RNS Replay How to Evolve Your Mission to Meet This Moment

4:20PM Jul 3, 2024

Speakers:

Iara Peng

Jonathan McCoy

Becky Endicott

Scott Curran

Shereese Floyd

Keywords:

ai

organizations

fund

scott

talk

philanthropy

great

funding

change

nonprofits

funders

love

evolving

conversation

money

mission

started

grant

community

hear

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 rabbit fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.

So let's get started.

Hey, Jon.

Hey, Becky. I'm so pumped that we get to re listen to this conversation honestly, because back a few months ago, at the Responsive Nonprofit Summit, we had this conversation about evolving our missions to meet the moment. And the people gathered around this conversation were just so epic, because the reality is, things are not going back to the way it's always been. You know, you've heard this talk about this on the podcast slot. We have to lean into creative solutions and new business models, collaborative partnerships, tech driven solutions and all these different things. And it just feels like it's a time to ask ourselves, there's got to be a better way. But the people that we have pouring into this conversation, oh my gosh, I'm just so giddy.

They are truly like the most incredible humans, and they're really helping us get equipped to evolve and advance your mission. Today, I got to give a little shout out to this panel that includes Shereese Floyd. She's the founder of AI Consultants for Nonprofits. Scott Curran, the CEO and founder of Beyond Advisors and PS, former general counsel for the Clinton Foundation. And we've someone we've had on the podcast many times. We love and respect her so much. Iara Peng, with Just Fund, and they are diving straight into how to evolve for your mission to meet this moment. This is an episode you don't want to miss. Enjoy.

Okay, without further ado, we just got to jump into this conversation. Scott, I want to kick it to you as we think about really this evolving landscape that's in front of us. You've been within nonprofits during a lot of big societal change, nothing new here. Help us walk through this. You know, I mean, as things are reshaping, how can we still stay true to our missions, but really keep showing up and delivering impact in the face of so much change happening?

Well, first of all, thank you for for doing this. Thank you for having us. Thanks for being so welcoming and awesome, and your leadership. And for this panel, it's fantastic to be here. There's three. Einstein had three rules of work, and the last one was in the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity. And so that one's never far from my mind. And you know, you started asking for one word to describe. You know, nonprofits of the future. An the future is a series of successive nows right? It's always happening right in front of us. So optimism, to me, was my one word contribution to that. And you know, I've been fortunate. I started as a corporate lawyer, pivoted into philanthropy, never thought I'd go back to law, wound up being a nonprofit lawyer, and have been in the wider social impact space since. And that optimism, that continual belief in the future is what matters and will pull anybody through. I always remind people, we've each gotten through 100% of the hardest days of our lives and our work to date, we will get through this one and the next one too, one day at a time, one step at a time we have and here's the great news. This is my favorite great news message of late. Now is the single greatest time in the history of human existence to be in the nonprofit space.

You heart it right here.

There's more need than ever before, more opportunity than ever before, and more resources at the touch of a button, at the connection globally, we can be together like we are right now. This is the greatest time in the world for the people who are doing this work to be together in this space and doing and we have everything we need to make it happen. So keep going is my simple two word answer to how do we how do we make the most of any difficult situation or any awesome situation, because it is both difficult and awesome, and we have everything we need to do it together. I've had some caffeine today.

Now you know why we call Scott our Ted Lasso friend of the nonprofit sector. He totally lifts us up. And if you tuned in to Sixto Cancel's keynote that was so illustrated in so beautifully that they're taking Child Welfare entirely, reimagining it and making it into something that actually works for society. And so if this is a new concept for you, you may be like Mr Fredrickson there behind Scott I see him holding on for dear life and getting dragged, you know, into this new era. There you go. But it really is such an incredible opportunity. As we talk about this evolving landscape, we cannot talk about or we can't go on without talking about technology, which is why I'm so grateful that Shereese is here, because you are right here on the edge of what I would call the evolution and the revolution that's happening here in technology. Talk to us about how AI is really coming into the game. I think there's a lot of excitement, there's curiosity, there's fear. I think there's some scarcity mindset that we hold in the nonprofit sector. And I just want you to kind of dive into how the rise of this new technology is creating this digital digital revolution. It's impacting so many of us, and it's impacting the expectations of nonprofit donors, volunteers, beneficiaries. What are you seeing on the rise and what do people need to be paying attention to?

Well, first, let me just say thank you. I'm so excited to be here with you, Jon and Becky. And Scott, I'll take just a double of whatever it is that you're on right now.

Quad espresso yes.

But what's really incredible about this time, and also agree with Scott, it's such a great time to be in this nonprofit arena, especially around technology. We do see a lot in our work that fear is the number one thing that we hear all the time about being afraid of the technology itself, how powerful it is, and then also being afraid that there is not enough parameters around the technology. And so in my work with working with nonprofits in this space, what we seek to do first and foremost is to get the fears out on the table. So when we talk about that expectation of donors and beneficiaries, what the nonprofit sector benefits from is that over half of Americans, about 54% of Americans, trust nonprofits. When you hear the word nonprofit, that trust factor goes up where we sometimes kind of struggle, is that the word philanthropy doesn't have that high value of trust. It comes down a little bit when we start talking about philanthropy. So when we are looking at what donors and volunteers and stakeholders expect around AI and any technology, it's really transparency that is the one thing that we all have, not just nonprofits, but specifically, when we have that trust factor so high, the transparency becomes even more important, and that transparency is around first, let's get the team into the room. What is the fear around this, and the fears that we usually hear is that it's not human. It's going to take our jobs. It doesn't sound like us. It's not personal. Get the fears out on the table to start then being able to talk through what the change actually is going to look like. And then as far as those donors and volunteers and beneficiaries talk to them about how AI is being used throughout the organization. AI has been here, right? It's been in our life for quite a while. Now, we are at the forefront of determining where are we going with AI and in the nonprofit sector, we have so many incredible opportunities to shape the conversation around AI and not just be at the end of the line, just getting the the, you know, being it dispensed at the end of how everybody else has decided how it's going to be used. We are the heart of work, and so the heart of that work we can now put into AI and how it's being used, and keep that transparency and that trust high.

I mean, Shereese feels like our mom who's just like, taking our hand and saying, You can do it, like truly can do it. And I love this conversation around AI, and I want to make it more generative. So I want to ask the audience, like, pop into the chat right now, we want to know who's using any AI tools. Tell us what AI tool is working for your organization, like, what are you using it for? We've had lots of conversations on the podcast with people using AI transcripts and board meetings that they're using AI to sort of source some of their donor journeys and putting, I would say, aggregating a lot of their data. So put your tool in there. We want to know what's working for each of you and P.S., we want to celebrate that you all are really leaning into this and embracing this abundance, this joy and this opportunity that Shereese and Scott are talking about. So, I mean, what? Let's go to Scott, right?

I mean, I think Shereese, you're bringing up so many great things, because we talk about how much of the work has to happen from within, and we have to acknowledge that there's fear, there's maybe scarcity, there's maybe old ways of doing and thinking. And so I want to kick it to you, Scott, as we start to transition, about how, what are some strategies for building a more resilient organization? You know? I mean, we need an organization that's gets used to this evolution, and it becomes more of a heartbeat of our organizations. Not this thing that we aspire to do in the future, but something we can do right now.

All innovation occurs on the adjacent possible. There's a great book about this, but basically, we innovate and expand on what already exists. So so take a beat in a moment, if you're if I think. You know, Shereese gives us permission to say it's okay. We don't have to be afraid of this. Let's be positive. Put a put a clear lens on, on, on that not a all AI is scary. We're seeing great notes in the chat about what, what's useful, and how it's evolving. Know that we're going to innovate on what we're already doing. We don't have to change everything. I think sometimes when we're challenged with that question of, how do we innovate? How do we change? How do we become something different than we are? We think it has to be seismic. It doesn't have to be a major shift for us or our daily work or organization to be seismic. It can be a series of small changes over time that collectively make a huge impact. So yes, have an eye on that vision forward, pulling you forward. Beautiful, bright, big tomorrow, but know that just tiny changes today are going to be what take us there more than one big leap. If you've read atomic habits, you know that it's a series of small movements adjacent to what we're already doing that can make a huge difference over time. So don't be scared that you have to do something wildly different to innovate. It's okay to innovate off where we are today, and it's easier to do that. And momentum begets momentum. So once you pick where you're going to start making these changes, and I can make this granular and tactical from my point of view, about where to look in your organization to do that, starting today, no waiting, no consultants necessary if you're struggling with a board that isn't as engaged as you want it to be, with a marketing and comms challenge that maybe you haven't broken through in the right way, or to a new wave of donors or key stakeholders, look there and ask yourself, What can I what do I want to work towards? And what can I change today to make that possible and start there? So I get scared if I think that innovation is going to require massive change. And so if that's the case for you, or if you're afraid to take a big leap, think about what you can do today to innovate on something you're already doing, and just know that innovation matters too, and may matter most. Start where you are with what you have and innovate there. If you have something you know you've just been waiting to do you just need that extra push to try it. Go for it. This is that push. But if you're wondering whether too much change is either hard to do or isn't in the budget or isn't in the purview of the organization, or anything else that's immediately in front of you, look at the small changes you can make that maybe you've been holding off on and hit the gas pedal.

Stay in that pulpit. I mean, Scott, you are so right. You are so good at this. I just feel like the fear coming out of this, which is so important, as we embrace change, we talk about 1% shifts. I love the shout out to James Clear's book, Atomic Habits is an excellent book, but think about a 1% shift. What can you do today? You don't have to implement a full CRM in one day. You can just start with something very, very small. And I feel like we have mystery guests that's coming out, because Iara is finally in the queue. She's coming up. Welcome to the stage. I love how everybody is rooting you on. Hello, my friend.

Oh my gosh. So good to see you.

Friends, so happy to be here.

Look at the claps in the chat. You are like the mystery guests we just saved for this exact same moment. And so we've bragged on you. We've bragged about Just Fund. We are knee deep into this evolving mindset conversation. But I want to talk to you about funding models, because we cannot talk about the evolution of our sector, and so we talk about how limiting some of our historical funding models are and how they need to evolve to you have figured this out. Iara, and I think that we all can say that we've kind of seen historically, that it that funding favors certain types of organizations, and we've talked about this in your intro, that it's neglecting or excluding some of these marginalized communities. So I would love for you to just kind of lift this up. How are these limitations hindering our progress on critical issues like social justice? Sixto just talked about it in child welfare, but I want you to talk about sort of the intersectionality of that and those challenges, and what are the broader trends you're seeing in the funding guidelines, and what are you breaking through?

I mean, I jumped on here when, when Scott was talking about, you know, taking the risks and trying the new thing. And it's such a great energy to bring to our nonprofits, right to just have that energy, that enthusiasm, where is our where our hearts leading up, and there's that big question of, where's the funding going to come from? Right as we as we try and test new things. And really, I love the work of Rob Reich and others who've been talking about, you know, philanthropy as society's risk capital. And really that's what philanthropy was designed to be, the opportunity for us to take risks, to try new things, understanding that systemic problems won't be solved right away, right there's not just like one winning solution right away that's going to solve these big, complex problems that we face. So I love the idea of taking more risks. And I think, like you're saying, you know, we need philanthropy to step up to the plate and give us the opportunity, you need to take more risks. And, you know, building relationships anywhere takes time. It takes trust. You know, it takes patience. And we're building relationships with each other as nonprofits, but also with our funding partners. And you know, for some reason, I think progressive philanthropy in particular has just not come along the way that, if you want to split this ideologically conservative philanthropy has really figured this out. You know, we don't have to guess about how philanthropy should change, because we you can look at a model on conservative philanthropy and really see how well they do. They're very smart about the way they've been funding for decades, right? They're funding in 20-30 year increments. It's general operating support, right? They're acting quickly. They're not micromanaging their grantees. They're really giving people the chance to just figure things out, and that's because they trust their partners. And for those of us who are trying to solve systemic problems, we know money needs to flow to people who are closest to the issues. Why we're closest to the solutions. We know we have to fund people with direct lived experience. Why? We know what we need to solve our problems, right, solve the issues facing our communities. And yet money doesn't flow. So for us, we really looked at the process flow of how money is moving here in the U.S., and one of the biggest bottlenecks, when you analyze a process flow for how many moves, you can get stuck right away. And you you know, for me, I got stuck right away in the application process. It takes, you know, 20 hours to apply for a grant that I'm going to get 30% of the time. Never mind, right? I don't have the relationship with the funder. I don't even know how to get my application into our funders hands.

She gets us, yes, I'm getting some PTSD from my recovering major gift officer days keep going.

But that's the number one bottleneck. Just before we even get started in the flow of how many moves we gotta, like, know where to apply, and that's why Just Fund said, You know what? We're going to do, a common grant application platform. And whoever wants to come along, come along, and it is going to take behavior change for funders. But I'll say we've been we incorporated in 2021 we have the nation's only common grant application platform. We're here to move money to organizations and leaders advancing social and racial justice. We have 176 funds that said, Yes, we're in for the common app. And what it's doing is saving organizations valuable time, you know, to focus on the work, not paperwork, but to do the core work of their organizations, and we've saved organizations 38 years just by introducing the common application platform. So imagine what we can do when we start to be smart about how we move money and really just get money to folks who need it. I think there's there's so much more that we can be doing, but we'll start there.

So glad that Iara was able to come into this house and share that. We'll drop the link to Just Fund if you're just hearing about this.

And Scott, do you have something you want to jump in on this?

I don't want to jump in ahead of Shereese, because I'm sure she's got something to say on it too. But go ahead, Shereese.

Like no, I loved everything that Iara said. Hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. I am, I think Scott and Becky know about this, but I my soiree into AI came through the grant door, needing to be able to help an organization write grants. And so for organizations like yours and AI can have an incredible impact in the way that nonprofits do their work, because that timing of how long it takes to do a grant when one the grant writer is probably also the person who's doing the marketing and development and so all of that together, it's just it's a heavy ask for an organization who doesn't have someone who's dedicated to that, and being able to have that technology come in and help has been incredible in cutting down that time and to teach them to be able to do granting in a new way.

Yes, and like I said at the outset, like now is one of the greatest times in the world to be in this sector, because so much of these things are coming together, common app, AI assistance and the at the piece I was going to add. It's a little anecdotal, but it's very, very real. There are major funders, the new, young, dynamic, next generation, leaders of old philanthropy money, who are who want to sort of get money out the door of billion dollar grant making foundations. They are very mindful, because they started their careers in nonprofits, at the organizations that were being funded, and they're now leading organizations that are doing the funding. And they're trying to break things. They want to break the old model in favor of this.

Here for breaking things. Disrupt. Yes.

Two things they are trying to fund. Well, first of all, they are funding overhead with a passion and an energy that we all need and want to see. They want you to know that they want to fund overhead. The pendulum has swung from we don't fund overhead to we do so with a gusto, and we love it because we know it's in. We know that's the fuel that makes the engine work. Second they're trying to fund and get out of the way, I can speak directly to two major organizations with which I work. One's a household name with 10s of millions of grants per year. The other is a billion dollar foundation with many 10s of millions of dollars of grants per year, and they want to fund and get out of the way. They don't even want to have a grant agreement anymore. They don't want the funding recipients to have to even report to them. To the point where we're saying, wait, they kind of want to report to you at least a little bit, because they're going to do their annual report anyway, and they want you to fund them again. So they'd love to tell you about how they use the first piece of funding. So don't absolve them too much. Give them a route back in so you can fund them for another year. But this is firsthand experience I've had working with two active organizations right now that they are trying to put money into overhead and get out of the way once they push that money out the door. And that's a good news message, and it's a great news message for development leaders.

How do we duplicate that? Those grant those funding organizations? Yes.

I mean, the good news is their CEOs are trying to do that. Their CEOs are in little private roundtables that I kind of always wondered if those existed, like the Justice League, you know, of superheroes behind the scenes. It turns out there are several of them who are in this little round table with each other. Maybe there's more of multiple roundtables, but they're talking about this. And we've seen a couple major foundations move to become spend down foundations so they don't sit on endowment for the next decades. They're trying to push the money out the door in the next decade, and that's good news.

Okay,we love hearing that. We love this movement toward trust based philanthropy that we've talked about a lot on the podcast, honestly, but so if you've got specific examples, Scott, drop those, because I know the chat is really interested in who are these organizations? How can we get connected? But I want to talk about tech, because Shereese, we had such an expert in the house. We're talking about how tech is moving and saving time out of that stat, I'm still comprehending in my head of how many years you've saved, 38 years. So if tech is this great unlock for saving us all time, so we can pour into relationships and the things that are more core to really allowing our missions to grow. We know it's a double edged sword, and so I want to figure out. Shereese, how do we leverage automation? How do we leverage some of these tech tools without losing the humanity you know, in our work that we do at the same time?

This is a great question, because I'm going to challenge everyone who is listening to realize that you are in charge of the of the humanity, like we don't lose it unless you relinquish it. And so what I mean by that is that when you come to sit down in front of any of these tech tools, generative AI or AI enhanced fundraising tools, or any AI tool that you're planning to use, you miss the very question that you should be asking at the beginning, which is, what part of this job will remain human? You have to answer that first, which part of the job will remain human. Then you can answer which part of the job will we outsource to AI, and which part of the job will be human and AI. Now we're going to give a disclaimer that there's no version of any of that that isn't going to run without a human, because it's not AI is not completely autonomous, but when you have determined which piece of it remains human, and which piece of it you are going to do with AI or collaborate with AI. Now you have set the foundation for your AI policy. Now you have set the foundation for the transparency that we talked about earlier. Now you have set the foundation for the trust that needs to go into this whole process, the humanity is yours. So if you do not infuse that first, then you relinquish it to the artificial intelligence. The one thing that you have, your greatest artificial AI tool, is human intelligence and critical thinking. As soon as you allow the artificial intelligence to take over the human intelligence, then you have completely shut down the humanity of it all. So as you are moving into this world, similarly to what Scott said, taking it bit by bit, as you are moving into this world, ask yourself, Where is the resistance in the organization? What is the jobs that people don't like to do? The soul sucking jobs? Where is the job where you hear yourself saying, I wish I had someone to do this. Or, I hope that someone would come in to do that. That's the resistance. Start where the resistance is located, when the resistance is there's probably an AI tool that can help in that resistance. Is it a job that can be done that's generative? Is it data driven? Is it soul sucking? Is it predictive? These are the things that you want to ask yourself and then sit down and thoughtfully figure out this part a human has to do all the time, and then this part, we can give it up. We can relinquish it because what the way that we change this sector is to realize that we are losing time, money and people, and AI is a tool that can help with all of that. This is a sector that runs on passion, and sometimes we exploit that passion because we expect our people to do more and more and more, and now we have a tool that can come in and alleviate some of that energy, so allow AI to take care of the reality, so the people can get back to the essence of the mission. Because once you lose the people, then the humanity has gone out the door.

Okay, Jon, I know what you're thinking, that the most repetitive tasks that I hated the most was putting in contact reports start there. That would be a great place for where I would want to go, but I so appreciate you bringing the humanity back into this work, because that is the great difference between us and the for profit sector, is that we see the human capital and the importance of it. I remember Najib Kazam coming onto the podcast and saying, here are your two super strengths that AI cannot replicate, your empathy and your creativity. So we need to figure out how to use those algorithms to make these automations more personal. Iara, did you want to jump in here and talk about any of the algorithms and Just Fund? Because I know you have those as well. Or Scott come in here and come talk and riff on any of this, we want to pass the mic.

I mean, this just really isn't an area, you know, of knowledge for me. And I'll just say with Just Fund. And you know, we have 14,000 applications in the platform already, and about 2000 coming in monthly now that we're running open cycles like Newman's Own, and Press Forward and Decolonizing Wealth and Omidar Cultivating Repair Fund. We're running, you know, hundreds of funds a year now. So we have more and more applications coming in, and we talk to our our organizations and our leaders, and we follow their lead, and what do they feel comfortable with and when it we're going to be laggards when it comes to AI. So I'd love you know again, this is not my area of expertise. We're doing again, algorithms based on what people are searching for. So when funders are searching for different organizations to fund will say you, you searched for, you know, Black LED under a million dollars in the south working on voter registration. You might like these five. So we'll do those kinds of, you know, recommendations based on those algorithms. But when it comes to AI, we hear a lot from our in particular, our Black and brown and brown and indigenous led organizations that they want us to be laggards when it comes to that technology. Because what I hear from our leaders is, you know, we've been digitally surveilled our entire life, and this is just another form of digital surveillance in terms of, you know, folks under knowing what our strategies are, knowing what are our unique, you know, comparative advantages in this space, or knowing exactly what we're doing when it comes to protecting our communities, we're putting our communities at risk because we don't know where this information is going. So you know, I I'm learning too, like everyone else who's listening on this panel.

That's the beauty of this. Yes, everyone's evolving at the same time. That's the beauty of it.

I just want to say we're making it really granular and connecting worlds in the chat. If you haven't seen it, we are talking kids or indigenous food justice community. Just fund is has is facilitating the Common Application for Newman's Own best pineapple salsa out there. Not a paid endorsement, personal favorite, their recently launched $1 million prize for food justice for kids. So if anybody out there watching this is in that space, go there and apply with Just Fund's common application and get in there. And the good news is also that AI is going to help the grant makers who get more applications get seen. They're going to help fund organizations when there's 1000s of applicants. Look, we are in a competitive marketplace. The nonprofit space is a super competitive sector, right? There's competition, there's saturation, and we all want either resources or to find great organizations that can get our resources, that are going to have the biggest impact. AI is going to help find you in that space too. MacKenzie Scott is making news because she's finding organizations and funding them out of the blue, and she's not alone. There's others doing the same. So it is not just pie in the sky enthusiasm or lots of caffeine coursing through my veins. I'm excited about it because I see it work every day, and you're seeing the work of my organization and Iara's together with a shared client that is out there trying to push money out the door, and that explicitly funds overhead for the organizations they fund and wants to get out of the way.

This just makes me so happy that this was the this was the foundation you're talking about, Scott, I've been so impressed with their leadership. And you know, again, they're the desire to want to align their values. You know, you talked about trust based philanthropy. This is a foundation that's really working on its practices, its leadership, its structures, its systems, and wanted a way to take those values and make sure that their grant making practice was in alignment. And that's really what just funds trying to offer. And we're really building a platform by us, for us, right? We're informing this platform. We're a nonprofit. We're not here to make money. We're here to move money, specifically to organizations who've been historically excluded from the way traditional philanthropy is moving their money. And we fundamentally believe, if we can change the way we give, our communities can thrive, and it is incumbent upon philanthropy to change the way we give right so that our communities can thrive. But I one of the things that we're seeing here at Just Fund, which is so exciting to me as the founder and CEO, and this was my dream, is that an organization comes in to apply to Newman's Own and can come in for free, in perpetuity. Come on over it's free for you and see finds another funding opportunity and another funding opportunity. We've moved about $300 million on just fund using this equitable solution. 57% of the dollars we're moving today as a community are secondary grants. So a group comes in to apply to fund A, but gets fund B, someone they didn't know, right? So when you come in here, you're going to see Hawaii, Hawaii's People, I'm thinking of like the funds that are open right now, but like, Press Forward. Hawaii People's Fund. You know, Omidyar's Cultivating Repair Fund. There's so many different opportunities. I see. There's some education collaboratives. We run a lot of collaborative funds, a lot of funders who just want to cut the red tape, make it simple and easy. This doesn't need to be overly complicated. We can make decisions with a common app. We don't have to ask, you know, 25 more questions to actually decide if we're going to make the grant or not. So I love the community that we're working with. People, Newman's Own Foundation, Decolonizing Wealth. Others, Emergent Fund, really amazing. People like Shereese said, human centered heart first, but wanting to use a technology that just is going to make it easier for money to flow.

Okay, I just keep thinking about We Are For Good's core value number eight, community is everything. We are literally watching it play out right now. We are watching you come for the evolution of the talk of the sector. You get some funding right here so, and I hope I'm manifesting that, but I want to, I want to kick something to the entire group, because we get triggered by a phrase that we hear a lot in the nonprofit sector, which is, this is the way that it's always been done. And to us, that's always a red flag of, okay, there's a space we need to innovate. So let's start activating. And we want to get people in the chat activated right now. We've got this little, I would say, game that we almost play called do this. Not that remember that with the book like eat this, not that we want to talk about some of these old limiting beliefs. We want to talk about some of these things that we have held on to, these sacred cows that are no longer serving us as a sector. I want to go around the room. I want you all to throw something out that we need to drop, and something else we need to implement in its place. Let's start evolving right now. Scott, you're grinning from ear to ear, so I'm going to you first.

I want to I want to go around the horn first.

Go for it. It's your world. We're just living in it.

I wanted to hear what everybody else had to say first, or I wanted to see the chat.

I'm going to kick it to Shereese. Shereese, what you got. You got any of this, do this, not that.

oh, God. All right, I will say, Oh, gosh. That one kind of stumped me.

How about I pitch it also to the chat. I want to know what's working for you all.

It's really, I will. I will go this. It's really around a mindset that we have all been trained on. It's a learned behavior. This is a industry that is very big on scarcity. It's an industry that has a formula to it, so to speak. And so I would say, and I'm gonna just say how it's in my brain, because it's reminding me of Congress that has been sitting there forever and ever and ever, and they don't really, they're not reflecting the world that they actually serve. And so I am going to say, if you are in a space where you're hearing this is the way that we all, that we have always done it, that signals to me that there is a lack of growth that's going to be there. And that signals to me that somebody has is resting on their laurels in the job, and they're no longer about innovation. They're they're actually no longer about the mission. They are just there to collect the check and whatever benefit that check has. So I would say, do this would be get out of the way. And that, yeah, I'll leave it there. To do this is to get, get out of the way.

Oh, I love that. Yes, Iara get in here to me.

You know, the do this is ask and ask again. You know, I was on a call yesterday where a grantee partner was saying, I just don't know if this funder is going to renew. I'm like, well, did you ask, you know? And it's like, I just, I'm just not sure, and we're so afraid the power dynamic is we've walked into an inequitable power dynamic. Well, it's on it's also incumbent on us as nonprofits to change that dynamic. As much as it is for philanthropy to make their changes. We need to walk in here as strong partners, right? You know, funders are moving money for sure to do our work, but we've got the richest asset. We have people. We have trust. We have relationships, relationships, knowledge, experience, and we need to be able to, you know, the dynamic to me that needs to change is ask for what you need, you know, and and don't be afraid to do that, and don't be wondering, you know, if the funder is going to fund you again, you know, let's just get in there and ask for exactly what we need and and just don't expect, don't wish, but really make sure that we are we're clear on on our expectations for what we need our funders to do. As we do the hard work on the front lines, we need to know the money is going to be coming from somewhere. And ask for relationships. If you've got a great funder, ask them to introduce you to five friends or another friend. You know, what other funders would you like to introduce me to? Right? We just if you're struggling with making connections and other relationships with funders and you've got a funder, that's the time to bring that funder in as a partner and really help them build build your funding base together.

Okay, I love that so much. Can I riff just one second on what you said? Because I think this evolution as we're talking about meeting this moment, it's not about asking funders just for financial gifts. What else can they bring to the table? We had a great conversation with Amy Freitag over at the New York City Community Trust, and she says, we look at our grantees and we say, what else do you need? You need some IT support? Do you need to talk to our legal counsel? Are you needing someone to open up your network? I mean, open up and be very honest about what you need, which is such a great suggestion, Scott, you gonna round us out here?

I did. I didn't mean to throw the hot potato in Shereese's lap.

She handled it well.

She rolled with it.

Well, if you're like me and a white male over 40, I try not to be the first, the loudest or the most verbose. So if you are like me, don't, don't be the one to go first and the loudest, the longest, and do be the one to listen. Because as I've listened here, I've heard things that gave me four answers instead of the one I started with. So my first was, don't do simplicity, not complexity. Do both and not either, or. Do yes and not no, but and do borrow success, not reinvent the wheel, unpacking each everything everybody here is talking about is simplicity, right? The work of Just Fund is a simpler application for grant recipients to find grant money. AI is a simpler way to do things that we don't need to do anymore. Both and is that, yes, it's both humans and AI, it's both a traditional grant application and simpler platform that. But you started by saying scarcity mentality pulls us down to what we're afraid of. Shereese started with what we are afraid of if we shed that. So do do abundance mentality, not scarcity mentality. It really does work at scale. And yes, and, is great improv. If you haven't taken an improv class, take one. Nobody gives the trophy for the struggle. So don't be afraid from borrowing success. Success leaves clues. Do what others have done well, and then borrow from that and build on it. Don't be afraid. Don't think it has to be hard to be great.

I mean, y'all I'm feeling hyped up, and y'all know our flow at the conversation stage. We're going to take you through the whole podcast experience and end with a one good thing. I feel like Scott's already giving us this one good thing, but I want to go roud robin, what's on your mind? We've got less than two minutes left of this session. I want to kick it to you. Shereese, what do you want to leave with the community as you kind of round out this conversation? What's bubbled up for you?

What is bubbling up for me is to remember the mission, to remember why you're doing the work that you're doing if you are doing this work well, this is probably a mission that you will never do, you will never solve in your lifetime, but you get up every day and you work towards that mission. So give yourself the ability to work in that mission, to champion it, to have peace around it, to change the world, to do the thing that sets your heart on fire, and then figure out ways where you, as the human who's delivering that mission, can still find a way to take care of yourself. We need you to push that mission forward, but we also need you here so that we can applaud the great work that you're doing.

So on point. Thank you. Iara, do you want to say one good thing?

You know, take care of yourself, to me, is the most important thing. I mean, we talk a lot about hustle. Do this, be amazing, go big. You know, you can't do any of it when you're burnt out and exhausted. And you know, if you're like me, you've got, we've all got full lives, right? I've got three kids. I've got one with multiple disabilities. I have parents that I'm taking care of. I love to play pickleball and yo, do yoga, and I love to garden. There are, we are whole people with doing important work, and it is really a blessing to be able to do work. I think that is directly aligned with your heart and your mission. You know to be so mission we get to come to work every day and know that we're changing lives or changing the world and trying to make the world a better place. That's a real gift. And it can it can be all like you can just go all in, all day long, all night long, right? And you've got to take care of yourself. So my big wish, and what I'm thinking about as I'm thinking about all the things we have to learn, AI, is to breathe and just know we've got time, we've got each other. And, you know, to really do this work well, we've got to be whole and healthy. And so my wish is that we can find the things that we love outside of work to sustain us.

Scott, round us out.

Finish where I started now is the single greatest time in the history of human existence to be in our sector and in our space. The opportunities are expanding proportionately with the number of us in this space. And so while it is hard work, it has never been more important than it is now, and we are alive at the time and connected as a community that is able to do this work. So get in there. Stick with it. Keep going. We're all in this together. We're all online together. We're all accessible to one another. Let's keep going together.

My gosh, wow. Okay, three, this was an incredible first session. I hope you are feeling jazz I hope you're feeling good about yourself. I hope you're taking care of yourself. Thank you to our three incredible speakers who have absolutely evolved our minds. I want to give a shout out to our sponsors, Microsoft, Feathr Community Boost, One Cause, Classy, Windfall and AmPhil, who have made today possible friends. This is just the beginning. If you love these conversations, come back to the conversation stage. Please connect with these three incredible human beings who are changing the world in their space because there is so much good left to be unpacked. Thank you for joining us. Anything else, John?

We'll see you back here in a few minutes, talking donor journeys, so come back.

Arlight. Thanks. See ya.