April 19, 2024 • 11 mins
Unlock the transformative power of philanthropy with Kyle Penney, president of the East Texas Communities Foundation (ETCF) as he explores the impact of East Texas Giving Day on local communities. Discover how this extraordinary event is not just about meeting donation goals. it's a celebration of generosity that unites 32 counties in a common goal. East Texas nonprofits, big and small, receive a lifeline through the collective efforts of individuals ready to make a difference. From the simplicity of online donations to the personal touches of celebration pages, this effort demonstrates how easy and fulfilling it is to contribute to the greater good.
Prepare to be moved by stories of organizations who have seen their missions soar thanks to the Giving Day, and learn about the positive impact on the people they serve. Witness the strategic prowess of nonprofits as they navigate this exciting 18-hour fundraising window, leveraging social media and personal networks to amplify their causes.
(Show notes are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
LANDESS (00:04):
At the end of April for a period of 18 hours, east
Texans will be able to pick andchoose their favorite nonprofit
and make a donation with a fewkeystrokes on a phone, a tablet
or a computer.
I'm Mike Landis.
Ut's Highly Radio connects withEast Texas Community's
Foundation Director, kyle Penny,to find out more about how it
all works.
Your organization works withnonprofits in 32 counties.
PENNEY (00:27):
Sure, it's a huge geographic area, but there are
so many fantastic nonprofitsdoing great work day in and day
out across the whole East Texasregion and it's a privilege for
us at the Communities Foundationto be able to support them
through this one event, this oneday fundraising event, where we
try to raise the awareness offolks about these great
(00:48):
organizations and give folks anopportunity to support them.
LANDESS (00:52):
To simplify this, this form of giving is as easy as
buying a blender on Amazon,right it?
PENNEY (00:57):
is, yeah, it's kind of the Amazonification of
charitable giving.
So we want to make it as easyas possible.
So there's one place to go toeasttexasgivingdayorg, and then
it's basically a shopping cart.
You can read and learn as muchas you want about all these
different organizations.
You can search them, you canuse filters and look for
(01:18):
organizations that are in aparticular category or a
particular geographic location,and then just read to your
heart's delight and there's abutton where you can push and
make a contribution.
LANDESS (01:31):
It's pretty simple.
To be clear, east Texas GivingDay is April 30th, but one can
go online right now andparticipate right.
PENNEY (01:38):
That's correct.
So early giving started onApril 8th.
So it's kind of interesting.
You can go toeasttexasgivingdayorg right now
and watch the counter, the money, the dollars are rolling in.
You can see how many peoplehave contributed.
You can look at each of theseorganizations, see how much each
of them has raised.
But the main event is actuallyon April 30th and that's where
(01:58):
the large majority of ourcontributions come in on that
one day.
LANDESS (02:02):
Now tell me a little bit more about that.
How did the effort go last yearand what is this year's
fundraising goal for East TexasGiving Day?
PENNEY (02:09):
Yeah, so last year we had about 350 organizations
participating.
This year that number's gone up, We've got about a dozen more.
We've got a little over 360organizations participating this
year.
So each time a new organizationcomes on they bring a whole new
group of volunteers andsupporters that then get exposed
to all the other nonprofitsthat are participating.
(02:31):
So it's kind of six degrees ofKevin Bacon or the.
Rosso's concentric circles ofinfluence.
So all of that is meshedtogether.
So we raised about $2.8 millionlast year on nearly 6,000
contributions.
So we don't have a specificgoal, but with more
organizations and moreexperience from the
(02:53):
organizations that areparticipating, it'd be nice to
crack that $3 million mark.
LANDESS (02:59):
Well, here's a question for you.
In a time where things seem tobe so iffy financially for so
many folks, how difficult has itbeen over this past year in
terms of connecting with folkswho are ready to step up this
time around?
PENNEY (03:12):
Well, you know, we've seen increased interest again
with the number of organizationsthat are participating.
We've seen strong interest inwhat we set up matching gifts
for these organizations.
So we're seeing a lot ofactivity in that area and the
actual giving that's takingplace right now seems to be a
positive indicator.
(03:33):
So, as you said, yeah, thingsare tight on a lot of folks, but
people recognize thecontributions that these
organizations make to ourcommunity and are looking for
ways to support them Give ussome context on this, how?
did Giving Day begin and arelooking for ways to support them
.
Give us some context on this.
How did Giving Day begin?
So Giving Days began probably15 years ago.
We followed for a number ofyears what was going on in North
(03:55):
Texas the Dallas-Fort WorthMetroplex.
They have North Texas GivingDay and there's different
software providers that helpmake the giving possible.
We don't have the technologyin-house or have the ability to
build the technology that runs agiving day, so there's some
vendors out there that are doinggood work in it.
We looked at several differentmodels and tried to set up a
(04:17):
model that was best for ourcommunity.
So, for example, some of themodels will have a large pool of
prize money.
We have a fairly modest pool ofprize money, but we allow each
of the nonprofits to raise theirown matching dollars, so you're
not just getting a smallpercentage of some pool that we
(04:37):
could manage to cobble together.
You actually can work with yourown donors and try to set a
match that is more specific toyour organization and more
reasonable, that you can set atarget where you can reach.
LANDESS (04:49):
The 18-hour component kind of brings a beat-the-clock
aspect to Giving Day.
Do you find that most of thefunds are received while that
clock is ticking?
PENNEY (04:58):
Oh, absolutely, yeah for sure that 18 hours makes all
the difference.
In fact, a lot of thenonprofits are gearing all their
social media and theirinteractions towards that one
day.
So if you're starting to getemails from your favorite
charities about East TexasGiving Day, this is just the
prelude.
It really builds up on that oneday, and the idea behind a
(05:20):
giving day is to do giving in amore boisterous way than it's
typically done.
Giving is typically a quiet,private event, but that's not
the way Giving Day works.
Giving Day is an opportunityfor you to support one of your
favorite charities and then postthat on social media.
You don't have to give thedollars and cents that you gave,
(05:41):
but it's helpful if you say,hey, I just gave to this
organization or thatorganization and this is why you
should check it out.
So it's that viral nature ofneighbor telling neighbor about
who they're supporting and why.
That really creates theexcitement and the enthusiasm
around giving on that one day.
LANDESS (06:00):
This is a conversation that takes place across that
back fence, that virtual backfence, as it were.
Now I guess we should point outthat some charities have a
robust fundraising plan thatgoes on all year, but not all
nonprofits doing good work inEast Texas have that luxury.
PENNEY (06:17):
That's correct.
So a lot of nonprofits are justoperating kind of gift to gift.
So this is a way for them toraise annual support.
We don't say this is forparticular capital campaigns.
Some organizations may befocusing on that, but what we're
trying to do with ournonprofits is help them raise
much-needed annual support in away that some of these donors
(06:41):
wouldn't typically give, andthen also to hopefully attract
new donors because of the socialinfluences of the donors that
they already have.
So when you contribute and tellsomebody about it, it's your
gift and you're telling thatstory of why you gave a gift to
that organization.
That may be a positiveinfluence on someone else to say
(07:01):
, hey, I didn't know thatorganization existed, I didn't
know so-and-so was involved inthat or supported that or how
they were impacted by it.
And it's that nature of justcommunication across social
media that helps peoplerecognize the opportunities and
the great work that thesecharities are doing and the
chance to support them.
LANDESS (07:19):
In the years that you've been involved in this,
you have got to have some greatstories about wins and pluses
and wahoos and all of this sortof thing.
Share one with us.
PENNEY (07:30):
Well, it's always great to see an organization reach
their goal.
So an organization, for example, may set a $10,000 matching
gift goal and on the website,when they hit that goal, a
little trophy pops up.
But it's really great to seethe nonprofits utilize the
(07:51):
resources that we've providedfor them through this platform
and then use that opportunity toreach out to their donors and
thank them.
So one of the best examples wasAll Saints Episcopal School
does such a great job followingup on the day of the event.
They don't let the sun set onyour contribution.
They have folks that are in theroom at the school throughout
(08:13):
the day watching the activity onGiving Day and immediately
responding and thanking theirdonors.
So that's a fantastic way toreally celebrate giving by those
donors in a tangible and quickway.
LANDESS (08:29):
With more than 600 charities this time around.
What a great opportunity forthose charities to network.
PENNEY (08:37):
It is the know the charities have an opportunity.
We have several trainingsessions throughout East Texas,
so it's great to see the chatterat break times during our
trainings where they they'realso learning.
What other organizations do youknow?
Some of them, so many of themoperate kind of in a silo just
trying to do their work, withtheir heads down and working
(08:58):
hard.
It's great when they can comeup, look around and see other
organizations that are serving alot of times some of the same
community members but just in adifferent way.
LANDESS (09:07):
So someone will surely ask what's in this for the East
Texas Communities Foundation?
Are you guys getting any ofthose funds?
PENNEY (09:13):
No, it actually passes through and we spend quite a bit
of our own personnel resourcestrying to manage the event.
But one of the main reasons wedo it is that opportunity for
nonprofits to attract new donors.
That just really stood out tous when we looked at all the
reasons why you would do agiving day hard to find new
(09:34):
donors, and this is a unique wayto give that encourages that
interaction among donors andinfluencing their friends, so we
think that's a great win.
We see between 25% and 35% ofdonors indicate that they're a
first-time donor to anorganization.
So as long as that number staysstrong, we're going to try to
(09:56):
keep supporting these nonprofits.
LANDESS (09:59):
Any final thoughts?
PENNEY (10:00):
to share.
Kyle, you know one of the thingsthat's unique and we've had it
for the last couple years, butthere's still an opportunity all
the way up to Giving Day tocreate a celebration page.
So a celebration page is where adonor for a particular
nonprofit goes to thatorganization's page on East
Texas Giving Day, clicks abutton that says I want to
(10:21):
create a celebration page andthen you can tell your own story
.
You can either write it out,you can put a video on there,
you can put some pictures, youcan tell your personal story
about why that organization isimportant to you and you can set
a personal goal.
So, for example, I was inHenderson the other day with the
Boys and Girls Club of RussCounty.
The Boys and Girls Club has seta goal of $5,000 for East Texas
(10:45):
Giving Day.
But if you set up a celebrationpage, you could say hey, I want
to try to attract my friendsand let's see if we can raise
$500 towards that goal.
So it's just another fun wayfor you to get more engaged and
help the organizations that areimportant to you.
LANDESS (11:00):
Thanks for listening as UT Tyler Radio connects with
Kyle Penny.
Director of East TexasCommunities Foundation.
For UT Tyler Radio News, I'mMike Landis.
At the end of April for a period of 18 hours, east
Texans will be able to pick andchoose their favorite nonprofit
and make a donation with a fewkeystrokes on a phone, a tablet
or a computer.
I'm Mike Landis.
Ut's Highly Radio connects withEast Texas Community's
Foundation Director, kyle Penny,to find out more about how it
all works.
Your organization works withnonprofits in 32 counties.
PENNEY (00:27):
Sure, it's a huge geographic area, but there are
so many fantastic nonprofitsdoing great work day in and day
out across the whole East Texasregion and it's a privilege for
us at the Communities Foundationto be able to support them
through this one event, this oneday fundraising event, where we
try to raise the awareness offolks about these great
(00:48):
organizations and give folks anopportunity to support them.
LANDESS (00:52):
To simplify this, this form of giving is as easy as
buying a blender on Amazon,right it?
PENNEY (00:57):
is, yeah, it's kind of the Amazonification of
charitable giving.
So we want to make it as easyas possible.
So there's one place to go toeasttexasgivingdayorg, and then
it's basically a shopping cart.
You can read and learn as muchas you want about all these
different organizations.
You can search them, you canuse filters and look for
(01:18):
organizations that are in aparticular category or a
particular geographic location,and then just read to your
heart's delight and there's abutton where you can push and
make a contribution.
LANDESS (01:31):
It's pretty simple.
To be clear, east Texas GivingDay is April 30th, but one can
go online right now andparticipate right.
PENNEY (01:38):
That's correct.
So early giving started onApril 8th.
So it's kind of interesting.
You can go toeasttexasgivingdayorg right now
and watch the counter, the money, the dollars are rolling in.
You can see how many peoplehave contributed.
You can look at each of theseorganizations, see how much each
of them has raised.
But the main event is actuallyon April 30th and that's where
(01:58):
the large majority of ourcontributions come in on that
one day.
LANDESS (02:02):
Now tell me a little bit more about that.
How did the effort go last yearand what is this year's
fundraising goal for East TexasGiving Day?
PENNEY (02:09):
Yeah, so last year we had about 350 organizations
participating.
This year that number's gone up, We've got about a dozen more.
We've got a little over 360organizations participating this
year.
So each time a new organizationcomes on they bring a whole new
group of volunteers andsupporters that then get exposed
to all the other nonprofitsthat are participating.
(02:31):
So it's kind of six degrees ofKevin Bacon or the.
Rosso's concentric circles ofinfluence.
So all of that is meshedtogether.
So we raised about $2.8 millionlast year on nearly 6,000
contributions.
So we don't have a specificgoal, but with more
organizations and moreexperience from the
(02:53):
organizations that areparticipating, it'd be nice to
crack that $3 million mark.
LANDESS (02:59):
Well, here's a question for you.
In a time where things seem tobe so iffy financially for so
many folks, how difficult has itbeen over this past year in
terms of connecting with folkswho are ready to step up this
time around?
PENNEY (03:12):
Well, you know, we've seen increased interest again
with the number of organizationsthat are participating.
We've seen strong interest inwhat we set up matching gifts
for these organizations.
So we're seeing a lot ofactivity in that area and the
actual giving that's takingplace right now seems to be a
positive indicator.
(03:33):
So, as you said, yeah, thingsare tight on a lot of folks, but
people recognize thecontributions that these
organizations make to ourcommunity and are looking for
ways to support them Give ussome context on this, how?
did Giving Day begin and arelooking for ways to support them
.
Give us some context on this.
How did Giving Day begin?
So Giving Days began probably15 years ago.
We followed for a number ofyears what was going on in North
(03:55):
Texas the Dallas-Fort WorthMetroplex.
They have North Texas GivingDay and there's different
software providers that helpmake the giving possible.
We don't have the technologyin-house or have the ability to
build the technology that runs agiving day, so there's some
vendors out there that are doinggood work in it.
We looked at several differentmodels and tried to set up a
(04:17):
model that was best for ourcommunity.
So, for example, some of themodels will have a large pool of
prize money.
We have a fairly modest pool ofprize money, but we allow each
of the nonprofits to raise theirown matching dollars, so you're
not just getting a smallpercentage of some pool that we
(04:37):
could manage to cobble together.
You actually can work with yourown donors and try to set a
match that is more specific toyour organization and more
reasonable, that you can set atarget where you can reach.
LANDESS (04:49):
The 18-hour component kind of brings a beat-the-clock
aspect to Giving Day.
Do you find that most of thefunds are received while that
clock is ticking?
PENNEY (04:58):
Oh, absolutely, yeah for sure that 18 hours makes all
the difference.
In fact, a lot of thenonprofits are gearing all their
social media and theirinteractions towards that one
day.
So if you're starting to getemails from your favorite
charities about East TexasGiving Day, this is just the
prelude.
It really builds up on that oneday, and the idea behind a
(05:20):
giving day is to do giving in amore boisterous way than it's
typically done.
Giving is typically a quiet,private event, but that's not
the way Giving Day works.
Giving Day is an opportunityfor you to support one of your
favorite charities and then postthat on social media.
You don't have to give thedollars and cents that you gave,
(05:41):
but it's helpful if you say,hey, I just gave to this
organization or thatorganization and this is why you
should check it out.
So it's that viral nature ofneighbor telling neighbor about
who they're supporting and why.
That really creates theexcitement and the enthusiasm
around giving on that one day.
LANDESS (06:00):
This is a conversation that takes place across that
back fence, that virtual backfence, as it were.
Now I guess we should point outthat some charities have a
robust fundraising plan thatgoes on all year, but not all
nonprofits doing good work inEast Texas have that luxury.
PENNEY (06:17):
That's correct.
So a lot of nonprofits are justoperating kind of gift to gift.
So this is a way for them toraise annual support.
We don't say this is forparticular capital campaigns.
Some organizations may befocusing on that, but what we're
trying to do with ournonprofits is help them raise
much-needed annual support in away that some of these donors
(06:41):
wouldn't typically give, andthen also to hopefully attract
new donors because of the socialinfluences of the donors that
they already have.
So when you contribute and tellsomebody about it, it's your
gift and you're telling thatstory of why you gave a gift to
that organization.
That may be a positiveinfluence on someone else to say
(07:01):
, hey, I didn't know thatorganization existed, I didn't
know so-and-so was involved inthat or supported that or how
they were impacted by it.
And it's that nature of justcommunication across social
media that helps peoplerecognize the opportunities and
the great work that thesecharities are doing and the
chance to support them.
LANDESS (07:19):
In the years that you've been involved in this,
you have got to have some greatstories about wins and pluses
and wahoos and all of this sortof thing.
Share one with us.
PENNEY (07:30):
Well, it's always great to see an organization reach
their goal.
So an organization, for example, may set a $10,000 matching
gift goal and on the website,when they hit that goal, a
little trophy pops up.
But it's really great to seethe nonprofits utilize the
(07:51):
resources that we've providedfor them through this platform
and then use that opportunity toreach out to their donors and
thank them.
So one of the best examples wasAll Saints Episcopal School
does such a great job followingup on the day of the event.
They don't let the sun set onyour contribution.
They have folks that are in theroom at the school throughout
(08:13):
the day watching the activity onGiving Day and immediately
responding and thanking theirdonors.
So that's a fantastic way toreally celebrate giving by those
donors in a tangible and quickway.
LANDESS (08:29):
With more than 600 charities this time around.
What a great opportunity forthose charities to network.
PENNEY (08:37):
It is the know the charities have an opportunity.
We have several trainingsessions throughout East Texas,
so it's great to see the chatterat break times during our
trainings where they they'realso learning.
What other organizations do youknow?
Some of them, so many of themoperate kind of in a silo just
trying to do their work, withtheir heads down and working
(08:58):
hard.
It's great when they can comeup, look around and see other
organizations that are serving alot of times some of the same
community members but just in adifferent way.
LANDESS (09:07):
So someone will surely ask what's in this for the East
Texas Communities Foundation?
Are you guys getting any ofthose funds?
PENNEY (09:13):
No, it actually passes through and we spend quite a bit
of our own personnel resourcestrying to manage the event.
But one of the main reasons wedo it is that opportunity for
nonprofits to attract new donors.
That just really stood out tous when we looked at all the
reasons why you would do agiving day hard to find new
(09:34):
donors, and this is a unique wayto give that encourages that
interaction among donors andinfluencing their friends, so we
think that's a great win.
We see between 25% and 35% ofdonors indicate that they're a
first-time donor to anorganization.
So as long as that number staysstrong, we're going to try to
(09:56):
keep supporting these nonprofits.
LANDESS (09:59):
Any final thoughts?
PENNEY (10:00):
to share.
Kyle, you know one of the thingsthat's unique and we've had it
for the last couple years, butthere's still an opportunity all
the way up to Giving Day tocreate a celebration page.
So a celebration page is where adonor for a particular
nonprofit goes to thatorganization's page on East
Texas Giving Day, clicks abutton that says I want to
(10:21):
create a celebration page andthen you can tell your own story
.
You can either write it out,you can put a video on there,
you can put some pictures, youcan tell your personal story
about why that organization isimportant to you and you can set
a personal goal.
So, for example, I was inHenderson the other day with the
Boys and Girls Club of RussCounty.
The Boys and Girls Club has seta goal of $5,000 for East Texas
(10:45):
Giving Day.
But if you set up a celebrationpage, you could say hey, I want
to try to attract my friendsand let's see if we can raise
$500 towards that goal.
So it's just another fun wayfor you to get more engaged and
help the organizations that areimportant to you.
LANDESS (11:00):
Thanks for listening as UT Tyler Radio connects with
Kyle Penny.
Director of East TexasCommunities Foundation.
For UT Tyler Radio News, I'mMike Landis.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!