Latest / The Nonprofit Podcast / Ep 189| How Evidence-Based Giving Changed Thousands of Lives - with Jessica LaMesa

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Ep 189| How Evidence-Based Giving Changed Thousands of Lives - with Jessica LaMesa · The Nonprofit Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: We have a long-standing relationship with all of our partners.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: When the USAID cuts were made, these relationships enabled us to move very quickly to understand the impacts.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: Being able to foresee how much suffering was to come inspired us to create the Rapid Response Fund in partnership with Founders Pledge and enabled us to move incredibly quickly to launch the fund.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: We went from idea to live in only 72 hours.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: Overall, we raised in total just over 13 million.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: And the most exciting part is the programs we funded are estimated to save the lives of 4,000 children.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: The Nonprofit Podcast, powered by DonorBox.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Jenna Lynch, Education and Community Engagement Manager here at Donorbox.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Each week we share practical ideas, clear insights, and a little inspiration to help you raise more, reach further, and create real results for your mission.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: And today I am so excited to be joined by Jessica La Mesa, co-CEO of The Life You Can Save, a nonprofit that's rethinking how philanthropy works by helping donors direct their giving toward evidence-based, high-impact organizations.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Back in February 2025, their team launched the Rapid Response Fund, a bold, fast-moving answer to devastating U.S.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: foreign aid cuts.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: They moved over$12 million, I think$12.5 million into the field in just six months, which is amazing, funding critical health care, nutrition, and disease prevention efforts across sub-Saharan Africa.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: And this isn't just a big dollar story, though.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: This is kind of a case study in smart decision making, lean execution, and measurable impact.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: And that's exactly what we want to dig in today.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: So we're going to talk about why their model makes fast focus funding possible, how they decided where to give and fast and the lessons that any nonprofit, no matter the size, can use from the life you can save to become more credible, impactful, and funder friendly.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: So, Jessica, welcome.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad you're here.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, Jenna.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for having me.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: This has been a long time coming, and I have been so excited for this conversation and have been following along throughout this journey.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: And boy, this year has gone by fast, and you've done a lot in this year.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: I want to start with the foundation.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people imagine nonprofits as the ones running programs directly, like building clinics, delivering services.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: And we've talked to a lot of orgs that have done that during these times.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: That is not exactly your model.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: You act kind of more like a guidepost for donors, and that's what makes your approach so special and different.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: So, can you tell us a little bit more about the Life You Can Save and walk us through how your model works and why being more of a guide for donors positions you to move so quickly when a funding gap or need arises?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: Sure, of course.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: So at The Life You Can Save, our mission is to lift people out of poverty by changing the way people think about and donate to charity.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: So, how do we do that?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we do three things.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: First, we publish a list of best-in-class vetted charities online, making it simple for donors to come to our website and donate with a really high level of confidence that their gift will reach the target beneficiaries and provide the impact that they're looking to achieve.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: Second, we offer funds.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: So they're actively managed philanthropic vehicles in which donors pool their contributions and we then allocate those funds to the most cost-effective, highest impact opportunities we source from our research and across our partnership network and the broader ecosystem.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: And lastly, we offer advisory services, so to private donors, foundations, and philanthropy advisors, supporting them wherever they may be on their impact journey, either through understanding how to help them bring together their heart and their head or evidence to develop an effective giving strategy, or for those further along in their journey, offering bespoke research or high-impact deal flow to supercharge their giving portfolios.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: So in order to identify any recommendation we make to donors, whether on our list of charities online or in other deal flow we are evaluating and recommending through our funds or for advisory clients, we start at the problem.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: So we do our best to take an unbiased approach and follow what the latest research tells us are the most effective levers we have to lift people out of extreme poverty.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: Once we've identified these levers, we then look for the nonprofits actually delivering these research-backed interventions.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: And once we've identified the nonprofits, we then go through our evaluation process based on our evaluation framework to determine which organization is a best fit to be part of our recommendations.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: When we're looking at opportunities for our funds or advisory, we're also, and not just at recommending organizations for multi-year unrestricted funding.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: We will be also considering specific programs within larger NGOs or other discrete project-based funding opportunities from across the ecosystem that will offer donors a very high impact return on their investment.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: Cost effectiveness, of course, is one of our key parameters, as you know, funding flows are more limited than ever, we all know.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: We need to ensure that we're maximizing the impact of every dollar granted.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: So for our funds, as they are discretionary, meaning donors allow us the opportunity to allocate the capital as we best determine based on our research.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: We have developed a prioritization methodology to help us determine how to most effectively make grants, considering the capital is limited.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: This methodology takes into account the intensity of the different types of deprivations people living in extreme poverty are experiencing across their health, education, and livelihood.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: This ensures we are focusing our support on programs that provide the best outcomes for beneficiaries.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: We also consider the capacity of governments in these regions to deliver various types of services and the broader country context to ensure we are being as additional as possible with our funding.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, that's a lot, right?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: So to do all of this, we can't do it alone.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: Beyond our talented in-house research team, we have created a network of incredible impact first partners.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: Whether a private foundation, other charity evaluator, or academic or government agency, we work to aggregate research from across the broader ecosystem to inform our recommendations on behalf of our donors.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: Now, some of these partners are not focused on broadly publicizing their work, right?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: They're not out fundraising.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: And so some of the best research and evaluation can live in silos across the global health and development space.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so we believe the life you can save can play a really important role in democratizing access to this research by curating and then syndicating information more broadly, ensuring donors of all sizes and competencies can give in an incredibly effective way.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: So I just want to call out that all of this is done at no cost to the donor, meaning 100% of a gift that is allocated to one of our recommendations is passed through to them.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: We fundraise separately for operational expenses.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, we deeply appreciate when a donor gives a small percent of their donation to support our work.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, I'd love to share that for every dollar we spend, on average, over the past three years, we were able to move$10 to our recommended funding opportunities.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: This model ensures our incentives are aligned with donors' incentives.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: And no matter what we're recommending, donors can be assured that there is research and evidence supporting every recommendation we make, and they can have a high level of confidence that their gifts will have the intended impact.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so, because we are continually aggregating and reviewing research and monitoring and evaluation data, we are continually speaking with our partners and the nonprofits we fund to understand what the most pressing needs of the moment are.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: As an organization, we have been doing this work for almost 12 years.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: So we have a long-standing relationship with all of our partners.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: And so when the USAID cuts were made, these relationships enabled us to move very quickly to understand the impacts that would be felt across the global health and development space.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: Being able to foresee what would happen and how much suffering was to come inspired us to create the Rapid Response Fund in partnership with Founders Pledge and enabled us to move incredibly quickly to launch the fund.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, we went from idea to live in only 72 hours.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to dive more into the rapid response fund in a minute.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: I want to take a step back.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: This is a really holistic view.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I think what you're doing is really powerful, right?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: Because at the end of the day, donors want to know that their giving is making the biggest difference possible.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you said for every dollar,$10 go into that overall impact.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: And that is incredible, first of all.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: What an amazing model, right?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: And and I think that's really relevant in 2025 now when donors are giving to fewer causes, but going deeper in the ones that they really trust, right?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: So this is not a model that I've heard of from any organization that we've had the pleasure of having on the podcast.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so this sets the stage perfectly for what came next, right?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned this crisis hits and the US freezes foreign aid and suddenly thousands of programs are left hanging.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: You responded very quickly.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't realize how quickly quickly it was.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: So when that funding freeze happened, what did it look like inside your team?
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: You said you launched in 72 hours.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: So in my mind, this is very organized chaos in a way, in the best way possible.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: So how did the rapid response fund get triggered?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: And how did you get off the ground so quickly?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean, the rapid response fund was really born out of this feeling of wanting to do something in the wake of a crisis that felt paralyzing.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it may feel like a distant memory now, but at the time, the shock of the policy change was dominating the news cycle, and fear and uncertainty was like rippling through our sector.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, historically, the Life You Can Save has not funded disaster relief or emergency response for a couple of reasons.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: But this situation felt very different for us.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: This was a crisis that would impact our partners directly, our friends, and those we've spent a decade working to help, those suffering from the effects of extreme poverty, right?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: So one evening I was just reading about the situation and just thought, like, we need to do something.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like, we need to start a fund to give a give people away to feel less powerless in this situation, selfishly, so I can feel less powerless in this situation, right?
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I sent Peter, so Peter Singer for the co-founder of our organization, author of The Life You Can Save, and many other prominent works, and largely considered the world's most influential living moral philosopher, philosopher, excuse me.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um I sent him an email and suggested, hey, like, do you think we should start a fund?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: And he agreed.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: And he even said, I will make a donation.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought that was like a huge step of confidence, right?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like, yes, we're on the right track.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, then I think it was like the next day that I was on a call with Dominic Finelli, who's the principal advisor and managing director at Founders Pledge, and I suggested, hey, like, do you want to do this together?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: It just made so much more sense to me to partner than to try to individually respond to the situation.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so thankfully, uh Founders Pledge agreed.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I believe it was like that evening our teams were on a call ironing out how the fund would work.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, so we had to think through a few things right away, right?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: Like messaging and comms.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: At the time, like we really felt we needed to be really tactful.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: We definitely didn't want to be political, and we wanted to be as sensitive as possible to those feeling firsthand the impacts of this policy change, right?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: And the situation was, of course, still developing.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: And so we we wanted to be thoughtful about our approach.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and of course, we needed a plan to get the word out.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so we've had some incredible support from our partners at the Abbey Agency helping us to get some really meaningful attention in the press and some expert guidance from Barbara Kalishto, our chief product and marketing officer at the Life You Can Save.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: You know, operationally, then you have to think through like tactically, like, how are we going to collect money?
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: How are we grant out money fast?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so literally the plumbing, like, what is the most efficient way to process donations, provide receipts, and grant funds.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: So Founders Pledge has over a decade or so built a really incredible operation supporting their members and moving about a billion dollars now, I want to say, uh, to charities all over the world.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: So luckily, we were able to just very quickly leverage uh what they have built.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then lastly, of course, and quasi more importantly, we had to decide in the context of the situation, where are we gonna grant the funds, right?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like going back to that idea of prioritization, like how do you think about where this limited capital goes?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so, because both Founders Pledge and The Life You Can Save have been doing this type of work, evaluating and granting to cost-effective, highly impactful charities for more than 10 years each, uh, we were very aligned on how to think about the fund thesis and what to prioritize.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, the most cost-effective life-saving programs where we could close funding gaps and also inspire confidence in the organizations that we were funding that would bring follow-on funding from other donors.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: And also, as well as how to measure this and execute evaluations, right?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: So, this amazing work was led by the fund management team or the researchers from the Life You Can Save and Founders Pledge.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: Initially, we focused on supporting organizations that were already vetted, but we had historically been funding.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, just within this cohort, there was a hundred million plus funding gap left by the pullback of funds from USAID, right?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like a huge problem to tackle.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so I just want to share a couple of examples of the grants we made initially in this cohort are uh we made a$300,000 grant to goal three and Pala to implement 150 vital signs monitors across multiple hospitals in Malawi to cover one year of maintenance costs and maintain financial stability while securing follow-up funding.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: Without our support, 450 to 750 preventable deaths could have occurred annually in pediatric and neonatal wards across Malawi, where several implementation projects had been canceled.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: And a second example is a$250,000 grant we made to SANCU to buy dosifier machines, which integrate vitamins into the flour for uh for 150 mills in Ethiopia.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: So, with the potential to reach 10 million people.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: So through these mills, SANCU provides fortified flour for people affected by malnutrition at a cost of 12 cents per person.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: Really an incredible organization.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so as the fund evolved, as the situation evolved, you know, we then had the opportunity to partner with Project Resource Optimization or PRO, which was a group led by some USAID veterans who had pulled the list of programs impacted by the cuts.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: And then they began to work on prioritizing this list based on cost effectiveness and estimated lives saved to try to raise money right for these highly impactful projects.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it was a natural next step in the evolution of the fund, considering the alignment and the focus.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's obvious, but also perhaps we're saying that partnering in this situation was so valuable and so important.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like the more great minds, the better, right?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: And also it made us able to evaluate opportunities faster and more efficiently.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: And we were able to work together to allocate funds strategically to ensure we saved as many programs as we could, prioritizing the most cost-effective and life-saving, of course.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: So just to highlight a couple of the grants we made in partnership with Pro, because it's really interesting what we did here.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: We employed a really effective model where the rapid response fund would guarantee the last 30% of the amount needed for the grant.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then Founders Pledge, the Life You Can Save, and Pro would independently work to crowd in other donors who can contribute the other 70%.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: This meant the fund was a tool to unlock capital through a type of matching program for the grant, while also enabling the money the fund had raised to go farther than it could have on its own, right?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: Again, another highlight, another thing that highlights the power of collaboration.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: So a couple of examples of the grants are we made a grant to JSI for a total of 2 million to deliver life-saving vaccines to children in Mozambique.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: So this grant will allow JSI to support the distribution of vaccines to 790,000 children.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: Overall, I think I'm allowed to give the final report out that we raised in total just over 13 million.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: So we closed the fund and so we've been doing the final, final tallies.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: So I think we're just over 13 million.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: And the most exciting part is the programs we funded are estimated to have to save the lives of 4,000 children.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_02: You know, when we started this thing, I wasn't sure what we would accomplish, but I can tell you now it's the thing I'm personally most proud of professionally.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I have to give a huge thank you to everyone who donated, and another huge thank you to everyone who made this possible on our teams.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: The impact of this is amazing.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: Over 13 million is incredible.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: And you've highlighted that this is such a good reminder that partnerships aren't just a nice to have, right?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: They can be truly the difference between stalling and scaling in a great time of need.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: And that's something I want to dive into deeper, but I do want to go back and kind of talk about the overall impact of this fund, right?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: So uh what's incredible is not just the speed, but the scale.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: So you're saying 13 million raised in what, six, six months are we at now?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Is it 23,000 kids treated for malnutrition?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe the number's bigger now.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um close to a million vaccinations, like you said, more than 4,000 lives saved.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: And that's huge.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: And this brings me to something I know our listeners will be really curious about.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you talked about this a bit already.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: I want to dive in a little bit more, how you balanced moving so fast with staying evidence driven.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so when I say evidence, I mean making funding decisions based on that real data, the proven impact, things like cost effectiveness, which you've mentioned a few times, those measurable outcomes and track records from organizations that you trust.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you talked a lot about your partnerships and keeping things both fast and evidence-based.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: What was that experience like for you throughout this process?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I think to start, right, as I mentioned, like we had had long-standing relationships with organizations.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: We had completed in-depth full evaluations, and also we do ongoing monitoring and evaluation, meaning the organizations we fund are sending us data throughout the year for us to share more broadly with our donors, right?
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: To understand uh the impact the organizations were having.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: So to start, it was really uh, you know, communicating with them and understanding how are you being impacted?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: How can we help you?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and and and then really the challenge was you know raising the money and then trying to deploy, right?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: So it was it was easier at first to understand like where the money needed to go.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: And it was like letting the fund sort of catch up to where we could uh make grants large enough to close funding gaps.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then with the pro team, it was it was an obvious next step, right?
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: These are veteran uh USAD uh staffers with depths of experience in doing cost effectiveness uh assessments.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: And obviously the organizations who need funding are moving quickly, right?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: They're they're putting everything they have behind, getting the data we need to us.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: And then it was just moving quickly and using the frameworks we have both built to do evaluations to understand which grants made the most sense.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: What can you what can you share for our listeners who may be smaller nonprofits about building the right partnerships?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: What made your partners the right fit?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um how how did you know that this these were going to be relationships that made an impact for hundreds of thousands of others?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: How you divided roles and responsibilities without stepping on each other's toes?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: Well, even before the Rapid Response Fund, uh, we had been thinking about because Life You Can Save is a really small team, right?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: We had been thinking about like how do we create leverage or efficient ways to scale when we don't have the means to hire 50 more staffers, right?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so we really view partnership as a highly efficient way to achieve shared goals.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think when you're going into a partnership, it's really important that you are aligned and you're thinking about how the partnership is mutually beneficial, right?
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: So how can we, I don't know, save each other more time or help and so to think about how do we do that?
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_02: How can we create the multiplication effect of our team by sharing research and diligence, right, with others so that we don't have to spend time recreating the wheel, right?
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: Rather, we can build on what exists and focus on adding value where we are best positioned to do so.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think you see with organizations like private foundations, for example, that are incredibly impact focused and they do their own evaluation, and it sort of just lives within their own funding team.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Or they share, you know, with other foundations, but not really broadly across the donor ecosystem, right?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what is the benefit for them to sharing this evaluation?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: And what is the benefit to us?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_02: So for us, obviously, it helps make us more efficient and save time and strengthen our recommendations that we offer donors.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: And for them, they're really excited, right?
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: To have other donors come in and fund alongside them or do co-funding and show val sort of show validation that, you know, there's another party that like agrees with their evaluation data or like really supports it.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so like you can find meaningful ways where you have shared benefits the reciprocal relationships, right?
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, uplifting each other.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: It I mean, they call it a partnership for a reason, right?
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a one-sided thing.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm curious how this experience, specifically with this fund, or maybe overall, um, has shaped the way you think about funding in the long run, right?
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: How has this experience changed how you think about long-term sustainable funding, um, maybe even recurring giving?
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's not something we've talked much about, but um I'd be curious to pick your brain about that.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I think first it's, you know, I already believed that funds, pooled funds like the Rapid Response Fund were really uh the future of giving.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_02: It really increased our belief that funds are the most efficient way for donors to have the most impact.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: Why?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's because we do this work all day, every day.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_02: And so when donors donate to a fund and allow the experts to allocate that capital on their behalf, they really have the ability to amplify their impact or the or their ROI on their investment because they're really make letting the experts make the smartest funding decisions with the data that we have at the moment, right?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: So it really enforced our belief that we really want to encourage people to keep giving and give more to the funds.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: And so another thing is like really thinking about taking a portfolio approach to your giving as a donor, right?
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: With the limited capital because of the government uh pullback in uh in uh funding.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know, donors have an opportunity to have an immense amount of impact with not a huge amount of capital, right?
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: And so if every donor were to think about, hmm, now I have the opportunity to A have more impact, but also because governments are no longer using tax dollars to fund uh this aid, I also have the responsibility, right, to give something of what I'm giving.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, even if you give$100 a year, if you give$20 to help those most in need and you put that into a fund where it's pooled with other resources from other donors, like we're gonna have an immense amount of impact.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so I really hope donors really think about taking this portfolio approach, uh, mixing, you know, cause areas and ensuring that they're giving something to help those uh living in extreme poverty.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_02: And also then considering funds as a very powerful tool to amplify impact while also then giving to organizations that they feel connected to with their heart.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let's bring this home for our listeners.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: For nonprofit leaders uh working with lean teams, uh maybe even modest budgets, what's one practical takeaway from your experience?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if they want to learn more about um or even replicate some of what you've done, where should they start?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a resource you would point them towards, a best practice?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh is there uh a place they should connect to first?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: What's your advice?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man, that's a tough one.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: I would say, like, I don't know about a resource, but always be evidence driven and be willing to pivot.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, I know that it's so hard to kill or delay a project.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: You may have, you know, ideated or have a personal attachment to, but with resources being so limited, we all really need to focus on maximizing the return of our investments, whether internally within our organization or if you're granting funds or if you're funding programs that are delivering uh services to target beneficiaries, right?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um so focusing on the data and the evidence really helps all of us ensure that we are spending our efforts where they are best spent.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, thinking about who is aligned with your mission, who else out there is doing maybe similar work or work that is like can be like the next step in what you're doing.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: You supercharge your impact as an organization by partnering together and ensuring that you know your inputs uh are quadrupled as outputs to the beneficiaries.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: So really thinking about alignment and it can be difficult.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: I totally understand it can be incredibly difficult because you know, organizations are out there competing for funding.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: And so to also think about partnerships takes a lot of time and resources.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: But I do think it's a great way to amplify impact and create leverage and scale within an organization.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think that is important now more than ever.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, okay, one more for you.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: What's next for the life you can save?
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I mean, I think that we're going to keep doing uh what we've always been doing, and we are going to focus on, you know, promoting our fund and continuing to talk about the work we're doing uh to help those, you know, living in extreme poverty.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_02: And we will just keep working on building the trust we have with donors, raising awareness of the organization and the work we're doing to try to bring and connect more donors into our mission and help them have the impact that they're seeking to have.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: And hopefully we continue to grow and scale our impact as an organization.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you so much for joining me today and for all of the work that you're doing.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like I said, it's been such a joy following along and just seeing all the amazing work that you're doing.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: This is such an inspirational conversation, and I know that our listeners and our nonprofit leaders are gonna walk away with at the very least some some inspiration and ideas and some good practical takeaways as well.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: And thank you for being a part of the nonprofit podcast community.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: Your work matters, and we are so honored to support it.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: If you enjoyed this episode, share it, leave a review, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time, take the first step and stay inspired.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: That warm feeling when you help someone, it's not just happiness, it's fulfillment.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: And we believe it should be available to everyone, from frontline heroes to first time fundraisers.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Our tools empower you to help others.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is our mission.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is Donor Box, helping you help others.