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Community DC Matt Gayer Spur Local · Community D.C.

0:04
Speaker 1: Good morning and welcome to another edition of Community DC.
0:07
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Dennis Glasgow. This morning, we welcome to
0:09
Speaker 1: the program for the first time, Matt Geyer. He is
0:11
Speaker 1: the executive director for Spur Local, formerly known as Cadillac
0:15
Speaker 1: for Philanthropy in Greater Washington, connecting donors and volunteers with
0:19
Speaker 1: trusted small team nonprofits in Greater Washington, DC, Maryland, and
0:23
Speaker 1: the Virginia regions. We cover a lot of ground over
0:25
Speaker 1: the next 30 minutes with Matt, so I hope you
0:27
Speaker 1: enjoy the conversation as much as I did.
0:29
Speaker 2: Good morning, Matt. Morning. How are you?
0:31
Speaker 1: I'm great. It's great to have you aboard Community DC
0:33
Speaker 1: for the first time and Spur Local. I kind of
0:35
Speaker 1: set the table on the intro just a second ago.
0:38
Speaker 1: But what I want to do for our listeners right now,
0:40
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people maybe have heard of
0:41
Speaker 1: Spur Local, and I know you did a rebrand, and
0:43
Speaker 1: I want to talk about that for 2023. But can
0:46
Speaker 1: you go over the original history? Because it goes back
0:48
Speaker 1: 20 plus years, right, to how everything started. Can you
0:50
Speaker 1: kind of give everybody a clue of how it all
0:52
Speaker 1: started up?
0:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we were originally founded as Catalog for Philanthropy,
0:57
Speaker 3: and folks still know us by that name sometimes, a 20-plus.
1:01
Speaker 2: Year brand, still pretty well known.
1:04
Speaker 3: But we got started back in 2003 by a family philanthropist.
1:08
Speaker 3: She was taking over her father's family foundation, trying to
1:12
Speaker 3: find local organizations to support.
1:15
Speaker 2: And realized... She didn't know where to look. Right. There
1:18
Speaker 2: wasn't really a guide to that.
1:20
Speaker 3: Didn't know how to know what organizations were trustworthy, what
1:23
Speaker 3: organizations were out there. And especially those organizations that didn't
1:26
Speaker 3: have a huge marketing budget.
1:28
Speaker 2: Right.
1:28
Speaker 3: They don't have the five person marketing team. They don't
1:30
Speaker 3: have the kind of splashy website or a billboard downtown.
1:34
Speaker 3: Wanted to be able to support those local groups, really
1:36
Speaker 3: create that opportunity for access.
1:39
Speaker 2: But didn't know how to find them.
1:40
Speaker 3: And that really kind of that desire to put a
1:43
Speaker 3: spotlight on the good work happening locally is what got
1:46
Speaker 3: us started. So our founder, Barbara Hartman, started the Catalog
1:50
Speaker 3: for Philanthropy back in 2003 with this idea that the
1:54
Speaker 3: community could lift up great organizations.
1:57
Speaker 2: So still to today, that's kind of the focus.
2:00
Speaker 3: But from then to now, really just how we tell
2:03
Speaker 3: those great stories of people doing amazing work here in town.
2:06
Speaker 1: Well, very good. We're getting into the weeds on everything
2:08
Speaker 1: and all the incredible things you do. I think we're
2:09
Speaker 1: going to surprise a lot of people about all the
2:11
Speaker 1: nonprofits that you work with out of the Washington, D.C.
2:14
Speaker 2: Area.
2:15
Speaker 1: But with that, why the rebrand? I know a lot
2:17
Speaker 1: of companies do it, but what was the thought behind it?
2:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, so 20 years in, we changed our name and
2:24
Speaker 3: our brand overall from catalog for philanthropy to spur local.
2:27
Speaker 2: And two big things behind that.
2:29
Speaker 3: One, when we first started, we really were just this
2:32
Speaker 3: kind of catalog, right? So we did this community vetting process.
2:35
Speaker 3: We shined a light on great organizations. And some of
2:38
Speaker 3: you may have seen it before. We produced a physical
2:40
Speaker 3: book later on, a digital book as well, eventually, of
2:45
Speaker 3: these amazing organizations, right, that you could get engaged with,
2:47
Speaker 3: volunteer with, donate to. Back in 2017, though, we also
2:52
Speaker 3: added on to.
2:52
Speaker 2: That doing quite a bit more.
2:54
Speaker 3: So we're actually the largest provider of professional development for
2:57
Speaker 3: nonprofits locally. We train thousands of folks a year in
3:00
Speaker 3: the nonprofit space on all those things that are so
3:03
Speaker 3: important to keep their organizations running, fundraising, communication, strategy, everything
3:08
Speaker 3: outside of programs. They're amazing at what they do, but
3:10
Speaker 3: they don't always have a background in the other elements
3:12
Speaker 3: of the business. We started doing a lot more connection work,
3:15
Speaker 3: a lot of collaboration work with local organizations, and a
3:18
Speaker 3: lot of kind of community education, right, trying to help
3:21
Speaker 3: more people in the region that wanted to know what
3:23
Speaker 3: was happening locally find those answers. So at that point,
3:27
Speaker 3: we realized we were a little more than just a
3:29
Speaker 3: book and needed a brand to kind of hold all that.
3:33
Speaker 3: And why we kind of settled on Spur Local, I
3:35
Speaker 3: think all of us really loved just how active it was, right?
3:39
Speaker 3: We know community doesn't happen by accident. It takes real
3:41
Speaker 3: work and real effort. And that kind of spurring that
3:44
Speaker 3: idea of a local community really resonated with our team.
3:47
Speaker 1: Well, I imagine it's been well received because the name
3:50
Speaker 1: really says who you are. And I think that's very cool.
3:52
Speaker 1: I do want to do this because you have kind
3:54
Speaker 1: of alluded to it so far in the interview, but
3:56
Speaker 1: If you were to give a 30,000-foot view to our
3:59
Speaker 1: listeners that maybe don't know too much about Spur Local,
4:01
Speaker 1: what would you say you exactly do?
4:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we're a community catalyst is what I often say.
4:07
Speaker 3: And really what that means is we're building the case
4:09
Speaker 3: for community. So we're thinking about how we create connections,
4:11
Speaker 3: advance advocacy, strengthen capacity, and elevate awareness. Day-to-day, that means
4:17
Speaker 3: for nonprofits, we're helping raise their profile, connect them with
4:20
Speaker 3: resources and volunteers. and connect them with training and connections
4:24
Speaker 3: to advance their work. And for folks in the DMV,
4:28
Speaker 3: we're connecting them with opportunities to volunteer, donate, and get involved, right?
4:32
Speaker 3: So really trying to connect two audiences that both care
4:34
Speaker 3: about the local community that may not always know each other, right?
4:38
Speaker 3: And may not always get connected.
4:40
Speaker 1: Do a little behind the scenes for me. And, you know,
4:43
Speaker 1: I know that you have a lot of different nonprofits
4:45
Speaker 1: you work with. You can list them or not. It
4:47
Speaker 1: is entirely up to you. But what I did want
4:49
Speaker 1: to ask you, as we go kind of behind the
4:51
Speaker 1: curtain about how relationships start, you know, I... It's probably
4:56
Speaker 1: not a good analogy, but you're not necessarily intermediary, but
4:59
Speaker 1: as a third party, but you're getting people together with
5:01
Speaker 1: the nonprofits. And I want you to explain that. But
5:03
Speaker 1: as we go behind the scenes with your team, how
5:06
Speaker 1: does the process start? Does somebody reach out to you?
5:08
Speaker 1: Do you reach out to them? And then how does
5:10
Speaker 1: the whole thing work?
5:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, so these days we work with 515 nonprofits.
5:16
Speaker 1: Which, by the way, is incredible, Matt, that you do that.
5:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, excited to talk a little bit more about who's
5:23
Speaker 3: in that network, but how they get in the network
5:25
Speaker 3: in the first place. Nonprofits can apply each year. Application
5:28
Speaker 3: opens in December. They apply sometime by mid-February. We then,
5:32
Speaker 3: and I think this is a really unique and important
5:34
Speaker 3: part of the work, we then have a community vetting process.
5:37
Speaker 3: So about 250 volunteers from the community, and we're always
5:40
Speaker 3: looking for more volunteers for this process, about 250 volunteers
5:43
Speaker 3: from the community read those applications each year and really
5:46
Speaker 3: score them on critical local impact. Really kind of looking
5:49
Speaker 3: for who's making that difference that just is so needed
5:52
Speaker 3: in our region right now on any type of social
5:55
Speaker 3: issue or population you can think of. And then from
5:58
Speaker 3: that review process, we do a financial review and a
6:00
Speaker 3: site visit to make sure everything kind of checks out.
6:03
Speaker 3: And those that kind of scored at the highest level
6:05
Speaker 3: of that community review are selected for that year's class.
6:08
Speaker 3: It's a four-year partnership, so they know we'll be there
6:11
Speaker 3: with them for quite a while. They don't have to
6:13
Speaker 3: reapply every year to get the support that we offer.
6:17
Speaker 3: And all of that's completely free of charge. So there's
6:19
Speaker 3: no fee to apply. There's no fee to be in.
6:22
Speaker 3: As we start accepting donations for them, there's no fee
6:24
Speaker 3: taken out of that. There's no fee for the professional
6:26
Speaker 3: development they get. It really is kind of a great
6:30
Speaker 3: opportunity for us to lift up some organizations that wouldn't
6:32
Speaker 3: have that spotlight. And I think my favorite part of
6:35
Speaker 3: it is that it's the community-led kind of choosing. One,
6:39
Speaker 3: so I don't have to make the choice because I
6:40
Speaker 3: don't want to.
6:41
Speaker 2: But two... We get a lot of wisdom of the
6:44
Speaker 2: crowd from that. Right.
6:45
Speaker 3: And a lot of folks on the ground that really
6:48
Speaker 3: are seeing what's happening.
6:49
Speaker 1: And then, Matt, as far as your net and spreading
6:51
Speaker 1: and working with nonprofits, how wide is it right now?
6:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we work across kind of, you know, Maryland,
6:58
Speaker 3: Virginia and D.C. So we have about half of our
7:01
Speaker 3: network in D.C. So about 250, 260 are in D.C.
7:04
Speaker 1: Itself.
7:05
Speaker 3: And then another quarter of the network is in Maryland,
7:09
Speaker 3: mainly Montgomery County and Prince George's.
7:11
Speaker 2: But we do have a few partners in Frederick.
7:13
Speaker 3: And then in Virginia, kind of all the usual places
7:16
Speaker 3: down to kind of Loudoun, Prince William County. Another kind
7:19
Speaker 3: of quarter of our partners there.
7:21
Speaker 2: All right.
7:21
Speaker 1: Well, listen, I want to once again continue to go
7:23
Speaker 1: behind the scenes. So you talked about signing up, being accepted,
7:27
Speaker 1: the vetting process, and then the four-year partnership. What does
7:31
Speaker 1: communication look like, realizing that every nonprofit is completely different?
7:34
Speaker 1: So I understand that part of it. There's small, medium,
7:36
Speaker 1: and large, and everybody is different. With that said, with
7:39
Speaker 1: you and your team, when it comes to depending on
7:42
Speaker 1: their needs and what they want with communication and activation
7:45
Speaker 1: and execution, how does it in general terms, how does
7:47
Speaker 1: it work?
7:48
Speaker 2: Yeah.
7:49
Speaker 3: So and I think another important thing to note there
7:52
Speaker 3: about who our partners are is that they're all relatively
7:54
Speaker 3: small and medium sized organizations. So the budget range to
7:58
Speaker 3: apply to be in Spur Local is one hundred thousand
8:01
Speaker 3: four million dollars a year.
8:02
Speaker 1: OK. And by the way, why is that?
8:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, so for us, that's on the smaller side, big
8:09
Speaker 3: enough that we can do a little bit of a
8:11
Speaker 3: financial analysis that we know this organization has a little
8:14
Speaker 3: lasting power, right, for a four-year partnership. And then on
8:17
Speaker 3: the higher side, we see past that 4 million mark,
8:20
Speaker 3: not that organizations have an easy go by any means,
8:23
Speaker 3: but they start to have their own marketing capacity, their
8:25
Speaker 3: own development capacity. So while they can benefit from some
8:28
Speaker 3: of the professional development we offer, they don't quite need
8:31
Speaker 3: the same spotlight as those smaller groups. For our current network,
8:35
Speaker 3: Three quarters do not have any communication staff. About 40
8:38
Speaker 3: percent do not have any fundraising staff.
8:40
Speaker 2: Right.
8:40
Speaker 3: So it's really that executive director doing a lot of
8:43
Speaker 3: side hustles, wearing a lot of hats. Those program staff
8:47
Speaker 3: often carrying two or three jobs. Those are the folks
8:50
Speaker 3: who really try to focus getting a light to.
8:52
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting that you mentioned that because in
8:54
Speaker 1: this series, obviously, we talked only nonprofits in the DMV.
8:58
Speaker 1: And I know this doesn't surprise you because you talk
9:00
Speaker 1: to these people every day, but usually there's an executive
9:02
Speaker 1: director and maybe an assistant and maybe that's it. And
9:06
Speaker 1: that's what they're dealing with. The nonprofit world is very hard.
9:10
Speaker 1: With that said, I know you have an excellent team there.
9:12
Speaker 1: I was going over everybody's bio and you have some
9:14
Speaker 1: very extraordinary, smart, well-educated people. Can you talk a little
9:18
Speaker 1: bit about your staff and maybe some of their roles
9:20
Speaker 1: as they assist you?
9:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, very, very proud of our team and definitely
9:25
Speaker 3: the secret sauce that makes us all work for sure.
9:27
Speaker 3: It's just that dedicated scrappy group, as we often describe.
9:31
Speaker 3: So we have seven full time staff. We have a
9:34
Speaker 3: couple of folks in our kind of partnerships and marketing
9:39
Speaker 3: department that's really thinking about how do we get the
9:40
Speaker 3: word out there about our partners? How do we connect
9:43
Speaker 3: the community to them? How do we connect benefits and resources?
9:47
Speaker 3: to them and how do we connect nonprofits with each
9:49
Speaker 3: other a little bit. Secondly, we have two folks on
9:53
Speaker 3: our programs team. They really focus on our professional development,
9:56
Speaker 3: our collaboration work, all of our facilitation work.
10:00
Speaker 2: Of meetings and kind of connections.
10:02
Speaker 3: And then we have some folks that are focused on
10:04
Speaker 3: both our own fundraising as well as our own kind
10:07
Speaker 3: of internal operations. But Small and lean, but I think
10:11
Speaker 3: a team that really, for diverse reasons, cares a lot
10:15
Speaker 3: about this work. Some of them come from other nonprofits before.
10:18
Speaker 3: A couple worked at our partners before they came to us,
10:21
Speaker 3: which is always a nice sign and something that we're
10:24
Speaker 3: really excited to continue.
10:26
Speaker 1: Man, I know you've been there since 2017 and executive director,
10:30
Speaker 1: I believe, for almost three years, since 2023. With that said,
10:32
Speaker 1: I was looking at some of the numbers here, and
10:34
Speaker 1: without embarrassing you, this is on the website for your impact.
10:38
Speaker 1: $ 57 million raised for a critical local nonprofit since 2003,
10:42
Speaker 1: which is extraordinary. 20K with nonprofit professionals trained through our
10:47
Speaker 1: capacity building programs, talking about Spur Local. And then 97%
10:51
Speaker 1: of the professional development participants believe their participation will make
10:54
Speaker 1: them more effective at their job. I got to tell you,
10:57
Speaker 1: as I read those statistics and that data, that's extraordinary.
11:00
Speaker 1: Can you expound on that a little bit more? Because
11:02
Speaker 1: it really is amazing work that you and your team
11:04
Speaker 1: are doing.
11:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the two things I'll say that really
11:08
Speaker 3: stand out to us is just not surprisingly, during times
11:13
Speaker 3: of real challenge and community, we see the participation, our
11:16
Speaker 3: capacity building, our professional development work, collaboration work go up.
11:20
Speaker 2: Right. And that to us is a real sign. That
11:23
Speaker 2: it's a value add, right, for folks.
11:24
Speaker 3: So during COVID, for instance, in 2020, we went from
11:28
Speaker 3: 2000 people in our training program to 8000 that year. Wow.
11:31
Speaker 2: Right.
11:31
Speaker 3: And that told us that when people were very tired,
11:33
Speaker 3: very busy, very concerned that we were a resource they
11:37
Speaker 3: wanted to turn to.
11:38
Speaker 2: Right. And we see that.
11:39
Speaker 3: Um a less but uh still kind of increase in
11:42
Speaker 3: participation right now um and then i think on on
11:45
Speaker 3: the fundraising side the one that always stands out to
11:47
Speaker 3: me these days is we do a giving tuesday campaign
11:50
Speaker 3: um so probably many people have heard of giving tuesday
11:52
Speaker 3: we do a community campaign so it's a little different
11:55
Speaker 3: about 250 of our partners participate so you can go
11:58
Speaker 3: to one site right find 250 organizations that are fundraising
12:02
Speaker 3: that day and for the last uh six years in
12:05
Speaker 3: a row We've raised a little over a million dollars
12:08
Speaker 3: during that campaign for those organizations. And it's just really
12:11
Speaker 3: incredible to see the kind of concerted effort of community
12:16
Speaker 3: coming together. Always fun to see the big numbers across
12:18
Speaker 3: the whole year. But that really is kind of our
12:21
Speaker 3: giving Super Bowl a little bit each year. And really
12:24
Speaker 3: amazing to see that grow and the thousands of people
12:26
Speaker 3: that participate by giving small amounts, big amounts, but participate
12:30
Speaker 3: in some way.
12:31
Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit more about communication
12:33
Speaker 1: because I imagine your team has so many balls in
12:35
Speaker 1: the air. I mean, 515 nonprofits is an extraordinary number.
12:39
Speaker 1: It's kind of blowing my mind right now, and I'm
12:40
Speaker 1: sure our listeners, too, with that said. I'm curious about
12:43
Speaker 1: communication because you only have so many people on your team,
12:46
Speaker 1: and you have detailed, and we've found out in this series,
12:48
Speaker 1: that sometimes they have very small teams, and there's just
12:51
Speaker 1: so much going on. When it comes to communication, making
12:54
Speaker 1: sure that their needs are fulfilled and also you're hopefully
12:58
Speaker 1: doing what you need to do and making sure everybody
12:59
Speaker 1: comes together. Can you talk a little bit more about that?
13:01
Speaker 1: I know, once again, everybody's nonprofit journey is different, but
13:05
Speaker 1: just in general terms about the communication with each team.
13:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I think, you know, three things kind of
13:11
Speaker 3: stand out when we think about that storytelling piece, right?
13:14
Speaker 3: And that back and forth kind of co-created story with them.
13:17
Speaker 3: One is that we try to have a slight emphasis
13:19
Speaker 3: on that year's class of organizations. So about 80 to
13:22
Speaker 3: 120 are in each year's class that gets selected because,
13:27
Speaker 3: you know, 515 are more days than there are in
13:29
Speaker 3: a year. So we can't highlight all those all the time.
13:33
Speaker 3: But we try to kind of really focus on that
13:34
Speaker 3: year's class.
13:35
Speaker 2: Right.
13:35
Speaker 3: So at least once every four years, they have a
13:37
Speaker 3: really big spotlight. And then kind of episodic spotlights during
13:40
Speaker 3: the other kind of three years.
13:41
Speaker 2: That happened there.
13:42
Speaker 3: Secondly, we really try to develop a trusting relationship with
13:45
Speaker 3: them where they're going to tell us big things that
13:47
Speaker 3: are happening, right? Milestones, celebrations, events they have going on.
13:51
Speaker 3: So we know what to share, right? We're only as
13:53
Speaker 3: good as the information we get from them. And I
13:56
Speaker 3: think as we've built that kind of trust, as they've
13:58
Speaker 3: seen the return on that effort, they are busy people.
14:01
Speaker 3: So for them to take the time, right, to write
14:04
Speaker 3: a blog that we're sharing out or something is a
14:06
Speaker 3: real investment for them and a choice they have to make.
14:09
Speaker 3: And I think because they've seen that return, they're willing
14:12
Speaker 3: to do that and allows us to share those great
14:14
Speaker 3: stories out. And then finally, I think it's thinking about
14:17
Speaker 3: new places to tell the stories, making sure we're not
14:19
Speaker 3: just communicating to the same audience repeatedly, but really thinking
14:23
Speaker 3: about who doesn't know about these organizations, right? Who hasn't
14:26
Speaker 3: heard of the work they're doing and how can we
14:29
Speaker 3: make those connections that are sometimes the most meaningful?
14:32
Speaker 2: When we get to a new.
14:33
Speaker 1: Audience, you know what, man, I know, you know, this,
14:35
Speaker 1: but that's very self-aware of you and your team, because
14:37
Speaker 1: I think you and I can agree where it comes
14:38
Speaker 1: to a new cycle, even while you do, it's easy
14:40
Speaker 1: to get in your own echo chamber and to get
14:42
Speaker 1: outside that and get the message of new people is
14:45
Speaker 1: really a big deal because that's how you grow the
14:47
Speaker 1: donations and the volunteers. Correct.
14:50
Speaker 2: Definitely.
14:51
Speaker 3: And, you know, a good practical example is that, you know,
14:54
Speaker 3: I was, I was talking to some business leaders recently.
14:57
Speaker 3: last year in a group that we were in. And
15:01
Speaker 3: often my pitch is about the impact these organizations making,
15:04
Speaker 3: et cetera. But these leaders had heard that before from
15:07
Speaker 3: other groups. And we started thinking about the work a
15:10
Speaker 3: little differently of our partners and the fact that across
15:12
Speaker 3: those 500, the average budget size is somewhere a little
15:16
Speaker 3: less than a million, but some are above, some are
15:19
Speaker 3: below in our budget range. Collectively across the network, it's
15:22
Speaker 3: about half a billion dollars of annual revenue each year
15:25
Speaker 3: that then is spent 100% locally for the benefit of
15:28
Speaker 3: the community. There's not a lot of business networks or
15:31
Speaker 3: nonprofit networks that can kind of lean into.
15:34
Speaker 2: That on the small business side.
15:36
Speaker 3: And that brought a very different conversation about nonprofits' role
15:39
Speaker 3: in economic development and job creation and the future of
15:42
Speaker 3: our region. And it was really exciting to see that
15:45
Speaker 3: there's a lot of ways we can tell that story
15:47
Speaker 3: of impact if we think a little differently.
15:49
Speaker 2: About our audience and what they're most interested in.
15:51
Speaker 1: Very good. Well, listen, we're more than at the halfway point.
15:54
Speaker 1: And I think it's a good segue to talk about
15:56
Speaker 1: how people can be a part of Spur Local. I
15:58
Speaker 1: know that people can donate. And you talked about volunteering
16:00
Speaker 1: alluded to that. If we could get into that a
16:02
Speaker 1: little bit, because you listen, when it comes to everybody
16:05
Speaker 1: else out there, they need donations. And I know you do, too.
16:07
Speaker 1: But how are you funded overall?
16:10
Speaker 2: Yeah.
16:10
Speaker 3: So, you know, as a nonprofit ourselves, right, funded like
16:13
Speaker 3: many others between individuals, foundations, corporate support. We have a
16:18
Speaker 3: major fundraising event in the spring. But again, most of that, right,
16:22
Speaker 3: is contributed revenue because what we do for our partners, right,
16:26
Speaker 3: is free of charge. And then we do some one-on-one
16:29
Speaker 3: consulting for partners and non-partners. So for nonprofits looking for
16:32
Speaker 3: deeper engagement, we started offering that a But yeah, so
16:38
Speaker 3: we are always looking for new supporters, new relationships there,
16:42
Speaker 3: both for us, but then also our.
16:43
Speaker 2: Partners, right?
16:44
Speaker 3: That really is our dual communication focus, which is a
16:48
Speaker 3: little interesting, right? That we're fundraising for others and ourselves,
16:52
Speaker 3: but continuing to drive home that regardless of either or
16:56
Speaker 3: both types of support, you're going to build more local
17:00
Speaker 3: community here at really a critical time.
17:02
Speaker 1: And it's highlighted on your website, but there are volunteer opportunities.
17:05
Speaker 1: How does the process work?
17:07
Speaker 2: Yeah.
17:08
Speaker 3: So there's volunteering both with us and also with our partners.
17:11
Speaker 3: So I'll also mention our website really is meant to
17:14
Speaker 3: be a resource for community. So folks can go there
17:17
Speaker 3: if they just want to find local nonprofits.
17:20
Speaker 2: Right.
17:20
Speaker 3: They can search by social issue, by location, by population
17:23
Speaker 3: served for volunteering. They can search for those things, but
17:27
Speaker 3: they can also search for like, I want to volunteer
17:28
Speaker 3: with my kids. I want to volunteer by myself with
17:30
Speaker 3: my team at work.
17:31
Speaker 2: On a weekend, on a.
17:32
Speaker 3: Weekday, because often those logistics mattered as much for our availability, right,
17:38
Speaker 3: as what we're doing.
17:39
Speaker 2: And you can sign up to volunteer. It then emails
17:42
Speaker 2: that nonprofit, right? They know to get in touch with you.
17:44
Speaker 3: Or you can make a donation directly to that nonprofit.
17:46
Speaker 3: One nice thing about that part on the donation side,
17:48
Speaker 3: I'll say, is that a little bit like if you're
17:51
Speaker 3: shopping online, you can pick a couple, right? So if
17:54
Speaker 3: you're looking at education groups and you find three you
17:56
Speaker 3: just can't choose from, you can actually make a gift
17:58
Speaker 3: to all three at the same time. It's not three
18:00
Speaker 3: separate transactions, right? It saves you a little bit of time.
18:03
Speaker 3: And that's one thing we know a lot of people
18:05
Speaker 3: kind of take advantage of, especially at the end of
18:07
Speaker 3: your kind of giving season.
18:08
Speaker 1: Matt, in just a couple of moments, I'd like to
18:10
Speaker 1: ask you about maybe a story or two that you
18:12
Speaker 1: have that's really cool and kind of this is why
18:14
Speaker 1: we get up every day. That's always fun to hear
18:16
Speaker 1: those stories. But I know there's challenges. And as people
18:19
Speaker 1: listen to this podcast and this show with Community DC,
18:22
Speaker 1: I think the reoccurring theme, and not that it's necessarily
18:26
Speaker 1: unique to the DMV, But because of Doge and some
18:29
Speaker 1: other cutbacks with grants and other things, I've talked to
18:32
Speaker 1: enough nonprofits where people have been really hit hard over
18:35
Speaker 1: this past year. With that said, I imagine you're kind
18:37
Speaker 1: of getting the same story out there. But with that said,
18:40
Speaker 1: just in general terms, no specificity. Is that what everybody's
18:44
Speaker 1: up against right now and one of their biggest challenges?
18:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, you know, the couple of things that
18:48
Speaker 3: are top of mind for us when we think about
18:50
Speaker 3: the community that we work with, you know, about 70
18:53
Speaker 3: percent of our partners receive some type of government funding
18:56
Speaker 3: and about 50 percent have lost or had delayed some
19:00
Speaker 3: type of funding locally, federally and anywhere in between.
19:03
Speaker 2: So it's definitely a big shock.
19:05
Speaker 3: But there's also obviously locally a lot of those folks, right,
19:08
Speaker 3: that were economically impacted, jobs impacted, were individual donors, were
19:12
Speaker 3: volunteers to these organizations and A lot of the companies
19:15
Speaker 3: impacted that, right? We're corporate sponsors and supporters of these organizations.
19:18
Speaker 3: So unfortunately, not a lot of bright spots on the
19:22
Speaker 3: revenue side, but we're seeing nonprofits, as always, be creative
19:26
Speaker 3: and resilient. So we're seeing a lot more partnerships, a
19:29
Speaker 3: lot more things like sharing office space, right? A lot
19:31
Speaker 3: more thinking about wraparound services that best serve their clients better.
19:35
Speaker 3: because the community need is definitely not going down at
19:38
Speaker 3: that same time. But also, I think, you know, it's
19:41
Speaker 3: important to note, we're seeing those that still can give,
19:44
Speaker 3: give more, right? So there's a lot of generosity, a
19:46
Speaker 3: lot of inspiring generosity in the space. And that's why
19:50
Speaker 3: thing we really encourage people to continue to think about.
19:53
Speaker 3: I won't go deep on this part because it's tax policy,
19:56
Speaker 3: but I'll just simply say the universal charitable tax deduction
19:59
Speaker 3: was added in the tax bill last year.
20:01
Speaker 2: That means every person.
20:02
Speaker 3: can deduct up to $ 1, 000 off their taxes for a
20:05
Speaker 3: charitable gift, $ 2, 000 if they're a married couple. And getting
20:09
Speaker 3: back to those everyday gifts is a really important thing,
20:12
Speaker 3: I think, not just for the money that means, but
20:14
Speaker 3: the civic engagement from it. So we have something called
20:18
Speaker 3: the Everyday Giving Pledge, encouraging people to just simply give
20:22
Speaker 3: more than they gave last year, even if by a.
20:24
Speaker 2: Dollar, and give at least half of it locally. So
20:26
Speaker 2: we know the region really needs it right now.
20:28
Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad you spotlighted that because that really is
20:30
Speaker 1: a big deal. All right, let's talk about a couple
20:31
Speaker 1: of good stories. You know, you've been there for almost
20:33
Speaker 1: a decade, and I know you've seen some incredible things.
20:36
Speaker 1: I know it's also hard work, too, and I get that.
20:38
Speaker 1: But this is one of my favorite questions that I
20:41
Speaker 1: like to ask about, you know, with your staff and
20:44
Speaker 1: you getting up every day and something special happens with
20:48
Speaker 1: somebody out there. And it just means that much more
20:50
Speaker 1: that we are making a difference out there. And it's
20:52
Speaker 1: really extraordinary. Don't have to name any names as usual.
20:55
Speaker 1: But is there something, a story or two that you
20:58
Speaker 1: could share with us where you guys really made a
21:00
Speaker 1: difference with a partner?
21:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think one that really stands out to me
21:04
Speaker 3: is a community that we created. So during 2020, we
21:08
Speaker 3: made a lot of cohorts, right, for nonprofits to learn
21:10
Speaker 3: from each other.
21:11
Speaker 2: None of us knew what to do. Right.
21:12
Speaker 3: So peer learning was the best we had. And one
21:16
Speaker 3: of those executive director cohorts for myself as an executive
21:19
Speaker 3: director as well, both facilitating and somewhat participating, started meeting
21:24
Speaker 3: in April of 2020 and to this day has met
21:27
Speaker 3: every three weeks since then.
21:29
Speaker 2: Really? Right. So now for six years, that's not our
21:32
Speaker 2: normal cohort.
21:33
Speaker 3: This group just really connected, right, and stayed together and
21:36
Speaker 3: has done both the work but also life together.
21:39
Speaker 2: Right. Some real highs and some real lows.
21:41
Speaker 3: And I think when we still get together kind of
21:43
Speaker 3: once a month, it's really amazing to see what those
21:47
Speaker 3: relationships meant to them. It's often some isolating work at times,
21:51
Speaker 3: some challenging work most of the time. But I think
21:55
Speaker 3: being able to have some folks to kind of think
21:58
Speaker 3: through the losses, right, and celebrate the wins has made
22:01
Speaker 3: a real, real difference to the kind of group of
22:03
Speaker 3: 10 that we've been meeting with now for somehow six years,
22:07
Speaker 3: which I can't quite wrap my head around. Another kind
22:11
Speaker 3: of more Specific example is one of our partners in
22:18
Speaker 3: the education space who was a very small kind of
22:22
Speaker 3: youth mental health organization when they first joined, happened to
22:25
Speaker 3: join roughly kind of when I joined the organization. Seeing
22:29
Speaker 3: them go from kind of an organization that was barely
22:33
Speaker 3: over $ 100, 000 minimum to now a $ 2 million budget that
22:37
Speaker 3: they have grown from a one-person staff to a 10-person team.
22:42
Speaker 3: They used to be in a couple of schools. Now
22:43
Speaker 3: they're in a couple of dozen. They've had national grants.
22:46
Speaker 3: It's just amazing to see the perseverance of these leaders.
22:49
Speaker 3: And that's really, I think, the biggest thing for us,
22:52
Speaker 3: kind of countless examples of just being inspired every day
22:54
Speaker 3: by the incredible people doing this work and very grateful
22:58
Speaker 3: to have a chance in a small way to kind
23:00
Speaker 3: of help them do that work.
23:01
Speaker 2: Bigger, better, more efficiently.
23:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a great payoff for you guys, too. That's wonderful.
23:06
Speaker 1: You know, my listeners know this, but I'm a generation Xer.
23:10
Speaker 1: So I grew up with the Jerry Lewis telethons on
23:12
Speaker 1: TV that lasted for days. Also, in my business, there's
23:16
Speaker 1: radiothons that sometimes lasted three days. Times have changed. We
23:19
Speaker 1: don't see that much anymore. It's more commercials now on
23:21
Speaker 1: television promoting nonprofits or donations. And also, Radiothons have shrunk
23:26
Speaker 1: down to several hours or just maybe even half a
23:28
Speaker 1: day in my industry. With that said, when it comes
23:31
Speaker 1: to what you do with all your partners, realizing that
23:33
Speaker 1: all nonprofits are different and they have their own journey,
23:35
Speaker 1: once again, in general terms, what are they up against
23:40
Speaker 1: that is working for them and not working for them?
23:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think one part is exactly what you're kind
23:47
Speaker 3: of mentioning there, right, which is it's hard to get
23:49
Speaker 3: people's attention.
23:50
Speaker 2: We are distracted. We're overwhelmed, right?
23:52
Speaker 3: There's information in a variety of ways. And you don't
23:55
Speaker 3: have an audience on one channel anymore, right? Not everyone
23:57
Speaker 3: watches the same TV show on a Thursday and talks
23:59
Speaker 3: about it on a Friday. And that's true with kind
24:02
Speaker 3: of how they get nonprofit communication, too. especially for a
24:05
Speaker 3: small shop with one or no communication staff. They can't
24:09
Speaker 3: be everywhere, so they have to pick and choose. So
24:11
Speaker 3: I think that's a really consistent challenge for them these days.
24:14
Speaker 3: But I think one thing that's really working, not surprisingly
24:16
Speaker 3: in that environment, is word of mouth and really encouraging
24:19
Speaker 3: them to lean into peer-to-peer giving, right, where they're asking
24:22
Speaker 3: people to go ask their networks to support them in
24:25
Speaker 3: some small way, right, whether with a small gift, volunteering,
24:28
Speaker 3: just spreading the word. And that's something I would encourage
24:30
Speaker 3: everyone listening, right, is that even if you're not in
24:32
Speaker 3: a position to give, if you don't have time to volunteer,
24:35
Speaker 3: You can still share your influence.
24:37
Speaker 2: Right. And even that's what five people you're.
24:39
Speaker 3: Texting on Giving Tuesday or at the end of your about, hey,
24:42
Speaker 3: do you guys know about this organization? That makes all
24:45
Speaker 3: the difference to them because you're you're serving as that
24:48
Speaker 3: communication staff that they can't afford because they're investing in
24:50
Speaker 3: their program and their mission.
24:52
Speaker 1: I know that every day is a big day at
24:54
Speaker 1: Spur Local, but November 5th is a really big day.
24:56
Speaker 1: Tell everybody about that.
24:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's our Community Changemakers event. So this is
25:01
Speaker 3: kind of a community fair style up in northwest D.C.
25:06
Speaker 3: We'll have about 60 organizations there, all interactively tablings, not
25:11
Speaker 3: just handing out brochures, but trivia or cooking demos or
25:15
Speaker 3: someone brought a chicken once.
25:16
Speaker 2: It's always a surprising.
25:18
Speaker 1: Is that a cooked or live chicken, Matt?
25:21
Speaker 2: You know, live, live, at least while it was there. Well,
25:24
Speaker 2: you know what?
25:25
Speaker 1: I'm a D.C. resident. I've seen goats on Metro, so
25:27
Speaker 1: anything can go.
25:28
Speaker 2: Exactly, exactly. That was when they asked if they could
25:31
Speaker 2: bring it. That was a question I had not prepared for.
25:34
Speaker 3: But, you know, so it's a really great opportunity and
25:37
Speaker 3: how we build it is like, If you either care
25:40
Speaker 3: about the local community or you want to get involved
25:41
Speaker 3: in some way, it's the place to be that night.
25:44
Speaker 3: It's really a celebration. It's a really fun evening. We
25:47
Speaker 3: honor a couple local changemakers who've gone above and beyond
25:50
Speaker 3: for our local community. But really, it's just a kind
25:53
Speaker 3: of unstructured chance for you to meet a lot of
25:55
Speaker 3: cool organizations doing cool stuff and find ways to get
25:58
Speaker 3: plugged in.
25:58
Speaker 1: How does everybody become a part of that if they
26:00
Speaker 1: want to?
26:01
Speaker 2: Yeah.
26:02
Speaker 3: So if you go to our website, you can find
26:04
Speaker 3: out about the event. You can get tickets there. Tickets
26:07
Speaker 3: are currently on sale, will be for most of October
26:11
Speaker 3: and would love to have folks come out. It's from
26:13
Speaker 3: six to nine on November 5th. I'll be up at
26:16
Speaker 3: Hook Hall in Petworth and really excited for we usually
26:19
Speaker 3: have about 200, 250 people. So, again, just a really
26:22
Speaker 3: great celebration of all things community that evening.
26:25
Speaker 1: Outstanding. And I live in Petworth, so I know really
26:28
Speaker 1: well there's Metro right there with Georgia Avenue, Petworth. So
26:30
Speaker 1: you're all locked and loaded with the community, which, by
26:32
Speaker 1: the way, I love that. There's so many nice communities
26:34
Speaker 1: in D.C., but that one, because I know it so well,
26:36
Speaker 1: is especially really cool. So I'm glad you picked that spot. Listen,
26:39
Speaker 1: we only have about three minutes left. I just want
26:41
Speaker 1: to get some final thoughts from you. about the future,
26:43
Speaker 1: what you're working on. You've talked about November 5th, which
26:46
Speaker 1: I think is a great evening and very cool that
26:48
Speaker 1: you're doing, but just how everything looks. I know you're
26:50
Speaker 1: very busy. You talked about the 500 plus now profits
26:53
Speaker 1: you're working with. Just recapping what we talked about, Matt,
26:56
Speaker 1: the floor is yours.
26:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think another thing I'd love to highlight is
27:02
Speaker 3: we're increasingly trying to find ways to help folks that
27:04
Speaker 3: want to be engaged. We know, again, people are distracted, overwhelmed,
27:07
Speaker 3: et cetera. So we do something called the Next Gen
27:10
Speaker 3: Giving Circle for folks that are loosely in their 20s
27:14
Speaker 3: to 40s. We take a broad definition on that, but
27:17
Speaker 3: that want to give back in some small way. So
27:20
Speaker 3: they kind of give collectively as little as $ 25 a
27:23
Speaker 3: month and then collectively make a decision about how to
27:26
Speaker 3: move tens of thousands of dollars each year.
27:28
Speaker 2: To a local nonprofit.
27:30
Speaker 3: So if you're looking for kind of a chance to
27:31
Speaker 3: connect with other people who care about community, looking for
27:34
Speaker 3: a way to give back and kind of multiply your impact,
27:37
Speaker 3: it's a great opportunity to join the NextGen Giving Circle.
27:41
Speaker 3: And then finally, I would just, again, encourage folks, whether
27:43
Speaker 3: you're giving money, right, or time through volunteering or influence
27:48
Speaker 3: or advice through a board leadership role, Nonprofits are run
27:52
Speaker 3: by the.
27:52
Speaker 2: People down the street, helping folks down the street.
27:54
Speaker 3: And these local organizations really need us all to step
27:58
Speaker 3: up as they continue to fight for us every day.
28:01
Speaker 1: Let's give the website one more time. And by the way,
28:03
Speaker 1: we have just hit the tip of the iceberg because
28:05
Speaker 1: when you go on the website, which by the way, Matt,
28:06
Speaker 1: your team has done a great job because it's easy
28:08
Speaker 1: to navigate. There is a lot of information on there,
28:10
Speaker 1: but it really is easy to navigate of all the
28:13
Speaker 1: things we've talked about and more. So if you're looking
28:16
Speaker 1: for anything on there, it really does cover everything. What's
28:18
Speaker 1: the website for everybody once again?
28:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's spurlocal.org.
28:23
Speaker 1: Well, outstanding. Well, listen, it's a pleasure to have you
28:25
Speaker 1: on the show for the first time. I'd love to
28:27
Speaker 1: have you back if you've enjoyed yourself because I've enjoyed
28:29
Speaker 1: talking to you. And, you know, when I found out
28:31
Speaker 1: about what you did, I was going, this is fascinating
28:33
Speaker 1: because I talk to nonprofits in the show every week.
28:36
Speaker 1: But somebody and a team that can facilitate the challenges
28:39
Speaker 1: they're having, especially when you have a smaller staff. It's extraordinary.
28:43
Speaker 1: And I know you know you're doing great work, but
28:45
Speaker 1: as we're getting the message out there, and you talked
28:47
Speaker 1: about word of mouth, right? I imagine a lot of
28:49
Speaker 1: nonprofits maybe had heard of you, didn't know what you did.
28:53
Speaker 1: But I hope they call you and reach out to
28:55
Speaker 1: you and partner because for me, I'm biased because I'm interviewing,
28:59
Speaker 1: I'm having a show right now, but it seems like
29:00
Speaker 1: a no-brainer to work with you guys.
29:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, if you're at a nonprofit, if you're a
29:05
Speaker 3: community member who wants to support a nonprofit, if you're
29:07
Speaker 3: on a board, we're happy to be of help.
29:10
Speaker 2: In any way we can.
29:11
Speaker 1: All right, well, the future looks bright, and I'm still
29:13
Speaker 1: blown away by the 515 number, man. I don't know
29:17
Speaker 1: how you and your team do it.
29:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's an inspiring network, but a large network
29:22
Speaker 3: these days. I will say a fun fact is D.C.
29:24
Speaker 3: has the second most locally focused nonprofits of anywhere in
29:27
Speaker 3: the country. So I think people know us right for
29:30
Speaker 3: that national and international scale, but really a rich local community,
29:34
Speaker 3: as many of us who have been here for.
29:35
Speaker 2: A while know.
29:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is something to be proud of. Matt, thank
29:37
Speaker 1: you for joining us and being a community DC. I'm
29:40
Speaker 1: glad we could spotlight you. Continue to success and give
29:43
Speaker 1: my best to your team.
29:44
Speaker 2: Thank you.
29:52
Speaker 1: Learn more at She Can STEM, a message brought to
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Speaker 1: you by the Ad Council.