Latest / We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits / 321. Evolved Leadership: How a Tri-Sector Mindset Grows Your Impact Possibilities - Jens Molbak

Transcript

321. Evolved Leadership: How a Tri-Sector Mindset Grows Your Impact Possibilities - Jens Molbak · We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

• 0:01
  Jonathan McCoy: technology alone can't solve the challenges nonprofits face. And that's why neon one provides software that empowers you to manage constituents all while giving you the resources and support you need to connect to what matters most your people and their passions. Learn more about how neon one is helping nonprofits create stronger connections by visiting neon one.com/we are for good.
• 0:26
  Jonathan McCoy: Hey, I'm Jon.
• 0:27
  Becky Endicott: And I'm Becky.
• 0:28
  Jonathan McCoy: And this is the We Are For Good podcast.
• 0:30
  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.
• 0:40
  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.
• 0:48
  Becky Endicott: So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
• 0:59
  Jonathan McCoy: So let's get started. B, what's happening?
• 1:03
  Becky Endicott: We're heading to like part of my favorite part of the country up near Seattle to meet and honestly airman.
• 1:09
  Jonathan McCoy: There's always like innovation, I feel like pouring out of that part of the world. And today we're talking to somebody that is like a disrupter, in the best of ways, a disrupter for good, that's gonna, like challenge us in some new ways of thinking, but also just like, come full circle to be like, should we be doing this anyway, you know, I hope there's gonna be some of those aha moments today. But it's our huge honor to have Jens Molbak on the podcast today. He's the founder of New impact. And they just have this passion for opening up the conversation around the tri sector business models. And if you're like me, you kind of know what that means. But you need somebody to hold your hand and guide you through this. But it's about aligning the for profit side, the corporate side, the nonprofit side, and the government side, and like really kind of playing well together in the sandbox. And we're gonna really talk about what does that mean, and we're talking to a legend, we called him a legend when we met him because we really mean it. Because his backstory is incredible. I mean, he was the founder and Gru Coinstar into what we all know is like the most joyous occasion for kids pouring their coins and adults alike. But that business alone has processed over 60 billion and raised more than 100 million for nonprofits, and save the US government billions of dollars and reduce costs. And that's just kind of a tangible expression of what it looks like when you get all on the same page and realize and zoom out for the bigger conversation and bigger questions that we should be asking. And of course, his pedigree is like so impressive.
• 2:32
  Jonathan McCoy: He has his MBA from Stanford, a BA from Yale, and he's a native of Seattle, and he just has that Seattle vibe about him. He is here to just have a real authentic and fun conversation.
• 2:42
  Jonathan McCoy: So get in their house. We're so glad you're here.
• 2:44
  Jens Molbak: It's great to meet you guys.
• 2:46
  Becky Endicott: Oh, it's lovely to have you. So
• 2:47
  Jonathan McCoy: nice to have you too. Yeah, I mean, what an honor. And we're excited to really dive into your work right now with new impact. But before we get there, like, give us your backstory, like tell us about growing up and tell us about some of the, you know, formative experiences that lead you into this work. Yeah,
• 3:02
  Jens Molbak: I think I mean, if we're putting them into backstory, I got to start with mom and dad. And the name is Danish, right? So yes, it's not a not a common American name.
• 3:12
  Jens Molbak: But Mom and Dad grew were born in 1925, and lived through the Nazi occupation in Denmark from 39 to 45. And then came to the US dad was an exchange student 48 and went back and he and mom married, and they came here on their honeymoon or 1950 and stayed. So although I'm, you know, born and raised in the US, I'm really, you know, raised by a combination of American and, and Danish parents. And, and I start with that, because I think, you know, given their experience when they got to the US, the US in the 50s, was really super representative to them. One is they valued democracy and good government, because they'd seen what had happened when, when that sort of freedom was taken away. And they were also really interested by the free enterprise system, they called it or the ability to be entrepreneurial, grow stuff. So they started up a small nursery business, but they also brought with them, I think, a really strong sense of sort of Nordic if egalitarian ism and Nordic sensibility, which is expressed, I think, in a lot of the Nordic countries today. So I often joke that I was actually raised in a tri sector family. I mean, I thought about business, they thought about government. And we were just kind of raised that way. So he often don't recognize these things until you get older. But when I think about the career that I've had, you know, I've worked in all three sectors. And now new impact is really an expression of how do we really kind of take a whole of society approach together and create sort of more innovative models, whether it be a nonprofit model or a for profit model, or government model? And how do you combine those things to kind of really create great outcomes for people? But it was that sort of, you know, fundamental, you know, I guess, you know, parenting that I got that that's really influenced me much more than I realized when I was gone. What a
• 4:58
  Becky Endicott: great story and I Plug your parents is just kind of pioneers, you know, and who are committed to just trying some stuff. And they took those great leaps of faith. And I love that we're talking about the tri sector because one of the 2022 trends that we identified for this year was thinking like a business. We want nonprofits to think like a business. But we know you can't just start at that point, it really does start with going back into your mindsets, we talk a ton about growth and abundance mindset on this podcast, which is easier, easy for us to do, because podcast listeners are learners.
• 5:31
  Becky Endicott: And so how do we keep growing and I love this new model that you've kind of like put out into the world? And I'm so curious about it. So talk to us about the tri sector mindset and the combination of that with the business model. And tell us what you've learned throughout your career about it.
• 5:47
  Jens Molbak: So it's, it's a lot in that question. But let me let me kind of start with telling them a little bit, I guess, of the career trajectory. And the story that led to impact I'll start with Coinstar, right. So that's the that's the company that I built. That was most of my my 30s, you know, from having an idea, right to being able to do you know, take a company public and whatnot, which is a lot of fun. But the law people know, the Coinstar machines, but they don't know the backstory behind it. And it was really personal I was I, you know, I was kind of intrigued about Gee, could I be an entrepreneur and build something that was sort of just interesting to me. But I was also really interested from a career standpoint of working with nonprofits and, and working with working with government in an integrated way. And I didn't want to do it sequentially. You know, over time, I really wanted to kind of do all three at once.
• 6:36
  Jens Molbak: So, you know, I had this I always have a jar coins that follow me around when I was moving a lot in my 20s. And I started, you know, just kind of curious, like, how much is out there. So I wrote to the Fed, and I wrote to the mint. And what I learned was, we had about$7 billion a coin sitting on dresser props throughout the country. And a little more research, you know, you know, it was like, that was a lot, but there was like, actually 15, you know, sexually 15 billion in circulation, because, you know, the mint had made all these coins, but only half of them were in dresser trunks have from being used. But then the money also turned over like 20 times a year and created this 100 and$50 billion market. And I thought if there's other people like me, who are, you know, too lazy to wrap them up and put them in a little paper wrappers and taking down the bank that a machine useful? That seemed like a business opportunity, right.
• 7:21
  Jens Molbak: But then as I started thinking about it, too, I was like, Well wait a second, if they if the government's producing all these coins, and half of them are going missing, it's not really a great product. And if we can essentially create a recycling phenomena, and get all these old coins back into circulation, then maybe we could save the government some money on this very small program and make them more efficient. I thought, well, that could be kind of, you know, like, like good for government and good for the business. But then also sort of thinking about the nonprofit sector, and the history of coins and charity. So think of like March of Dimes, or you know, Salvation Army or UNICEF, with the boxes of Halloween for churchy things, I realized we could actually use the machines to actually raise funds for nonprofits. And was that kind of insight that was like, Oh, I can work in the business sector and benefit government and benefits nonprofits that really motivate me to to start Coinstar. And so all that worked, right, so we built the company. And I can tell you lots of stories about that. But we ended up doing a lot of work with the Fed and they fell in love with us. They thought it was really cool. We were doing we'd actually rolled out about 100 machines in Los Angeles. And I got back to my office in Seattle, and the Fed called me and they said was really scaring you know, with this little company in Seattle, like the Fed calls. Yeah, what they did in the beginning, they were just confused because the West Coast had canceled all future Penny orders and they're like, what's going on? So we flew back to DC to explain ourselves and, and they were like, literally, like, once they understood that they're like, this is really interesting, right? You're gonna create this national recycling phenomenon, but then they got confused they're like Well, you're not a you know, you're not a customer.
• 9:06
  Jens Molbak: We can't regulate you you're not a vendor, we don't have a contract. You're gonna save us all this money. What do we do and like you don't do anything you actually you actually created the market now you get the benefit of what you've done right? And it's a win win.
• 9:17
  Jens Molbak: scenario. So that was a really interesting piece and they actually helped us grow we got a call a year later from the Royal Mint. In the UK, they said hey, you're saving the US government all this money. We you come do the same thing in the UK. And we rolled out the UK very, very quickly. And I like to say that my private sector shareholders would not have gotten that benefit if we didn't have a public sector benefit. So that was really interesting. And around the same time we actually got a call from UNICEF and we had maybe four or 5000 machines out there. And UNICEF called up and said hey, you know we've got this trick or treat for UNICEF program we're teenagers go off and collect coins at Halloween is having getting candy. I don't know if you guys ever did it, but my older sisters did. And they're like, We love the program. But we have two problems. One is that half the kids go off and collect the money and they never send it into us. And it's not that they're it's not that they're bad kids. They just like they just don't follow through complicated. Yeah. And they said, The other problem is that the other half the kids actually do send the money. And so we have typically get like, you know, 100,000 of these little orange boxes full of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.
• 10:27
  Jens Molbak: And like we're actually mission built for you. So just put a little message on the back of the UNICEF box and says, Hey, kids, take them down to the local Coinstar machine punch in a four digit code. And then as Coinstar we cut our fee in half from 8% to 4%. And we wire transferred through the funds directly in the south bank account. Which was right there.
• 10:46
  Becky Endicott: Yeah, look at this partnership, this partnership way to go UNICEF.
• 10:48
  Becky Endicott: Yeah. So it
• 10:51
  Jens Molbak: was really about what was neat about it, it was a win for UNICEF, right. And it was also great for us because as Coinstar we needed, you know, we wanted more customers and more trial and whatnot. And for UNICEF, they wanted more funds at a lower fundraising costs.
• 11:03
  Jens Molbak: And we were like the most cost effective form of fundraising with a 96% faster rate for UNICEF, but But I told those Coinstar stories. So that was interesting about the model, right, we can talk about business models from the private sector or social or public sector. But we're basically taking the best of each sector and combining them in ways that weren't, you know, contractual or public private partnerships.
• 11:24
  Jens Molbak: But we just kind of borrowed what the Fed did. And we aligned what we were doing with what was good for the Fed. And we were working with UNICEF and aligned with them. Well, it was good for them. And it was also good for the business. So Coinstar group was was successful. So that was an interesting, you know, experience in my 30s, to kind of see that that come together. But then as I kind of, you know, got older, right, and went through a different sort of my 40s. But as I got older and started thinking more about the nonprofit sector and about government, I started to wonder if we couldn't apply this approach of using kind of the best resources of all sectors in in more models, right, not only for private sector models, but government models, and specifically nonprofit models. And it's, it's a, you know, you can call it a tri sector approach or a whole of society approach. But what we're trying to do at New impact is really three things. One is to promote this kind of a different way of thinking. It's both familiar, it's common sensical. And it's also subtly and importantly, different. So people you might be familiar with, like design thinking, or agile or human centered design.
• 12:29
  Jens Molbak: So when we talk about try sector innovation, we're trying to get people to say, hey, there's a different way to think about structuring your organization, whether you're nonprofit or for profit, or a government piece.
• 12:39
  Jens Molbak: So this is this mindset piece.
• 12:43
  Jens Molbak: And the second thing we're doing is we're trying to create tools to teach leaders, innovators and all three sectors about ways to actually do this in ways that are super pragmatic, right? So someone can say, hey, I run my existing nonprofit or government entity or business entity, and can we actually make a stronger model with more impact and a different way. So we're building tools. And then thirdly, we're kind of demonstrating this by doing different catalyst projects. So we've completed about six different projects for both nonprofit or entities. And for profits and governments out there, and we've got them all on the website, which we can we can talk about. So we're in a newt Nomi new impact is to see three we're trying to create a public good, that is everybody can use and borrow, often like to say we're the innovators behind the innovators trying to help people, you know, scale and grow their organizations with with more power and more impact.
• 13:34
  Jens Molbak: Whoa,
• 13:37
  Jonathan McCoy: while I was there, I mean, geeking
• 13:39
  Becky Endicott: out over this conversation.
• 13:42
  Jonathan McCoy: I mean, you know, because we do talk about partnerships a lot, but it's like, you just I kept hearing the word win. And I'm like, there's a lot to win when you start to really listen and understand what the problem is ask a bigger question, and start solving for that. Like, it really does mean people start winning. And that's a key to sustainability, right?
• 14:00
  Jens Molbak: Yeah. And I think it's interesting when we, you know, one of the things that we think a lot about resources. So I'll often say, let's think about the person that we're trying to help, whether it's someone who's, you know, trying to access food or housing or health care or education. And if you think about that person first. And you think about what they need, they might need some government resources, they might need some company resources, they might need some nonprofit resources, if you could design a system where you kind of pull the best of those things together. Those are the sorts of solutions that I think that it can really work and really be be impactful. But you got to get in that headset first of thinking about these these ways. And often what we find is people will think oh, you have to have like a public private partnership could be about to sit down and like write a contract and they call these things. And what we have found is there are amazing resources in society and all three sectors. There's lots and lots of people working on different LM That's here. And often you can just borrow or align and get going together without going through a lot of that complication. Like I borrowed, you know, the Feds 100 $50 billion program, right that they they had built right. And you know, but I built Coinstar in a way that was really good for the Fed. And the same thing, when we built the donation feature we built in a way that was really good so that the self interests were aligned. So it's got to be a win win, right? To make these things really work. And we think a lot about that.
• 15:30
  Jonathan McCoy: I mean, there's a lot of ways we want to go from here. But I think like, you know, we're big into mindset, you've tapped on some of the mindsets. But I want to get really specific of like, what mindsets Do you feel like need to shift for those primarily listening today or your nonprofit audience? And I just hear the way you've gone about building your businesses and infrastructure, your stinking without walls? And so what are their like mindsets or rewiring needs to happen for a nonprofit that wants to have this really incredible dynamic partnership across the sector's? But where's the starting place? You know,
• 16:02
  Jens Molbak: it's interesting, we just completed a project with the USO around junior enlisted folks coming out of the military and transitioning into civilian life, which was a really interesting project. And there's a there's vast resources in the nonprofit sector helping veterans kind of transition out there. I would say one of the biggest things we see from the nonprofit perspective is often nonprofits. They're very good at scavenging resources, right?
• 16:30
  Jens Molbak: Every nonprofits are like, shaking. A constraint, I'm a nonprofit, I get it, right. But the idea that you don't first go to it, it's not always about money. And often, you know, like, like, a company might have a really great distribution network with a lot of trucks with extra capacity around their governments might have, you know, really amazing databases.
• 16:55
  Jens Molbak: And if you want to, if you want to geek out, if you kind of zoom out and just look at the US economy as a whole government, and nonprofit and companies, there's about $250 trillion of assets on our country's balance sheet, it's really amazing. And well, in there's always this fight for like, you know, more money or more taxes or more funding, but if we could be smarter about how we repurpose, and use the assets we already have, that can be that can be really powerful. So you know, an example that we, we did some work with General Motors several years ago, and they have their they have their OnStar. system out there. Right. So yeah, you know, make a restaurant reservation, but was, when we were talking with the OnStar folks who was it was really interesting, we were in their call center. And a couple things happened. One is who was during one of the natural disasters and, and all sudden, they're getting calls coming in from the Red Cross and FEMA. And it turns out, this was, I think, during Hurricane Harvey, when the cell network goes down, the GM cars can use the, their whole cars and antenna may create this like roving mesh network or something. So So FEMA and the Red Cross knew to use this General Motor asset, right? So they built this asset for you know, making whatever getting guidance and cool stuff. But you could also use it, and the nonprofits could use it. And the government's can use it as a as a really cool backbone, right.
• 18:30
  Jens Molbak: So we thought that was a really, it was a very clever way for the Red Cross and FEMA, to use a private sector asset for their own for their own benefit. So we're really curious, we're like, Well, you know, what else do you do? And they're like, Well, you know, we also had a lot of suicide calls, which is really, you know, heartbreaking to hear. But it turns out that a lot of returning vets in this case, who might have PTSD have an affiliation for buying Chevy pickups. That's, that was just the thing out there. So all the OnStar operators were trained in, in taking the suicide prevention calls. And we're like, and we're like, Well, this is that super cool, right? But you know, then we started talking with the nonprofit community, like, do you know that like, 17% of cars on the road in the US actually have this wired network that's in there? And they're like, No, but you know, could you see opportunities for a nonprofit that might be working in mental health issues to partner more closely with GM to help with training and sharing of resources? So it's just a little bit of, you know, existing resources that may have been built in one sector, right, in this case, private sector that can be useful in government and nonprofit. But the same is true nonprofit sector. Organizations have amazing resources that companies aren't aware of sometimes that can be useful if the government has, you know, amazing resources too. So we're always about how do we link up the resources that are out there, but with this, you know, the human first and the person you're trying to help first, and then sort of will be agnostic about where they come from?
• 20:32
  Becky Endicott: That is just like Like, again, we were gonna say this 10 more times on this app on this conversation, it's thinking differently, it's going about your business differently.
• 20:42
  Becky Endicott: It's looking at assets in a completely different way. And not even just as, as objects on a balance sheet, we talk about this a lot like, you know, prioritizing your donor based on wealth alone, that is one asset.
• 20:54
  Becky Endicott: And sadly, it's been the only asset that we've really been measured by in the sector. But there's so many other assets out there right now. And I just commend you, for the way that you've embraced two things.
• 21:10
  Becky Endicott: Listening, you were very committed to listening and learning and to is the innovation and I and I want to talk about this innovation piece, because I feel like it's pouring out of you in spades.
• 21:21
  Becky Endicott: And I just feel like you have so much curiosity that you've paired with this. Well, what if we could do it this way? Or what if we could look at it a different way? So I want you to talk about tri sector innovation? Like, how have you seen innovators in business models, creators, like unite together for profit and purpose?
• 21:43
  Becky Endicott: Give us like some stories, give us some mindsets? Like how can we tap into this?
• 21:48
  Jens Molbak: Sure, let me Well, I can give you I can I can talk to you about this all day.
• 21:51
  Jens Molbak: Because what I what I really love, let me tell you one mindset shift first, and I'll tell you a story around food stamps. And I'll tell you another story around nonprofits who but this one thing on the mindset shift in terms of you were starting to talk Becky about, you know, assets in nonprofits have we were, we were asked to work with a large pharmaceutical company that was doing work in in mental health.
• 22:14
  Jens Molbak: And we were talking to their team and you know, it made a presentation, and they were super interested in the work.
• 22:19
  Jens Molbak: And, you know, they thought a lot about a lot about the the VA was one of their biggest customers, I gotta we sell more, in this case, drugs the VA to to help people with this particular affiliation, we're like, well, that's kind of interesting, you know, you can think about selling to the VA. But if you're the head of the VA, and you're thinking about how to help these, these vets, right, and you know, everything you do from the private sector side, what would you do differently? How would you use the BAS assets in a way to really, you know, make life better for that vet who might be struggling? And similarly, if the head of the VA was the head of your organization, what would they do with your private sector stuff?
• 22:55
  Jens Molbak: So he was like, kind of, you know, thinking about these different approaches it was getting going. But what he said was really interesting. He said, You know, I've never thought about the nonprofit sector as being useful to us. He's like, you know, we the rabbit, because the groups are writing checks.
• 23:09
  Jens Molbak: I'm like, I'm saying,
• 23:11
  Jonathan McCoy: collectively for the nonprofit.
• 23:13
  Becky Endicott: Yeah, it's an out.
• 23:18
  Jens Molbak: The punchline is like we always give donations, I said, Well, who do you think has more real information? Who do you think's running the prison recitizen centers and programs and homeless shelters? Who do you think actually knows what's happening on the ground, and it was like this light bulb went off in his head, that he's got to be thinking about working with nonprofits fundamentally different rather than just writing a check. And checks are important. But these were actually on the ground, people actually knew what was going on around the forefront of society doing really important innovative work. And they could be really helpful to that.
• 23:53
  Jens Molbak: Right. So it was it was really fun to see this mindset shift in him about how can I work with nonprofit organizations differently because I value them in a way and they have unique assets and unique insight that other organizations don't necessarily have. So sorry, I get I get excited about that.
• 24:09
  Jens Molbak: Because it was it's fun to see these mindset shifts. A couple other stories, I guess about specifics. One of the favorite stories I like to tell is a company called about company called propel, which is based in New York. And they do a lot of work around the SNAP program and around low income Americans. So in the beginning, they were like, hey, you know, if you're a low income person on SNAP, and it's a $70 billion program, the Department of Agriculture right about 45 million people. It's you know, it's still amazes me that one, seven people in the US, you know, struggles with food insecurity. Yeah, it's blowing in a whole nother conversation
• 24:44
  Becky Endicott: Yep, don't get me going Jens.
• 24:47
  Jens Molbak: Well, I mean, go take a look at our website. And look at this proposal we put out there for food utility to actually address this in a really fundamental way if we can. That's a whole nother conversation. We really do.
• 25:00
  Becky Endicott: Oh friends we'll link that up especially all of you out in the food scarcity and poverty and and housing situation. Well,
• 25:08
  Jens Molbak: I'll come back to propel but let me just so yeah, so just on on food access. You know, we're currently working with the Morgridge Family Foundation based in Denver, and Colorado food cluster, which is a nonprofit, which has been delivering food during the pandemic, to kids to actually pilot what we think is a transformational program in terms of delivering food and changing food access, and that's a whole conversation we can get into if you want to. But I'd really encourage people to look at that, too. It's a great example of a foundation and a nonprofit group partnering together with a tri sector model that fundamentally change what's happening out there. But anyway, let me come back to the story about propellers, right? These guys are who created this app, right, that are helpful for people currently on food stamps.
• 25:56
  Jens Molbak: And they started with a very simple process, they said, Hey, let's talk to people on food stamps, and what's their life like, and the average snap user gets about $200 a month, and that lasts about two weeks, and they run out of money. And so what they really need to know is how much money is left on their card, right. So they need to know what their balance was. And it used to be called a state up with an 800 number. And these guys will let's create an app that does that. So they created this app, that was essentially a balance checking app. But when we started talking with them, they realized there was a much, much larger opportunity for them to create a tri sector model, right? And they thought about the person on food stamps. And they thought about, well, what are the other government programs, they might need to access for benefits. So things like you know, Section Eight housing, and you can go down the list of any of the other social safety net programs, and they created an app that kind of integrates all that stuff. And they also thought through the myriad of nonprofits that could actually be providing benefits, whether that's job training or childcare heating assistance. So they've created this concierge service for people on SNAP, right to actually bring the best of all three sectors to them.
• 27:00
  Jens Molbak: And I think it's a great example. They've rebranded the app now as the providers app.
• 27:07
  Jens Molbak: And I encourage some of your nonprofits to look at that they partnered very closely with nonprofits. I know here in Seattle, like Mary's Place, which is a shelter for, for women, when the first things they'll do is when people come in, they'll say, hey, download this app, because we'll give you access to snap and other benefits and nonprofits whatnot.
• 27:24
  Jens Molbak: So it's a really great example of the way a tri sector approach can not only make the company stronger, but the nonprofits more effective and able to reach people, right because companies tend to have more distribution and also bring in governments versus
• 27:42
  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.
• 27:56
  Becky Endicott: And Virtuous is the platform to help you do just that. It's so much more than a nonprofit CRM.
• 28:00
  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.
• 28:32
  Jonathan McCoy: Taking a quick pause from today's episode to thank our sponsor, Slingshot Group, our friends over at Slingshot Group partner with nonprofits to recruit and hire great leaders build remarkable teams and unleash your missions potential. You know, we talk often about how much your organization's culture matters, especially today. And not just being a place that attracts talent, but also becomes a magnet to connecting donors to your mission. Slingshot group is the organization we trust to help you do just that. It's so much more than a staffing and executive search firm. Slingshot group goes deep and gets to know your culture so they can help you find the leaders and staff who will take your mission to the next level. Sound like slingshot group might be a fit for your organization. Learn more today at slingshotgroup.org or follow the link in our show notes.
• 29:18
  Jonathan McCoy: Okay, Jens, you're like the hype person for the whole nonprofit sector because I feel like I've heard this threaded through, and it's for all elaboration. But I just think like your story of your friend, not understanding the power that nonprofit was bringing, I think, also shame on the nonprofit for not coming to the table to offer that. And that's what we want to dispel that we're defaulting to sponsor my table at the gala instead of, hey, actually, this unique partnership can unlock and grow our mission and grow the impact and all of it the velocity across the board, and I just think it's like you got to, you got to chase the cheese, wherever the cheese is, you know, like, what's the problem here?
• 29:59
  Jens Molbak: Yeah. And I think, you know, it's, I mean, in my own journey, like when I started, you know, I wasn't I did not come out of the nonprofit world. So I'm still new and still learning all the time. And I actually surprised a lot of people when I decided that I wanted to create a C3 and be a nonprofit and create a public
• 30:19
  Becky Endicott: We're so glad you're here. Stay around for a while.
• 30:24
  Jens Molbak: I'm happy to be here, but the but I'll say sort of from a personal standpoint, you know, I would go to these luncheons and galas and, and and it was they were amazing. And you know incredibly well told stories. But after going for several years, it felt a little bit like Groundhog Day. It felt like, Hey, these are the same sort of stories. And I asked myself the question, are we really solving these problems at scale? And are we solving them at scale quickly enough? And then I think as a society, I think we can say, No, we're not solving these problems at scale, me and Becky are talking about, you know, food insecurity, we've had one out of seven people being food insecure for 40 years, and we haven't really moved the dial on it. And I think that either Bridgespan or someone had done a study about scale in the nonprofit sector.
• 31:11
  Jens Molbak: And I think this isn't going to be right. But I think research was something like since 1972, been like 50,000, nonprofits at scale past a million dollars, it's not the right number, where there's been 10s of 1000s. And nonprofits tend to struggle with scale, whereas the private sector scales really, really well. There are some nonprofits that scale beautifully, like, you know, Girl Scouts, or universities or hospitals, but by and large they. But on the other hand, the nonprofit sector really has important resources, important insight and important knowledge. And if you can take the best of the nonprofit sector and combine it with the best of maybe private sector and the best of government, then maybe we can start to unlock some of these problems at scale faster, because you can't solve any of these problems in with one sector. Alone, I've been having a fair number of conversations at the federal level. And one of my strong messages to the federal government been working with is they are trying to get their different departments, they want the Department of Labor to work with the Department of Education to work with the veterans, first of all really important, right? But I'm like, if you guys just think about, you know, getting coordination at the federal level, and you forget about the people, you're never gonna get there. Because if you think about the person, first, they're gonna need some federal assets from all those agencies, they're going to need the state, they're going to need the county, they're gonna need the city, right? They're gonna need companies and they're gonna need nonprofits. So you've if you don't adopt the tri sector approach, or like, like propelled did with its food stamp app, or like coin syrup, you're gonna miss the opportunity for really solving problems at scale. So we're beating this drum about trying to get all organizations and all sectors to think differently and to build their models differently, to give them tools and ways to actually think about this.
• 32:55
  Becky Endicott: And that's why this conversation is so deeply important. And conversations like this, I mean, you have a podcast. So we gotta give a little shout out, because you are socializing this and it takes so many of us socializing, how we need to see change how we enact change, it's not just enough to talk about it. That's why we love that this community is an activating community. And I want to talk about that with you like in terms of application, we have we have listeners from all different sectors, all different types of positions and roles. Talk about how they can begin to apply these ideas today. How can we begin to work together to deepen the work of our important missions? How do we leverage this tri sector mindset? What's something you would say to you know, the average nonprofit listener? Who's taking all this in?
• 33:46
  Jens Molbak: So what I would say is the reason New Impact that exists is we're trying to create and develop this mindset. And then we're trying to scrape tools. So if people wouldn't go to our website, which is NewImpact.Care, they'll find three things. They'll find some information about, you know, how this mindset works, and some ways to think about it. They'll see these projects that are examples with a ton of information about you know, here's a way to apply. We just finished a project around homeownership for the black community, which is black homeownership is dramatically under other races ownership. So what are those systemic issues that are blocking homeownership?
• 34:20
  Jens Molbak: Right. I've already mentioned the, the USL project, and the and the food utility project. So there's examples there. But there are also tools, right, so we're starting to work with universities to teach and train this. So we're working right now at the University of Washington, in the business school and other schools and under accelerators, incubate innovators to actually develop methods. So one thing people can do on the website is they can download something we call the tri sector, you know, innovation canvas, which is right now it's on paper, it's going to be digital here within a couple of weeks. We're really excited by it.
• 34:58
  Becky Endicott: I'm very proud of you. You put a little banner at the top of your website that says coming soon look at your marketing way to go.
• 35:08
  Jens Molbak: We're currently straight tools. And the idea here is that, you know, we really want everyone to start you know, using this approach.
• 35:14
  Jens Molbak: We think it's very powerful. A lot of people are familiar with design thinking right and human centered design that took about 30 years to get crafted and developed and we're trying to with tri sector innovation sort of add that lens it's a different lens on on building your nonprofit out there making it accessible and available. So someone really wants to get into it. I'd say go to the website, download the canvas, read some stuff, see some of the examples.
• 35:42
  Jens Molbak: We're also really interested in spreading this work. Right. So we're starting right now with with the you here in Seattle.
• 35:48
  Jens Molbak: But we plan to work with other universities, Cal Poly, he's been very interested in it. And we'd love to get a whole variety of academic organizations, not only doing research, but teaching this in business schools and public policy schools and school schools of social innovation. And then we also have some, you know, it's interesting, my own experience in the in the nonprofit sector is it's not particularly tech savvy. And I hate to say that so bluntly,
• 36:15
  Becky Endicott: We know.
• 36:15
  Jonathan McCoy: You are safe to say that here.
• 36:16
  Becky Endicott: We own it, yeah.
• 36:18
  Jens Molbak: Oh, my God. I mean, coming from the private sector, it's one of the things that drives me a little bit nuts around the sector is it doesn't, it doesn't want to embrace tech as as as readily as, as it might, let's say, the main human relationships are important. And I completely value that. But if we're going to do things at scale, we should be using some modern, some some tools like databases and stuff that could be be helpful. So we are starting to put out kind of a roadmap for we think public, good innovation and impact tools. And we're very interested in working with either for profits or not for by specialists to help develop these data tools that could serve all nonprofits. One of the things we've put out there is this concept of something we call the new impact wiki, which is just essentially a directory of organizations, list of nonprofits list of for profits and to government entities, and organize them by impact, right?
• 37:18
  Jens Molbak: So we use the UN Sustainable Development Goals, I don't know if you guys
• 37:22
  Jonathan McCoy: SDGs.
• 37:24
  Becky Endicott: Absolutely, let's do it.
• 37:25
  Jens Molbak: So you can go to the website, which has not yet public but we were trying to get it there where you could say, Okay, show me everybody in Washington State who's on the team for you know, hunger, right? And it'll say, here's the city, you know, of Seattle's resources. Here's the State of Washington's resources, here are the county resources here are the private sector resources, social sector resources. And the idea that we as a society can put our resources together and think about what to do with there is incredible resources out there. There are way more people working on these issues than people realize. And we think some technology that can help bring the network together, could be really, really powerful. So that's something we're excited to kind of bring to the conversation. Imagine kind of Wikipedia, on steroids for impact and innovation.
• 38:11
  Jonathan McCoy: I love it. It's like why does that not exist?
• 38:14
  Jonathan McCoy: You know, and I think
• 38:15
  Jens Molbak: Exactly, Jon, I mean, we look at these things, why isn't somebody already done this, right?
• 38:20
  Jonathan McCoy: This is why...
• 38:21
  Becky Endicott: How can we help?
• 38:21
  Becky Endicott: Like, how can we pour into that, like, if everybody can contribute to something like that and pull something out of it? What a community resource
• 38:31
  Jens Molbak: But what's interesting is that I'm really dedicated to new impact being a public good, because I think that's the only way can really do the work it needs to do. But it's a struggle as a nonprofit, like we have to get grants, we have to, you know, do our revenue, and make that come and there's not a lot of, I'd say, interest in the, in the in the nonprofit sector to create sort of systemic level change, I mean, nonprofit sector tends to focus on the direct and immediate benefit, which is great. And we're a level deeper than that. And we think if we're going to, you know, actually create fundamental change at scale, we've got to do some of this foundational work and build the systems and the tools so we can accelerate change. So not just a couple of organizations I can tell you about that are doing this work, but everybody can engage with it.
• 39:19
  Jonathan McCoy: You're you're you're in like minded place right here. I mean, we call it an impact uprising, we want to see a lot of the same things that I hear you describe I mean, that's a disruption of getting more people involved in philanthropy to help power that you have philanthropy is not always the big P around here, it's often not the big P it's more like getting everybody involved with whatever their gifts are. And so I want to transition and give you a chance to tell a little bit of a story.
• 39:42
  Jonathan McCoy: I mean, your story has been insane. I love that you followed these nudges and life moments to do this really aligned work at this point in your life. And I wonder if you'd share a moment that of philanthropy that has stuck with you and your journey?
• 39:56
  Jonathan McCoy: Yeah.
• 39:59
  Jens Molbak: I go back to that.
• 39:59
  Jens Molbak: That one that I mentioned before, when I was going to a lot of these luncheons and galas and fundraisers and I'm not a big donor, but you know, that I have, you know, made, you know, tried to participate. And this, this sense of like, oh, every one of these stories is important and heartbreaking and meaningful and align thought, are we really making a difference at scale? And that's what that's what really struck me is I think philanthropy On its own does amazing work, right. And companies on their own can do amazing work. But this notion, we weren't thinking about People First as a society that was kind of that, I'd say that was that moment when I'd gone to yet another lunch. And, and it was the same story I'd heard five years ago. And I'm like, it's really important and nonprofits doing amazing work, but it felt like we were on a treadmill. And that's what really motivated me to think, okay, what can you know, what can I add to the conversation here, you know, what, in terms of the background that I had, can be useful. And honestly, when I started, you know, new impact, I thought, oh, it's only going to be good for, you know, early stage private sector companies. That's what I knew.
• 41:13
  Jens Molbak: And one of the things that's been so powerful, is realizing that any organization right in any sector can actually take this more holistic point of view. And yet, we're not taught that we're not taught to think that we were still very siloed in terms of our buckets that are out there. So this more integrated approach has been been been really exciting to see and I love man, I can tell you that I've told you stories about propel with food stamps, I'll share one other story that's been really motivating to me, there's a there's an early stage company in Newark called mocha five. And they're really focused on providing credit into black and brown communities in urban settings. And, and when we first met them, they were really interested in they'd started working with the section eight housing database. So it's a $45 billion program. And what they realized is that even if someone was on federal assistance for housing, if they still made the payments on time, it said something about their credit, right, so they could actually, but the credit ratings didn't see that. So these people have low credit scores, but they actually deserve credit, better credit scores. So they thought, Oh, we can start to you know, use this government piece to make life better and get credit, you know, better credit for people in these urban centers where the where the banks have withdrawn, right. And people often stuck with payday lenders and super high rates and those sorts of things. But as they were developing their model, they were like, oh, you know, we're encouraged them. How could you work with a nonprofit? So we're like, Well, who else is on your team? And who else thinks about credit and credit lending these communities? And they're like, Well, you know, the YWCA, more like, we bet the YWCA knows a lot of women who could use this service, right. So they created a partnership with the YWCA in Chicago to distribute these cards right there. And it was really it was great for the company. It was also really great for for the why. And they've pushed it even further now. And they're now working with cities in the working with the mayor's office in Los Angeles to create these city wide Angeleno cards, right. So moments like that, where it's philanthropy, and its business and government, that's what really gets me motivated, because I feel like, you know, society, we're putting people first, right, and then letting the sector serve the people, which is what I think we ought to be doing.
• 43:30
  Becky Endicott: And that is the basis of how philanthropy was founded. In this country, like one person giving to another person, whether it was for an orphanage or a soup kitchen or at your church or whatever, it always starts with the human being. And I keep thinking we need like, a little bell when there's like a tri sector model like explosion of innovation, that is such a great story. And I hope it's really shifted your mindsets, listeners, because I've been sitting here thinking that we need a fourth sector, I've been thinking that for a year, you know that, you know, the three sectors, there's just not a way to make it so congruent, which I'm thinking well maybe ends is going to build a way to make that synchronicity happen. Because when it does happen, everybody typically wins. And then we're not living in scarcity. We're not, you know, we're taking advantage of this company's tech or their resources, or their employees or their brand or their network. And then we're bringing in our expertise and our passion and our stories and our mission work. And everybody has something to contribute to the pie. And so I don't know that we need to create a new pie, we just have to figure out how to make the pie more edible.
• 44:42
  Becky Endicott: For everybody else. I'll stop with my metaphors.
• 44:47
  Jens Molbak: No, I love it in I often I'll take my glasses off here, because often talk about try sectors and cancer, the new set of glasses and an often like either we build these resources in society for you know, a primary purpose. But with a little bit of innovation, you can use them for a lot of other things. Right that's out there.
• 45:05
  Jens Molbak: So the sense of abundance that you talk about, I come back to you know, we have this huge balance sheet right of 250 trillion in the US alone, we can be way smarter about it. And we tend to work across a lot of cities in a lot of different areas. And I see, you know what's going on in Austin or Denver or Baltimore. In Seattle.
• 45:26
  Jens Molbak: We don't communicate, right. We don't kind of share the lessons quickly enough. There's not a good enough network to sort of leverage what we already know.
• 45:31
  Jens Molbak: But I think if we can We create that connective tissue, we can actually start to solve some of these problems faster. And that's what we're we're that's what we're motivated to do.
• 45:41
  Becky Endicott: Well, we join you absolutely in that effort.
• 45:43
  Becky Endicott: And this community is just living proof of the fact that it is possible in the modern era.
• 45:46
  Becky Endicott: And, you know, yes, we we end all of our podcast conversations, asking our guests to give us a one good thing. And this could be a mantra, a life hack, something you live by, what would you offer up to the community? Or one good thing?
• 46:02
  Jens Molbak: I guess the one good thing is, there's a much bigger team out there who are working alongside of you that you may not be aware of. And if you can ask yourself, you know, you know, what do I actually what does a person need? What are the resources I've been who might have already done it?
• 46:20
  Jens Molbak: Right? How might we be able to use something and repurpose it?
• 46:24
  Jens Molbak: How might we recycle the resources we already have? We think they can get to problems much faster. So I'd encourage people to think about how do I repurpose our existing resources, find them other team members, and then align with them right? And really create these stronger models?
• 46:39
  Jonathan McCoy: Yes, I mean, we get called ridiculous idealist, Optima toxic optimist here. And I'm like, what you just said is so true, because it gets confirmed day after day with conversations that you got to find your team. And like there's other people fighting for the same thing you want to see in the world? It's just a matter of conversations, you know, and I think this conversation is, is pushing us into that. So round this out, how can we get connected to all these amazing resources on your website, points to the ways you show up online, your organization, all the things yet, so you can find
• 47:10
  Jens Molbak: our core asset is the website, which is new impact dot care, we intentionally chose a dot player name, not a.com, not a.org, not a.gov. Because we want to be, you know, sector agnostic. And I actually think that caring is at the core of what really makes change happen.
• 47:27
  Jens Molbak: And if we all can win, you care, then good stuffs happen. So that would be the place. We're also on LinkedIn, we do a lot of posting on LinkedIn, we're not as active on other social media pieces. So I'd say LinkedIn, the website are the best places to find us. And we're super interested in working with other people. We want people to borrow, copy, replicate everything we do as a public good. We want it to be copied shared. There's no pride of ownership here at all. And we just hope that we can be useful.
• 47:59
  Jens Molbak: So people are interested, you know, either and helping us develop the mindset and teaching and researching it if they're interested in the tech which, which is particularly challenges as the three or in terms of doing specific projects like the food utility project, we'd be happy to talk chat with them.
• 48:15
  Becky Endicott: Nonprofits social impact. orgs, go find Jens, go find the New Impact team. We are going to keep our eye out for that Canvas offering that you're going to download.
• 48:26
  Jens Molbak: Now. The ones out v2 will be out in there like it like by the time this podcast drops, I think so.
• 48:32
  Becky Endicott: Excellent. Well, we will link it up as a freebie in our newsletter because we want you to have access to these tools. When when our work is democratized. It just helps us all scale more quickly. And that is just the underpinning of this conversation. So thank you so much for coming in. We root you on and your work and we are in lockstep beside you. Working towards these mighty missions that we think are absolutely attainable to change the world and I will never lose that ridiculous optimism even at 42. Nope.
• 49:04
  Jens Molbak: Well, I'm 60 back and we still got it going.
• 49:06
  Jens Molbak: Alright, thanks, Jon. Thanks, Becky.
• 49:09
  Julie Confer: Hey, friends.
• 49:09
  Julie Confer: Thanks so much for being here.
• 49:11
  Julie Confer: Did you know we create a landing page for each podcast episode with helpful links, freebies and even shareable graphics? Be sure to check it out at the link in this episode's description. You probably hear it in our voices but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you achieve more for your mission than ever before. We'd love for you to join our good community. It's free. And you can think of it as the after party to each podcast episode.
• 49:31
  Julie Confer: You can sign up today at we are for good.com backslash Hello.
• 49:34
  Julie Confer: One more thing If you loved what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating and review? It means the world to us and your support helps more people find our community.
• 49:43
  Julie Confer: Thanks friends. I'm our producer Julie Confer and our theme song is Sunray by Remy Borsboom.