Latest / We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits / 364. Habits of an Impactful + Innovative Nonprofit - Jon McCoy, CFRE, Becky Endicott, CFRE and Meghan Cressman

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364. Habits of an Impactful + Innovative Nonprofit - Jon McCoy, CFRE, Becky Endicott, CFRE and Meghan Cressman · We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

• 0:01
  Jonathan McCoy: Hey, I'm Jon.
• 0:02
  Becky Endicott: And I'm Becky.
• 0:03
  Jonathan McCoy: And this is the We Are For Good podcast.
• 0:06
  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.
• 0:15
  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.
• 0:23
  Becky Endicott: So welcome to the good community, we're nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
• 0:34
  Jonathan McCoy: So let's get started. Becky, happy Friday, and my heart is so full.
• 0:40
  Becky Endicott: Oh, my gosh, I know that, you know, we try not to have favorites on this podcast. But there are some nonprofit missions that we just can't help but geek out on and we had to bring one of them up to the table, mom's kitchen table here. As we're rounding out this series talking about innovation, we had to bring on new story.
• 1:01
  Jonathan McCoy: Yeah, I mean, okay, so if you've been tracking with our series, we've been talking about the habits, you know, that make a really impactful fundraiser. And we've been talking a lot about the roles of nonprofits, and the roles that we play within those organizations. But there's just something about the DNA that's different when you find an organization that's categorically doing something different in the way they show up, and the habits and how they build the infrastructure and the impact. And they're our centered, and new story, like passes all those get checks for us. And I remember when we first discovered them, which has been a few years before we started the podcast, I could tell something was different. And then we had the opportunity in an earlier season to interview Sara Lee and I wanted, we'll drop that in the show notes.
• 1:39
  Jonathan McCoy: Because when you hear them talk, they talk different. When they do talk, when they also talk about partnerships, they zoom out because they actually really are fighting for this big monstrous vision. And it just sets the scales to be completely different from the from the onset. And so we're so excited to have the next level conversation about this about how do you do this for your own organization? How do you zoom out and become this impactful machine?
• 2:03
  Becky Endicott: And how do you bake that DNA and everything that you're doing something that can be totally benign? Like stewardship? How do you come at it with a heart of innovation and you know, we love mindsets on this conversation. Today, we're going to ask you to get into a mindset of innovation today. And we're bringing in the big guns we've brought in Meghan Chrisman she's a senior director of development at new story, she is in charge of the entire fundraising ecosystem. And I want to give a little bit of background on Meghan because she just really has a really cool story. She found the world of development, through a conviction love this, that together we can create a more beautiful, just an equitable world for all. So as Senior Director of Development, she leads her team, which I mean, it's got major gift officers, it's got operations, it's got partnerships. It's got a diverse array of individuals. And she leads this team on this innovative high performing nurturing relationship within and with new stories, top supporters helping them achieve their philanthropic goals, and to build a world without homelessness. And so, Meghan, prior to coming to New Story, she built and led the national annual and major gift team at Teach for America. And she started her career as a major gifts officer in higher ed, we started in higher ed to. So on the weekend, you'll find her spending your time with her husband and three kids trying out new recipes or practicing yoga. Does this sound like our people Meghan come into our house. We're so excited. You're here.
• 3:31
  Meghan Cressman: Thank you.
• 3:31
  Meghan Cressman: Thanks for inviting me. I'm excited to be here.
• 3:35
  Becky Endicott: So Meghan, since our audience is just meeting you, we completely want to give you the floor. Tell us a little bit about your background. And what brought you to work at news story today.
• 3:45
  Meghan Cressman: Sure, well as as you mentioned, I got my start in higher ed. And I really thought my heart was in the end world forever. I moved from sort of the college university level to Teach for America, where I focused on K through 12 education in our country. And what kept coming up for me is that when your basic needs are not met, is really difficult to learn, right? Kids kids struggle, and in 2020, when COVID sort of rocked our worlds.
• 4:16
  Meghan Cressman: I don't know if you guys remember, but the school systems shut down. And I was a moment in time for me. Here's a moment in all of that chaos that I learned from our teacher, America's New York City office that 100,000 kids being taught by TFA teachers in New York City vanished that day. Because they were homeless. There was no record of where they were, where they were living, who they were living with and how on earth they were going to access online remote education. Teachers couldn't find them. No one knew what happened to these kids in that moment. And there was a lot of panic and a lot of concern and I just remember thinking as a fundraiser in an organization like, whoa, this problem actually is outside of the scope of what we do. I mean, how do we, how do we address something that big, and it really just was a moment in time, personally, I was looking for something a little bit different. And I started to just zoom out and say, Okay, I want to be a fundraiser focused on access to just basic human needs. Water, food housing, were really at the top of my list. And so long story short, over the next probably nine to 12 months, I started exploring what was out there knew that I wanted to work for an organization that was smaller. But also just working fast and working, taking big risks in in innovation first sort of mindset, new story just checked all of those boxes for me. And so I was really excited to kind of zoom out my personal vision to get even, you know, dressed to address what I thought was a, a core human need, globally and work for an organization like New Story.
• 6:05
  Jonathan McCoy: I mean, what a gut punching story. And I love the thread of it, too, because a lot of people because we've been spent our whole careers a nonprofit, somebody that's wired like you, it's so sad, because most often they leave to go to the for profit, I want to go somewhere faster, more innovative, all those things you listed. And so the fact that you are, you know, barreling at this and coming into New Story that is living and taking risks, and doing these big bold things is just so exciting, you know, what a great time to be part of this organization. So you've led me perfectly into where I want to go with this, because we feel like, you know, asking the wrong smaller questions is holding a lot of organizations back and not really asking the bigger questions of like, why are we doing these things? You know, this stuff? Why are we doing this stuff? Can you get us kind of aligned? What is the bigger question that an organization really should be asking about their work or how they innovate?
• 6:56
  Meghan Cressman: Sure, well, you know, at New Story, we dream really big, right. And there's also there's this sort of mantra around here, that's bold ideas, attract bold people and so we are very unafraid of boldness, and you have to be when you're an organization working to end global homelessness, that's huge. That is a very complex problem, a very expensive problem, a problem that's not going to be fixed overnight by any stretch. And so I think anchoring and being unafraid of that sort of the boldness of the problem we're trying to tackle has led us to seek out really the the root barriers, you know, we talked about root causes and problem, I'm actually looking at the barriers, what is what is standing in our way from solving homelessness. And so one of one of the things that, that we've kind of honed in on is that the fact that the problem is so large, there's 1.6 billion people currently living in inadequate shelter across the globe, that number is expected to double by the year 2030. And so you think about that, the scale of the problem, and the cost of the problem. Home is not a it's not a cheap thing. You know, you have a $50 donation doesn't doesn't give somebody a home, right. And so we need one New Story really, really believes deeply is that we need financially sustainable and scalable solutions in order to tackle this problem, and so everything is sort of pointed us in that direction. How can we be more financially sustainable?
• 8:29
  Meghan Cressman: Because there's probably not enough pure philanthropy in the world to solve this problem, but certainly not solve it quickly.
• 8:35
  Meghan Cressman: And then what can we scale? What can we scale through the for profit, sort of market driven forces? What can we scale alongside other nonprofits and governments. And so we are really about solutions, that that can scale and that can can tackle a problem this huge. The second piece that kind of stands in our way is the lack of in innovation in housing, particularly low at low income housing. And so we have just been fiercely committed from the jump, that the people who need an innovation most should get it first, not last. And so we work quite a lot to sort of test and prove innovations both in in housing products, but also in the financial market, right and in opening up opportunity for individuals living in inadequate housing, to obtain a loan to build a home, that kind of thing.
• 10:05
  Becky Endicott: I'm just so proud of you guys, because you're living this and everything that you're doing.
• 10:14
  Becky Endicott: And I think that's something that really strikes me as being unique. It's not just innovation with programs. It's not just innovation with the way that you're asking for guests, your operations are searching for your financial models. And this whole concept of scaling. Having a scaling mindset is a way to bake innovation in and then I kind of want to read something which by the way, we're going to drop this in the show notes.
• 10:40
  Becky Endicott: There's an entire innovation page on New Story or a newstorycharity.org. It's so cool. And you actually break down why this is a habit. And one of the things that I love the most about what you're saying here is it says global homelessness is growing too quickly for us to depend on traditional solutions. And so, and I think about that, with every nonprofit out there, if you're looking at a traditional solution, then that is an area that's ripe for innovation. But you also say, when innovation works, we share it with other teams tackling global homelessness so we can scale impact together. And this is something that we talk about a lot on the podcast is stop playing in your own sandbox, we need to democratize what we have, we need to socialize what we have. Because if our heart is really in where you talked about at the beginning, the systemic root cause, then the way we can solve that is by sharing it, growing it and scaling it. So I want to talk to you about some habits, and kind of some actions for success that foster an innovative culture. Can you pinpoint maybe two or three that your team really tries to embody as you're walking through your day to day work?
• 11:52
  Meghan Cressman: Sure. You know, I think that our team is really unsatisfied with the status quo, you wouldn't be at New Story, if you wanted to do things the way they've always been done. And so what I see a practice of practice across the board is just like, sort of ruthless prioritization. We have fundraisers on my team, we cut anything that doesn't raise money for New Story. I think particularly in a smaller shop, Sew Story is about 50 staff members now. But you know, I got coming from an organization like TFA, here we have 1200, or even even more 1300, staff members over there. And so a small shop, you get pulled in a lot of different directions, people talk about like, we're in a lot of hats in development, I really try to make sure that myself and my team, we have space to prioritize, we, again, ruthlessly cut anything that doesn't raise money for New Story. And so I look every day at my schedule and prioritize my day, what are the two or three like must wins? Where's the time scheduled on my calendar to get those things done? What can I delay, delegate, or just delete from from my calendar each day and each week. And so that's a habit I see across our team. I think that we are also just incredible learners. I learned something new every single day.
• 13:14
  Meghan Cressman: And I'm very, very intentional about that practice. And so it could be about a donor I'm trying to engage. It could be about the economy, this the state of the economy to help really inform my asks, we have a lot of donors who work in the tech space right now. And, you know, they're focused on bringing their stocks back up, right, it's, you know, we really just being, knowing what they know, is really important. I'm learning things about the complexity of housing, of the global housing crisis, every single day, about philanthropy, about managing others. Just getting really, really proactive about your content diet, I'd say what podcasts you're listening to what people you're following on Twitter, what articles you're reading. And then I would say anyone on my team who's responsible for hiring others, we make sure we are getting really, really good at finding good talent. I think the search for talent is just an underrated and underrated place to spend your time it is a skill that is that is underrated. And it's one that I make sure myself and my team are really, really good at.
• 14:17
  Meghan Cressman: And then I guess the last practice, practice, I would say that fundraisers, fundraisers on our team really engage in it's just like reaching out to a donor every day. It is so particularly if you're in leadership, you are pulled in a million different directions, you're managing people, you're conducting pipeline reviews, you're digging into your data.
• 14:38
  Meghan Cressman: And it's so easy actually not to just call that donor email that donor, text a picture to that donor, I find a reason to be in conversation with a donor every every single day. And I've tried to really use like our CRM and our data to help inform that. So I've got a dashboard who tells me, that tells me, I have a dashboard that tells me who hasn't been contacted in 30 days? Who are we expecting the payment from this month? Who is currently considering an ask, right? And I you know, it gives me reasons to reach out.
• 15:06
  Jonathan McCoy: I mean, there's a lot of different ways we could go with this. But Meghan, this is why we wanted to do this series is exactly why I wanted to do this series is because there's so many people looking at New Story and be like, I want to be like that. So I'm gonna start 3d printing my mission, you know, and thinking that that's the secret sauce. And like that's a really cool, innovative program that's come out of this mindset that y'all have. But it comes down to these daily stacking beliefs and behaviors that lead to that level of innovation. and trust, you know, among your team, so I'm I'm really geeked up, you talked about hiring and I want to give kind of platform for you to talk about that. Because how do you transfer these skills?
• 15:41
  Jonathan McCoy: Like I think that is a secret sauce that how do you attract people that think like this, but also like coach and teach your team to be like, Hey, it's okay to prioritize this, like you're in this zone, this is your, this is your task, kind of walk us through how you do that.
• 15:57
  Meghan Cressman: I mean, I think on the team, it's really about modeling, right? We, the leaders on our team have to model that behavior. And so we both we live it and then we look for it. And so what that looks like, you know, what I look for when I coach others to look for is just a bias toward action. We at New Story, we have a, we have a sort of another another mantra around here, which is rapid progress, even over perfection. So many fundraisers want to get things perfect. I would rather move quickly and have something else slightly imperfect, then move slowly and Miss Miss a big swing, right, miss, miss a big opportunity. And so rapid progress, even over perfection is a huge practice for us. So looking for people with that bias toward action, I would say we have another we have a core value at New Story called team of founders. And it's really just going deep on a founders mindset. We believe that everyone working here should treat New Story as if they founded it, it should be that focused on finding opportunity on finding margin to scale margin to do something better.
• 17:10
  Meghan Cressman: To eliminate stuff that doesn't work, right to just let go of things that aren't serving us anymore. And then you know, to take also big risks. So people with a really an appetite for risk taking I think is huge. And we've learned to kind of probe for those things as we hire.
• 17:28
  Becky Endicott: Taking a quick pause from today's episode to thank our sponsor, who also happens to be one of our favorite companies Virtuous. You know, we believe everyone matters. And we've witnessed the greatest philanthropic movements happen when you both see and activate donors at every level.
• 17:42
  Becky Endicott: And Virtuous is the platform to help you do just that. It's so much more than a nonprofit CRM.
• 17:46
  Becky Endicott: Virtuous helps charities reimagine generosity through responsive fundraising, volunteer management, and online giving. And we love it because this approach builds trust and loyalty through personalized engagement. Sounds like Virtuous might be a fit for your organization, learn more today at virtuous.org or follow the link in our show notes.
• 18:14
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• 18:18
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• 18:23
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• 18:28
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• 18:42
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• 18:50
  Becky Endicott: The first training is Wednesday, January 18. And you can sign up or learn more at philanthropytogether.org.
• 19:00
  Becky Endicott: I mean, all of this is blessing our hearts. Always let's be honest, we could not have scripted this better, because what you were doing, the way you're coming at this, I hear so many things that we talk about all the time, which is like trying stuff, failing forward, empowering people at the you know, at every level to feel that they have the power and the vision of the very top level, you just you eliminate walls that way and when you eliminate walls, you scale faster, folks.
• 19:34
  Becky Endicott: And that's what I think is just like the secret sauce of what you're doing. And I would even like, guessed that you probably wouldn't completely care if something failed, because that's just another reason why you've learned that that doesn't work in that way. And we're going to iterate, we're going to pivot and we're going to do a 1% shift towards something different. And I just think building a culture around that level of innovation is going to shift everything. So talk to us a little bit about relationships, you prioritize.
• 20:02
  Becky Endicott: And I love asking you this question and we've asked it to everybody who's coming on. But I want to know, what is the type of donor that you're going to want to prioritize that relationship and maybe a very unorthodox way.
• 20:18
  Meghan Cressman: Becky, that's just that's the perfect question for for the topic that we're on because, you know, New Story we are, we have built our donor experience around two types of donors. We have donors who fund our Our operations and our innovation and our research and development. And we have donors who fund homes. And we have incredible experiences for those donors, but we do treat them differently. And then it's not that we're we don't prioritize them differently, but we treat them very differently. And I want to start on the the ops side, we have a small group of donors called the builders, and they fund our operating and innovation budgets. We look for donors to join the builders, who not only have the the wealth to do so, the generosity to be part of this program, but also who share our tolerance for risk taking, who share our tolerance and our commitment to innovating. And so these donors, they go into this relationship, we start the relationship with a with an understanding that New Story exists to take risks, we exist to pioneer solutions to end global homelessness, and we are not going to hit 100% every single time, every single day.
• 21:38
  Meghan Cressman: Every single thing we try is not going to be some big, awesome, sexy, 3d, 3d printed house type of thing, we are going to fail a lot. And when we win, we win.
• 21:46
  Meghan Cressman: We're gonna win big. And so we look for donors that share that mindset. We prioritize building relationships with people who have that mindset that allows us to go in and ask donors not only to support our incredible team and our office space and our travel, but also to support us taking wild risks, trying trying new things, piloting something over here and starting a program over there. And they are just, we're just brutally honest about where where success comes and what we're learning and what challenges we're facing. And I think just going into a relationship like that, with with that, that expectation sets donors up to have just a really satisfying experience with with new story.
• 22:37
  Jonathan McCoy: The thread is so strong is that you have permission to move on from donors that don't value align, you know, and not. And it sounds bad, because we value everyone matters. That's one of our core values. But that doesn't mean that they're ready to go this long race with you. So you're finding those people that are investment ready, that believe in what you're doing, and it gives you the permission to focus in that area. Okay, so talk us through the second group, because I don't want to cut you off, it's so good.
• 23:03
  Meghan Cressman: Yeah, the second group are, our donors just focus on homebuilding.
• 23:05
  Meghan Cressman: Right, because because we fund our op X through this sort of core group of donors, we have every dollar you give to New Story elsewhere goes to home. So if you're a $25 donor and come to our website, or your $25 million donor, you can put that whole class to homebuilding, which is great. Those donors however, I would say like, there's no donor that's not important to New Story.
• 23:30
  Meghan Cressman: Literally every dollar does does help help the house. But because housing is so expensive, I think we do, we do tend to prioritize a major gift donor, a donor who can fund at least one home with us. And so we do we do a lot of employee engagement campaigns with our corporate partners. But again, that's the goal is to fund a home or fund a street or funding entire community. And so while you know as the head of our fundraising, I wish that we had a really, really incredible monthly giving program and a bunch of grassroots campaigns over here. I wish we were doing all kinds of stuff, or organizationally we have chosen to focus on on a major donor who can fund at least one home.
• 24:11
  Jonathan McCoy: Yeah, well, if you go back and listen to when Sara Lee came on, I mean, she was really transparent of like, we launched this monthly giving, and it didn't click yet, like we haven't figured it out. And I love that that's just kind of the ethos of y'all to figure out what's going to support, you know, really y'all's next step.
• 24:24
  Jonathan McCoy: So,
• 24:26
  Becky Endicott: Snd I just want to say that I'm going to put it out in the world, I think your major gift, your monthly giving program is going to be huge.
• 24:32
  Becky Endicott: Someday I really believe it will, because Millennials and Gen Zers love giving to nonprofits in this way. And I think you guys are just still building but I think the sky's the limit. I'm just manifesting that and putting that out into the world right now. Because I want it to happen as well.
• 24:51
  Meghan Cressman: I love that Becky, thanks.
• 24:54
  Jonathan McCoy: We're rabid fans over here. So I want to give you the opportunity to really kind of toe the line with some of these things that are set in stone and a lot of nonprofits what some do this not that kind of behaviors that you would encourage?
• 25:07
  Meghan Cressman: Well, I think one we've already sort of spent a little bit of time on but I would say don't spend time doing things that you're not best positioned to do. Right. Don't spend time on doing things that you are not best positioned to do. Do ask yourself, if the project you're taking on raises more money for your mission, directly or indirectly. And if the answer is no, don't do that thing. Right now I would say, Don't let a good opportunity pass you by because you found a reason to be slow. Just do take action, you know, a couple of them that you just run up in fundraising would be like, ask open ended questions don't make assumptions. I think so often we make assumptions about where some where a donor might be in their life, what what sort of wealth they might might possess or not possess that maybe they have a kid going to college and, and that the assumptions that we make us scared, right and make us afraid to ask for for something, ask for more. And so that I guess that we can make the last one is just do ask, don't be afraid. If someone is in conversation with your with your, your cause with your staff, it's because they want to help you.
• 26:19
  Becky Endicott: Well, that tracks completely with what Julie Ordonez said when she came on this habit series and talked about the habits of an impactful major gift officer. And by the way, Julie Ordonez, who is a major gift officer raising $7 million for New Story this year, and her biggest thing was exactly that. Like get your confidence and go get your ass in gear, and go for it. Because having that bravery. I mean, what's what's the worst thing anybody could ever tell us a nonprofit? No. And it's like peace, dude. Thank you. I'm moving on to the next one.
• 26:57
  Becky Endicott: Whether it's because it's not the right time for you, or because we're not the right mission for you. And that is completely okay. So I want to talk to you about KPIs because I'm just going to say this haunted me while I was a gift officer and nonprofit because there were really only four that I was ever gauged on. And it was how many meetings you have, how many proposals do you have? How many proposals did you close?
• 27:19
  Becky Endicott: And I can't even remember what the fourth one was, which tells me it wasn't even that impactful. So they're all driven on this model that I'm asking and closing, but there's so much more to that. And I am I'm just really curious about what are the KPIs that New Story looks at that you measure that you can see actually move the needle?
• 27:40
  Meghan Cressman: I mean, sure, right. Top line, if your organization raising money, you gotta care about how many dollars are raised, you have, you have to, but I think some like non traditional metrics, we we measure pretty pretty religiously, would be major donor retention, our it it just costs so much more to to attract a new donor than it does to retain an existing one. And although we are we are not afraid to let go of donors who don't align with our mission anymore. Not every donor is going to be a New Story donor, we do work really, really hard to provide a top notch donor experience in order to retain our donors. The other reason we work on really top notch donor experiences is another KPI which was which is around referrals.
• 28:26
  Meghan Cressman: We believe that some of our best donors will come and have come through word of mouth from other donors. Someone has a really, really incredible experience with New Story. And they tell their friend and they encourage their friend to get involved and to come to an event or to take a take a meeting with a fundraiser. So retention and referrals are big for us. I'm specifically focused on prospect conversion right now. How can how can we move somebody from a prospect into a relationship with us? Maybe they haven't given yet. But can we move them from cold to warm? And can we do it without our CEO? We're a young nonprofit, we're seven years in, our CEO is an incredible fundraiser, and to become the nonprofit that we want to be operating in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
• 29:18
  Meghan Cressman: We, yeah, we have to do more and more without without our CEO.
• 29:22
  Meghan Cressman: And so I look that's that's one that I'm like pretty focused on.
• 29:26
  Meghan Cressman: You'll love this one of my KPIs is how many big swings we take per year.
• 29:34
  Jonathan McCoy: Oh, I love it.
• 29:35
  Becky Endicott: Shut it. Define, define immediately.
• 29:41
  Meghan Cressman: We set quarterly OKRs, quarterly objectives and key results, and my team takes at least one bold, totally wild swing per quarter.
• 29:52
  Meghan Cressman: These have to be high seven or eight figure asks. And occasionally they land usually they don't. But every single time we take a big swing, we level up. We think creatively, we get really, really bold, it keeps us super sharp. It's like a forcing mechanism to tell your story better, to dream about what you would do with $50 million, because that's what you're asking for. So that's a
• 30:21
  Jonathan McCoy: You're right, we're dead.
• 30:22
  Becky Endicott: I'm dead. Shut the front door, shut the back big one for us.
• 30:25
  Becky Endicott: door shut all the doors. Because I mean, just Jon, first of all, you cannot go work at New Story.
• 30:30
  Becky Endicott: I'm not going to allow it to
• 30:33
  Jonathan McCoy: I was just thinking who is istening, that's happen. You have to stay at We Are For Good.
• 30:34
  Jonathan McCoy: going to be applying right this second.
• 30:36
  Becky Endicott: I know, just, can you imagine like, I even just think about what if one of those lands? What does that do?
• 30:44
  Becky Endicott: And I don't just mean to the bottom line, but to morale, to confidence, to doors that are open from that. I mean, I'm just geeking out that was a really excellent goal. I love that we asked you that question. What if we had never known that about New Story?
• 31:00
  Jonathan McCoy: I mean,
• 31:01
  Meghan Cressman: I'm so glad you asked. And if anyone wants to come work at new story, just send them my way.
• 31:05
  Jonathan McCoy: I couldn't help but notice Facebook likes was not on your KPIs of most important, you know, fascinating. But secondly, I haven't really heard a ton of talk, we talk about retention, a lot of times with this annual giving kind of band, I love that you're obsessed with that and major gifts. And I love that you've been having that conversation. Because, of course, like that makes so much sense and is about just maximizing what's possible.
• 31:30
  Jonathan McCoy: Okay. So the other piece with retention leads into kind of this idea of like, just sustainability. I feel like y'all are in it for the long game, but you're also being really bold in the present. And so how do y'all take care of yourself, you're doing so much, I want to talk about sustainability, the organization, but also sustainability of your people, you know, y'all are doing big, bold things and working with really hard mission at the same time. So how do y'all take care of yourself?
• 31:57
  Meghan Cressman: Well, I mean, I think for everybody, it's really personal. And, you know, at New Story, we are we have a Atlanta office, we have in Mexico City office, we've also we also have the ability to work work from home from from anywhere. And I think that that lends itself to, it could be a really, really healthy work life balance, really healthy, sort of working environment or unhealthy depending on on the person. So I think what I do mostly is just empower my team to take care of their themselves in the way that makes the most sense for them. I try to model that by being very transparent about what makes sense for me, and then doing those things. And so I am offline, totally offline two weeks per year cannot reach me, sorry. And I encourage my team to take the time off that they need, we have an unlimited PTO policy, and we trust team team members to just take good care of themselves. But as leaders across the organization, we're also doing that too, and modeling it for others. It's really important for me to be outside. So I take one call every single day, I take it from my phone and I walk around the block, I'm not sitting on zoom all day, I can't do it. And so my team has learned to expect that from me. You know, once a month, we're taking our monthly check in while I'm walking around the block, and I'm encouraging them to do the same.
• 33:13
  Meghan Cressman: You know, having kids made this easier. I like to always talk about setting boundaries between work and life. And, you know, there's lots of feelings about that. My identity is so wrapped up in my work that I wonder if I wonder what what a boundary would look like. But having kids, I have to sign off at five, I've got to go get them from daycare, I've got to make them dinner, I've got to give them baths. I got to put them to bed. And that's that adjustment to me was was challenging at first but now I feel like alright, I have this really healthy boundary. I am not online from five to 8pm I've communicated that to my team.
• 33:53
  Meghan Cressman: But I've also asked my manager to hold me accountable to that.
• 33:58
  Meghan Cressman: So if she sees me working between five and 8pm She's like, hey, what are you doing just checking in or she's you know, she is, she encourages me to take time off. She encourages me to take the the sort of take that that take the boundaries I've set and stick to them. And I asked her to do that right and so that that also kind of keeps me sustainable.
• 34:21
  Becky Endicott: You have an accountability buddy. I love accountability. Because you know whether it's children that ground you or whether it's just going home and letting the dog out, you need to like stop. This work is so important. We get it.
• 34:36
  Becky Endicott: We are with you. We are hardcore do gooders, we are in our 20s 30s 40s all the way up still believing that we can change the world but we got to create space for peace, for quiet, for self reflection, for pouring into the people that mean the most to us.
• 34:51
  Becky Endicott: This work will be there tomorrow. Proud of you for setting that boundary. Okay, I think it would be an understatement to say that you blew our socks off today and Meghan, but we want people to connect with you. We want them to connect with New Story.
• 35:05
  Becky Endicott: Please drop all the ways that people can connect with you online.
• 35:12
  Meghan Cressman: Yeah, so we are at newstorycharity.org or social handles our new story. I am at Meghan at newstorycharity.org I'm on LinkedIn. I'm not really on a lot of social media channels, but I'm happy to connect with anyone on on LinkedIn or or via email.
• 35:30
  Becky Endicott: And that's Meghan M E G H A N Please come checkout, Meghan. We'll definitely be following your thought leadership on LinkedIn.
• 35:36
  Becky Endicott: Wow, I really wish I could go back and 10 years from now and rewire some of this into my fundraiser mind. This was fantastic.
• 35:46
  Jonathan McCoy: So good.
• 35:47
  Meghan Cressman: Thanks, Becky.
• 35:48
  Jonathan McCoy: I started with full heart like my heart's like bursting at the seams. Thank you for this.
• 35:52
  Meghan Cressman: Thank you for having me. It's been such a pleasure.
• 35:56
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• 35:58
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• 36:18
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• 36:21
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• 36:30
  Julie Confer: Thanks friends. I'm our producer Julie Confer and our theme song is Sunray by Remy Borsboom.