Latest / We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits / 469. Case Study: How a Podcastathon Has Raised $2.2M for St. Jude Through Community Fundraising - Stephen Hackett

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469. Case Study: How a Podcastathon Has Raised $2.2M for St. Jude Through Community Fundraising - Stephen Hackett · We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'm John.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: And I'm Becky.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: And this is the we Are For Good podcast.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: 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
  Speaker 1: 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
  Speaker 2: So welcome to the Good Community.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: So let's get started.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Hey Becky, what's happening?
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: I am so excited that we are talking to an incredible podcaster who is also a believer in their mission.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Guys, you are about to hear an incredible story of that belief that we talk about.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: When you start to build movements, you have to start from the inside out, and today we are introducing you to our friend, steven Hackett.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: He was referred to us by an incredible good friend subscriber, matthew Reynolds, and he is the co-founder of Relay FM.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: But let me tell you a little something about Steven.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: He did something rather extraordinary.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: He's co-founded and hosts all of these podcasts on Relay FM, and you all probably know that platform because you're a podcast listener.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: It's a brilliant independent podcast network for people who are creative, curious, maybe even a little obsessive.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: That sounds like us, john, but they cover things like companies from Apple and Google.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: They talk about robotics in the space industry.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: However, steven took his belief into something that was very personal within his family, and he has started an incredible podcastathon that has raised more than 2.2 million for St Jude since 2019.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: And so today we are just so excited to bring another podcastor on talk about what fuels him, what fueled this incredible growth of community to pour into this mission.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: This is a story about community collective giving and it's just a great source of inspiration as all of you are gearing up for Giving Tuesday and all of your giving campaigns.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: So tune in, get comfortable, because, steven Hackett, we are so eager to hear about your story.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the we Are For Good podcast.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you for having me.
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: It's always fun to be in a podcast that I'm not responsible for, you know, hosting or editing.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Right, you can just sit back and say whatever the hell you want, so welcome, but we want to know this story.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: We want to know what would take someone who is a podcast host and really inspire them to take that leap of faith and say I believe so deeply in something that I'm going to create an eight hour podcastathon event which, by the way, as content creators, I'm trying to think about creating eight consecutive hours worth of content, john, are you not?
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: like overwhelmed by it.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I know this comes from a very personal place, so take us back and tell us where you grew up and what really led you to really launch this incredible community based effort.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm from Memphis, tennessee.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: It's my hometown.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: I've always lived here.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: My wife and I are high school sweethearts and we got married in college, oh my gosh.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: And after we got married, our first son came along, josiah.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: And when he was six months of age, we went to one of those you know well, baby, check it, right.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: You go to the pediatrician.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: You're kind of like, okay, this is where they are.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: And the pediatrician had some concerns about some milestones that at six months our son should have been approaching and he and he wasn't.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: And that concern turned into, hey, we're going to just do some tests.
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: And then, 72 hours later, we discovered that our six month old had a diagnosis of brain cancer at a pretty large brain tumor as an infant.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: So it was a really rough entry into parenting for Mary and I and to sort of skip to the end a little bit, that was in 2009.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: So what is that?
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: 13, 14 years ago.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: But now Josiah is getting ready to be 15 and is doing awesome, and that's because of the work at St Jude.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: And so now, as a podcaster, I've been doing this for about 12 years, being able to take our podcasting and our content and our people and our community and sort of aim them all in the direction of St Jude to raise money, support and awareness.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: It's something that felt like a really natural move for us when we started doing it about five years ago.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, as fellow parents were sitting over here trying to process in real time what that had to be like.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: And just on this side of the story, obviously there's so much gratitude to be in your hometown and organization like St Jude.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: You know I just the resource that was there.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: I can see that, your belief that came through that journey, but just also how you've seen the community surround this mission.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: What was it like translating that personal belief into something that you took to other people?
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: What was that original organizing like?
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: How'd you get started?
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so for years my wife and I organized and sort of managed a marathon team.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: St Jude has this big marathon every year here in Memphis and I started, through my blog and through some of my shows, just kind of talking about that and like, hey, we're doing this thing.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: If you, you know, like to donate to that, that would be awesome and we raised some good money that way.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: But about six years ago I ran into a buddy of mine from college who works at St Jude and Mike Hurley, my business partner at Relay.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: He and I had kind of been talking about.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: You know what would it look like if we did sort of a telethon and raised money for St Jude and honestly, y'all, we were just gonna do it Like we were just gonna pick a date and maybe do like four hours and play some video games on stream or whatever and try to raise some money.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: But when I ran into my friend, I mentioned this idea and I'm sure you guys have had this experience.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: Sometimes you mention an idea or a thought to exactly the right person at the right time and it turns out there was a new part of the organization that was really interested in working with content creators and influencers to build out campaigns to reach these communities, and so, really, things fell right in line.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: So, starting in 2019, we began sort of this formal relationship with St Jude as a fundraising partner their first podcasting Fundraising Partner, which is really cool.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: We had to explain a lot of things.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: They have so many now.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Get on you.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the team has really taken what we've done and been able to duplicate it in other communities, which is just fantastic.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: So it really started as this thing of just hey, we're gonna talk about St Jude, we're gonna do the first podcastathon, that live show that you mentioned.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: We did the first one in 2019.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: And the one this year is 12 hours.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: So we're deciding to really swing for the fences this time.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: And gosh, get your red bull.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's a caffeine Carb up.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Every day, carb up, and so throughout the month of September we're talking about St Jude's mission, sharing about what they do, raising funds, and then the podcastathon is sort of a celebration towards the end of the month to not only do something visual, because our medium is completely audio, like we don't do video podcasts, we're just audio, and so it's a stretch for us, but it is so much fun to be able to do it and work with amazing team members both at Relay FM and at St Jude to pull it off.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Okay, there is so much I wanna talk about right here.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: One just on behalf of a community that believes so deeply in generosity and philanthropy and pouring in to things that matter.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: I just wanna thank you and your partner, mike, just for diving into this, but I also wanna say to our listener base we have talked a lot this year about one of our trends is lock arms for impact, and I gotta like point out a couple of things that you did that I think are really extraordinary.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: One draw vote to St Jude's for just releasing the control and letting you run.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Do you remember when we had Mary Kate Tolan on John?
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Do you know what episode that was?
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Number nine we're on episode like four seven.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: It was like we got to know St Jude so early and we know they're just such a prolific fundraising and community-based organization.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: But the fact that they allowed you just to run and interpret their mission through your eyes, through your experience, it really was a magnet to other people.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: And so I think that looking and this is the controlling person talking to you out there and I have to learn to let go y'all but when you let go and let your believers really interpret your mission and run with it in a way that's personal to them, it creates such a ripple and we want those ripples because they're gonna get into spaces that we cannot get.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: So bravo to you for that.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: And I'm just really curious about how you've galvanized the support I mean $2.2 million you have raised in what I would say is such a love song to Josiah and to all these families probably that you met.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: What have you seen that's really resonated with those supporters, with those believers over time?
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: What are the key tenants that you've that have kind of made your eyebrow cork?
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: One thing we've really talked about is how to share the comprehensive story about St Jude.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: For one, I'm just one patient dad out of thousands and so while we talk about our story, very early on it was important to me for this campaign to be bigger than just my family.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: That was a good seed for our community.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: But very quickly I realized I wanna talk about the science and research.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: I wanna talk about St Jude's international reach.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: I wanna talk about all these other things that the organization does.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: A bunch of that stuff I never interacted with or I've never been in a clinic in another country that is using St Jude's research and treatment options developed here in my own backyard.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: And so we realized, okay, we can plant the seed, we can root it in my story, but we want to expand past that and that's really.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: We're having a really good partnership with St Jude comes in, where we've got an entire team of people there that do these sorts of activations and campaigns and we can work with them to access scientists and researchers and doctors and patient families and really tell the whole story.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: But of course that is not to take away the personal emotional impact that a nonprofit like St Jude has.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: Right, you're talking about kids who are diagnosed with a catastrophic disease at a young age and while St Jude has done a lot to move the needle in terms of survivor rate, so it's St Jude opened in 1962, it was 20% survivor rate, now it's 80.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: So we can celebrate that and talk about that, but also like, hey, y'all, there's still that 20% and that 20% is not evenly distributed around the world.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: If your child is diagnosed with cancer in parts of the world that survivor rate is way lower.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: And so it's important to us to sort of take this mission and the really the broadness of it and figure out a way to tell all those stories sort of in a comprehensive way.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: And we're really fortunate that we get to work with professionals at St Jude.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: I'm not a professional fundraiser, I talk about computers on the internet for a living.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: But being able to partner with really good people who this mission is their life's work, and to stand on their shoulders is a real honor.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Well, I got to call this out because, also, st Jude is evolved to know that when they partner with you, they let you do the thing that you're gifted at too, and I think that takes an evolved nonprofit to recognize.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: As an influencer, you have your own voice in this.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: You're bringing your own flavor to this, which is the beauty of it.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: You can bring your community alongside you.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: So I mean, explain this whole notion of a podcastathon Like.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: What does it look like?
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: What does it set it apart and what do people expect when they're part of this?
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we really wanted to sort of take the idea of the old telethon right when you would have-.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: Like Jerry Lewis.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: Jerry Lewis, I'm seeing it In the 80s, yes, yeah exactly right.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: We all grew up watching those and we wanted to take that idea of sort of a variety hour, fun and games type event, but do it in our context, so with the podcast hosts that we work with, with the content that we work with, covering consumer technology, and sort of take that old idea and remix it in a new way.
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: So the first one was really simple.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: It was me and my partner on a stage.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: St Jude has amazing production facilities and we were able to to host.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: All five of them have been on St Jude's campus.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: Even through COVID, we're able to make that work, having my partner and I and other people we work with be a part of it, where it's this wacky mix of games and challenges, but we're also talking about our content.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: We're fortunate in the timing.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: For me, the new iPhone is like the tech Super Bowl.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: We can bring in our tech content and then we can talk about St Jude, we can interview people associated with the hospital, but then go back to something else, tech related.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: It's this big event with lots of energy and lots of hype in our community.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: It's been really successful.
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: The bulk of the money we raise is outside of the podcastathon because we do this for the entire month of September, but during the podcastathon we usually raise about 100 grand.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: We're doing donation challenges and engaging people who are watching the live stream to be involved.
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: It was just this idea of hey, we're going to take this old format and apply our sensibilities to it and our brain wackiness to it.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: It's been really successful.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: We've got thousands of people who watch it every year.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: I always released the audio of it.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: I made a joke on a show a couple of weeks ago that you have to be a sicko to listen to an eight hour video show.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: But people do it.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: I don't know who's doing that, but it's really become this moment of celebration and fun for our community and also a really powerful tool to fundraise.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: I'm just so proud of you I don't mean to project anything that's insincere because you've really reimagined peer-to-peer fundraising for me.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of people are probably listening right now.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: When they think about peer-to-peer fundraising in the traditional sense, they're thinking somebody who's got their Facebook fundraiser going for their favorite charities, runeathon or I think about like somebody starting a campaign on pledge or give butter and inviting all their families.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: But you literally took this fundraiser to the place where you hang out with the people who already know and trust you, which is very, very interesting, and I think the whimsy in it, the joyfulness in it, the gamification of it, made it so tenable and something that your audience wanted to be a part of, and I think it's so ridiculous that they wanted to be a part of it.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: I would want to be part of something so ridiculously wonderful as well, and so I want you to talk about.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: What have you learned about the power of community in fundraising through this movement?
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: What has their support and encouragement meant to you and to the wider community?
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: You know, as you're raising funds for St Jude and your team, what's resonated with you?
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: I think the biggest thing I've come away from all of this is that if you can tell a good story about the mission and you can show people like you're putting your money where your mouth is and really putting a lot of effort into it, that when you can have a community buy into that and own it themselves, that's when you really find true success.
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: So you mentioned peer to peer fundraising.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: We've been doing that for a couple of years now as part of this campaign, so a listener to one of our shows can set up a sub campaign and they can raise money sort of through those more traditional channels.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: But what's been so amazing to see over the last couple of years is members of our community just doing wild things in their campaigns.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: We had a guy a few years ago he's actually a moderator in our member discord and he's a big, big woodworking guy and so he was doing giveaways of some cutting boards and things he was doing.
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: But he had also moved into a new woodworking shop and one of his things was, for every X dollars raised, I'm going to put a St Jude sticker on one of my new tools.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: He had just bought all this new stuff for his woodworking shop and now his woodworking shop.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: It's like kind of hard to look at pictures of it because it's just like everything's covered in stickers.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: It's like a van wrap yeah totally.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: But now it's like part of what he does, like anytime he's he streams some of his working stuff.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: That's Andrew, stuff is always there and he's become like a real part of this fundraiser through his unique way of and what he's doing in his life.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: And so we've been really fortunate that members of our community have have that much buy in and are really doing things above and beyond just donating, because obviously that's what we want.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: But I also want people to be excited about the work of St Jude and think about it more than just in September, right.
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: That, yeah, it's awesome.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: We're going to do this this month, but we really want our community kind of be almost thinking year round about what could I do next year?
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: You know what?
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: How could we take this to the next level?
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: Because I'm doing it almost year round now, like, right, I guess it takes seven or eight months to plan at this point, and and so if we can all, if it can just kind of become part of the lexicon and the relay community, that's fantastic.
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: Now we're fortunate because we have that audience already, right, because we've been doing this a really long time and we've we've built that trust and relationship with our listeners.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: And so when it came time for us to say, hey, this is something we really believe in you know a bunch of them already knew my story because I just talked about it over the years.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: But we're going to put like our full weight and effort behind this and we want y'all to come along with us.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: Everyone was on board because we've had that relationship for so long and that can be hard to get to that point, but once you're there, it can be a really powerful thing.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: You say you're not a fundraiser, stephen Hackett, but you are spitting out some evolved truth and and I don't want anyone to miss it, because what you're doing to build belief for an extended period of time, where people are still talking about it not during campaign season, when people are still activating on it it's become cultural and it becomes a part of their like, giving his identity.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: We talk about that a lot this year and I just have to say on this lastly, you have evolved so well and I'm wondering if St Jude helped you, because even on your landing page which you know has the wonderful thermometer that I can't wait to see is blown out of the water.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: You talk about employer match.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: You've got links for employer match.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: You've got a matching donation challenge.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: You have donor advice, fund links in there.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: You guys are getting very philanthropically savvy and the beauty of that is you're educating your audience about that too.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: So I just noticed that and I wanted to call it out and say y'all out in the listening audience, you can do this too.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: I'm empowering you.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, some of those things are in response to what was happening in the community.
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: So, as you may imagine, a tech focused network.
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: We have a lot of people who work in tech who listen to us, and almost all of those big companies have matching donation funds.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: In fact, most companies do like you don't have to work for some big tech company, like a lot of places have that.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: And so we realized really the second year like, oh gosh, like there's, this is actually like a pretty big thing we could tap into.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: And so we've worked over the years through our partners at St Jude to make that easier for people to do, right, because maybe you got to go to some HR platform or you've got to, you know, email this person or that person.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: So we try to have those resources there available.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: The same thing with the donor advice fund, right?
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: Not, it was not something I was familiar with before we started this journey, but we had some people make some sizable gifts through that avenue and so that this is new for that landing page of this year, we're able to kind of get those pieces together this year to tell people like, hey, you know, if this is kind of where you are, this is how you give, then we can do that too, right?
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: You don't have to.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: You don't even have to let me know it's you right?
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: In fact, some of that stuff is like direct relationship between the person donating in St Jude and I'm maybe not even aware of all of it, and so we just want to meet people where they are and make it really easy for people.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: To give, an example that we wrestled with a few years ago was the addition of Apple Pay.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: So that's big in the tech community, right?
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: Google Pay, samsung Pay they're all very similar and we appreciate that ever here.
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, hey, I'm all about it, and so we were able to using the platform we use and Apple Pay a few years ago, and people were all about it and loved it, and Apple Pay was a pretty big chunk of the giving ever since, and so we try to be very sensitive to what the community is telling us they want or things that they need, you know.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: So if you start a campaign underneath ours, we have a lot of resources now to help you get started, and so we want to take away as many challenges as we can to make it really easy to fundraise and really easy to donate, however people want to.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Again.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they're so brilliant and you know, this listening audience around our podcast is powered by change makers.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's why a lot of us got into this work, but in our personal passions too.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: So I want to ask you kind of a two for question as we start to round out but like what, what advice would you give somebody that wants to start something like this, whether it's a unique campaign or some kind of initiative?
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: And then the second piece is what nonprofits need to be doing to make this relationship really work.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Because I can see I mean, you're so many years down the line and you're still so happy about this partnership.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: What does that look like?
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: And what kind of resources are the nonprofits giving you or support that you're giving you?
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: That really makes it feel like a win-win.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: I think the most important thing is to find the thing that makes you tick right.
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: So for me and for my partner or my family, it's St Jude right.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: My wife and I have been involved for so long now and it was just a natural extension to bring the company into it.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: But you know, it's a lot of hard work and there's a lot of long meetings and long hours trying to figure this stuff out, and if we weren't passionate about it it would be really hard to see that through.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: But, way more importantly, the audience knows whoever you are.
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: Whoever your audience is, whoever you're trying to reach, they know if you're faking your enthusiasm or not, because it's really easy to see that, especially over a long period of time, like this campaign runs four to five weeks and we're doing it for five years.
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: If we weren't super excited about it, people would have caught on by now and it wouldn't be as successful.
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: And so we really spend a lot of time and energy just internally making sure that hey, even though this is really busy and there's a lot of stuff going on, that we are aligned with the mission internally, just like in here.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: So people can see that when we talk about it In terms of what nonprofits should be doing.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: I think I go back to what I said a second ago about being sensitive to what the audience is actually telling you, because they're not always going to say it loudly, right, they're not always going to send you an email saying I want this, this and that, but it's about knowing your people, whoever they are, and it's about knowing where they are and the tools that they are wanting or needing to make this possible, and so I think some people will get discouraged.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: You know, becky, you mentioned like hey, I put this thing on my Facebook page and like, nothing happened.
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: Well, you got to show that you're passionate about it and then you got to meet people where they are.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: It's the reason, like schools, have you know, book fairs or whatever, right?
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: It's like, oh yeah, like kids, like books, we're raising money.
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: We can put these two things together and it makes a lot of sense, right?
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: So, really knowing your audience, knowing where they are, I think that's the most important thing and I think it's easy for people in the nonprofit world.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: I mean, I've got a lot of nonprofit experience beyond the scope of this conversation.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: I think it's really easy to kind of get into our own heads and into our own mission so far that we sort of lose sight of the context that the people we're trying to reach are in, and I think that can be problematic, and so I think really understanding where you fit in, where your people are, is just huge.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with you and I'm just curious from the nonprofit perspective, like how did St Jude equip you, Like, what did they give you?
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: What did that partnership look like?
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: And I know there's people listening right now that says you know who approached you and what kind of assets do I give an influencer?
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: That can be helpful.
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we work really closely with our partners there and there's a lot of nuts and bolts stuff, right.
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: So we spend a lot of time like what's the campaign artwork gonna look and feel like?
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: And we work with their designers and our designer and figure out what that's gonna be.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: You know, st Jude's a little bit different than some other nonprofits.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: They are very, they do a very good job with their brand, and so we have to play within the sandbox of their brand guidelines.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: But even if that's not your MO, you know, having those resources available, like hey, we're gonna share stuff on stories or reels or whatever, okay, like well, can we help you, or can we just hand off to you assets that work in those formats?
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: Right, can we help you?
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: Or give you talking points and language to use that we have found successful in the past?
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: And so we work with them on all that stuff.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: When we talk about St Jude on our shows, we have several different sort of ad scripts that we give to our host and then they're free to talk however they want to, but giving them, hey, you know, here's a handful of numbers that we wanna focus on this week about St Jude's international work, right, and so we can give them real hard information and it helps them tell their story, but backed with, like, actual information.
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: And so, st Jude, we work really closely with them, both on the visual assets and the sort of the language of the campaign.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: And I would say, lastly, what they're really good at.
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: What our team there is really excels at is pushing us into new ideas and new areas, and so, while the podcast on was initially our idea, what it looks like today, the fifth one there's so many things in that show that didn't come out of my brain or my business partner's brain.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: It came from our team at St Jude, because they're also working with us and thinking through these different ideas with us, and so it's a very collaborative process in terms of how do we talk about these things, how do we display them, and then what is the content gonna look like around it all.
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: And that's really what I wanted.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: I wanted a partnership.
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: I didn't want to work with a team that was just gonna email me a JPEG and say good luck.
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: Exactly, we work hand in hand with that team and I think we have a really good relationship with them now that's, and that means that when it's time to do this again, there's gonna be more new ideas, because when you do something annual like this, I think it's hard to keep it fresh, and so we spent a lot of time with them thinking about what could be new and pushing it even further.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: It's just so good.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, in the flip side, it's like you can't just set up a peer to peer page and just expect this level of engagement from the nonprofit.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: And so I love we love celebrating partnerships here and just it's fun to be on this side of it five years in and just see what y'all have done collaboratively.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: So seeing we create space on our podcast to celebrate philanthropy in small moments, big moments, and asking you now to just take us back to a moment in philanthropy in your life that is stuck with you.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: It could be personal or it could be something through this podcasting journey.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: So, like 12 years ago probably, we were very early on in our St Jude journey with our son and it was years before.
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: This actually would have been two years before we even started Relay FM.
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: So I was just St Jude dad and like my who would be my business partner.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: He and I had like a hobby podcast at the time and St Jude is something that I'm sure a lot of people have seen During the holiday season.
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: You can round up to the next dollar at Walgreens or whatever a bunch of different things.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: They usually have little, maybe index card size things with a picture of a St Jude patient on it and some language and you can sign your name to it.
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: It's like, hey, I gave it this place.
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: So I'm from Memphis, that's where St Jude is.
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: That's just happenstance of the universe that was in my backyard.
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: But I went to lunch one day at a local barbecue place with some friends from work.
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: I knew this barbecue place had been like a St Jude supporter.
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: That's kind of part of their brand almost that they are really involved with St Jude.
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: So I walk in this place with lunch with some friends and there's about 500 of those little index cards.
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: But it's my kid.
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: He had done a photo shoot and they had used him in some of that material.
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: And I'm not a big crier, you know, so that's not really my MO, but y'all, I just like lost it in the lobby of this barbecue place.
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: Weird Because all these, you know, just regular Memphians who were getting barbecue, pitched a couple bucks towards St Jude.
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: After you know, they paid their bill and they all written their names on it and it was overwhelming just to see, like these people who like don't know anything about me or my son, they just know like hey, this is a adorable St Jude kid we're giving.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: And that has always stuck with me that day, really telling me and reiterating to me that the work of St Jude really is universal.
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: And you know, all that stuff I said over this interview like all stands true that we're building on top of my story in our community and we're working on that engagement, but also that it's way bigger than us and it was just.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: It was just a real showstopping moment in my life walking in that place and anytime I even drive by it.
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: Now I think about it and just how amazing it was to see.
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: A little creepy, it's a little weird seeing you know 500 pictures of your kid looking back at you, but it was really cool and it's something that I think about a lot.
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: And I think in a lot of ways with this campaign I'm sort of always kind of chasing what that day felt like.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: Oh, steven, I mean that completely underscores what we have seen and what we believe, working in this space for more than 20 years, which is philanthropy.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: Generosity is absolutely transcended and when you give to something friends, you know this it comes back to you 10 fold when you put something good out in the world and I am sure that that barbecue place is one that your family has frequented many times because of that experience and I just think this beautiful legacy of love that Josiah has brought with his life to so many people, that is galvanized into 2.2.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: Actually, I'm going to say 2.3 because you're already $100,000 in is just a beautiful story, and we end all of our shows with a one good thing.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: It can be a piece of advice, it could be a life hack or a mantra.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: What one good thing would you leave for our listening audience today?
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: It's something that I've been doing through this fundraiser.
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: As you'd imagine, a fundraiser of this scale is like having a full time job on top of a full time job oh, I'm sure Very busy, but really for me, something that has been key for me through this process each year is when things feel overwhelming.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: You know, when you've got a bunch of emails from people who are confused about your giving page or someone's you know got a question you don't know the answer to, like when those moments of stress come, just trying to center and think about the reason that you're doing it.
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: So for us it's the life saving work of this hospital.
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: So, whatever your thing is, just coming back to that, sintering back on that when the stress comes or the anxiety comes, and knowing that that stress and anxiety and the hard work is worth it in the end.
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: Because it's really easy and I'm sure y'all have felt this way over the years too it's so easy to get swept away in the details of a campaign, right.
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: So easy to or get sucked in.
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: Maybe you're like me.
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: You get sucked into the metrics of a campaign, right.
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: Like y'all, I've got like pivot tables everywhere.
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: You know, I'm just like cracking all this stuff and that's good and important to know how we're doing.
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: But if I get, if I become about those things, then I'm off mission and I try to every day or every couple of days or in the moments of intense stress, really think about why I am where I am and the reason for what we're doing, and that has really been a healthy and good thing for me over the years.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: You are a purist, my friend, john you are.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: You are welcome into John and I's ridiculous idealist club.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, we believe in it.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: There are a lot of people in this community who are going to really respond to that.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: But as we close out, I really would like to end with Josiah, and I would love for you to tell us where is he at today, how's he doing and what the heck does he think about this thing that his dad has created?
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so he's getting ready to be a 15.
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: He doesn't remember his treatment.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: I mean he was done with treatment by the time he was about two.
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: We did 18 rounds of chemotherapy at St Jude and a bunch of surgery, a whole bunch of stuff.
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: Very traumatic time but he had.
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: Even though he doesn't remember that, he's grown up at St Jude right, they're doing annual checkups to this day, probably forever, and so he's been around this his whole life and so he is always very excited about our fundraiser.
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: Every day, when I pick him up from school, the first question is like what have you raised today?
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: He just wants to know.
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: That's awesome.
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: So I can tell him when I pick him up today that we broke 100,000 because that happened this morning after I dropped him off and so that is fun.
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: But he's doing so well.
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: I mean that treatment saved his life and he is joyous and fun.
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: He's a great big brother.
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: So we have two other kids younger than him and he's so kind and sweet with them and he's really good with young kids.
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: He really has a gift for sort of junior, kindergarten and down.
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: We have several young cousins in my family right now.
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: You know kind of two, three, four, and he's on the floor with them, playing with them, talking with them, and that just does me so much good to see that this kid, who got dealt a really bad hand early in life, came through it and came through it in a way where he's kind and generous and joyful.
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: I don't know if I could be that way.
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: You know if that was my story.
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: So I look at him and I'm inspired to be better.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Stephen Hackett.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Holy cow, what a story you have, your family story, this legacy you're building.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: Just feel grateful to be in your orbit today.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: Tell folks how they can connect to you.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, you're podcasting all the time, so can people find you if they want to follow your voice and everything that you're doing online.
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: Sure, yeah.
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: So I'm at relayfm and I'm on a couple of those weekly.
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: We work with like 50 great podcasters around the world, so we have a big team now and it's really an honor to get to work with all of them.
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: And you can find me on Instagram and threads I'm ismh86 over there.
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: So throughout the month of September we're talking about St Jude and then I'll go back to you know, talking about old computers or nerdy stuff.
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: Or you know, I live in the south and it was a post about my pickup truck.
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: You know can't escape it, but those are the best ways to find me.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: Well, kudos to you, bravo, on what you've done.
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: In the 38 minutes we've been talking, you've already raised $800.
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: It's just a machine going in the background.
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: I've been watching it tick up.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: Could not be rooting for you more mightily and thank you for sharing the story and keep going.
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: Can't wait to follow this journey, my friend.
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: So grateful yeah.
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: Thanks y'all.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for being here.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: Friends, and 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.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: We'd love for you to come join our good community.
• 38:27
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• 38:30
  Speaker 2: Sign up today at weareforgoodcom.
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: Backslash hello.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: And one more thing if you love what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating interview?
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: It means the world to us and your support helps more people find this community.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much, friends.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: Can't wait to hear our next conversation.