Reconnecting with Your Work: How to Think Bigger, Bolder, and Braver

I’m Marty Bernicker, and I’m the director of SpeakUp! And speak up was started by my mom, but it was inspired by my brother Bob, who died of AIDS in 1992 when he was 30. His wish was that it would be easier for young people to be open and honest and be themselves with the Read More

I’m Marty Bernicker, and I’m the director of SpeakUp! And speak up was started by my mom, but it was inspired by my brother Bob, who died of AIDS in 1992 when he was 30. His wish was that it would be easier for young people to be open and honest and be themselves with the important adults in their life. And so that is how SpeakUp! started, and we say What began with one brave young man and my mom is now a prudent program in 30 middle and high schools. Our school based program, which is our signature program, starts with the students. We ask, What do you want to talk to the adults in your life about that’s hard to talk about. And talk about, and we train the school adults, literally any adult in the building, because we all have a role to play in helping young people thrive. Young people are remarkable, but it’s hard to be a young person. They’re struggling with stress, relationships, mental health, drugs and alcohol, social media. We are a nonprofit that works to help young people navigate their journey to adulthood by both helping the young people to speak up and we help the adults to gain skills and confidence that they can use to better listen, guide and support the teenagers in their life. I would say that I’m a reluctant fundraiser. My strategy is usually that I hope that when I share compelling stories and our compelling impacts, that that will inspire people to want to give. We know our donors well, but a lot of that is in our head. So starting that process of systematizing, that understanding who’s in their family, what are there areas of interest so that we can engage them in our programming gets harder as the world gets more complex. For example, we may have a donor. They might want to give you a donor revised fund, and it may look like a first time donation, and it would be so offensive to say, Oh, welcome. Meanwhile, they’ve been giving to you for a long time. So you realize the importance we talk about how there’s a lot of low hanging fruit for us in terms of being able to improve our fundraising. That’s one of our goals during this 25th anniversary. We do two hard mail appeals, and we do an end of the year email campaign. We dipped our toe in the water with a Giving Day this year during Giving Tuesday, and worked with the DonorPerfect team to say, Okay, if this is what you want, how do we get that? What do we already have, and in what tables and what fields we mapped it and are looking at? Okay, where are there gaps? Is this something that would be best served by pulling reports out of DonorPerfect? Or do you want to create different inputs? So we’re working with the DonorPerfect team on that, and that’s an expression we actually use a lot across the board. Join us. We’re part of a movement that every dollar that you invest and every hour that you spend actually has the potential to accrue direct benefit to that donor or volunteer, which is unusual. Most people have young people in their lives, so we have a chance to benefit every problem grows in secrecy and isolation. Have To find new people you

Sean, good afternoon, everybody. My name is Sean McClellan, and I am a senior DonorPerfect Training Specialist. Welcome to Tammy soccer session, reconnecting with your work. How to think bigger, bolder and braver. Tammy has helped raise nearly a billion dollars throughout her 30 year career, with her most significant single contribution being the securing of a remarkable $27.1 million gift in addition to training and speaking across the United States, Tam is an internationally recognized speaker, having presented in Australia, Ireland, Italy, Canada and The Netherlands. Before I turn it over to Tammy, just to cover a few housekeeping items, you can download today’s presentation from the details section to the right of the presenters window. Any questions that you have, please submit in Q and A so we can address them during the session. And as always, all sessions are being recorded and will be available on the. DonorPerfect website after the conference. All right, and we have your presentation, we’re good to go. Tammy, take it away. All right.

Hello everyone, and it’s really amazing to be here with you today. So thanks for joining this session today. I want to talk about reconnecting with your work and in doing so, really pushing you to think a little bigger, a little bolder and a little braver. You know, sometimes in the nonprofit world, we’re very risk averse, we’re very compliance driven, and that’s not why we signed up to work in the nonprofit space. We signed up to work in this field, in this sector, because we were called to something. We felt a connection to the mission of the organization that you represent. And yet, Dan pallada has made a good point that so often, we literally have made it a crime to dream in the nonprofit sector, right? We get a lot of feedback about being realistic, and, you know, being modest, and too much emphasis on overhead costs and not paying well, and all of those things. And what it does is it helps, it breaks the connection, that kind of scrutiny, that kind of overwhelm, can often just kind of squelch our enthusiasm for the work that we do, and it breaks the connection that we have to the work. And it’s not that we don’t care. We do care. We haven’t given up, but we’ve gotten overwhelmed at times. We oftentimes feel like there’s just so much to do. And I see you, I see that you so often are sacrificing your own well being for this mission. So I know you care, but you’re responding to emails from vacation. You are eating lunch, you know, over your keyboard. You might be eating your lunch over your keyboard right this very moment. And certainly there are days when you’re, you know, eating your lunch or some kind of a protein bar over your steering wheel. So the point is that this culture, the culture of scrutiny, the culture of not enough the culture of not enough time, it breaks the inherent connection that we had in the passion that we bring to our work. And so my goal today is to help kind of bring that connection back to the forefront and give you some tools and some questions to bring to your teams to for some even some self reflection, in order to reestablish that connection and really have you dreaming bigger, bolder and being braver in your work. And you know, getting back to that life of purpose that we all chose when we signed up to work in the nonprofit sector, I feel like Simon Sinek absolutely had it right in his his book Start with Why? When he asked, What is your why? Why do you do this work? What called you to this particular organization, to this particular mission? What is your connection to the work that you’re doing. And I’m going to give you a few examples of some pretty powerful Whys to get you thinking. Because some of us, maybe we’ve been at it for a while and we’ve forgotten our why, or it’s kind of slipped into the background. It’s just out of reach. So of course, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, had a big vision. He had a dream. He had a dream that a world of equity and justice and inclusion, that prosperity, that freedom would be available to all people, regardless of the color of their skin. That’s a pretty big why Mother Teresa, she had a big why, a big connection and and that why, that dream for her was to make certain that that love was put into action, and that action through was through service, whether that be through volunteer service or paid service, but that dream was that everyone would have purpose and connection in life by being of service to other through the acts of love. And of course, President John F Kennedy, he had a dream. He had a vision that we would choose to go to the moon in this decade. He said, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, right? Did he have any idea how to put a man on a moon, on the moon when he declared that, that vision, that dream, no, but he felt a connection. He felt a calling. He felt compelled, and it stretched him. It had him make that big deck. Exploration, that bold, audacious statement, in the face of not knowing exactly how we would do that. And so I want you to think about your why. I have some questions I want you to kind of self reflect on over the course of our time together today and even after this session, as you go back and you reflect on all the amazing learning that you are walking away with here from DPCC. I want you to reflect on this, not only as a self reflection, but I want you to reflect on it with your team, and perhaps even with your executive leadership team, and perhaps eventually even with your board. What is each of you. What is your why? What’s the connection to this work that calls you forward? You know, what’s the unique dream or vision that was sewn into your heart uniquely? And are your dreams and your organization’s mission? Are they in alignment, right? Are they in alignment. Do you feel that connection in the work that you do, day in and day out, individually and with your collective teams? Do you feel that connection to the overall mission, and do you see the unique value proposition that you personally bring to this work and collectively that you bring to this work with your teams, with your colleagues, with your donors, with your volunteers, with those folks who are community leaders or participate in your programs. Do you feel that collective, you know, shared vision and mission, and that connection? And does that is it? Is it in alignment? Now, I know those are big questions, and the examples that I gave you are really big examples. In fact, for some of us, they might not even feel relatable, right? Like you want my vision, my connection, my dream, to match up with Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, you want that to match up with Mother Teresa? Are you kidding me? So I want to give you an example of a why that might be a little more relatable, and that is with this amazing woman that I’ve had the privilege of working with. Her name is Lynn Adams, and she is the founder of the Oklahoma City children’s Youth Theater, and I worked with her and her team, and we always start our private workshops with the question like, What is your why? Why are you here? Why are you at this table? What is it about this mission that speaks to you? And Lynn shared her story and gave me permission to share it. And so Lynn’s story is that when she was a kid, she grew up, actually, in Australia. She was born an Australian. She’s been in the US for many years with her husband and her children, but she what grew up in Australia, and she said, You know, I didn’t always have it so easy. Of course, lots of people had it far worse than I did in other ways. But for me, when I was about in the fourth grade, I really got picked on. I got bullied by my classmates, and it was simply because I was so very tall, I was head and shoulders taller than any of the other children in my class, and she talks about the cruelty that she experienced, the name calling, the exclusion, the again, the bullying. And she said, quite frankly, her teacher wasn’t much help either. She said, I remember specifically a lesson on suffixes that my teacher was leading, and she was talking about, you know, what is a suffix and what are some examples? And so she said, you know, Suffolk, a suffix is like an abbreviation. So, for example, a cigarette is a smaller version of a cigar. A vignette is a smaller version of a play, or a scene from a play. And so et almost always means smaller, with the exception of your classmate, Lynette,

heartbreaking, right? I can hear you. Almost hear you gasping, right now, that’s always the reaction I get when I share Lynn’s story. And in fact, from that moment forward, Lynn went by Lynn instead of Lynette, which was her given name. So she endured this bullying and just did the best that she could. And so there came a time when her class was planning a field trip to the Princess Theater in downtown Melbourne, Australia, where they were going to see a production of Alice in Wonderland. And Lynn, in fact, the entire class, they were so excited about going to see this play. And Lynn says, I looked forward to this. I could barely sleep the night before we got to school. And then it came time to you. Single file go to the busses, and she says, I remember this was the one time it really was an advantage to have these very long legs, because I could walk, not run, I could follow the teacher’s instructions, and I could get to the bus with those long steps. I could get there faster than anyone, and I did, and I chose the front seat on the bus because I knew if I was the first one in the front seat on the bus, I’d be the first one to leave the bus and get into the theater, because I wanted that front row center seat. And she did. She said she got her seat of choice. She sat down. Eventually the curtain went up and the lights came on, and she was absolutely mesmerized. There came a moment in the production where Tweedledee and Tweedledum, if you know the story, they came to the very edge of the stage and they said, we’re looking for one volunteer. And Lynn said, I had no idea what possessed me, because I was so painfully shy, but my hand shot up and I said, me, me, pick me. And they did. They reached down. Each of them clasped Lynn by one of her hands, and they pulled her up onto stage and nestled her right in between the two of them, Tweedledee, Tweedledum. And Lynn says, even to this day, she can still feel the warmth of those stage lights on her face. She can smell that distinctive stage makeup smell, and she can see the glistening of Tweedledee and Tweedledum brass buttons that were on their jumpers, on their costumes. And she said, you know, the magic of it was that in that moment, I became a theater kid. I found a place where I could belong. I found a place where I could be in the spotlight and still feel safe. I also found a place where eventually I could also work backstage and help shine a light on others so that they could have that same sense of belonging and safety, and so it only makes sense that she would grow up, and when she eventually moved to the United States, she founded this Oklahoma City Youth Theater and has been the Executive Director for 35 plus years until she recently retired. So that’s her Why, that’s her purpose, that’s her connection to this organization and and the work that she does. And so again, what is your why? Why do you do this work? What is your connection? What keeps you going? You know on the days that it feels like you’re pushing jello uphill, right on the days that it feels like I just want to, like, hide out. I’m so overwhelmed, I just need a minute on those days. What is it that keeps you going? And so I’m looking at the chat, and yes, Annette said, she literally gasped. Kathy says, very cruel, like Greg, that teacher, what was she thinking? A former we have a former actress here. Understands that sense of belonging. This parallels my story so much. Oh, wait, thank you. Great sensory details, yes, so we all need to be great storytellers, right? And I’m sure you are as well. Frank says, I love what I do, so just drop in the chat your connection, like the sentence or two about it. I love what I do. I’m I feel deeply connected. Maybe for some of you, you’re feeling a little disconnected these days. I mean funding cuts. I mean there’s so much going on in the world, it’s easy to lose that connection, but my hope is that this exercise, this reflection, will kind of it re establish that connection for you. So yeah. So Shannon says, honestly, the paycheck, seriously can Okay, so that was a joke. And then she said, seriously, though, connecting with people so but you know, you bring up a great point. Shannon, some of us could have applied for a job. We saw this one. We took it because we wanted a paycheck. And there’s no harm in that, right? That’s real life. But the truth is, for most of you, both, most of us that kind of resonate with that, that align with that there was probably a moment, or has been a moment, or soon will be a moment, where you experience the mission, you meet a family, you meet a student, you meet a grateful patient, you meet someone and you say, You know what this Is, way more than a job. I feel that connection deeply, right? So even if this was initially for a paycheck, no shame in that, but continue looking for your moment and or if you haven’t already found it, the the impact that you have that’s what keeps you you. Jasmine admits like I I lost my connection. Oh, wait a minute, I might have missed i Oh, Margo, I fear I’ve lost my connection. I’ve done this work for 30 years, and feel very little has changed. In fact, we’ve gone backwards, so I’m trying to rediscover my mojo before I retire in a few years. All right? So we can be at different places. We can feel and be very present to the connection, or we could have maybe lost it because again, frustration and just maybe seeing little progress. But find that reconnection, right? Do this exercise. Do this exercise with others. I know when I was chief philanthropy officer at the Children’s Center in Detroit, a children’s mental and behavioral health service that served about 7500 children and families annually. Oftentimes, when I would feel overwhelmed or frustrated, I would go sit in the lobby and just maybe I’d take a children’s book down there, maybe I would read with children while they waited to see their psychiatrist or their clinician, and that alone gave me that spark of like, this matters. This matters to this child. It matters to this family like I, I love them all right, so the connection is so important. The connection is everything now. Jim Rohn, who is, you know, a business guru from the 80s and early 90s, he says, if the why is powerful, the how is easy. And while I do agree with him, I would say that I don’t know that in the nonprofit sector, it’s exactly easy, right? Because we have this paradox. We had these challenges, like this natural inherent conflict that Dan Pallotta and others talk about a lot. Think big, but be frugal. You know, make a huge impact, but keep your overhead low. Hire well, but don’t necessarily pay well. And there’s also a deep modesty. There’s a modesty in our sector about the work that we do, like we’re just this little nonprofit trying to do good work. And I would just invite you to revisit that belief. If you believe, regardless of your budget size, if you believe that you’re just this little nonprofit trying to good work, do good work, consider who you really are in the community, the impact that you’re having, and I doubt that it’s little. And I would also invite you to look at the nonprofit ecosystem and consider how big and powerful we really are collectively, right? So I’m going to share some stats with you. So first of all, the nonprofit sector is the third largest employer in the US that we employ in the sector, more than 12 million people in the US alone, and that’s 2.5 million if you live in Canada, and more than a million. If you’re coming to us from Australia today, we are also 6% of the US gross domestic product, the GDP. And if you’re in Canada, you’re 8% of GDP. So here’s the thing, like we are not just a force for good, we are also an economic force, and I think it’s time that we own that, and we recognize the power that we actually have, and we begin leveraging that. We begin talking about it. We begin inviting people to be investors in our work, and talking about the that not just the connection, which is important, but also the impact and the connection in the community, the impact that your work has in the community, regardless of whether the people that you’re talking to ever directly participate in your programs, you are still impacting their lives, right? So you are bigger and you are more powerful then, then you may realize Lana says sometimes it’s also a challenge to be a foundation for a health system, because we’re not considered small, and people don’t always perceive that we have a need absolutely so we’ve got to talk about the need. We’ve got to talk about the whether it’s the equipment that philanthropy is helping to purchase, whether it’s the research it’s helping to fund, whether it’s the you know, the charitable care that you’re doing for those folks who are uninsured, who wouldn’t have access to hospice services. If it were not for philanthropy that you know, grieving families and children wouldn’t necessarily have grief support if it were not for philanthropy. So connect those dots. Yeah, we have to tell our funding stories better. Amen, Sue. We do have to tell our funding stories better, and it really starts with us connecting with them initially, or getting back to that connection and telling that story. Story from that passion and that purpose and that connection, because that is magnetic. People want to be a part of something that’s bigger than themselves, and that starts with us. We have to know that we are bigger than than just ourselves, and be present to that keep it present. That connection is everything. All right, I want to tell you another story. So this is a story that legendary fundraiser Jerry pannis tells in one of his books. I think it’s in, it’s in his, one of his major gift books. So he tells a story of two young researchers who were in the hospital lab. Lana they, he was, they were in the hospital lab doing cancer research. And a fundraiser begins touring a major donor through the lab. We’ve all done that. We’ve all taken donors. Most of us have taken donors on a tour of our programs, or a tour of like an experience right respectfully honoring the dignity of those who might be participating in programs, of course. So in this case, he’s touring through this major donor, and the donor said asks the two researchers. So he asked them both the same question, and that is, if you had a lot more money, what would you do? What would you do with it. So they both pause for just a moment, and the first researcher says, Why buy more microscopes? Of course, if we had more microscopes, we could do the research faster.

The second researcher said, if we if I had a lot more money, I would cure childhood cancer. Now, that particular researcher was Dr Sydney Farber, who later became the founder of the Children’s Cancer Research Foundation, which later became the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. That’s an example of thinking big, of being bold, of being brave in your vision. I mean, did he know for sure, if he had more money, he would cure childhood cancer? No. Have we cured childhood cancer? No, but have we furthered the research in that many, many, many more children are surviving childhood cancer? Yes. So that’s just one example that I wanted to share with you about the impact of thinking bigger and bolder and being braver and really feeling that connection. Sometimes we get so technical, like more microscopes, when really we need to raise our vision, like Cure, a cure, right? More graduates, more whatever your work is that raise your sights to the bigger impact and share that so many of you, I’m sure, are Jim Collins fans. I am, of course, ever since he published his book, Good to Great. And of course, the nonprofit or social sector monograph like the complimentary book, to good to great. He talks about Big Hairy Audacious Goals, or be hags, right? Big Hairy Audacious Goals. And so he says, set goals that are so big, so hairy, that you make they make you gulp, right? In fact, I’ve heard another thought leader say, if your goals are not big enough to both excite you and scare you, they are not big enough. And so really, I think that’s the point here. Is that a big, hairy, audacious goal should make you gulp. It should be provocative. It should be visionary, and it should like people. It should grab them. It should grab them, and they should get it right away, whether they understand the work that you do to the level that you understand it, which, of course, most of them will not, but they immediately understand the impact the vision that you’re talking about with your B hag, so it’s tangible. It’s measurable. People get it right away. So let’s look at a few examples of big, hairy, audacious goals that I think are pretty darn inspiring and that inspire incredible amounts of giving. So the first is Charity Water. So their be hag is to help bring clean and safe water to every person on the planet, every person so let’s think about let’s quantify what that really means. According to the World Health Organization and UNICEF and their joint partnership, their one of their programs, every person on the planet means 2 billion people, essentially one in four people globally, who don’t currently have access to safe water. And some would even say that that number is 4.4 billion if you include water that is managed right. It’s not naturally it’s. Unsafe, but it’s managed for consumption. So regardless of whether it’s 2 billion or 4.4 billion, that’s a whole lot of people who need access and that they’re committed to bringing Safe, safe cleaning water, drinking water too. And it’s not just about drinking water, it’s also about sanitation. There are 3.5 billion people in the world, so essentially, four in 10 globally who don’t have access to safe sanitation. So that’s an example of a big, hairy, audacious goal. And if you’ve watched Charity Water, you’ve read, you know, you’ve seen their promotion, you’ve seen you’ve been to their website, you’ve seen their appeals. And I’m a member of the spring their monthly giving subscription program. Notice how they have these big, hairy, audacious goals. And they use such strength based language. They use these vibrant, beautiful photographs. They take us to the scene with videos, compelling videos. They too are great storytellers with a big vision and a track record of making good progress, of being amazing stewards of donor investments. So that’s one example. I want to get to another example, and that is the No Kid, No Kid Hungry. So again, this is a US based program, and they say their big, hairy, audacious goal is No Kid Hungry, not fewer kids hungry, less kids hungry, like absolutely No Kid Hungry. So let’s quantify that. How big and hairy is that goal? Well, in the US, that’s nearly 14 million children who don’t know where their second meal will come from, or third meal will come from each and every day. So essentially, 14 million, million children, one in five children across the US. So again, No Kid Hungry. That’s a big, hairy and audacious goal, but anything less is an issue of integrity, right? We will not stop until there is No Kid Hungry who’s with us. And here is a big hairy audacious goal that I had the privilege of personally being involved with, and that is the big hairy audacious goal for the United Way, with of the United Way for southeastern Michigan centered in the heart of Detroit. And so they set this Big Hairy Audacious Goal in 2010 and they said they wanted to make Detroit greater. Detroit one of the top five places to live and work by the year 2030 now I have to set some context for this, because in 2010 when this big, hairy, audacious goal was kind of went was established, and it went more public in 2012 ish, in that in that time frame, this was the time of the Great Recession, right? Two of the three biggest employers, which were General Motors and Chrysler. At that time, Chrysler, not quite not Fiat Chrysler, but Chrysler. They were in bankruptcy. There were the unemployment was 30% in the city of Detroit. One in five homes were in foreclosure because people were just they lost their jobs. They were walking away from their mortgages and and leaving Detroit in order to care for their families to start completely over, and high school graduation rates with within the Detroit public schools were about 30% in fact, the Secretary of Education at the time, Dr Arne Duncan, had done a commissioned a study across the US and identified 1500 what he called dropout factories across the US, and 30 of them were in Detroit. And so this was a very, very difficult time for this amazing, big hearted city. And so to declare a big, very audacious goal, like being a top five place to live and work by 2030 was absolutely audacious. There was also no grocery store in the city of Detroit, and a lot of families living in poverty, right? Generational poverty, institutional racism, rampant, like as it is in men, especially metro cities, many cities, especially big metropolitan cities, families, especially families of color, had reason in history not to trust banks. So they were, for all of those reasons, cashing their checks at, you know, the either advanced paycheck, advanced pay places. Businesses and paying those fees or cashing them at the corner gas station or liquor store, etc. And so how to make this a top five city? There were initiatives around high school turnaround, and there were five schools where early foundation investors and corporate investors had already invested in the United Ways work, turning around five pilot schools, and they were making incredible progress. There were also, there were also early learning communities in each of those high school neighborhoods, because it wasn’t enough just to stop the hemorrhaging of high school dropouts, we had to also make certain that kids showed up to kindergarten meeting ready to learn standards. They could write their name, they knew their ABCs, they could count to 100 they knew that a book opened, you know, from the right and the pages turned to the left like basic ready to learn standards, because that’s not a foregone conclusion. And then making certain that folks had access to nutritious food. Again, when there is no grocery store in a city the size of Detroit,

people grocery shop, especially with transportation challenges. They grocery shop at the gas station, and what kind of right you’re not getting fresh produce at the grass gas station. And then also, there was a goal around getting more people banked and doing financial literacy and getting people to move into a positive net worth scenario. And so these four initiatives were at the core of what we had determined would make Detroit a top five city to live and work. So if we could increase high school graduation rates to 80% or higher by by 2030 if we could increase kindergarten readiness to 80% by that same year, if we could get, you know, more families banked and increase access to nutritional food, those were the things that Were going to drive all of this, and this is the case for support. This was the big, hairy, audacious goal that absolutely was instrumental. This was the case that secured the $27.1 million investment from General Motors and the General Motors foundation in this turnaround, the high school and early learning community educational turnaround work that United Way was leading. So these kinds of big, hairy, audacious goals capture people’s attention. They capture their hearts. And that is the key. That is the purpose between having this deep connection and these big hair audacious goals that people resonate with they think I want to be part of something absolutely transformational. So I was just a short story, a little more behind the scenes of this big this big hag. So we took this placemat. It literally was an 11 by 17 printed cardstock placemat. On the front was the B hag, the four initiatives, and on the back, we would update on a quarterly basis the progress we were making in each of these areas. Right, showing like good stewardship, transparency. Where are we ahead? Where are we behind? Our goals? What are the key success measurements, and how are we tracking them? And so we had an amazing volunteer. His name was Jeff Bergeron, and he was the head of our United Way campaign cabinet. He was also the practice director, the managing, head guy at Ernst and Young and of course, they did business with General Motors. He got the visit. He called Mark Royce, who was the General Motors president, North American president at the time. He since is, holds a very prestigious global position. But he called and got the visit with with Mark, the North American president, and also came Mike Brennan. And Mike Brennan was the CEO of United Way. So again, I just want to distinguish the the leadership, like the executive leadership and the peer leadership, the Volunteer Leadership. They got the visit. So the three of us went on that visit. I was at that time, on contract as the senior director of corporate engagement, and so we sat down, and Mark was very welcoming, very pleasant, but granted, they are in bankruptcy, so niceties are exchanged, and he’s like, listen, we’re going to do our best to run an employee giving campaign for the United Way. But, you know, we’ve laid off like 10,000 people, so not sure exactly how it’s going to go. We won’t be able to give a corporate gift this year because we are in bankruptcy. And you know, we wish you well. We’ll do our best. Is there anything else? And we said, well, actually, yes, thank you. Thanks for the past commitment and partnership. Thanks for still being willing in the face of all of this, thanks for being willing to work run an employee workplace campaign. But what we want to talk about today is actually the work, what we are aiming to do, this enormous turnaround that we are are helping to mobilize our community to help us achieve and we need your strategic vision. You’re turning around General Motors. We’re turning around, you know, high school education with the help of community leaders. And we need your thought leadership. We need you at the table, and he and here are the four initiatives. Here’s how we’re going about it, here’s our preliminary pilot success, and here’s how we want to scale it, but that’s going to take a lot of investment. And so he got more and more intrigued. So the one ask coming out of that visit was not for money, it was to come to our office for a tour. And so he did about maybe a month, four, six weeks later, he came to our kind of boring office and took a tour of United Way. Now the only thing there were two things at that office that weren’t like any other office. The first was the 211, help desk where, you know, we take over 300,000 calls a year, and I say we, because I still feel very connected to them. Although I’m no longer on contract, I’m not employed by them. But he sat, he signed a Privacy agreement, and he sat down and listened to as one of those calls came in, and he heard about the hardship. You know, this elderly gentleman went, went, went out, ran some errands, came back home, and he had been evicted. He was locked out of his home, his reading glasses, his prescriptions, everything he owned except the shirt on his back was in there, locked in. And so he heard that story and how our 211, caller helped connect him to resources to help you, know, bridge this crisis. And then we went into our war room, the conference room that had all the flip chart paper with the, you know, literally, hand drawn lights, red, green, yellow. Where are we ahead? Where are we behind? Where are our initiatives failing? Whether it was like Truancy is up in this particular school were doing great in this particular school. And what was interesting is the more vulnerable we became, the more that we connected authentically and transparently. The more vulnerable he became, he began talking about General Motors and the challenges that they face. And he said, you know, the late night talk show hosts are kind of making fun of us, like calling us Government Motors instead of General Motors. That’s not funny. It’s not funny at all. And still, our employees have kind of forgotten. They’re so demoralized. They’ve forgotten who we are and what I’m committed to, and our executive leadership is committed to is making it up to Detroit, to Michigan, to the nation, and we will, we are coming back, and we will make this right. We will make this up. And so he got really engaged and really gravitated to the turnaround work on the education side. And so coming out of that visit, there was one Ask, and it was not for money. The one ask was, now, we’d love to take you on a tour of one of the Turnaround Schools where we’re having some success. We’d love to introduce you to some of the students. We’d love to have you meet some of the principals, and for us to really pull back the curtain on what it takes to turn around a school. And he said, Okay, I’ll come on your tour, but I want to see a proposal for what it would take to turn around five more schools, because again, we had five schools that were piloting and making progress. What would it cost? What would it take? And so about six weeks later, he came on that tour, and he walked through the same metal detectors that the students walked through. He sat down in a library that was scarcely populated with books. He heard from the principals and why. They give their students their personal cell phone numbers, and they say, day, night, weekend, you need something, you text me, you call me, you get in trouble, you let me know we are your family, and just the commitment and the beauty of those stories and that commitment and in the space, in the context of this big, hairy, audacious goal, that connection was so palpable. And then, of course, a few of the students told their stories not a dry eye in the room. So then I had the privilege of walking them through this proposal, line by line, by line by line. What would it take to turn around five more schools and incorporate five early learning communities into that same neighborhood? How could we leverage GM employees and retirees for mentoring programs? And after school programs and job shadowing and all the things that are going to add that enrichment and really give these youth who some of which were feeling pretty disillusioned and fairly hopeless like give them hope that there is a future for them, that they can be anything that they dream of being and it starts with quality education and a support system, a connection right inside this school and with them and their families. And so I read through line by line by line by line. And then Mike Brennan, our CEO, said, so we’re asking you to make a $27.1 million investment in our high school and early learning turnaround work.

And I got to tell you every one of those visits, including this last visit, that volunteer leader was there, Jeff Bergeron, was there, at the table, endorsing, talking about his personal connection to this work. It really is all about the connection. And so then Mike Brennan, our exec, CEO of the United Way, said, so we’re asking you to make a $27.1 million investment in our work. And then, of course, we were, we were quiet, and there was what seemed like deafening silence. And so Mark is looking at the proposal that’s in front of him. He’s nodding his head. And finally, he pushes his seat back from the table and he says, Let’s do this. I have no idea how we’re going to do it or exactly when we’re going to do it, but let’s do it. And then there was more silence because we had forgotten to rehearse what to say. If he said, Yes, so I said, like all of you would have said, I said, Thank you. This is a day I’ll never forget. None of us will ever forget. And then he turned to me and said, and I want you to develop a plan for how the other autos and suppliers and how others will join in this effort to make this big, hairy, audacious goal happen. All right, so fast forward to the the sweet ending. Right after Thanksgiving, General Motors went back on the New York Stock Exchange. They withdrew from bankruptcy. They were now back on their feet. And we held a press conference with Mark and one of the students who he had met during that that that tour of the school, and they announced this gift, we held a press conference and they announced the gift. And Mark said, specifically. He said, You know, every kid deserves a shot in life, and so I want every one of these Detroit children to have a great educational experience. I want them to graduate from high school and go to college or go on to trade school, and I want them to buy Cadillacs. And, of course, laughter erupted. But you get his point. His point is, is that when they succeed, we all succeed again. Connection, connection. All right, I’m going to move on. That story always takes me longer than I think it’s going to take me because I because it does all right. Jerry pannis Again, legendary fundraiser, author of over 21 different books on major gift fundraising, board, engagement, etc. He says donors want to cross over thresholds and be part of expanding New Horizons. They want to soar to new heights that others have not reached or cannot reach. They give to dreams and visions that glow. And so I would ask you, do your visions glow or have they become a little lackluster, right? Have they been kind of war torn and maybe a little beat up through the economy, up and ups and downs through some of the federal funding and state funding shifts that we’ve experienced lately, through, again, some of the Giving USA data and the Fundraising Effectiveness of project data and the generosity crisis data, where we see that, yes, while philanthropy is going up 2% annually, adjust, adjusted for inflation, but the number of donors giving like we’re hemorrhaging donors. There’s a lot that can really bring us down, is the point. But are we the ones that continue to shine the light, the shine the beacon, and have those big, hairy, audacious visions that connect us to community, that inspire people to want to join us in this mission, that that is the question, all right? So I want you to think about in what ways are you, personally and or your organization playing it safe, right? Because you want to manage risk, because you don’t want to rock the boat, because you don’t want to disappoint donors or community or any of your constituents, right? In what ways are you playing it safe? I can tell you, having spent a great majority of my funder. Career in mental and behavioral health, I know that we were very compliance driven, right? Not so that means compliance driven equals risk averse versus innovative, versus willing to take calculated risks, willing to Yes, be compliant and avoid risk, at the same time, raising our sights and being bold and being brave and courageous in our vision. And here’s the question, I think, the question of the day beyond what’s your connection to your work? What would we aim to achieve if we knew we could not fail? If you knew you couldn’t fail, what would your big, hairy, audacious goal be? And so this is a question for you. This is a question for your core team. And maybe you’re like, you know what, I am the team, or I have a small team, or some of you have very large teams, having a brainstorming session, like, there’s no wrong idea. Just capture those ideas and begin to hone it in. Invite your executive leadership team. Maybe you are part of that executive leadership team. Generate a similar exercise there. Generate a similar exercise with your board. Perhaps as you’re beginning a strategic planning process or revisiting your strategic planning process. What would you aim to achieve if you knew you could not fail? And I will tell you that is what will connect with your community. That is what will wake people up from business as usual to wanting to be a part of something bigger, braver, bolder, something that ignites them, something that is they’re just magnetized by Seth Godin says, Start your journey before you see the end, right? Mike Brennan, that brilliant CEO of United Way for southeastern Michigan, he said, sometimes you just have to throw your hat over the fence, not even knowing how you’re going to get over there to get it, but you will figure it out. Did we know how to make Detroit a top five city to live and work by the year 2030, no, not exactly, but we knew these steps in the next three years, these steps in the next five years and so on. And you iterate, right? You learn from your progress, and you iterate. So start your journey before you see the end, you will not have it figured out, and if you do, it’s too small. All right. So here are the questions I want you to ask yourself and ask others inside your organization and and even outside your organization, as you engage your community and envisioning What’s your why, what dream was sewn into your heart? Are your dreams and your organization’s mission? Are they in alignment in what ways are you playing it safe, either personally or as a team or as an organization? And what would you aim to achieve if you knew you could not fail? And last question, who would need a seat at the table to make it happen? Right? We knew volunteer leadership who were willing to open doors, attend visits, participate in facili, in participate in cultivation, participate in solicitations, participate in stewardship, who would need to see the table to make it all happen? And so we’ve got a few minutes for questions, but I want to leave you with a particular quote that I love. I don’t even know who the author is. I’ve searched. I can’t find it. But here’s the quote, sit at the table of the dreamers, the go getters, the Stargazers, the warriors, the ones who fight for others. It’s there you’ll truly learn how to live. And I would even add, if I may alter someone else’s quote, that’s where you’ll turn truly learn how to connect and feel connection. All right, Sean, I’m going to put my contact information up here while we take questions in the last minute or two?

Well, we’ve got two in the Q and A, so I’ll start with those anonymous question. Our big goal is curing a disease, but we’ve heard from our donors that they’re tired of hearing this. They’ve been hearing about a potential cure for over 50 years. It’s not inspiring anymore. What suggestions do you have to help reignite the passion for that goal?

Yeah, absolutely. So curing a disease is a big, hairy, audacious goal, and it may not even be achieved in your lifetime. I mean, these are complex issues, right? These are complex scientific endeavors. So I would say, when you look at and you talk with your researchers, with your physicians, like when you talk with your experts, what are some of those milestone goals? Break it down into something that can be achieved, that people can. Can feel like is within reach, or, you know, if not within a hands reach, at least an arm’s length reach. Break it down into some exciting milestones. Tell some stories about how lives and your community or those affected and their families, how those lives will be changed, maybe not by a cure, but how they’ll be changed by incremental progress when we achieve this milestone goal, here’s the impact, and then here’s the next goal, or here are the next three goals, right? So break it down so that feels attainable. Otherwise it does feel like this. It could feel people can get to solutions and feel like it is a bit of a lost cause, milestones, stories, hope that helps

Absolutely. All right. And then you said, anybody else that wants to reach out can use your contact information. So I want to thank everybody for attending Tammy session. We hope you had some great takeaways. I know I certainly have. Next is our keynote session with Floyd Jones, talking about the power of connection, how to unite your project people and purpose for lasting impact. Remember, all sessions are recorded, and we’ll see you in a few minutes. Thank you all for joining us. Bye. Thank you.