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Hey, I'm Jon.
And I'm Becky.
And this is the We Are For Good podcast.
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're 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. Hey, Becky, what's happening?
Hey, Jon, I feel my patriotic heart like starting to swell into this conversation already.
I know, like so I mean, we've had a couple 100 episodes of the podcast. And we, it just it's a missed thing that we have not dove into the veteran discussion because it's a huge part of our heart. It's a heart huge part of our family and our communities. And you know, today's conversation, I think, is going to really speak to what's happening across the entire sector, because we have brought one of the foremost leaders in this space to really have this conversation in a really heartwired way that's doing really empathetic and really incredible work for the veteran community. And so it is our huge delight to introduce Anne Marie Daugherty to the podcast. She's the Chief Executive Officer at the Bob Woodruff Foundation, and just saying his name, you know, for those of us that grew up in remember, Bob, on the nightly news, that we just have this memory of what happens. And you know, part of his story of getting impacted in the war, changed his life and put him on this trajectory that we hear a lot on the podcast, and people wanting to channel their own personal lived experience into helping other families that are facing the same thing. And so I don't want to steal that story. I want to, you know, allow Anne Marie to walk us through it. But let me give you a little bit of background on her. She is a mover and a shaker. And she is like such a disruptor in the space. We love her lens that she has brought into not just fundraising, but how you also engage entrepreneurial mindsets and approaches and moving this foundation forward to providing excellence and providing care and support and creating this incredible nationwide network of organizations that are supporting our veterans on the front lines. And so Anne Marie has been named nonprofit marketer of the year she has been featured in all the news outlets now that I love that we can add We Are For Good to this list. But you've seen her on ESPN and Fox News and MSNBC, because people are always wanting to tap into just her incredible worldview and this perspective, and how she is really disrupting our space. So we're just excited to sit at your feet and learn and hang out together. say welcome to the podcast. Anne Marie, we're so delighted that you're here.
Oh my gosh, thank you so much. And Becky and Jon, it's really, really nice to properly meet you. I'm a huge fan of the podcast. I'm kind of like flushing and my cheeks hurt from smiling. That was quite the introduction. I'm like, I'm wanna meet her.
You lean into that. That's you, you did that we're honored to be in your orbit.
I mean, I left out some of these stats, but I mean, I do want to give space as you try to you as you walk us through kind of your journey. I mean, you've really transformed the Woodruff Foundation into this just powerhouse that's not just raising money, but also really effective at giving it away. And some of these numbers we'll bring up later in the podcast, but tell us a little bit of your story. I mean, what got you into this work? And tell us about growing up. And what kind of brought you here today?
Sure. Okay. As a young adult, I was a military spouse, my husband was serving in the Marine Corps. And that was when I first got introduced to Bob and Lee, and it was, Bob and Lee Woodruff. That was shortly after Bob was wounded in Iraq, which you alluded to. So he was the anchor of Nightly News for six weeks. And he went over to Iraq, this is back in 2006. And he was embedded with the Iraqi forces was in a vehicle that vehicle hit a roadside bomb, and his life was forever changed. I mean, it's really, you can kind of say that, but to his life was saved by the military medics over there, and he was able to recuperate through the military, medical healthcare system. And most doctors say he's kind of a miracle, the fact that he lived and the family you know, it was a pretty grim time after he got hurt. And while he was recuperating, and he was in a military hospital, and they had, you know, the amazing loving care of ABC taking care of the family, and they noticed that there were troops in the rooms on either side of his hospital room that didn't have the same kind of above and beyond support, the government was doing an amazing job of treating their wounds, but it was like who's paying for their family to come in and sit by their bedside, they're missing work while they're doing that, who's, you know, taking the kids to their activities and go to school if there's a parent that's at a bedside for months, so the family was acutely aware of the inequity, I think, between Bob's recuperation experience and that of 1000s and 1000s of other combat wounded troops. And they just like authentically said, if Bob lives, we're just going to do whatever our 15 minutes of fame while the world is watching, you know, while we're you went from telling the news to being the news, we'll do whatever we can to help just a few of those service members. And I flash forward to 16 years later. And, you know, now here we are at the Bob Woodruff Foundation, one of the prominent organizations that supports veterans in our country. So it's, it was pretty cool to meet them in as a military spouse, and then to get involved with the organization back when it was literally a kitchen table operation. And I had the opportunity to come on and run the organization, orver 10 years ago, maybe almost 15 years ago, I get to check my math. But it's been, it has been an incredible ride. And truly just an amazing opportunity to do something so meaningful.
I will, it will never get old, hearing the stories of good people leaning in to their lived experience to make life better for others. And I just have to share personally, I was a big Good Morning America viewer back in the 2000s. And I just remember, like Bob being such a part of my morning, you know, and I remember when that accident happened, I remembered the before Bob and I remembered the after. And I remember obsessively following the story because we were rooting for him and the fact that he would use this platform to lift up other veterans and not just the veterans, but the families. And as you know, a granddaughter of two veterans, I just want to say thank you so much. I love that you're a military spouse, and I love Lee Woodruff And and her wonderful moxie. And I just think that you have made this topic, something that people are curious about, and they want to pour into. So we want to talk about like the Bob Woodruff Foundation. And I want you to kind of unpack it for us, for our listeners who may not be familiar, kind of just talk about the history and the mission of it. And then just tell us what you're working on. What's the scope of your work right now?
Sure. I love that word moxie for Lee. And you can't say Bob Woodruff without saying Lee Woodruff because, you know, Bob was the advocate for the service members who are combat wounded. I mean, he he had that same lived experience. And, you know, certainly still, you know, working through his recovery, he had a very severe traumatic brain injury. And certainly as a journalist, that's, you know, that's it's devastating. Lee became a caregiver and was sort of thrust into the caregiving world at a young age, they had four young kids. And she said, I'm going to, I'm going to remember, for every service member who's in a wheelchair, I'm going to remember, the spouse or the caregiver that's pushing that wheelchair. And that I think that just authentic lived experience, like you mentioned, Becky, is it's the heartbeat of the foundation, and they're so authentically committed, it has been my joy to be able to build the foundation, they have given me a ton of latitude as like a builder of things to build programs that have an impact. That was really all they wanted, as they were like help as many people as you can, as meaningfully as you can, and just be the best at what you're doing. And I was like, oh, okay.
No pressure.
No, I got it, it's fine. But they care so much about the standards, and they care about actually having an impact. And setting those standards so high for us as an organization has been really important for the decision making in terms of how we built the organization. We started back in 2006, really trying to shine a light on traumatic brain injury, and post traumatic stress disorder. We can say TBI and PTSD in 2022 and you most people know what those acronyms mean. Back in 2006, there was much less awareness. And Bob had suffered a traumatic brain injury. So that was sort of the genesis. And then, as we got to know, people who were combat wounded at that time, again, we were in the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The military hospitals here in the U.S. were flooded with combat wounded vets, caregivers, people whose lives were turned upside down. And as we sort of matured, as an organization, we realized that the biggest impact we could have given what's different and special about us, which is Bob and Lee's experience, is to raise awareness and to raise money. So we decided early on, we weren't going to be out actually building homeless shelters or packing backpacks for troops. But we would raise money. So we did that through big, successful fundraising events that sort of the people that know Bob and Lee Woodruff. And then once we had raised the money, we said, What's the most meaningful thing we can do to invest it and make sure it's getting to veterans and military families who need help? So now we're really focused on mental health, employment, education. And the two things that have come up the most post COVID. And I'm sure this is no surprise to you, is food insecurity, and housing instability. So we're really drilling down on those two topics. And if you would have asked me that even just a few years ago, we weren't as focused on that. So I'd say, all in all, the issues of veterans are, you know, veterans are people, so sometimes the issues that we're tackling our societal issues, getting veterans the resources they need, have more obstacles, and we try and tackle those obstacles. And I'm really, I'm really proud that we've been able to be agile over time and adapt to the needs, and really keep our ear to the ground to what those are.
Well, I think that definitely is displayed and looking at y'alls impact, the way that y'all build partnerships really stuck out to us. Because I mean, everyone at home, go to this website, check it out. It's A. it's a beautiful storytelling site that gives you a lens into the work that happens. But I want you to look at the partners that have just lined up to lock arms and these are not small, easy organizations to partner with. They're mammoth organizations that are they are all have come to the table in such an incredible way. And I'm like the worst sports fan ever. But I gotta call out that you've partnered with the NFL, right? With this really powerful partnership with NFL and Mid Move United. I'd love for you to walk through what that looks like because a lot of people listening you know, we talk a lot about the power of partnerships, because ogne are the days of just trying to get a gala sponsorship as like the way that we would grab somebody, this 2.0 of finding what lights an organization up and what lights up with your mission. And finding that happy spot in the middle is where it's all at. And I feel like you'll do this so well. So will you tell us a little bit of that story?
Thank you. Yeah, partnering with the NFL. I mean, where did it start? It started with a vision board. Okay, you got to put it out there. You gotta say I want to, I want to partner with one of the biggest brands in the world. Let's do it. Okay...
Dream big. Do it. Go for it.
Dream big. Yes. But seriously, I mean, people, you know, talking about the Woodruff Foundation origin story, who are like, okay, yeah, you've got access to all of these celebrities. This story is, you know, globally known all these things so why not the NFL? But I what I love about this podcast is there's actually like really practical tangible advice for people who are really doing this work, though. It's so how did you actually partner with the NFL? Well, it is, it's a vision board. It's, you know, sort of working at it. It did not happen overnight. That's my first
Pro tip.
point on it. Build relationships. I know that you talk about that all the time on your podcast. And I think that's really true here. But also, how do you as a nonprofit provide value to the partner. And I know that might seem a little inverted because it's sort of like shouldn't that big brand be being benevolent to the nonprofit, but if you can just sort of put the altruism aside the partnerships that are the stickiest are the ones where you're actually solving a problem for them. They're like that dadaduda what's my profit? Dadada, we got to have some partners, we got to do this with our CSR and all these things. And it's all of the buzzwords and all of the departments that you know, that exist in these big companies. And they're talking, you know, a ton about diversity, equity and inclusion. They're talking about the meeting the moment that, you know, the causes are changing all the time. Of course, we have COVID, the social justice movement, all of these things. So, there are, there those are competing priorities for anyone who's not directly working in those sectors. So when you have a big partner ship opportunity, like with the NFL, what is a problem that I can solve, me Bob Woodruff Foundation, for the NFL? Well, a few years ago, we were able to really grow the partnership because the NFL had so many charities that support veterans and military families knocking on their doors. And there's just simply no way that they can get back to everyone certainly that they can give money to everyone. And when we say that we specialize in due diligence of nonprofits all across the country that serve veterans and military families. That's literally what we do. What if we did that for you in partnership? What do we have in common? Well, we want veterans and military families to go on and live successful lives. We don't you know, think that every veteran is the same. There's a bunch of different ways you can do that. That's why we manage the portfolio. Don't forget that the NFL is all about football. They like it's got to come back to football. Don't forget, I have forgotten that from time to time, it has got to come back to football. But what we have in common if you we did like a little venn diagram, what we have in common is we care about creating community and we care about healthy lifestyles. So we were able to come up with a program where the NFL supports the Bob Woodruff Foundation in managing a portfolio of programs that support healthy lifestyles and creating community for veterans and military families all across the country. The business insight for anyone who's like, how do I partner with the NFL? He's like, it would be useful to look at the markets where the NFL has clubs. Where is the draft going to be this year? Where's the Superbowl going to be playing? Where are their key markets where there's really profit, so you can kind of get smart on the business side about what is the NFL going to be doing this year? And how can I kind of plug into that? What are the stories I can tell what kind of storytelling does the NFL do? And it's really been a partnership that's grown over time, going back to that point about trust and relationships, and solving a real problem for them.
I'm on the floor. I mean, that is a masterclass the principles that you extracted that are applicable to literally every relationship in every community is incredible. Like you're a brilliant thinker. And kudos to you for the way you just laid that out.
And I have a question for everyone listening right now, who is ever made a corporate pitch for, you know, an event for a program for a campaign? Have you ever in your philanthropic strategy asked the question that Anne Marie just had is what is the business case for why this corporation should partner with us? The Venn diagram, like I am in a puddle, that is such a smart, and it's a strategic yet a tactical way to look at how do we cross and co-build things that are really in alignment with our values. And so we know these things to be true. And that is a starting place. I think that is so brilliant.
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So I want to transition because I want to talk about the fact that you're not only fundraising, you're a grant giving organization. And you all within the foundation, you're helping improve the lives of veterans, service members, their families, the caregivers. I mean, I love the swath, really this wide spans of how many different audiences that you're serving, and I have to just kind of connect it to the We Are For Good community because I'm thinking of people who are working within veterans organizations in this community. I'm thinking of Stop Soldier Suicide. I'm thinking of Team Rubicon. I'm thinking of Folds of Honor. I'm sorry, if I'm leaving in a few other ones out, but those are at the top of my mind. How can people partner with the Bob Woodruff Foundation? And talk to us about how you how you look for partners to grant funds to?
Well, that's a great question. I would say we are open for partnership, Bob Woodruff Foundation is open for partnership. We are building a coalition. And we have a very, we have a big tent approach. I know that's sort of like a like an overused phrase, but we want to like it partner. Network of networks. So there are 1000s of organizations across the country that are working to support veterans, I found that some of the most effective ones are community based. But often community based organizations are not structured to scale. And that's totally fine. So Bob Woodruff Foundation, we've built the Got Your Six Network, which is the largest non governmental network of veteran serving organizations in the entire country. And it did not happen overnight. So when I say we're open for partnership, all of the examples you gave are actually partners of ours, which is awesome.
Oh I love that.
But what we're trying to do is networks together all of the organizations that are doing amazing work and maybe doing different things that are complementary not only to one another, but are also complementary to what the government provides, because the Veterans Administration provides a ton of resources in terms of health care, and benefits for our veteran community. And for and of course, active duty military families have a whole different set of circumstances and have unique needs, as well, that needs to be met. So we're very much like we can do it together. So if we can just network, amazing networks of organizations that are working together, and putting those partnerships together from a tactical standpoint can be, you know, figuring out who in a specific community is the mover and shaker because there's always an organization that's like got the beat, what I've learned over time is that it doesn't look the same in every town, that sort of sounds like a self evident observation, but for whatever reason, to deliberate that. So we have a partnership in New York City, for instance, with the mayor's office, in other parts of the country, we'll have a partnership with a small community based organization, or maybe it's a faith based organization or the YMCA. So it looks different than the Chamber of Commerce. And we also manage a portfolio of nonprofits where we're writing, you know, usually more substantial grants for specific programming. And that's aligned with our strategic objectives to fill unmet needs. So if everybody's doing all different kinds of things, like what are the gaps, who's falling through the cracks, we'd like to attack that. So finding organizations that are meeting those needs, or in some cases, standing up the program, in order to meet those needs. That's a big part of what we do. So if you think about it, in simpler terms, we manage a portfolio of grantees and we have a rolling application. So you can, and people don't usually say this, but hey, send in an application, we have money that we give out every year. And we go through every single application. And what I will say for our amazing grant making team is they make tough decisions in terms of the grants. But there are two things that happen if you are not awarded a grant in that grant cycle. One is we will get back to you and we will tell you why with specificity. We will also give you a phone call, you want to talk to our chief program officer on the phone and she will literally explain to you like it was this in your schedule O on your 990 that made our eyebrows go up. And when we asked you about us, you didn't ask you about it, you didn't answer us. And we said okay, well, we need to move on to the next application, like, we will tell you with specificity. And you can imagine the I like to call his generosity of spirit because I had to capture it in terms of a workflow, I was like, there are all of these amazing people who are managing, you know, volume, and trying to to make sure that we're as diligent as possible. And I said, we're going to need to infuse generosity of spirit in this process. So we're gonna need to get back to everyone that we said no to, and we're gonna need to be specific about it. So it's not like college admissions, you're in or you're out, you don't have no idea why not. We give you, we give you that specificity. You can take a phone call with us, if you like. And then the second thing is, we say we find, fund and shape. The shaping piece is, you know, say I called you and I said, this is why, you know, we weren't able to award a grant this cycle. These are our insights and you attack those insights. Come on back. Look, we're happy to do grant making with you. So we are open for business in terms of grant making. And we are open for business in terms of building partnerships, all 50 states, Puerto Rico, let's do it.
Oh my gosh, okay, there's a lot there. I love that you figured out how to live your values out loud in your processes like that, to me speaks to the type of organization that y'all are taking the harder road but the right road that aligns with how you want to show up in the world. But can I go back to a marketing thing that I'm so geeked out on and I have not recovered from? It's the Got Your Six, I want to give you a second to just explain what that phrase means. Because when I read this, I just My heart was like, ugh this is so smart. And it does speak to the community that you're building and the network that you're building. So I'm gonna, like give you a chance to just explain what the purpose is of those words, because I didn't know this before. today.
Okay, so in the military community, you say I've got your six and in a tactical like military environment, that means I have like actually your back. So if you're this way, I'm six o'clock if you're 12 o'clock on the clock, I'm your six o'clock on the clock. I've got your back literally. So it's a it's a very commonly used military term, both in a tactical environment and then also sort of just, you know, in sort of just everyday youth. So we created Got Your Six as a network to express to every veteran and military family in the United States of America, that we've got your back, we have got your six. And the actual way that we do that is through managing that portfolio. Usually national nonprofits that are working on a specific program, whether they're training mental health care clinicians, or they're managing homeless shelters, or they're working on medical legal partnerships. And then we have this grassroots network. So if you think, depth and breadth, and then you combine the two, and then I'm just gonna throw one more thing in there, because it's really cool, we should totally talk about it. It's called Viva. It's our veteran in vitro program, and
Oh my gosh.
Hold on, like IVF, in vitro?
You got two people right here who have IVF babies in our lives. So please keep going. And we are grabbing our Kleenex.
Two sets of twins. IVF babies right here. Yes.
Oh, my gosh, I didn't know that about you both. So this program, I would say is an example of if you said what's the Bob Woodruff Foundation known for, I would say, we're probably most known for our impact, like, we're very focused on actually helping veterans and making sure that there is impact. And then we're known for our due diligence to support that. And then the point that you hit on, you know, we tried to be authentic to our origin story, and to just kind of the world has changed, we've got to be able to change with it and just be accessible. You call us, we want to be the kind of organization where someone answers the phone and can give you a meaningful answer that kind of thing. But I'd say the thing I'm most proud of is that we're known for tackling tough stuff, like like gnarly stuff, that you're just sort of like somebody should do something about that, is anyone doing anything about that? We discovered and this is way back in, I think 2014. We were hearing, you know, whispers about issues related to fertility treatment for combat wounded veterans, or veterans who had service connected disabilities and were unable to procreate as a result of that, whether it was like severe genital wounds, or maybe traumatic brain injury, or PTSD that was affecting their ability to be intimate with their partner. And I know when Lee and I decided we have got to do something about this was when we talked to a veteran who said I have a $20,000 of IVF services on my credit card and I am a junior enlisted in the military, I hardly make that much in a year. And we're and we didn't get pregnant. And we were like, holy, you know, it gives me chills just telling you that story. But they were not alone in that, it's so expensive. And Lee and I were just very, how can you raise your hand to join our all volunteer force, protect our country, put yourself in harm's way, you didn't say I'm going to put myself in harm's way and I'm also going to sacrifice my ability to have a family when I come back. That is not the agreement. That is not the social agreement. And yet there was, you know, there were people who were who were silently suffering. And as you both know, having gone through IVF, it's interesting because it's about time, and timing. You have to it's all about timing, right. It's all about timing. So this is not one of those things where you can wait for the government to catch up and the VA will start providing fertility services in the future. It's we're talking about people's ability to have a family now and people are aging out biologically to all these things. So it just makes things more complicated the more time it goes on, we decided to start a program that provides grants to families to get IVF services, we'll just pay for it. We work with us fertility, which is the largest network of private private network of fertility providers in the country. And they provide 25% discount to the services to any service member or veteran who walks in their doors. So they're already decreasing the cost so that makes our grant go farther. We've partnered with some of the pharma companies that provide the drugs to have them provide the drugs at no cost. So now the cost is going down even further so that those grants are really helping people have an opportunity to have a family. I'm going to fast forward to the punch line. We have 32 Viva babies.
Oh my gosh.
32 Viva babies and this program has only been existence in existence for three years. Like sometimes I wake up to my email and we're all like kind of going through our emails and I have we just had twins and like their baby photos. This program is helping families who wouldn't have been able to have children. The other component that makes me feel really good about our ability as a nonprofit and a philanthropic organization to be able to not be tangled up in red tape. We are not the federal government is that, we provide this service to same sex couples, we provide this service to families who need a surrogate, who need a sperm donor, who have hidden injuries, we try to be as inclusive as we possibly can, oh, and you don't have to be legally married. So that some of the things that people do not qualify because the VA has an incredible program, but it just doesn't include all of those things that I just mentioned. And not everyone is eligible for it. So we're like anyone who can't get the services from the VA, we are here for you and again, to your listeners, and to your listeners who know, people who might be eligible for this program. We are open for business, we do these on a rolling application, if you email us and we pride ourselves on this, and then I will stop answering this question, it's so long is that we will get right back to you. Like we get it. And we will get right back to you.
I'm gonna peel myself off the floor. And I need to reflect and, and tell you, thank you from the bottom of my heart for the unbelievable generosity and love that your foundation pours into people. I'm sitting here listening to you and I and I will say maybe I was a little cavalier coming into this episode, because I thought I knew what the Bob Woodruff Foundation was. But as I'm sitting here listening to you, I'm listening to the way that you describe it, I'm listening to the way that you choose your words, and the unbelievable inclusivity. Like, I feel so deeply our first and last core values and what you're saying the first one being everyone matters and the last one being community is everything. But I just have had my little IVF baby's face up in front of my mind's eye as you've been talking, and I'm remembering, I'm remembering walking in and having like a $700 pharmacy bill, you know, and walking out with just a ton of meds, and the emotion of that. And then I have to juxtapose it with the fact that a family. I mean, that's my privilege doing that. But there are families who have been through chaos and trauma in war, my gosh, I want to fight for that family to have the richness of everything in life because of what they have sacrificed and given. So on behalf of all of us, thank you so much. And before you go to the next question, Jon, I just have to ask Anne Marie what does it feel like when you open up your email and you see one of those babies in your inbox?
Well, Becky, oh my gosh, she is like, such a gifted orator. And I'm saying to myself, as you're talking, I'm saying stop being so wiggly, take the compliment. Stop being so wiggly, you know? Because I am representing an amazing team of people who are I mean, and they just make it happen. And the person who is responsible for the Viva Fund is one of those people where, so you get the email. And we are we always, you know, want to respect everyone's privacy. But it was always fun when they sent us a baby picture. And sometimes they're surprised Viva babies. I have to tell you, they are surprise twins, sometimes. And you both have been really IVF journey. So you know,
Jon's like know this.
Know the twins.
Well, but they didn't. Sometimes families don't tell us when they get pregnant. They don't have to. But sometimes they don't because they just you know are so you know, they've been through so much heartache Yeah. So we got surprise twins. And they did a full on, baby, you know, those newborn baby photo photos you can do. And they had the dog tags and the babies were swaddled in like marine green. I mean, it was like, it's like too much. It was like too much. I mean, the cuteness overload. We have our you know, Monday morning team meeting people all, you know, zooming in. And Anne the person who runs a fund, she always introduces herself. She's like, Hi, my name is Anna and I have the best job at the Bob Woodruff Foundation. And we're all like, hi Anne, we know. We know we all know.
Way to go Anne.
She's like we've got twins. That brings us to 32. And then you can imagine being in a zoom with like a bunch of people from all over the country and it's Monday morning by the way so like half of us are morning people half of us are not like most companies. Emojis going up on everybody's little screen and it's kind of one of those things when you think about what puts fuel in your tank. I would say that program. It's the most amazing thing it puts gas in the tank. It's certainly it's a it's something to be proud of for sure.
Well, I can see barely through Becky's screen I'm sure she's already got her checkbook out like writing you all a check right now because I see the
I literally have already made a gift online. Are you gonna make fun of me?
Becky, does this and I'm like I know okay, wait for that gift. But, you know, one of the greatest, you know, major philanthropists right now is MacKenzie Scott. We love watching how she works. She works with organizations that I mean, we have vetted to to say, it's people that are just doing things right, you know, and prioritizing the right things and have the right internal culture. And then these incredible gifts kind of come out of the air to just be a parachute. And I know y'all just received one of those $15 million grants. Will you talk about that? What is that like to get that call? And what's the plans for the donation and just kind of walk us through that?
Okay, well, we're going back to the vision board, also was on my vision board, MacKenzie Scott written in big letters. So this is an actual vision board, by the way, like an actual one. But what was really interesting is, I mean, she's just a superstar, like, how cool is she, she's like, I'm going to do this. And I'm going to do it at a pace that has never been done before. And it's really amazing. And you see the headlines in this, you know, another tranche of gifts that go out. And it's so fascinating. And I remember when the first or second tranche came out, you know, our team was like, wow, this is amazing. I wonder if she's, she cares about veterans, and she's going to do anything for the veteran community. So fast forward to alright this is too good of a detail to leave out. So I'm just going to tell you, it's International Women's Day, I'm sitting at my desk. I'm on a zoom, and I see a call coming in from a number I don't recognize, and I'm not sure why I answered it. who answers a call in the middle of...
...the zoom that you don't know.
No one.
So I answered the call. And I'm informed that we will be receiving this gift. It's one of those moments that you'll never forget, as a fundraiser, and I've been fundraising for a long time. It's just extraordinary. It's really cool. Like what I want everybody to sort of like what I really took away from it, is before I knew it was her team that was doing the due diligence, because everyone's you know, heard the rumors. It's the you know, it's like all very black box. And that's all totally true, by the way. So just a symbolism of the fact that it was International Women's Day, it was the largest single gift we had ever received. But as you as you probably know, it's she practices trust based philanthropy.
Yep.
So she does all of the due diligence and going through the due diligence process. And again, not knowing who it was on behalf of at the time. They were like, We want your strategic plan. And I was like, boom, here's our strategic plan. We want your financials for all time, I was like, boom, you like all of the things. And I actually was really enjoying the due diligence process because of how we built the company. And I was saying to my team, like, we don't know where this is going, or if it's going anywhere. But let's like we wrote the strategic plan, and we have it ready, we have built our organization. And we have stayed, of course, with our 86% program spend that we have, you know, we don't horde chest, when COVID came around, we spent more money on programs than we had ever spent in our history. So all these things that I was like, like, walk this way, can I like sort of like show off the business details?
You were ready for her.
I was ready. We were ready. But it was really cool. Because the analysis of that giving, I think it was over 60% of the organizations that she gave to were women led organizations, and I got that call an International Women's Day and I happen to you know, be a woman that leads his company, and I just thought that was really cool.
You can't make these stories up. There is no MacKenzie Scott story from giving that guh, I mean, it just never gets old for us. Every time we have somebody on the podcast and and the level of humility that everyone shows when they get a MacKenzie Scott gifts leads me to believe that man, her process is truly working and the unrestricted nature of it baked in to this trust based philanthropy experience. I just think this is the future. We want all donors to move toward this. So thank you so much for sharing that story. I think you're a great orator and a great storyteller. And I want to know, an incredible story from you. You know, we like to create some space on the podcast to talk about the stories that fuel us the stories that change us, the moments that lead us to either dive into something that we never expected, or something that we've always been chasing our whole life. So do you have a story of philanthropy, maybe with the Bob Woodruff Foundation, or maybe not that has really changed and touched you as a human being?
You know, I think that working with and getting to know the Woodruff's, and you know, we talked about some of their attributes of just being really humble, being really who they are just totally authentic, truly committed to the mission, doing it for all the right reasons. And then you interact, you know, we all in our paths interact with folks that don't have those same motivations and working as a fundraiser and you walk inside this big banker that big consulting firm are this dada. And it's been really interesting over the years to sort of have a bunch of different experiences, that when I think about when you walk inside a place, you can kind of feel what's their heartbeat. And if the people there are happy and are truly committed to what they're doing, and I guess so it's not really like a singular story, I would just think kind of, as I'm looking back on my journey at the Bob Woodruff Foundation, and where we are today, especially coming out of COVID. And all of the things that have been so challenging over the past couple of years, especially, to be kind of coming out of that to have had the massive gift from MacKenzie Scott, you have another incredible board member Craig Newmark. He's the person who he's like Craig from Craigslist, actually. Like there's an actual. Wait, wait. did you know that?
No, no, totally didn't know that.
I could talk about him for hours. I won't, because I know this is not an unlimited medium. But I so, Craig Newmark, Craig that started Craigslist, is also one of the most generous people you will ever meet. I've had the opportunity to get to know him because he cares about veterans and military families in like a really below the radar kind of way. And he joined our board a few years ago and he was one of those people that was like I just see more for the foundation, talk about vision board, like he saw more for the foundation, and was like you need to be you need to build your communications, you need to build your social following, you need to really make sure that people know the goodness that is the Bob Woodruff Foundation, you need to get out there. And someone who just like relentlessly, but in a good way, had our back, had our six, helped me grow personally, helped me grow the organization and then joined our board and then is one of our biggest benefactors. It's just like, how do you get so lucky? And so I think I've gotten to meet some pretty incredible people along the way and then of course, I can spend time with the people who are happy, you know, the families who got have the Viva baby, or just yesterday, actually, I was up in Northern Connecticut, sitting with people who run homeless shelters, and literally just had all of their residents had to move into a hotel during COVID. The issues that we as a society face are complex. And there's always something you know?
I mean, it feels really full circle that you would talk about people as your philanthropy because we've we've talked this season specifically about culture and how your internal culture starts to attract the people outside. And I think of Bob's story. If Bob everyone rallied around Bob right after this happened, that would make sense. Obviously, the world was turned. But the reason you have this level of success, this level of magnetism all these years later, is because you actually are living out those values that attract people, you know, and attract the founder of Craigslist, you know, that we just discovered in this discussion today. But it's I think it's all connected and is a beautiful story. And y'all are the great torchbearers for Bob's legacy in this. So bring us home. I mean, this is our last question is what is your one good thing, what's a piece of advice or a mantra that can be personal to you that you'd share with our community?
It's advice that someone else gave me, that has proven to be true. And it's, it's been so useful, especially in the past couple years that I will share it, which is, and I'm not bragging, but it's gonna sound like I'm bragging. So another one of our board members, is the 18th, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Marty Dempsey, and he, anyone who knows him and lots people who don't know him, he's he's a leadership guru. So when he joined our board, he was, he was a little bit of a disrupter. And he kept saying, so what's next? What's over the horizon? Okay, so we know we're in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we have troops coming home IEDs are the signature way that people are coming home combat wounded, what's next? Is it biological warfare? Is it going to be a flu pandemic? Is it going to be you know, and he was saying this when we were doing strategic planning several years ago, but his point was, look over the horizon, do not be comfortable in now, what's going to happen? And so he sort of infused some of the military planning, long range planning, that I think eludes us as nonprofit leaders, because the challenges of today and the near future can be so consuming. And he was like, stretch over the horizon, what's over the horizon? And we talked about it and we planned for it, but they were all they all seem so hypothetical. I'll bring it home was saying when COVID hit, we were ready. Because we were already in a mentality of what's over the horizon. Everything can change. So what I would just share because it's really helped me as a leader navigate through uncertainty and sort of, you know, the ground shifting beneath us is to just keep looking like what's over the horizon? And as the leader of the organization are on a leadership team to just like, come back up, come back up and look out and there's you can't go wrong with that.
That was really incredible advice. And I am going to hitch my wagon and take it just a little bit further and say, when you do that, when you are constantly looking over the horizon, you are ready. To your point again, for a MacKenzie Scott to come in, you are ready as an organization to take on a new program because you've been listening, because you've been preparing, that is how aspirational missions and organizations thrive. So Anne Marie, you've got to tell people how they can connect with the Bob Woodruff Foundation. Where are you on all your social channels, we definitely want people to come and find you.
Okay, so this is always a tongue twister, because it's three F's in a row. Okay, BobWoodruffFoundation.org. That's our website. We have a ton of content on our website, you can find out about grants, the Viva Program, all that good stuff, events we have coming up on that website. And then in terms of following me directly, I am most active on LinkedIn. I've connected with a lot of amazing nonprofit leaders on LinkedIn. And I welcome the opportunity to connect with your listeners. Can I just say one more thing? I was already a fan of your podcast, but I feel like there's just love. I just love you both. Thanks for doing this. This is so nice. You both are pretty amazing. It's it's cool to be on the other side of the pod.
I want to reflect that back to you because all I've kept thinking while you're talking is we've got your six here.
Oh my god.
We got your six.
And I say that to you Anne Marie. And I say that to you listeners, like when you feel like somebody has got your back that there is someone back there, it's easier to have courage. It's easier to try things it's easier to fail forward. We adore and love you. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to honor my grandfathers and my daughter with this gift. I hope it goes and just ripples forever. So keep going, Anne Marie.
Such an honor. Thank you.
Amazing. Well, thank you.
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