nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our
world. We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.
So welcome to the good community, where nonprofit professionals, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
So let's get started. Welcome, welcome, Mackey.
Is it your birthday, john, or Christmas,
I actually think I'm pinching myself right now. This is happening, guys, you know, the podcast makes the world a little bit smaller for all of us. But the people you know, that at least we've admired for all these years, and kind of have been bystanders of their incredible work. It is just the honor of a lifetime to get to sit across a zoom screen and share heart and minds and strategies with just some of the best thinkers in our industry. And today is one of those days, we are so excited to talk to Vic Harrison, if you don't know her, you actually need to go to her website right now and read her story because her ability to storytelling is amazing next level, but she, you know, has done something that I think since I'm a formally trained graphic designer wanted to change the world through design myself, she actually went and did that. And you know, she did kind of the traditional path of somebody that has a gift and graphic arts, worked for some of the big brands when she was living in New York. But part of her story that I think is really powerful is that she met her husband, Scott, and they gathered around, you know, the kitchen table, and really sketched out how they could really reimagine charity, through using the power of storytelling using the power of branding, and use the power of marketing. And that crazy idea that they had happened to launch, probably one of the most influential charities in our generation, which is Charity Water, not only just through the incredible impact that it's had worldwide, but you know, what we talk a lot about you want you need to see, to be able to become and I think it's also just inspired so many charities to take risk and to dream bigger than ever possible, and certainly raise the bar on how to storytel and how to bring people into your mission. So just so much respect for Vic and her you know what she is brought to this space. But a few years ago, you know, I followed her online for a long time, she really leaned further into the story because she, you know, has modeled this through her work at Charity Water. But she is really more recently, given the playbook out for How can you do this in your own organizations. And it's not just the visual, it's not just the storytelling. It's how does this translate into raising more for your really important mission. And she has created a really breakthrough program about monthly giving, and has walked hundreds of organizations now through a much more sustainable way to raise money for their mission that's super aligned with the most of course, beautiful storytelling branding that you can imagine. And I'll tell you in the few minutes that we've already gotten to hang out with her. She's also one of our favorite humans already. So welcome that karason to the podcast. We're so glad you're here, Vic.
You guys, I'm so glad to be here. This is fun.
Well, hey, would you mind giving us a little bit about your backstory, I would love to just kind of hear it in your own words of you know what got you to this place today and kind of fill in some of the dots that I left out?
Sure. Well, I'll try to do it as succinctly as possible. I am an immigrant from Russia. I came here when I was nine years old, my parents wanted me to do the traditional career, go to college get a really well paying job and climb the corporate ladder, which I tried to do in marketing in New York City and worked for a couple of years in a boutique, small advertising agency and realized I don't want to spend my life selling things to people who don't need the things. I don't want to market cars or lipstick or consumer products. Although that's a great way to earn a living for many people. I just it wasn't for me. But I knew I innately loved design and I loved create creativity and storytelling. And there's this great quote by David Berman that I have carried with me throughout the last 20 years of my life. He says the same design that fuels massive overconsumption has the power to repair the world. And I came across that right when I was starting to feel pretty, pretty pretty disenchanted with the advertising industry back in like 2006 and have already made steps to try and figure out how can I give back? How can I maybe volunteer at a local soup kitchen in downtown Manhattan and I tried to do that a couple of other things. Just because I was feeling this real poll tip. Do something bigger in the world. And one day I was on the corner of my street in the East Village talking to my next door neighbor said there's this guy named Scott, who just got back from living in Africa for two years, I used to go to go party with him. And now he's starting this charity. And he he's, he's about a couple of weeks in, why don't you come he's doing this outdoor show teaching people about clean water in New York, rather exposing New Yorkers to the reality of the water crisis around the world through this kind of fun, interesting show exhibition, photo show and I came I should have two weeks later, and that was the beginning of the rest of my life. I met Scott that day started volunteering during Charity Water shortly after I quit my quit my advertising job. And him me and one more person, friend named Laney, we've sat around his kitchen table for six months building Charity Water.
I mean, we talked so much about the proverbial mom's kitchen table. We talked, we've talked about that, since that we've launched as a company eight, you know, eight or nine months ago. And we wanted to create a place that seems so safe, that seems so wholesome, that it would be rife for having really heartfelt conversations. And so just the alignment of the kitchen table idea, I'm geeking out over it. And yours is just such a wonderful, I would call it the Cinderella story of nonprofit that you just felt, I mean, it sounds like you're hardwired to just be in the mission space and to serve. And that's always been a part of your DNA early on. And I love that you started with Charity Water, just before it was Charity Water, you just started volunteering. And I think that when you're connected at the onset at that level, and you're pouring your your own time and your personal time, into something that's bigger than you I mean, Vic is living proof of how that passion can translate and grow and scale. And you did it in such a beautiful way. I mean, I will give a shout out to your website, of course, it's going to be extraordinary. But the thing that I love the most about it is your tagline that said, design nerd, branding coach, nice human being. And I have to say in 15 minutes, you have lived up to that hype. So I and I love that you put nice human being because I do think that empathy having empathy is a core that's threaded, and all we do allows us to see all people it allows us to have a bigger worldview that's beyond just what we see in our little in our little community. So I've want to get into monthly giving because if there is a godmother of monthly giving, for nonprofits around the world, it's a bit karason. So we need to spend some time here and I know that there are going to be many people listening to this episode saying we don't really have a program or we don't know how to start a program. So we're about to have this monthly giving mini masterclass with the godmother herself. So why is this such an untapped opportunity for so many organizations? And why did you decide to pour into it?
Yeah, very good question. Um, you know, I think that so many nonprofits live hand to mouth, right, especially when they first start out. It I guess the other phrase for it in the nonprofit space that we've often used is this poverty mentality where we can't pay for a nice printer, we can't spend money on having a nice office, we can't do any of these things. Because we're basically going month by month, we're raising money immediately to going into the field. And we don't know where the next donation is going to come from. And we sure as heck don't know where how we're going to plan for the for about two to five years of future growth. And that creates such such a kind of starvation mindset, right? That that really stifles creativity and innovation. And that's really at the core of why I believe nonprofits need to focus on not even just monthly giving, but the higher concept which is repeatability. How are you going to embed the idea of repeatability into the very center core of your strategy of of your strategic plan as an as an organization? What I mean by that is, you know, instead of asking donors for as much as you can possibly ask them right now, how can you have the discipline to ask for less in the moment, but to stretch that gift out over time and say well, instead of giving us $10,000 today, would you consider giving us 3000 over the next three years, and then you go and ask 20 people that same that same ask and all of a sudden you now have not only you know, I mean? You have less in the immediate moment, but you have you have a three year runway that you can now put bigger and bolder plans in place and be more courageous with who you hire and how you Think about solving these massively complex issues that we're all trying to solve. So monthly giving is just a really great, you know, I'm very, it's a very popular way to fundraise. It's been around for 50 years, nothing new there. But there are some key principles and core beliefs that I hold about how nonprofits should go about creating that community of monthly givers, that I don't think it has been done very well, on a mass scale with nonprofits.
Okay, I want to call out a couple things. One that you just said is that I love teachers like yourself that stop you of focusing on the tactics and saying, first, we need to work on your beliefs, your mindsets that are limiting you to unlock all of this potential. I mean, that is where the secret sauce is. And I think, probably a misnomer for so many people is to say, well, charity, water did this. So I'm gonna go replicate this exactly, when you need to look at your own goals and look at through the lens of what makes you special, and how you can exploit that and not just copy and paste. So I love your saying that. And secondly, we recently had a conversation with Dan pelada, who has set the tone for the industry, right of just charities feel so locked up, because they're so budget strapped. But with, when we change that we're able to dream, when we get out of this mindset that we have to operate just like this charity, we can't spend money to we can't invest, we can't take risks like that. It's it's blocking our ability to make change transformations around the world. And so I love that you're stepping boldly into that space and have been so thank you for both.
And I have to say, the brilliance and the visual that it creates, when Vic who connects basically what your mission is to world poverty is literally, you know, putting that, you know, against nonprofit, we are living in a starving mindset, we are living hand to mouth and this poverty mentality is something that just like this third world countries straps us, it doesn't allow us to reach our full potential, our our missions are not living these vibrant lives. So I have to say that was a brilliant analogy. And I and I'm really curious about these key principles and core beliefs. And I love that you talk about grounding them and community because I think monthly giving is one of the most untapped resources in nonprofit because you're exactly right. If you can tie somebody in over time, think about all those engagement points that you have, and the way that you can tie it back to impact. So I'd love for you to just share and unpack some of those key principles and core beliefs with us.
Sure.
First of all, absolutely. I think that when you go from a friend of of ours, Scott Galloway, it's a lot about the tech industry and startups and about this boom in the last, what, 10 years of recurring revenue model business models, right things like Spotify, things like Netflix, YouTube, read, etc. Right? Where we pay monthly, we subscribe to hundreds of well, not hundreds, but dozens of subscriptions every every month as consumers and that is really normal. It's become their normal normalized for our society. And so I think that's even more of a reason for nonprofits to make this leap. But you know, the way he talks about it is He says, instead of so think of asking for one off donations, like putting on a red dress in front and standing in front of your store saying, Please come in, please come in. And every time you need to infuse your business or your nonprofit with cash, you have to put on that red dress and stand in front of your store saying please Come in, please come in. They come in once they buy one thing and they leave and then you have to keep doing this. So it takes so much energy and effort on the behalf of of a nonprofit to continue to raise money in these one off donations. As opposed to you know, you don't have to put on the red dress, you can just be yourself. And now we're not in this like dating relationship. We're actually in almost like a marriage where you just give every month there's a relationship that we are growing and strengthening between the nonprofit and you the donor every single month you give we send you a story, something that makes you feel really good about your donation, a report about where your money has gone. And over, like you said, I mean over, you know, the year or 10 years that you are a monthly giver, you get to really create a deep relationship with a nonprofit as opposed to the transactional one that results as a result of one time gifts.
Very, very powerful. Well, I think one thing that y'all have done uniquely well too is that you saw the opening, to really name it to call it something so mentally giving may have been around for 50 years. But the idea of it being almost like a product that it's like charity, what are the spring that you can wrap your head around that it has a feel to it that it has a way that you communicate was unique, I think at least in the marketplace, would you talk a little bit about the decision to name it something and what that has powered it? You know, and how it's given that some energy?
Yeah, we we say a charity water that we named every family name everything. We named our conference rooms in the office we named other gifting programs, we have the well we have the pipeline. Gosh. And so we love names because we're brand thinkers at the core Scott is I am and so it was just like a total no brainer. Of course it has to this has to happen. And and I you know, and we knew that not only did we want to name it, because we wanted it to have a you know, cool logo, etc. We wanted to name it because we knew that people, you know that people want to be part of something that they a they can talk about. So it's not a it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. If you're at a cocktail party, and you're like, Hey, I donate to charity waters monthly giving program. Say, Hey, I'm a member of a spring Oh, my gosh, you are too That's so cool. You know, how long have you been part of the spring. So it's, it really naturally flows out of, you know, out of a conversation that way. And yet, it gives people this identity. I mean, now it's it's a first when we named it, I was like, no one's ever going to say the spring, you know, none of our donors are ever going to use that in a sentence. But people do all the time. Now to us, like anyone we meet, we meet people, we were just in Puerto Rico and visiting the National Forest, the rain forest there and standing on the side of the road ready getting ready to clamp to hike up to this waterfall and a guy. A hiker randomly passes Scott, and he goes, Oh my gosh, Scott Harrison, I'm a member of the spring, you know, just organically and it was so cool. And it costs you nothing, you know, naming something costs nothing. And it's it gives that sense of it's one of the few things one of the many things that makes it feel like a community. It's not the only thing, just naming something does not automatically make it a community. But it's a start.
I just love the branding, like the commitment to branding, because it is such the great visualizer for everyone. And when you're building community, you want something to rally around I love the spring, you know, she's the first has the front row. You know, there's the in when you've I mean, it just changes the dynamic. I think it makes it more personal. It makes it more tangible. And people can look for these symbols. And so yeah, I don't think you can create branding in a vacuum. And I love that you said you just can't slap a logo on it. We've got to give these programs a soul and a feeling where they feel like a person who's talking to us and who's leading us through. So I want to talk a little bit about the spring. And just the amazing success. I make it my numbers wrong. But you raise close to $20 million a year, right from the spring, which is
just now and again, it's going up every month because it's still growing. So now I think it's about 23 million.
My gosh, that's extraordinary. I just my hat's off to you. And I want you to talk about the success of this program and the impact that it's been able to have on your mission.
I think there are there are a number of factors. But by far one of the biggest reasons it has grown is because I'm strangers the sounds it's because of the spring film that we made that we created. We worked with one of my personal heroes, Jason Russell. And so you know, we, john, when you were saying that you used to watch every video of charity waters, but what I started working with Scott on that kitchen table
isn't visible. Every
Yeah, with Invisible Children,
Invisible Children, so powerful.
Children. Yes. And they were our heroes in the nonprofit space. Like, I think they were the visionaries before we were and we just copied them in the beginning in terms of naming everything branding. Really human storytelling. Anyway, so Jason's kind of the mastermind behind Kony 2012, of course, and voice in that video, which became the most popular video on YouTube to that at the time, in 20 2012. And we really did anyone and everyone told that that was right around the time when everybody was saying you can't make a video that's longer than two minutes attention spans are shrinking, and no one's gonna watch a video that's 30 minutes long. And we said well, if it's really good, I bet they will. We hired actually we hired Jason to work with us he has a company called broomstick engine and they tell stories for nonprofits and and worked for you know, about four or five months on this video that then we started putting Facebook ad dollars behind and It was, it was like discovering a goldmine. And I'm not saying that this will work for every nonprofit, but this really worked for us. When we use that video as the ad on Facebook, our conversion rates were like eight times what a normal Facebook ad normally converts at and we just kept, you know, we just kept at that we hired someone who now solely runs our Facebook marketing strategy. And and it's, it's, it's, it's really responsible. I mean, you know, it's other things as well. So obviously, you know, getting people into a monthly giving program is step one, and we keeping them there is a whole other thing. So we always think of the monthly giving, you know, product in two ways. Its its first is obviously acquisition, and then its retention, how do you acquire? And then how do you keep people in it. And we're still figuring things out right now Scott and I are listening to a book, well, we listened to it like five minutes before we zonk out every night, called never lose a customer again. And it's fascinating and awesome. And it talks about really how to how to highly personalize the customer experience, especially in a recurring revenue model. And, you know, it talks about companies like Costco or Amway and Spotify, and then more, you know, more modern kind of models of Spotify and Netflix, etc. And, you know, how do you how do you really foster that community? How do you create a relationship that is not just like, robotic with your monthly givers, but actually more personalized, but also scalable, obviously, you know, we have 63,000 people now, I believe giving to the spring, we can't possibly reach out to them all. But we've been trying different things like getting getting people together in their cities for for little zoom cocktail hours. And now Scott does a kind of shareholders report with everybody in the spring, who would like to join once a quarter where he really shares what our challenges are, as an organization, what our goals are, really brings them on the inside so that they feel like they are a part of the organization from the inside. So those are the things we're working on to strengthen that relationship. But you got to have that you know, that constant lens on on on building that relationship, you can't let that go dry. Because
that's that's a, that's a non starter.
Taking a quick pause from today's episode to thank our sponsor, who happens to be one of our favorite companies virtuous, you know, we believe everyone matters. And we've witnessed the greatest philanthropic movements happen when you see an activate donors at every level. And virtuous is the platform to help you do just that. It's so much more than a nonprofit CRM. virtuous helps charities reimagine generosity through responsive fundraising. And we love it because this approach builds trust and loyalty through personalized donor engagement. Sound like virtuous may be a fit for your organization, learn more today@virtuous.org Follow the link in our show notes. Well, you know, you'd kind of alluded to this earlier, but you're so subscribe to the idea that you're playing the long game with these donors that $20 a month or $30 a month or whatever they're bought into the lifetime value of that is so much more meaningful. And I think we would all argue that just the engagement level of somebody at that level, where they feel bought in where they're listening to Scott, talk to them, like a human and sharing challenges, I mean, that does something at a different level, to activate them as believers of your mission to share their friends and families and open up their network. So I love that you've just baked that in to your strategy. It's it's phenomenal.
And I it makes me think of our third core value of our company, which is simplify humanize and tell an incredible story. And I want to give you some serious props, because when you I cannot imagine stewarding 160 1000 people, you know that that takes a village one right there, but to the way if you go and look at if you go to the springs landing page, or if you go to charity, water, social channels, they have humanized their donors in the most beautiful way. And they have these testimonials of why they give they are, you know, every person of every black, brown, white, you know, all around the world. And they're literally just pouring their heart into why they love this mission. So I just want to commend you for humanizing the donor as well as humanizing Scott. I think those things all feed into each other and into the culture of what you built. That's wonderful.
Thank you. I want to stick a word on that because I think it's so important that I think when when we talk in the nonprofit world about storytelling, the assumption is that it's We're telling stories of the beneficiaries, whether it's in Kenya or, you know, Vietnam or wherever we're working. But storytelling can be taught, you know, there's, there's a quote, I love that if you tell the same story from 1000, different angles, then you'll start to mean something to the world. Your brand will start to mean something to the world. And that's, that's really, the cool thing is there's so many stories in this in this story of Charity Water, it's not just Scott's story, it's not just Helen from Uganda story, it's also Becky, who is 35 in
bless you for saying that. 42. But I love
that you knew
what nonprofits can really, you know, I think double down on and do more of, and I think there's a lot of nonprofits doing this already. But yeah, telling, you know, in a way, like you're telling your donor, who they should aspire to be or who they can aspire to be. Because every one of us wants to live a life that is not just smaller, we only think about ourselves in our immediate family, we want to be the kind of person who cares about the world, we want to be the kind of person who understands global issues, who is part of changing the world at a larger scale than just our little corner. But a lot of us are too busy. We're driving our kids to soccer, where we're taking care of our elderly parents, you know, we don't know how we're, we're just consumed with. So I think that when nonprofits say, Hey, you know, we believe you are a person who cares about someone 1000s of miles away, whose child may be malnourished, you know, and actually, here's a really easy way to show that you are that person, we have this program, you know, for $20 you can feed a child, every month, etc. It's It's It's It's that language, that aspirational language, not on the spring website or the landing page, we say, we believe there are only a few moments in our lifetimes where, you know, human history really changes like the Berlin Wall coming down is one of those moments. And we believe that another one will be when we solve the global water crisis together. So come and join us. You know, we really paint that aspirational picture. And that's an intentional.
Wow, and just the invitation for the community. I love that so much. Well, Vic, I know I kind of alluded to this in the intro, but you know, you have this wonderful class that you offer to really walk people through this all the brass tacks of doing this, would you tell us a little bit about that program and point people to how they can find it?
Yeah, sure. So it's the kerrison.com. It's called the monthly giving launch guide. And it is a 12 core 12 lesson course, that really teachers the success strategies that we have tried and implemented and that have worked for us while building the spring. It takes students through even just the sort of mindset that you have to have before you get into the tactics, the mindset that is absolutely crucial to doing something like this. So launching a successful monthly giving program. And we really call it productizing. And the product mindset, which we're borrowing essentially, from this startup kind of engineering world, where the idea is you don't just the way you launch really successful, the way you find product market fit rather, and launch something that's truly successful, is not by locking yourself up in a conference room for a month and a half or six months. And you know, whiteboarding it. It's by being out there in the world continually trying, failing, trying new things failing, you know, finding little glimmers of success, and then refining and honing what's working with your doors with your specific mission in your specific part of the world, with your giving model. So So we start there, and really, you know, help people understand why why that mindset as opposed to, oh, well, I tried, we tried monthly giving for a month or for a year rather. And, you know, we emailed we launched the program, we model our donors, nobody signed up. So we failed, and we're never trying it again, like work. The first day I tried people out of that are fans and really hone out of the marketing. How do you build a landing page? That's that's, that's successful, that converts people at a high rate, how do you create a piece of content that then you can use as advertising? And then the last kind of part of it is how do you sustain that program for years to come and build a community?
She makes it sound so simple, right? And honestly, some of the most brilliant ideas, you know, are stripped down to their most basic forms. And I love that you've done that, but you've just kept people at the heart of it. And the one the one person, whether it's the person who's the beneficiary, or the person who's giving and I have to say just this commitment to this modest giving them out the $20 is so heartening to me and I I think it also really resonates. And with millennials and Gen Z years who want to give back at their core, they want to be connected to purpose. And I just think the brilliance of getting that age group in the door now means that you are literally cultivating them to be a larger donor to be a volunteer to do things over time. And that is really what your monthly donor program can be. And so I hope that nonprofits lean into this, I cannot think of anyone in my brain who does this better than Charity Water. So I really encourage everyone to go and check out Vic's guide, because I really think it could just launch not only monthly giving, but have a cultural impact on the way you bring people into your organizations. And how you show them how small donations when paired together can do incredible things. JOHN, it reminds me of when we are at our old health care organization, we, we had sort of a threshold for people who weren't really sure about giving, I would almost call it the monthly giving program, but it was like, give $5 per pay period, which was $130 gift and you could get a shirt and you could be a part of this movement. And it was like when we set that threshold, the campaign exploded. And people wanted that that piece of why called the visual billboard walking billboard, they all wanted the shirts, they wanted to be in community. And then we sat back and said, Do you know what the power of banding $5 donations can do in it, and when we put it together was, you know, six figures from people giving very modest amounts of this is very cultural shifting. And I really appreciate you shining a light on it and doing it so incredibly well. I kind of want to pivot a little bit and I don't know if if this is an interesting conversation, but it is to me, but we want to know the impact of your work and this mission work on your family. What is it like to start a charity with the love of your life and you're sort of moving in this direction, you're working together, you're at home together, give us a kind of behind the scenes of what life is like, just doing this with Scott? Oh, gosh,
I feel like I'm you know, so I'm been doing it for so long. I feel like it's just normal and, and no big deal. But there's something that Eugene Cho, who's a pastor said, a long time ago, him and his wife have done missions work together since the beginning of their marriage. And and he said once he's like, the purpose of marriage is not so we could sit across the table from each other and say, How can I make you happy? How can you make me happy? It's the purpose of marriage, in his opinion, is how do we lock arms and look ahead and run towards a big vision together. Because we see a such a bigger purpose for our marriage than just to make each other happy. And even more than just raising two kids, which, of course now that's a huge priority for us. That's that's our, everything our world. We still you know, we still kind of feel like there's a bigger reason also that we're together, which is Charity Water and and so you know, Scott was my boss for for the entire time that I worked at Charity Water, and we had thing the blessing was that we really had very complementing strengths, very different strengths. I think that if I wanted to be the CEO of Charity Water, and he did also it would not have worked out. So thankfully, I was very content executing his big vision. And always, most of the time supported his big vision. And you know, there's definitely a few other women who I call them my sister wives. So more or less. She where she just she just left her you want her after 10 years and Scott's assistance over time as well. Like the three of us were always kind of been together like okay, I don't really like corral this crazy energy that he has. He was always very reined in by these strong women around him. And, and I can Yeah, we have we have a lot of fun together. Yeah.
So vacuoles obviously, getting to see firsthand so many stories of philanthropy, and no, you believe in its power. You've seen its power. Is there a story that sticks out to you? That's especially poignant over all these years?
Sure. Um, I can think of two really, I don't know which one to tell. So I'll tell him both. The first one is we have a donor in Dallas, who it's short, but it's just so It's so inspiring to us to Scott myself, because we actually give to charity water and we give a lot and we give to a lot of other causes as well. And we believe in generosity we believe in giving. But this donor just blows our minds he has he lives in a very modest house with his two kids and his wife. He's a millionaire and he gives he gives away 80% of his income. Every year, and he gives us a million dollars every year. And when Scott went to visit him for the first time, he kind of couldn't believe it, you know, you'd think of somebody who has the capacity to give that much. you'd imagine them living in a mansion. And most of the time, their donors live very well. And they're also very generous. But that type of radical Gen. So when Scott asked, like, you know, well, why, how can you do? How can you get live this modestly and give this much? His answer was, How can I not the Bible talks about it, and I just thought that was so powerful and so inspiring. And that was that's one story. And he continues to give and we can't wait to you know, be become even better friends with his family. And then the second story is are very, very dear friends and our largest donors to Charity Water, Michael and Sochi, birch, who Scott wrote about them in the book, we've been on, like 10 vacations with them, we've taken them to Africa multiple times, we have the best fun time with them, every time we get together. And they they are just such a great example for us of how like we don't even talk about Charity Water anymore. When we get together with them. We were just friends. And they continue to give. And they gave, Miko gave the first or gave us our first what we call Angel gift. It was the first hue he has a million dollars when we thought we were about to go under because Scott couldn't pay salaries or rent, because we separate our programs, dollars from our from operating dollars. And he came in and save the day and has been giving that same way for 12 years now. So a total of 12 $13 million. And it's very public about this. So this isn't the secret. But you know, just people like that, who really believe in you. And then you get to become friends with them. And they'll just leave us the keys to their house when we're in town in San Francisco. And they'll just be like, Come Make yourselves at home, hey, you know, you want to come visit us in Sonoma, here are the keys to that house to you know, come Make yourselves at home, we've had retreats and staff gatherings at their homes, you know, and it's just, it's just the most amazing way to you know, build relationships with donors. And now when Scott goes out, and, you know, he spends most of his time now, really at the very highest level with the highest level donors who are giving over a million up to 10 million. He's discovered this like this kind of than this, the Eureka moment for him recently, probably in the last three, five years where he's like, I do not the first three conversations are usually not about money. They are about family, your values, stories, and just building a friendship. And the proposal comes after. So the whole few first few meetings are about building a true real relationship getting to know one another. And I think that is such a huge kind of shift, you know, for fundraising that we've had for sure.
Okay. I mean, that right, there is one of the greatest lessons and hacks that I hope people take away from this conversation, we understand there is a space for the science of fundraising, the people, the art of it is so critical, those soft skills of just authentically showing up seeing somebody talking about the things that matter. And I have to give Scott some props here because and into your incredible friends, the birches because, you know, what a tragedy that would have been if Charity Water had gone under, and the people have in the scale that would have been lost and the humanity that we wouldn't have been able to connect with. But having a strong leader at the top, who can cast vision and say, This is what we're going to do. But I need funding to come over on this incredibly non sexy side of our house just so we can operate a donor who has been cultivated well, who is completely bought into the mission, and understands that they need to give just to enable the greatness of this nonprofit to come to be is such a great story. And I have to tie it back and just share my own personal story with Charity Water and it starts with john. And I remember the day that we were at our health care foundation working away, I'm sitting at my computer, and john pops into my office and says, I got to show you something and he pulls up this video for first of Scott story, and we watch it together and we are glued to this and then we start down the rabbit trail of watching the Charity Water videos and John's like are you aware that they are have these huge yellow, like jackets? Yeah, that they have people like celebrities walk around and their high heels and their glitter like dresses, and to see what it feels like. And I'm like, Holy smokes, these are disruptors, these are creative rebels, that we want to lock arms and watch what you have been doing. And we have for over 10 years now. And I just want to say, the fact that we can have these conversations where you're so real, where sweet, little Emma's coming in the background, and you're being mom, but you're also being this beautiful branding, genius who can come into our space and revolutionize it in a way that makes people feel seen and changes the world. It's just such a full circle moment to me, and I'm so glad that you're here.
Thank you so sweet.
Okay, so the last question that we ask all of our guests is, what is your one good thing, it could be a habit, a piece of advice, I can't wait to hear what you're going to say back,
the one big thing I would have to say is
having the
courage to dream big without knowing how you're going to achieve exactly what you're dreaming about. And to put that out into the world and hold your own feet to the fire. So that's every single good thing in my life, that I am proud of that. And charity waters life has come out of this courage, we you know, try and have not always have to try and have to say, okay, like, right now charity water's got a vision 2025 and it is to give another million people clean water, and we don't exactly know how we're going to do it. I'm sorry, it's to give 25 million people clean water brainfart there. And and, and, you know, and it's it's,
it's not
completely, like, out of the blue out of nowhere. You're just saying ridiculous things. There's some idea behind it. boy does it scare the crap out of us, you know, to commit to that publicly. But that's the only way you're gonna do it. You know, when I when I launched my course the monthly giving launch guide, it was right in the middle of summer COVID had happened. We just bought a house. Everything was a
disaster like our bog, we had
boxes, our entire apartment from New York was packed into the garage, mold growing over my nice clothes and like my high heels that I will never wear ever again. Same and my kids running around without like any anyone to take care of them, though school School's out. And I just I was like, I can't, I cannot continue to wait for the perfect time to launch this thing that I've wanted to launch for four years. And I've been well, since everything else is kind of a disaster, I might as well just. And I set a date. I said six weeks from today, I'm going to launch this course I publicly announced that since September 15 is the launch, you know, and it did. And that's a it's a small, it's a small, small example of that goal. But um, you know, if you're a nonprofit listening right now, and you're like, I don't know, it's gonna take so long for us to create the resources to launch a successful monthly giving program or whatever, campaign etc, I would say that, if you have the big vision, you will find the resources, you will find the time you will find the money you will find the inspiration. So the one big thing is just jump and know that you will grow wings on the way down,
jump and you will grow wings on the way down. I mean, we are we are also a little pandemic baby company. And we also took a leap of faith to launch this company. So that resonates with me so well. And it's more of the dance a lot of thinking of if you're if people are not laughing at you, your dream is not big enough. And if there's enough passion and enough community behind anything, and we're holding our feet to the fire to your point, then we then we can't get anything that could be possible. So thank you for the permission to dream, Vic.
Yeah, absolutely. And I would just say you know, the the parkins Parkinson's Law, right? That that the amount of work will always fill the amount of time you allow it. So if you allow yourself a year to launch something, it'll take you a year if you allow yourself a month and a half, it'll take you a month and a half and we'll get it done.
Everybody hit pause and make a commitment right this second I'm feeling this. Vic, I know you already have a fan club we want to add to your fan club online. So how can people find you online? where's the best place to connect with you and reach out to you?
Oh, yeah, thanks. So I am at Vic Harrison comm I also hang out on Instagram at viersen vi K. Harrison and, and yeah, the monthly giving launch guide is there and you know, look look forward to More More fun things to come in the future some some other fundraising courses coming probably very soon.
I just want to thank you Vic for being a good a nice human being as a kind human being, as your website says, For doing the tough work for turning away from I know you worked for American Express and all of these really big companies and you leaned into this and I don't even think we said this because we talked about it before the podcast starts. But I mean, Vic has had people come up to her in the world who've who have said I've benefited from one of your wells. And to me that is where the rubber meets the road when you can find someone who is excelling and living vibrantly in this life because you chose to go down the the path less traveled. That is why our work is so meaningful. So have the courage to dream big and go follow vec your your life will be changed and enhanced in many ways. It's been an honor,
thank you so much.
Same thing here. It's
been so fun chatting. Thank you.
Thanks for listening to today's conversation about monthly giving. We're so honored for the chance to learn from Vic and hope that she challenged you to rewrite a new story for your monthly donors. You probably hear it in our voices, but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you do more for your mission. We'd love for you to come join our good community. It's free. And you can think of it as the after party for each episode. It's our social network and you can sign up but we're for good, calm backslash. Hello. One more thing. If you love what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating and review? It really does help more people find our good community. Our production hero is the person who learned all about Charity Water in college, Julie Confer and our theme song is sunray by Remy barspin Thanks for being here, everybody.
