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Empowering Communities: Building Sustainable Change with A-Nya Badger | Nonprofit411 Podcast · Nonprofit411 Podcast

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Hello and welcome to Nonprofit411, where we dive into resources and strategies that help nonprofits not just survive, but truly thrive.
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I'm Sarah Barton, your host and fundraising advocate.
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Each episode, we bring you inspiring conversations with experts in fundraising, sustainability, and best practices to equip you with the tools and confidence you need to make a real impact.
Hi, and welcome.
I'm thrilled you're here with us today.
If you're new here, I'm Sarah Barton, your host.
And each week on Nonprofit 411, we have conversations with nonprofit experts who offer practical strategies and inspiring stories to help nonprofits build sustainable funding and stronger communities.
Whether you're here to learn, be inspired, or simply recharge, I'm so glad you've joined us, so let's jump in.
Today I'm excited to welcome our guest A-Nya Badger from the Community Democracy Coordinator from Fairshake Environmental Legal Services.
Welcome! Yeah, I'm so glad to be here.
Thanks for inviting me on.
Yes, I'm so glad to have you.
We have met through some local work and I have been so impressed with how well fair shake implements equity and inclusion into their work.
And so I'm so excited to have a conversation with you today.
Yeah, this work is a deep passion for me.
So every day that I get to do it's exciting.
Yeah.
So that's so awesome.
Well, before we hop into our conversation, I love to ask this question of all my guests.
What is your favorite hobby? It feels cliche to say because it's been my favorite hobby for about five years now, but probably Dungeons and Dragons.
Oh, fun.
That's fun.
I think gaming is something I have a son that really loves gaming.
And so like that's a whole community.
And when you're in the gaming community, and Dungeons and Dragons has a huge community.
Yeah, definitely.
I think there's definitely an element of envisioning and building the world that you want to see and create that intersects a lot with organizing and with role play in general.
Yeah.
Oh, I like that way of thinking.
Like you get to, it's a creation thing.
I really have been thinking a lot about the creative ways that people build the world that they want.
And so, so it kind of fits into that.
So A-Nya, can you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and about the work that you do? Yeah, of course.
So my name is Anaya Badger.
I am a Kanawha County resident.
I've been organizing since I was in high school.
So for a good bit.
And what do I do at Fairshake? I mean, anything that people need or want me to do that moves their vision into action.
So like formally, Most of my time is spent working on a water quality grant right now to mitigate PFAS and the panhandles of the state.
But also a lot of my days look like helping people figure out how to coordinate and do advocacy work or just like collective power to get their power back in their building.
One of my coworkers did that a little bit ago.
Or talk about like, why are there so much like over punishment in schools specifically of like children of color and things like that.
So a lot of it is just being the bridge or the catalyst or like the facilitator to carry people's ideas and hopes into some kind of realization.
Awesome.
So I want to just let our listeners know that you're in West Virginia, because we have a lot of listeners who aren't in West Virginia right.
So you do a lot of your advocacy work in West Virginia.
Excuse me.
I think so, you know, I work with so many nonprofits and we, and my work is really focused on fundraising and grant writing and training organizations to be successful at that for sustainability purposes.
But I think that the work that you do at fair shake addresses sustainability in a different way, because it really looks at.
Why, like, why do we have some of these social problems that we're experiencing that our nonprofits have to address, right? So, so go ahead.
Oh, I was just like, yeah, I definitely agree.
And it's a very tricky thing to navigate because it's really overwhelming also, especially when you're like first starting out.
Yeah.
And I don't, I don't know that a lot of organizations have really thought about like, how do I start? advocating for change in the community, sometimes that happens later, you know, in, in the nonprofit work.
So how does fair shake go about.
addressing sustainable changes in a community when like, so I know that you deal with a lot of environmental issues.
So that's a big thing to address when we're looking at sustainable change.
What are some of the things that you do as an organization to consider how to, I don't, sorry, I'm not asking, well, how to start that work to start the sustainable changes.
I think that's a really important thing to consider and a question to always ask in doing the work.
I think the first thing, especially depending on you as the advocate or initiator in the work, consider your role and proximity to the issue you're trying to work on.
And especially if you're an outside entity to the issue or community that you're trying to help or affect change in making sure that you're centering the people that will actually be impacted by the work that you do.
And I think a big key in sustainability is not being prescriptive and instead following the lead of the people you're trying to help.
Because one way to get to a project fizzling out is saying, Hello community, I'm here to do X thing.
listens, it listens, and then they're just like crickets.
Instead you should be like, oh hello guys, like what are, what, ask them what they're interested in or what is their biggest problem and figure out how to mold your mission and goals to fit what is their top concerns, right? And so that's like the key thing that I think guides a lot of our work because we don't do any issue campaigning really or any like big initiatives of like we think this should happen all of our work is like okay what does the community want what is feeling critical for the people that we're here to be in service of and i think that's something that definitely has been lost in a lot of non profit space, especially if the work, I'm trying to say this in the right way, because it definitely has a place, but if you're chasing certain kinds of grants, I'd say, if you're trying to let the work be molded by, like, these different grant requirements rather than, like, focusing on the needs of the people I don't think I said that quite right, but does that come across right? Like, being like, Oh, okay.
We want to hit this metric rather than like, and like forcing it into the community rather than.
Following their leads.
Yeah, actually, I think that that's a great point.
And I talk about with nonprofits all the time, the importance of aligning with funders, right? Aligning with funders and making sure that the work that they Are interested in investing in is the same work that you're interested in doing or the same work that your community is interested in having.
And I've really seen that a lot with my rural in my work with rural communities.
A lot of times rural communities feel like.
Outsiders come in and tell them how they're supposed to be and they do it because they got a grant to do it.
And then they leave.
And so like, it actually wasn't.
As meaningful or impactful as the organization might have wanted because they they didn't align well with both the community that they're serving as well as the the funders, right? So sometimes funders are wanting to see a specific change, but that may not always be the change that you want to see in the community.
So you need to make sure up front that there's good alignment for that investment to be the right investment for your community.
Yes, exactly.
And I think hmm, I think if you're not careful also even if you are a good willed do gooder As is the nature of all institutions and systems, without intentional care you can become I'm forgetting the word, but like, not patronizing, but like, kind of like paternal paternalistic to communities when you have not even introduced yourself, maybe and gained it.
Relationship building and trust.
And so that causes a lot of suspicion and harm for folks and makes it even harder for the next well intentioned group to come in especially if they have the right intentions.
They won't even get that first foothold because I think, especially in West Virginia, there's this General feel that like the non profit groups that come into the tiny rural towns will just leave and they will have to maintain whatever structures are there without this extra help that they've gotten which leads me into the next thing I wanted to say about sustainability is like making sure whatever work you do is either like easily replicated or Able to be carried out or making best use of your funding to get the initiative or project shored up in a way that it can be more easily carried out and have longevity because, like, having a community center is great, but if it's reliant on a one year grant it will be great for that one year and then, you know, fall into disrepair rather than investing in building skills and resilience and knowledge and or setting them up with like perpetual funding sources or finding ways to keep whatever thing you're having alive.
Cause I think it betrays a lot of the hope people have when people come and go so much.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think another thing that, you know, that really resonates with me is that I talk about capacity building a lot, and that capacity building is making sure that you're still around to be able to do the good work and so like, when we're looking for funding, we're not looking for funding necessarily just for one year but we want to build structures that will endure and, and yeah, yeah.
One of the things that I have so appreciated as I've worked with fair shake in the community is the way that they have built in the community feedback loop.
And I think that that's so, in our work that we've done here in Parkersburg.
Each year we have held opportunities in the in the region and had community members kind of share what their vision for their community is.
And the goal has been to pass that vision on, right? And so I, I think that nonprofits who are building some sustainable funding and looking at sustainable practices like that's a really beautiful thing to be able to have that real raw feedback from the community about what's working and what's not working in real ways.
So, can you tell me a little bit about the.
The philosophy and the practices that you utilize them in other communities.
I am a little I'm familiar with your work here in Parkersburg, but do you have like a structure that you kind of follow to make sure that you get that community feedback and buy in.
Hmm, we don't quite have like a, here's the community engagement 101 handbook, because it is very case by case, I'd say, but the thing that's at the core of it all is always being genuine, like not being Stiffy or like a stuffy suit from a c suite in a big city being like just the neighbor down the street and like being, meeting people where they're at emotionally and like, political analysis wise or like consciousness wise of like intersection issues or things like that.
So compassion and consideration is always at the core of those things.
And I think also a huge dose of humility as well.
Because how to think of the best way to like put it People aren't going to trust you if they don't think that they can be safe with you and so you're not going to really get trust or feedback or buy in if you are, like, the cartoon version of, like, an out of town corporation that just wants to extract from places.
And I think also a lot of that is supported by our reciprocity that we have with community groups, because even though we are environment and democracy, It wouldn't be uncommon to see us show up at like a community fish fry or like a fundraiser for a little league game because it still fits our mission of community engagement, community education.
But it also is invaluable to just be present to break down that essence of being outside when you're being present within.
I like that.
I like that a lot like And I agree the reciprocity.
You know, I think that that's really important and I think when organizations to receive the blessing of grants and they receive the blessings of funds, you know, thinking of ways to reciprocate.
With their community partners is so important.
One of the strategies that I've utilized in my grant work is that all of the partners get some money like I, you know, if the partners are not getting are not able to participate in, in the fund that in the funds that we're receiving.
then what else can I do to help support their work? You know, maybe it's that the funding can provide curriculum that we can all use, or maybe it's that, you know, we are able to purchase the valued thing that they needed.
And in a grant that I got recently the organization wasn't actually able to take the, the grant funds because of their structures.
And so we were able to buy them a community garden which was so awesome because we were working on providing healthy foods for the community.
And like, they were like, this will be sustainable if we can have a community garden where people can come.
And so like, I think like that reciprocity thing is not a little thing.
It's so meaningful.
And it really helps build strong relationships, you know, with people.
our partners as well as with the donors in the community, you know, to recognize that they're doing good work too.
Yeah, exactly.
I completely agree.
Yeah.
So can you share with our listeners kind of a case study or.
Like your favorite story.
I always, I always think every person who works at a nonprofit has this favorite story about something they saw or witnessed or part of, because it was just so amazing.
It's that miracle moment where you're like, yes, this is why I do this work.
Do you have a story like that? Hmm, there's so many.
Let me think about that.
It's hard to pick just one, right? I think something that's so unique about What we do, right, is that we're not just the typical nonprofit that does like organizing work or like progressive change work or like community resourcing and capacity building.
We also have our legal program that helps people pull levers of power that they usually wouldn't have access to because affordable or free legal representation is so few and far between, right? And so, I think, hmm, I'm trying to think.
There are so many different things.
As for like the community education side of it I worked with a local group to put on a democracy lab, like, how is democracy working in our city? And We got to talk to people and, like, hear what they thought things worked like, or, like, how they thought things could go and seeing people's, like, gears start to turn mentally and being, being like, I can do something, or, like, seeing their mental belief rise.
in the efficacy of their individual power and collective action is just really magical and something that keeps motivating me to do the work, even though it's really hard to do, especially in West Virginia.
Because I think there's so much often created to help or not help, but created to like make people feel despair or apathy or nihilism.
And so, being hopeful is like transgressive and radical and a landscape that is so flooded with despair and exhaustion.
Right.
And so, Getting to use my career and professional capacity as like working with Flareshake and other partnerships to be able to help guide people along from being like, I don't know why this thing is like that, and it's inconvenient and I don't like it, to being like, Hmm.
Well, I'm gonna go do this action or go speak at city council or meet with my local legislator to talk about why is this thing like that? Moving from just noticing to acting is really powerful and inspiring for me.
Mm hmm.
And I think too On the legal side of things, there are so many different things that I get to hear about working with our legal team.
I'm trying to think, I have them send me some things because I am not a lawyer.
I always have to say that.
But it's always really powerful to be like, yeah, I'm going to go get my really talented friend to help you engage with this scary process and protect them from something that Can often be really exploitative to people with low resources or low knowledge on how situations work.
Right.
And so, let me see.
I, it kind of brings to mind the words, like, you get to manifest hope.
Right? Mm hmm.
That's so awesome.
Manifesting hope.
Yeah.
So.
A couple things they shared with me about, like, things that they did that they thought were some of their favorites was, like, that we got to support a neighborhood partnership in the expansion of their countywide home repair program, from including only owner occupied homes to homes that are tenant occupied as well, and educating managers on the legal responsibilities of landlords in homes with existing lead hazards.
And so that intersects with just like, oh, my like kids are getting sick in this house that I rent to like here are some like legal protections and like actually you have these rights and we're here to help enforce them or do that legal advocacy work as well.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Like, I mean, that's why we're all in the nonprofit sector, right? Because we want to be able to see these amazing things happen because we know they can.
And so you're getting to be able to be like that facilitator.
And I think that's so awesome to be able to witness you know, to be able to witness period.
Like, I think that's pretty amazing.
So, so tell us how our listeners can get in touch with you, who you serve, And when it would make sense to contact you at Fairshake.
Yeah so how to get in contact with Fairshake in general.
We have our website fairshake els.
com.
Let me double check that.
I go to this website all the time and I should have it memorized by now.
Yeah, Fairshake, fairshake ELS.
org has all our resources, has our intake form for legal representation.
Info at fairshake.
org is like the general contact email.
We have a general contact number on there, but my personal Fairshake email is abadger at fairshake els.
org.
And happy to reach out to folks.
That are interested in talking about, like, democracy, education, engagement, and things like that.
We work in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, for the most part but also are open to talking with people outside of that region because organizing principles are pretty universal But there are more restrictions on the legal side because of like, you know, certifications and things like that.
So not as helpful outside of those areas for legal, but you know, could run questions by us and we usually have connections or referrals.
And so talking about how to do democracy education or how to talk about community benefits or things like that.
We have resources, information, things like that.
So I guess if you're curious and just want to move your vision into action, reach out to us.
Awesome.
That's great.
Thank you so much for, for sharing that.
And I like to ask, I like to save one more question for after that.
My guests are always, they always think that's the wrap up, but is there any, like, is there any piece of advice that you just want to give nonprofits as they go and do the good work that they're doing? Anything that you would recommend or any tips, tricks, advice.
Or just goodwill that you would like to share.
Hmm.
That made me think of one thing too, that we don't, I guess, talk about a lot that we do, but we like help people with nonprofit and corporation, and that makes me think of the thing that people don't talk about often, which is like, really be sure that like your administrative side is like straightened out and organized.
Because doing the work is like really impactful and really important and you don't want to get tripped up by like a misplaced document or an unfiled thing or like an audit or something to distract you from being able to put your efforts where they like make the most impact, right? So like keeping the hope and making things easier for yourself later by being organized and making sure you're like checking all your boxes and have your admin side squared away.
I think that's great advice.
I think that you know, there are some legal areas where nonprofits just need to be aware and they need to be on top of the paperwork, you know, they have to file annual reports and file specific Oh, what do you call them? Forms each year.
And so I, I think that's great advice.
Thank you so much for that.
Thank you Anaya, for coming and visiting with us today on Nonprofit 4 1 1.
It was such a blessing to have you and to our listeners, I wanna thank you for tuning in this week.
Tune back in for the next one.
We always enjoy having you here and we hope that you can continue to do your good work and make amazing things happen.
Thanks and have a good day.
Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of Nonprofit411.
I hope you found today's conversation as insightful and inspiring as I did.
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