Holistic Community Care: Meet Undies for Everyone - Amy Weiss

8:07PM May 22, 2023

Speakers:

Julie Confer

Becky Endicott

Jonathan McCoy

Amy Weiss

Keywords:

underwear

people

undies

amy

kids

nonprofit

love

mission

jon

give

partner

talk

children

story

feel

donation

podcast

pair

brene

community

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, where Nonprofit Professionals, philanthropist, 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?

My smile is as wide as it can get today, because you know, I love a good mission story on the podcast. And you know, we sit here and we teach principles, we teach frameworks, but sometimes it's just good to get back to the heart of why we do what we do and lift amazing work that's happening just in the communities around us. And y'all. Today, we're talking about underwear. So I hope you are buckled in today because we have Rabbi Amy Weiss on the podcast. She is the founder and executive director of Undies for Everyone can we just give a little snap for the amazingness of this nonprofit name. She was introduced to us by we're for good rabid fan, Evan Wildstein, who sits on her board. And y'all I don't think I fully had enough appreciation for how much dignity and how much crisis is around having clean laundry, having clean underwear, but I want to like just provide some overview before we get into this. It's estimated that 11.6 million kids in the US which is basically one in six are living without access to underwear and families that are struggling through poverty or some sort of crisis 11.6 million Jon like literally one in six, that would be one of our between our combined six children that we have together one of them not having clean underwear. And I want to make sure that everybody knows Jon and I have separate families once again. But I really want to talk about this crisis. Because the problem is so extreme, that you've got global brands that are rising up to sort of lean into this movement. And so Undies for Everyone is the only nationwide nonprofit to exclusively provide underwear to students who need it most. They recently partnered with a little known brand called Fruit of the Loom to provide over 810,000 pairs of new underwear, which is a week supply of underwear to 115,000 students across the US. And so Amy just believes that this is just one piece of a complex puzzle to increase a child's chance of success, both inside the classroom and outside of it. And let me tell you, people have stood up and have taken note, Amy was recently named to CNN Hero for her work in 2012 to provide more than 4 million pairs of underwears to students across 27 cities in the US. She is a gracious, amazing human. We cannot wait to bring this story to the podcast, and also talk about how do we build holistic community care? Amy Weiss, we're so glad you're here, get into our house.

Thanks. Thanks for having me. Always good to talk about undies, even in awkward situations. You know,

you know what we love the vulnerable awkwardness? Yeah, weddings, parties, whatever it talks about, let's get this normalized. You know, you cannot have an extraordinary story and mission like this. That gets written, you know, from the ground up without having an incredible human with lived experience behind it. So before we dive into the mission of Undies for Everyone, we want to know your story. Tell us about little Amy, growing up and what sort of led you on your work today.

So that's, you know, we have volunteers that actually come up to us at packings. And say, I'm here today because I did not have underwear. I was one of those kids. So I was not one of those kids. I had underwear super lucky to have that. So I grew up in Dallas, Texas, and we moved to Houston in 2001, my husband and two sons, and my husband is also a rabbi. And we love doing things in the community. And in 2008 I was blogging for the Houston Chronicle. And you know, they want you to do for free and they always want you to do more of it. And you know, it's hard to think about it's hard to think about topics. So I wrote about his not having underwear because it's a social worker had said to me in q4, you know the toys are great but the kids really don't have underwear and socks. So I blogged about it and people dropped off underwear at my husband's office and gave me money and some underwear. And so from that on at back to school time, it made more sense to me to do that back to school. I know that a lot of people get underwear for Christmas that is I do not get that. But I was doing it around back to school. And I did that in 2009 1011. And in 2012, I made it into a nonprofit nurse at a low income school had asked me for more underwear. And it was kind of a rough week in the rabbi world. And I took it down there. And there was a little girl who had just had an accident, and there was no extra underwear. And even then the guy who does the licensed vendor like Disney and things like that, Nickelodeon, he had been donating to us since early on. And he's a very, very big supporter of us having craft manufacturing. And so I had Princess underwear. And that little girl just lit up because she didn't have to be embarrassed anymore. And she could go back to class. My kids didn't need to know that, you know, something had happened. And she'd been away a long time. And I just knew I'm not a huge believer in signs. But I figured that's a sign that this is what I needed to be doing. So I started doing it. But I had no idea that it was a huge issue and that it was this gap in the nonprofit world that people were not addressing on a large scale.

Thank you so much for sharing that I wanted tone set with a story that Jon and I have specifically about this. I know I've shared it on the podcast at least once before, but I cannot share it in the context of this just to your point about how pervasive this issue is. So Jon, and I worked at Oklahoma's largest not for profit health care system. And so 10,000 employees was over a billion dollar organization. And it was just massive in scale. And we spent the first couple months of that new job going around and meeting with everybody and trying to understand what is heart what is transplant, what is cancer, what what are the needs. And every person that we went and saw said, I need a new building. I need a new car, I need a new tower, a cardiac tower. I need a new hospice wing. And it was just multimillion, multimillion? Well, we went to our children's mental health facility, we had a mental health facility, it was locked down for children who had suffered some of the worst abuses and injustice as you can imagine. And we went and learned about just the incredible hardness of that place and the hardships that those kids had experienced. And when we asked them the question, what do you need from the foundation, the Vice President looked straight in the eye and said, We need $10 Walmart gift cards. And we all had a visceral reaction. And we said, whoa, whoa, what do you mean? And he said, well, most of the time, our children get ripped out of their homes in the middle of the night with nothing but the clothes on their back. And the things that we need for them are clean underwear and socks. And that's what we don't have enough of. And guess who just got two of the biggest rabid fans out of that mission. Because of that phrase right there in we ended up having like an underwear and sock drive for them. And we ended up giving shoes to these kids and coats and all of these things. Because it's not just underwear. That's just the beginning of the lotus, you know of the layers that just keep pulling out of this. So I just want to share that story with everyone. Because these issues are right under our noses in every single community around the world. And so we love that you're bringing a light to this and thank you for letting go.

Thank you for sharing it is what what you said the story you're related is what we hear all the time that people give lots of different things, but nobody gives underwear. And part of that reason, thankfully, is that people do not donate their children's used underwear. And you know, I've always had this a few people don't do that. But that's really it. There's a gap because the families can't afford it. And the people aren't donating it when they donate clothes from their kids classes. They don't stop at Target and buy underwear. Right? To give it same time. Yeah.

Yep. I feel that.

Well, I mean, Amy, I mean, we're talking about these moments that stick with us. I mean, I can feel being in that room hearing that for the first time. But also I hear this stat at the top of this podcast that 11 point 6 million kids in the US one in six. I'm not over that stat you know yet I need I need your help to unpack this. Can you paint a picture for our listeners about the crisis that's in front of us right now.

It is hard. It is hard to have family these days and people want to do the best they can buy their kids and they love them and it's easy to love kids in that way that doesn't cost anything. But providing for them even just The basic things, the whole family ends up in poverty when there's not money for rent, and there's not enough food and work is sparse, the kids end up suffering a lot of times because the, the resources just aren't there for them. And the parents oftentimes do not know how to access resources to help them. And sometimes they're just too embarrassed to do that. So we, we will always have this problem, we will always have this problem.

I think I just want to know, you've brought you brought, you had this awareness moment, and you had this awakening. And the public responded to it, you know, in a very grassroots and gentle way, and people are kind of dropping things off. But it feels like there was this catalytic shift during the hurricane. And we would love to know, what happened. What was the impact there? And how did that really bring Undies for Everyone out into the public purview?

That's a great question. First, I want to say that when I started this, and look, it was 11-12 years ago, people were not so excited about talking about underwear, there was a stigma around it. That seems less so today. And we'll get into that in a minute. But, but when I started, people were not excited about discussing underwear, it is unclear why to me, because most people wear it. So anyway, So the trajectory of what I had given away between 2012 and the beginning of 2017, it was just a straight arrow up, because there's such a huge need. And I was giving it to the Houston Independent School District, to the nurses to give to the kids for when they had an accident, and they could go back to class immediately and not be bullied. That was going great. And then in late August of 17, was when Hurricane Harvey happened. And we lost our house. My husband and me

I'm sorry.

Thank you. But look, we have recently had resources, right? So it was it was terrible. But we had resources and lots of people didn't. So I went over to my friend and neighbor's house to borrow a belt. Because I didn't have one left. And and she said hey, I want to I want to do a Facebook Live on you. And my our neighbor happens to be at the time. Brene Brown. So Brene

Casual.

So when when they moved in on the street, everyone was like, did you hear the pediatrician and his wife are moving in. So there and then and then she did that TED talk anyway. So So Brene asked for our amazon link, wishlist link and our donation link. And, you know, I went back to we were living at my husband's office, I went back to what I was doing, and then the computer started dinging that night. And Brene and I stayed up refilling the Amazon wishlist because taking different categories of people, because it was it was selling out so fast. The end result was 1.5 million pair of underwear ended up arriving at my husband's office. He has he has that

What did that look like?

I've seen this image, it's unbelievable.

lots of pictures. I've lots of pictures, the post office stopped delivering to us and they said you bring a truck and they handed us scanners. It was Yeah. It was it was but I feel I love it when this I feel sure that was illegal. But nonetheless, but the owners from all over the world so it really it it created a lot of awareness and my husband and I Kenny we went down to the convention center to volunteer and we were over by the clothes and as far as you can see, there were bags of clothes that had been donated, and then there and we were sorting them and then there were the runners who would come in between giving the clothes away and the clothes and the runners would say where's the underwear whereas the underwear and there was no there was no underwear because again everyone cleaned out their closets but no one stopped and got new underwear. So I hired some friends who are super super talented. And we just said okay, we're going bigger going home and we gave away 1.5 million and then another 500,000 the following year and and we were off to the races we expanded into Texas we expanded all over the state by that time.

Oh my gosh just catch us up in what is impact look like for y'all today to date.

Okay, well then there was that other thing and it's super sad that these terrible things have to happen for Undies for Everyone to grow but it does three weeks before or the pandemic hit, the director of finance operations. And I went to Vegas to the off price clothing show. And we met

the feels like a joke.

Of course there's an off price clothing

A rabbi walked into a casino in Vegas.

It was a super interesting experience. But we met this guy who, who makes boys underwear for a very large retailer in the United States. He loved what we do. He loves what we do. And he started having the underwear made for us. And he dropped started drop shipping for us, which means that the underwear was made in the he paid to ship into his place in the United States. And then our Director of Finance and Operations truly would say to him, Okay, we need a standard order to go here and a standard order to to go here and things like that. So that allowed us to expand because prior to that, we could not figure out how to replicate what we were doing in Houston. So that was three weeks before the pandemic. And then speaking of podcasts, I was listening to how I built this with Guy Rob that pod, right guy who doesn't love that. And they had just talked to the Sweet Greens, guys, that the salad place, and they were sort of breathlessly updating us. They had interviewed him before the pandemic. And this was right as it started. And they said, let's hear what what they would do what they're doing now with their restaurant. And the three of those guys sat down and said, if we were starting sweet greens today, what would it look like? And I listened to that, and I called Julie and I said, Okay, let's meet, or we sat on our front porch, and we said, Okay, if these for everyone, we're starting today, what would it look like? So we sunset the nurse's program, it was a very nice letter that we wrote, it was not happy, but they were very gracious. And we started giving every kid seven pair of underwear and because they needed the week's supply, and we decided to use large distribution partners, because we didn't want to go around vetting small numbers of, you know, like little places that had a few kids. So did you know that there is a federal law, the McKinney–Vento Act? You heard that? Never heard of it? Every school district in the country has a homeless department, every school district because of the McKinney–Vento Act. So what happens is when parents enroll their kids, one of the questions is do you have a permanent address? And if you say no, then your child is enrolled in the homeless department. It's not well, it's not well named. Most of the kids are not living in a shelter. They're couchsurfing, between families and friends, but they don't have a permanent address. The school districts are required God love them to get those kids to their home schools through because of the McKinney–Vento Act so they can have some kind of stability. So we we can call up any place in the United States and give to their school district to the homeless department. So we started giving to them Child Protective Services, paediatric mobile clinics. And now we do community closets, and Boys and Girls Clubs.

I'm so proud of you guys.

What a beautiful case study. And I just, I know why there's a kinship because I hear our values represented and how you talk about your programs. And I see it in the believers that surround your movement to so one of the trends we listed this year as something we just think is a breakthrough way for nonprofits to show up is about locking arms for impact. But to be able to do that you have to be so focused on your impact. Because when when you can own that people want to lock arms because you realize you're not going to solve every problem. And I feel like y'all do that maybe the most beautifully I've ever seen. And that's why partners are attracted to you because you're so clearly making this impact. And you want to partner with others to feed a more holistic nurturing of these children. So I want to talk about the holistic community care aspect of this. I mean, obviously, we're talking about a really complex puzzle, thinking about how do we help kids have the best chance of success from the classroom and out how is that impact changed, you know, as you've kind of morphed as an organization to to serve these kids in a more holistic way in the part that y'all play in it.

So when we were giving one pair to when we were giving to nurses to give one pair to the child, we were putting our finger in the dam of that kids situation and they would go home with that one pair of underwear and good for us for giving them that that one pair. The the seven pair of underwear model for us has become very important because the kids can't make friends. If you They don't have the underwear at their, they loathe to go to school, right? They don't, they don't want to go. They're worried that they smell, they're worried that other kids are going to find out, they're worried that their teachers can find out, they can't concentrate on academics. So we're giving the underwear with the idea that this will help promote their self esteem and confidence so that they will continue to stay in school to attend regularly, and ultimately graduate. And I like to say, I am super clear, I know that seven pair of underwear is not what is going to keep a kid in school. But it's very important part of their growing up, because one of the skills that they get in school is making friends and having relationships and learning how to work with other people, and is they're afraid to talk to other kids because they're afraid of being found out. Or the other kids want to talk to them because the the kids smell or they're dirty, then they've lost that ability to, to have that skill. And they also can't concentrate on their academics, that that they're constantly worried and anxious. And that's going to impede their academic progress. So the underwear is about the self esteem of a dignity. But in the larger picture, it's really about them graduating, and having a better chance at success in their young adulthood.

Amy, I'm just thinking about the analogy that you just talked about right there, like putting a finger on the dam. And your commitment to this seven pairs is really aspirational. And I feel like it diverts the damn those seven pairs of underwear in some way, you know, and maybe it's downstream, there are other problems. But I just want everybody to think about, like, take yourself back to when you were a kid in elementary school. And I look at it through the lens of all my privilege, you know, and the things that gave me anxiety back then. I mean, they can't even touch what it must feel like to walk around in fear all the time that somebody may smell you or find you out over something that you have absolutely no control on. And I think you have built a very powerful narrative, to talk about how underwear is truly the great catalyst to getting somebody out of poverty, it reminds me so much Jon of this conversation we had with Amy FASS, who came in and started an organization called shoes that fit because they were just finding that kids were showing up in shoes that were two or three sizes too small. And it's like thank you to the, to the heroes among us that rise up in communities and see these problems in see these children and can find a way to be the bridge and to divert, you know, to some path. And I just really awakens my humanity, Amy that the smallest things that we do, can have a profound impact. And I feel like that's truly what you have built here. And and I want to get back to this partnerships piece a little bit because we'd love to talk with nonprofit leaders about their approach to partnerships, especially when we think that they're very evolved very to point out what's what Jon just references, locking arms for impact. And we want you to kind of talk to us about your philosophy around partnerships, and how have you seen it, really lift and create this really big impact on Undies for Everyone.

We have different kinds of partners for different reasons. I feel like we we treat our nonprofit as a business, and that we have customers and we have clients. And we want these partnerships to be the very best that we can be. In the other room right now. There's a packing going on some volunteers, and we talk about what is the best customer experience that they can have. So when we talk about partnering, we have a staff member that does nothing but reach out to possible partners, talk to them about what we do get them set up. She spends a lot of time convincing them that it's free and there's no obligation. Yes, the underwear will show up again next year. Even if they don't use all the underwear. We, we vet we vetted our partners very carefully to make sure that they were good stewards as well. We want to do everything right and we want the people that we partner to be leaders in what they do as well. So when we work with the school districts, Boys and Girls Clubs and and CPS, we have, every partner has a portal from on these for every one that they work through and all the paperwork is uploaded to the portal so that there's no communication problems, we want to make sure that those partners feel good about what they're doing. And they don't have any questions about it. And then at the end, after we, you know, through the or get everything delivered and things like that, then we have a final evaluation that they complete, so we can know what we can do better to help them help these kids. So So we partner with the groups that I told you about on the end to get to get underwear directly into the hands of the kids. But we also partner with underwear companies who are so generous to us to give us this underwear because, as you said, Becky they get it to, and they like what we do, because we're all about getting it right to the kids right into the hands of those kids. But the other way we partner is we have a program called Undies for Change. And we should talk a little a few minutes from now about how we how we publicize Undies for Everyone. But we have a program that corporations and synagogues and churches can make a donation and we will send them flat underwear bags and stickers, we have a staff member that works with them via zoom, to teach them how to do how to pack the underwear. And they get their people to pack the underwear in their city, we send it all over the United States. And then they take it to an organization in their town where the kids need underwear. So we try and partner in in as many ways as possible.

I mean, so many so many takeaways from that, and I just love that your life now is like this master supply chain operator, you

Right? She's like, don't get that out there.

No, no. That is not what I do. That's Julie's job, that's not mine.

But, let me just say, I mean, I just think it's beautiful. I don't want to keep quoting all of our like similar values here. But you are a change agent in the way that you start these conversations, you invite other people into the conversation, which is how this all began, you know, I feel like with you bringing up to light, something that people weren't comfortable talking about and stepping into it. And now you're empowering people with getting active in their own way, whether that's to replicate the actual process in their own community, or just to get involved in the discussion. So I want to talk about activation because y'all are masters at this. And if you haven't checked out, I would really recommend watching the CNN Heroes video that they did have you in the fans that surrounds this, this is a beautiful piece, just to see, the people that surround this movement is just so heartwarming to the people that are packing underwear and you know, relating to their own stories to so i want to talk about activation, how can our listeners get activated I mean, you mentioned this one program, what's a way that in your corner of the world wherever you're listening today, you could get connected with your mission?

You can go online and and we have a get involved at the at the top of our menu of the menu and says get involved. Click on it. If you're in Houston, you can come pack Undies at Undies world headquarters, we like to call it love it or or contact us to do an Undies for Change. We're doing them literally all over the country. And you can help kids in in your area. We we do 360 on level one is 360 kids that you can get underwear to and then we have virtual drives. If you want to do a virtual drive and go on our Amazon wishlist, one of our staff members will work with you and we'll put together a list that we will be able to get a really good approximation of who from your group sent the underwear to us. And then look there's always donations. Cash is king right? We we buy underwear at a very very low price and we keep our program costs low. And but we still need operating funds right when Fruit of the Loom gave us 100,000 pair of underwear suddenly we needed a forklift a warehouse guy and, and shelving so that does not pay for itself. So there are lots of ways to get involved and and keep on these keep on these healthy and going. I mean we someone said to me years ago well what what's gonna happen once you cover all the kids in Houston I said, well, they grow. Right, so next year, they're gonna need more underwear. So we're just we're just gonna keep going.

I mean, thank you are lifting just the fact that sometimes when we get these wonderful donations that do so much to advance our mission, there's added costs there. And we have to talk about those added costs the forklift, the warehouse. And accepting those gifts, you know, comes with other dynamics. And so I love that you're talking about them, because that is something I feel like missions face often. And we have to have broader conversations with donors about accepting this gift will incur these other costs. And so and we want and I know your donors are, we're seeing how passionate and rabid they are, they're gonna rise up to meet those challenges, but we got to normalize talking about those things. And so I really appreciate it. And, you know, Amy, I'm just sitting here thinking, you must have a million stories of how you have heard and witnessed lives being changed by a pair of underwear. And I would just love to know, like, a moment of philanthropy in your life that has changed you. It could be with Undies for Everyone, it could be something that was really small that happened in your childhood, what's, what's a moment of philanthropy you'd like to share with your audience that's really stuck with you.

First, I want to say that we do not follow any of the kids that that we give, and we never take a picture. We never ever have the kid hold up the package of underwear and smile, and you know, ever, ever.

Thank you. Thank you. We talk about this a lot. The ethical storytelling is important.

Right? It costs us donors, and funders for sure. But we don't. And it's one of the reasons I really like getting to large groups too, because, first of all, I'd be in tears every day. And second of all, it's just if they don't have underwear, and we're trying to build their self esteem and dignity, by giving them underwear, it's not going to be helpful if I'm following them with a camera and a microphone and calling them six months later and saying, hey, you know what those undies do for us. So we don't follow the kids. The philanthropy that that really touched me the most is during Hurricane Harvey. And we would wake up in the morning and go downstairs into into the big room of of my husband's building. And people were streaming in, there was nothing you could do. People were just coming in, and we would have 50 and 60. People just show up at the door. And I don't know how they heard about it. For the first few weeks, because nobody was working. There was no school. Everyone wanted to help them do something and word of mouth just brought people to the building. And they started what can we do? And they started unpacking. And yeah, and it was amazing, and it went on for months. So I'm super proud of Houstonians for the way they step up to help people.

That's beautiful.

And we took in a lot a lot of people from Katrina years before and from, from Hurricane Harvey, from smaller towns, and, and we just do it and we take care of those folks.

I love the humanity in that story so much. And I have to say, I absolutely love that you turn my question on its head and said, No, we don't follow these stories, because it's a part of our value system that we don't add to the trauma of these children. And I want to make sure that all of our tiny nonprofits out there who are listening who have missions where they cannot grab testimonials, or that they choose not to grab those in a way to to exploit individuals to get more donations, y'all are the real heroes, the way that you can still tell story. Without having to give that genuine face you're proving Amy, that it's possible. So thank you for that and sharing that.

So the way that we get stories is from the social workers and the educators and the people who are working with the kids. And they give us these broad stories about, oh, a little girl came in. And it impacts the bottom line for sure we, you know, all the grant grant requests that say we only do evidence based giving, we don't do that. But we made that conscious decision not to not to take that money.

And I love that you said you know, you don't know how these people showed up to volunteer. I'm like I know because when you've got believers around this mission, there is just a flood of people that believe in what you're doing and it's beyond the money. It's beyond it all to just the experience the feeling that you're creative, taking care of people that just core to your DNA.

So I do want to tell you one other one other thing about about Houstonians and, and keeping it keeping it real in Houston during Harvey, since we were living there, we were there at all hours and the doorbell rang about Seven o'clock one night. And there was a woman standing at the door. And she, I opened the door and she hands me a bag of underwear. She said, My husband and I were just driving in for my cancer treatment at MD Anderson. And we wanted to bring this underwear to you. And you know, when people dig down so deep and see past their own pain, to help other people, I just love Houston. Great, great people.

I mean, I'm tearing up right now, of course I am. I cry all the time with these stories. But I just, this whole conversation has just made me believe how good people are deep down, you know, certain people that just rise up to be the change they want to see in the world and like fighting through their pain, fighting through their own lived experience. The stories never get old. I'm sure. That was probably one of the best gifts that you ever received, you know, a hand delivery in that way. Just so powerful. Thank you.

Well, Amy, it pains me to ask you this question. Because you know, as we round out the show, we would like to ask you for your one good thing, something that you would leave with our community can be just a habit or a piece of advice or something that's maybe drummed up in your head during this conversation today that you would leave us with?

Okay, this is not pretty, right? And it is Becky, you're not going to cry. All right.

All right. Sounds good.

It's all marketing.

Oooh, keep going.

It's all marketing it, it is, you have to be able to tell your story in a way that grabs people's attention. And there's nothing wrong with selling your nonprofit. That's what we're there to do. Right? People think that using those business terms are our negative. But really, we have Allie and Sarah are our PR team. And we have a social media team, and a design team. And what we don't have is 35 brick and mortar leases in the 35 cities we distributed and 35 employees in those cities. Right? We use that money to create our message and get it out and build it up that way and use our programs like Undies for Change, not just as a way to get the underwear to the kids, but also as a domino effect of creating. Talk about undies in those 35 cities. So yeah, it's all marketing.

Marketing is mission.

Okay, you're, you're wronging me, because that almost does make me want to cry as a marketer disguised as fundraiser. I actually think I need to draw a parallel here for everyone, which I think is so powerful that you just made because you start with your storytelling and talking about how it's baked in your values and your dignity, and how there's no exploitive quality to this, we're not going to create any more harm. But you also say marketing is mission. And there is absolutely no reason why we should not be leaning full tilt into telling our story as broadly and as emphatically as possible. And I think this is something that Jon and I had been trying to awaken within the nonprofit impact community. It's like, your greatest selling point, is the way that you tell your story, because it is a magnet to other people who see themselves in that story, who remember what it felt like when I was otherised as a child, you know, to your point. And so the fact that you're leaning full tilt into that tells me exactly why this is so widespread. And I absolutely thank you for using that because it's not pretty but it is truth. And I want all of our nonprofit listeners out there to know that if you invest in this way, the compounding nature of how your mission is going to grow is going to come and you're not just going to get donors. And I'm back on my soapbox, Jon, you are going to get believers believers are exponentially more powerful than a donor because they're going to bring not only their money, they're going to bring their passion, their storytelling, their network, their friends, their lived experience, they're gonna bring a lot more to the table and that is how a movement is built. Way to go me fast. We're your biggest fan look

at people don't want to spend the money. Right? They're very, very afraid. They're they're happy to tell their story, but they're very afraid to hire PR wizards like Sarah and Sarah and ally, but it is the best spent money to get the story out there. And don't be afraid to tell your funders that you're spending X amount of money on PR and marketing, and you're saving money by not doing X, Y, and Z.

Amy, you're so our people, we knew you're our people, but you just brought it to a different level. So thank you. I mean, we've shared some ways that people can connect with your mission. But what's the best way to follow you keep up with everything happening points to the website. And if you show up on LinkedIn, or wherever else,

we are on these for everyone.org or on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, follow us, be a part of us and help more kids get more hundies. And I'm so grateful Becky and Jon, that y'all gave me this opportunity and to Evan, the new dad. Hey, Zane. Awesome man, to give us the opportunity to talk about how we can help kids in the most basic way.

Well, we're for goods made a donation to your organization while we were talking and we believe in it, I encourage anyone who has the means or ability to make a gift or just show up for your own community find a place to drop off some uneven socks this week. If you're looking for a random act of kindness. That is a beautiful one. So do it. Please but you are amazing. Your team is outstanding. This mission is so needed we are rooting for it mightily,

and we are grateful for the work that you do to help people help other people. So thanks a lot.

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