9 Nonprofit Trends That Matter in 2024: It's No Longer Business as Usual. Period. - Jon McCoy, Becky Endicott, and Brett Hagler

9:40PM Jan 19, 2024

Speakers:

Becky Endicott

Jonathan McCoy

Brett Hagler

Keywords:

story

philanthropy

changing

year

brett

people

innovation

talk

organization

work

mission

homelessness

principles

love

nonprofit

podcast

unpack

evolved

world

opportunity

Hey, I'm Jon.

And I'm Becky.

And this is the We Are For Good podcast.

Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.

We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an Impact Uprising.

So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.

So let's get started. What's happening my friend?

I will tell you, Jon, the days of yore are gone, I've been wanting to use yore. Y-O-R-E.

Thank goodness, too.

Yes. And I think it's a beautiful thing. Can we embrace this, please?

Please, because you know, friends, what Becky's alluding to here is that it is no longer business as usual period. We want to welcome you back. We're unpacking the nine nonprofit trends that we really wanted to highlight this year, we think they matter in the nonprofit space, we think that they are just kind of opportunities in front of us when you're feeling like there's nowhere to go. These are trends to pour into. And we're unpacking them with experts the first few weeks of the year. And so why are we saying it's no longer business as usual? It's our first trend, because the reality is set in things are never going back to the way it's always been. And a lot of ways that's relieving. Right? There was a lot of things and processes.

I feel the exhale.

Yeah, for sure. So we just believe it's time to embrace creativity and new solutions, new revenue models and business models for how we can show up and do our work. Because in this, you know, space, we challenge you a lot to think about the bigger right questions that you're asking yourself, How are we moving the needle in the actual impact we're trying to bring to the world. And that means there's gonna be a lot of different tactics that are going to shift in doing that new partnerships that may evolve. And at the cornerstone of it, we have to just self improve. And it's all about our own journey of like, how do we show up to be more of a growth minded leader in every day of this.

So we want to dive into some key points on this. And I want to set something very foundationally in this trend, and it is the only way to show up is with a growth mindset. If you are new to that concept. It is this belief that there is more to learn, there is more to be shaped within you that you are a work in progress. And that is not tethered to your KPI, that is not tethered to your job description, that is tethered to you, as a human being no matter where you wander in this lifetime, in your career, as a volunteer as a human being, we want you to show up and evolve. So we really want you to lean into the power of self improvement and create a rhythm of iterating making things better shift by shift we were just talking to a brilliant friend in the community, Amber Fogarty this week, over at the Stand Together Foundation, and she said, you know, for years, I held one hour on my calendar every single week for professional development. And she said there were so many times people tried to creep on that hour, and I kept it absolutely immobile. And the growth that I was able to experience in that one hour as it compounded year after year, you can see why she's in such an incredible position right now and really moving the sector in powerful ways. And so I think that's one really high key point and takeaway to take away from this. I think another one is there is not a one size fits all model in this brave new world that we're standing in it, whether it's a nonprofit, whether it's in media, whether it's an interconnectivity, and it's like, we have to be open to the way that we can get there, but keep that value and vision completely central. And the last key takeaway we want you to think about is look for ways to innovate all the time. Are you looking and evaluating your systems in your office? Is that operationally, is it your engagement strategy? Is it your donor relations are your stewardship? What needs to be completely overhauled? Given a fresh lens on and P.S. You can really innovate well if you can make it human.

Absolutely. Well, I mean, this is not a new conversation for the podcast, we love talking about living in the vortex of just like innovation and embracing change and kind of modeling that growth mindset in our life and work. And so we've put together a playlist and I can't wait for you to go back through the catalog. I mean, we had some epic conversations around this, got a shout out to Dan Pallotta, who has been in the seat a couple of times talking about, you know, it's time to unthink everything you know about change to really look at our sector and the way that we go about work and marketing and kind of all the frameworks through a different lens. And then we had the GOAT, one of the greatest humans we've met along the journey Seth Godin came in at the beginning of Season Eight of the podcast, and one quote that he shared, and this is in our playlist, but I think it's so powerful is that what can we do differently, scarily differently, where we take responsibility for me that's what it means to be alive. Seth, I mean, that is a growth mindset leader because you Look at like what an opportunity it is to grow and like to get to live in that space where you are not just like floating through comfortably, but like feeling engaged and feeling passionate to get to try new things for our missions. And so we also are dropping in this playlist. I mean, nonprofits that are looking at mergers and acquisitions, and how that can be a powerful force for impact that's 482 with Danielle Steer. And then just like being a future ready organization, this brass tacks episode of like, how do you actually do the work when you got forces of nature? And remember, this is the episode literally of forces of nature.

Four forces of nature.

Four catastrophic, yes, all coming at Erin Davison, who is down with Big Brothers and Big Sisters in Southern Louisiana, and just an incredible organization that is living this out loud. And so really want to get that playlist in your hands so you can feel inspired to keep pouring into this.

But you know, we're always going to stay curious, like, what what's happening in your shops, and so we went to the community. And we asked you all what are you seeing what what are those engagement signals you're seeing? That it's no longer business as usual? And the responses honestly, were shocking and not shocking when she say, Jon?

Right, totally.

Like I expected some of them. And I didn't, I mean, Amanda Clayton, saying we're having lower engagement, Douglas Martin says they're seeing over it Do Real Good. donors don't open and answer emails as much as they do. But maybe they're starting to respond to phone calls. Kathleen Rivera also mentioned that no one wants to go to their galas anymore. And then we've also seen some things like open rates are staying the same, but click through rates have gone down, social reaches down social advertising is probably going to be more expensive this year. So a lot of those digital trends, a lot of them are just some of those darlings that we've held on to for so long within our organizations that maybe our executive director or a founder, or maybe our board chair just cannot let go of that don't necessarily make sense for us now. And we need to reimagine those, and even decide, is it time to sunset a little bit. So these are all signals that business as usual, is not cutting it anymore. We have to reimagine our work, we have to reimagine connection. And it really starts with you.

Yeah, and y'all, we love doing these things in community. And that's the power of finding like minded peers across the sector across the world, or maybe across town from you that want to lock arms and doing this and those that we see doing it right now. Look at charity:water, you know, they had a really disruptive approach to say, what would happen if we had a two bank account model? Like what would it look like if, you know, the operations were funded from one account, and the impact is funded from another account, and we talked to New Story. And today, it is so exciting, we have New Story's co-founder and CEO coming into this episode to add some color to this, but you're gonna hear the story of how they keep iterating, the program delivery because they're obsessed with making impact and learning and growing along the way. And so we're gonna give you really the playbook for how they do it as Brett unfolds that later. But also, we love looking at FarmLink project, you know, this startup that just came about just in the middle of the pandemic. They're evolving partnerships, and leveraging influencers, and investing in media like telling their story through new media in an engaging way, to kind of cut through the noise and be on par with a lot of the other things that are capturing our hearts and minds. And so there's just so many people that are doing it well, and I think hopefully, this series is gonna connect you in with some tools. So you can start implementing this too. And we got to get to some pro tips.

Yeah, we got to get some pro tips, because you know, we want you activated in this trend. And the first one, I've already mentioned it once, but I'm double downing on it, because I really want you to prioritize leaning into that power of self improvement, I don't want you to feel guilty about it, I don't want you to feel like you're giving too much to yourself. Because the more you are fed, the more your organization is going to be fed, the more that your soul is going to be fed. So create that rhythm of learning, of iterating, of making things better, shift by shift, we call this 1% shifts, every new learning is going to be something that leads you to growth in the future.

Okay, the next one is all about getting clear on your values and vision, getting really clear on where you're going. And then it's going to take you on a path that you know, you're probably going to have to say no or say quit certain things that have been maybe part of your institution for a really long time. I want to give you a new verb to insert here. And that is sunset. You know, things sometimes have to come to a close and there's probably things happening, maybe it's a program, maybe it's an event we've done, we've sent out a couple of events in our career. But when the tactics are no longer serving, you are serving your mission and your beneficiary. It's time to let them go. And that's totally okay when it's no longer business as usual. I mean, there's no better way to talk about business as usual, then really to get one of the people that is like leading this effort so well. And so it's a huge honor to round out today's episode by bringing in the CEO and co-founder of New Story Brett Hagler, which you probably have heard of them, because we talk about them a lot. But let me tell you a little bit about Brett's story and we're going to kick it over to him. He is just this brilliant mind, you know, he went through Y Combinator. And if you haven't dug into what that process looks like, you're gonna get a feel for the type of human that he is. He's also a cancer survivor. He's been recognized on Forbes 30 under 30 list. He's named one of the top 100 most intriguing entrepreneurs by Goldman Sachs. And, you know, New Story was named one of the most innovative companies in the world for different times that Brett and his team are working to pioneer solutions to end global homelessness. We talk about their vision, that's just so clear that they're really open handed to how it takes shape. And one of those ways they built the world's first 3D printed community is one of their experiments to figure out, how can we do this in a sustainable way. So Brett is pairing innovation traditionally, you know, reserved for exclusive Silicon Valley type thinkers with this beautiful altruistic mission. And we're so glad to have you, Brett to talk about this topic with us today. Thanks for joining us.

Very happy to be here. And I love the podcast that y'all have to inspire others. So thanks for having me on.

So we're really talking about business as usual is gone, that that phase of life and for the sector is gone. And I just can't imagine a more progressive, nonprofit, enterprise social enterprise, then New Story. And so we want to talk about like the latest chapter of New Story. We love, absolutely love your team want to give a shout out to Sara Lee, who we've had on the podcast and dragged into lots of panels before, but you're really working to pioneer the solutions to end global homelessness. And I want to thank you for that. Because that's an issue that is really near and dear to our family's heart. But we want you to kind of walk our listeners through the journey of new stories and mission, it really hasn't changed. But your strategy has evolved over time. And we just want to know, like, what's the journey been like? Talk to us about the differences between like a traditional housing charity, and like the work that New Story Homes is doing?

Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there. It's a duality meaning. On one hand, it's been extremely exciting and on the other hand, it's been extremely challenging, right, because when you, there are pros and cons of evolving and changing, right there are, most people think of evolving or changing, or innovating as having usually associated with it a lot of upside potential. And that's true. But it also can bring real internal and external challenges to deal with, right. And so, you know, New Story has gone through quite a significant. It's deeper than evolution, but quite a significant change from how we started. And I'll kind of walk everybody through that. So, you know, we started when myself and my co-founders were 24, and 25 years old, were very young. I think in our DNA is a lot of things that we still see today. And that is that like pioneering spirit, and kind of more innovation, forward and status quo, challenging spirits, I think we also have a, just a maniacal desire for learning, and improving. I think that we also, and this doesn't have to be for everybody. And I genuinely mean this. But we also have a desire for kind of like, fundamentally more scalable solutions. And, and so you kind of add all that up. And what started as an organization that was essentially funding houses with philanthropy has evolved quite significantly to how we do our work. And I'll unpack a lot of that. The things that haven't changed is, we are incredibly passionate about vulnerable families having the opportunity to have generational changing housing, and land ownership, and everything that comes with that. And so that has not changed. And I'd say our kind of passion for kind of having a pioneering spirit to find solutions hasn't changed. And so we kind of went through this process of, in the very beginning, our first five years, we were, we were really proud of the work we did, of how we did, you know, community planning and human centered design and how we use technology to build houses, how we engage local workers and local materials. I mean, so many things that I'm proud of, and that we're proud of, and we honestly could have kept doing for a very long time, and probably could have had a great year, year over year growth in that model. But what we learned is that for the problem that we're working on, which is a global housing crisis, we would argue that maybe aside from something else, like climate change that this is the this is the most expensive and the largest problem in the world, and it's growing. If you zoom out and think about the problem 1.6 billion people live in inadequate housing, that does not mean that every single person is, you know, experiencing homelessness on the street, but they are not living in adequate housing. And that number is expected to almost double right. And so if you do some math on how much philanthropy would that take to solve the problem, and then you keep needing to put philanthropy towards it year after year, and I'm not exaggerating this number, you're talking north of $20-25 trillion, right? And so doesn't work at scale. And so we realized that and, and we kind of went down this multi year, rabbit hole of figuring out a more efficient, more sustainable and more scalable way. And over the course of those years, made many mistakes, did many things that we thought had a chance to be more sustainable and scalable, but we were wrong. And it took about, I'd say, at least three years, if not more, four years, to finally arrive that a clear thesis and a clear model that we are incredibly excited to scale. But it took a lot of wandering and learning to get there. So I can unpack a lot of that, I'd say, you know, New Story. We kind of made those decisions intentionally. And, and when you make those decisions, and you're learning, you're making changes, that can be hard internally on team members, on people you recruit, and then you find something else that also could be really hard on external communication. And we experienced that and just being really, really transparent. Like, we experienced that the last two years externally, if you look at New Story here, just look at our kind of growth chart over this is going to be our ninth year. So if you look at New Story's first six years, I mean, we're up into the right every year getting into, you know, well over 10 million in revenue year over year climbing. And then our last two years have been have been down revenue wise. And I think a lot of that is because you need to have more clarity, with communication and we're trying to learn and figure it out and innovate. Because we know what's on the other side of that is worth it and is going to be way more scalable and fundamentally, more impactful. But the path to get there has come with a lot of challenges for us the last last couple years, to be honest. And so all to say I feel today, starting 2024 truly the best I've ever felt about the organization and about what we've learned. But we definitely have gone through a metamorphosis. And when you go through that, it can be ugly and challenging in the middle, but you go through it because on the other side is a whole new life and a whole new world of opportunities that you wouldn't have if you didn't go through it. So that's just kind of me sharing where where we're at right now and what it's what it's really been like the last couple years.

Brett, I am sending you the biggest fist bump across the screen for your vulnerability to come in here and to share what this looks like the the journey, especially when you compare it to maybe what it looks like on the outside, it's messy. There's collateral damage along the way, there's things that happen that you couldn't have expected. But to think back and I've met some of your other co-founders like to think back that you guys were in your mid 20s with just this passion in your heart and not knowing how is going to take shape, but to still be in the game to still be motivated by that at this level. And you're still going like you deserve, like some massive props. And I think that is the spirit that all of us can capture from this conversation of absence, relentless growth.

Can I say something else?

Get in there, B.

I'm sorry, I just interrupted you. And you're talking about relentless growth, which is exactly what it is. And I think it's such a beautiful example as we talk about it's not business as usual. When you're thinking creatively. I love how you're failing forward. And you're so open about it. And I think that there's just no shame in failing. I think you're really getting into the heart of what it is to in that mission, that global homelessness vision, that big vision that you have, and failing is 100% going to be a part of the equation. We got to start normalizing it.

Yeah, I would agree. Again, I think it you know whether you're an operator or funder listening it again, it comes with it's it comes with very real, very real pain and scars. So went through this. This is really phenomenal organization I recommend called people was checking out their content called Praxis Labs. It was an accelerator I went through, and they have this really beautiful concept that their CEO Dave Blanchard talked about and he talked About re-risking what has been working for a bigger opportunity. And, and for us, that's really what it was about. And and I say this that not everybody has to do that, like I don't I don't think when we're talking about people that are trying to help others and do good, I don't believe that the scorecard is always about numbers and scale and growth, right it to me, it's not really always about that, there are so many ways that you can genuinely help change people's lives. And that doesn't always have to require this, like, fundamentally systems changing, you know, all this first principles, stuff that I'm about to talk about, that doesn't have to be for everybody. And I don't think it's better than anybody. For us, we've chosen to go that path so we've chosen to say, we genuinely believe that there is a real chance of News Story impacting 10s of millions of people. And so we want to design the organization to give us the best opportunity to do that. And that shows up in how we want to accomplish our mission that shows up in this in the strategy layer. And that's what all the learning has evolved to is, what is the what is the highest leverage strategy to achieve that bigger, more scalable mission for us? And, and so that's a lot of what we've done, you know, we took something that was working really well, from a metric standpoint, if you were just to measure year over year growth of revenue, year over year growth of homes. You know, our first six years, we're we're right up there with probably anybody. And, and we basically said, we're going to intentionally change this, because we think that there's an opportunity that could be over time, 1000 times, arguably a million times bigger potential. But we're going to have to go through some really hard times to get there. And so that's, that's what we're kind of coming out of right now. And I'm speaking about it, because I've been in it, we've been in it the last couple years. And we're finally seeing like what the other side of that looks like. And despite all the challenges, it was 100%, the right move for our mission.

I mean, really grateful for you sharing that, because like I mentioned this, there's something here for everybody, you don't have to be solving global homelessness, to apply these principles of how you can show up with innovation to keep getting better to make sure you're focused on the right metrics that matter. And all these things like I just I wonder if you would share Brett in your mind. I mean, innovation is like etched in your DNA, as you as people, but also like as an organization? I mean, what opportunities do you think are there as you look around in the nonprofit space? What opportunities are there if we lean more into innovation from your perspective?

Yeah, I mean, I think if, if you want to really try to solve problems at a bigger scale, you've got to come at them in a different way than what the kind of status quo is doing. Right? And so, you know, in some sense that could look like on kind of the shiniest side, innovation can look like for, in our case, a new type of technology to build houses, right? That's, yes, that's 10 out of 10 on the innovation scale, but there's this whole other side that I think is just as innovative, if not more innovative, that I think applies to more people listening. And it's really looking at the fundamental status quo model. And to give you an example, for New Story, and then thinking, How could that be better or different on the financing side? Right, so what New Story realized is, we could be the best in the world, like truly world class at designing lower cost houses. And using really cool technology to do that a really cool architecture, which we're still doing, by the way, it's very important for us, what we realized was like, how does it get funded at scale? Right?

Yeah.

Is it philanthropy? Is it government? Is it, which is now what we're doing? Or is it essentially the capital markets, which is home financing and lending? Like, if you're listening in the US, it's more what you would know, right? Is you're able to qualify for a certain type of home, home loan with a certain type of interest rate, etc. and, and then we're like, okay, we think that's the much bigger opportunity is to help this massive underserved population to help them have a chance to access affordable housing finance. And so we spend a lot of our time now thinking about finance, right housing finance, and what are the mechanics that need to happen with a credit profile collateralization all these things that add up to where that family actually has a real fair shot and path to get affordable housing finance that can then create generational changing impact and wealth and all the things. So innovation to us wasn't just about building the house. That was about how does it get financed, I didn't think that was going to be the thing we'd focus on when we started New Story. But we realized over time with our learnings, that that was the biggest opportunity if we could change that, then that would have the biggest impact.

I'm so stinking proud of you guys, like my mama heart could burst from what you all have done, because I just think that, as we've been trained in philanthropy, either either as kids or just, you know, professionals in the sector, we have such a myopic view of what we think we're doing. It's like homelessness. But we don't think about the things behind us that are absolutely impeding someone from being a home owner. Bravo on leaving into you call them learnings. I mean, we call them pilots, whatever it is, we talked about pilots this year, you just got to try stuff. And I just think about someone who's listening to this episode right now. And they're feeling that nudge to embrace this trend of it's no longer business as usual for the organization. What advice would you give them? I mean, what is unlocked when we reimagine historical models, programs, and then we literally what you said take these big bold risks that may not pay out in the short term. But if you're really committed to core value number two, of We Are For Good, playing the long game,

Yes!

What's over the horizon is so much bigger than what we can actually dream, I would love for you to unpack that.

I love that you said that, I think playing the long game. And I've talked about this in the past. Other places like, to me, that's probably one of the top three, if not the number one, most valuable mindsets, if you if you truly want to make a large dent in something. And because it changes your calculation on things. So for example, if I'm just trying to optimize for the next year, and the metrics for that year, or even the year after, like I showed you New Story's metrics last two years have been basically down, right. But we were willing to forego that, and we still didn't want them to be down, right. But we prioritized certain things that we thought would set us up better for 2030. And that long term thinking, especially when you're able to sit down and look at it, look at a bigger picture in totality, over 10 years, or even 20 years. And and that may sound like a long time to people listening and it is. But if you're truly able to think that long, it just helps with a lot of the short term challenges and issues that you go through. Because you're playing the long game, you're not playing the short term game. And I think in society, so many people try to optimize myself included can be the first one to do this. We try to optimize for the short term optics, right? We try to optimize for so many things that show up in the next 3,6,9,12 months. And it's not to say that stuff isn't important, but it's not the most important, it's secondary, and primary is playing and strategizing, and setting your organization up and your mission for the long term. I didn't even really start thinking about a lot of what we're doing today for at least five years, you know, my mind was it you just it's so normal, the gravitational pull is to pull you into what you've seen before, what works, or what you think works. And it's, it's way it's very scarce to truly go into, and I'm gonna unpack what this means to us, what truly go into what we call, you know, very first principles thinking. And I'm going to explain that for us. And you can, people can look up, you know, really first principles, it comes out of Silicon Valley, but it's allow a lot of, you know, technology companies get started. A lot of what Elon Musk did with his companies is they really went from a first principles standpoint. And so for New Story, if you were to ask somebody, you know, that cared about people having housing, like, how do you help somebody get a house, right? There's a lot of different layers that would go into that. At the highest basic level, especially as a charity or New Story, charity, you would, I'm going to say things without I'm not judging these things at all. Just, I'm really not.

No judgement here.

I'm just kind going through in order. So, like you would say, somebody goes and does a volunteer trip to build houses, right. It's one way to do it. If you would say, we raise a bunch of philanthropy 100 million New Story has raised more than that. And we and we then take that philanthropy and we build really beautiful houses for people in need, and they take care of them. And that's a, it's an awesome way to do it, right? And then you can go deeper, you keep going layers down, you could say, well, you know, maybe that family could get part of their, you know, 50% of their mortgage subsidize, right? And it's like, okay, that makes sense, you know, you're really helping them, then you get kind of all the way to the bottom, which is where we are now have this kind of these layers. And if we're thinking, what is the most scalable, highest leverage thing that if we helped to do, you know, x, x and x, that would lead to the biggest and the biggest outcomes. And so for us, from a first principle standpoint, what we've learned is that if a family can actually own a piece of land that has property rights, and has legal land title, and that that land wasn't given to them, they actually paid for that land at affordable rates. And then we they're able to also pay for, like infrastructure like basic urbanization, which would be like electricity or things close by. So it's not just out in the middle of nowhere and not connected anything, if they've paid for their land, if they have legal land title and property rights that the municipality signs off on and they have services or urbanization as well in that area, that family story is 10, almost 100 times better, to then go get a mortgage or to get housing finance. And New Story doesn't have to provide the housing finance, the housing finance can come through local banks or local partners that we help set up. And we've basically brought them qualified customers that have the credit profile, and the collateralization, that they would look at underwrite as a, as a customer that they want to work with. Right. So, from New Story's thinking, it's like, wow, if we can help a family get a really good piece of land that they can own with legal title, they can pay for it, you know, we have a few other things that come in and help, then that's actually the thing that sets them up to get a 20,000, $30,000 housing loan for to build their house, that New Story doesn't have to provide because there's hundreds of billions of hundreds of billions, if not more, a few trillion dollars worth of capital out there that would finance that. So they kind of just go down and the biggest thing we learned from the first principle standpoint is how do you help that family have a path where they can have a credit profile, and kind of the collateralization, where they can actually onboard and join the economy, the housing market. And so that's what we found is, in our opinion, you know, the kind of highest leverage thing we can do that will give the most people a chance at a path to life changing homeownership. And so for anybody listening, there's, there's so many different things that you could think about, for your sector, your industry, that you just start going down at these layers of like, what is the truly the like the foundational thing that you can do from a first principles perspective, that would have the biggest unlock for people to be part of that. And I'll say one more thing on that. So for philanthropy, New Story's kind of original model, which was, again, something I'm really proud of, but it was more or less race philanthropy. And then it was it was it was very charity based. So homeless were, there was a little more to it, but they were basically given to families, right? The amount of philanthropy needed per person to help one person have life changing housing, which is still sound will sound low to people was about $3,000 per person and philanthropy. But again, 1.6 billion people times $3,000 per person, if you try to do the math, it's going to break the calculator. So what our new model has done with our evolution is that it's less than $100 per person and philanthropy needed for that family that person to have a shot at life changing housing. And we're think it can get even lower.

The culture you have as you're really great at asking questions and centering community in this decision, they have the answers, let's just keep like iterating you know, and ask better and better questions. So, I mean, Brett, y'all live in this vortex between business and social impact and nonprofit, all the things you get to see philanthropy take shape in a real literal form through this evolution. We create space to celebrate the moments that have just like pinged our hearts and stick with this. I wonder if you would Take a minute and just take us back to a moment of philanthropy that really changed you as a person.

I have two that came that come to mind that, you know, were extremely life changing. You know, one, this goes back to things I was saying earlier, like, I genuinely don't think that one path is, is better than the other, they're just different. They're just different paths, right. And so, for me, it New Story, almost 100% would not have been started, if I didn't take a basically a missions trip to Haiti, and got to experience seeing families that were struggling after the 2010 earthquake. And we went down with an amazing organization called Mission of Hope. And, and we were using philanthropy to, to help families get out of living in tents, and to be, you know, to have to have new homes, some very small, you know, homes that were much better than tents. And, you know, seeing that in person, which was entirely funded by philanthropy was completely life changing, changed my life trajectory. That was the thing that, you know, caught my heart, and I wanted to learn more about as a 23 year old kid. And then the second thing was kind of right around that time. I had a I had a for profit startup before this. And we started partnering with, with charity:water. And I got to meet Scott Harrison and Scott's a close friend now and advisor and his wife, Vic has actually been on our board of directors for a few years.

She's talked about you on this podcast, it's really cool. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So like, you know, getting to experience what charity:ater has done for people. And the impact that plan to be can make all around the world through clean water is something that, you know, I give to today, I think is extremely life changing. And so those would be those would be two that come to mind for me that have personally affected my life and the trajectory of my life.

Love that. I mean, these stories never get old, and just the formative feeling. And I can tell you, Julie, our producer, also went to Haiti, right after the 2010 earthquake spent two spring breaks there had the same experience. And I just think when you can see it, and you can touch it, and it's humanized with a face. Everything changes. And that's really our challenge as missions. So we end all of our podcast Brett with a one good thing. And I wonder, what would be your one good thing, a piece of advice, life hack, what would you give to our audience today?

I'll probably try to keep to a theme we've talked about, I would say try to try to put a day, a full day on your calendar. In the next 90 days for whether, you run an organization, or you're part of the organization, and try to just really zoom out, try not to think about the current strategy that you have and just really try to ask yourself some of these questions of, you know, what would a what a first principles more kind of foundational solution look like, for the problem that I'm passionate about? And just allow yourself to dream some, think, maybe get some inspiration of what you can go learn, and, and just just try to start thinking that way, and try to start thinking a little more out the box, that if something, you know, deeper down into the foundation of the problem, like I kind of went through those examples for us. It started with, you know, a family just using philanthropy to give to help them get a house. And now New Story is that well, how do we help them get land and etc. And so I think that their stories like that, in all the causes we care about, they definitely don't all have to look the same. But I think us thinking that way is is really productive and, and is and is fun to think about. So that would be my my one good thing.

I love that advice. I want to leave right now I am going to step away. This has been an honor. I wonder if you just kind of link up where do you show up online? How can people follow you? How can you connect with New Story Homes? All of the things just drop those links?

Yeah, yeah. New Story's URL and our social handle is New Story Homes. So newstoryhomes.org, and then social, actually, it's just a New Story. And then for me, probably most active on on Twitter. So just my name Brett Hagler.

Awesome.

I'm with you. I still call it Twitter. I never will call it X.

Oh yeah, X. That's right.

So I really, really appreciate you coming and visiting with us today.

Alright, thank you, Becky and Jon, appreciate it.

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