neon one makes software solutions specifically built for nonprofits. You can finally have your donor management fundraising software, program management and nonprofit operations all in one place. Learn how neon one can help your nonprofit create long lasting relationships by visiting neon one.com backslash beer for good. Hey, I'm John. 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, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
So let's get started. Here, yo, Becky, what's happening?
I'll tell ya, you know, we are always on the hunt for creators in the market people who are thinking differently about something. And a couple months ago, I met Melissa moody on LinkedIn as I do a lot of amazing humans. And she came just with an open hand to our conversation, we just clicked and I absolutely loved what she was doing to disrupt the email Chaos Space. And so you're gonna get a twofer for one on this conversation. Today we are for Guterres because not only are we going to be talking about this concept we've brought up even in our 20 to 2022 trends, which is the evolution of corporate partnerships. And we're going to be talking about how to integrate CSR into companies through collaboration. But we're also going to give you a working smarter, not harder tip with this incredible company that Melissa has co founded called gated. So I want to back up a little bit and introduce you to her. She is the co founder and chief marketing officer at gated, which is a high growth startup that reduces unwanted email in your inbox while still benefiting charity. Can we all get on board that that is amazing solution. But she's also this passionate advocate for human first products. And she's also a multifaceted expert in digital marketing strategy. So before she went to gated she spent 13 years working at Google, where she led Industry Marketing and mobile web partnerships for some of the world's largest travel companies. She is coming to us live from Anchorage, Alaska, we finally got Alaska represented on the podcast here. And she just has an incredible family. They spent a lot of time outdoors, volunteering and traveling. So we're gonna dive into gated we're gonna dive into going beyond just having a giving arm on your company. But first, we want to welcome Melissa in thanks for making time to come on the podcast, Melissa.
Oh, I'm so excited to be here. I am quite a little bit of a fan girl have you too. I love the pod. I like in your intro. You mentioned rabid fans. And that's probably the category that I would get dropped into. You know, I'm a fan of what you've built here. But I also am a fan of just the overall community coming together and looking beyond the traditional solutions and looking to the challenges of the future when it comes to charitable giving. So thrilled to be here thrilled to share a little bit about what what we're building and I think that conversation is gonna be a good one. Because you always have such great perspectives.
Yeah, I do too. And the fact that we're fangirling over each other just feels the reciprocity seems ballots. So before we dive into gated into, you know, the CSR 2.0 We want to get to know you a little bit. So like, take us through your journey. I want to know about Melissa growing up, I want to know how you got into this work and how did you land in Alaska?
Wow, do you want me to go way back? Okay, I, you know, I'll try to make it quick. I'm a I'm a Californian. Originally I was born or raised in the Bay Area. I have always been someone who's kind of very active and likes to live a big life. I like to do big things and have big experiences. Went back east for a couple years. Actually a little known fact about me is I have a master's in education. I taught students with language based learning disabilities, that was actually my first career. And so I have a lifelong passion for education. But over time, I actually made the shift into marketing. And I always love to tell the story that you know, teaching, you have a message and you have an audience and you have to get the audience to understand your message. And well, let's face it, that's a lot of marketing, right that that is marketing. So I made a pivot in about 2006. And started working at Google kind of moved into a more corporate world, bringing some of that idea of storytelling and effective teaching to the corporate narratives that we're building for the travel industry. Long story short, 14 years at Google was a wonderful time incredible people. And one of the things as you mentioned, Becky, that I really learned in that time was By putting the end user first for whatever you're doing, listen, it really goes back to teaching to understand who you're trying to get your message through to always put them first, you'll have better messaging, you'll build better products, you'll be more human, let's face it. And so yeah, there's a lot to that. In terms of kind of like the part of the reason why I'm excited to be here is early on in life, I was kind of raised in a home that placed a very high value on charitable giving, but more specifically volunteering, like hands on. So that's always been a thread through what I do kind of wherever I live, it's been very location based, because I like to do things that are close and hands on and really getting into the giving, rather than just writing a check. So 2014 was still with Google decided to move to Alaska. Like I said, big wildlife is the name is the tourist slogan for Anchorage, Alaska. And, yeah, I have a small family up here, we get outside a lot. I'm a big part of the entrepreneurial community up here, I still sit on the state tourism marketing boards, like travel and big things. And giving back even through the entrepreneurial thing has always been a big part of who I am. That's a lot of a life compounded into about three minutes. But the way I came to gate it was in 2020, after almost 14 years at Google, I realized that I love having an impact, I like seeing my actions deliver results. And in a very large company, sometimes you lose that. And there are a lot of factors going into it. But I just decided to say thank you very much, I'm gonna go look for something else. And I actually left Google with nothing, and no job on the back end, because I wanted to think about what comes next. So I spent about six months doing paid consulting and pro bono consulting. Actually, some were with kind of nonprofits, someone with real startups. And eventually found gated and came on basically as employee number two, along with my co founder, to bring an idea to market and we'll talk more about what that idea is, but it was really joining a company at the idea stage where it's, we have a vision, and we have this really cool solution that seems like it's gonna be something, how do we bring that to market? How do we actually create, you know, a real product and a real brand out of this cool idea.
I love this just kind of organic way to show our representation I love for different nonprofits, because to me, you know, corporate giving gets a little bit of bad rap on some of these bigger reports, because it's such a smaller piece of the pie. But to me, there's so much more uplift in the conversations that it creates and what it does just from a visibility perspective, and so I'm curious if you've seen other companies incorporate incorporating the social good component into their operations, like what are some that you think are really disrupting this kind of 2.0? Model?
Yeah, you know, I do think it's interesting, because there are a lot who do kind of CSR well, like, as it exists like this model that I guess what, I'll speak to one that comes to mind that is a little bit more about what we're doing, which is, it's just woven into the actual business itself. Ecology, do you guys know, ecology? It's a little bit more tied to the side of, there's so many darn activism, but basically, environmental responsibility, like it's more tied into that, as opposed to indirect charitable giving. But what they do is they I mean, it's a lot around carbon offsets, but they think about financial, and tax systems that exist in businesses. And then they think about how to essentially like plant trees to offset that, but in a way that connects to those financial systems. So they're not just saying and also go plant a tree. They're saying, like, as it's part of your financial and tax auditing systems, how do we build in these backend mechanisms that are just constantly earning? Right? In this case, it's for the environment, but like, think about those channels, which you could literally do nothing. But once you've turned them on, they're just earning. They're rolling. They're kind of accruing value. Yeah, I It's hard. Because yeah, a big sexy donor that writes a huge check is, is really cool. But if we start thinking in this modern model of like, how many different switches? Can I flip that I literally have to do nothing for, and they're just going to start earning for me. That's a really cool, I guess, more modern, more data driven way to think about new CSR to point out or however, we don't call it super smart.
Yeah, I just think this is an evolved conversation and you're taking our minds and you're moving them forward in a great way and helping us just dream a little bit bigger, because these partnerships don't have to be the static things that they used to be in the past. They're very much living, breathing, you know, evolutions of the way that we can lift each other in really unique ways. And I want to talk to you about the value of sort of roll up the small value of roll up programs for nonprofits because I think this is an area of corporate philanthropy that a lot of you Blue are aware of and they've probably participated in them. And I'm talking about like Amazon smile or target circle or grocery store rewards. Talk about what the value of these programs would be and how nonprofits can successfully participate in them. Yeah, I'll get a little self centric
here and talk about kind of the value we see from gates. But I think we can extrapolate it out to those other programs we very much am when I talk to nonprofits about what we do I often compared to Amazon smile in that sense, like, I do think that's how we kind of fit in is this rolling, small donation, small recurring donation. So I break it down into three buckets. The first is the actual funds, right? Like you will be raising funds. Now, if you look at your Amazon smile account, you're not raising 1000s of dollars all the time. But it's that little ticker that keeps rolling up. And when you think about my friend group, my entire metropolitan area, and then everybody who could be doing this, the impact could be massive, right? Those little stones that pile up into the mountain. So the funds are small, but this idea of dropping the bucket becomes a lot of buckets becomes the lake kind of mentality. The second thing is for us at gated, there's a brand awareness play, like Amazon smile doesn't really have this, but with gated when you use it, and that email goes out. Even if someone doesn't donate to reach me. They've just learned about Team Rubicon, at the very least they've read the words Team Rubicon, right? Maybe I think their curiosity, we're also experimenting with like, can we put a video in the in the email? So they see it can the logo you know, a picture of you know what they do? So if the gray shirts in action, so there's a brand awareness there as well, every time at least with gated, every time a challenging goes out? That's like a brand impression, you're probably taught up like what that counts for in the media worlds, right? There's a value to that. The third bucket, which has come from the conversations I've had directly with nonprofits, I think is really interesting, which is that mentality in the giving world of I go all year long, and then the holidays roll around, and I write a check, right? I don't think about it, I don't think about it, here come the holidays, or the big fundraising event. And so I go, here's check. I think what's really interesting about smile and target circle, and what we do at gated is the potential for recurring donor engagement. As you mentioned, you're basically asking people to align their personal brand, with your mission, right, like you're trying to give them with. So every time I use email, I'm actually kind of closer to this mission, which maybe I see a social post, and I give, or maybe I give at the end of the year, but otherwise you don't have those touch points with your donors. And so I think gated actually serves a really cool purpose in that front, which is a much more regular relationship to the donor. Yeah, you can't maybe like, you know, hold the big checkup in front of the fancy, like everybody in their black and white gowns. But if I think they're thinking, I'm excited to see like, yeah, I'm excited to really we also, we're just starting. So like last week, we just started when calling it a partner program, which is, you know, zero spend zero lift other than feedback, but it's a small group of nonprofits. We're asking them, like, how does this impact you? What have you seen? What are you seeing? What could the potential be? What data do you want back from us as we do this? Because honestly, I'm excited to see what that impact is. Maybe you guys have some perspective. You've probably seen it in a lot more spaces than I have.
Yeah, I mean, I kind of love the Omni pneus of it, you know that it's kind of everywhere. And I think of like this interview we did with the she's the first founders Tammy Tibbets and Kristin Brandt. And I think when we all recognize there's small things that we can do, because we kind of pick on stuff like smile, because it shouldn't be like your core strategy. But as like a consumer as a person of how do I show love to the charities that I want to lift, doing, like creating this ecosystem around you of support. What Tammy Tibbets shared was like just putting a link in your bio to your favorite charity is going to give all this brand recognition. And it's a small thing, but it's like, as the impact uprising we talk about as we all do these small things, it really does add up and just elevates the conversation if nothing else.
Yeah, I mean, it puts to mind for me, Johnny Immerman was close talk, right? Like, Johnny doesn't love Johnny. Hi, Johnny. Oh, my God. Like putting a brand on your chest. You're like, oh, you know, little thing, but that's big. Those are brand impressions. You're telling people this is a mission. I believe that it's, it is quantifiable. And I I always to your point about like Amazon smile. I often refer to as this idea of like, either a y naught, or sometimes I like to call gait at the Yes. And like, Are you donating to Team Rubicon? Yes. And I support them with this.
There is joy in that. I mean, as the target circle family over here, it's fun to like, put your votes in there, you know, and you feel connected to the causes. So what do you think is the most beneficial way that nonprofits can really be successful with these programs that kind of just lift their mission and kind of these different unique ways.
I think that's a really good question. I had I thought some notes up on this earlier about I'll speak up. I think I've got about three small ideas. The first is I think give ownership to someone in the org around these whether that's your marketing team or like your your donor engagement lead, give someone ownership about this idea of like the yesterday, I'm just going to, we're calling it this. Now this is a new category, but yes, and thanks, right. Those that because, you know, like you said, popping in at the bottom of newsletters, so yeah, sure, of course, I'll do that little lightweight lifting things. I think that as long as someone's owning them at the org, it's just like a, it's a why not? Like they're these are super quick wins, put them on your pile. track them every three months, you know, like, you don't have to be all over it all the time. But I think that that's one. The second thing is, is, honestly, this is a takeaway I had from the last six months of really looking at some of the nonprofits out there. Guys, go and hire a social media intern, please,
please say it again, I'll say, even an intern.
I mean, pay an intern pay a college student. But there are so many people out there talking about each of your organizations, and it is so easy to spend 15 minutes a day, look for the people who are already talking about you and just say hi, like, a baseline level of engagement is really cool. I have been out here talking about these nonprofits and uplifting them not even talking about gate it just like aren't they doing something cool? Nothing crickets, right? I mean, I get it. We're all busy. We're all strapped, I'm going to start up, I feel a nonprofit, like, we don't have enough people, we don't have enough budget 15 minutes a day on one or two platforms that you think are most useful, could go a long way you're going to find opportunities, you're going to find fans, you're going to find potential donors. So it doesn't necessarily tie in just to this idea of these like, kind of, yes, and channels. But I think that little component of like, don't forget to get out of your must do silos and be listening to people listen for these opportunities. Because there's some probably real quick wins out there. So yeah, I'll say that all day. Go into Listen, typing. I mean, it's so easy to search online these days. There's free tools like trender comes to mind. You just type in your keywords. It's free. And they'll tell you who was talking about you
and Melissa's friends at Google are the ones powering that.
Gender is not Google's I would try try gender. Yeah,
I do think that it's a good call to action to just see where are people talking about you like I, I play in LinkedIn, you know, more than any other social platform for this business. And I am like you constantly gobsmacked by the fact that some of my favorite nonprofits don't have a LinkedIn presence. And the idea that you don't think that business people are talking about your nonprofit that people are only talking about it on Facebook or Instagram is just really small thinking and we think LinkedIn, you know, as I'm giving, I guess, a plug for LinkedIn here. You know, it is such a powerful playground. If you are truly looking at Evolve corporate partnerships, go follow every single one of your board members, you know, find out who has in, you know, network connections to brands and companies and individuals that you want to get in front of this is the easiest place to set up your nonprofit social presence because you want people in this in this social platform talking about you because these are doers. You're not on tick tock looking at Crazy videos at 2am of people doing you know weird stuff, or trying weird foods. I mean, this is concentrated, you know, attention. And I and I'm with you if you can just find where your people are. And let me bless your all's heart and say you don't have to be everywhere. No, please don't be everywhere. It's going to stress you out. So get on Friendster, figure out where people are talking about you and go find your people and interact with them. It is the easiest engagement 2.0 that you could possibly do online.
I agree. I mean, like, here's the quick tip. So if to Becky's point, if you're not on LinkedIn, just go and set up a page, start 15 minutes, set up a page so that people can tag you. So if they're talking about you, there's one that came up the SPCA. I couldn't tag them couldn't tag them. couldn't call
them not on LinkedIn. Yeah. So
there although maybe the local ones are doing a better job but set up a page so people can tag you set up 30 minutes a week folks I'm talking minimum and this can be for your you know, your CEOs daughter if you're really strapped on people, right? Like, go online. Look at who tagged you look at typing in the search bar and see some of those terms and just respond you don't even have to post regularly you don't have to build content, just respond just engage like how simple Can you make it number one be there and number two, engage don't even worry about building content if you're if you're that strapped
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I mean, this is a creators market right now people, everyone can be a thought leader. We've said that over and over again. And I just think that this is just working smarter listening well, and we just have to build a new way of work. It's not just, I think about the days John, do you remember this, like stuffing billers, like when you're in tax receipts and things? Like I really hope those days are behind us? I know a lot of people are going to be doing that in January. But it's also like how do we automate and just work smarter? You know, that's I think that's going to help our mental health and it's going to help our mission scale faster. So, okay, Melissa, we want to move into marketing. And we want to know about marketing opportunities that exist for nonprofits. So how can for profit companies and nonprofits approach all of these marketing opportunities you're talking about? In a way that's uplifting? It feels good for everyone. And it is totally not smarmy. Let us know all the secrets.
Totally. I mean, one thing to know about marketing today is that we are seeing a really strong shift toward you know, the quick buzzword is content marketing, a little bit more industry specific is like demand generation, which basically says, you're putting a lot of stuff out there where people are going to be interested in you asking for you wanting to learn more, versus showing up and saying this is what we do come and try it. It also extends to sales. So in the sales side of the world, social selling is a big hot topic, which means show up have a personal brand, be someone that people trust so that when they need something, you're there to sell. It's all this idea that from marketing standpoint, you want to be there and show up without necessarily shutting, you know, a sales pitch down anyone's throat. I think this plays really well into what you're talking about where businesses and nonprofits come together in any kind of partnership, because it's not about intimate, you know, we all do this at some time. But it's not about get the product here. It's about uplifting, cool stuff. So a big part of the way it gated that we approach that is I'm going to talk about what nonprofits are doing. Without saying, don't get gated turn it on right now. Right? I'm just gonna say this is for the nonprofits in our partner program and kind of this limited program we have, I'm going to feature them, I'm going to share their posts, I'm going to amplify that. Because it's just interesting to people. And it starts people thinking from my side, there is a nonprofit element to this company called gated, and they're aligning what we do with something that we talk about. So I think it's just an add in from a nonprofit standpoint. Same thing, you're not saying Give, give, give, give give, you're saying this, we do really well Team Rubicon does a great job of this, right? Like, look at what we're doing on the ground, check out what's happening here. They're not saying Give, give, give, give, give, even though we should it's look at the great work being done. So I think actually, nonprofits do really well on that front. And so when it comes to the partnerships with for profit companies, number one is think about the great content. Think about who you can talk about, think about what they've done, let's show success stories. Let's show points of need. But it's not about like talk about the partnership, so much is just up level each other uplift each other.
Yep. I mean, we're always here for the uplift, you know, and I think the uplift in these conversations often for us is really talking about the power of philanthropy. And I know that is like a thread of your story, too. You believe in the power of that. And I would just give you space today to like, take us back to a moment in your life that has really moved you you know, as philanthropy can be small or big, but take us back to a story that's really impacted you.
Yeah, this is really nice. I, you know, I think of the start of philanthropy for me, was actually there's a national organization called national charity League, its mothers and daughters. And there are chapters all around the country. And my mom actually started a chapter in the area I grew up in, specifically because, yeah, so it was a group of I think probably like 26th graders, and it's six through high sixth through 12th grade. And it's mothers and daughters and you run your meetings and you pick projects and you do work. But the thing the moment that comes to mind for me is it really clicked for me. We were putting too other packages for a battered women's shelter. And there's so many projects where you put together like the stuff they need, right? The shampoos and the feminine products, whatever. And then you just send it out the door. But we took it to the shelter, and we sat down with them. And we talked with them. And we met, some of them were living there with their kids and with her daughter's. And I remember that moment because it took it from like charitable giving, which honestly, a lot of people with young kids, it's a little separated, right? Like you don't always expose them to the reality of what you're giving you just like we're doing good. Look at this. I have my own kids. I feel like sometimes it's a little separated. But I remember the moment of sitting in there and talking with them and seeing the situation I think that hands on I mean, I mentioned it earlier, but I think hands on charitable work. Philanthropy is a really, really powerful component of just the broader charitable giving, right, like you can cut a check. Being somewhere and hearing stories in person and holding hands or, you know, pulling people out of buildings like the gray shirts do like that brings philanthropy to such a visceral level I I totally remember, it was a amazing shelter in the East Bay, like in Oakland. Such a definitely a memorable moment for me.
That's awesome. And you remember something like that when you touch it? When you can hear it. You have memories of what did it smell like in there? And what was he wearing? And how did his face look when he told me this and I agree with you. I think the experiential part of our business is one of the great humanizing ways that we can connect people to missions. So okay, Melissa, we're winding down conversation and you know, we're gonna pitch you are one good thing. So what kind of a one good thing would you offer up to our community today? Can't wait.
I mean, is this just a gimme, because one good thing is gate it guys go and you just serve this one up on a platter, get your board executives or who I mean, heck, send it out to all your membership, but like, get gated running and start benefiting from it today. Like there's no lift, you don't have to pay a cent. You don't even have to do anything on your your side, you're just gonna start seeing small dollar amounts and brand exposure coming in. If anybody's really excited, they can talk to me about the nonprofit partner program. But really seriously, like, if people turn on gated and start using it, you literally have to do nothing. And you're starting to see benefits. So it's a good thing because it's low left. And I know nonprofits do not have the bandwidth for too much they do
not you are correct.
I get away with that as my answer.
We're gonna give you that one. That's again, me.
So tell us how people can connect with you. I mean, you're up in Alaska. So if anyone's up in the anchorage area, you know, look up, Melissa, but how Where do you hang out online? How can people find and connect with you
super cool. Um, I'm definitely on LinkedIn, as Becky talked about. But I also I do a lot under the handle of what's called Two Pizza Marketing. I'm really passionate about small team marketing. So any companies or nonprofits I suppose that have small teams, we call Two Pizza Marketing, because of that two pizza rule where like, if you have more than more people on your team that can eat two pizzas, your team is too big. So yeah, it was a joke. It was like a Jeff Bezos anecdote, I think. But um, so I'm on like, tick tock is Two Pizza marketing. I'm on LinkedIn, like LinkedIn, that's also one of my handles, we have a podcast. So either find me through gated LinkedIn is great. And I will say, because I have gated, anyone can email me, it's melissa@data.com, I'll share my email left and right, because you're gonna get some experience. And I am very proud. We don't require people to respond to everything. But I reply to every single one who makes a donation because I have the time since I'm not looking at all the other crap
you've got, you've taken back ahold of your inbox and you've gotten control of it while still doing good. I just really appreciate you coming into the community wishing you well, with your baby startup, as we're working through our baby startup and just really encourage our community out there, just find something to do to help yourself work a little bit smarter. Give yourself some bandwidth, because we want to spend that extra time pouring into the things we love and the missions that we love. So thank you, Melissa, so much. Appreciate you coming on today.
It's my pleasure. Thank you. I love the focus that you guys have. And I just hope everyone can make the time to stay focused on what they're really focused on. So I appreciate you having me love being here. It's good to see you both.
Thank you, Melissa. You.
Hey, friends. Thanks so much for being here. Did you know we create a landing page for each podcast episode with helpful links, freebies and even shareable graphics. Be sure to check it out at the link in this episode's description. You probably hear it in our voices but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you achieve more for your mission than ever before. We'd love for you to join our good community. It's free and you can think of it as the after party to each podcast episode. You can sign up today at we are for good.com backslash Hello. One more thing If you loved what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating and review? It means the world to us in your sub where it helps more people find our community Thanks friends I'm our producer Julie confer and our theme song is Sunray by Remy Borsboom
