Latest / We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits / 278. Social Fundraising: How to Find New Audiences + Grow Recurring Donors - Maria Clark

Transcript

278. Social Fundraising: How to Find New Audiences + Grow Recurring Donors - Maria Clark · We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

• 0:01
  Jonathan McCoy: Today's episode is sponsored by feather feather provides digital marketing tools and strategies for nonprofits of all shapes and sizes, including the Humane Society of North Central Florida. Stick around for the break to hear how feather power their $300 digital ad campaign that raised nearly$6,000 In just one day. Hey, I'm John.
• 0:20
  Unknown: And I'm Becky.
• 0:21
  Jonathan McCoy: And this is the we are for good podcast,
• 0:24
  Becky Endicott: 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.
• 0:33
  Jonathan McCoy: 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.
• 0:42
  Becky Endicott: So welcome to the good community, where Nonprofit Professionals, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
• 0:52
  Jonathan McCoy: So let's get started. Hey, Becky,
• 0:56
  Becky Endicott: welcome, everybody.
• 0:58
  Jonathan McCoy: So we're gonna have such a fun conversation today. You know, we're diving into social giving. And I feel like this comes up, you know, we talked about investing in digital. We talked about building a global community. But what are those things mean in the nuts and bolts of it. And it's about engagement, right?
• 1:11
  Jonathan McCoy: It's about figuring out how to talk to at scale, the supporters that we have, and we talk a lot of theory, but today, we're bringing on somebody that built her career and nonprofit that has worked at some of the most well known organizations around the country, but has now taken this turn to really invest in work solely on the tech to help you deliver what we just talked about, like the social engagement at scale. So I'm really delighted today to welcome Maria Clarke to the podcast. She is the executive vice president of partnerships and the chief evangelist at good united. And we're really excited to Yeah, it's a great title, we're excited to dive in and learn about good United today.
• 1:50
  Jonathan McCoy: But the decades leading up to her work now was based in leadership roles for American Cancer Society, managing first the local and regional staff.
• 1:58
  Jonathan McCoy: But then she went on and kind of led at a more national level, some of the events that we all know Relay for Life and Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.
• 2:07
  Jonathan McCoy: So she's been on the field, she has that depth of experience, until she decided to make this turn. And so today, we want to hear about this new turn and kind of threading your experience to of stepping into good united, which lets me just throw a number at you. They help power $500 million dollars in Facebook donations with their clients. I mean, this is an astronomical number. But it's not just about powering it. It's about figuring out how to engage with those constituents. You know, we talk about all the time, who are these people giving? And how do we stay in touch with them? Well, they've created the tech to help us do that. So, Maria, we're delighted to just pick your brain today and learn from you. Welcome to the podcast.
• 2:42
  Maria Clark: Thank you so much, you set me up so nicely, I really appreciate that. But I'm really excited to talk about, you know, my past and how it's helped pave the way for what I'm doing now. And the amazing success we're seeing in this in this kind of new space for nonprofits.
• 2:57
  Jonathan McCoy: Well, we're excited to hear it too. And we loved like the threads of of our stories. And I think that's where we'd love to start to just kind of take us back to your journey. Take us back to a little Maria stepping into the nonprofit sector. What did it look like and kind of walk us through your journey today?
• 3:12
  Maria Clark: You must have you must have no meaning I was lonely. I was very young, I started the American Cancer Society. I have a an amazing career at that organization. And I did start almost right out of college and held a variety of roles like you said, job. You know, I was in communications I was in you know, leading the DFW market and like as the regional vice president and operations.
• 3:35
  Maria Clark: And then the last part of my career, I had the wonderful opportunity to lead our nationwide portfolio of events everywhere, everything from galas, to our walks to our insurance programs, and so really grew up in that organization. And not only saw myself change as a as I grew up, but also saw the whole world of fundraising change, you know, over time, and the way it had to evolve as the world evolves. I was at a meeting recently, and we were talking about how fundraising is changed. And I shared a very old memory of a conference room full of index cards, as we were preparing our volunteers to literally go door to door and ask for donations.
• 4:19
  Maria Clark: Oh, so thank you for that. We're right
• 4:25
  Jonathan McCoy: next to mass messaging.
• 4:29
  Maria Clark: And now I have the amazing opportunity to work for basically a tech company, a startup tech company. We at the campsite like many nonprofits when the COVID hit us all. We had to scramble and we had to figure out some new innovative ways to recapture you know our constituents to give them a way to give. We couldn't do in person events to you know, keep keep growing at acquisition engine. And we partnered with good United when I was at the American Cancer Society so I had the opportunity to work with my now Boss is now the founder and co founder, Jeremy and Nick, to build the first series of challenges on Facebook, you know, when I was in my role at the American Cancer Society, so I really helped them, we built that product together, I like to believe that organizations did and, you know, get to know, the folks that are here, good united. And when some hard changes had to be made at our organization, just like many other nonprofits, I made a call to my old friends, I didn't I did it, we found out that there was a lot of opportunity for us working together. And so I've been really blessed to be here for a year now. And the biggest joy is working with a whole range of nonprofits, small to large, different causes different missions, you know, new old, traditional, contemporary, and it's been really amazing to find ways to help them raise money for their mission and engage new supporters for their causes. So it's been an absolute joy. Just like my time at the American Cancer Society was a joy. So I'm just a happy person right now.
• 6:01
  Becky Endicott: It's just so delightful to hear the winding nature of everyone's nonprofit journey. And I just want to thank you for your time and service at American Cancer Society. We love ACS, but I really liked what you said just about CO building good united, you know, and having these tech founders really partner and listen to the needs of nonprofits to deliver what we actually need, you know, our final core value of our company is that community is everything.
• 6:29
  Becky Endicott: And so we truly believe that giving in community not only changes the beneficiary, but it changes the giver to so I would love for you to just talk to us about social fundraising just kind of set the scene for our listeners about how they can engage with supporters, where are they are already spending their time on these platforms right now. I mean, you've helped raise over $500 million on social media. So how can people start to engage there and what kind of opportunities exist for nonprofit right now,
• 7:02
  Maria Clark: it's a really important time in the evolution of fundraising. And we consider you know, this time moving into social media as a third wave of giving, you know, was personal in person, you know, the index cards, then the advent of email, and you know, event websites really kind of changed the game because it created a new way to communicate and a new way to share information. But it was really kind of one way it was static, you were talking to your constituents, and any kind of reply to many days or hours. And it wasn't really a conversation, it was just an exchange of information over time, it changed, it really changed everything at the time. And now we're in what we call the next shift of giving, because we have the ability through social media, to have real conversations and emotional connections that don't have to take place in person. And that's very different. You know, I think most profit most nonprofits, you know, hire people who have the ability to create relationships. And that's really a sweet spot for many nonprofits, to be able to have the right relationships with your volunteers, with your event participants with your major gift donors, etc. And that was a, you know, an extremely important part of nonprofit fundraising throughout, you know, many, many years. What we're finding now is that people are spending their time in a different place. COVID really shook the world, because then in person, opportunity to actually sit down and talk to someone no longer existed, and nonprofits had to be nimble. And what has evolved is really an understanding of the power of social media. And we really think that this gives it like the highest use of social media is to encourage social giving engagement and good causes. And if you look at the numbers, there's so many people, I mean, it's hard to even document it.
• 8:55
  Maria Clark: But we know there's like 262 million active Facebook users every day. And we know in some of those other channels like on twitch or Tik Tok at any given time, there's more people online and then attend the Super Bowl every year. So there's this huge audiences who are choosing to spend their time, you know, on social media, so how can we connect with them, and create an engagement that used to be done face to face, but now is done where we're not forcing people to get off that channel and to follow a link and open a website, but we're talking to them in channel and this is really kind of changing the game of how we, you know, build strategies to engage with these folks. And you know, the one of the the old adages of fundraising is the number one reason people don't give to your organization. You know what the answer is, they're never asked, and when you have a whole generation of people, young and old, who are now spending all their time on social A media or that is a way they communicate, engage, we have to make that ask there, we can't expect people to, to come to us, you know, to find our website or to find our page, we have to find ways to engage them. And that's what we're learning, we can do very effectively, you know, here good united and using Facebook as a platform, and really finding ways to engage and start communicating conversations with supporters. And they're giving and they're engaging. And, you know, I think they're finding an emotional connection, just like they did it in person events.
• 10:33
  Jonathan McCoy: Yeah. And I think, you know, one of the drivers because my birthday is coming up at the time of this recording, and Facebook now, like is prompting you, it's like, Hey, your birthday is in five days, what's your charity that you're gonna pick? And I think, I mean, I love seeing that. But I will say, from growing up with this being a millennial, like the transitions used to be, you know, when we worked inside of nonprofit, I was kind of like, please don't run your fundraiser through there, because we weren't getting the data, and we wouldn't be able to see the donor list. And we wouldn't get all this stuff. And it's like, you never want to discourage people. But that's all kind of changing. I mean, things are opening up more. And none of that. This is this new era that can for the first time at scale, not only have these grassroots fundraisers happening, where people want to have that more, they're controlling that, but that we get to step into that space with them. But talk a little bit, you know, about how this can add stability, you know, I think we used to look at as a kind of a nice thing to had to do. But now it's like this could be a core revenue stream for nonprofits as they lean in and kind of embrace some of this technology.
• 11:34
  Maria Clark: Yeah, I love that you said the core revenue, because I'd like to see this as a new revenue stream. One thing that I want people to understand is that, you know, we know that there the power of peer to peer events, like the walks that we all have in the runs, you know, that took a hit. But I know many organizations are investing, and they should continue to build that up to where it can be. But you can no longer assume that that's how that's gonna be your number one acquisition tool on what we're finding with challenges on Facebook. And even, you know, really working with the the fundraisers to start birthday fundraisers, like you're looking at doing, John is, you know, it's a whole new revenue stream. And you have to build the infrastructure just like you would for those other walks, you know, you don't start a new walk without doing a little bit of research and understanding what's the best platform? And how are we going to staff it? And how are we going to, you know, bring those people into our CRM. And that's what we've been able to build at good united with our partnerships. Like you said, we are able because of our partnership with Facebook Mehta, we're able to get that data that used to be such a mystery. And we're able to get the information about who is fundraising for you? Who is donating to those fundraisers?
• 12:42
  Maria Clark: What is their story? Why are they engaged, and one of the most rich opportunities that we've been developing is getting them to opt in the messenger.
• 12:55
  Maria Clark: And there you truly have a one to one conversation. So we're empowering nonprofits to have one on one relationship with every one of those supporters.
• 13:03
  Maria Clark: And if you really look at the data, you know, email is still out there. But the open rates decline every year. And so what we're finding now is that in Messenger is 80. To 90%. Open, right, so people are holy smokes. Yeah, I mean, that's a huge statistic. So as we are, you know, engaging people to start a fundraiser as part of a challenge or, you know, start a birthday fundraiser, once we get them to opt in to messenger, nonprofits now have a new channels of communication, you don't have to take them off channel and put them into your email system, you can talk to him in channel. And that's where they're going to pay attention.
• 13:46
  Maria Clark: That's where they're going to open. And that's where they're going to engage. And so you can talk to them about your mission about other organizations or other activities in your organization. It's really creating a long term relationship. And what we're trying to build toward is, you know, true lifetime value people that come in, through a social media platform right now we're on Facebook, and what that potential can be over the life of their engagement with your organization. So there's a lot of opportunity here. And it's hard, though, I do want to recognize that it's very hard for organizations to make a quick pivot to this. And so that whole conversation about research, just like you would for an in person event is really critical, really thinking about how do we make this happen? What platforms you know, should we be in? Who do we need to partner with? How is this going to work with our IT or our CRM system?
• 14:33
  Maria Clark: You know, how is this going to coordinate with our marketing campaigns? There's a lot of questions to ask about this, but I think is absolutely a necessity for nonprofits to start thinking about it now and building for the future.
• 14:48
  Becky Endicott: I couldn't agree with you more. And I just want to say the power of the DM is one of the most powerful social media tools I love that you're recognizing message Are as a vehicle for this. And I would just challenge everybody that I mean, the DM is the way to get your message in front of someone, they cannot ignore that little red one that pops up on their phone unless they have their notifications turned off.
• 15:14
  Becky Endicott: But you're curious even when you see it, what is that. And we talk a lot in when we talk about emails, solicitation and engagement, that you have to have a welcome series and a warming series. And I would give that as like a pro tip to everybody out there. Think about your DM as a warming strategy.
• 15:32
  Becky Endicott: And is that a three part strategy because you certainly don't want to come in the first time you meet somebody, and just give them the longest post about what you do and how they can plug in. I think the beauty of social is the one on one humanity. And I think that's what's so smart about what you all are doing in your organization. Because if you can come in and say Hi, John, thanks for connecting with one tree planted, you know, you know, we're doing blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and people like you are powering it. I just want to thank you. And I'm, you know, Maria. And if you ever need anything you can reach out to me, I live in North Texas. So I kind of want to dive into what I think you were kind of alluding to in terms of why people are fearful because it's hard to cultivate online relationships, especially if you want them to be recurring. And we know that social media is just no longer this channel for one way communication. So how can nonprofits make concentrated efforts to sort of understand these followers inspire them, and really elevate the relationship? And how can they start even I would love for you to talk about automated conversational messaging that still feels human, and doesn't feel like that Autobot.
• 16:47
  Maria Clark: Right, well, and that's really an important piece that you don't want to be automated. But how do you manage that when you have a significant number of you know, Facebook fundraisers. And let's talk a little bit about that first. The reason why that good United is really focused on Facebook right now is that is where 90% of giving is on social media right now. And that is because Facebook has really figured out how to make it frictionless.
• 17:10
  Maria Clark: It's easy to give, it doesn't take much you don't have to go off platform and login to a website. Good United is keeping their eyes. On the future. We just announced a business partnership with metta Facebook.
• 17:27
  Maria Clark: So we're on the cusp of whatever's next in that space.
• 17:31
  Maria Clark: But also understanding that there's a lot of other platforms, but they're just not quite there yet in terms of frictionless giving. So we are encouraging our partners to spend time where it's working.
• 17:39
  Maria Clark: And knowing that we are on the pulse of what's next. And the beauty behind all that is when is messenger going to work on the other platforms, we know it's an Instagram, so that's good, but their their fundraising is, is not quite as frictionless as Facebook. So that's kind of where we're spending our time with our partners. I think, you know, one of the things that we'd like to say, one of our vision is to is to democratize the donor experience at scale. So like you said, Becky, making sure when someone does make a donation or start a birthday fundraiser, they're automatically thanked, whether they give $10 or$10,000, they still get that same thank you, and encouraging them to opt in the messenger.
• 18:21
  Maria Clark: And then we are platform a good United uses a combination of data science and human judgment.
• 18:30
  Maria Clark: It isn't a bot, we don't use the B word it is it is a an opportunity to have a more personal relationship that feels a real and using the cues that they share with us. So tell us more about your story. John, when you start your birthday fundraiser, why are you starting it? What do you care about? And from there, we create more of a conversation with prompts that helps guide you. You know, if you started a fundraiser, do you want some tips on how to do a better job. We work with our nonprofit partners to really address like what, what the mission is, and you know where to go for more help or resources. And we have a great relationship with each of our nonprofit partners. So if a particular question comes up that needs a true human response, it automatically gets taken care of quickly, again, so it feels like a real emotional connection and conversation. So I think that's been really good for you exciting to see that evolve. We get better every day we learn from it every day. We you know, work with our partners to make sure that conversation feels genuine and authentic to their organization, using the right words and the right responses. So it doesn't look like it's somebody else trying to answer a question. It feels like it's, you know, coming from them. Another really, I think, fun feature of what we can do in our challenges on Facebook is creating these communities around a particular challenge.
• 19:55
  Maria Clark: So I don't know if you've seen any of the challenges but At like a 30 mile walk in October for breast cancer, we use the magic of Facebook and their AI to find people who would have an interest in this particular cause or activity, we ask them to join. Once they join, we ask them to start a fundraiser and opt in the messenger. But that Facebook community, that group that's formed around this challenge has become another great way to create an emotional connection. What we found is that as people come in, and we ask them to share their story in the group, or ask them to talk about their experience in the group, it's creating a lot of conversation, that's human to human people in the group. We don't encourage our nonprofits to post anything from their organization. Instead, we want the users to really have the conversation. And I was shocked when I was at the American Cancer Society. When we first tested this, the emotional connection that I saw in that group was the same emotion that I used to see when I would go to an event, the sharing, you know, my mom had a bad day yesterday, and some will pop in and say, you know, this is what I did for my mom when she was struggling, or I can't get my miles in today. I just I'm just not feeling up to it. 10 people would jump in and say, I've got you, I'll do it for you. These are people that they don't even know where each other lives.
• 21:24
  Maria Clark: Yeah, so it's creating this community. That's no longer tied to geography, but it's also evoking the same emotions that you do in person. So people are craving this opportunity to be a part of something in a different way. And that's what I think, certainly the challenge is on Facebook, but I think social media in general is giving people community that they can truly be connected to. And now we can help funnel that into a cause that's making a difference for something you know, people care about.
• 21:57
  Jonathan McCoy: Hey, friends, this episode is presented by virtuous and they just happen to be one of our favorite companies. Let me tell you why.
• 22:01
  Jonathan McCoy: You know, we believe everyone matters. And we've witnessed the greatest philanthropic movements happen when you see and activate donors at every level. And here's the thing, virtuous created a fundraising platform to help you do just that. It's much more than a nonprofit CRM.
• 22:17
  Jonathan McCoy: Virtuous is committed to helping charities reimagine generosity through responsive fundraising, which is simply putting the donor at the center of fundraising, growing giving through personalized donor journeys, and by helping you respond to the needs of every individual. We love it because this approach builds trust and loyalty through personalized engagement. Some, like virtuous may be a fit for your organization. Learn more today and virtuous.org or follow the link in our show notes.
• 23:20
  Becky Endicott: Hey, friends, are you ready to take your digital engagement to the next level, but kind of feel stuck about where to start? Let us introduce you to feather feather is an amazing tech startup focused on making nonprofit outreach more impactful by connecting you to your audience wherever they are online, from fundraising to program awareness, they've got you covered. And rather than telling you we just wanted to show you for years, the Humane Society of North Central Florida has participated in a local online giving day called the amazing give. It's a competitive landscape for donations. So in 2021, the Humane Society knew they needed to stand out in order to maximize donations for$300 in ad spend their retargeting ads brought 119 visitors to their amazing gift donation page and generated nearly $6,000 in donations in just one day. With feather a small amount of ad spend can go a long way, learn more about their solutions for nonprofits@feather.co. That's feather without the last e.co.
• 24:15
  Becky Endicott: Now let's get back to this amazing conversation.
• 24:23
  Jonathan McCoy: I love it too, because it's less of a marketing strategy. And it's actually an extension of your mission, you know, like you're trying to natural? Well, yeah, and like if you're a cancer organization, obviously ACS is pouring money into research and all these kinds of supports or all these different outputs. But it's like, you're actually now providing this layer of community people facing cancer.
• 24:44
  Jonathan McCoy: And it's like, what a another layer of depth, your story and engagement, and it's kind of all in there together. So I think that's really powerful. You kind of mentioned people opting into Messenger, and another is a very tactical type question, but I think it's really critical. What does that open up from your standpoint? You know, when they opt in, what does it look like when you toggle that over?
• 25:03
  Jonathan McCoy: Because I'm just thinking, the coaching that can happen if you're running a fundraiser, the difference of someone that just start something versus having encouragement and ideas and inspiration and all that stuff.
• 25:13
  Jonathan McCoy: So we talk about the opt in and kind of how you can advocate for that and what it unlocks.
• 25:18
  Maria Clark: It's really a key part of what we're trying to do so we can again, empower those nonprofits to really have that one to one relationship. The key is through messenger. And so you know, it's intuitive to the action that the participant is taking, we call it one click. If you Used to be a part of a fundraiser, you just click, it's one click, it sets it up for you your names up there, the pictures up there, your goal is set your date parameters set, you know, it's easy for people to get started. But the coaching and using messenger is really a way to, again, reacting to what the participants respond to with the next level of coaching or the next messaging. After the challenge is over, we, you know, reach out back to them and ask about continued communication and messenger, you have to get permissions from Facebook. And so there's a whole range, you know, how they want to stay engaged. And then you can also use that same group to reach out periodically throughout the year in between challenges. And what we're finding is that a lot of participants are choosing to, to repeat their activity, whether it's year over year, like joining the same challenge, or starting a fundraiser midway through, because it's their birthday, or realizing that you know what, that's another challenge I want to be a part of, I'm going to do that one too. So just having the opportunity to ask them to stay engaged. And giving them options is another way to use messenger to really, you know, keep these individuals engaged just like you would through email in the past or mail or, you know, event participation. So really finding a way to replicate what we know are best practices in fundraising by doing it and channel on social media, where people are, you know, don't have to, you know, take seven clicks to get to what you want them to do. I call it the whole, the whole Amazon generation, you know, my kids are my kids are raised like two clicks, and they get what they want, and it's paid for. And so when you don't have that for fundraiser, like, Oh, my God, this is crazy. This is too hard. I'm not doing this.
• 27:17
  Becky Endicott: Yeah. And I just think about like, the data that's sitting in our CRM of our nonprofits and it, you have to extract it, for it to speak to you. And I think social media is so much easier because these prompts come up and these notifications, and they kind of give you these triggers, it's so much easier. And I have to tell you had me at one click, you know it one click, that's what people want. They want ease of use to be so simple and frictionless. We talk about this a lot on websites, it's like, if you have a website, and it's in, you have a gift button, it should literally be one click for somebody to click and give, it's got to be that simple. We don't want to make them work for this. And so I'm really curious about case studies. I mean, you're you're doing such a great job of capturing these new audiences through these phases with challenges. Give us some examples of who's doing this well, that we could look at and kind of maybe even go and see how we could get some inspiration from their success.
• 28:14
  Maria Clark: Now, we actually have quite a few case studies on our website, if you go to good united.io. It's a, you know, obviously good United's website.
• 28:22
  Maria Clark: But we have some case studies from No Kid Hungry and American Indian College Fund and the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen. There's been a lot of successes with some of our partners, American Indian college fund was an amazing test for us, we raised four times the amount that we thought we could over 300,000 knowledge for them in one challenge. And it was just absolutely incredible to see once, you know, the algorithm of putting the engagement ads out there found people who have an interest in this topic, and it really motivated them to fundraise. And they have been blown away by the new constituents who have come in through this challenge.
• 29:04
  Maria Clark: Similar to most of our partners, when you embark on these challenges on Facebook, 80 to 90%, are new to the organization. I believe, again, I believe it didn't believe it.
• 29:16
  Maria Clark: When I was at my old organization, I was like, There's no way in the world.
• 29:22
  Maria Clark: We've got everybody, we now involved in our events and activities, there's no way and I'll be darned if when we compared it to our donor file.
• 29:28
  Maria Clark: So it's really finding people that you again, have didn't even know were out there didn't know existed, but you're now have the opportunity to ask them to support your cause and engage with them in a different way.
• 29:42
  Jonathan McCoy: That stat of you know, 80 to 90% are new to your organization. One of our values is that we want to grow believers, not just donors, because yes, we feel like the believers are going to activate and so these aren't people that are going to trigger it, maybe they only gave 10 bucks, and that got them in the door. But what I think this speaks to really intentionally is, what's your follow up strategy, because some of these people are going to give because they like Becky and Becky is hosting a fundraiser. They don't really care about the mission. Exactly.
• 30:07
  Jonathan McCoy: In this case. Some of these people are going to get involved because maybe they heard about it. But it's like you have this window to help transact them from this transactional gift to become a believer. And if they come in, what is that going to unlock for future fundraisers and future advocacy and future sharing? So I just think that the follow up is so important and knowing that stat should empower us all to know what's the plan after the campaign is over. Or right you know, after they've made their left. And so I don't know if that's something that y'all lean into. But I'd love for you just have a chance to riff on the follow up of donors and the criticalness of that.
• 30:41
  Maria Clark: Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, I keep hounding on Messenger. But that is the easiest way to make this not transactional. So when you when we can when, you know, we can work with a nonprofit to get more people to opt in the messenger, it starts an immediate conversation, and an immediate way to share with them. Now, not everyone opts into messenger and so but we are able to collect emails, and we are able to collect, you know, information about who has donated. And I'll tell you, that is a real challenge that we are working with our partners on, it's not easy, just flip a switch, and now be able to say, Okay, now they're all in our email system, and are all works.
• 31:20
  Maria Clark: Well, number one is how to get the information into your system. So we did create an API, we're almost complete with it, where we can do a data dump into your CRM system. But I have found that most of our partners, it's it takes a lot of work to figure out exactly how to identify where they came in from, is it the same message? Do you give them the same message that you give a normal person that you put into your email communication strategy? Is there a different message, so it's taking a lot of work. But again, goes back to what we talked about the top of our conversation is, we've got to start building those strategies now. Because this space is only going to grow and get bigger and the potential audience out there is massive, we got to start now so that you're poised and ready when the next platform comes on, or the technology changes, or you have the ability to, you know, take on a pilot or invest in this space. Because it takes some time, it takes some time.
• 32:20
  Maria Clark: And the more complex your organization, you know, the more departments you have, who have a say and who have to be at the table. And you bet you've worked with nonprofits enough to know that it just it's not the quickest adoption.
• 32:39
  Becky Endicott: Slow moving industry, but I have optimism that, you know, just through embracing tech and innovation, and just anything digital, we can elevate so much faster. And I just love that we're having this conversation, because it gives me a chance to just say the thing that is becoming so trite, which is your nonprofit is no longer just a physical organization, you are now a digital company. You're a digital mission. And we have to operate in a digital world if we're going to thrive and survive. So I've really liked this conversation. And, you know, we believe so much in the heart of storytelling, and I love that you brought that up and how we're connecting digitally online and even in the social channels. Do you have a moment of philanthropy that is personally changed you a story where you saw something incredible happen, and it changed your life? I mean, that could be with good United it could be with ACS, it could be when you were growing up, do you have one of those you would share with our community?
• 33:38
  Maria Clark: Well, I have to say if I have to So one harkens back to my time at the American Cancer Society, I was leading the organization in the Dallas Fort Worth area, and we worked so very hard to create a Hope Lodge. Hope Lodge is a home away from home for cancer patients who have to travel and for treatment. And we provide lodging, free of charge for a patient and their caregiver when they come into town. And it was truly a labor of love for me to build that from the ground up in Dallas. And I'll be darned. But they opened that Hope Lodge three or four months after I left the organization, but they were gracious and included me in all of that in the grand opening and the you know, the tours of the center. And it's absolutely beautiful and wonderful. So any listeners who live in the Dallas Fort Worth area, go downtown Dallas and find the Hope Lodge there. It's a beautiful facility and it's already serving so many cancer patients and that that really touched me when I was able to visit the completed project and to see how much the community has supported that and what a beautiful gift it is for the city of Dallas and the pink cancer patients that travel there. So that was meaningful to me. And then we're most recently, over the holidays. We have a we have a podcast called nonprofit innovators, and we did a series called The 12 Days of Giving where we highlighted 12 different fundraisers who had participated in a Facebook challenge. And I talked to Tom.
• 35:13
  Maria Clark: He was a retired gentleman. He was absolutely beautiful, lovely man, and had participated in a swim challenge. His wife had died of multiple, multiple sclerosis a few months ago, and he had been quite lonely and lost and he decided as a swimmer himself to join the swim team challenge. And what he found was a community of people that he cared about and they cared about, about him. He posted that he was participating in the swim challenge. And he wanted to dedicate his daily swim to someone different every day. And he said the outpouring of people that supported him and asked him to swim for them came from all over. Kids who used to coach when he was younger, family members from far away people he didn't even know and it was so moving to him. And it, I'm gonna start crying right now. But it really brought him back, he was very lonely after his wife passed away. And it just really showed me the strength of community that you can find online, it really changed him.
• 36:23
  Maria Clark: And he was brave to share his story, he ended up raising over$20,000 for the American Cancer Society. It was absolutely amazing. But he didn't even it was all about what he was able to do for other people, and how we could, you know, take his passion swimming, find a community that supported him and give him joy again, after his wife had passed. So that was really meaningful to me, to hear how much an online social media connection changed his life.
• 36:51
  Jonathan McCoy: Marie, I just think like, that's what's at stake when we, you know, push off innovation push off, you know, opening up these channels for support of just this level of engagement and depth, you know, what a beautiful testimony to the power of pulling all these things, threading them all together, and the small things that add up to something really meaningful and gives you incredible touchpoints. Yeah, to share, you know, of how your mission is actually getting carried out. So I just love that story so much. That's
• 37:20
  Maria Clark: great. You know, and I do think that we need to give nonprofits give them the respect for how hard this is to change your organization and adopt something new, it really goes back to the foundation of you know, do your volunteers understand it do the right board members, you know, who can really help push innovation?
• 37:39
  Maria Clark: Have you thought about how to invest in this and take risks that you normally? You know, like you said, in the very beginning, this scarcity mindset is so prevalent, because you're just always so limited. So it's not easy for nonprofits to do this. And I give a lot of credit for those that have been able to really push the envelope and try something new, and convince the organizations to take a little bit of a risk. COVID helped a little bit, because we all had to do something different. But I've seen many that I've continued to embrace that mindset. And I think it's I just don't think we should ever minimize how hard it really is to change when you just don't have unlimited funds to test things.
• 38:23
  Becky Endicott: Yeah, thank you for saying that. Because I do think that that is important to hold court for this is not within a lot of people's comfort zone, it's not within their skill set. And so if you're feeling that overwhelmed feeling in this conversation, I would just say start small start, start by doing one campaign, find one volunteer start very small. But the other thing you said that I think was so smart, is make sure that you're socializing this strategy online with your people. And I don't just mean your staff, your volunteers, your board your donors, let them be a part of this, find a way to pull them into the conversation if they're doing nothing more than just being a hype person, you know, cheering on gifts as they come in sharing in thank yous, I definitely think that there is a stewardship and engagement strategy for people who are interested. And I will tell you, this is a really good space. If you have a young professionals board within your group, right?
• 39:22
  Becky Endicott: People are savvy online, they know how to navigate it. It's like pour into that give him one or two directives and make this community it is social engagement. It is social fundraising, it is all about social. And I just want to say that that story that you shared about Tom was just so great, because as he's working through, you know, this season of life and change, he's bringing in other people, I love the honoring someone each day because I honestly think of it as as a touch point and a seed that's planted in his journey with every single person. And I don't think we're telling people that we love in our life, what they mean to us enough. And when we do and when we do it publicly. The response to that is so heartfelt and warm. And I think that could be another strategy as well. So thank you for all of this. Lots of great tips. Yeah, you know, we want to know, we end all of our conversations with one good thing and we're wondering what your one good thing would be that you would offer to our audience, whether it's a hack or a quote or life tip. What have you got for summer?
• 40:28
  Maria Clark: Yeah, I think it's just what we talked about in the last couple of minutes is try to take a step back weigh from your day to day and think, think big.
• 40:34
  Maria Clark: Think different. I realized, when I made a huge transition in my life, from nonprofit, the for profit, how much my blinders had been been on me, you know, you get so busy in your heads down and you're buried in your work, which is very important work because you take your responsibility so seriously, but I don't think I took the time to step back and gave myself the breathing room to really think differently. And I think we all could benefit from that every nonprofit is exceptional on a run terrific and what they're good at, but there's always something new you can learn. And so you have to take the time to recognize that you don't know everything. You you aren't, aren't being as curious as you could be. And there are some new things out there that you can learn. And so that was a life lesson I learned over the past year, there's so much new that I hadn't thought about in years, and I just never took the time.
• 41:34
  Maria Clark: Because I was so you know, heads down with what I needed to do.
• 41:37
  Maria Clark: And I probably would have been better had I open my eyes a little bit, took a break every once in a while. Got outside my comfort zone and learn something new.
• 41:47
  Jonathan McCoy: Okay, how can everyone connect with you? This has been a delight. Maria, where are you online? Where is good united? How can we connect people to you?
• 41:55
  Maria Clark: Great, yeah, I'd love to. My email is so easy.
• 41:57
  Maria Clark: It's Maria at good united.io.
• 41:57
  Maria Clark: Our website is the same good united.io. I'm on LinkedIn, pretty easy name to remember, Maria Clark. But I would love to talk to anybody. And even if you are not ready to partner with us, we have some great resources just about how to up your game and social media. You know, we didn't even talk about so many other platforms with live streaming and gaming. And I'd just love to talk to you about it and helping help you learn more about it and get you you know, in touch with other people and you know, other industries and platforms that just take the time to connect with me, I'm happy to talk anytime I'll be at a number of conferences this year. So look for me, peer to peer conference, and you know, hopefully a couple other ones throughout the year. But I'm always available to visit with anyone with you have an interest in talking, I'm here for you.
• 42:51
  Becky Endicott: Well, I just want to thank you for this really rich conversation. And I want to thank you for building tech that connects. You know, humanly, this is important work.
• 43:01
  Becky Endicott: And there are people that are waiting to be connected to your mission. They're waiting to hear the story. And I think that not only is it going to improve your mission, but it's going to improve their life to be connected to you. So take a little step today. Listen to what Maria said, go check out all these great resources that good united and we'll throw them in the show notes too. So easy to find. Thanks for joining us, Maria. I really appreciate it.
• 43:24
  Maria Clark: Thank you so much.
• 43:24
  Maria Clark: I really enjoyed it.
• 43:27
  Julie Confer: Hey, friends, thanks so much for being here.
• 43:29
  Julie Confer: Did you know we create a landing page for each podcast episode with helpful links, freebies and even sharable GFX Be sure to check it out at the link in this episode's description. You probably hear it in our voices but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you achieve more for your mission than ever before. We'd love for you to join our good community. It's free and you can think of it as the after party to each podcast episode. You can sign up today at we are for good.com backslash Hello. One more thing If you loved what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating and review? It means the world to us and your support helps more people find our community.
• 44:00
  Julie Confer: Thanks friends. I'm our producer Julie confer and our theme song is sunray by Remy Boris boom