we have these convers, but we're talking end of year urgency and a lack of clarity. Just like, don't mix. Like, there's no urgency. If there's not, man, what's going to happen if this doesn't get funded? Like, this is a, this is really important for our community. So if you want folks to respond, we have to give them a reason to do so. Clear is kind, Clarity is kind. So let's get really clear of where do we need help, what funds do we need to raise? And like, let's not make that a mystery, but that clear goal attached to the story of one that leads to impacting many. Like, this is a framework that's very replicable. And when that you can tell in many different ways in different outlets like Jeff was explaining. But it shows the through line of why your mission, like, is the place that someone wants to invest.
- [24:30]
B
Okay, so I got to jump in here with a pro tip. So now that you've framed your story, you've explained the impact of what a gift would do. You've set your clear goal. It's time to start socializing it with your closest folks. We call this stoking and internally first and think about this from those who are closest to the mission. We're talking about staff, we're talking about board members, we're talking about volunteers. You start there and then you start pushing out. And the reason you do this is because you want everyone speaking with one voice. You want them to have the same language so that the repetition shows that this is a community effort. And then everyone has an easy point of reference to share with others. So stoke it, tag people in, get diversity of voices. You're going to find believers all around this campaign.
- [25:23]
A
This is really like, actually connects to the checklist that we put together for you. So it's linked in the show notes description or you can go to we are for good.comeoy but we want to like, say once we have our story in place and the worksheets there, to like walk you through that. You've done your intro, informed your key groups that you were just talking about be what's next. You know, it goes through everything from like your campaign details. How are we tying the story into our timeline? Because, y', all, we've got Giving Tuesday coming up, so it's a great time to either strategically use that as a moment of stewardship. We love that strategy. I love when people kind of rethink what Giving Tuesday could look like. But use that as part of a tent pole that leads toward your end of year campaign. And then we're also going to ask you about your communication plan. Like, how can you use your story as a springboard and core original content that you can syndicate? It's just a big word for like atomizing, taking it a big thing and putting it into small places in email and social and videos, maybe in gatherings that you're having for the end of year. And then volunteers and champions really thinking through this as your strategy. This is so core to we are for Goods philosophy that we're not building alone, we're building with community. So how can we, by sharing stories, model that other people's stories, their personal why is where it's at? Like this invitation for others to share the story of why this matters, why this campaign matters. That's how it starts to translate and really starts to pick up steam. And then of course, if we don't plan for stewardship, it's probably not going to happen. But we want to plan before we.
- [26:50]
B
Start planning for Stewardship, Please, please.
- [26:52]
A
This is like a core value of we are for good. Steward relentlessly. So how can we close the loop with donors? Because if you want to build believers in your mission for 2026 next year, make a plan for closing the loop with your end of year donors. Show them what happened because they stepped forward in January. Like, show them why it mattered. Show them that you noticed and that is going to start a ripple. And if you plan for it now, it'll be like second nature when it comes around.
- [27:18]
B
Yes, but here's the thing about year end campaigns. We know how important they are. A third of all giving comes in that year end giving. 12% of all giving for the year comes in the last three days of the year. We know this. But year end giving is not the end all, be all. This one moment in December doesn't define your mission. Just kind of like what John just said. It's really about how do you create a ripple that starts to just grow and build into a bigger movement. So by the time next December rolls around, you have so many more believers and rabid fans who have come into the circle because they want to be a part of it. And those newbies, I am just going to have like, I'm going to manifest this. I want them to be the, the next story for your next December. Because those stories are the ones that are going to grab people. That's that those are the ones that people will see themselves in.
- [28:18]
A
So friends, just remember, story is your superpower. You know, like, if there's one thing that you can really dial in, this one story of one believer, of one person impacted, it can humanize everything. And it's honestly not just about raising dollars. And that's not to diminish the importance of dollars being raised at end of year. We know everyone is looking for that, but it's about sparking belief. Because belief is what is core to growing our movements. So when we can share those stories and we can inspire other people to like get involved in this, when we make it easier for them to share, how are we inviting people to be part of sharing their story? Suddenly people feel part of something much bigger. And if there's something you hear from we are for good is like, we don't want you just to build a campaign. You're building a movement, you're building a story that transcends one campaign. It's much bigger and you want people to feel part of that and actually they are part of it, you know, by being part of the ripple. So yes, please do the checklists in the emails, do all the things post the post. But it's more than fundraising. This is building with your community. This is long game at work. It's movement work. And you are not alone. Is that kind of a lifeline that you need to hear? Like, you're not alone at doing this. You've got people to activate, so give them the gift of activation.
- [29:30]
B
Okay. We're an audio platform that we do have video, so most people won't see that. I just dropped the mic on what you were just saying. But yes, this is the mindset shift. Getting away from the transactional fundraising work that we have been primed to do for so long. That is tried and true in many ways, but we are evolving. We are evolving with the world and we are evolving in lockstep to community build and build alongside our believers. So we talked about a lot today. We talked about data, we talked about campaigns and tactics and marketing. But we cannot round out this episode without double underlining, putting in bold, italicizing this. Even during the busiest seasons, it is crucial and paramount not to lose sight of you and your team's wellness and growth. I am telling you to put your oxygen mask on first. This is a long season. We, we've all been in it. We had a conversation with Lindsey Fuller. She's the executive director of the Teaching well and host of Gather at the well series. If you have not checked out the Gather at the well series, it is my go to on all things of how to get myself centered and balanced in this work. And here in this clip, she's going to talk about her team's growth and development. I think there's so many brilliant takeaways. Take a listen.
- [30:51]
F
What inspires me to stay and to grow in both the social sector as well as in education is that I'm a forever learner, right? That I value not only teaching, but also being a student. And so when we get to learn and grow together, it's hella fun. I just, I don't, I don't know how else to describe it other than like, I have the distinct honor of witnessing my team's professional and personal growth because we build human centered explorations and practices into our professional development. Who I am working with today is not who I was working with four years ago, not because they weren't here, but because they are literally growing, healing, loving, learning. It is, it's so dynamic. And so some of the technical elements, right? Or that we, we do, we spend three hours a week, nine to 12 on Tuesdays we rotate who does somatic openings and check ins. We do have a cadence, right. So if you want to know more about that, hit us up. But there's. There is an org update on the first one and then we have multiple focus areas that we study each year together to learn and grow. And we try and make sure there are a lot of different voices and multiple modalities. So we're in breakout rooms. We are doing scenario analysis, we are recording videos, we are analyzing and doing consultancies around client pain points. There's so much that we're doing together and it makes us better. And I love it.
- [32:32]
A
I mean do the math. That is like 8% of your work week or something. I mean, you know, like that's a solid chunk of every week dedicated to learning and growth and community. Like that is amazing.
- [32:44]
B
And, and I would even say it's, it shows like I can see the evolution of your team and, and I, and I think that's what I want to make sure that I say right here because I feel like I was aging through my 20s and my 30s and part of my 40s, but I don't know that I was growing, if you know what I mean. And so I was learning new things but I was not self actualizing. And I think that there is something about if you want to be a human of evolution, if you want to grow and get better every day, if you want to live your to John's point one most vibrant life, then there has to be this active output and activation of growth and evolution. And the fact that you have worked it as not a check the box as oh, this is going to help us breathe physically, metaphorically, emotionally. I just think it's amazing.
- [33:46]
F
Well, that was a whole bar and we need to write a poem and do an interpretive dance on that. But I will say I talk to EDs and board members specifically in the social sector that think I'm nuts for dedicating that much time and paying my people to be off the floor. But not only does it reinforce our org culture and relationships because as a hybrid, mostly remote organization, this is the glue to our team. But it also provides incredible amounts of sustainability, not just for myself as the leader, but also for my supervisory team. Because it gives a weekly touch point to recalibrate, to align, to ensure that folks aren't in long suffering around questions or curiosities or pain points. That there is a felt safety net of support and rigorous development and that is retention. It, it is decreasing work for me. It is making my job more effective and it is making my teammates jobs more effective. And when we experience that level of efficacy, why would we leave?
- [34:54]
B
Every time I hear Lindsey Fuller talk, I just keep thinking if we are for good doesn't work out, I'm going to ask her to hire me and just like clean the kitchen or clean the bathrooms at the teaching well because I just want to work there. I mean, what a luminary culture.
- [35:08]
A
Yeah.
- [35:09]
B
And it does show.
- [35:10]
A
Yeah. I mean we'll reference this episode. Like go back and listen to this full episode because you can just tell the wisdom that she was bringing. But it kept coming back to me because I love Julie that you left our reactions in and Becky, what you said was just so powerful. There is that as we're standing on the edge of end of year. We were non profit fundraisers for 15 or 20 years. We know exactly that feeling almost leading annual giving. I feel like the pressure, the there's not enough time. There's definitely not enough people. There's not enough all these resources. But I spent zero amount of my time pouring into growth or going into like what can I learn in this season? Like it's so sad to think back and I know you're listening to this podcast by nature. We know you're a growth mindset individual. If you found home at we are for good because it's kind of how we just hang out here. But I think if, if nothing else, if we can go into this of like what can we try? Like what can we. How can we go in and be extremely curious about the people that care about our mission and get to know them and be curious about what's possible when we ask better questions and create space to actually learn through this. I, I really think it can be more joyful. I know it can be more joyful and connect more meaning to this work and it's going to feel a little bit less like a slog and a little bit more like, you know, I'm going to be more resilient. I'm going to be more engaged in this and feel like you're progressing, not just the other way around. So I feel so empowered. Yeah. Not just aging. Oh my gosh. Your words are haunting.
- [36:44]
B
Oh my gosh. I really was just aging then. But you know, the other thing that I didn't do do back then, I didn't do professional development during that season and I sure as hell did not rest during that season. It, I mean you talk about it. I think it's interesting from the annual giving perspective which I remember But I also remember it from the major gift perspective where it's like you are trying to close these gifts, you know, within your pipeline by a certain amount of time. And there's so much on the line with such big gifts. And I can, I, I felt as you were talking and going back to that time, I felt my body tense. I felt like it remembered, it remembered that time. It reminded me that I would just push through all the time. And what we're saying to you, friends, is this has been one hell of a year and there has been so much thrown at you and you are getting those 11 million bits, you know, coming to you every single minute. And what we want you to do is not only put together a kick butt campaign, but we want you to survive it. And maybe if we can put some time into ourselves at that time, we may be able to not just survive it, but we may be able to thrive within it. And guess what? Our community is going to feel that. Our volunteers are going to feel it. Our staff is going to feel it. And if you are a leader listening to this, I have to tell you, modeling this is of the utmost important to your team. And if you can rest, they're going to feel like they can rest. So do your sprints, take a break. Do your sprints, take a break. I feel like I'm back in track in ninth grade. So. But really make sure that you are factored into year end and that might be new for you this year, but we want you healthy, we want you whole, we want you in this work. In fact, we need you here.
- [38:42]
A
And guess what, you can come and actually rest, rejuvenate with us. Like this is an invitation. We want you to join us at Impact up pause on October 9th. It's happening globally across our community. It is a day to pause. Even if you've only got 15 minutes, please come pause with us and hang out. I promise you'll get encouraged and you'll maybe meet some new people in the community that can be a connector for you. But we're talking about how can we provide support for ourselves. How can we actually build personal care plans for ourself? It's going to get hella practical. I'll use Lindsay's, Becky's words here, but we want you there. There's at least 20 local meetups happening around the world. These are places where you can drop in and spend time with other change makers that are sitting in the exact same seat that you are feeling.
- [39:32]
B
The same global footprint is building on that. We are so freaking humbled every time we see a new one come in. So welcome Europe. We're excited to have a couple this time.
- [39:42]
A
Yeah. So excited. So please come and find community. It's 10 to 2 central, kind of in the middle of the day. The meetups are happening across the month of October in different spaces. A lot of them are happening on the 9th. But please, even if it's not that, find a way and a place to take care of yourself on repeat throughout the year. And if, if this conversation stoking within you too. Like we've got all the resources. They're in today's episode description so I don't want you to miss this. You can go to we are for good.comeoy or just click the link in the episode description and we'll send it all to you.
- [40:13]
B
Yeah, hitting that show notes page is going to give you a wealth of treasure from not only the different handouts that we have frameworks, but you can register for impact. Up you can get the Gather at the well series. You can start that. We just want you to feed your soul and your heart as much as you are feeding into the bottom line of your organization and feeding into your community. So take that first step. Find the one. Find the one that's going to impact. You've got this, friends.
- [40:44]
A
See you soon.