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.
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.
So welcome to the good community. We are nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
So let's get started. Becky, what's happening?
Our friend is on the podcast. I'm so excited to chat with him.
I feel like you're tearing up over there. It's got to be because we're talking about community,
Always.
Yes, to have a friend in the house that's talking about the power of community for our missions, I mean, is one of our favorites like stacking the deck. And I'm gonna go ahead and stack the deck because we got a card player in the house too. This is Cameron Ripley, so excited to introduce you to the CEO of Community Boost. And Community Boost is like put its flag in the ground. If you were not part of the Nonprofit Marketing Summit. Hold on to your booties, because you can go catch the replay now you can get the VIP pass. But there was so much engagement around the topic of authenticity and community and engagement, and really learning community drive our marketing strategy. And Cam is like a thought leader in this space. So it is like a huge honor to have him in the house to teach us all the things on that front. But I gotta back up for a second. So Community Boost dates back to 2012, where they've been helping nonprofits and purpose driven leaders accelerate their growth and social impact. And to date get this they have served more than 1000 nonprofits and raised more than $100 million alongside those clients. I mean, y'all, the impact is incredible. And we just came off the Nonprofit Marketing Summit. I mentioned it already. But y'all this is engaging more than 50,000 Nonprofit Professionals each year at this free event. You know, we believe in the democratization of access of education and community. And Cam is just waving the flag for that. So it's a huge honor to have you in our house today, Cam Ripley, get in this house. Welcome to the We Are For Good podcast.
Oh, thank you. I'm so excited to be here. Jon, Becky, you guys are amazing. So grateful for all your contributions into the sector and such a fan of the pod. And thank you for all you did in our latest Summit. You guys were really a huge thread through that and put on some of the best sessions. So thank you.
Man it was fun.
We had so much fun.
It was a vibe, had the best time.
So good. We're gonna definitely create space, because there's a lot of takeaways. But before we dive into today's content, I mean, take us back to a little bit of your story. Tell us about growing up and what, what connected the dots for you pouring into Community Boost and all the work you're doing today?
Oh, that's that's a big question. Like what shapes you but yeah, I mean, I think in a lot of ways I was I was definitely raised to serve others. My grandfather, my papa, we lived in Texas, he was a minister, Presbyterian minister, and you know, was always really active in the community. From there, you know, when I went to college, I studied marketing, entrepreneurship. And, you know, I did this faculty year long, you know, senior year, one year program two in entrepreneurship is number two program in the country at the time, and everybody was creating the next Facebook and trying to raise venture capital. And we launched a nonprofit, it was called SAFE, it stood for Senior Advice and Financial Education, we were committed to preventing elderly financial abuse. So that was like the first 501c3 I ever created. And from there, I just always had a special place in my heart and, you know, years later ended up launching Community Boost. But you know, in a lot of ways, too, I used to just dream about always knew is going to be an entrepreneur, like it was a non negotiable for me. Barely, like, I've only worked for other people for maybe nine months or something like that in my life.
Whoa.
But I also really wanted to create a space that like, have incredible lifestyle design and an organization that people are happy to work at, and everything like that. And, and with that, I mean, what's more fun than, you know, yeah, you can mark, do marketing and lots of things. I've always been pretty good at marketing. But, you know, I wanted to market things that matter that had meaning. And that's really you know, why I gravitated so hard to the social sector.
And lucky us, like that's how I feel about it, because we need more entrepreneurs in this space, who are thinking differently, who are innovating differently. And I think that's really like the secret sauce in Community Boost. And you've taught us a lot about community first marketing. I mean, our eighth and final core value of our company is that community is everything. And we're really trying to harness that and get not just nonprofits but social impact leaders, changemakers anyone that's trying to get some movement on on an important cause to think about this community for is marketing mindset. So talk to us a little bit about how you define that. And then maybe tell us about some opportunities that exist today that can be unlocked within missions maybe that people aren't taking advantage of.
Yeah, let's get into it. You know, I think, really, you know, what, we're kind of coining this community first, marketing is the future, both for, you know, nonprofits, but really any business, you know, when we think about what's most innovative, in, you know, the internet and technology, I'm drawn to the crater economy, drawn to, you know, these communities that are really really thriving. And in a lot of I mean, I'm a, I've been running a digital marketing agency for 12 years. And I think a lot of what traditional digital marketing is becoming is obsolete. You know, it's coming brand spam, it's very transactional and you know, those interpersonal communications are in a lot of ways fueling the generosity crisis, which there's been so much data about in our social sector and abroad, eroding a lot of supporter trust, especially when we start to make that that leap from traditional donors to next gen, right, which is, you know, Gen X and younger. And so for us, you know, we envision this transformative horizon, this new era of community first marketing, and it, for us isn't just a strategy, we see it as a revolution. It's about forging genuine, enduring relationships by harnessing some cutting edge, but yet easy to use technology, so we can cultivate a vibrant community, of our supporters and of our recurring donors. And really, I think it's gone are the days are this like one dimensional, one way communication world? And it's now about going one to many right two way communication and our supporters communicating to each other. And, you know, I think that's, we have this like, last point, I feel like, you know, we had Dan Pallotta at our summit, right? And it was just so powerful. And over 10 years ago, he talked about how nonprofits are an economic prison that suppresses and oppresses all of them, and how society views how they use their funding, right. And so we're constantly asked to raise more and to do more and to achieve more, but we're not given more resources. And so how do we solve that if we can't add headcount? And that's where I think when we can add community headcount or heartcount, we can actually really achieve mission success, right? And so yeah, I just, I see it, and I'm excited for nonprofits to really just go for it and put in the work to build a really thriving community. And I'm happy to, you know, we could get into all the details of how and that thesis, but
Heck yeah.
I think you're speaking our language, I mean, you know, because we do hang around the podcast, you know, we don't just talk about like donors, like, that's a transactional person at your organization. But it were those believers were those rabid fans, they're probably in community, they could be in community powering and being the heart power of your mission. And so I love the show, like have honed in on this. And so could you break it down, talk to us, like, we're like fifth graders, fifth graders probably understand this more than us.
I'm like five, Michael Scott, five year old maybe.
Right, okay. five.
Break it down even further.
What's the difference between like digital marketing versus community first marketing?
I define like traditional digital marketing as, in a lot of ways it's become brand spam, it's very transactional, it's all about weed quantity, we're really only capturing, you know, the existing demand. We're marketing alone. And, again, it's eroding trust. You know, we are experiencing a generosity crisis. And I don't think how we're communicating today is helping. And community first marketing is all about, you know, meaningful interactions, relationships, lead quality, really creating demand, not just capturing it very, very partnership centric with, you know, our community, our creators, our employees, or staff, other partners in our sector. And most importantly, it's a place where we strengthen the values of our organization, right? Instead of eroding trust, we strengthen our values, because we're convening people who have the same ethos who care about our mission equally as much as we do together.
I love that and because it's so human centric, and it's like, well, of course, that's the way because that's how we want to interact with the brands and the nonprofits that we trust in our lifetime. And I, I'm just thinking back, we just had a conversation that dropped with a Michael J. Fox Foundation. And what they were saying to us is, you know, once we went into our Facebook, and we just sort of listened, and we started like popping into people's messengers, and we started setting up things that were really organic. It told us that we needed to iterate the way that we look at community. I thought that was such a brilliant example, but a lot of things that we're hearing is people are sort of, especially if you were kind of behind in the pandemic you weren't, you didn't really have a strong digital marketing presence and people are kind of a little bit paralyzed right now. And where do I start? What do I do? And where, where can I really start to authentically connect with community building that leads to movement building. So talk about the mindset shifts that we need to sort of embrace, to think differently about the marketing and digital engagement of today.
I love that topic. I mean, and before we even dive into some of the tactics, because I really do see it as mostly additive, it doesn't need to be honestly that big lift, especially on the tech front,
Thank you.
But what when we talk about like the community evolution, you know, when I when we reflect on the nonprofit space, and I feel like we do all these things still, right. But like 1.0, of nonprofit community was, like, one point I was in person events, right. And that's in our DNA, we've been doing that for forever. 2.0 was this, you know, team, peer to peer fundraising. And you know, that that kind of blew up 3.0 is recurring giving. And this has been, you know, the hottest topic in the space for for many reasons, rightfully so, you know, according to our acceleration report of over 5400, nonprofits, you know, the ones that were most likely to hit their fundraising goals last year have implemented recurring giving. So it's critical, I believe, but that's 3.0. But then 4.0, I think, is digital communities. And that's the gap, we got to jump. And that's where we're at today. And even the best recurring giving communities in the world are recurring giving, you know, I guess, offers that are, you know, incredible and predictable and drive a ton of revenue, a lot of them still haven't built true digital community. And that, but yet, you know, there's so many thriving in other sectors. And so how do we do it as nonprofits, and I think the good news is, is like, again, this is in our DNA. And we got to prevent that headline of, you know, nonprofit, like community building is lost on nonprofits. And so, you know, I really do see it as additive. Like, we just need to basically, keep running the marketing channels that are working for you, and keep driving, giving. But you know, I think one of the main thesis there, if you don't know where to start, start with your recurring donors, especially when again, we look at, you know, next gen donors, they, they want transparency, they demand trust, they want to feel like, you know, the impact and hear the stories. And so, you know, there's platforms like Circle, Mighty Networks, School, and Many that make it really easy. And so it's really just about plugging that into your ecosystem, and being okay, that you're not controlling every single message.
I'm so glad you're saying that.
And you're, yeah, and you're allowing people to get there. And then from there, you're just, you know, communicating your impact sparking conversation. You just got a start. And it takes time, but it is the way it is where the future is going, in my opinion.
Yeah, I mean, that's such a brilliant place to start, because I think we've had some examples come through the show, I think of charity:water, which obviously is an example that we all have to point to, that they had that idea of like, how do we wrap community around The Spring, they're giving their monthly Giving Club, and it's like, we've met people that are part of that, that feel like it's part of their identity. And you know, to me, that's when you know that it's working, that people do feel that dialed in, and I'm sure there's ways they can grow and expand into this. But it just is like, where is that? Where's that connection point? Is this is the question I'm asking as proverbial to the audience today is like, where's that connection point in your organization? For people to feel that it can be part of their identity? And community is a great way to do that. So I mean, you hear us say all the time, community is everything? What is your thoughts of like, how do you build true digital community today? What does that look like? Like, get into the how with us on this?
Definitely, let's do it. You know, so I feel like, first, you know, what is the audience that you're looking to build community around? Like, yeah. Is it your recurring donors? Are you a blood bank, and you have blood ambassadors that, you know, give more like monthly? And they clearly care about their local community? Right? Are you a community foundation that's got like a women's philanthropic group and you want to build community around that around these women that you know, give annually? And these are all like, specific organizations I've been in recent conversations with so it's like, what is the group you're building community around? And then from there, you know, what, where do you want to host your community? And I really think it's important to own that audience not rent it like this is not a Facebook group. But say you're using Something like Circle, and you get those systems built, you get your strategy, right, you think through your campaign creative and like, that's phase one and strategies and systems, and then then you do a soft launch, you know, get a lot of those core supporters invited to the group, you know, get get like conversations going, kind of figure out what messaging works, and then you move into a full launch. And then from there, you're, that's like phase three. And then phase four is, you know, optimizing that and, you know, the goal, especially if you like, tie monetization to it's a, it's a recurring giving community is, you know, you know, like, you've cracked the code to scalability, like, if I invest 35 bucks, I'm gonna get a $25 recurring donor, right, and we know long term that's gonna have a really strong ROI. And so from there, you can then scale and that's when you can, like, start to step on the gas, you move from optimization to scale. And then it's all about really stewarding that group. You know, there's all sorts of ways to engage the community. But that's kind of our current like, launch plan. And hope, hope that helps.
It not only helps, but thank you for doing 1.0, 2.0. because I think it does give people a roadmap of start here. And I mean, the we're for good community is on Mighty Networks, we love that platform. And I'll tell you, we have failed in a lot of ways. And we found success and a lot of ways, and it is just an iterative process. But I think the point you're making just about listening and adapting is is really an interesting point. And you mentioned scaling. And I like want to go into that deeper in, I want to get practical, maybe, like, throw out some tactics here. What do you think are like maybe the top marketing strategies that you think works can really leverage to scale their impact, whether it's in community or just with their messaging? What have you seen?
I mean, how I think about tactics or channels, is, you know, our core channels, and then our emerging channels, and this really different, like, it's different for every organization, you know, some are incredibly in depth, they have 10, core channels, right? Like, it could be email and social media and their Google Ad Grants, which is, you know, 10 grand a month in free ads, or Meta ads, and SEO and paid search, and, you know, direct mail, and they got their event game down, right. And then there's your emerging channels. And so, you know, most organizations still can go deeper in their core channels. But then, you know, you always do want to be testing, innovating and testing emerging channels, right, whether it's SMS, or digital audio, or influencers, or, you know, Microsoft ads, or, you know, I can go on and on, right, but that's like, the mindset you were mentioning mindset earlier, but that's how we really think about that and kind of double click, you know, what's core to you? What are the highest priority emerging channels you want to be testing, but especially with, like community specifically? Yeah, the top channels, I think, our email, social, social advertising, Meta ads are incredible and then, of course, you know, really owning, like the Google side of things, whether it's your Google Ad Grant, your SEO, and like your organic rankings, as well as any, you know, paid, paid search, ads, and even YouTube ads, I think are really powerful today,
it's so good. And it's interesting to hear, like such a, like a diverse array, because back in my experience, I mean, even though we were in marketing functions, there was just kind of like this belief that you're not using paid strategies in the nonprofit space, think we're seeing a big movement, thankfully, when they work with people like you that are entrepreneurial, and like are kind of pushing the envelope. But we need to normalize that it's okay to do that. I mean, we're trying to compete for the attention of brands that are certainly using that as part of their strategy. So we have to change our mindset that it's okay to invest in these things that's going to give us more visibility or connection or in front of the right people. So could you translate that into a case study Cam? Like what? What's a case study that maybe Community Boost worked on their digital marketing or the community? And like, how are you seeing this kind of play out? Like, what are the results they see here?
Yeah, I mean, we're, you know, we're just in this pay to play world, especially with social, right, I mean, to get any sort of traction, where people's attention is that it takes some ad investing typically. Oh, man, we only have so many case studies. We, you know, last year, we served 303 nonprofits directly through our agency, and 107 through our accelerator program. So, you know, I think the biggest case study is and one thing I really want to share with this audience is, you know, you mentioned we raised $100 million through through channels, we managed, of course, our partners raise way more than that, but we did 25 million of that last year alone. And, and, yeah, we're just getting started, you know, just because we've been doing this for 12 years, we still have that entrepreneurial spirit and then are really in it for the long term. Um, but yeah, one case study that, you know, just kind of hit our celebrations channel was the mission of the Foster Alliance. And their mission is to support the foster care community by providing essentials to benefit children in foster care and the largest provider of foster care essentials in the state of Arizona. And before they worked with us, you know, they were basically keeping most things in house, you know, doing a little bit of white advertising their SEO. But you know, of course, like most organizations have limited resources, and a lot of these things weren't working. And then we fortunately, we were able to implement an omni channel strategy with them. This is back when they were called themselves Arizona Helping Hands and they went through a whole site foundation rebuild, and from there, you know, with like Google and Microsoft, like Google Ad Grants, and then Microsoft ads, we started to really like, have a lot of wins and conversions. And then later, we rolled out Meta ads, and paid Google search ads, because the Ad Grant, everything was working so well. And yeah, and last year, we raised over 125,000, through those channels. And you mentioned ad spend, but I think this is a really powerful example, because the return on that ad spend was over 2,000%, meaning we didn't spend a lot on ads, we just had to spend something. And you know, I think that's just like, it doesn't have to be a ton of ad spend. But some and just being willing to test it can go a really long way.
I'm so glad we're talking about ads, because I think that there, again, is some fear about using ads, like paid ads in the sector. But I really think if you are someone listening right now, and you want to build that organic, authentic community, yes, you've got to start internally with those believers that Jon mentioned. But also you need to attract the people that don't even know about you yet. And paid ads can really help, you know, funnel you into a real focus, I heard you talk about just even the women's group, niche is so popular right now, people are truly trying to find their people in their community. And the way that we niche down is really going to be helpful to find the people that value align and want to champion your mission. So if this is the first time you're using paid ads, like I just want to give you a warm mom hug and say marketing is mission. And that's what needs to be conveyed to the bean counters, to our leadership, to our board or anyone who has influence over budget. And I would say, put $1,000 in the budget, you know, for one specific campaign, try it out, like just set a specific amount of money and do what we call innovative innovation is just try some stuff. And I mean, I think when you look at what you've done Cam, I say you the whole entire like Community Boost team, with the Nonprofit Marketing Summit. I mean, you have you have successfully gathered 25,000 nonprofit professionals together. And I know paid ads were a huge part of making sure that you're getting in front of the right people. But we also want to talk about like, we you just wrapped this summit, it was so fiery, it was, it's like the conversations I'm still seeing are still going on, you know, days in and I anticipate weeks later. And I'm just curious from your vantage point, in the crow's nest, watching all of this go down on multiple stages. Talk about like some of the main takeaways some of the high points that you saw from this conference that for those who may have missed it, which you don't have to miss it, you can go by the VIP, which is very affordable the VIP package and watch the replays. Like talk about what what you saw as trending and what people need to sort of get that education on right now.
Yeah, I mean, earlier, you mentioned the chat. And I just got to that's like one of one of the things I think people are most blown away and find way more value out of than they realize is just how engaged the community is that comes to the Nonprofit Marketing Summit. You know, it's truly like no other event in the world and something I'm very humbled and grateful for which then, you know, trickles down into LinkedIn and just so many connections people have made and in the lounges and everything like that, but yeah, so my top takeaways, and I mean, there there were a lot you know, not to toot my own horn, but I definitely want to hammer home that, you know, we're transitioning from a digital marketing world to a community first marketing world and that's really important to do what was our theme, which is the unthinkable right of achieving more and doing more without getting more resources by built building our community heart count. From there, there was I think one of the sessions I was most excited about, and it definitely lived up to the hype was with the Mardini sisters. I don't know if you saw it but they were incredible.
The Swimmers, that documentary.
We have to link that documentary up the shownotes.
It rocked me.
Yeah.
Yeah, you gotta watch The Swimmers on Netflix if you haven't, and their story is incredibly powerful, but, you know, they like, the takeaway from that session for me was achieving the unthinkable, you know, takes courage and community. And, and I just thought that was really powerful these two women have literally done the unthinkable and have accomplished so much despite the most insane challenging circumstances. And yet, you know, they, they yes, said yes to stuff, you know, I mean, they literally jumped in the water to save other people's lives and did so much more. But they did it because they had that support network. And for us to really, again, achieve them thinkable, we have to have that courage, and community. And so it's just so critical to build, I think it was Yusra who said, you know, take the first step, and the next step will follow. And you just gotta jump in and just really resonated. And then I think my third one is just, you know, in order to achieve unthinkable, we got to dream big. And we also have to make it a goal to educate our community to think bigger. And this really surface for me when, you know, chatting with the legendary Dan Pallotta. And I was just inspired to remember that to achieve that unthinkable and actually achieve mission success and break that economic prison we mentioned, we have to dream big, and also really educate our community. And I'll quote Dan here, like he literally said, stop boring them to death with things and ideas that don't matter, and aren't going to change things or change the world. We got to make it a goal to educate your donors, your board, your staff, everyone over the course of the year, to get out of their antiquated ways of thinking about the nonprofit sector and to think bigger, and you like we have to saturate our ecosystem and our community with big ideas and keep that spirit of possibility alive. But yeah, those are, you know, a few I got more, but I am curious. I mean, you guys were in 10 sessions too, what were some of your guys's takeaways?
I mean,
I mean, go ahead, Jon.
Sorry, B. This is stirring a thread, I mean, every when you talk about Dan talking about dreamer dream bigger, I remember him coming into our podcast and saying, at some point, Walt Disney was just walking around with a drawing of a mouse trying to like say, I have a plan. But it connects to what you were saying. And what I saw in some of our sessions is that we need to be inviting people into something that's like bigger and more beautiful. This vision, like we can't just come and be cynic cynical about everything about everything that's wrong. But like, what is the better thing that we're fighting for that people would be want to step into? Like, we need that vision, that leadership and so that came through for me.
Yeah, I gotta say, the one that's sticking out to me, probably because the chat was so explosive was this conversation we had about Gen Z. And I feel like you've, you've teased this just a little bit in this population, you'll I mean, we talk about recurring giving, I mean, 57% of them already have philanthropy built into their budget, like 40, something percent of them will give up something fun, just because they want to stay with that heartwired something and they just brought down the house about why this audience should absolutely be on your radar. And I would say if you are looking at community building, these are the people that are the not the one to one equals two, it's the one to one equals 10. Because if they believe in your community, they believe that giving his identity already because it's built into their to their budget, I mean, they are going to stay, they are going to be the great multiplier. So these conversations matter, community building matters, listening to different voices, and I'm just really grateful, you know that you would hold space for the bigger conversations for dreams for vision for all of it.
And for calling it unthinkable, you know, I mean, that's what we want to get like invited into so really great.
Really geeked out about that branding.
Okay, so I mean Cameron, like you've gotten to your story alone, of just getting to be part of so many different missions and philanthropy and lots of different lights. I mean, take us back to a moment that stuck with you, you know, what is one that kind of cuts through the noise that kind of has pained your heart? A moment that you just saw philanthropy humanity coming together?
Oh, man, I mean, there's so many come to mind like with with all our amazing nonprofit partners, we have the ability to help but you know, I think when I, if I'm being really true, and one I think probably personally impacted me the most was, it was in the early years of running Community Boost, and you know, we weren't making any money and it really wasn't even the point of it. But for a long time, we were running In this internship program, where, you know, people are going through this four month program, recent grads, MBA students, you know, even some PhDs and they're like, this is changed my life, I learned more in four months than I did in four years at university. And we had this idea of like, well, what if we give that opportunity to those that don't have it. And we call it Project FLIGHT, it stood for fostering leadership in tomorrow's entrepreneurs. And we ran it first with a group that we met at a nonprofit conference, this group of gentlemen from Miami, who had all been court ordered to go to end of this program. And you know, these are definitely at promise, you've had incredibly challenging life circumstances that are just blow you away. And we, we ended up creating this, did this pub crawl, raised money to fly out there, I mean, I was really broke, and we flew out there. And then we, we met them, we came up with these business ideas, and we wanted to, you know, we weren't necessarily saying, hey, you need to be entrepreneurs, but we were trying to give them this program and opportunity to say, hey, you can you can do whatever you want to accomplish in your life. And we put them through this 12 month program, or sorry, 12 week program. And it was a lot of ups and downs. You know, like one of the kids got stabbed in his neighborhood, through the program during that time. And there was just a, it was in this is, like, pre-Zoom and stuff, like doing all this remotely, but bringing in like these amazing speakers and just trying to help them. And then we did another fundraiser, and we flew them out for a demo day out in San Diego, where they're actually pitching in front of, there's like eight companies, they were pitching last, you know, the company before them had already raised like $2 million in a Series A round. And none of these kids that graduated high school, most of them have never even left Florida. And they had this idea and they had been taking some of these organic cooking classes in this program that most of them, you know, had been struggling with, like, what meal they're going to eat their whole life, and they're kind of getting into it. And they had this idea to create a food truck to get positive work, right, where some of them had literally been taught by their own family to sell drugs, but to give them positive work and provide healthy food in their community. And, you know, they pitched this business idea in front of 300 people. And, you know, got a standing ovation, didn't get any funding there, went back to Florida continued to work on the idea eventually got funding and that food truck still run seven days a week. And that was a, you know, quite some time ago. And then we ended up running that program two more times through the San Diego school system. But yeah, you know, I think for me, it was like the most like, in a lot of the nonprofit work I've been personally and yeah, that was something I'll never forget. And it helps me to stay connected to like, why our nonprofits do what they do. You know?
Do you know the name of that food truck? We gotta go show some love.
Tell us what it is. We're gonna link it up in the show notes.
It's called Vibe 305.
Vibe 305.
Vibe 305.
Yeah.
Hey, if you're listening from the San Diego area, go follow Vibe 305 and put a picture and tag us in it. We want to see the food. We want to see.
They're in Miami, they're in Miami.
Okay, Miami, I'm like, I don't know what the franchise
that I'm in the franchise, one in San Diego.
It's, it's really cool and admirable, though, Cam how you've just been so committed to this entrepreneurial journey. Like since you were younger. And I just, I love the way it shows up in every part of your story. And every part of your businesses like in your actions, I just, I think it's it's evolved into something so cool. And we're just we're just so glad to know you. And thank you for sharing these insights. And as we're winding down, you know, we're going to ask you the one good thing and I wonder what you're going to leave with the audience today.
Well, can I give two things? First, you can. Two good things. You know, I think one of our core values that community boosts is to be a relentless learner. And I think especially in our space, where it can be pretty willingly I think that's just really important to one obviously be learning, but also to find inspiration and community. So, you know, it might sound corny, but we'll keep listening to this podcast. I mean, that type of learning. I've got earbuds in my ear forever. And it just it's literally fueled me through a lot of hard times and my own community boost journey. You know, get to our summit like find that and it really does help and keeps that drive going. And then And the theme of this one, you know, I think the one good thing is is to, you know, you're not behind if you have not lost a community launched a community, but it's time and, you know, I really encourage everyone to embrace and dive into community first marketing because you will stand out amongst other nonprofits like never before. And it'll take some learning some stumbling, but it'll it'll be mission changing, in my opinion.
It literally, Jon, yeah, of like Trend number two, you know, for this year, it's like, if you can activate the one, you can grow a movement. So this is your moment, nonprofits, this is your moment, social enterprise. Start with the one if you if you need a place to start, start with one person look, internally, it's going to be a game changer for you.
I mean, it's just evergreen, y'all. It's not like we're gonna say AI replace community, because we all are talking to robots. Now. It's like, we need this, this is in our DNA, we need each other. So I mean, can tell how people can connect with you with community boost, you've just launched this epic email newsletter, I gotta say, I was so excited to subscribe, and I got my first copy, where you're kind of talking about this stuff. Point is to all the things that of how you show up online?
Sure, well, I mean, I'm, I'm a transparent person, my email is Cameron at community boost.org. If you're listening to this, shoot me an email and I will send you the presentation deck of embracing community first marketing, a new era for nonprofits that I just spoke at the summit. And I think that deck is gonna take this talk and put it on steroids for you. Yeah, connect with me on LinkedIn, I'm super active there, Cameron Ripley. And if you're interested in, you know, working with community boost, you know, go to community boost.org, we have our accelerator program, which, you know, is courses coaching community, incredibly affordable for, you know, emerging organizations, especially if you're wanting to like really roll up your sleeves, but just want a shortcut shortcut, allow your success and, you know, doing a lot of the digital ad channels we talked about. And then that's also where you can connect and learn more about our agency side. You know, we're we're really ingrained partner and extension of your team. And yeah, I guess, with that, too, you know, on the personal newsletter, you mentioned, if if you shoot me an email or connect with me on LinkedIn, I'll make sure you get added to it.
I mean, I think Jon teased this at the top of the conversation, but Cameron is was a very competitive poker player and you've added your dad pun in there, Jon. And so I've got to add one, I'm just want to thank you for being like all in, in this work, like thank you for pushing all the chips in doubling down on all of it. I mean, I'm not trying to make all the pens are just coming out. But it's like, Thank you for the way you show up. Thanks for the way that you invest. Thanks for the way that you empower, we really adore you as a human and an ally in this work.
I mean, the feeling is mutual, you guys are truly, I've listened again, I'm a relentless learner. I've listened to so many audiobooks, and so many podcasts. And I've always just really admired your guys's approach and your incredible ability that to connect with your guests. And so thank you for doing what you're doing. You have such a big impact in this space. And I'm excited to just keep partnering with you all. But yeah, so so grateful to be here and appreciate the audience as well. And then all they do to enrich and, and really save lives. And so those are the ones who are really doing the hardest work and
grateful for personality course you're getting this this has been so fun. ppreciate Schumacher. Thanks so much for being here, 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.
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