Latest / Travel Agency in a Year / DAY 282 | How Travel Advisors Can Choose the Right Nonprofit Partnership
Transcript
- Rachel: Welcome back to the Travel Agency in a Year podcast. I'm your host, Rachel K, Travel Agency Owner, and I have this free podcast for you. Let's help you get past six figures, multiple six figures. Let's build a business. Let's build a legacy that bears fruit for generations to come. Rather than just creating a somewhat high paying job. 'Cause there's difference between the two. Alright, if you have any questions on how I can help you, head over to elevate with rachelk.com. Leave a comment. I don't care. I got links in my bio. What ev? Figure it out. Today is day 282. So we've been talking about giving more than you take, giving back, and the real research on like how it improves your well-being, not just a sit like a sneaky little system to be like, look at how giving I am, do business with me. Like, don't do that. Please be authentic. Please be sincere. I know there's a lot of talk. I'm going on a tangent here. There's so much talk about like be authentic, be authentic, be authentic, be authentic. Like the words authenticity, I did a whole episode about this. Authenticity is about yourself. Sincerity is how you work with others. So you need to have a little bit of both. Don't be selfish. Okay? Any hoodles. Discerning how to choose the right nonprofit when you have the capacity to start giving back your time, talent, and treasure. If you are brand newbie, travel advisor, and you're like, I don't have time for this. I got two kids at home, they got a million extracurricular activities. I also am like basically the stay-at-home parent, and I have to take care of everything in the household. Okay. That's fine. We don't have to give back right now. Let's wait until you're in a position to. And when you are in a position to, if you are like not heavily tied to a church, because like I realized, I'll explain that in second. But if they're if you're like, I don't, I'm not, I'm not a part of any church, I'm not part of any organizations, what am I gonna do to give back? That's what this episode is all about. When you're ready. Okay? So if you have recently been thinking about connecting your agency with a nonprofit through donations or volunteer time or just like some kind of formal partnership, we're gonna talk about actually discerning today. If an organization is a good fit for you. You can't just be enthusiastic about it. You can't just be like, I love cats, habitat for wait, that's not even the right PO. I love cats. I can't stop puffing. Therefore, I'm gonna volunteer at Habitat for Humanity. Alright, you can't well especially don't do that. I love cats, I'm gonna go build houses for people. That makes sense. But also, what is the other one? Habitat for humanities for humane society. That's that's my brain. Where's my coffee? Okay. But you can't say something like, I love cats, I'm just gonna donate everything to the Humane Society because that sounds really cool. And I'm gonna go volunteer there. And then you do a day of volunteering and you understand what volunteering there really is, and you're like, this is my nightmare. I'm building a house all the time. Okay, so A, do your research and know the name of nonprofits and what they do. Okay. So you want to have a sense of discernment when you are choosing a nonprofit, not just enthusiasm because it's like cool or trending or whatever. Or it just kind of feels good. The idea of it feels good. Or the cause, the idea of the cause feels good. When you are going all in with any kind of nonprofit organization. You want to make sure it's sustainable for you to be able to do it. It is aligned with your personal values, truly aligned. And you aren't building houses for kids. I'm not. I'm sorry. I can't wait to get the text messages from you all in the success circle or d teasing me about this because I'm not editing that out. Anyway, sustainable, aligned, and matched well matched to your business. Like, if you let me think. Let's say your business is like hmm a type of travel that for some reason is really bad for the environment. And you know it. Probably I mean, that's kinda I don't know, maybe you could do it to offset the fact that you sell horribly damaging to the environment travel. But there's a value behind it. I don't know. I'm not gonna get into that right now. Sorry. But if it's a poorly matched partnership It can end up feeling like obligatory for you rather than truly meaningful. and it will quietly drain your time, talent, and treasure from a cause that might not even be the one that's like close to your heart. And I really struggled with this. I like there were some that I was like huge fans of, but then when I got more into like the organization itself, I was like, like the idea of the cause is great, the execution is not what I thought it was, you know. So, questions to ask if you are genuinely aligned with a nonprofit. Number one, does this cause connect? Authentically to something that you personally and genuinely care about, like cats. Therefore, you go build houses. Not something you think would look good associated with you, the ego, or your travel business. Again, the ego. Okay. So matching with your authenticity to be able to execute sincerity to aligning with this cause matters so much here. Because your clients, if you develop a team in the future, they can sense the difference between a partnership rooted in a real conviction and one chosen just for appearances and maybe to make some move off. So ooh, I'm gonna tell you about my thing that I'm doing with my travel agency in a second. After these questions. Is there a natural, even if it's not obvious? Question number two. Is there a natural, even if it's not obvious, connection to travel for your specific niche that supports access to travel for underserved communities? Like I mentioned earlier, environmental causes. tied to like destinations you sell, causes connected to a population your niche specifically serves. You don't necessarily have to have a connection, but it makes the partnership feel more coherent and easier to talk about in your content. Another question. Before committing any real time or time talent or treasure, verify the organization's legitimacy and the actual impact. So, like I stated earlier, it was a legitimate organization. I was like leaning towards the actual impact was not, and I didn't want to spend all this excess time being like, you should do this, you should do that. Because I am the eldest daughter and I will come into these organizations and be like, do this, do that, do this, do that. And then they're like, we don't like different ideas. So a reputable nonprofit evaluation, like you need to get the res like evaluate the resources. You can do a guide star or charity navigator. let's see. Candid. That provides transparent ratings for nonprofits and financial breakdowns for the for like a big chunk of registered and NPOs. I say I hear it say NGOs. I hear it say Gosh. Guys, I don't know what's wrong with my ability to speak the language today. Anyway, but they'll show what percentage of donations actually reach the programs versus their overhead. 'Cause nonprofits are amazing, but they're also like a nice little tax shelter at times. So you can check there before committing to an thing. It's protecting both you, your reputation, and your actual intended impact. What can you genuinely sustain? Next question. Not just in an initial excited moment, but consistently over time, like a percentage revenue from your travel sales, a set number of volunteer hours, time, talent, treasure, per quarter, annual sponsorships. This goes back to episode 254, a nonprofit commitment that is not sustainable, will eventually get dropped. Which serves neither the organization nor your own sense of integrity. So here's how I eventually figured out how I can give back. and it took like 10 months. I'm still it's still in progress right now, but it took like ten months to really like sort out the situation and how I would do this. So, like I said, back in twenty two, twenty three, when I started really making like multiple six figure revenues in my travel agency, I was like, it's time to give back. And I couldn't quite put my finger on the right nonprofit organization. So I was like, Well, I'll figure it out. And I did feel a little guilty at the same time. It's fine. And I just like randomly donate to th little things. Like police fundraisers. Like those kinds of things. I'd be like, here's 20 bucks. If they were like doing some kind of fundraiser outside of a shop. and then when I started going back to church, I was like gosh. Okay, so I started going back to church in May of twenty-five or end of April twenty twenty five, something like that. It was after Easter in twenty twenty-five. And I remember sitting there and the pastor of that church, that the pastor has changed hands, but the pastor of that church was gone the first few weeks because he was at Pope Francis's funeral. Yeah, it was I started going back to church right around that time. And so he was off in Italy. And so it was like priests that I remember growing up with, like, substituting for him. And then he came back and one of his homilies was talking about Italy, and he would like almost like for several weeks in a row, this priest would discuss travel so important, travel's so important. I was sitting there and I was like, you know, I think the Holy Spirit's trying to tell me something here. And He talked, I remember he talked about going to Montgomery, Alabama or something, Birmingham, wherever Mother Angelica started EWTN there. And he's like, you should just go there. Just go there. You can drive there in like a day. He would just talk about travel all the time. And I was like, okay, so this pastor is a big fan of travel. And pilgrimages, not travel to like, let's go on a cruise, everybody, but like really expand your spirituality by connecting with all these different places where like saints and like the footsteps of Jesus Himself, where they went. And I was like, okay, so I emailed him and I was like, hey, I want to do fundraising pilgrimages, and I got nothing. Like I have an idea to do this, I think it could help the church. And it just came to me while I was listening to him. And then I put it to bed because I was like, well, there's no interest there. And then new pastor came in. And then I set up a meeting with him and I was too scared to break it up. I was like, you know, I have this idea. maybe. And he was like, what? Because even though he's just like a couple years older than me, I'm just like intimidated at the time. And then finally, I was like, listening to a homily from the new pastor several months later. And he was talking about when you're giving to the church, this is how the money is distributed. And I want you to know this, because it goes so much to the schools. Da-da-da-da-da-da. And I want you to understand this when you are giving. And that's when I was like, okay, I can do this fundraiser pilgrimage thing. I think this would be would be an amazing idea because at the time, also, I was in the OCIA classes and people were talking all the time. Travel, travel, travel, go on these pilgrimages. And so then I started looking into these pilgrimages, and no money was giving back to churches. It was just like, spend the money and go on this trip, right? And I was like. This is gonna be a long story, sorry. But I was like, how can I do this? And I found this company and I contacted them because I thought they were like a DMC. No, they are a very specific travel agency, and all of their money goes back to the Vatican. And I hey, I want to kind of do, once they explained that to and it's like, well, I want to do that like on a parish level or diocesan level. If you aren't Catholic, like a parish is like the church itself and the congregation, and the diocese is like a col a chunk of the state or a metropolitan area. So I was like, I want to do that. And they were like, no, you're just gonna be like every other travel agent that gets into pilgrimages and you're just doing it for profit. And I was like, well, rude. So then I contacted a supplier and I was like, I wanna do these. I wanna do this. And then I presented it to the church once I got it all together. So I was like, yeah, we can do this. And I figured out what my cost would be to operate this group. And then I did the numbers and I was like, if you have this many people traveling, this much will be Donate donated to the church from this one trip. If you have this many people traveling, this much can be donated to the church. I keep what it costs for me to keep my business alive, but the majority of it goes back to you. And so they were like, cool. So I presented all that and now we're in progress of like getting those off the ground. But then the supplier, who doesn't normally do a lot of the Catholic pilgrimages, emailed me and was like, we're doing these now. Like, if there's any other ones that you want to do, here. You just create a landing page. Like, promote this for everywhere. And I was like, my gosh. So That's how I've decided I'm going to give back, is what I'm saying. Long story short, for me, it's the church. The church is going to be what I want to give back to, but I don't want to give back on like a massive level. I want to give it specifically to parishes. And if a parish in a diocese is like, we're good with the money, we have a lot of wealthy parishioners, for example, then I would like to ask them. Well, what parish in the diocese needs money? Okay. Because some of them don't that they are in extreme rural poverty-stricken areas, and it's harder for them to get that money, you know? To just maintain their buildings, is what I'm saying. Not money so a priest can get a raise or anything like that. and to like maintain the schools tied to the churches and all that stuff. So that's I had to answer all of these questions is what I'm saying as I went through this process. So to recap the questions, I have them noted here, sorry. Does this connect authentically with me personally? Yes, that's what it does. And honestly, sidebar for the pilgrimages, I don't even want to travel on them because I don't want anyone in thinking that I'm doing this to get my own free trips. So there's that too. Next question. it's a legitimate organization. So I knew that. Next question is can I genuinely genuinely sustain it? Absolutely I can. I would like to expand it to like so much bigger than what it is now to help so many parishioners or even just anyone interested in a pilgrimage to be able to experience it and also give it all back. Okay, so those questions like that hit the marks, and it sounds kind of crazy. but I was like, okay, this is a way I can get back. So if you are genuinely unsure, start smaller and more flexible before you commit to something larger, something long term, something more formal. So treat it kind of like the soft launch we talked about from day two twenty two. So you could just volunteer like once or a little donation lets you experience what that relationship is on like a generalized level before if deciding if you want to have a deeper, more structural commitment. And again, tying back to my pilgrimages thing that I'm doing in my travel agency, I sat there for a minute. Like I was going back to Mass and was like, is this the parish that I like? Is this the parish that I I mean that parish my grandparents would attend because it was closest to them, but they weren't registered at that parish necessarily. They liked the old downtown one. But it was familiar to me. It the church was built in the sixties. I really had to think, do I even want to become like, do I want to officially get confirmed and revert and come back to the church for a while before I was like, yes, I'm gonna do this. And then I had to think about it. I got ghosted the first time around, which also don't give up if you really think this is something that would be good for you. And I had to just kind of sit and think and pray on it, honestly. Be like, why did that idea come in my brain if nobody wants to do it? And then six months later or so, during the new pastor's homily, I was like, yep, I'm st go back and ask again So Anyway, when you are discerning a nonprofit, choose one that's connected to something that you genuinely care about, ideally with some sort of natural link to travel or your niche in general. Let me think of some examples for you. If you're like, Bish, I don't want to go to church. Like, I understand. Let's see, nonprofits that link to your travel or your niche. So your niche could be your the client that you serve. If you aren't familiar, we're gonna go over this in a few episodes, but there's a three C's framework, the client, the challenge, and the covenant. So the niche that you serve, maybe you serve families. So you find a charitable organization that helps families. Even though it's not linked to travel, it helps families. maybe use your niche is educational travel. So you make donations to or partner with a nonprofit that focuses on educating some sort, like it could be a university, it could be your alma mater if you graduate from college, it could be your local schools. Like there's like so many things you can do in the education sphere. If you are into like accessible travel or dietary restriction type travel, you can donate to causes that help fund research or help move that like progress that movement. There's so many different ways you can do it. So, anyway, verify the legitimacy of the nonprofit, like charity navigator, look them up before you commit to them. And be honest, what you can sustainably give and grow into, not just what feels exciting in the moment. Start small before making a deeper commitment. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. You're like, girl, I listened to those crazy ramblings of yours for how many minutos? Twenty-two minutes. And you could have gotten it done in a five-second thing. But I like telling stories, so too bad, so sad. I hope you enjoyed my stories. We're gonna talk more about putting the client appreciation and the community on your calendar so it's not just a scramble during the holidays tomorrow. That was day 282 of the travel agency to your podcast. I said that too fast. Have a wonderful day. I will see you tomorrow.