Latest / The Nonprofit Podcast / Ep 119: Innovative Grant & Collaborative Fundraising Strategies for Growth with Katya Hancock

Transcript

Ep 119: Innovative Grant & Collaborative Fundraising Strategies for Growth with Katya Hancock · The Nonprofit Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: The Nonprofit Podcast, powered by DonorBucks.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever felt like the challenges facing your nonprofit are just too big to tackle alone?
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: In a world where complex social issues abound and traditional funding models sometimes fall short, it's easy to feel overwhelmed.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: But what if there is a way to amplify your impact and drive meaningful change together with others?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Jenna, Education and Community Engagement Manager here at DennerBox.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: We are here each week with practical actions you can use today to increase donations and take your nonprofit to the next level tomorrow.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Today we are diving into the power of a collaborative funding model where synergy and collective action are transforming the nonprofit landscape.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: And joining us today is Katya Hancock, a mission-driven executive, entrepreneur, and public health champion with over two decades of experience in healthcare, technology, and philanthropy.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Katya is the founding executive director of Young Futures, a nonprofit dedicated to improving youth mental well-being in today's digital world.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, Katya.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Hello.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Happy to be here.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Now, before we dive into today's topic, could you share a bit about your journey in the nonprofit space and Young Futures?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Young Futures exists to make it easier to grow up in the digital world.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I will take a step back and talk about my journey to get here and have the privilege to build this amazing organization with a really critical mission for the time we're living in.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I come to this space from the for-profit world.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is my first time working in the nonprofit space, but I consider myself a social impact entrepreneur.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And before this, I was a for-profit entrepreneur and I helped build multiple tech startups, a couple of which were acquired.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: In the last 10 years, I spent as the founding team member building an organization called Startup Health, which is a for-profit, mission-driven company focused on solving huge health challenges that we call health moonshots.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so the thesis is one that really carries over into the work of Young Futures.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: The thesis is when you have a huge challenge in the world, a public health challenge, no one knows what solution is really going to move the needle.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so the thesis is to support, fund, and bring together many innovators who are working on that challenge in different ways and build an ecosystem around them.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: So build an ecosystem in terms of their peers, stakeholders like investors and customers and experts, and uh wrap them around them support.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: So whether that is coaching, structured peer community, access to stakeholders, or storytelling, that kind of support is really critical to solving big challenges.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we really see a similar opportunity at Young Futures where we are tackling the immense challenge of youth well-being as it relates to how they're navigating the digital world.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we want to support them and wrap around them the social emotional tools that we know make a difference in improving their overall holistic well-being to prevent them from descending into crisis.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so the way that we're doing this and actually practically helping these young people is by funding and supporting a whole ecosystem of nonprofits and grassroots orgs who are doing the work on the front lines and providing tools, programming, services to help young people.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we are a funder ourselves and we're building an ecosystem of solutions.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of emphasis on the problem.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so much so that I think if you send a parent an article or a book on Teens in Tech, they're almost afraid to read it because all they are reading are, you know, the scary statistics.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And those problems are very real and that fear is very warranted.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: And how can we move to a place of optimism and solutions?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we have challenges.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: What are we going to do about it?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start talking about the solutions.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start funding those solutions and lifting them up.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so we strongly believe that young people and their families can have optimism about the future and they need help.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're here to do to fund those solutions.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we also, in addition to just providing funding, our grantees get a whole host of other supports.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: They participate in a six-month program called Young Futures Academy, which is an accelerator for the grantee leaders.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we've we've built a whole platform to really come in and lift up this ecosystem.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Over the next five years, we want to fund at least a hundred nonprofits in this space and hopefully more.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: I am so fascinated by the structure of how you're funding other organizations that are mission aligned.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: I know, you know, this may not be news to everybody, this type of funding model, but for me, I am definitely learning from a lot of organizations that may be doing something similar.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm really eager to hop into that more.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: I would love to talk about how a collaborative funding model differs from traditional fundraising approaches and what that means to you within your organization.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: We have the privilege of being funded by three organizations.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: One is Pivotal Ventures, a Melinda Frenchgates company.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: The other is Susan Crown Exchange, whose chairperson and founder is Susan Crown, a wonderful philanthropist based in Chicago.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the third is a group called the Goodness Web, which is a really unique group made up of over 160 individual donors who all put money in philanthropic funds for the purpose of advancing teeth and mental health.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so that in itself is its own sort of interesting collaborative funding model.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so the benefit of that is we have access to so many engaged funders coming from different walks of life and with different expertise, different networks.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, there's the obvious benefits of having a collaborative funding model of, of course, leveraging a larger amount of capital.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: And with each funder, they're able to reduce their risk because they're not putting in the full pool of capital, but also leveraging the resources in terms of, you know, the human capital, the information that they each have access to, whether that's research or their or their track record.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: These are organizations, in the case of Susan Crown Exchange and Pivotal Ventures, they have been really paving the way in the youth well-being, youth mental health funding space for a long time now.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Six years ago, they started funding even just research and field building work to try to understand, you know, when they saw the outcomes in youth mental health and what was happening.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: What can we do here as it relates to helping this generation and future generations navigate technology?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: So they've been funding both research and programmatic work for years.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: So we're building on a foundation that they have set.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, so the representatives from those organizations that are my closest contacts and my partners in this add tremendous value in terms of the lessons they've learned along the way.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, so that's amazing.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: They bring their own skills, their own knowledge, their own perspectives.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: There's also, when you have multiple funders, a lot more efficiency.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you're not duplicating efforts.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: If one is is supporting you in one way, the other says, okay, that person has got it.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And in my case, the funders have formed a really nice partnership between themselves.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's also a great opportunity for them to have strengthened public voice.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: You get a lot more attention when there's three strong funding names out on the press release or the blog posts, et cetera, versus just one.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So just influencing public opinion and raising awareness for initiatives is also a great benefit.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, you know, just increased sustainability with larger pooled funding is also great.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: But community engagement, they each have their own relationships with different communities, different parts of the country in some of their cases.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so you have relationships to pull on and leverage that combined are are much stronger.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's been a it's been a fantastic experience for for us at Young Futures to have these organizations and backing us and being partners.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: They've really been thought partners because when I was brought on to build Young Futures, it didn't exist.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: We started from zero.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I have an amazing team.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: They're phenomenal, and we've just been rolling up our sleeves, you know, building the brand, the organization, the communications, and then launching our first funding challenge, in which we're in the process of choosing our first 10 grantees, which which we will know in the next uh about week, who those 10 are.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: But actually, by the time this airs, I'm sure our press release will be out.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that will be fantastic.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll be kicking off the first cycle of of our academy for those grantees.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that's super exciting.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's so clear that there are so many benefits here beyond that funding.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, that that community reach and that level of engagement is really incredible.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: So stepping back, thinking about a young organization, you started from scratch.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: That is not an easy thing to do.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: And many of our listeners are, you know, say our startups themselves.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: How would you say you determined that this was the right funding model for your organization?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: What questions would you say that nonprofit executive directors should be asking themselves whether or not this is a good direction to go?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think the the most important thing is that you really have value alignment with your funders.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: In my case, the funders conceptualized Young Futures and they sought out a leader to build it and scale it up.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we got to know each other over a quite a long period of time relative to a typical interview process.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was close to five months.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: We spent getting to know each other.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: We had many, many conversations, sharing our individual visions and how they might align and sort of each causing each other to think differently and go to the next step.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: And in the end, we all really connected.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And by the time we all decided, let's do this, we were all excited to work together.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: I felt a real comfort with them, a real familiarity and and a lot of respect.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a long-term relationship with funders.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: You you can ask questions about their track record as well.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: I knew a lot of people in common with the representatives from my funders, and and they have wonderful reputations as supportive funders in the field.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you hear otherwise, it's really important to pay attention to that because these, like I said, these are long-term relationships and you want to make sure they're healthy ones.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, your organization is not going to be healthy.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: So in the end, it's about people and who you want to spend time with and who you want to be on the same team with.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: As with any innovative approach, uh I'm sure that this type of model comes with its own set of challenges.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: So, what do you see as some common challenges that nonprofits would face when adopting this type of collaborative funding model?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: And how do you think they can overcome them?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I wouldn't call them challenges.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: I I think it's important to be intentional about your process of maintaining those relationships, having a system for your recurring check-ins and are you able to even spend FaceTime together a few times throughout the year?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's really important.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: The root of all disappointment is uncommunicated expectations.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: So the way that I operate as an ED is I'm really structured around goal setting.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: So all starting all the way with what is my 10-year big hairy audacious goal?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: How am I going to get there?
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: What's the three-year goal?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: What does success look like in one year?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then break that down into every quarter.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: So every quarter, what are we trying to accomplish?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: What are our rocks, which is another word for KPIs?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And there is complete transparency across the team and with the funders about what the rocks look like.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: So at the beginning of each quarter, during one of those recurring calls with funders, I go over what we accomplished last quarter.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what did we get right?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Where did we miss?
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: How can we improve?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: And here are our goals for this coming quarter so that they have complete transparency with how we're allocating resources, spending our time, where they can be supportive and they want to be supportive.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so without communication, they won't have that opportunity to lean in.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: So as much transparency as you can provide, those types of relationships you get out of them, what you put in.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to ask for help, and that's what they're there for.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: So you mentioned by the time that this episode is published, you may likely have a press release sharing a handful of folks that are getting funding.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I would love to learn more about that program and how you sunk your teeth into that, what that means for the organizations that are receiving these funds.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: So the way we function at Young Futures is we run two funding challenges a year around high-need themes related to youth well-being and growing up in the digital world.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: So our first funding challenge was called the Lonely Hearts Club Challenge.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really focused on supporting solutions and organizations who are helping young people find meaningful social connection.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: We work with a great organization called the Foundation for Social Connection that has amazing research that listeners can go and read about if they're interested in, you know, what is that science of social connection?
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: So it was very important for us to start with social connection as our first funding challenge.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: We've had about 200 nonprofits apply with their solutions, which has been amazing.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And my team, alongside our partners at the Foundation for Social Connection, have been reviewing, and we've had an amazing external review committee, half of which is made up of young people.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we're really, really adamant that all of the solutions we fund need to be vetted by young people.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we will only fund solutions that are either youth-led or they were very, very intentional around involving youth in the development of their programming or their product or their solution.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we're not about to come in here as older adults and saying, we know what you need, teens, that would be very inauthentic.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: So youth-led is is a huge filter for us in terms of the types of nonprofits that we will fund.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: We are currently interviewing the top 20 applicants, the semifinalists, and and we probably by by this time next week we'll have our our tent.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be giving out 10 grants.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's a million-dollar commitment total.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we will will be giving those grants out in the coming weeks.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's incredible.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm so looking forward to following along and seeing the big announcement about your finalists and what they're gonna do with that grant money.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: For our listeners who are really eager to determine how they can build a network of supporters like this and see if it can work for their organization or build out a program that they are already working on.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: What would you say is a good practical first step for them to start?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: A great practice that that I've used, and I've done a lot of fundraising in previous companies, as well as that'll be part of my role at Young Futures, is to treat your relationships that are not yet your funders almost like they're already your funders.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, in the sense of when you have funders at a minimum, you would send them a quarterly update, right?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Probably more frequently than that.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: But think of all the relationships that you're developing along the way, people you're meeting at conferences, you're being introduced to, having a coffee with, put them on a list and have an update, you know, friends of Young Futures, et cetera, that you can send to them and keep them up to date so that when you do go out on a fundraise and you reach out to them, they are warmed up.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're already excited about what you're building.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so that can take the form of a an email mailing.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: It could be a blog.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you, if you have a blog, you you send it to those folks with a little personal note.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, just want to make sure you saw what we're up to.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're so excited about what we're building.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a piece of advice I would share that folks could could implement right away.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it does take time.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that time is is scarce for everybody, but these relationships take a long time to develop.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: Going back to that key piece of communication, I think that's perfect.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you, Katya, for sharing all of your insights with us today.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's been really great learning from you.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: And thank you for joining us on the Nonprofit Podcast.
• 18:07
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• 18:13
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• 18:23
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