June 12, 2024 • 52 mins
Join us for an insightful episode of "From the Nest with Charity Jen," where Greg Ng, CEO of a consulting firm specializing in customer insight, shares his journey of creating transformative non-profit events. Over a decade ago, Greg forged a deep connection with a local NC food bank, driven by his personal commitment to the cause. At the time, serving as the CMO of Brooks Bell, his expertise in marketing and video production sparked a revolutionary idea - a 24-hour internet streaming telethon aimed at raising awareness and funds for the food bank.
Despite initial apprehensions, the telethon was a monumental success, attracting widespread media attention and making a significant impact on the community. Greg's story exemplifies the power of community engagement and innovative thinking in driving meaningful change. His experience underscores the profound impact that skilled individuals can have when they channel their talents and passion into non-profit initiatives.
This episode is a must-listen for non-profit fundraisers seeking inspiration and practical insights into leveraging creative ideas for maximum impact. Discover how you, too, can make a difference and inspire others to contribute to worthy causes.
Follow and subscribe to From the Nest at olasmedia.com
The key moments in this episode are:
00:00:16 - Introduction and Background of Guests
00:02:39 - Brooks Bell and Marketing Optimization
00:09:25 - 24-Hour Live Streaming Fundraising Event
00:14:21 - Creative Fundraising and Engagement
00:17:15 - Building on Success and Digital Fundraising
00:18:57 - Event Planning and Execution
00:21:20 - Impact and Fundraising
00:22:54 - Social Media Ambassadors
00:27:05 - Personal Involvement and Community Impact
00:29:37 - Memorable Moments and Community Engagement
00:36:33 - Harnessing Social Media Buzz
00:38:20 - Preparing for the Telethon
00:39:59 - Evolving the Telethon
00:43:54 - Personal Engagement in Fundraising
00:47:54 - Coaching and Empowering Others
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:16):
Welcome to From the Nest with Charity. Jen, I'm your host,
Jen Newmeyer. On this podcast, we have casual conversations with
folks in the nonprofit field exploring the success and lessons
learned of topics like volunteering and fundraising strategy. I have
a very special guest for today's show. It's rare that
I get the opportunity to chat with a volunteer ambassador.
(00:38):
Not to mention a hunger relief advocate. We work together
on a 24 hour live streaming fundraising event. Several years ago,
he was the host and I was the project manager.
We'll go behind the curtain to hear how it all
started and why you might be familiar with Freezerburns, his
frozen food review show from back in the day. Yes,
(01:00):
I said Frozen Food review show. Joining us today is
Greg Ng. He is currently the CEO of Brooksville and
owner of Follow Greg Sports Photography. And if that is
not an array of talents, wait to hear how he's
also affiliated with the Smithsonian right here in Washington, DC.
Per usual. There was so much to cover in limited time,
(01:23):
but nonetheless, you'll find plenty of valuable takeaways. Listen carefully
to hear his take on keeping passionate supporters engaged. So
important going into these summer months. Buckle up for an
intense ride. This is from the Nest with Charity Jen.
S2 (01:47):
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S3 (02:03):
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(02:28):
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S1 (02:39):
Hi Greg, thank you so much for joining me on
the show. It is great to see you.
S4 (02:44):
Thanks, Jen. It's great to see you too.
S1 (02:46):
I mean, it has been it has been a few
years now hasn't it. We haven't we haven't spoken a
long time.
S4 (02:53):
I've been following along though. And and seeing the great
work that you're doing. Yeah.
S1 (02:58):
Yeah. Well I have been following along on your amazing
journey also. So, uh, you are now the CEO of
Brooks Bell, is that right? That's right. Yeah. And you're
and you're moving into a new location. You're based based
in Raleigh, North Carolina.
S4 (03:16):
Yeah. We, um, we were in a, an office space
in the Glenwood South area of Raleigh, North Carolina, and
now we've, uh, moved to a more, uh, downtown location.
So we're very excited about about that momentum.
S1 (03:30):
Yes. And, um, Brooks Bell, remind me is, uh, marketing optimization. Yes,
that kind of thing. Tell tell me a little bit
about that.
S4 (03:41):
Yeah. Marketing experimentation. Um, we are a consulting firm that
works with brands specifically around, um, customer insight and how
organizations can, can better read the signals that their customers
are giving them and, and be more responsive to them
in the marketplace.
S1 (04:00):
Yes. And we could sure use that in the nonprofit
arena as well. Sure. We were uh, I actually am working.
So as you know, I'm at PBS now working with
stations all across the country, and we were just talking
about like, user journeys and the importance of testing and
experimentation and all of those fun things that I think
(04:22):
you probably were the first one to talk to me
about way back in, I don't know, 2010.
S4 (04:29):
I think. So I think over ten years ago, which
which makes me feel incredibly old.
S1 (04:34):
I know, I know, doesn't it? It's like, wait a second,
that was just yesterday. That we were going to lunch
and talking about how to improve email opens.
S4 (04:43):
That's right, that's right.
S1 (04:45):
So, um, so I am I'm really thrilled to have
you on the show because, uh, I, I love the, um,
sort of history that we have had together in your
history of volunteering, uh, specifically with my former organization, the
food Bank of Central and eastern North Carolina and, uh, and,
(05:06):
and in fact, I think that our story was so compelling,
I included it in my book, chapter, chapter nine. You
did talking, talking about the importance of ambassadors. But, um,
so I would love to hear, like, your perspective of
getting involved with the food bank back then. And I
(05:27):
was trying to remember if it was that I had
the social media Ambassadors group established. And that's how you
joined or did you come to the food bank interested
in volunteering, and then join the social media ambassadors?
S4 (05:42):
It was actually the latter. Okay, I did come to
the food bank, um, specifically to see how I could
get involved. Mhm. Um, and through that reach out, um,
I remember it like it was yesterday, although now we've
established it was over ten years ago. I remember jumping
on a conference call with you and some of your
(06:03):
colleagues and us talking through all the possible ways that
I could help. And one of the things that that
was brought up during that meeting was about being a
social media ambassador, which was a very no brainer for me.
S1 (06:19):
Yes. And it I do remember that phone call as
well because, um, at the time when I was at
the food bank, uh, we would get a lot of
calls of people who would want to help, want to
do food drives, want to get involved. And, um, and
I remember that we were on the call and you
were talking about a big idea that you had that
(06:42):
you wanted to bring to the food bank. And we
kind of we kind of like, took a deep breath
because there are lots of people that come to the
food bank and say, we have a big idea. And,
you know, resources from a staffing standpoint are very, uh,
you know, um, uh, you know, we're not swimming in resources.
(07:03):
And so, so we have to be very, um, you know,
we have to kind of choose what kinds of projects
are going to have the best impact. But you had
suggested something very interesting to us. It took us all
by surprise. And I think that when we got off
the phone call, we all started to scream with excitement.
(07:27):
And so, uh, so tell us a little bit about
that idea that you had that you brought to the
food bank.
S4 (07:36):
Um, I think it might help for me to start
with saying that I really believe when it comes to volunteering, um,
when it comes to participating in one of the many
different nonprofits or causes that, um, that one would feel
personally attached to, um, that it's really important to remind
(07:59):
ourselves that there are many things that we individually take
for granted, um, as being easy or being less hard, um,
and that, that a lot of great organizations could use
help with. Um, and so for me, I was deeply
involved at the time, I was the CMO of Brooksville,
(08:20):
and now I'm the CEO. Um, so certainly understood a
lot about marketing, about engaging with people, about, um, influencing, uh,
people about educating, uh, messages. And I also had maybe
a unique opportunity and skill set of understanding how to
do that via video. And so the idea that I
(08:43):
brought to all of you at the food bank was,
let's do a 24 hour internet streaming telethon, much like
what we all grew up doing, uh, watching on T.V. um,
and instead of manning phones, let's man, um, an internet based, uh,
(09:04):
or online donation form and let's pack it full of
content to, to really help educate, um, those in our
community of the great work the food bank does.
S1 (09:15):
And I think that that sort of grand idea, um, was, uh,
it seemed so intimidating, uh, for us. And I remember, uh,
Peter Verbitsky, who was the CEO of the food bank
at the time, said, Jen, do you do you really
think that this is something that that we like? It
(09:36):
seems like a very, very big project. But to your
point of bringing your talents, your skills, your background, you
actually brought an audience. You had done this kind of
thing before for other causes, and you had a really
(09:56):
big following on YouTube that I think was, um, you know, something,
of course, the reach that, uh, that you had with
your own networks was something that in addition to your
skills and experience doing this sort of, you know, live
streaming event, um, was another element that was a part
(10:20):
of it that made it really impactful.
S4 (10:23):
Right? It was I think that so first of all,
very pleased to announce that we were very successful in
that first year, even though we were a little nervous
about it, um, and successful in subsequent years. I hosted
three years in a row. Um, and I think one
of the things that that really, um, helped was that
(10:46):
it was newsworthy. There are many different things that nonprofits
can do and do and do continue to roll out
as programs or special events or fund major fundraisers. And
this was something that no one had ever heard of before.
It instantly got a lot of press. It instantly was
(11:06):
set up so that we could highlight all the different
facets of the food bank, which is vast and very diverse.
And we had 24 hours of content, um, to, to fill.
And it was just a little, uh, scary. It was
just a just a little feel. Felt a little out
(11:28):
of reach that, um, it caused a lot of people
to tune in. And so just simply the fact that I,
as a host, would be on camera, on mic for
24 straight hours is is a big feat to begin with.
Now I can leverage that kind of shock value to,
to really drive sponsorship as well as viewership.
S1 (11:49):
Right. And I think, uh, one of the things that
I loved about the entire concept was that it involved
so many different departments, so many different partners, so much
engagement to so many different audiences and different ways because
of the fact that it was 24 hours of content
(12:11):
that we had to fill. But we really did some
very creative, um, fundraising types of, um, elements to it.
For instance, having corporate partners that would um, support, uh,
the campaign with a large gift be featured. They would
(12:31):
bring all of their folks down to the warehouse where
we were airing, uh, the show, um, bring all of
their folks down, um, do a check presentation, have the
time to be interviewed with you and talk about, you know, their, um,
you know, uh, thoughts on giving back to the community and, um,
(12:54):
and I and so, you know, there were the corporate partners,
then there were volunteers who would come in and, you know,
there were there were kids that would come in and
make their donations. Like, I would love to hear, uh, and,
and just, you know, for, you know, for our audience,
I mean, we had a dunk tank, we had mascots,
(13:17):
we had a clown one year. We had we had
we had a magician, we had a live event, we
had midnight volunteering. We had a barbecue, we had music,
we had veggie yoga. We dressed up as right, like,
even in the middle of the night, trying to think
(13:39):
of unique, uh, things that we could do. We we
had one of our former former colleagues, Molly, who was
from Wisconsin, do a cheese blindfolded cheese tasting. That's right. Yeah.
So so for me, I think what I loved was
it just hit all of the, um, from from acquisition to,
(14:04):
you know, engagement to cultivation to stewardship with all of
these different audiences. Um, and it just is such a
good example of the kind of campaign where you really
are very thoughtful about everyone that you have involved.
S4 (14:20):
And I think that it was not only successful in
the money raised in a short amount of time, but
it was also extremely successful in outreaching to organizations and
individual people who eventually become individual donors, sustaining, uh, donors, um,
(14:45):
about the core messages that the food bank and substitute
food bank messaging for for any nonprofit um, has. Every
nonprofit has a number of key points that they want
the audience to be aware of. Um, we had 24
hours worth of time to do so, right? And so
(15:07):
not only was I able to very clearly articulate for
the the biggest part of the broadcast, which was at
the very beginning and at the very end, um, where
the biggest, biggest viewership, um, the simple things of how
many meals does $1 feed, what percentage of every dollar
that's donated goes straight back into the community? What are
(15:29):
the different locations? How does one volunteer, um, how what
is the process of, of um of farm to, uh, to, uh,
to the food bank warehouse and, and highlighting all the
great people within the organization. It was also a huge
value because now you can actually personify the great work that, um,
(15:50):
that the, the team at the food bank was doing. Um,
it was just a huge opportunity for branding. It was
a huge opportunity for outreach and marketing. And those types
of things are, are, you know, last all through the year.
So it I, I want to reiterate that it it
really does take something that requires not just one creative idea,
(16:13):
but many, many, many, many creative ideas to fill within
that we had. Countless planning meetings that first year. But
I remember Jan and maybe this is revisionist history, but
in the year two and three that I hosted, we
had dramatically less because we were we had already built
a template for a run of show for 24 hours,
by the way. I'll never forget that spreadsheet. Um, but
(16:37):
we now had returning guests, and we now had returning
things that worked and things that didn't, and so we
could try, try new things every year. So it was
just a phenomenal opportunity. I, I, um, hold it in
such high regard as one of the things that that
I'm most proud of. Yeah.
S1 (16:54):
Yeah. I, um, I absolutely agree, and I think that
that is such a key message for nonprofits especially, believe
it or not. Um, still, many nonprofits are still struggling
to understand digital fundraising and digital engagement within their organization.
Who owns it? How do we collaborate? What are you know,
(17:17):
there are so many layers and so many, you know,
sometimes they're silos and other and, you know, issues from
a technical, you know, a technology standpoint or a tech stack. Um,
but I think you have hit on something that, um,
is very important and something that I also try to
communicate is you can't just do it the first year,
(17:38):
say that it was a success or a failure and
not like it takes time to build on it. And
I think, yes, like in those final years, we did
have a template. We had returning partners, we had people
who were excited to come back. And because we had
the content already, you know, we had hours and hours.
(18:01):
I think they're even still on YouTube. Some of them are, yes, yes,
hours and hours of, uh, basically content that could be
used to to show future partners exactly what the show
looked like, what the campaign looked like, the impact that
they were making in the community and how they could
(18:21):
easily get involved. That's right. So, yeah. So let's go
back to, um, just sort of talking about that first year,
because you're right, we did have a lot of meetings because,
you know, it was not just it was not just
who was going to be responsible for what. I mean,
we had to decide who was going to monitor the
(18:43):
chat for 24 hours. And luckily we had Mike, who, uh,
you know, good friend of yours who came in to
sort of help and stood by your side. The whole
Mike Adams was there the whole time, whom I.
S4 (18:59):
Still work with.
S1 (19:00):
Yes. Oh, yes, oh, yes. We'll tell him I said hello,
but also some of the other elements because we were
I mean, we were, we had lots of big ideas.
We had, you know, we had uh, back, back in
the day when there were tweetups and festivals and social media,
(19:21):
we had a social media mixer, we had midnight volunteering,
so we had the show, but then we were also
trying to attract people down to the, you know, to
the location so they could be on site. I think
the first year, in my mind, I had imagined that
we were going to have like a studio audience.
S4 (19:39):
Right?
S1 (19:40):
I don't think that didn't work out so well, but
it did not there. There were lots of lessons that
we had from that first year, even from the technology. Um,
we now remind me, because we were going to use
Google for, uh, what what were the what were we
going to do with that? Yeah.
S4 (19:59):
Originally we that was our biggest concern. We were in
a warehouse, uh, a warehouse that does not require a
lot of bandwidth. Um, from a digital, from a digital
streaming standpoint. And here we were saying, okay, we're in
this warehouse and we now need to stream video for
24 hours straight. Yes. So not only were we worried
(20:20):
about the reliability of that connection, but we were worried
initially about would we have enough bandwidth. And I remember
we did a lot of tests there, and I don't
remember the partner that that came through, but that we
did have a partner come through to ensure we had
a constant connection. And that was very key from a
(20:42):
tactical standpoint. I will go back to Mike. Um, Mike
was served as kind of the producer who also helped
make sure that my mic was always live. And, you know,
the lights were fine and, and, um, and reminder to,
to take breaks at times because, you know, speaking for
an hour is is hard enough. Speaking for 24 hours
(21:04):
is is quite a feat. Um, and he and I
had done a 24 hour telethon online, um, just one
year prior for, for another nonprofit. We learned so much.
In that time? Yeah. Um, so, uh, the food bank
benefited from actually, um, us making all the big mistakes
(21:27):
the year before. And so we knew that we had
a great opportunity to hit the ground running. Um, but yes,
there was just so many little moving parts, um, that
went into it. And it was such a great team effort.
And here's the great thing about it, that core team
in year one expanded and became that core team in
(21:47):
year two and year three. And I still keep up
with all of these people because, um, because we spent
a lot of time together, you know, not only planning
but actually executing the, the, the telethon. And, and we
made we raised a tremendous amount of money in, in
just a short period of time.
S1 (22:08):
That's right. Yeah. I think in the first year it
was about 25,000. But in subsequent years every year was
a $50,000 right event. Yeah, yeah.
S4 (22:18):
Not not too shabby for 24 hours.
S1 (22:20):
That's right. Yeah for sure. So let's talk a little
bit about that support that we had. So we had
a really very engaged group of people called the social
media ambassadors for uh, the food bank. They were. And,
you know, I'll just sort of plug how that got started.
(22:40):
You know, I at the time was, um, launching all
of the food bank, uh, social media platforms, website redesign,
you know, new, you know, email strategies, email campaigns, those
kinds of things. And I had a lot to learn.
So I started going out to all of these, you know,
(23:01):
the triangle AMA, the American Marketing Association, which I believe
you were, um, very much involved with for a long time,
maybe even still involved with them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, uh,
they had, uh, meetings, like I said before, this was
the these were the years of tweet ups and festivals
and social media, you know, groups and meetups. And, um,
(23:23):
so I was attending all of these things locally at
the time. Raleigh, the Raleigh area was very vibrant networking
kind of community. And as I was talking to people
about what I was doing, you know, what I, what
I did for a living at the food bank, a
lot of them were saying, oh, I would love to
(23:43):
get involved, but like, I just don't have time to
come down to the warehouse. You know, volunteering hours were
limited during the week, that kind of thing. And so
I said, well, you can really help by using your
social media platforms to help spread the word about the
food bank. And that was sort of how the social
media ambassadors got started. And they were such a huge
(24:03):
part of this event. And like you had said before,
we would have meetings, uh, monthly meetings and, uh, you know, assignments.
And people were reaching out to partners locally to, you know,
for sponsorship and helping out with the event. And, um,
I would I would love to hear, like from your perspective,
looking back, um, sort of, you know, what you thought
(24:27):
of that group and, and how and how their, you know,
their kind of impact on the, on the, on the event.
S4 (24:35):
Yeah, certainly the, um, I was a social media ambassador
for about ten years, actually. Wow. Um, and in those
beginning years for sure, um, there were there was a
lot of engagement, uh, in terms of, um, within our group,
but also, um, supported and planned by your team. So
(25:00):
even just simply the idea of having a, um, kickoff
of the year with the social media ambassadors at the
warehouse is such an important part. We're taking pictures, we're
pushing out content and doing things like that. It's really
the humanizing of the actual words. So, um, there is
(25:21):
a superficial level of, of that type of engagement where
it's yes, I agree to retweet or share, um, any
type of content and tell people in passing, uh, yes,
I'm involved or I know a little bit about, um,
about some of the great work that the food bank does. Um,
but it's the community that is overlaid onto that that
(25:43):
then says, oh, wait a minute, are you volunteering next Wednesday?
Because maybe I'll join you. Oh, maybe. Hey, network, who
wants to join us? Right. Um, how do we then
when we're at AMA meetings and we see a fellow
ambassador talk about the food bank to the other people
within our table? And so, um, I think it's really
(26:05):
important to, to understand that it's important to put structure
into a program and to feed it, um, with things like,
here are some, um, exclusive. Type information or opportunities. Here
are some, um, opportunities to engage with with others. But really,
(26:25):
the real magic there is that you're through affiliation creating community.
And so that was the part where now all of
a sudden other ambassadors I now know because they volunteered
just as I had, they believe in the same things
that I do about food insecurity in our area. And
so now that's just another piece for me to engage
(26:47):
personally with that person. And now we start to form
bigger bonds, all, um, kind of empowered and provided by,
by the structure of that program. So it was a
great opportunity. Um, and, and I learned a lot and
by extension, my network learned a lot. And now all
of a sudden things can kind of fracture off. I mean,
(27:08):
after the telethon, um, I'm not sure if you remember this,
but I, I did a peanut butter program, um, because
I learned through all the work with the telethon how
in-demand peanut butter was, um, for food banks. And so
I made it a point to just focus on raising
awareness about peanut butter. Yes. Right. And so for me,
(27:31):
those are different ways that that we could we can
help out even as late as in the beginning of
the pandemic, I started doing work, um, for something called
the Front Steps project, um, where I would take photos
of families during quarantine. Um, and what did I choose
for where they can make donations? The food bank. So
(27:54):
this is this is not something that is by accident.
It came out of real deep involvement and understanding of
what a great organization our local food bank is. And
by the way, there are thousands, tens of thousands of
great organizations around the country who are doing similar things
and important things. Um, it really is about understanding why
(28:16):
they do it, what they're doing, how you can help
and to help in ways that you have, um, your
own skill set to do. And so it started with
me asking the question, and it resulted in, in a
great experience.
S1 (28:30):
Yeah, yeah, it really I, I love the, um, sort of, um, uh,
image of, you know, you as, as a person getting
involved and, you know, the ripples that, you know, that
just sort of happen within the community. Um, it it
(28:53):
was it was very it was a very special group
still is a very special group. And, um, and, uh, really,
really making a tremendous difference for folks in the, um,
in central and eastern North Carolina, for sure. Yeah. So
tell me, when you are thinking back to the telethon,
(29:14):
I would love to know what were maybe some of
your favorite, um, interviews elements, you know, were there, were
there a couple of moments that just really stood out
to you and stayed with you all these years?
S4 (29:29):
Uh, yes. Some. Some more trying than others. Let me
let me start with the most traumatic, um, I see
if I still have it, I do not, um, the
most traumatic is that. Um, one of the years I
decided that I was going to sort sweet potatoes all
by myself.
S1 (29:49):
Yes, I remember that entire bin. Yes.
S4 (29:54):
And that is a lot of work that's typically, you know,
the work of eight people over an hour. Um, I
did it, um, myself for, I think, three hours straight. Yeah. Um,
that that, um, I had a lot of appreciation for, um,
for the great work that the volunteers do, um, in that.
(30:16):
So that was a little trying. Yeah. Three in the morning. Um,
and that was tiring. But I got to interview so
many amazing, um, partners of the food bank. And to
understand that there are different ways in which other organizations
partner with the food bank to do the great work
(30:36):
they're doing, all with the same cause. How do we, um,
create food stability? How do we ensure that, um, children, uh, are, um, uh,
you know, taken care of, our elderly are taken care of, um,
that they're able to focus on school and they're able
(30:57):
to do all that great work and the highlights of
of interviewing, um, the local team. And so, yes, I
got to interview so many people over those three years,
probably over 100 people. Um, and just to see how
each person individually was doing their part. And that was
(31:19):
kind of the common trend I was trying to, uh,
ask of the viewer is to say, here is another
example of one person who has this set of skills,
who is applying it to do these types of things.
And so I think that that's kind of the theme that,
that I still take with me, um, just just amazing
(31:39):
work from each person. Not all the same. Um, one,
one woman was a glassblower who decided that she was
going to just make these special things, these pumpkins and donate,
donate the the money. Right. Um, uh, and even the,
the local companies that we got to meet who became sponsors,
(32:00):
hearing about the work that they do, the schools that, um,
do it. I will never forget Sanderson High School, who,
you know, would always win, win out on donating the most, uh,
out of all the schools. And, um, and to me,
those those all kind of blend together and give me
that just warm feeling of what a diverse community we
(32:20):
have who are each and every one of them contributing
in their own special way. Right?
S1 (32:25):
Right. And going going back to that traumatic experience. Um,
let's just describe, uh, for the audience, like the bins
are giant, like when you're standing next to them, they
come up to above your above your waist to your.
S4 (32:45):
Yeah, almost, almost to my shoulders. Yes. Um, so they're
they're not only large in width and height, uh, with
in depth. Uh, but to actually get to the bottom
of it, you have to really reach in, almost lift
a foot up to get the leverage to reach in. Um,
and the process of that was, um, these are sweet potatoes,
(33:07):
of which, uh, many, many, many sweet potatoes here in
North Carolina. Um, and, um, the idea is to group
them in these mesh bags and then tie a knot
on them. And that way you can actually separate them to,
to family settings. And there is a standard of it.
It's like two really large ones or, you know, uh,
(33:29):
three medium sized ones or two large ones and two
small ones, but you're picking through, um, I couldn't even imagine. Um,
I mean, it may have been 5 to 7000 sweet
potatoes in that bin. Um, and to individually wrap those, uh, was, uh,
(33:51):
was a lot.
S1 (33:52):
Yes, a lot.
S4 (33:54):
At three in the morning.
S1 (33:55):
Yes, exactly. And I think that that was like one
of the, the craziest ideas that we had were always
sort of in the middle of the night because it's
sort of like, how can we get people to tune
in at 2 or 3 a.m.? Uh, you know, and
so that was one crazy idea. I think there was
another one where we had, uh, the barbecue, um, the, uh,
(34:20):
cackalacky barbecue. They came down and, and were serving. We
were I don't know why we thought that people at
2 a.m. and would want barbecue sandwiches.
S4 (34:30):
Yeah. Barbecue sandwiches.
S1 (34:32):
But they they came down to the warehouse with their big, uh,
you know, uh, barbecue. Uh, yeah. Smoke. Yep. Mhm. And the.
The sandwiches were delicious. I, I mean, I love them.
2 a.m..
S4 (34:47):
They were. We had a food truck rodeo. Yes. At
one point, um, we had our, um, local, um, roller
derby team, the Carolina Roller Girls.
S1 (34:58):
That's right, I remember that. Yes.
S4 (35:00):
Wooly bull from the Durham Bulls. Uh, show up. We
had a magician. What I was looking for earlier is that, uh,
we had a magician who bent a fork and right
in front of my eyes, and I just. I couldn't
believe it. And I have it still somewhere around here.
I still have this fork, um, which was amazing. Um, so, yeah,
(35:22):
it was just such a diverse group of, um, of guests, um,
some of which I still, uh, keep tabs on and, um,
have become lifelong friends and. Yeah, yeah, a lot of those,
a lot of that content is still, um, on YouTube.
S1 (35:38):
Yeah. And like you were saying earlier, going back to
the each of those partners with their unique skills, their
unique background, you know, um, even the unique, you know, like,
we had food donating, you know, we had food donations,
we had cookies brought in, you know, at midnight for
the volunteers that were there, um, you know, from the local,
(36:00):
local cookie shop. I mean, everyone sort of contributed in
their very unique ways. They all had something special to bring. Right?
And it just created sort of this. And the event
itself almost was a community.
S4 (36:15):
I agree, the event was a community. And when we
talk about dollars and cents, when we talk about the
real economics of why this worked. Um, it was a
win win for brands and organizations and companies around the area.
We were getting press, um, local news was picking up,
(36:35):
picking it up. It was streaming on the internet. People
were tweeting it. We were the hashtag was getting a
lot of love. Um, and because of it, some brands
and local companies that we didn't even reach out to
were becoming very opportunistic. We had pizzas show up, um,
because they saw us on the on the stream and
(36:56):
they said, let me send pizzas. And sure enough, um,
I had no problem, um, on air saying thank you
for those pizzas, right. Because if I can engage them
as a small business and they can get something out
of it, some exposure, that's a win for everyone. Now
all of a sudden their employees see it and they
(37:17):
may get other business. But, um, all the while more
people are hearing the message that we're inner inner weaving
in of what is our what do we need? Why
do we need it? What is the great work that
we can do? And um, the other part of it is,
you know, when we had the goal of 50,000, I remember, um,
we started to really break it down. We used to say, look,
(37:40):
we want 5000 by this time. And that was very,
very helpful. We had a lot of repeat donors. We
had a lot of opportunities in the moment to say,
we're only a $200 away. Who's going to be the
one to put us over, over the top? And then
I would call them out on the stream, and then
in some cases, they would then come to the warehouse
later and I could thank them in person. So, um,
(38:02):
just it was just a great, great, um, great opportunity.
S1 (38:05):
Yeah. Yeah. Um, there is one thing I want to
touch on when, uh, uh, that I think is important
because I don't want to, um, sort of I want
to underline the, you know, what were you what you
were saying earlier about talking and interviewing people for 24
hours straight. You actually wouldn't talk for how many days
(38:30):
before the telethon?
S4 (38:31):
Yeah, 2 or 3 days before.
S1 (38:32):
2 or 3 days. And you drank a lot of
tea to kind of save your vocal cords? Um, was
there a year where you did start to lose? You
lost your voice toward the end? Yeah.
S4 (38:43):
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. It was the second year I started
to lose my voice. Um. We got through it. Well,
I mean, I will also say the, you know, the
very first time we did it at the food bank,
we also made the mistake of starting it at midnight.
We went midnight to midnight. And in future years we
(39:07):
went noon to noon, which was actually better. Right. Um,
so that was another example of, um, going noon to
noon was a it changes your sleeping schedule, but it
also what we loved about that was in the beginning
part of the telethon where it's most important to gain momentum.
(39:28):
People are awake.
S1 (39:30):
Yeah.
S4 (39:31):
Companies, local companies are not only awake, they're working. And
so now they can come. And we did the second
year I remember we did, or maybe it was the third.
We did a food truck rodeo right at the beginning.
So now all of a sudden we can get local
companies to come out during the workday, see the warehouse,
participate and and get lunch while they're there. So that's
(39:53):
another example of how just evolving it. But it was
very taxing on my body. Yeah, I don't know if
I could do it now. Um, but ten years ago
I was willing and able.
S1 (40:03):
Yes, I agree, I 100% agree because for us, you know,
as staff, like there was no sleeping. You know, there
was not. I think one year we did bring in
cots because we had intended to rotate and sleep. But
there was you were there was just so much excitement
and it was impossible to try to relax enough, you know,
(40:26):
plus you you're in a warehouse, like on a cot, like,
just not not the best kind of sleeping. Not easy
to sleep. Right? Right. Exactly. Um, okay, so the other, uh, uh, question, uh,
that I just sort of wanted to kind of touch
on is just, you know, when you are, when you
(40:50):
are thinking about this experience and you're talking to, uh,
other people about getting involved with nonprofits, you know, what
are what are some of the tips or advice, you know,
when you when you heard about the food bank and
you came or any of the organizations that you were
very passionate about because you were very much involved in
(41:11):
a lot of different organizations at the time. I think
at the state fair, you did a live remote for Movember.
S4 (41:19):
Uh, Movember was the first telethon that we did. Okay. Um,
but yes, the state fair, we did a state fair, um, uh,
tweet up, live tweet up, um, which, uh, was really
to benefit the, um, the NC, uh, farm, uh, and,
and food, um, organization and to highlight the state fair. Um,
(41:43):
but yes, I was involved in, in many different organizations.
I still am. Um, I think for me, the, the,
the issue of food is something that I felt really
strongly about, um, and continue to, um, mainly because it's
very easy to forget, um, when you live in an
(42:05):
area that is somewhat affluent or, um, very, um, where
you're not worrying about where your next meal is coming from. Um,
and it's very important to and easy to say, well,
you know, I believe in Feeding America, which is a
great organization. And, and that has a national footprint. For me,
(42:25):
it was really about how can we make change locally?
How could I, um, really try to pay it forward? Um,
to my neighbors, to my local community, to my my kids, classmates, to, um,
to organizations, uh, nearby. And so that's where I've really
zeroed in over the years. Um, and there are so
(42:45):
many different ways to fundraise and to get and to
get the, you know, the ideas out. Um, I just
think it's really important to continue to evolve and take
chances and, and, and really, um, push, uh, towards, um,
people who bring a lot of energy from a third
party perspective to your cause, to your goals, to those
(43:09):
things because, um, I think it would, would have been
safe to say that, um, maybe even just my network
on Facebook who are personal friends of mine, who are neighbors, colleagues,
past classmates, um, who may have followed the food bank
on Facebook and seen some messages when it comes from
(43:29):
their friend who then says, yeah, this is the message
that you've already seen, but this is specifically what it
means to me. Now all of a sudden that holds
a lot of weight, right? Um, and I just think
that that that type of personal engagement, personal affiliation and
endorsement is just so valuable. Um, and so how do
you empower your ambassadors? Uh, to to do that, to
(43:53):
take it to the next level.
S1 (43:54):
Yeah, yeah. With your sort of marketing, uh, background, which
I know is just, um, you know, so extensive and so, uh,
there's so much depth to it. If you were to
give some advice to nonprofits, again, this is a nonprofit
podcast of some things that they should think about when, um,
(44:18):
putting messages out there or, or, you know, attracting volunteers
like you that do have so much passion. Do you
think there's something in particular I know you had mentioned
sort of the, you know, humanizing of those messages and
sort of like behind the curtain. Do you have what
kind of advice would you would you give to nonprofits who,
(44:39):
you know, are, are looking to create that kind of, um,
experience and support from a volunteer standpoint for their organizations?
S4 (44:46):
Yeah, it's um, that's a great question. And it's the
same advice, actually, that we give our clients, um, who have.
A thousand, 1,500,000 x more budget. Right. And that is this, um,
especially with digital fundraising, there are there exists the tools
(45:06):
and platforms and technology where you can automate a lot
of these things. You can automate your emails, you can
automate your thank you, uh, communication. You can automate, um, how, um,
donations or individual fundraising can be, can be started by
by local people around your area. What's missing in, um,
(45:31):
for profit business is the same thing that's missing in
nonprofit business. And that is that personal engagement. So what
I the advice I would give is, let's say you
have a list of 50,000 people, 50,000 households that you
send an email newsletter out to. Identifying who that top
(45:54):
100 person people are. Out of that 50,000 or 1000 people,
if you have that much scale ability to do so
and reaching out to them personally, you can still send
that newsletter, but send that newsletter and say, hi Jen,
thank you so much for volunteering last week. I missed you,
but I heard that you did X. Um, just that
(46:19):
personal affiliation is enough to then reinvigorate someone that maybe
is a casual supporter in and energize them into saying,
I do feel a little bit of appreciation here and now.
I what else can I do, you know, and, um,
ideally you want to get to the point where you
(46:39):
can do all of those things for every single person. Um,
but technology, again, gets in the way and so does budgets,
and so does scale and your, your team size. And
so it's very, very easy to say, wait a minute. Oh,
I can just push a button and send it to
all these people. Now when you're looking at conversion rates
and you're wondering why those conversion rates are flat. The
(47:03):
it's really easy to say, well, if it's going to
be flat, I need to add x percent more people
to my list. And that's partially true. But I would
ask people to consider, um, how do you identify, um,
the donors or, or members of your list that have
the higher propensity to be engaged in a deeper way,
(47:24):
and how do you reach out directly to those people? Yeah,
that goes such a long way.
S1 (47:29):
Yes. Yeah. And I think that the example that we
have here with the community that was created, um, with
the social media ambassadors through an event like the telethon
that just, you know, built on that momentum year after
year is sort of a perfect example of one of
many examples, of course. Uh, but, um, a good way
(47:53):
to go about that.
S4 (47:54):
That's right. Yeah.
S1 (47:56):
Well, I want to be mindful of time, Greg, but, um,
before we go, I just have a few more questions
for you. I would love to, uh, do a lightning round, uh,
with you of, uh, some questions, just to kind of
get to know, you know, uh, you a little bit
more and the kinds of things, uh, that you're interested in.
(48:19):
So are you ready? I am okay, great. Tea or coffee?
S4 (48:23):
Oh, uh, always coffee for my first cup and then
tea the rest of the day.
S5 (48:28):
Okay. All right.
S1 (48:29):
Sunrise or sunset?
S4 (48:31):
Sunset.
S1 (48:32):
Okay. All right. Uh, let's see. Fireplace or fire pit?
Fire pit. Fire pit. Okay. Yes. Like the outdoors? Uh,
plane or car?
S6 (48:46):
Ooh!
S4 (48:49):
Uh, plane. Because I love travel.
S7 (48:52):
Yes, the.
S4 (48:53):
Car because I love driving. I will say plain.
S8 (48:55):
Okay, okay.
S1 (48:57):
And then final. And I think that this is kind
of right up in your alley and you might have
a lot of thoughts about it. Coach or play.
S4 (49:06):
Oh, that's a great question.
S8 (49:09):
I could.
S4 (49:10):
Speak another hour on this.
S1 (49:11):
Because I know you're very involved with your kids. They
play soccer. Uh, they're very. And you love. And you're
a photographer as well. And you take wonderful photos of
them and.
S4 (49:21):
Yeah. Um, definitely. Coach. Um, I even in my job
as a leader, um, I gained such great satisfaction in
mentoring and coaching and, um, and finding success by seeing
through success of others. Yeah.
S1 (49:40):
And I think that even when I was at the
food bank, you were such a good coach for me, uh,
just starting to, you know, sort of dip my toe
in the water of, uh, digital, uh, engagement and fundraising.
And you gave me such great advice. So I just
thank you, Greg, for joining us on the podcast, sharing
(50:02):
your knowledge, but also just, you know, sort of the history, uh,
that we had in the good old days of the telethon.
S4 (50:10):
It's so great to see you. Please keep in touch.
S8 (50:12):
Okay, I will do.
S1 (50:13):
All right. Thanks, Jen. See you. What an inspiring conversation.
Greg is truly incredible. And as if that wasn't enough,
after our recording, Greg discovered that a photo from the
telethon is currently featured at the Smithsonian Museum of American
History as part of the Giving in America exhibit in DC.
(50:36):
And while we didn't get a chance to talk about it,
you can read more and see photos with links to
the show at charity YEN.com.gh Smithsonian. Plus, you'll see further
evidence of his passion and dedication to the community and
how it shines through all of his work. I love
how he describes the impact of each person bringing their
(50:57):
talents and skills to contribute to the collective, and how
harnessing that energy around a fundraising campaign can make such
a difference. It was truly an exciting conversation for me.
If you'd like to hear more great conversations, visit CharityJen.com
to replay this and previous episodes. While you're there, you
can sign up for my monthly newsletter and access free
(51:19):
guides and learn more about my book, The Insider's Guide
to Online Fundraising. This has been from the nest, where
fundraising takes flight. Thanks for listening.
S9 (51:32):
This episode was produced by OLAS media Network in San Diego, California.
Jessica Garcia serves as general manager. Lina Alvarez is associate producer.
Elia Ramos is creative director. JC Polk is executive producer
and founding partner, and Chad Peae is our president and
founding partner. Thank you for listening.
S10 (51:55):
Olas Media.
S2 (51:59):
The Dear San Diego podcast is produced in collaboration with
The Times of San Diego. Repeatedly recognized by the San
Diego Press Club, The Times of San Diego delivers timely
and transparent news to, for and about America's finest city.
To learn more on how you can support this trusted
resource of information, visit Times of San Diego. com.
Welcome to From the Nest with Charity. Jen, I'm your host,
Jen Newmeyer. On this podcast, we have casual conversations with
folks in the nonprofit field exploring the success and lessons
learned of topics like volunteering and fundraising strategy. I have
a very special guest for today's show. It's rare that
I get the opportunity to chat with a volunteer ambassador.
(00:38):
Not to mention a hunger relief advocate. We work together
on a 24 hour live streaming fundraising event. Several years ago,
he was the host and I was the project manager.
We'll go behind the curtain to hear how it all
started and why you might be familiar with Freezerburns, his
frozen food review show from back in the day. Yes,
(01:00):
I said Frozen Food review show. Joining us today is
Greg Ng. He is currently the CEO of Brooksville and
owner of Follow Greg Sports Photography. And if that is
not an array of talents, wait to hear how he's
also affiliated with the Smithsonian right here in Washington, DC.
Per usual. There was so much to cover in limited time,
(01:23):
but nonetheless, you'll find plenty of valuable takeaways. Listen carefully
to hear his take on keeping passionate supporters engaged. So
important going into these summer months. Buckle up for an
intense ride. This is from the Nest with Charity Jen.
S2 (01:47):
The equation is simple. Successful elections equal most people voting
minus two party partisan bullying. The Independent Voter Project takes
this belief to the airwaves on the Independent Voter podcast.
Follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
S3 (02:03):
Hey everyone, this is Kayla with March and Ash. I wanted to
let you know about a great chance for $7,100 store
credit as part of our 710 celebration. So from June
10th to July 10th go to March and ash com
slash 710 to sign up for your chance to get
$710 store credit valid at any March in Ash location.
(02:28):
For more details, go to March and Ash.com enjoy responsibly.
S1 (02:39):
Hi Greg, thank you so much for joining me on
the show. It is great to see you.
S4 (02:44):
Thanks, Jen. It's great to see you too.
S1 (02:46):
I mean, it has been it has been a few
years now hasn't it. We haven't we haven't spoken a
long time.
S4 (02:53):
I've been following along though. And and seeing the great
work that you're doing. Yeah.
S1 (02:58):
Yeah. Well I have been following along on your amazing
journey also. So, uh, you are now the CEO of
Brooks Bell, is that right? That's right. Yeah. And you're
and you're moving into a new location. You're based based
in Raleigh, North Carolina.
S4 (03:16):
Yeah. We, um, we were in a, an office space
in the Glenwood South area of Raleigh, North Carolina, and
now we've, uh, moved to a more, uh, downtown location.
So we're very excited about about that momentum.
S1 (03:30):
Yes. And, um, Brooks Bell, remind me is, uh, marketing optimization. Yes,
that kind of thing. Tell tell me a little bit
about that.
S4 (03:41):
Yeah. Marketing experimentation. Um, we are a consulting firm that
works with brands specifically around, um, customer insight and how
organizations can, can better read the signals that their customers
are giving them and, and be more responsive to them
in the marketplace.
S1 (04:00):
Yes. And we could sure use that in the nonprofit
arena as well. Sure. We were uh, I actually am working.
So as you know, I'm at PBS now working with
stations all across the country, and we were just talking
about like, user journeys and the importance of testing and
experimentation and all of those fun things that I think
(04:22):
you probably were the first one to talk to me
about way back in, I don't know, 2010.
S4 (04:29):
I think. So I think over ten years ago, which
which makes me feel incredibly old.
S1 (04:34):
I know, I know, doesn't it? It's like, wait a second,
that was just yesterday. That we were going to lunch
and talking about how to improve email opens.
S4 (04:43):
That's right, that's right.
S1 (04:45):
So, um, so I am I'm really thrilled to have
you on the show because, uh, I, I love the, um,
sort of history that we have had together in your
history of volunteering, uh, specifically with my former organization, the
food Bank of Central and eastern North Carolina and, uh, and,
(05:06):
and in fact, I think that our story was so compelling,
I included it in my book, chapter, chapter nine. You
did talking, talking about the importance of ambassadors. But, um,
so I would love to hear, like, your perspective of
getting involved with the food bank back then. And I
(05:27):
was trying to remember if it was that I had
the social media Ambassadors group established. And that's how you
joined or did you come to the food bank interested
in volunteering, and then join the social media ambassadors?
S4 (05:42):
It was actually the latter. Okay, I did come to
the food bank, um, specifically to see how I could
get involved. Mhm. Um, and through that reach out, um,
I remember it like it was yesterday, although now we've
established it was over ten years ago. I remember jumping
on a conference call with you and some of your
(06:03):
colleagues and us talking through all the possible ways that
I could help. And one of the things that that
was brought up during that meeting was about being a
social media ambassador, which was a very no brainer for me.
S1 (06:19):
Yes. And it I do remember that phone call as
well because, um, at the time when I was at
the food bank, uh, we would get a lot of
calls of people who would want to help, want to
do food drives, want to get involved. And, um, and
I remember that we were on the call and you
were talking about a big idea that you had that
(06:42):
you wanted to bring to the food bank. And we
kind of we kind of like, took a deep breath
because there are lots of people that come to the
food bank and say, we have a big idea. And,
you know, resources from a staffing standpoint are very, uh,
you know, um, uh, you know, we're not swimming in resources.
(07:03):
And so, so we have to be very, um, you know,
we have to kind of choose what kinds of projects
are going to have the best impact. But you had
suggested something very interesting to us. It took us all
by surprise. And I think that when we got off
the phone call, we all started to scream with excitement.
(07:27):
And so, uh, so tell us a little bit about
that idea that you had that you brought to the
food bank.
S4 (07:36):
Um, I think it might help for me to start
with saying that I really believe when it comes to volunteering, um,
when it comes to participating in one of the many
different nonprofits or causes that, um, that one would feel
personally attached to, um, that it's really important to remind
(07:59):
ourselves that there are many things that we individually take
for granted, um, as being easy or being less hard, um,
and that, that a lot of great organizations could use
help with. Um, and so for me, I was deeply
involved at the time, I was the CMO of Brooksville,
(08:20):
and now I'm the CEO. Um, so certainly understood a
lot about marketing, about engaging with people, about, um, influencing, uh,
people about educating, uh, messages. And I also had maybe
a unique opportunity and skill set of understanding how to
do that via video. And so the idea that I
(08:43):
brought to all of you at the food bank was,
let's do a 24 hour internet streaming telethon, much like
what we all grew up doing, uh, watching on T.V. um,
and instead of manning phones, let's man, um, an internet based, uh,
(09:04):
or online donation form and let's pack it full of
content to, to really help educate, um, those in our
community of the great work the food bank does.
S1 (09:15):
And I think that that sort of grand idea, um, was, uh,
it seemed so intimidating, uh, for us. And I remember, uh,
Peter Verbitsky, who was the CEO of the food bank
at the time, said, Jen, do you do you really
think that this is something that that we like? It
(09:36):
seems like a very, very big project. But to your
point of bringing your talents, your skills, your background, you
actually brought an audience. You had done this kind of
thing before for other causes, and you had a really
(09:56):
big following on YouTube that I think was, um, you know, something,
of course, the reach that, uh, that you had with
your own networks was something that in addition to your
skills and experience doing this sort of, you know, live
streaming event, um, was another element that was a part
(10:20):
of it that made it really impactful.
S4 (10:23):
Right? It was I think that so first of all,
very pleased to announce that we were very successful in
that first year, even though we were a little nervous
about it, um, and successful in subsequent years. I hosted
three years in a row. Um, and I think one
of the things that that really, um, helped was that
(10:46):
it was newsworthy. There are many different things that nonprofits
can do and do and do continue to roll out
as programs or special events or fund major fundraisers. And
this was something that no one had ever heard of before.
It instantly got a lot of press. It instantly was
(11:06):
set up so that we could highlight all the different
facets of the food bank, which is vast and very diverse.
And we had 24 hours of content, um, to, to fill.
And it was just a little, uh, scary. It was
just a just a little feel. Felt a little out
(11:28):
of reach that, um, it caused a lot of people
to tune in. And so just simply the fact that I,
as a host, would be on camera, on mic for
24 straight hours is is a big feat to begin with.
Now I can leverage that kind of shock value to,
to really drive sponsorship as well as viewership.
S1 (11:49):
Right. And I think, uh, one of the things that
I loved about the entire concept was that it involved
so many different departments, so many different partners, so much
engagement to so many different audiences and different ways because
of the fact that it was 24 hours of content
(12:11):
that we had to fill. But we really did some
very creative, um, fundraising types of, um, elements to it.
For instance, having corporate partners that would um, support, uh,
the campaign with a large gift be featured. They would
(12:31):
bring all of their folks down to the warehouse where
we were airing, uh, the show, um, bring all of
their folks down, um, do a check presentation, have the
time to be interviewed with you and talk about, you know, their, um,
you know, uh, thoughts on giving back to the community and, um,
(12:54):
and I and so, you know, there were the corporate partners,
then there were volunteers who would come in and, you know,
there were there were kids that would come in and
make their donations. Like, I would love to hear, uh, and,
and just, you know, for, you know, for our audience,
I mean, we had a dunk tank, we had mascots,
(13:17):
we had a clown one year. We had we had
we had a magician, we had a live event, we
had midnight volunteering. We had a barbecue, we had music,
we had veggie yoga. We dressed up as right, like,
even in the middle of the night, trying to think
(13:39):
of unique, uh, things that we could do. We we
had one of our former former colleagues, Molly, who was
from Wisconsin, do a cheese blindfolded cheese tasting. That's right. Yeah.
So so for me, I think what I loved was
it just hit all of the, um, from from acquisition to,
(14:04):
you know, engagement to cultivation to stewardship with all of
these different audiences. Um, and it just is such a
good example of the kind of campaign where you really
are very thoughtful about everyone that you have involved.
S4 (14:20):
And I think that it was not only successful in
the money raised in a short amount of time, but
it was also extremely successful in outreaching to organizations and
individual people who eventually become individual donors, sustaining, uh, donors, um,
(14:45):
about the core messages that the food bank and substitute
food bank messaging for for any nonprofit um, has. Every
nonprofit has a number of key points that they want
the audience to be aware of. Um, we had 24
hours worth of time to do so, right? And so
(15:07):
not only was I able to very clearly articulate for
the the biggest part of the broadcast, which was at
the very beginning and at the very end, um, where
the biggest, biggest viewership, um, the simple things of how
many meals does $1 feed, what percentage of every dollar
that's donated goes straight back into the community? What are
(15:29):
the different locations? How does one volunteer, um, how what
is the process of, of um of farm to, uh, to, uh,
to the food bank warehouse and, and highlighting all the
great people within the organization. It was also a huge
value because now you can actually personify the great work that, um,
(15:50):
that the, the team at the food bank was doing. Um,
it was just a huge opportunity for branding. It was
a huge opportunity for outreach and marketing. And those types
of things are, are, you know, last all through the year.
So it I, I want to reiterate that it it
really does take something that requires not just one creative idea,
(16:13):
but many, many, many, many creative ideas to fill within
that we had. Countless planning meetings that first year. But
I remember Jan and maybe this is revisionist history, but
in the year two and three that I hosted, we
had dramatically less because we were we had already built
a template for a run of show for 24 hours,
by the way. I'll never forget that spreadsheet. Um, but
(16:37):
we now had returning guests, and we now had returning
things that worked and things that didn't, and so we
could try, try new things every year. So it was
just a phenomenal opportunity. I, I, um, hold it in
such high regard as one of the things that that
I'm most proud of. Yeah.
S1 (16:54):
Yeah. I, um, I absolutely agree, and I think that
that is such a key message for nonprofits especially, believe
it or not. Um, still, many nonprofits are still struggling
to understand digital fundraising and digital engagement within their organization.
Who owns it? How do we collaborate? What are you know,
(17:17):
there are so many layers and so many, you know,
sometimes they're silos and other and, you know, issues from
a technical, you know, a technology standpoint or a tech stack. Um,
but I think you have hit on something that, um,
is very important and something that I also try to
communicate is you can't just do it the first year,
(17:38):
say that it was a success or a failure and
not like it takes time to build on it. And
I think, yes, like in those final years, we did
have a template. We had returning partners, we had people
who were excited to come back. And because we had
the content already, you know, we had hours and hours.
(18:01):
I think they're even still on YouTube. Some of them are, yes, yes,
hours and hours of, uh, basically content that could be
used to to show future partners exactly what the show
looked like, what the campaign looked like, the impact that
they were making in the community and how they could
(18:21):
easily get involved. That's right. So, yeah. So let's go
back to, um, just sort of talking about that first year,
because you're right, we did have a lot of meetings because,
you know, it was not just it was not just
who was going to be responsible for what. I mean,
we had to decide who was going to monitor the
(18:43):
chat for 24 hours. And luckily we had Mike, who, uh,
you know, good friend of yours who came in to
sort of help and stood by your side. The whole
Mike Adams was there the whole time, whom I.
S4 (18:59):
Still work with.
S1 (19:00):
Yes. Oh, yes, oh, yes. We'll tell him I said hello,
but also some of the other elements because we were
I mean, we were, we had lots of big ideas.
We had, you know, we had uh, back, back in
the day when there were tweetups and festivals and social media,
(19:21):
we had a social media mixer, we had midnight volunteering,
so we had the show, but then we were also
trying to attract people down to the, you know, to
the location so they could be on site. I think
the first year, in my mind, I had imagined that
we were going to have like a studio audience.
S4 (19:39):
Right?
S1 (19:40):
I don't think that didn't work out so well, but
it did not there. There were lots of lessons that
we had from that first year, even from the technology. Um,
we now remind me, because we were going to use
Google for, uh, what what were the what were we
going to do with that? Yeah.
S4 (19:59):
Originally we that was our biggest concern. We were in
a warehouse, uh, a warehouse that does not require a
lot of bandwidth. Um, from a digital, from a digital
streaming standpoint. And here we were saying, okay, we're in
this warehouse and we now need to stream video for
24 hours straight. Yes. So not only were we worried
(20:20):
about the reliability of that connection, but we were worried
initially about would we have enough bandwidth. And I remember
we did a lot of tests there, and I don't
remember the partner that that came through, but that we
did have a partner come through to ensure we had
a constant connection. And that was very key from a
(20:42):
tactical standpoint. I will go back to Mike. Um, Mike
was served as kind of the producer who also helped
make sure that my mic was always live. And, you know,
the lights were fine and, and, um, and reminder to,
to take breaks at times because, you know, speaking for
an hour is is hard enough. Speaking for 24 hours
(21:04):
is is quite a feat. Um, and he and I
had done a 24 hour telethon online, um, just one
year prior for, for another nonprofit. We learned so much.
In that time? Yeah. Um, so, uh, the food bank
benefited from actually, um, us making all the big mistakes
(21:27):
the year before. And so we knew that we had
a great opportunity to hit the ground running. Um, but yes,
there was just so many little moving parts, um, that
went into it. And it was such a great team effort.
And here's the great thing about it, that core team
in year one expanded and became that core team in
(21:47):
year two and year three. And I still keep up
with all of these people because, um, because we spent
a lot of time together, you know, not only planning
but actually executing the, the, the telethon. And, and we
made we raised a tremendous amount of money in, in
just a short period of time.
S1 (22:08):
That's right. Yeah. I think in the first year it
was about 25,000. But in subsequent years every year was
a $50,000 right event. Yeah, yeah.
S4 (22:18):
Not not too shabby for 24 hours.
S1 (22:20):
That's right. Yeah for sure. So let's talk a little
bit about that support that we had. So we had
a really very engaged group of people called the social
media ambassadors for uh, the food bank. They were. And,
you know, I'll just sort of plug how that got started.
(22:40):
You know, I at the time was, um, launching all
of the food bank, uh, social media platforms, website redesign,
you know, new, you know, email strategies, email campaigns, those
kinds of things. And I had a lot to learn.
So I started going out to all of these, you know,
(23:01):
the triangle AMA, the American Marketing Association, which I believe
you were, um, very much involved with for a long time,
maybe even still involved with them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, uh,
they had, uh, meetings, like I said before, this was
the these were the years of tweet ups and festivals
and social media, you know, groups and meetups. And, um,
(23:23):
so I was attending all of these things locally at
the time. Raleigh, the Raleigh area was very vibrant networking
kind of community. And as I was talking to people
about what I was doing, you know, what I, what
I did for a living at the food bank, a
lot of them were saying, oh, I would love to
(23:43):
get involved, but like, I just don't have time to
come down to the warehouse. You know, volunteering hours were
limited during the week, that kind of thing. And so
I said, well, you can really help by using your
social media platforms to help spread the word about the
food bank. And that was sort of how the social
media ambassadors got started. And they were such a huge
(24:03):
part of this event. And like you had said before,
we would have meetings, uh, monthly meetings and, uh, you know, assignments.
And people were reaching out to partners locally to, you know,
for sponsorship and helping out with the event. And, um,
I would I would love to hear, like from your perspective,
looking back, um, sort of, you know, what you thought
(24:27):
of that group and, and how and how their, you know,
their kind of impact on the, on the, on the event.
S4 (24:35):
Yeah, certainly the, um, I was a social media ambassador
for about ten years, actually. Wow. Um, and in those
beginning years for sure, um, there were there was a
lot of engagement, uh, in terms of, um, within our group,
but also, um, supported and planned by your team. So
(25:00):
even just simply the idea of having a, um, kickoff
of the year with the social media ambassadors at the
warehouse is such an important part. We're taking pictures, we're
pushing out content and doing things like that. It's really
the humanizing of the actual words. So, um, there is
(25:21):
a superficial level of, of that type of engagement where
it's yes, I agree to retweet or share, um, any
type of content and tell people in passing, uh, yes,
I'm involved or I know a little bit about, um,
about some of the great work that the food bank does. Um,
but it's the community that is overlaid onto that that
(25:43):
then says, oh, wait a minute, are you volunteering next Wednesday?
Because maybe I'll join you. Oh, maybe. Hey, network, who
wants to join us? Right. Um, how do we then
when we're at AMA meetings and we see a fellow
ambassador talk about the food bank to the other people
within our table? And so, um, I think it's really
(26:05):
important to, to understand that it's important to put structure
into a program and to feed it, um, with things like,
here are some, um, exclusive. Type information or opportunities. Here
are some, um, opportunities to engage with with others. But really,
(26:25):
the real magic there is that you're through affiliation creating community.
And so that was the part where now all of
a sudden other ambassadors I now know because they volunteered
just as I had, they believe in the same things
that I do about food insecurity in our area. And
so now that's just another piece for me to engage
(26:47):
personally with that person. And now we start to form
bigger bonds, all, um, kind of empowered and provided by,
by the structure of that program. So it was a
great opportunity. Um, and, and I learned a lot and
by extension, my network learned a lot. And now all
of a sudden things can kind of fracture off. I mean,
(27:08):
after the telethon, um, I'm not sure if you remember this,
but I, I did a peanut butter program, um, because
I learned through all the work with the telethon how
in-demand peanut butter was, um, for food banks. And so
I made it a point to just focus on raising
awareness about peanut butter. Yes. Right. And so for me,
(27:31):
those are different ways that that we could we can
help out even as late as in the beginning of
the pandemic, I started doing work, um, for something called
the Front Steps project, um, where I would take photos
of families during quarantine. Um, and what did I choose
for where they can make donations? The food bank. So
(27:54):
this is this is not something that is by accident.
It came out of real deep involvement and understanding of
what a great organization our local food bank is. And
by the way, there are thousands, tens of thousands of
great organizations around the country who are doing similar things
and important things. Um, it really is about understanding why
(28:16):
they do it, what they're doing, how you can help
and to help in ways that you have, um, your
own skill set to do. And so it started with
me asking the question, and it resulted in, in a
great experience.
S1 (28:30):
Yeah, yeah, it really I, I love the, um, sort of, um, uh,
image of, you know, you as, as a person getting
involved and, you know, the ripples that, you know, that
just sort of happen within the community. Um, it it
(28:53):
was it was very it was a very special group
still is a very special group. And, um, and, uh, really,
really making a tremendous difference for folks in the, um,
in central and eastern North Carolina, for sure. Yeah. So
tell me, when you are thinking back to the telethon,
(29:14):
I would love to know what were maybe some of
your favorite, um, interviews elements, you know, were there, were
there a couple of moments that just really stood out
to you and stayed with you all these years?
S4 (29:29):
Uh, yes. Some. Some more trying than others. Let me
let me start with the most traumatic, um, I see
if I still have it, I do not, um, the
most traumatic is that. Um, one of the years I
decided that I was going to sort sweet potatoes all
by myself.
S1 (29:49):
Yes, I remember that entire bin. Yes.
S4 (29:54):
And that is a lot of work that's typically, you know,
the work of eight people over an hour. Um, I
did it, um, myself for, I think, three hours straight. Yeah. Um,
that that, um, I had a lot of appreciation for, um,
for the great work that the volunteers do, um, in that.
(30:16):
So that was a little trying. Yeah. Three in the morning. Um,
and that was tiring. But I got to interview so
many amazing, um, partners of the food bank. And to
understand that there are different ways in which other organizations
partner with the food bank to do the great work
(30:36):
they're doing, all with the same cause. How do we, um,
create food stability? How do we ensure that, um, children, uh, are, um, uh,
you know, taken care of, our elderly are taken care of, um,
that they're able to focus on school and they're able
(30:57):
to do all that great work and the highlights of
of interviewing, um, the local team. And so, yes, I
got to interview so many people over those three years,
probably over 100 people. Um, and just to see how
each person individually was doing their part. And that was
(31:19):
kind of the common trend I was trying to, uh,
ask of the viewer is to say, here is another
example of one person who has this set of skills,
who is applying it to do these types of things.
And so I think that that's kind of the theme that,
that I still take with me, um, just just amazing
(31:39):
work from each person. Not all the same. Um, one,
one woman was a glassblower who decided that she was
going to just make these special things, these pumpkins and donate,
donate the the money. Right. Um, uh, and even the,
the local companies that we got to meet who became sponsors,
(32:00):
hearing about the work that they do, the schools that, um,
do it. I will never forget Sanderson High School, who,
you know, would always win, win out on donating the most, uh,
out of all the schools. And, um, and to me,
those those all kind of blend together and give me
that just warm feeling of what a diverse community we
(32:20):
have who are each and every one of them contributing
in their own special way. Right?
S1 (32:25):
Right. And going going back to that traumatic experience. Um,
let's just describe, uh, for the audience, like the bins
are giant, like when you're standing next to them, they
come up to above your above your waist to your.
S4 (32:45):
Yeah, almost, almost to my shoulders. Yes. Um, so they're
they're not only large in width and height, uh, with
in depth. Uh, but to actually get to the bottom
of it, you have to really reach in, almost lift
a foot up to get the leverage to reach in. Um,
and the process of that was, um, these are sweet potatoes,
(33:07):
of which, uh, many, many, many sweet potatoes here in
North Carolina. Um, and, um, the idea is to group
them in these mesh bags and then tie a knot
on them. And that way you can actually separate them to,
to family settings. And there is a standard of it.
It's like two really large ones or, you know, uh,
(33:29):
three medium sized ones or two large ones and two
small ones, but you're picking through, um, I couldn't even imagine. Um,
I mean, it may have been 5 to 7000 sweet
potatoes in that bin. Um, and to individually wrap those, uh, was, uh,
(33:51):
was a lot.
S1 (33:52):
Yes, a lot.
S4 (33:54):
At three in the morning.
S1 (33:55):
Yes, exactly. And I think that that was like one
of the, the craziest ideas that we had were always
sort of in the middle of the night because it's
sort of like, how can we get people to tune
in at 2 or 3 a.m.? Uh, you know, and
so that was one crazy idea. I think there was
another one where we had, uh, the barbecue, um, the, uh,
(34:20):
cackalacky barbecue. They came down and, and were serving. We
were I don't know why we thought that people at
2 a.m. and would want barbecue sandwiches.
S4 (34:30):
Yeah. Barbecue sandwiches.
S1 (34:32):
But they they came down to the warehouse with their big, uh,
you know, uh, barbecue. Uh, yeah. Smoke. Yep. Mhm. And the.
The sandwiches were delicious. I, I mean, I love them.
2 a.m..
S4 (34:47):
They were. We had a food truck rodeo. Yes. At
one point, um, we had our, um, local, um, roller
derby team, the Carolina Roller Girls.
S1 (34:58):
That's right, I remember that. Yes.
S4 (35:00):
Wooly bull from the Durham Bulls. Uh, show up. We
had a magician. What I was looking for earlier is that, uh,
we had a magician who bent a fork and right
in front of my eyes, and I just. I couldn't
believe it. And I have it still somewhere around here.
I still have this fork, um, which was amazing. Um, so, yeah,
(35:22):
it was just such a diverse group of, um, of guests, um,
some of which I still, uh, keep tabs on and, um,
have become lifelong friends and. Yeah, yeah, a lot of those,
a lot of that content is still, um, on YouTube.
S1 (35:38):
Yeah. And like you were saying earlier, going back to
the each of those partners with their unique skills, their
unique background, you know, um, even the unique, you know, like,
we had food donating, you know, we had food donations,
we had cookies brought in, you know, at midnight for
the volunteers that were there, um, you know, from the local,
(36:00):
local cookie shop. I mean, everyone sort of contributed in
their very unique ways. They all had something special to bring. Right?
And it just created sort of this. And the event
itself almost was a community.
S4 (36:15):
I agree, the event was a community. And when we
talk about dollars and cents, when we talk about the
real economics of why this worked. Um, it was a
win win for brands and organizations and companies around the area.
We were getting press, um, local news was picking up,
(36:35):
picking it up. It was streaming on the internet. People
were tweeting it. We were the hashtag was getting a
lot of love. Um, and because of it, some brands
and local companies that we didn't even reach out to
were becoming very opportunistic. We had pizzas show up, um,
because they saw us on the on the stream and
(36:56):
they said, let me send pizzas. And sure enough, um,
I had no problem, um, on air saying thank you
for those pizzas, right. Because if I can engage them
as a small business and they can get something out
of it, some exposure, that's a win for everyone. Now
all of a sudden their employees see it and they
(37:17):
may get other business. But, um, all the while more
people are hearing the message that we're inner inner weaving
in of what is our what do we need? Why
do we need it? What is the great work that
we can do? And um, the other part of it is,
you know, when we had the goal of 50,000, I remember, um,
we started to really break it down. We used to say, look,
(37:40):
we want 5000 by this time. And that was very,
very helpful. We had a lot of repeat donors. We
had a lot of opportunities in the moment to say,
we're only a $200 away. Who's going to be the
one to put us over, over the top? And then
I would call them out on the stream, and then
in some cases, they would then come to the warehouse
later and I could thank them in person. So, um,
(38:02):
just it was just a great, great, um, great opportunity.
S1 (38:05):
Yeah. Yeah. Um, there is one thing I want to
touch on when, uh, uh, that I think is important
because I don't want to, um, sort of I want
to underline the, you know, what were you what you
were saying earlier about talking and interviewing people for 24
hours straight. You actually wouldn't talk for how many days
(38:30):
before the telethon?
S4 (38:31):
Yeah, 2 or 3 days before.
S1 (38:32):
2 or 3 days. And you drank a lot of
tea to kind of save your vocal cords? Um, was
there a year where you did start to lose? You
lost your voice toward the end? Yeah.
S4 (38:43):
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. It was the second year I started
to lose my voice. Um. We got through it. Well,
I mean, I will also say the, you know, the
very first time we did it at the food bank,
we also made the mistake of starting it at midnight.
We went midnight to midnight. And in future years we
(39:07):
went noon to noon, which was actually better. Right. Um,
so that was another example of, um, going noon to
noon was a it changes your sleeping schedule, but it
also what we loved about that was in the beginning
part of the telethon where it's most important to gain momentum.
(39:28):
People are awake.
S1 (39:30):
Yeah.
S4 (39:31):
Companies, local companies are not only awake, they're working. And
so now they can come. And we did the second
year I remember we did, or maybe it was the third.
We did a food truck rodeo right at the beginning.
So now all of a sudden we can get local
companies to come out during the workday, see the warehouse,
participate and and get lunch while they're there. So that's
(39:53):
another example of how just evolving it. But it was
very taxing on my body. Yeah, I don't know if
I could do it now. Um, but ten years ago
I was willing and able.
S1 (40:03):
Yes, I agree, I 100% agree because for us, you know,
as staff, like there was no sleeping. You know, there
was not. I think one year we did bring in
cots because we had intended to rotate and sleep. But
there was you were there was just so much excitement
and it was impossible to try to relax enough, you know,
(40:26):
plus you you're in a warehouse, like on a cot, like,
just not not the best kind of sleeping. Not easy
to sleep. Right? Right. Exactly. Um, okay, so the other, uh, uh, question, uh,
that I just sort of wanted to kind of touch
on is just, you know, when you are, when you
(40:50):
are thinking about this experience and you're talking to, uh,
other people about getting involved with nonprofits, you know, what
are what are some of the tips or advice, you know,
when you when you heard about the food bank and
you came or any of the organizations that you were
very passionate about because you were very much involved in
(41:11):
a lot of different organizations at the time. I think
at the state fair, you did a live remote for Movember.
S4 (41:19):
Uh, Movember was the first telethon that we did. Okay. Um,
but yes, the state fair, we did a state fair, um, uh,
tweet up, live tweet up, um, which, uh, was really
to benefit the, um, the NC, uh, farm, uh, and,
and food, um, organization and to highlight the state fair. Um,
(41:43):
but yes, I was involved in, in many different organizations.
I still am. Um, I think for me, the, the,
the issue of food is something that I felt really
strongly about, um, and continue to, um, mainly because it's
very easy to forget, um, when you live in an
(42:05):
area that is somewhat affluent or, um, very, um, where
you're not worrying about where your next meal is coming from. Um,
and it's very important to and easy to say, well,
you know, I believe in Feeding America, which is a
great organization. And, and that has a national footprint. For me,
(42:25):
it was really about how can we make change locally?
How could I, um, really try to pay it forward? Um,
to my neighbors, to my local community, to my my kids, classmates, to, um,
to organizations, uh, nearby. And so that's where I've really
zeroed in over the years. Um, and there are so
(42:45):
many different ways to fundraise and to get and to
get the, you know, the ideas out. Um, I just
think it's really important to continue to evolve and take
chances and, and, and really, um, push, uh, towards, um,
people who bring a lot of energy from a third
party perspective to your cause, to your goals, to those
(43:09):
things because, um, I think it would, would have been
safe to say that, um, maybe even just my network
on Facebook who are personal friends of mine, who are neighbors, colleagues,
past classmates, um, who may have followed the food bank
on Facebook and seen some messages when it comes from
(43:29):
their friend who then says, yeah, this is the message
that you've already seen, but this is specifically what it
means to me. Now all of a sudden that holds
a lot of weight, right? Um, and I just think
that that that type of personal engagement, personal affiliation and
endorsement is just so valuable. Um, and so how do
you empower your ambassadors? Uh, to to do that, to
(43:53):
take it to the next level.
S1 (43:54):
Yeah, yeah. With your sort of marketing, uh, background, which
I know is just, um, you know, so extensive and so, uh,
there's so much depth to it. If you were to
give some advice to nonprofits, again, this is a nonprofit
podcast of some things that they should think about when, um,
(44:18):
putting messages out there or, or, you know, attracting volunteers
like you that do have so much passion. Do you
think there's something in particular I know you had mentioned
sort of the, you know, humanizing of those messages and
sort of like behind the curtain. Do you have what
kind of advice would you would you give to nonprofits who,
(44:39):
you know, are, are looking to create that kind of, um,
experience and support from a volunteer standpoint for their organizations?
S4 (44:46):
Yeah, it's um, that's a great question. And it's the
same advice, actually, that we give our clients, um, who have.
A thousand, 1,500,000 x more budget. Right. And that is this, um,
especially with digital fundraising, there are there exists the tools
(45:06):
and platforms and technology where you can automate a lot
of these things. You can automate your emails, you can
automate your thank you, uh, communication. You can automate, um, how, um,
donations or individual fundraising can be, can be started by
by local people around your area. What's missing in, um,
(45:31):
for profit business is the same thing that's missing in
nonprofit business. And that is that personal engagement. So what
I the advice I would give is, let's say you
have a list of 50,000 people, 50,000 households that you
send an email newsletter out to. Identifying who that top
(45:54):
100 person people are. Out of that 50,000 or 1000 people,
if you have that much scale ability to do so
and reaching out to them personally, you can still send
that newsletter, but send that newsletter and say, hi Jen,
thank you so much for volunteering last week. I missed you,
but I heard that you did X. Um, just that
(46:19):
personal affiliation is enough to then reinvigorate someone that maybe
is a casual supporter in and energize them into saying,
I do feel a little bit of appreciation here and now.
I what else can I do, you know, and, um,
ideally you want to get to the point where you
(46:39):
can do all of those things for every single person. Um,
but technology, again, gets in the way and so does budgets,
and so does scale and your, your team size. And
so it's very, very easy to say, wait a minute. Oh,
I can just push a button and send it to
all these people. Now when you're looking at conversion rates
and you're wondering why those conversion rates are flat. The
(47:03):
it's really easy to say, well, if it's going to
be flat, I need to add x percent more people
to my list. And that's partially true. But I would
ask people to consider, um, how do you identify, um,
the donors or, or members of your list that have
the higher propensity to be engaged in a deeper way,
(47:24):
and how do you reach out directly to those people? Yeah,
that goes such a long way.
S1 (47:29):
Yes. Yeah. And I think that the example that we
have here with the community that was created, um, with
the social media ambassadors through an event like the telethon
that just, you know, built on that momentum year after
year is sort of a perfect example of one of
many examples, of course. Uh, but, um, a good way
(47:53):
to go about that.
S4 (47:54):
That's right. Yeah.
S1 (47:56):
Well, I want to be mindful of time, Greg, but, um,
before we go, I just have a few more questions
for you. I would love to, uh, do a lightning round, uh,
with you of, uh, some questions, just to kind of
get to know, you know, uh, you a little bit
more and the kinds of things, uh, that you're interested in.
(48:19):
So are you ready? I am okay, great. Tea or coffee?
S4 (48:23):
Oh, uh, always coffee for my first cup and then
tea the rest of the day.
S5 (48:28):
Okay. All right.
S1 (48:29):
Sunrise or sunset?
S4 (48:31):
Sunset.
S1 (48:32):
Okay. All right. Uh, let's see. Fireplace or fire pit?
Fire pit. Fire pit. Okay. Yes. Like the outdoors? Uh,
plane or car?
S6 (48:46):
Ooh!
S4 (48:49):
Uh, plane. Because I love travel.
S7 (48:52):
Yes, the.
S4 (48:53):
Car because I love driving. I will say plain.
S8 (48:55):
Okay, okay.
S1 (48:57):
And then final. And I think that this is kind
of right up in your alley and you might have
a lot of thoughts about it. Coach or play.
S4 (49:06):
Oh, that's a great question.
S8 (49:09):
I could.
S4 (49:10):
Speak another hour on this.
S1 (49:11):
Because I know you're very involved with your kids. They
play soccer. Uh, they're very. And you love. And you're
a photographer as well. And you take wonderful photos of
them and.
S4 (49:21):
Yeah. Um, definitely. Coach. Um, I even in my job
as a leader, um, I gained such great satisfaction in
mentoring and coaching and, um, and finding success by seeing
through success of others. Yeah.
S1 (49:40):
And I think that even when I was at the
food bank, you were such a good coach for me, uh,
just starting to, you know, sort of dip my toe
in the water of, uh, digital, uh, engagement and fundraising.
And you gave me such great advice. So I just
thank you, Greg, for joining us on the podcast, sharing
(50:02):
your knowledge, but also just, you know, sort of the history, uh,
that we had in the good old days of the telethon.
S4 (50:10):
It's so great to see you. Please keep in touch.
S8 (50:12):
Okay, I will do.
S1 (50:13):
All right. Thanks, Jen. See you. What an inspiring conversation.
Greg is truly incredible. And as if that wasn't enough,
after our recording, Greg discovered that a photo from the
telethon is currently featured at the Smithsonian Museum of American
History as part of the Giving in America exhibit in DC.
(50:36):
And while we didn't get a chance to talk about it,
you can read more and see photos with links to
the show at charity YEN.com.gh Smithsonian. Plus, you'll see further
evidence of his passion and dedication to the community and
how it shines through all of his work. I love
how he describes the impact of each person bringing their
(50:57):
talents and skills to contribute to the collective, and how
harnessing that energy around a fundraising campaign can make such
a difference. It was truly an exciting conversation for me.
If you'd like to hear more great conversations, visit CharityJen.com
to replay this and previous episodes. While you're there, you
can sign up for my monthly newsletter and access free
(51:19):
guides and learn more about my book, The Insider's Guide
to Online Fundraising. This has been from the nest, where
fundraising takes flight. Thanks for listening.
S9 (51:32):
This episode was produced by OLAS media Network in San Diego, California.
Jessica Garcia serves as general manager. Lina Alvarez is associate producer.
Elia Ramos is creative director. JC Polk is executive producer
and founding partner, and Chad Peae is our president and
founding partner. Thank you for listening.
S10 (51:55):
Olas Media.
S2 (51:59):
The Dear San Diego podcast is produced in collaboration with
The Times of San Diego. Repeatedly recognized by the San
Diego Press Club, The Times of San Diego delivers timely
and transparent news to, for and about America's finest city.
To learn more on how you can support this trusted
resource of information, visit Times of San Diego. com.
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