Latest / We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits / 145. Finding the Right Technology to Take Your Organization to the Next Level - Mitch Stein

Transcript

145. Finding the Right Technology to Take Your Organization to the Next Level - Mitch Stein · We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

• 0:01
  Jonathan McCoy: Hey, I'm john.
• 0:01
  Jonathan McCoy: And I'm Becky. And this is the we are for good podcast.
• 0:06
  Becky Endicott: nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.
• 0:15
  Jonathan McCoy: We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.
• 0:23
  Becky Endicott: So welcome to the good community, where nonprofit professionals, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
• 0:34
  Jonathan McCoy: So let's get started. Hey, Becky,
• 0:37
  Becky Endicott: we are literally dancing. All four of us are dancing. It's a
• 0:41
  Jonathan McCoy: good one, we're gonna be so fun. Yeah,
• 0:43
  Becky Endicott: it is.
• 0:44
  Jonathan McCoy: We're gonna jump into the pond today. And there's your first dad joke of the day.
• 0:46
  Jonathan McCoy: But we have got an amazing conversation coming up with Mitch Stein. He's the co founder and CEO and Chief impact officer at pond. And we're gonna unpack what this is. But I'm just telling you nonprofit friends, you need this organization in your life, because Mitch had this passion for helping nonprofits find the right technology to help take your organization to the next level.
• 1:08
  Jonathan McCoy: But he doesn't just do that he does it in community, he does it with equipping you with the tools to feel confident about making these decisions. And he's just like a complete powerhouse of a human being. Let me just tell you a little bit about his story. He's probably the first investment banker that we've had on the podcast, he cut his teeth at none other than Goldman Sachs, and really kind of pivoted his life completely and chasing this kind of social impact sector. He's a board member for the LGBT Center in New York. He's a leading fundraiser for cycle for the cause. And he is like a force for that. So you need to dive in. We're happy to hear that story today. But just an all around incredible human being he leads so much of the narrative and conversation on LinkedIn, I see his post just really open up to the authentic process of starting an organization in the midst of a pandemic and juggling it all in an authentic way. And so he is kind of a mentor and a friend to all of us. And we're just really excited to have this conversation today. Mitch, thanks for joining us.
• 2:04
  Mitch Stein: That was like the nicest intro I've ever been like shedding a tear over here.
• 2:11
  Becky Endicott: So worthy of that
• 2:13
  Jonathan McCoy: really worthy of it? Well, Mitch, would you tell us a little bit about your story we love, you know, all the random ways that lead us to ending up in this sector. And I think your story is super fascinating.
• 2:23
  Mitch Stein: Yeah, of course.
• 2:23
  Mitch Stein: You know, I think starting a nonprofit tech platform. the ironic thing is I have no direct work experience, either working at a nonprofit or at a tech company.
• 2:35
  Jonathan McCoy: So I'm qualified to
• 2:36
  Becky Endicott: say blank slate.
• 2:39
  Mitch Stein: But I think that has been my single biggest asset in starting this journey, having no assumption about knowing the right answer, all the way along, and just being a total sponge, to learn from others. And having this balance of like, knowing what I do know, I understand market making. Both as a you know, as a banker, you're always finding buyers and sellers of something sometimes, you know, really specific big deals, sometimes it's at scale in different markets, but you're always market making, and seeing the efficiency and power that provides from having good markets. That's what's really driven me in this work, because as an avid board member fundraiser at a nonprofit and just started caring more and more about the space. I covered the technology space as an investment banker working with some of the biggest tech companies in the world, and seeing how their products were developed and sold and marketed.
• 3:31
  Mitch Stein: And then I saw how that happened in the nonprofit space. And the chasm that existed between the two, both in terms of products developed and how they were used, was distressing. It was you know, I think every founder has like that thing that kept them up at night. And for me, it was like, these organizations are doing the hardest work solving the biggest problems.
• 3:54
  Mitch Stein: And yet, we haven't set up a system or a market to help technology maximize the work they can do in those areas.
• 4:04
  Mitch Stein: And so I decided, you know, I'm gonna leave my job. I've been here for seven years, I had worked directly for the CEO of the company, I kind of bled to Goldman blue. And I was just like, there's more for me to do.
• 4:14
  Mitch Stein: And so I put in my two weeks notice, at the end of February, my last day was March 6 2020. I had a business plan lined up. I had partners lined up locally in New York, where I was living at the time I took off to go on vacation before I jumped into this thing. And yeah, I don't know that I need to go into that meeting March 13. Yeah, this tiny thing happened called a global pandemic, which I think we all have that story in some way shape or form. For me, it just was like at the strangest time in my life I was like totally untethered in deciding like, oh will do I still do this thing. Do I go crawling back if I guess my job back and I'm just really really grateful that I was naive, ignorant to just like, keep trucking forward and start having those conversations. You know, where pond started was a different name at the time, actually. But we wanted to build that marketplace for tools. You know, I thought a lot about, well, what's that tool that's going to change this for the nonprofit sector? Do I need to go build that CRM, like build that fundraising platform. And the reality was, there are hundreds of those things out there. And yet, people are still struggling to maximize them. And so it really felt like there was like the connection was missing the infrastructure. And as I was talking with more and more people, it was just this universal experience that, as you mentioned, earlier, Becky, it's like every sing, and I hesitate to say anything's universal. But I actually think this is true, that every single person and nonprofit has a problem with the way a tool or system currently works, or a part of their job, they wish could be made more efficient with technology, or automation.
• 6:02
  Mitch Stein: That is universal. And yet, there are clear blockers in making that happen. And so the original concept was like, Oh, just create the marketplace, create the Expedia for how you pick tools for your nonprofit, a drop down menu of every CRM, you could use every peer to peer platform, every mail tool, etc, etc, we built that we launched in the fall. And it was total crickets, like, no one would come to use it. And I, you know, I mean, frankly, I was just depressed for like two months, you know, I remember having a call with john, at the time, actually, it was just like, I would schedule these calls to give myself something to do during the day to like, I have this thing to look forward to, because I can't get out of bed.
• 6:42
  Mitch Stein: Like I literally am crying all day. And I just don't know what to do. And by just like, falling forward, and just trying new things and keep going, we just realized, like, we're providing a source of information. But that's not cutting it, like just having the category in the catalog. Sure, that's nice. But that's not actually solving the problem. And it made us realize, like, okay, we thought everyone had this shared problem. But how that manifests in why they don't actually get to solutions that work for them are, they don't have enough time, they don't have the time to come navigate this beautiful platform we built like they don't have time, people are, you know, I use this analogy of like a frog in boiling water, it's like, you know, there's, you've got so many pressures on you. And then you know, there's like so many things on your plate, and you've got such big challenges to tackle, you don't have extra time to go research things that could make your life easier all the time. And you also don't have extra money. Like that's the, that's the added stress of wait on enough time. So if you don't have extra money, either in like total as your user full budget, or just allocated to tech and tools, you're not going to go looking for them. And most people also say like, Well, I'm not a tech person. I don't have the expertise. I don't know what I don't know. So again, like how do I engage productively with that, and the last one, and the biggest one talk about the boiling water, the noise of everyone chasing you, but cold calls the constant spam emails, like messages, sneer, LinkedIn, and you're like, where do you even start to engage with all that noise? And so people just don't. And as we looked at those four barriers of time, money, expertise, and trusts were like, Okay, well, we're not doing anything to solve those barriers today. And they're what has been done before for other markets like Expedia, Zillow, carvana, that's not good enough, like how they solve those market problems isn't good enough for the impact space. And we actually need to think bigger, and how we thought about it was like, okay, all these providers still want access to these potential customers, they're paying for tons of marketing, right, they're paying for ads are paying for sponsorships are paying for these salespeople to be calling you like they're paying a lot. That means they could be shopping for customers, instead of you spending the time shopping for tools. And that by twisting that on its head and kind of changing the definition of our supply and demand in that market was what really unlock something powerful to be like, Whoa, when you do that. Now, it's there's value on the table that can help incentivize at the right engagement and lowering those barriers. So by us saying, Hey, we know you don't have time. So you just tell us your problem. And that's it, you get back to work. Let us canvass the space of providers. And let them decide if that's interesting and who they want to talk to and who's a good potential customer and pay you for your time. You know, we talk about pawn being a place where the right tools, find nonprofit leaders and pay them for their time. So two things that are pretty unheard of in this space. We want to take something off of your plate, and then also pay you for any time you spend on it. That's like revolutionary revolution, so much ham so much this space operates. And so in practice, what that means is someone's able to say, yeah, we need a new CRM or We have an event in the fall, and we're looking for new tools for fundraising, we want to have better engagement with our donors, like all the different companies and things you guys have talked to on your podcast, to then be able to write that down and go back to work, you didn't have to Google the right thing, you didn't have to know the right word, you don't even have to know what a CRM is, right? It's like totally meeting people where they are to fill out their request, which takes two minutes for free. And then we have a stable of providers that serve the space, you know, more joining every day already at 85. Companies able to look at that and say, Oh, yeah, we provide that type of donor management tool, email marketing, fundraising tools, whatever it is, they reach out, we batch those requests together once a week, so that the nonprofit can look at that once a week and say, accept the client accept relevant or not.
• 10:45
  Mitch Stein: And anytime they accept, they're going to get $100 in their account, to ultimately make them a better buyer of that product.
• 10:52
  Mitch Stein: So they talked to five different providers, which by the way, this is how this happens today, it's just like, you're doing the work to go find them. And you're definitely not getting paid to talk to any of them. And so now you start with $500, to go spend on something. And that might sound like a small amount. But if you've got 1% of your budget allocated to technology, you would have had to raise $50,000, to get that incremental 500 bucks to spend on a tool.
• 11:20
  Jonathan McCoy: Okay, there's a lot of things that I really want to unpack real quickly. But a, I love your founders story that you're committed to the vision, but you were not committed to how that looked of the reality of it. And it's been so fun to be a bystander and kind of a cheerleader on the side to see you iterate this. So I just want to applaud you for that mentioned sticking true to your vision. And I love this latest iteration. But secondly, and I don't remember my second point is
• 11:45
  Becky Endicott: great, I'm gonna jump in there to one. On behalf of every nonprofit professional in probably every human in the world, I want to thank you for taking the friction out of looking for tech, because I love tech. Anyone who knows me knows that I love efficiency, I like to do things like that are doing working smarter, not harder. And I felt like you just built a community that feels good, where I want my tech, but I don't know where to start. And it's like you have created a space where people can just kind of say, I think I need this help me align.
• 12:24
  Becky Endicott: And it is so easy to do. And it takes all of the research and time out of trying to demo 50 different things to find the right fit and is the cost, right? And is it doing everything I needed to do? How's it integrating. And I just one want to thank you for that.
• 12:40
  Becky Endicott: Number two, I am so proud of you for continuing to innovate. We talk about trying stuff on this podcast all the time, I can tell you when we launched, we're for good, like 10 months ago, it was like our business plan has shifted so many times, based on the feedback of the community, it's like your users are going to tell you what they need. So I want to applaud you for listening. And the last thing is, I am just feeling so grateful every time I hear about an incredible human being. I mean, Mitch graduated summa cum laude from the Wharton School of Business. I mean, this is not someone who is I mean, you're probably the brightest guy in the room. And when I hear about somebody who like, does an about face out of the for profit world and into nonprofit and pours that that intelligence, that passion, that joy, even the vulnerability of you saying you are depressed, thank you for sharing that because that is a journey that people go through when they're trying to figure out what is our why what is the thing. So that was a lot of me just trying to love on my friends.
• 13:51
  Mitch Stein: I just I wouldn't want to end up in there quickly because they think a reality of the past year and a half ish was like I don't think I was I don't use the word arrogant likely, but coming in being like, I've seen how this works and other spaces. And so this is how it's gonna work here. And I think there was a real like unwinding of like unwinding some of that arrogance to say, and I think there's a ton of people that are like, want to bring the for profit knowledge and skills into the nonprofit space. And I would just say every little success of our company so far not to say that we've made it but I think we're on the path has been from listening to nonprofits and learning how they operate and incorporating that into our business. So making it human cost like meeting people where they are not trying to just automate, you know, algorithm eyes, everything that we do.
• 14:43
  Mitch Stein: It's all about connection community. These are nonprofit values that are under underestimated in the tech community.
• 14:55
  Jonathan McCoy: I speak in AI languages
• 14:57
  Becky Endicott: and I just think the empathy threading that through your business Notice the inclusivity piece and showing up authentically is just a secret sauce that I wish more people would employ. And I'll even give an example of how I've seen this play out. If I was telling john and Julie this last week, I saw, I'm in the cfre thread on their on one of their forums, and somebody literally asked, we're looking for a new CRM, I don't know where to start, what do you all use? And what do you like, and there was like, post after post of somebody giving their opinion that works for their nonprofit. And the reality is, is all of our needs are different. What one shop is doing may not work for you. And I had so much joy saying, don't go through all these demos, just go to pond like go like, you could literally take your hand and find the system that's going to work for you. And I'm just here in my confessional saying that I hate like trying to figure out tech, and this is such a great parachute for the sector. And I'm just really excited about it. something I'd love for you to dive into is just this commitment to community and growth. You're talking about humanity of impact leaders. So can you talk a little bit about why community is so important to you? And why is leadership growth like a cornerstone of your company?
• 16:51
  Mitch Stein: Yeah, I think a lot of what we're doing in this marketplace, and anytime there's marketplace, there's two sides to it, obviously. So I guess one piece of advice for founders is like if you're going to start a marketplace have a really good reason to do to do so because it's way harder than just creating a product for a single diamond is. But there's real beauty in it. Because we see that the provider person and the person at the nonprofit, they're the same like they both and that's why we try to take the word nonprofit out of the equation all together, which like, we have to walk to get there, because that's the word everyone knows today. So we have to use it here and there. But I really try to level the playing field with saying like this person, try and create a tool that solves that problem of yours, they want to have an impact. That's why they're doing it and you working in a nonprofit, you want to have an impact, and you want tools that help you have more impact with the limited time you have to offer. And so that's a lot of it. And so I as a founder, we get together other founders on the platform, other founders of providers on the platform to get that group together. It's like, let's not make this so hard.
• 17:57
  Mitch Stein: We're reinventing the wheel in different places, we could all be working together better. I think in a complaint I've heard from many nonprofit leaders is like, I just wish my tools talk to each other. I wish like, you know, everything was on the same page. And I think part of the problem is, yeah, if these providers all speak once a year at a conference, they might all attend. Like every other week, we have tech company leaders talking to each other about how to better serve this space. And similarly, on the nonprofit side. You know, we've had support groups running between nonprofit leaders that we run.
• 18:31
  Mitch Stein: And I think hearing firsthand from people has had such a profound impact on how we run this business. I mean, I remember this was maybe three months ago, in one of the first group sessions we did, and one of the leaders who runs a community center in Kensington, which is neighborhood Philadelphia area, which is a really tough, crime ridden neighborhood and a lot of addiction issues. And she was like, you know, people, how are you doing? Nice check in. And she was like, you know, I'm struggling. Because every single day, I walk into work, and I'm tripping over someone shooting up with heroin, on the sidewalk, outside of our communities. And I'm like, this think she goes to sit at her computer. And, uh, and a salesperson might call her to talk to her about something she didn't ask for is like,
• 19:30
  Jonathan McCoy: horrifying. And then if I can calling and calling and calling as someone that as a recipient of that when we were in our nonprofits, yeah.
• 19:39
  Mitch Stein: And so if I can help, I know that person doesn't want to do that. And if they knew the context, they wouldn't want to be if we can provide a better way, for both. That's what drives me. And I think if I didn't really get in the weeds with these people to understand their daily lives, we wouldn't have that insight and how to make this whole process better.
• 19:59
  Becky Endicott: Hey, friends, we wanted to take a moment to thank our amazing sponsor give butter, the world's fastest growing online giving platform powering more than 35,000 causes. One of these is family reach a national nonprofit dedicated to eradicating the financial barriers that accompany a cancer diagnosis. Like many of us, they were unsure how they were going to replace their critical in person fundraising events during COVID. Family reach put give butters virtual fundraising tools to use by hosting a super fun and engaging celebrity chef cooking challenge where they raise more than $350,000 and if you think this was a one off success, think again. They just did it. And raised more than$600,000 family reach raves about give butters ability to livestream video alongside their real time support or feed, and saw how the threaded comments engage their audience beyond what was possible on other platforms. It's buttery goodness at its finest. Don't miss the full success story in our show notes, ready to explore how gift butter can help your organization, take your online fundraising to the next level, check them out at gift buttered calm.
• 21:02
  Jonathan McCoy: I love that. And it mean, you're putting power back into the hands of the nonprofit by equipping them with the insight to be able to make smart decisions. And I just really love that you put together a resource. It's been a while since I've seen it. And I loved it so much. And it was about you know, when you get in these demos, when you get in front of a vendor, there's just some really key questions that you could ask. And I think that this gives even more power to the nonprofit of just understanding what should they be asking of these vendors. And just if you could walk you through a few of those, I think would be really helpful.
• 21:33
  Mitch Stein: Yeah, and I think you've hit the nail on the head.
• 21:35
  Mitch Stein: It's all about empowerment.
• 21:35
  Mitch Stein: Right? And there's incredible empowerment in choice. So it's not just about where you got the biggest discount or coupon.
• 21:42
  Mitch Stein: Right, that's cost based decision making, as opposed to value based decision making. And I think there has to be some of that abundance mindset to make value based decisions because you have to believe you can afford that outcome. And you'll solve for that as opposed to the other way around. So yes, that empowerment is huge. And I think, yes, we want to save you time to not be doing the research and equipping you to the time you do spend, yeah, you're getting paid for it. But we still want it to be valuable.
• 22:12
  Mitch Stein: And so we spend a lot of time either through resources we share or direct counseling with anyone using Khan, to say, before you go into that call, like understand your own objectives. I think salespeople are salespeople, right? Like, they want to be selling us something and like, it's not to say that there's anything wrong with that. But that's kind of their objective going in. And so the more you can direct a conversation, to be really about the things important to you. And centering that for yourself beforehand, to say, this is what I'm most focused on. If I made a list of five priorities from a tool that I want, actually rank order them because nothing is going to do everything. And you want to be focused on finding the thing that does the most important thing for you best.
• 22:56
  Mitch Stein: Yes. And whenever you get in one of those conversations, there's going to be shiny objects all over the place, right. And I think doing a little bit of that prep five minutes beforehand of just saying reminding yourself, these are our problems. Like this is where I want this conversation to go, I've got 30 minutes, and I want to make sure that we hit you know, be in charge of that conversation.
• 23:16
  Mitch Stein: I've seen so many people join a demo. And they're just like, okay, like, go on. Like, yeah, it's a it's so much, it's better for both of you, if you come in and be like, boom, boom, these are the things I'm interested in. These are our problems, these are our priorities. And you know, I think presenting it and then having the person respond to that it's better for both of you, right? No one likes to just go and cold do a conversation like, Well, you know, I have no idea what's relevant to you. So that's the biggest one. And then I think just making sure you get the answers to the key things like, what is your contract structure?
• 23:52
  Mitch Stein: What is the pricing? And people would let me get back to the pricing? No, no, no. On this conversation, I would like to know, how do you price this product, right like that? The baseline? You know, is there are there access differentials, like when you get into pricing, that becomes a place a lot of people want to skirt and kind of come back to you and make it seem something mysterious? And it's like not that complicated. I just need to know, before we even get into this further. Tell me your pricing is Tell me do you have a minimum one year contract, because if this is my first time, and that would be a piece of advice, more advice on requested, but it's your first time ever using a CRM or your first time using this type of tool. And this is a lesson for startups, nonprofits, anyone, your first time using that type of product, do not sign a one year contract, get a trial, get a month by month option that you can convert later, you don't know what you don't know yet in using that tool. So keep flexibility.
• 24:48
  Jonathan McCoy: I think that is incredible advice. And I also tell people and this, I would love it, if you disagree, you can feel free to tell me but if you feel locked into a multi year contract with a tool that is not doing what you need to like, catch your losses and like move forward. I mean, you don't want to be handcuffed by some tech tool, when there's probably a free or cheaper option that's going to do if you're going to accomplish your goals. And I just think we got to break free of that kind of stuff. You know, I'm saying
• 25:16
  Becky Endicott: Yeah, and I love just this whole ideology. And it's a mindset shift for me that these calls really have to be about what we keep talking about with corporations, which is like this is a partnership. It's not like someone is coming in and pitching to you. You need to come in and say these are our values. These are our priorities. This is exactly what I want it to do. Let's, I mean, you make the conversation so succinct, because it's very clear what you need. And if they can't check all those boxes, there you go, we need to move on to the next one. But that's like, what I think the genius upon is, I don't have to go through 20 different demos I can figure ever. They're all right there. And I can just kind of figure out exactly what I need in one stop shopping. And it feels so much better. So you know, one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about Mitch, that I thought would be really helpful for our listeners, is to just create space for you to share openly about variances in the nonprofit sector and how we can be more inclusive of the LGBTQIA.
• 26:17
  Becky Endicott: community. And I just want to say before you answer that, when you run a digital company, one of the biggest shifts, I have felt, since I've always been in person at a business and you can physically go into people's offices get around the water cooler, you don't have that anymore. And so all of our work friends now are online. And Mitch is one of these people that we have found online. And I will say he is probably one of my favorite people that I have met in the last year because of the way that you show up. You are so kind, I like want to put an underline under that you are a great person you love on people. Well, you're an encourager, you have been very open about talking about this community about this, I would say stigma that is around the nonprofit sector. We want to hit it square between the eyes, and I would love to just get your perspective on it.
• 27:12
  Mitch Stein: Yeah, absolutely. I like once again, I'm not good at receiving compliments. So I'm like for the for the audio audience and like shedding it to your over here. Are you big?
• 27:23
  Mitch Stein: Yeah, I thank you, first of all, for bringing that up and centering that in the conversation. I think, for a lot of people, it's easy to say, you know, gay marriage is legal.
• 27:35
  Mitch Stein: Like, what's the problem? You know, as if like, there was some legislative victory seven years, or however long, five years ago, six years ago, that now absolved everyone of having any bias or like any lived experience that makes things challenging and different for being part of the LGBT community? I, yeah, I, for me, it's really important to talk about because I don't, I wouldn't have to. And I think that is some pushback that I've gotten from people is like, you know, literally say, first thing in my LinkedIn subtitle is that I'm gay. And it's like, but that's not relevant for your business, or like, could you just be putting people off? And like, why do you need to bring that up. And I think as someone who wouldn't have to lead with that, I could hide from that, and then be missing the opportunity to both be a standard bearer for people like you to ask these questions, which is amazing. And also, for people who don't have all the privilege I do, to feel comfortable. I mean, the number of people who have reached out to me say, like, you know, I just started my first job. And like, I don't feel comfortable doing that, but it's amazing to see you. And I'm not tethered by like being in a big company or having a boss that I can. And so that would be my first point is like, if you can, you should, and whether that is to stand up either, you know, as an out and proud individual, as an ally and do the things you can to center the conversation because it's not over. It's around this every day, I hear stories, especially moving back to the Midwest, after living in New York City for seven years, it's been alarming because I didn't even realize that it was still something I needed to think about. And it's been part of what's brought it to the forefront to me is like, you know, I'm on the board of the LGBT Center in New York. And that's just like, universally and applauded thing in New York.
• 29:24
  Mitch Stein: And that's now all of a sudden political and controversial living in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
• 29:31
  Mitch Stein: And your people's responses that near like to give a small example, I had offered to speak at a local university, which is, you know, faith based. And someone that runs their kind of like, entrepreneur affiliate program was like, you probably shouldn't do that they're gonna have a problem because you're gay. And that just like, if I had hair would like be blowing my hair back in shock of like, wait, what, like, What did you just say to me, and part of me was like, first of all, why did you say that to me? And then I reached a place of being grateful, because I knew he wouldn't have said that. Unless it were real. And there's this attitude in a lot of the country of like, Oh, no, no, it's cool.
• 30:09
  Mitch Stein: We accept you just like, you know, it's cool. Like in hushed tones, you know, and like, that continues to compound any, you know, traumatic lived experiences that people within this community have had by saying like, Oh, no, it's okay.
• 30:26
  Mitch Stein: by my standards. You're, it's you're allowed in I'm letting you in your It's okay. That you're different. Like, as long as the kind of the subtext is like, as long as you don't talk about it too much, as long as it's, as long as it's not too loud, as long as not too much.
• 30:42
  Mitch Stein: And to be able to move from that to a place of celebration of people's differences, rejoicing, someone being different, not pity. Like, that, I think is a gap in a lot of the space. And a lot of the country, quite frankly. And so that's not like a practical step thing. That's just a reality of like mentally checking, you know, how are you lifting up celebrating? And I think a lot of people might be like, Oh, well, we don't have any LGBTQ people in our organization. So it's not relevant for us. And it's just like, really, like, you don't know about their family. Like, firstly, you're making an assumption about them that you don't know, because they present a certain way. Maybe it's because they're not comfortable.
• 31:30
  Mitch Stein: Because this space you created that they haven't come to you to share anything like that. So just ways to be vocal to celebrate, to move from tolerance and acceptance to rejoicing. That's where we need to go now. And I think the secret in it all is like you're shutting yourself off. If you're not doing that you're limiting yourself in your organization, you are limiting creativity, you're limiting innovation.
• 31:59
  Mitch Stein: You're limiting how engaged and comfortable and productive your staff and team and community and donors and everyone can be.
• 32:08
  Becky Endicott: Okay, I just want to thank you so much for pouring your heart into that.
• 32:11
  Becky Endicott: And I will say that, please go follow Mitch on LinkedIn. He's very active on LinkedIn, he's got so many great posts, but he gives a detailed account of the situation with this faith based University. And I will tell you, Mitch, it haunted me for weeks.
• 32:24
  Becky Endicott: And I think one of the underpinnings of almost every conversation that we have on this podcast, or any classes that we put out, we've already said at once is showing up authentically, and being your true self. And I'm just here to say friends that there are so many of our colleagues in the nonprofit sector people not even in the nonprofit sector in our communities around us who are unable to show up authentically.
• 32:51
  Becky Endicott: And what a disservice that is to our missions, were not able to allow them to be completely themselves, we're not allowing them to reach their full potential and creativity and feeling safe to speak up. I pray that changes for our sector. And I think that holding court and having these conversations, and letting people tell you how this has been painful in their life is something that we need to kind of sit in and think about, because there are ways that we can operate differently the way that we can be inclusive and grab somebody's hand and pull them to the table. This whole concept of ally ship is so important. And it's not enough to just be to your point, Mitch, whispering in hushed tones, I think we need to step out. And I understand that I am more of a fearless type. And I'm happy to put myself out there every time.
• 33:49
  Becky Endicott: But I thank you for saying that.
• 33:49
  Becky Endicott: Because the number one core value of our company is everyone matters. And we want this space, mom's kitchen table. That's our metaphor, to feel like a place that anyone can come and be 100% yourself. We want you to pour all of that you have into this mission into this space to make the world around us better. And we can only do that if we allow people to come and be their authentic self. So thank you, I adore you. If you couldn't already tell.
• 34:19
  Jonathan McCoy: And Mitch, you do this to it through your founders journey. And I just really applaud you for this because I think as founders too, I think it's easy to want to present at we've got it figured out. I mean, if especially if you're moving toward like investment long term, which is not our plan, we want to retire doing this at this point. But I mean, you're always trying to perceive this confidence level.
• 34:42
  Jonathan McCoy: And I think you've just really disarmed that, and I know at least the CADRE around us in this industry, you have been just such a light, you know, during this last year when everybody's just trying to figure it out. And so you leaning into your vulnerability and authenticity is really impacting so many people. So just thank you for the way you've shown up. We are super inspired by you, man.
• 35:03
  Mitch Stein: Thank you, I it's it's it's a no brainer. For me, I think, especially in this founder journey piece that you brought up. Like, if you want to act like everything's great all the time, you're not going to get the help that you need.
• 35:18
  Mitch Stein: Right and like to act like you don't need help is just crazy.
• 35:22
  Mitch Stein: And I think there's a lot of that perfectionism in the nonprofit space to where it's like, oh, well I'm you know, my donors will leave me or my board will be upset if we try something and fail like heaven forbid And like, I don't know, I take a lot more faith in someone just being like blunt and honest and upfront about the fact that things are messy and imperfect and showing me how they're, you know, navigating and adapting.
• 35:47
  Mitch Stein: And, you know, recognizing that because if not, they're gonna get discouraged or burnt out the first time they hit a real barrier, because they will, everybody will and to act like you don't, is a disservice to yourself and the community around you. Such a good,
• 36:04
  Jonathan McCoy: dude. Yeah, we need a part two to this. We do talk through talking. Okay, I kind of teased this in your intro, but I love your philanthropy story. I don't know if you want to go there with the race that you were a part of that it's been such a proponent.
• 36:15
  Jonathan McCoy: But would you share a moment of philanthropy that stuck with you? And it's kind of know, pointed your life in a certain way?
• 36:25
  Mitch Stein: Yeah. And it's, it's relevant to the conversation, we were just having very relevant in watching how philanthropy can evolve over time and in different areas. You know, my uncle, my mom's twin brother, Marlin passed away when I was three, from AIDS in 1984.
• 36:36
  Mitch Stein: And he, you know, they did a lot of fundraising and stuff around that at the time. And really, were discouraged at how few people in the community kind of showed up for that at a time when it had so much stigma, particularly in more conservative areas. And fast forward to 2016. And I have several friends involved at the LGBT Center in New York. And actually, Johan should look who's our CFO coo at pond was a mentor of mine at Goldman, work there for 15 years and is now joined. In this, this movement with us, was the one that like, recruited me to join the ride.
• 37:19
  Mitch Stein: And my dad had done a lot of cycling in his past. And he was like, No, I want to do it with you. So we joined this ride, that's 275 miles from Boston to New York over three days. No real expectation around, you know, hopefully will raise a few$1,000. And over the past five years, we've we've raised over$400,000, for the center's HIV and AIDS efforts. So yeah, and that's, you know, exclusively, grassroots me abusing the Goldman Sachs email system, like endless numbers of spreadsheets.
• 37:52
  Mitch Stein: And, you know, over 500, unique donors, just, you know, within our own effort, and I think the beautiful thing about that was, how many of those people were donating from Indiana. And being seeing that full circle moment of how far we've come and how much people want to do better, and they want to learn. And I think that is a risky run in this subject matter of just sort of like pointing finger wagging your finger and like chastising people, as opposed to recognizing opportunities for people who want to do better and want to learn and being there for them. That's not everyone's job. But if you can, it's an amazing role to play in just being able to reignite Marlins memory in a way that moved from the pity, right, in his lifetime was just pity about all this poor guy who died a pretty painful death, both physically and emotionally seeing how the so much the community responded, changing that narrative to be like, what an amazing, groundbreaking person that we can now lift up and recognize and celebrate the joy in his life. And bring that into today.
• 39:09
  Mitch Stein: And I think we talked about the power of philanthropy, that's like, yes, it's amazing. We're bringing money to a cause and changing people's lives that are still at risk of HIV epidemic, epidemic rates in New York City, particularly within communities of color, and particularly trans people wildly further at risk to HIV still, which people lose sight of. But also just all the people who got to learn this story that had no connection to the cause other than me, shouting it from the rooftops, unable to connect on that personal level, that's so powerful, and ultimately got me so enmeshed in the sector to bring me where I am today.
• 39:54
  Jonathan McCoy: The guy who says he doesn't know anything about nonprofits teaching us it's like
• 40:00
  Becky Endicott: my there's so many jaw dropping parts to that story one, I mean, my my leg and my back is hurting thinking about biking 275 miles, yes. And just the the scale of what you've been able to do and is wonderful, but what I love most is just how you were able to completely flip the narrative of how people see your uncle and to celebrate that legacy is really a joyful thing. So excellent story. Okay, Mitch, it's time for one good thing. I know you've listened to the podcast, you know, We end all of our conversations with what is your one good thing.
• 40:38
  Mitch Stein: Um, I thought I was thinking a lot about this as you might, as you might expect. And this is just something that's coming up literally every day, not waiting for permission. And if you're in a position of privilege, because I realized that comes with privilege, and a lot of layers, you know, as a white man, not waiting for permission to also open the door for other people to not wait for permission. And that is really what drives me is figuring out ways that I can kind of disrupt or push back his status quo in ways that are opening that door wider for other people that don't have the same level of privilege and access. So it's, it's a two parter of just one, don't wait for permission. I think if I waited for permission to someone, say, Oh, you know enough about the nonprofit space to get started, or you know, enough about tech, or you have a good enough business plan, I gave you an A plus go start running at it. We wouldn't never still be running. And you know, just having that confidence in yourself to, you know, disobey, a little bit of the expectation, because that's how innovation and change happens. And then just make sure you're bringing other people along with you.
• 41:55
  Jonathan McCoy: One of the best things we've ever had, yeah.
• 41:58
  Jonathan McCoy: Okay, Mitch, people want to jump into this pond with you. How do they do that good things.
• 42:06
  Mitch Stein: So yes, what how can you get this? how can how can we chat, join pond calm is the website takes two minutes for nonprofits sign up, it's completely free. In fact, you get paid to use it and save time. So we're trying to hit a goal of 500 members by August.
• 42:21
  Mitch Stein: So we'd love the the audience here to really be a part of that movement and help us get there and let us help you in any way we can. My email is Mitch at join pond calm, I want to talk to as many of you as I can. And like Becky said, I'm as loud as one can be on a written platform on LinkedIn. So Mitch Stein ponds, you can find me.
• 42:45
  Jonathan McCoy: Well, favorite, go find Mitch,
• 42:47
  Becky Endicott: I mean, if any, if you just need a digital best friend, he's right there and it will like fulfill your life. So get around the digital watercooler on LinkedIn or wherever. And come join Pon because if you don't like searching for tech, you can literally get paid to do it in a more succinct and concise way. I just love the brilliance of it.
• 43:09
  Becky Endicott: And I just think you're such a great human. I learned so much today and just love being in your orbit. Mitch. Love you guys. Thank you.
• 43:17
  Julie Confer: Hey, friends.
• 43:17
  Julie Confer: Thanks so much for being here.
• 43:19
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• 43:35
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• 43:48
  Julie Confer: I'm our producer Julie Confer and our theme song is sunray by Remy Boris boom