Today's episode is sponsored by feather feather provides digital marketing tools and strategies for nonprofits of all shapes and sizes, including the Humane Society of North Central Florida. Stick around for the break to hear how feather power their $300 digital ad campaign that raised nearly $6,000 In just one day. Hey, I'm John.
And I'm Becky.
And this is the we are for good podcast.
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So let's get started. What's up, Becky?
Hey, John, do you remember that one time we accidentally met the person who is modern day revolutionising the way volunteers interact with missions?
I do remember that day. He's our friend, Rob. But I mean, I was gonna say the same thing. It's like, you know, we just got back from the responsive nonprofit summit presented by virtuous. It was like this such full heart couple of days camp. It was total summer camp. And we just met the coolest people that are doing really hardwired work that I think complements what we talked about in the podcast so deeply. And for Rob, he is all about act activating. And you know, we talk a lot about just kind of getting the frameworks, right and the philosophies, right and raising the money. We haven't dove in a lot to just like, how do you truly mobilize an army of people, and it's one of our values. It's something we've seen on the frontlines of philanthropy of when it really goes to the next level is when you can activate believers. And Rob's just been kind of casually doing this on the side for basically his whole career. And so Rob Peabody is on the podcast, he is the co founder and president of FOMO. It's kind of like FOMO, but for your volunteers, right? But they are now part of the virtuous family. But I want to talk a little bit about Rob's story. And I want him to walk us through this because he founded this incredible nonprofit called awaken in Dallas, and they had these satellite offices and London and Budapest and helped launch those in this conference for millennials called the pursuit. And really, he was pouring kind of ministry, but also activating volunteers along the side lines, and he really looked around and couldn't find the product, you know, that he wanted to see in the world. And so what did he do? He's entrepreneurial minded. He built it, you know, which is today, what is vomo? Well, alongside his brother, Joel, they've partnered with Sony Pictures, they've partnered with, you know, Mr. Rogers, and all of these incredible organizations to mobilize people around the world. And so Rob is gonna tell us a little bit about FOMO. But just get to the heart and soul of really, how do you activate and awaken a generation behind you or a group in your community behind you. And so Rob, we're delighted to have you here on the podcast. Welcome to the show.
Hey, thanks, guys. Wow, that that's quite the intro. I feel I should just leave right now. It's all gonna go downhill from here.
I'm like you did that you did that in the moment and just embrace it good on you.
So, okay, we heard your story when we were in Phoenix. And I remember our jaws just like further widening and opening. I'm like, Oh, my gosh, this guy's story is so fascinating. Take us back to the subject a little Rob growing up and tell us kind of what got you to this place today. Because it's so fascinating.
Yeah, I never thought I'd be a tech CEO, right? Like it came across in a really different way. Um, you know, after growing up in Dallas, I went to University of Texas down in Austin got a business degree in marketing. And I thought I was gonna go into Creative Advertising and got really excited about that. And then I actually from a personal side, I really got involved with Campus Crusade for Christ, and that that's what led me into seminary. So I ended up going to Dallas Theological Seminary, getting a master's degree there. And I was actually a pastor for quite a number of years in the Dallas area and landed at a big mega church here in town. And all of a sudden, in 2008, I found myself as a megachurch Pastor, I was 26, I was leading a multisite campus of the church, we had a number of them. And this one was going to reach young families. And so they, you know, crazy idea. I don't know why anybody allowed me to do this, I looking back, I'm like, I don't know if I was ready. But they threw me in there. And all of a sudden, I've got this $8 million building, and, you know, 20 staff, people and 2000 people on our first Sunday, and it's all it's going great and good things are happening in the church. But I just finished seminary and I had to come to terms I had it. I had a holy discontent, in a sense where I didn't, I couldn't reconcile it, what I was studying and learning and teaching with what I was seeing happening and and it wasn't bad things but it was that it felt like we as a people did not know how to engage with those who didn't look, think or act like us. And and so I didn't know what to do with this. And so I just naively booked a meeting with the mayor of our city and he took the meeting because I had the big job Urgent. I said, Hey, what are your biggest needs in the community because I feel like we've we're well resourced to be addressing the injustices and issues in our local community. But I don't think we have an on ramp I don't we don't know how to be deployed, we don't even know what the needs are. And he said two things that day that really changed the history of or the direction of what I now do. And he said, number one, I've never been asked this by a pastor before, which was very eye opening and shocking to me. And then secondly, he said, Did you realize that there are Title One schools, literally two miles from your church? And, you know, I'm a newlywed, no kids were dinks were dual income, no kids, and I'm like, What's a title one school, you know, and, and so Anyways, long story short, we go over there and start meeting the principals of the schools who represent the underprivileged in the community, and 80% of the families run government subsidy. And we were able to connect the dots between the people in the church and the people who want to do good with those who desperately needed it. And this led to a nonprofit being started called awaken. And that was the first one and realize that this was an issue across a lot of churches and a lot of communities and a lot of nonprofits. And so ran around the country for a few years as a speaker with helping people connect those dots. And then it led to moving over to London, England in 2011, to carry and carry the vision of awaken to open a charity called awaken movement, UK. And then that led to Budapest and and then we got to vomo. So kind of a kind of a wild start. But I like to tell people, I've been mobilizing folks in multiple continents and multiple countries in a lot of bad ways, and then figured out how to not do it to be able to get it right. So that we can do this better for more organizations. Now.
You're a true entrepreneur. I mean, just failing forward. iterating over and over, and I just, I gotta like wax philosophical a little bit on the fact that at 26, you're not only managing a mega church 2000 people. I mean, I was like googling what is a 401 K and surviving off of cheese fries at 26. Like Rob, is in the weeds of like revolutionising community, and I just won. Thank you for listening and following your nudge, to say something feels off. And I want to and I want to lean into it. And using that privilege and that influence to ask deeper questions. I mean, that that is something that I just want to applaud you for. I mean, you truly open your arms as wide as they could possibly go. And I love that it didn't stop it, just like opening your arms, it was almost like giving somebody a hug and then pushing them out. Because mobilization is something that's very difficult to do, especially whether that's in person or whether it's virtual. And we're just watching the vomo story, and listening to you unpack it over a really I mean, this has been a long journey. And I think the thing that I love so much about vomo is it's not just about mobilizations, it's about volunteer management. It's about communication. There's reporting systems, there's integrations, you've got branding and promotion, as a part of your offering, you've got this great support. And it feels like there's all these wraparound services that allow someone to not feel isolated and looking around going, What am I supposed to do, I'm bringing my passion, but I got to figure out what to do with it. And I think that's something that a lot of our volunteers struggle with, they want to show up, and they want to know how to show up. So I want you to go into the story of FOMO. Now that we have this backstory, which is amazing. I'm just like, picturing you in your Adidas shorts, like walking up to the mayor and being like, let's shake this community up. Talk to us about how vomo really started to become an inception story. And yeah, what does that founding journey look like?
Yeah, and so after, after that, we we ended up in London, doing the weekend work there, as well as planting churches. And that's really when I realized I was an entrepreneur, I was 30 at the time. And I just kept starting things and then was in the hamster wheel of raising funds for it to then hire a team to then run it. And you're, you're kind of balancing all the plates and vomo came about I'm not a technology guy at all. I we kid on the team that I'm like, the least technological person on the tire team. And we've got a lot
on the way I forget. Yeah.
I know how it should work, but I have no clue how to do it. And so in 2015, this is where Vamo picks up. I wrote my first book, and we did a book call in the US. And we had a sponsor and what we did is we went to eight different cities. And much like what we did with with the church, we our team would go find all of the local nonprofits in that book tour stop, and we would help them they would identify their needs and And then we would get the audience really excited about leveraging their gifts, their skills, their passion, their experience, their wealth, their education, like taking inventory of everything they have. And then let's help them deploy that in meaningful ways in the local community. And so, cool idea, but nobody did it. Because what actually happened was, you know, John would get really excited. And he'd go out there. And it would be, you know, a card table with typically a very elderly person with a clipboard telling you to sign up here. And then give us your info and a background check and then a group text and have this and have that. And it's like eight hurdles that we put in front of these people that are have a lot of intent to want to be deployed. And they just get choked out in the system. And so I like to call them latent potential volunteer energy, like they want to do good. But we've made the system so hard historically, that these people don't get activated. And later on, when we got smarter, we looked, we did a lot of studies, but only 18% of people move from talking about doing good to actually engaging in doing it because it's, it's so complex to get started. And so went back to London totally rejected, you know, cool idea. No one did it. And I was studying platforms and looking at digital society and reading stats about cell phone usage, smartphone usage, number of screens on the planet, just this cultural moment we find ourselves in and and the vision was literally on on the tube going from Heathrow to my house in northeast London of we're in this cultural moment. How can we leverage the power of technology to help people do more good. And that was the beginning of what led to vomo. And a lot of crazy things happened. We ended up finding programmers in Budapest who are working on a similar idea, really crazy story. They got connected by a friend of a friend, I end up flying to Budapest. Now looking back, like these guys could like murdered me at the airport. I've no clue who they are.
And you've been wiring.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then two weeks later, we had we got a call from the Billy Graham Association, who was doing this big event with a ministry called pulse in Washington, DC, called together 2016. They're trying to get a million Millennials together, and then go deploy him to go do good across the country. I cast the vision for what is now vomo. It didn't exist, but they bought it. And so when they gave us a timeline, we had nine months to figure it out. And so we started building. And yeah, and then after the success of that event, we serve three or 50 nonprofits and got about 12,000. Millennials to go serve that day. And on the back end, we can, you know, do quantifiable analytics and know exactly the good and the social impact that's happening, and economic impact. And the mayor of Washington, DC sees that, because it's not just cool stories, but it's like, hey, in one day, these millennials did $6 million of service for the city. Yeah. And so she gives us this award called the excellence and Service Award, and a lot of mentors and people that were speaking into my life were like, Hey, this is a thing if you want to go do it. And we were in London for six years, our kids all had British accents. We were we were set up we it was hard to leave. And and then we moved back to Dallas to get it going. And and then yeah, now we're serving nonprofits in 30 different countries. Oh, my gosh, I mean, so
cool. Rob, you're singled out by this story. It's amazing. But I
also think I love that you are not a tech guy leading this tech platform that's revolutionizing volunteer management and recruitment and all those things because I think if the founders we've met, that makes you so perfectly qualified, because the solution ultimately is something that people that don't get tech can embrace, you know, so I love that you just chase that and have put on that hat even if it's a little hard to wear sometimes I'm sure. But um, okay, we have to throw this together, guys, because when we're sitting here, I think we were like in, we're like in the hotel lobby talking with Rob. We're enjoying, you know, talking through the responsive conference. And Rob just casually kind of telling us this, and we put it together that this mobilization that you were doing, when you partner with some friends in Los Angeles for one day live. This is Dominic Russo. This is a he came through the podcast like what two a year ago on episode 140. He described this mobilization of people in Los Angeles in one day LA. And here we are mobilizing with Justin Bieber. And Rob is sitting here telling us Oh, yeah, we built the tech platform that powered that. And it's just like, this is the full circle of people in this sector that's doing this work. That's about the Right Reasons kind of coming together and just love that full circle moment. So for you, avid podcast listeners, you're gonna remember that story, but you want to talk about that. I mean, what is it like getting Justin Bieber to kind of rep your company a little bit to get people mobilized on it?
That was wild. We were backstage at SoFi stadium and you Bieber and Chance the Rapper and carry job and Mavericks, the music guys are all back there. And Jason Kennedy is the host he's on e and he comes up to me, he's like, dude, Vamo This is so awesome. And I was like, Whoa, like, it's this, it's actually happening people are hearing about it was crazy. So, you know, you're dreaming this stuff up over and London bill, no tech platform thinking you're half crazy. And then all of a sudden, you've got hundreds of 1000s of people be mobilized on it to go serve worthy nonprofits across the country. And so it was a wild journey. And yes, that was a fun event to be a part of. And what I loved what they did, was the currency to get into the concert, right. And it was the first live concert, and also five because it got shut down during COVID. The currency to get in was like you couldn't buy a ticket, you had to volunteer for at least two hours to get in. And it was just so cool. And then that current once you're there on stage, you've got Beaver, and a lot of the artists talking about like, hey, let's this isn't a one time thing. Let's make this a lifestyle right now go text this number. And then the reply text would be vomo. And then here's how you go serve in the local community and help these nonprofits by giving of your your time your talent, your skills, your finances. And, yeah, it's just it's cool to be a part of a much larger movement of helping unlock more people to go do good and catalyze them to do so. And, and when I love it, Vamo is, you know, so we serve nonprofits, right, or school districts or universities, a lot of businesses now mind to deploy their people to go do good in the community. But then the kind of the output of all of that is that this ecosystem gets built, where this marketplace gets built of all of these opportunities, like the supply side of how do I discover where I can go do good in my local community. And then we can work with individuals to discover that and connect up those dots. And so so in two ways, like in one, it's it's a nonprofit, you know, operating system for their volunteer mobilization, that's what vamos stands for volunteer mobilization. But on the other hand, we're also helping people to to discover their their right next best step to go start serving, and it can be an on ramp to a lot of the nonprofits that we serve, who can get discovered.
It's just such a smart and different way to look at our business. And I just, I love it so much. And I think we got to break down like what is it? And I feel like I stole your thunder a little bit because I was sort of unpacking the elements of it. But talk about the scope of work, talk about how someone would come in and actually use the platform, where would they go? What kind of services would you offer?
Sure, so. So at the end of the day, what vomo is, is it's a web based platform, and app. So there's an Android app for Google Store, there's an Apple iOS app, you know, what I love is all, you know, the apps, the web platform, the mobile platform, they're all talking to one another. So we find a lot of nonprofits who like love apps and want to have them and other ones are like, I hate it, like, just give me the web. And so no matter where you're taking action, they're all communicating with one another. And what we do is, we customize the platform for our b2b clients. So are the nonprofits that we serve, and, you know, they'll come in, they'll get a volunteer hub, it's got their logos on it, they can change the color schemes, we can brand it to look exactly like their native experience, they'll get on boarded. And this is where they're putting all of the needs that their organization has, we need, we need volunteers, we need skill sets that to come in and help us we need people to give to these causes, you know, whatever they have as their needs, it's uploaded in there. And now, what we've done is curated this one stop shop, to take action for your organization. So instead of trying to find stuff on social media, or hearing from a friend that they were volunteered at whatever homeless shelter, or whatever it might be, or going to their website. Now, we can direct all that energy and all those eyeballs to one place. And by streamlining that, this is how we're gonna get way more adoption and way more people to take action. And kind of you were saying, John, on the tech side, I was like, if the beauty and the vision is three clicks, right, you come in, I want you to build discover ways that you can go and use your unit, unique gifting and wiring to be deployed. And we will sign up and another click and the third one, I want everything confirmed. And so I want, you know, we've built out all of the automations, where as soon as somebody take AP takes action, you know, the volunteer coordinator, executive director, whoever it's going to be is or the point person inside of the nonprofit is going to be notified. And then the user themselves can have all of the tools they need to be able to manage themselves. And you know, and then they go serve in there, they build their volunteer resume, which is huge for the next generation and honor society and college scholarships. Or if you're working at a company that is requiring, you know, paid time off to go volunteer, you're earning rewards on the platform, you know, we're connecting it in with everything that the nonprofit's already using. And so that becomes the volunteer operating system for that organization. And then, the second step is it's also a recruitment tool. because now the nonprofits are putting their projects in. And they can make them private just for their organization, their constituents, or they can make them public, which goes out to the vomo ecosystem, which is that marketplace we were talking about which that leads into the the b2c experiments, like we did with Justin Bieber, or like we've done with Sony and Mr. Rogers and got a few of them coming down the pipe this year, to just help people discover these amazing nonprofits and how they can get involved in supportive.
Hey, friends, this episode is presented by virtuous and they just happened to be one of our favorite companies. Let me tell you why. You know, we believe everyone matters. And we've witnessed the greatest philanthropic movements happen when you see and activate donors at every level. And here's the thing, virtuous created a fundraising platform to help you do just that. It's much more than a nonprofit CRM. Virtuous is committed to helping charities reimagine generosity through responsive fundraising, which is simply putting the donor at the center of fundraising, growing giving through personalized donor journeys, and by helping you respond to the needs of every individual. We love it because this approach builds trust and loyalty through personalized engagement. So Mike virtuous may be a fit for your organization. Learn more today and virtuous.org or follow the link in our show notes.
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I mean, what a cool platform, I think you haven't FOMO just listen to this friends, right? Because I want to get. So Rob, you sit around and think about this stuff a lot. You know, I feel like it's been part of your lived experiences like trying to activate and your story was so beautifully threaded? Can you speak to what a volunteers want today? What are they looking for? And how can we as organizations better engage them and give them meaningful experiences? Yeah,
I built a slide deck the other day was we're training the virtuous team on more of like, what is FOMO and I really believe that like society, and P individuals and society, they they want to live for something bigger than themselves, right? Like they want this life to be more than just clocking in and out to get a paycheck and just grind on to the next day they want meaning they want to use their unique giftings and wirings. They want to help other people they want to love they want to serve and, and culturally this what's great about what you guys are doing, culturally like this is this is the narrative of of our nation right now. Like, you know, we see on the Superbowl like millions and millions of dollars being spent to talk about how great Toyota is in the local community or whatever the company might be, it's not a nice to have any more, it's you have to have it, if it gets reduced to just paychecks and bottom line and dollars. We've missed it. And so, you know, culturally that's happening. We know, this is what it means to be human to want to be living for something bigger. And so what I love is, is when we can connect with those individuals, and help them discover on ramps to our nonprofits to how they can go use their life towards this. It's just a really beautiful thing. And, and what frustrates me and I think what got me into FOMO in the first place was I don't know why. But over the years, there hasn't been much innovation in the nonprofit space compared to other verticals. And so we've made things a lot harder than they need to be a lot of times. And so if we can start knocking down those hurdles and those walls, we should be able to have a system where those who want to go do good. And the nonprofits who need to receive the help that that should be married up. It'd be pretty simple. And so that's been the mission for us. And I love that we're being able to see some success there.
I just have to tell you, I'm going back into the recesses of my mind just thinking about two decades and nonprofit and I'm going through how we would mobilize volunteers. John, I know you're thinking about this too in this conversation and it is has been email based and in person based. And you can't do anything unless somebody's physically in the room and you're doing your training, you're outlining your goals, you're walking through all the things you're trying to get them trained up, maybe have a job description, or it's like, hey, just show up at the gala. And then we'll tell you what to do when you check in. This, to me, is such a revolutionary cultivation. opportunity here, this isn't just about activating it is about thoughtfully bringing your rabid fans, your most passionate supporters into an experience where you they're going to be deepened, their deepening their love and their awareness and their influence and expertise about the mission. And you do it in such a thoughtful way. And I just think about people, I mean, we're on our phones all the time. And just the ability to have this on mobile to just check in see what the community is doing. Where are the resources is so smart. To me, this is the way you build mobile fans in a way that is entirely organic, it is not at all like in their face, you meet them where they are, they can open it up, I just think I'm so happy. And there's no way to talk about it. Other than I'm so content and joyful, that this can be the new normal, moving forward in the way that we engage people. And when I think about just even a major gift officer trying to engage with somebody in their portfolio, you're calling you're calling him or you're sending them an email, you're setting it up, you're going to coffee, this is a way to plant seeds, that really lead to something much bigger. And I don't even think the endpoint is the event or whatever the thing is, there's so many ways that you can grow this relationship. And this is such a thoughtful way. So I really want people that are listening to be able to visualize what this actually looks like. So can you play out and just like describe a case study for us of, of maybe a nonprofit that's come in and leverage the platform, talk to us about how they did it and what the outcome was?
Yeah, there's, there's a couple here in Dallas. One of our clients is the Dallas Morning News. And so they came to us and they said, Hey, we we want to see vomo unleashed across DFW. So how do we move our readers into like taking action and not just reading feel good stories are like we do in our nonprofit with our fundraising, it's like, here's a narrative, here's a captive story. It's very emotional. And that that gets the head and the heart going, but then what's the right next step to then get people out. And so we let them we lead an initiative for them called forward DFW. And with that they brought in 25 of their Dallas Morning News charities, which are charities that they are financially supporting who are like kind of the top nonprofits in DFW. And so now with vomo, we're able to have all 25 of those nonprofits with demo accounts. It's all feeding up to the city's city wide account for the Dallas Morning News. And now when readers are going they can see, you know, take action, and it shoots them out to all the different nonprofits in Dallas. But one of those is called brother bills helping hand and they are in South Dallas in a more underprivileged community in the south side, helping with a food pantry helping the homeless, helping people who are just down on their luck. And, you know, they were doing exactly what you're saying they you know, they had a volunteer coordinator. And you hear this all the time. She's overworked, she's underpaid, she's by herself. She's got volunteers that she's trying to rely on. And it's just mass chaos in her office of how do I how do I get more help? And how do I plug the slots, and really, the tactical stuff takes over because you can't step aside to breathe and look at more strategy on what you're doing as a nonprofit, because we're just in the day to day of like, I need five more people tomorrow morning. So how can I call and get them in there. And so they're in that rut. And what we're able to do is by giving vomo to them, you're now giving her the tools in the platform and the operating system that's going to bring her into the 21st century, right. And we know that everybody's looking on social media, they're looking at Facebook, look at Instagram, they're they're cruising the web for everything. And before they come to your nonprofit, they're gonna go to your website and start looking at, you know, who are these people? And how do I get involved. And so when we set up Bumble for them, we then went to the volunteer, you know, their website, the volunteer button there, they click it and it direct links straight into vomo opens it up, it looks like their experience. And now, every way that they anybody in the general public can take action to go serve is right there on their volunteer hub. And so what we saw is, it's, it's releasing pain and pressure for that volunteer coordinator. It's giving her tools and what she needs to disrupt the current system of how they're doing and take this Under the next, you know, the digital age, we're looking at a really significantly low price point. So the ROI is massive, because she's going to bring in all these new volunteers and those volunteers are going to convert to donors. And there's a whole, whole other automation we can do on that side. And, and then it's making a beautiful experience for that volunteer or that potential volunteer, and it's raising the game of the organization. See, now they can take part. And then the really big feature is there's real time dashboards on our admin side, which we train our organizations to use. And that's where they're going to see like, you know, first time volunteers, repeat volunteers, the turn of our volunteers, how do we, you know, who's our superstars because we can go and then give awards out and recognitions, we can. There's so many metrics that we can do stuff with. And our customer success team does a lot of best practices and helps with our monthly check ins, just how can we engage and maintain and do more of with our volunteers to just keep driving the mission forward, because, you know, at the end of the day, I was a practitioner, I mean, I was on the frontlines for a long time. And so how to do this wrong, or not as maybe, maybe, maybe not as good as it could be. And so now, you know, the big mission is We exist to serve those who serve others. And we want to build tools that are beautiful to help these folks, because they're on the frontlines doing all the work. And if we can propel their mission forward, that's, that's what it's all about.
Ah, just really here for that. I mean, Rob, you know, everything we do threads back to these core values that we saw that really worked and I kind of alluded to one earlier is this idea of cultivating and activating rabid fans of your mission. And we just have seen like, in our personal story, in our own experiences, there's a difference between something that staff lead, and that's something that is volunteer led, and the passion is different, the way people show up is different, the organic nature of meeting needs better is just at a different level. And so I love that you're democratizing access to more volunteers. So it's on us to really use these tools to really activate. So something that you said at the virtuous conference that I want to give you a chance to talk about is that you really see this moment as a chance to redefine generosity to include a more holistic approach for today's giver. And I know it's something you're really passionate about, it triggers our heart buyers too, and just wanted to get you a chance to speak on that a little bit
part of the route. So we just recently went through a merge a merger with virtuous and the driver for me to do that was we've built something here at vomo that can unlock more volunteers and keep them in your organization. But what I didn't have were the correct integrations to talk about people's finances. And so we've got some ways to get to the platform. But it wasn't at the level of where I thought it needed to be. And then you over here and look at what virtuous has done with an entire database CRM, but then driving more responsive fundraising, and bringing more dollars into the organization and managing that whole process. And and what I saw through the US talking was, this is a moment to unlock holistic generosity where it's not just talking about getting more people or getting more dollars. And unfortunately, it's been really fragmented, I feel in my experience in the nonprofit space of like, here's the fundraisers and here's, here's the money, we got to go raise to make our thing go. And then the volunteers, typically is kind of down the list a little bit in priority, and just keep keep the wheels on and that's fine. But now, we've got the ability to unlock holistic generosity for our nonprofits. And so now the conversation is about, hey, let's look at the individual what what is the best next step for them? What do they have to deploy? What generation are they in? What are they interested in? What are their passions? And let's let's get them on that journey that on ramp to the nonprofit and then you're gonna get their heart when it's connected, right and unlocks everything, right? Because that's there, they'll give you their dollars, they'll give their time they'll give their entire family, they'll bring their kids, they'll serve the love it. And so I wanted to be a part about be a part of building a platform that kind of lock that generosity because I feel like this is our moment, nationally. I mean, we just went through COVID, we went through all the political cycles, where, you know, we've got the economy issues happening now where, you know, there's just, there's a lot that's taken place and a lot that has divided us as a nation and as people in fragmented a lot of American society. But the one thing that can bring us all together is serving and loving and doing good for our neighbor, right? That's what it means to be American and how we've set up this nation. And so if we can be a part of unlocking more people to give of themselves, whether it's their pocket and checkbook, or it's worth their time, then then we want to be a part of unlocking that. And I really believe that this is the future of of nonprofits and the future of platforms and technology that are serving nonprofits. We've got to get there because we do this in the rest of our lives, so why am I in the nonprofit space where we can see the most good happen. And you guys know, for some it's giving of their time and their talent, that's, that's way more costly than giving of their finances, and for others, giving their friends finances is a massive sacrifice. So if we can give the whole gamut of opportunity to serve the mission and objectives of this nonprofit, and unlock holistic generosity, that's, that's really going to move the needle forward and change our communities, and our families and our nation. Ultimately,
Rob Peabody, for humanitarian ambassador of the UN, I mean, I can tell why you were the dynamic 26 year old pastor, because you just got up in that pulpit, and you made believers out of all of us, because and I gotta thread this back to one of our values is, anybody can find donors, anybody can create a transactional opportunity for somebody to be a part of your mission. But we want to create believers. And I'm sorry for everybody, everybody who's tired of us talking about our fourth core value, which is, we're not here to create donors, we're here to create believers, because a believer is somebody who is so much more powerful in your organization, than somebody who's simply give someone who believes in what you're doing is going to pour, to your point, Rob, time, talent, network, resources, energy story, like it's just limitless in what they have that are true assets to our organization. And I just want to uplift something that you said, you did not create a one size fits all, tech platform. And I thank you for that. Because what you did, and what I'm hearing right now, is that you created an experience for someone to come into it to go at their own pace, to show up when they want to show up to show up where they want to show up for as long as they want to show up. When you allow someone to come in at their own time and pace with their own gifts. And do it in a way that feels good for them. It one, it's going to take all the energy off you nonprofit professional to feel like you are just lugging this relationship along. This is a cobuild. And I just think it's an extraordinary thing. And if you are someone who's listening right now, and you're thinking about how do I start to build a movement within my organization, how do I build community? How do I activate volunteers, this is a way to do it. It's a different mindset. But this is what we think will pay off long term. It is the long game.
Rob, we love to talk, we believe in the power of philanthropy. I've seen it in your story. But I'd love to give you the chance to tell a story of just wins a moment that philanthropy has really changed you. And it's something that stuck with you after all these experiences take us back to something
I think the biggest one, this will. This may sound a little different. I think the biggest one was back in 2017. We did a an activation campaign for Sony Pictures for the film A beautiful day in the neighborhood with Mr. Rogers as Tom Hanks. And we picked five markets. And yeah, it was so cool. And we got to do it the weekend before the film, kind of guerilla marketing via volunteering to get people to go serve and tangibly be a neighbor before the film came out. But anyways, I bought the URL, and we called to be an ad campaign.com. And we just thought it was a one time thing. And it was fun. But then it was over, right. And then COVID hits. And I remember, I was talking to one of our board members in March of 2020. And I was like, Oh my gosh, the nonprofits like like the health care facilities and the hospitals are gonna be hit so hard because of COVID. The, the other frontliners are gonna be hit the hardest, or the nonprofits on the frontline who are helping all the people, because so many folks are dependent upon what our nonprofits do for just daily life and sustenance and like the rhythms of their life. And so, we actually pivoted as a company at that time to give away vomo for free for any nonprofit on the frontlines that needed to receive the people. And they would upload all their needs. And then we would go out to our media partners and help people raise their hand and go serve now, the philanthropy piece to get back to your question was, I went to my team, and there were 20 of them on staff at the time and I said, Okay, we're gonna go to this totally for free for the next two months. We are not, you're going to stop everything you're currently doing. COVID already disrupted. I know your kids are at home and I know you're trying to homeschool your kindergartener on a zoom call and try to work at the same time and whatever else was happening. I was nuts. And, and, and so we did an 8am Stand up call every day and we just push people to do all kinds of stuff that they weren't. It wasn't their job, you know, but they're stepping up to do it and, and then all of a sudden, like Amazon comes in partners with us and the Red Cross It just keeps getting all this traction. But what I what? What that showed me though was, number one, the ability of how hard you can work if you really get after something and devote a team towards it for a set period of time. But then secondly, there were like 250,000 people that got activated during that campaign to go find ways that they can tangibly do good in the community to help with COVID relief. And it was just really beautiful to see. Because there, there was not some major budget behind it, there wasn't some tons of there was no ad play or anything like that. It was just people dedicating to go work hard after something for a set period of time and go for it. And then the ripple effects were massive, and it really helped a ton of people who desperately need it in a time when we're anxious and worried and stuck in our houses, and you're afraid to have even contact with the postman or anybody because you're gonna get COVID. everyone's freaking out, but it's like, how do we go help. And I was just really inspired to see that. And, and it taught me the kind of the lesson of what we can collectively do as friends or as an organization with a small group of people, when we really dedicate our minds to it, and our time and really follow through, you can change an entire organization, you can change entire community, and it's just beautiful to see.
Okay. I'm not trying to be too cheesy here. But the Mr. Rogers quote, I always remember is like, find the helpers. And it's like, that is your ethos. That is the vomo Jam. Like you literally find the helpers, and you activate them for good. I love that story. It was just absolutely serendipitous.
Okay, Rob, I mean, we don't want to ask this question. But our interviews winding down, we always want to give you a chance to share a one good thing, it's kind of a mantra, or a life hack, something that really resonates really strongly with you, what would you share is your one good thing today,
I would say, for me, it's paid off many, many times to take a risk, I fully wholeheartedly believe that advancement and change only happens when we take risks. I've seen it's scary. And it's not in many of our natures to want be risk takers. And it's not safe, it's not comfortable. It's not predictable. But every time in my life when we've we've done a lot of them now, but we've taken a risk. And you just put that one foot out forward kind of blindly. I've seen the blessing that can come where the the fruit that can come of that. And truly for me, anytime that we've seen really good things happen, it's because we've taken a risk. And so I think the good thing that I would want to share with people is it's cool to be comfortable. And I understand that at times in your life. But especially for the work that we do as nonprofit leaders, we've got to be looking beyond the status quo and doing the same things over and over again. And we have to be in a posture of being willing to take a risk and if there are others in our organization that we can share with. So it makes it a little bit easier because we can collectively take the risk together. I want to encourage that because I think that's what we need. And that's what drives us forward.
Yeah, I mean, I just see the we're for good story baked so much into that. And when I think back in my life, and I hope you who are listening right now due to some of the most fulfilling moments of my life, where where when I just jumped, and it is the most uncomfortable feeling. And I am a naturally fearless person, and I still get uncomfortable with it. But I think you're just kind of living this just chasing risk. And liquid. It's done. And I don't even mean what is it done for your company? And how is it, you know, created a living for you, I'm talking about look at the ripple of good that it has created. And I think that anybody can be a part of that anywhere in the world, wherever your community is. You just have to have what we call that bravery mindset. So great. One good thing, Rob. Okay, let everybody know, Rob, how can they connect with you? How can they connect with vomo? Like, give us all the details, the URLs and where you are on social media?
Yeah, so I'm on Instagram. It's Rob WP body on there. And I'm also on Twitter at Rob Peabody. Facebook as well, just my name. We merge a lot things over. So I think the best place for you to go if you're interested in the vomo platform is go to virtuous.org and specifically virtuous.org/volunteer. And you can follow virtuous as well online and we're doing a lot more cross collaboration on those types of things. But yeah, come hit me up. I'm on LinkedIn as well. I just my name Rob Peabody, and I'd love to take it from there and I can connect people personally to where they need to be in the organization and look forward to the conversations and guys, thanks for the time. This is so inspiring, encouraging this morning.
I mean, huge honor. We just love hanging I'm with you, Rob. And I appreciate you taking those risks because man, looking back, what an incredible legacy the study had. And we're just here for it, man. So great to see you today. Thanks for being on the show. Awesome. Thanks.
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