← What the Fundraising
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- [00:04]
Mallory Erickson
What if generosity wasn't just about dollars? Neon1's latest research proves it isn't. The Generosity report reveals how 97% of donors, those giving under $5,000 a year, are the true backbone of nonprofit success. Discover how small actions build resilient communities and what your organization can do to strengthen them. Explore the full report@neonone.com Mallory.
- [00:34]
Matt Letta
For people to embrace change and to want to adopt new tools and to kind of get out of their sort of sticking to status quo and defensive mode, which usually means that we cannot actually embrace those new technologies. And for them to open up to it, they need to sort of develop a love for themselves to be comfortable and to develop that. They sort of need to kind of like heal out of their traumas. They essentially need to develop passion for, kind of like themselves in their roles. And then they have passion for work. And if they have passion for their work, they start looking to make the work better.
- [01:10]
Mallory Erickson
Hey, my name is Mallory and I'm obsessed with helping leaders in the nonprofit space raise money and run their organizations differently. What the Fundraising is a space for real and raw conversations to both challenge and inspire you. Not too long ago I was in your shoes. Uncomfortable with fundraising and unsure of my place in this sector. It wasn't until I started to to listen to other experts outside of the fundraising space that I was able to shift my mindset and ultimately shift the way I show up as a leader. This podcast is my way of blending professional and personal development so we as a collective inside the nonprofit sector can feel good about the work we are doing. Join me every week as I interview some of the brightest minds in the personal and professional development space to help you fundamentally change the way you lead and fundraise. I hope you enjoy this episode, so let's dive in.
- [02:04]
Mallory
Welcome everyone. I am so excited to be here today with Matt Letta. Matt, welcome to what the fundraising.
- [02:11]
Matt Letta
Thank you for having me.
- [02:13]
Mallory
Why don't we start with you just telling everybody a little bit about you and your work and then we'll dive in to all things digital transformation.
- [02:20]
Matt Letta
Long story short, I'm from Poland, which you will notice in my accent, but I left about 20 years ago and I've moved to through I think 12 other countries and which you will also probably notice in my accent to some degree and along the way I've founded and built a bunch of businesses and eventually I think it was like seven, eight years ago I started splitting my time between running companies and doing nonprofit work, either pro bono work with my teams or funding Various nonprofits and co creating NGOs. And eventually I started my own profit called Fusion Future Horizon. And so currently I live to wrap it up, I live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, so Boston. And I have run something called FutureWorks where we help companies embrace AI primary. That means kind of working on their entire stack and primarily working with people and implementing technology when we hear what they need. And I run a nonprofit called Feature Horizon which gathers people around sort of funding co creating various initiatives primarily in social justice, education, environment.
- [03:32]
Mallory
Amazing. Okay, so one of the things I saw in your bio is the way you have helped companies with digital transformation in I think was it one hour a day, one hour a week?
- [03:43]
Matt Letta
Yeah.
- [03:44]
Mallory
Okay, so talk to me about that, break that down. Because I think when people hear digital transformation, they think big time consuming, like we don't have the energy or capacity for that. So talk me through that.
- [03:56]
Matt Letta
Yeah, well, digital transformation transformation as the name indicates, or you know, why do we want digital transformation? Because we want our companies to run better using tech, right? And that for a very long time meant embracing things like Salesforce and other massive SaaS tools that would provide database and help us solve some things, but would also come with like three years of everyone really struggling and not enjoying their life until they did. And some never did sort of embracing this tech. And that is true of hundreds of different SaaS products. And another thing that happened was everyone is bombarded increasingly by SaaS products that offer them to sell better, to run things better, to move things from one place to another and so on. And many organizations today have 50 or 100 and sometimes we see 500 and more different SaaS apps that they use and nothing is connected to each other and nothing really functions together. And now suddenly you've got this moment, hey, there is AI, right? And we've got this new wave where very, very, very high return on investment can be unlocked like to over 100x, right? And like you can think of like optimizing a certain process, cutting the cost 99% is absolutely possible. But most who try, they still have sort of implemented in a way that like, let's find some software, let's plug in this and that and this will solve the problem, which it doesn't. It just adds to the complexity because we had 500 apps before and I have 501 and nothing talks to each other. And so many who struggle with implementing those things and seeing actual like real difference out of using AI tools are like, well, this is, that's because AI needs data. So what we need to solve is our data, right? That's kind of like the second step. Many realize, okay, we need to solve our data. And the truth is that that's closer, but it's not that it's not. We're not there yet. The truth is that what is needed is actually into, is needed to see like real results. Right. Like for our companies to head organizations or nonprofits will be to head towards a state when they are AI native or they have this digital core. What we need is to actually work with people, right? And we need to look at the entire landscape. And I can get back to that in more detail later. But we need to look at the people firstly and what they need. Then the software as a data as a kind of intermediate layer between the people and the intelligence that we want to bring. And then when it's all connected, it actually works and then we can see great results. But it will not happen as a technology first solution. We need to actually work with the people. And so a very meandering long way to kind of come back to your question. What that one hour a week does, which is in something we've practiced over the years and currently it's used by hundreds of companies, big and small. What it does is it allows people from the organization to be engaged in the activity of innovation. And that sort of opens them up to change, opens them up to solutions because they are part of the solution. And it drives culture change, it drives communication. And as a sort of very welcome but byproduct, it produces a lot of innovation opportunities that then you can use to, to transform the company, make everyone sort of celebrate successes, and it goes from there. So it all is packaged into just one hour a week for people because there is like a very rigid framework behind it and that allows basically for a lot of creativity within it. But it's sort of designed to kind of keep going, start and ideally not stop. And we've seen great results coming out of that. Yeah.
- [07:44]
Mallory
Okay, so I'm so curious about this. So tell me a little bit about like when you think about that sort of people first approach, do you mean positions or do you mean like the actual particular people in your organization that are sitting in those seats?
- [08:02]
Matt Letta
It's actually working best if you invite people across different seats and positions. So like as diverse as possible. But it's small groups that work together spend one hour a week. Usually they connect only half an hour and spend half an hour doing sort of homework. That's why it's one hour every week. We recommend five people in a group and those sorts of come with opportunities that they find for innovation and there's like a whole cycle around it and they go through the four steps. Right. So like it's called Leap because there's, there are four steps leap in their titles.
- [08:38]
Mallory
Okay. And so talk to me about the piece you said at the very end. I wish I could remember exactly how you said it, but that this type of framework then actually sort of opens the door for all of these people to be innovators themselves and they start to like, own the transformation. And I can't remember exactly how you said it, but I'm really curious about that. Like, it sounds to me like what you're doing is sort of seeding an environment or you're creating an environment for digital transformation to happen. Like I, when you were describing it, I was thinking a lot about gardening and I've done a lot of work in like regenerative agriculture practice and. Right. So like everything focuses typically in sort of the agriculture practices that we often see today. People are focusing on like the production, right. They're like, how much out of this one thing can I, how can I grow this tree or how can I grow this plant in one year to get the most fruit? And what we know in regenerative agriculture is actually what you're focused on is the soil. And if you focus on the soil, then that's how you get the most amazing tree and plant and fruit. But you have to really focus on the soil. And so when you were talking, that's what was coming up for me, is that, okay, he's doing soil work and then that soil is creating the environment to grow the digital transformation. Am I following this?
- [09:56]
Matt Letta
Yeah, absolutely. I think it's a great metaphor, you know, and actually this metaphor goes even deeper in a sense because I haven't used it in the, in the book, but you nailed it in the comparison, like the way the soil also is cultivated. We've been driving various generative practices and my parents have had a farm for a while. So close to the subject. But so basically what we command there is there's like a natural rhythm that we've embraced in business that comes from nature, which is quarterly activity. Right. Like any company has quarterly reports and quarterly thinking and so on. Today it's really hard to have like rigid, strong five year plans for business. Right. Not just for startups, but for any size of company, like largest companies. Things are changing a little too fast to be able to have long term plans. And so switching to the sort of quarterly rhythm, seasons In a way is very useful. And then, and so if you look at it this way, enabling your organization and the people to sort of, you know, kind of cultivate their practice and sort of enrich themselves with the ability to be kind of open to change and excited for what's coming and actually implementing solutions and in a distributed manner, sort of changing the entire organization to a more innovative one that is best done also in quarters because, and for a simple reason, there's usually someone approving budget and someone keeping an eye over it. And you know, in an ideal scenario you want to see your results in less than a quarter so that you get approved for the next quarter. And so leap cycle is 12 weeks long. And so it actually we recommend running them in 12 weeks, then one week break, then 12 weeks and one week break which actually magically ends up filling up the entire year. And so you can just keep running it this way forever. And because it only costs, it costs nothing really because it's one hour a week. And then, you know, the cost of implementation of those solutions that are found, it depends on your appetite for the activity. But you know, because the marginal cost of the innovation activity is so low, it's so much lower than like 20% at Google that used to be there and other practices definitely cheaper than like innovation labs or acquiring startups in order to refresh culture and so on. It's, it's incredibly cheap in comparison to that and because of that it's actually hard to stop. So it's kind of like just like you know, the regenerative soil I guess. And those practices you would want to keep going and keep it constantly sort of rotated in the right way, then it would be, you know, the practice, innovation practice happens similarly here.
- [12:35]
Mallory Erickson
Donors don't just give money, they show up, share stories, volunteer, advocate and build community. The generosity report from Neon1 celebrates these everyday acts of generosity and give nonprofit professionals the tools to turn one time givers into lifelong supporters. If you want to build a thriving, resilient community, start here. Neonone.com Mallory.
- [13:06]
Mallory
Okay, so I love thinking about it this way and I want to go back to what you said around like the five year plan piece, right? Because in nonprofit culture like the strategic, like I, the amount of organizations I know that are going through strategic planning and even that planning process is taking 18 months and the world is changing. But I mean the nonprofit sector in particular in the moment that we're talking, you know, March 18th is entirely different than what it was two months ago, three months ago. Like everything has Changed. And so how do you recommend for organizations like maybe particularly legacy organizations that are so used to doing kind of more formal strategy work or more rigid strategic planning, how do they start to maybe break out of that and have this mindset shift around innovation and transformation happening in these maybe smaller groundswell ways?
- [14:05]
Matt Letta
Yeah, I think the steps are quite simple actually for any organization and the effects reveal themselves over time. So like the first and most important thing that that organization needs to have, and that's proven by hundreds of cases we've looked like we've looked at. Because I think it's important to know that There were over 200 people that helped me put together the LEAP methodology and the book itself, and mostly experts in innovation in change, some executives on large, large organizations and so on. They're all listed at the end of the book. And I think the most important one item that needs to be in place and without it, there will be no results. The most important one is someone who's like an executive who can, who has the mandate and the willingness to drive forward, to drive change. So typically it would be a coo, CEO and so on. Unlike usually some organizations hire someone like chief innovation officer and so on, but that person wouldn't usually have enough mandate and power to actually drive with energy. So it's good to have that person. But you still need someone who's like an executive sponsor, someone who's going to be there. A founder typically works really well if that person is still around. But of course would be an executive. But they just need to drive. Right. And then the second best thing that they need to do is start and not stop. And this is what LEAP is for. Basically it's really easy to start because you just need five people to spend one hour a week for 12 weeks and see what happens. Right. Very, very easy to do. You know, anyone can do it. Just, you know, start this week. In fact, you don't need to read the book because the book comes with a free AI coach and you can just use that to show you how to go through the cycle step by step, just ask it for the next step. But then the most important thing is not to stop because of course a lot of people will see it initially as like a new flavor of the month initiative. Okay, what are we doing now? We noticed that the first step L is the longest because it's there to kind of build buy in within the group. Initially a part of the group will be like, man, what is this that we're doing now? And some people will be excited Depending on the organization, more or less. But after like four weeks, usually everyone's bought in because they're seeing results. They're really seeing, okay, we're doing something meaningful here. And that one cycle typically would drive quite a lot of results. In fact, the second, entire second half of the cycle is all about communication, driving by and opening up people to this change. But it's not enough to really change the organization. And so you want to start another one and another one and just keep running, right? And within six months, three months, sometimes it takes 12 months. If it's, you know, kind of organization that's a little more resistance to resistant to change, you start noticing that like, wow, people are actually excited now throughout the fabric of the organization to keep driving those initiatives forward, coming up with ideas and solving things. And so it doesn't have to be like that itself, doesn't have to be a product of larger strategic initiative. It can be as simple as, okay, there are five guys, five, five people on the team. Let's roll with it and just spend some time together every week to, to find things. And the rest is sort of revealed by the step of the framework. Steps by the steps of the framework.
- [17:22]
Mallory
Okay, what do you think are like some of the biggest surprises, like when people go into this process and I'm sure they have a certain level of expectation around sort of what's going to come. But in your experience, like, what have some of the biggest like surprises been to companies when they've embraced this type of methodology?
- [17:39]
Matt Letta
Oh yeah, there's one company that we worked with with this methodology two years ago and we just had a meeting with them four weeks ago. I think we had a catch up. It turned out that the ROI of the initiative and that was like even the first clip that we did with them because then after that it's sort of stayed within the company and they ran it themselves. But I think the ROI was to the tune of, and I'm unfortunately going to approximate because I can't remember exactly right now, but it was I think 3200% on like what they spent on, on the initiative versus what they, what they calculated the gained out of it, which to me is shocking. Right? Like It's a huge, sorry, 32,000%, 320x a massive number in terms of, of return on the initiative. So that to me was honestly incredibly shocking. That's of course only possible if you have like a larger team. You know, they have a hundred thousand people. So it's, you know, it's something that where you can really see the difference over time. But it is something that a huge result and otherwise. I mean, there were many things that I found. I think that one of the things that I mentioned in the book that I'm sort of bringing in is, and I like to, you know, come back to that actually, because it's very, I would say unheard of in Western culture. But when I researched the book, I talked to people in Asia, Middle East, Europe and Americas to sort of understand the differences, cultural differences in innovation and practices. And of course people in Asia are objectively out innovating everyone else in the world now. And so I spent quite a bit of time trying to understand what drives those initiatives in China and Singapore and so on. And, and one person who runs a very interesting innovation lab that actually functions in Singapore and China and makes really old, 250 years old companies incredibly modern and data powered and so on. And I asked the founder name is Kenneth Thant, what's the theory? How does it work? How do you do that? And his answer was it's love. And I really love that myself. They have a great sort of approach and framework behind it. The mindset in very short is such for people to embrace change and to want to adopt new tools and to kind of get out of their sort of sticking to status quo and defensive mode, which usually means that we cannot actually embrace those new technologies. And for them to open up to it, they need to sort of develop a love for themselves to be comfortable and to develop that. They sort of need to kind of like heal out of their traumas. They essentially need to develop passion for kind of like themselves in their roles and then they have passion for work. And if they have passion for their work, they start looking to make the work better and so they start contributing. Right. And that's also baked into the framework. I, you know, can I touch on this in one of the earlier chapters which are in kind of alignment and dissected a bit and then back it with data as well that I got from some more Western psychologists. But it's sort of baked into the entire system. The point is to sort of see success and see that you are of it. You are part of this innovation, you're part of the solution. It doesn't matter what's your role at the company, but the point is you are a part of it and only then you can start seeing yourself. I'm actually worth more than I thought in a way. And that brings you forward. And for that I used like the hero's journey mechanism. So, yeah, it's a, you know, it's hero's journey. And the use of Hero's Journey to open up people, to. To change is also like another interesting thing that I found.
- [21:09]
Mallory
Will you tell people a little bit about that? Will you talk a little bit more about using the hero's journey in that way?
- [21:15]
Matt Letta
Yeah. So, you know, like, the hero's journey is a fairly new concept. You kind of like venture out for a journey, you know, you end up finding some darker times and some usually magical beings become your mentors or who would that be? And you come back stronger and then the cycle can repeat and that I'm butchering it. But that very high level sort of Hero's journey right there needs to be kind of like this path. And so in leap, and we've collaborated on this with some people driving innovation in London and in San Francisco. In leap, we structured that each step, each call, each week is not called a week or a step or a meeting or such. It's called a quest. And so you venture out with those people on this quest and it's sort of, you know, and we kind of make it fun. And together you kind of, you know, go get out there, find those things, discuss them, you know, what not are able to over time indicate around 25 different opportunities for innovation. And then you discuss them, you form alliances, you kind of bring them together, merge them and so on. It's a whole activity, right, that happened in a very short time. There is like a kind of rigid framework behind it, which means you can do it fast and with less cost, but you still have, you still kind of like go on this adventure, right? And then it comes halfway through, you've got this like kind of dark moment in a way, because a lot of, you know, you rate them or you re rate all of those initiatives and there is like a very, kind of very useful system for evaluating them pretty fast. Rather than dwelling for weeks, you can just do it, you know, in one week, in one meeting, really, unless you discuss things too long. And so many don't make it right. Like, you know, you have some opportunities that make it to the top and some make it to the bottom. And there's like an interesting dynamic around it and how you can hold as a group together to the fact that like, some of those maybe that don't make it to. Will not make it to execution, but some of those opportunities do make it. And then you've got, you know, usually around 10 kind of quick wins, smaller ideas that, you know, just transpired and you can do them in under a month. So they just get delegated. And so you end up having, you know, achieving success together and so on. And then you kind of like finalize with this, like, big sort of presentation of this to whoever the stakeholders are. And ideally, you get approval for one project that you've all aligned on, that will then carry on. And you celebrate. Right. And you celebrate often along the way. And so that kind of like, brings people through this arc of hero's journey.
- [23:48]
Mallory
Okay. I love that because it really, like, gamifies it for everybody, which is in sort of an exciting, exciting and inspiring way, which I think is really fun. Okay. I think there's a lot of takeaways for folks here in terms of how they start to think about digital transformation. I know we're at time. Will you tell everyone where they can get the book, learn more about you and your work? I'm really grateful for this conversation.
- [24:12]
Matt Letta
Thank you so much. This has been a pleasure. Yeah, sure. Just go to Leap Guide, L E A P Guide, and all the information is there. What's more, I've got the second book coming now and very soon, which dives. It sort of builds on the same research, but goes deeper. And it's a great book. Like an executive brief. It's shorter, goes over some key aspects to, like, really achieve really high roi, and it goes hand in hand with the framework. And previously, you would have to buy the book and prove to me that you have the book in order to get access to the tools and templates and the platform that comes with the book. But now I'm about to open it, so anyone will be able to access those tools for free as well. And the AI coach and so on. Even without the book, of course, the book lays it out in a bit more detail. So, yeah, Leap Guide.
- [25:05]
Mallory
Amazing. I'm not sure how you're having time for all of these things, but I'm so grateful and I can't wait for folks to go and check them out. And thank you for chatting with me about all of this today.
- [25:16]
Matt Letta
Thanks so much again. It has been a pleasure.
- [25:24]
Mallory Erickson
I hope today's episode inspired or challenged you to think differently. For additional takeaways, tips, show notes, and more about our amazing guest and sponsors, head on over to Mallorykson.com podcast and if you didn't know, hosting this podcast isn't the only thing I do every day. I coach, guide, and help fundraisers and leaders just like you. Inside of my program, the Pattern Power Partners Formula Collective. Inside the program, I share my methods tools and experiences that have helped me fundraise millions of dollars and feel good about myself in the process. To learn more about how I can help you, visit MalloryErickson.com PowerPartners Last but not least, if you enjoyed this episode, I'd love to encourage you to share it with a friend you know would benefit or leave a review. I'm so grateful for all of you and the good hard work you're doing to make our world a better place. I can't wait to see you in the next episode. The question I've been asked the most in the last five years is how do you always know what to say to a donor? And the truth is because I've navigated donor conversations thousands of times. Unfortunately I had to learn what to say the hard way. Live with a donor in high stakes conversations. It was uncomfortable, messy, defeating and definitely led me to burnout. I want better for fundraisers, which is why I built Practivated, the first AI powered donor conversation simulator built just for fundraisers. With real time feedback, customizable scenarios and coaching from your AI guide Coach Tivi, you can practice donor conversations in a safe, judgment free space. I want to help you build confidence, reduce stress and strengthen donor relationships all at the same time. Are you interested? Book your demo with me. Mallory erickson today@practivated.com demo.