Latest / The Scene Projects / Kevin Feldman on Nonprofits, Youth Empowerment, and Building Community Impact

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Kevin Feldman on Nonprofits, Youth Empowerment, and Building Community Impact · The Scene Projects

• 0:22
  Welcome in to another exciting episode of Real Biz.
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  I'm your host Bubba Starts, and I'm joined today by my friend and fundraising
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  professional, Kevin Feldman.
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  Kevin, welcome to the show.
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  Thank you, Bubba.
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  Nice to be here.
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  Well, it's a pleasure to speak with you again.
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  Obviously, my work with operation combating veteran suicide, I know the nonprofit space a
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  little bit, but you've spent an entire career inside it.
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  And, you're still helping nonprofits today to, you know, to hone in their skills on the
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  fundraising side, which I think anyone who works in this space realizes how difficult that
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  can be.
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  But before we get into everything that you're doing now, you know, as a professional and
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  freelancer, would love to get a little bit of your backstory out there and have you tell
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  people, how you started in the space.
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  Sure.
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  Well, I I appreciate it.
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  Yeah.
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  You know, frankly, I was raised in a single parent home.
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  And and so we were relatively a low income household like there are so many in The USA and
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  around the world.
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  And so, know, we had certain needs and and, you know, poverty was always something that was at
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  my heart even as a child.
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  And I I I was fortunate in that opportunities through work and education.
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  I started working early even as I was in starting high school, you know, had pretty much
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  a full time job and went to school.
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  And through that, learned a lot of sales skills, marketing skills, and after after high
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  school, went to college and focused on marketing and communications.
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  And I eventually wound up because, you know, my my family history over generations was involved
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  in the auto industry.
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  I'm originally from Detroit, Michigan.
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  And and so I I wound up having a job as an as an art director for GMC Truck in Pontiac,
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  Michigan, and I had a staff of about eight eight people at any given time.
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  And but during that time and even before that time, you know, was involved in volunteer work.
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  And most of my volunteer work was done in nursing homes, working with the elderly, and
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  and then I because I was raised in boy scouting, boy scouting was extremely important
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  to my upbringing, and I will always be grateful to the scouting organization.
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  I became a scout leader.
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  And it it just so happened that the greatest need at the time, because I put my feelers out
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  there and contacted the the local boy scout office in my area, and was a a boy scout troop,
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  troop three ninety, in the Detroit area.
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  And troop three ninety was a boy scout troop, one of the only one of the few in the country
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  at that time that served developmentally disabled and physically disabled boys and young
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  men and some older men, as a matter of fact.
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  And so I I I never worked with the disabled.
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  And so I I said, yeah.
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  You know, sign me up.
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  Let's let me give it a try.
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  And and I I I love the experience and was with was with the scouting organization with troop
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  three ninety for about about fourteen years serving as a scout leader.
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  Eventually became the scout master of troop three ninety.
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  And and soon after, though, working at at volunteering for the boy scouts, I always loved
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  horses, and I and I was asked by a local attorney if I'd be interested in volunteering
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  as a therapeutic horseback riding instructor.
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  And and so I I I thought, well, you know, by golly, if I get to work with horses and also
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  work with with children and adults with disabilities, help helping helping them to
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  improve by by teaching them how to ride and and helping them, I said, let's do that too.
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  And so while I was working at General Motors, GMC truck operation, and and I was also I, you
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  know, I was also volunteering for two great organizations, the Boy Scouts of America, the
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  four h clubs.
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  And and my my love and I was in my twenties at the time, my my late twenties.
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  I I I said, you know, Lord, I wanna I wanna do this as a as a profession, just helping helping
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  people.
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  And and so, you know, I I was single.
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  I didn't have a lot of expenses other than rent and and a car payment.
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  And I said, you know, I'm going to I'm gonna leave General Motors and go work for a
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  nonprofit organization.
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  And by golly, as I was representing the Boy Scouts at a conference, locally, a a wonderful,
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  young lady, Mary Kennedy, worked who worked for the Metropolitan Detroit Youth Foundation in
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  the inner city of Detroit, happened to stop by my booth where I was was one of one of the
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  people volunteering for the Boy Scouts serving at this conference.
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  And after talking with Mary, Mary said, Kevin, you would be ideal for a position we have
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  opened with the Metropolitan Detroit Youth Foundation.
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  Would you be interested in applying?
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  And I said, absolutely, Mary.
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  And and so within a few days, I sent in my resume.
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  I called Mary a few times and a few other people with the Metro Youth Foundation
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  eventually interviewed and was hired in my first full time job working for a nonprofit
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  organization.
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  And I was working in a program.
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  I wasn't working in fundraising at the time.
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  I was actually teaching young people in the inner city of Detroit who came from backgrounds
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  of poverty how to find a job and how to keep a job.
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  And that and and so, you know, I was a classroom instructor doing those kind of things
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  and eventually became a program director teaching teaching young people in the
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  Metropolitan Detroit Youth Foundation.
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  The the marketing, the printing and publishing industry, which I was really trained trained to
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  do.
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  And and, really, that's that's where it all began.
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  And from there, thirty eight years later, I'm still working with nonprofits, helping them to
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  fundraise.
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  I think it's just incredible and such a journey that you've been on.
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  And I love that you, even as a young man, were were engaged with giving back to your community
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  and and these organizations that had given you so much.
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  And we talked a lot about it in our discovery call about your years in scouting, obviously,
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  coming from a single parent home, having something like the Cub Scouts and the Boy
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  Scouts, and these are are so pivotal.
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  And I feel like those programs only survive if you have younger people that are investing
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  their time into it.
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  You know?
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  And older generation can only go so far and really to connect with younger people.
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  There's only so much that you can do now as a much older gentleman, right, to to help kids
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  that are, you know, single digits.
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  But love that you got into it early working with, you know, the the kids with disabilities
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  and these young people with disabilities and and that your path has led you now to using all
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  the skills that you gained over nearly forty years of working in the space and using it to
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  help other nonprofits, bringing that plethora of experience that you have in all facets from,
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  you know, working inside of the programs and being a volunteer yourself all the way up to,
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  you know, really leading these foundations.
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  And and I I think the hardest part is the fundraising aspects.
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  Right?
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  To to find the money, to do the good that you want to do, and maybe finding volunteers, maybe
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  a second or a one a, one b for that depending on the organizations.
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  But, I think it's amazing what you're doing now to offer all of that experience and know how
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  into it no differently than you were doing in the classroom offering your know how in
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  marketing and, communications to these younger people.
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  How would you say that you are a teacher first and foremost?
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  I I I would say that's that's a good a good definition, right, for for what I do.
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  Because even working with donors, I'm I'm really learning.
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  They're teaching me.
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  I'm learning about them and what their interests are.
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  But at the same time, I'm teaching them how their generosity can can make an impact.
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  Everybody wants to make a difference with their life.
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  You know, nobody just wants to work a nine to five, go home.
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  And and, I mean, even if they're raising a family, they they would love to see them and
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  their family get involved in the community and and help people.
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  Right?
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  You know?
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  And and so I am.
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  I'm very much very much a teacher, I think, and and I love sharing about what I do.
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  It's been great therapy for me.
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  You know?
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  I my motives my motives really, Bubba, were selfish motives.
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  I needed the boy scouts.
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  I needed the four h clubs.
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  I needed to work with people that were that were had had challenges in their life like I
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  had challenges in my life being raised in a single parent home where we didn't have much
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  money.
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  Right?
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  And and it taught me a lot about myself and and my experience in scouting.
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  You know, I the the scoutmaster that I had that that founded troop fifteen forty four, which I
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  which, you know, when I was 11 years old, I started as a boy scout.
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  That's the youngest you can be as a boy scout.
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  When I was 11 years old, I started.
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  My scout master was Ron Webster, a young father in his twenties who whose wife had just had had
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  a baby.
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  And Ron was an extremely wonderful young man.
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  I mean, he was he was he became my mentor.
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  I mean, I I knew very quickly as a young as a as a kid that that I wanted to be like Ron
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  Webster because there was no question he was a great father.
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  He was a great husband, and he was a great scout leader.
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  And and he sacrificed himself for his boy scouts, for his and and he he soon, you know,
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  he soon developed cancer after just a few years of my being in troop fifteen forty four.
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  Ron Webster developed throat cancer and mouth cancer and and would not give up his leadership
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  role in scouting.
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  He he he even on camp outs, we were very active.
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  We would go camping, and Ron reached a point where he wasn't able to even talk anymore
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  because he had had he had had his his parts of his mouth removed, his tongue, and he couldn't
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  speak anymore.
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  You know?
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  But he was dying.
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  He was wasting away, and and it was and it was tragic.
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  And he had this young family of his of his own, but he but but he managed somehow to his faith
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  in God, he managed somehow to to take care of his family, to spend time with his family, and
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  to spend time with the the 30 to 40 boys that made up troop fifteen forty four.
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  And and his in his will and we didn't know it until he had died.
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  You know, he he he he was a scout the scoutmaster right up until the day he died that
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  he he had asked his some of his top boy scouts to be pallbearers at his funeral, and I was one
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  of them.
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  And it was a it was a it was a great honor, a great honor.
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  And and it and it and it marked me the rest of my life.
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  And so a lot of what I do today, I do for Ron in his memory.
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  Yes.
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  An incredibly tragic but inspiring story, about the your scoutmaster, and no doubt, incredibly
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  moving.
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  And like you said, really set you on this path.
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  And I'm sure as you're going, you know, through college and, you know, getting into the
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  corporate world for one of the largest corporations, not just in your area, but in the
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  world and especially at the time when the automotive industry was much larger and more
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  powerful than today, that to work in that space where everything was about the bottom line just
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  wasn't ever going to cut it for you.
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  And I feel that you were born and destined to become exactly who you are now and that a man
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  as incredible as Ron being that inspiration for you, you know, had that impact to want for you
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  to want to do that for others, to to see the impact it had on you and to now give that
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  experience to others without the the tragic ending to his story, but to help others.
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  And I think that's just absolutely incredible.
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  And I'm glad that you shared that story with me today because that was something that
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  definitely impacted me in our first conversation when we spoke a few months ago.
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  Yes.
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  And and, you know, even even the wealthiest people, you know, major donors, just like the
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  regular mom and pop or individual who who works a nine to five and gives generously.
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  You know, their the thousand dollars that that that person, that average person might give in
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  an entire year to one one or more of their favorite charities, is every bit as important
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  as the Bill Gates or the Jeff Bezos who who who can who can write a check for millions and
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  millions and millions of dollars for, you know, one nonprofit organization.
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  And and to and, really, to them, you know, it it it it's not necessarily an act of
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  generosity.
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  You know?
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  A a $10,000,000 check, $20,000,000 check to somebody like that is a is a very small
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  percentage of their wealth.
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  And and the people I enjoy most working working with as donors are those folks who make a
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  decision.
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  They wanna make an impact, and they wanna feel that impact.
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  They wanna witness it.
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  They'll roll they wanna roll up their sleeves and actually get their hands dirty if asked.
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  Those those are the people who might give a thousand dollars a month.
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  I mean, I I I have donors that make gifts of $1,000 a month who make $5,060,000 dollars a
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  year.
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  Right?
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  Well, I mean, that's that's incredible to think that there are people out there that that give,
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  you know, 10% or more of their annual income to a charity or charities, you know, that that
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  mean a lot to them.
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  And, but there are, many, many people like that, and it's a joy to work with them.
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  And it's a joy to show people how they can make a difference and report back to them on the
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  difference that their giving is making in the lives of other people or in the the the caring
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  for stray animals, sick, you know, sick children, the environment, you name it.
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  There's people people have a heart for doing important work, and and not everybody knows
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  what they can do.
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  And they can they can talk to a guy like me, and I can help steer him in the right direction
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  to help him make a difference.
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  Well, and something you touched on inside of that that I think gets overlooked a little bit
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  and maybe by nonprofits especially because you're so in the work, and a lot of us are
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  volunteering our time.
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  And it's not that we don't appreciate the money, but sometimes we're not very good about
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  showing donors what their money is doing.
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  And not just the larger visions, but the small impact, the the big impacts that they're having
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  maybe in small ways and what that money is going to.
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  Do you feel like that's a big part of that, the communication and those skills that you have,
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  the honing them at GMC truck and through your collegiate, you know, career of of
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  communicating the good that's being done on a daily or weekly basis as it's coming in and
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  really building up those relationships between the donors and the foundations.
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  Absolutely.
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  And and you know, the and I think it it kinda relates back to the statistic, and I might have
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  shared this with you in our last conversation that, you know, volunteers, people who
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  volunteer with a nonprofit are are 70 to 80% more likely to give to that nonprofit, support
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  it financially, and they do, right, you know, than somebody who's not volunteering.
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  And kind of to reverse that, to think to think about the people who wanna do good.
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  Right?
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  And and maybe they don't have the physical bill ability.
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  You know?
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  Maybe they're they're too young, too old, or they're too busy with life, you know, raising a
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  family.
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  And they can't make that difference, but they would love to to be able to to be able to give,
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  some of their money and to know they're making as much of a difference as that person who's
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  able to roll up their sleeves and and and get their hands dirty and volunteer to make a
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  difference in their community.
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  And so that's that that I think is really important when it comes to telling those
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  stories.
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  Right?
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  That that and communicating with donors on a regular basis, whether it's and and everybody
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  uses multiple communication streams nowadays.
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  You know that.
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  You're in the communications field.
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  Right?
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  You know?
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  And and so, you know, people are listening to podcasts, people of all ages.
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  You you know, people are on the Internet reading emails on their cell phones, texting,
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  you know, and and, of course, watching, you know, watching their cable TV.
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  And so using as many communication streams as you can and using it with consistency, right, I
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  think is one of the best ways that that nonprofits, large and small, can reach donors
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  and and prospective donors and helping helping them to at least help begin steering them in
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  the right direction for, hey.
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  That looks like something I would like to do.
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  That looks like something I that would make a difference.
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  And and so so, yeah, telling that telling that story.
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  And once people start that relationship, continue that relationship by communicating
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  with them in the very same way.
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  You know, get picking up the telephone, calling them, making a personal call to them to thank
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  them, or just just tell them tell them the difference that their last gift made.
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  You know?
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  Most nonprofits while most nonprofits don't find that information out, it's information
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  that they can easily find out.
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  You know?
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  They just don't take the time to do it.
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  And and but it it makes a huge difference not only to the nonprofit and the money they raise
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  and the donors that they keep because donor retention is very important to that nonprofit's
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  bottom line.
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  Keeping the donors that they have and and adding more donors to them and growing the
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  donate donors to be able to give more and more every year is very important to nonprofit
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  growth and and sustainability.
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  But but telling those stories is extremely important at at at at, you know, giving know,
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  at at the donors being able to make a difference and and retaining them.
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  And and so that's I can't say enough about the importance of communicating and telling the
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  stories to donors.
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  You don't even have to.
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  There there there comes a point where with most donors, you really don't even have to ask for a
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  donation when you're doing that.
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  You tell the stories, let them know what their money is doing.
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  And in the in the donor's mind, they see that they realize that as an investment.
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  That money that money that they give is invested well because you're showing them what
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  it was being used for and the impact it made, an impact that goes right to their heart.
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  And that's that's the key.
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  And so that's it.
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  That that's that's those are the kind of things I love to help teach, I guess, as a teacher,
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  but but really help to demonstrate by working with the nonprofits more closely and showing
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  them how to do it and and helping them to recruit volunteers and hire hire people, that
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  have skills, and talents that could do it too.
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  No doubt.
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  And I think a great example of that, an organization that does a lot of great things,
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  that we've worked with in the past, the Make A Wish Foundation.
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  Don't know that there's really any, you know, anyone out there that's doing it better at
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  telling the stories and having that.
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  But it doesn't take a massive production or a massive, you know, pool of money to put that
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  together.
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  We all have our cell phones, and we can be telling these stories.
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  And, that's why I was very fortunate as I got into this, you know, media and communications
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  industry that I I was very fortunate to fall in with operation combating veteran suicide very
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  early to bring those skills to the foundation, to to be able to tell those stories.
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  And we're gonna be doing a lot of that this year as we move through the rest of our year,
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  and I'm learning so much just from communicating with you.
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  And I hope that we have a chance to work with you in the future as well as we continue to
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  grow and face challenges that we just don't have answers for.
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  So, Kevin, absolutely appreciate your time.
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  I know people can find you on LinkedIn, but, where can people find you?
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  Where can they get a chance to work with you to help their foundations and nonprofit
• 25:59
  organizations?
• 26:00
  Well, let me let I I'll tell you, but I first wanna thank you for your work with operation
• 26:08
  combating veteran suicide.
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  You know, I I think I mentioned to you to my brother Michael.
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  My late brother Michael was a navy seal in Vietnam.
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  And so I my I have a heart for veterans, and and it's great work you're doing.
• 26:20
  So thank you very thank you very much for that.
• 26:22
  Here's my email address.
• 26:24
  If you don't if you don't communicate with me via LinkedIn, my email address is help, h e l
• 26:33
  p, four, f o r, five zero one c threes.
• 26:42
  Right?
• 26:42
  The five zero one c three is the the the IRS nonprofit status.
• 26:48
  Right?
• 26:48
  That's a five zero one c three nonprofit.
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  So it's help4501cthrees@gmail.com.
• 27:08
  There we go.
• 27:08
  That's it.
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  That's it.
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  You got it.
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  We got it on there.
• 27:13
  Kevin, I I absolutely appreciate your time today.
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  I appreciate everything that you're doing for other nonprofit organizations out there of so
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  many.
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  The the service that you do for all of us and people like myself and our founder Charlotte
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  and Casey Roop will will have a massive impact.
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  And no doubt your legacy will be that of helping millions of people around the world.
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  And, you know, you probably won't get many trophies for it or much recognition at all, but
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  I know that's never why you've done what you've done.
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  But I I know that it is felt around the world, and and I truly appreciate your time today.
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  Well, god bless you, Bubba.
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  And, man, I tell you, I I I'm so impressed with your podcast and the things you do for
• 28:00
  veterans.
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  So god bless you and your audience.
• 28:03
  Well, thank you, Kevin.
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  I appreciate it.
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  It's truly an honor for me to be able to serve those that have served not being a veteran
• 28:10
  myself.
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  We all find a way and find our place in this life.
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  So thank you so much for your time again, and thank you for being part of the scene.
• 28:19
  Hey.
• 28:21
  You betcha.
• 28:21
  Glad to be here.
• 28:22
  Thank you.