American Humane CEO Robin Ganzert

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here is another CEO you should know on iHeartRadio. Meet
Robin Ganzert, President and CEO of American Humane.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
I grew up in the South, if you can't tell
by my accent, but actually I was born in Florida.
My dad was in the Navy at the time, so
I was initially a military brat, and then we moved
around this great country, mostly focusing on Southern states. I
went to wake Forest University, go Deacons, and then I
finished my master's at wake fores my PhD at the

(00:32):
University of North Carolina in Greensboro. And so I come
to you with a great deal of Southern background, but
a lot of work in the nonprofit space, and that's
why I'm here today.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Well, we're thrilled to talk to you, and we have
a little bit in common because I used to live
in Raleigh for years. So I know your schools very well,
and they're great schools, and I'm glad you got a
great education. And that's where i'd like to start about
going out of school now. Obviously we're here to talk
a lot about American Humane and there's so many cool things.
Starting in eighteen seventy seven, what you've done over almost
fifteen years now, which is absolutely incredible about the programs

(01:04):
and ways to give and all the cool things and
what you exactly do. But coming out of school, what
did you want to do? Because you've got a really
diverse background. I mean, you've been in finance and then
a nonprofit. But what do you want to do coming
out of school?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
So when I graduated from Wake Forest I knew. I
knew that I wanted to be a university treasurer.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Really, yes, that's very specific.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
It was very specific. I said, I'm going to get
my PhD, I'm going to finish my MBA, I'm going
to have lots of certifications. In fact, I have a
lot of financial and accounting certifications for a career as
a university treasurer. And my mother said, stop getting so
many certifications. You have more certifications than you do children.
So I think you've proven a point. I said, thank you, mom.

(01:45):
I guess I did. And so when I finished up
my PhD, I was still working full time at Wake
Forest University. I loved my time at that gorgeous campus,
both as a student and then as a staff member
assistant for finance and administration with the NBA School and
all and I had an opportunity. You know, those opportunities

(02:06):
come and knocking.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Sometimes sometimes out of nowhere, out of.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Nowhere, and it was Walkovia Bank and they said to me, Robin,
we're creating a new think tank and philanthropy and we
know that you have the financial skills that will align
you nicely with our wealth management division, but we would
like for someone to specialize in the nonprofit space, and
we believe you have those skills. So I became the

(02:30):
first ever director of the Center for plan Giving in
the Center for Philanthropy at Walkovia and before I turned around,
I was fortunate to have over five thousand nonprofit clients
in our team's book of business that I ran and
went around the country met with all these incredible charities.
And I knew then that this was my heart and

(02:50):
my life was that I was going to work in
the philanthropic sector, and that I wanted my life to
be devoted not just to serving as a university treasure,
which is noble and indeed vary for yes, but to
be more engaged in meaningful social impact. And that's was
learned through my first career step at Walcovia Bank, leading

(03:11):
their Center for Planned Getting and their Philanthropic Strategies unit
and Robin.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
That takes us to twenty ten, about fifteen years ago. Now,
I do want to ask you this, yes, because we're
leading into the job at American Humane. Now you've talked
a little bit about your diverse background and what you've done.
I can certainly see why they were interested in you
joining the organization, but why did you want to join them?

Speaker 2 (03:35):
So I felt that this was an opportunity for me
to learn the philanthropic space from a key driver. You
cannot build social good in the NGO sector without financial resources,
and I had a skill set in the financial resources,
as my mother told me, more certifications than children right,
and a PhD in nonprofit finance. So I knew that

(03:56):
I had a talent where that was and that that
could be a very important factor in working in social impact.
I wasn't sure which side I would stay on. Would
I stay on the wealth management side serving to drive
assets into the nonprofit sector, or would I actually go
into the nonprofit sector. And that's when again opportunity came

(04:17):
a knocking, as we say in the South, and it
was the Pew Charitable Trust, the Pew Charitable Trust grew
from a bank.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Did you know that I did.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yes, It's fascinating story. And so when Pew came to
me and offered me a very unique position, it was
a wonderful opportunity to join one of the world's top
think tanks in philanthropy to drive social good. And so
I immediately took that opportunity and spent some formative years
of my career with the Pew Charitable Trust, which again

(04:48):
was the launching pad for me to become the CEO
for American Humane.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Right and also probably just a great training round too
for you right for the next level. Remarkable.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Rebecca Raimel was the CEO of PEW at the time.
I learned so much from Rebecca. I learned so much
from the senior leaders at PEW, importantly how to drive
incremental change, how to evaluate effective programs. So, while I
knew the financial resources of the nonprofit sector, the program
impact and program effectiveness, the evaluation of those the key

(05:18):
performance indicators for social good, it was a question mark.
I didn't have that skill set until I had the
opportunity to experience Peugh.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
Well, I am glad you brought that up. I want
to divert just a little bit, because I think there's
a good teaching lesson for our future entrepreneurs or people
who would like to lead a company. Yes, and my
daughter is now an aspiring filmmaker in New York and
we've talked about this a lot since our high school
years about learning everything behind the scenes. If you want
to be a director or cinematographer, learn what everybody else does.
Learn about blocking, lighting, audio, da da da da da

(05:47):
da da. That way, when you're in a little bit
more charge, you know what everybody's doing around you. That's
kind of what you did. You were getting all these
skill sets before becoming president and CEO of American Humaney.
And I imagine I'm not going to assume, but it
paid off.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Right, paid off. I'm still I'm still here. We have
incredible impact. We've taken our work, as you know, from
one country to forty five countries. It is very definitely
incredible in fourteen years. And the number of animals we
impact again, we count them, print, Paul, print, footprint, you know,
you name it. We count these incredible creatures that we
serve are over one point five billion each and every

(06:23):
year that we have touched through our programs and I
feel very fortunate and blessed every day to be in
the space.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Well you should, and I know you're working very hard too,
because you're an accomplished author and podcaster and running a company.
I don't know how I have time for everything, but
I always know that CEOs and presidents have a lot
of extra energy like a rock musician, and I think
you have that. So let's talk about American Humane. Let's
do this first, because we're going to go into the
history and what you do. But what's the mission statement?

Speaker 2 (06:53):
You know what it's at American Humane. We are there
to uplift the healing power of the human animal bond.
We are the nations and I dare say the world's
biggest champion and protector of animals. So when I think
about American Humane, I think about rescue, care and protect
animals no matter where they are, they know no geographic bounds.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
So some of our listeners are going to be new
to American Humane, even though it's been around since eighteen
seventy seven, And I want you to talk about that
in just a second, because it's truly incredibly one of
the first organizations out there that is charitable But if
you were to give somebody maybe a thirty thousand foot
view robin about what you do, what would you tell them.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
We're the largest certifier of the protection of animals around
the world. American Humane serves as global Humane outside of
our country, and we protect over one point five billion
animals in all areas of our lives from conservation, from
animals on farms and ranches, from animals and zoos and aquariums,
animals and entertainment and working animals. So wherever we see

(07:56):
an animal, American Humane has an initiative to ensure that
the animal has a humane life. How do we determine
what is to be humane? We get so emotional about
puppies and kittens, don't we But what we go to
is one of our fundamental core values is science. So
we have a group of the world's top scientists who
provide the critical success factors for each of our programs.

(08:19):
And then we added something else very important as we
talk about animals in our lives, and that's ethics. So
we have the world's top ethicist for animals also serving
at American Humane. So when I think about what we do,
we rescue, we care, protect, we serve, as the globe's
largest voice for animal protection and importantly, we define what

(08:41):
it is to be humane through science and evidence based practices.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
Wonderful. So we mentioned eighteen seventy seven a couple times,
and I imagine that you did your research on the history.
Can you tell us about the origins of it and
exactly what it was back then to what it is today.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Well, my children think I was around in eighteen seventy seven,
So of course they think I was always the CEO
of American Humane because they've been raised with this great
charity in their lives, this great nonprofit. So in eighteen
seventy seven, our country was coming to terms with the
ravages of the Civil War. They were coming to terms
with cruelty and abuse and all of those horrific, horrific

(09:20):
changes that were going on in society. And what a
group of people started was this great organization called the
International Humane Society. I love that at the very formation
of this entity, they thought global. They were the very
first champions for farm animal protections. And you might say
why farm animals, And it was because the railroads were

(09:42):
going into place. Then think about the transportation of herds
and flocks from the East coast out west and the
unimaginable losses to those animals' lives that happened because there
were no stops for water, no food, and inhumane standards
of care. Farmers and ranchers who gathered forces with American

(10:02):
Humane to create the very first transportation laws for animals,
and that was American Humane also known as the International
Humane Society, who created that in the first years of
our founding. Since then we were behind the first ever
child cruelty actions and laws because child welfare was associated
with animals animals and children had no rights, and so

(10:25):
we were the very first advocates for children and animals
in the eighteen seventies and eighties and nineties in the
turn of the century, and every single major advancement we
take for granted today for child protection and animal protection
was actually promulgated by American Humane.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
So yes, eighteen seventy seven, people say, oh, we rescue
animals today, and I say to them, did you know
the very first rescue program occurred on the battlefields of
World War One. Think about trench warfare. Think about the
movie Warhorse. The Steven Spielberg so puts on the green
and touches our hearts and our minds and our souls.

(11:03):
That was American Humane rescuing cavalry horses and mules in
World War One. It was the Secretary of War of
our country that called my predecessor, doctor William Stillman, and said,
doctor Stillman, we need you, We need you to go overseas.
Before US boys went overseas, it was American humaine caring

(11:24):
for sixty one thousand war horses a month in World
War One. That was the very first idea of animal rescue.
And it was American Humane.

Speaker 3 (11:32):
It was there and how historic incredible. Well, this is
a good segue into programs. And you've got nine that
are featured on the website. And I don't know if
you want to go through all of them very quickly,
but maybe you can touch on some of them, and
not necessarily the more important than the others, but can
you go through some of the programs.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
For us absolutely, Well, we talked about rescue, and to
this very day we're rescuing animals that were left behind
in the ravages of Hurricane Aleen and Hurricanes Milton. We're
there for fires and floods this very day, with six
rescue caches stationed in high prone disaster areas. American humains
there to reunite you with your furry best friend in
a time of disaster and crisis. We've been doing that

(12:09):
for well over one hundred years. We think about the
idea of animals and film and entertainment, and you already
know us. There are No Animals Were Harmed program. We're
on thousands of production days every year ensuring that animals
you see in film and entertainment are humanly treated and
that those animal stars are given the care they so deserve.
You already know us through our American Humane Certified program.

(12:32):
If you eat a cage free egg or enjoy a
butterball turkey at Thanksgiving time, those are all American Humane Certified.
That program's been around almost twenty five years and allows
us to make sure that animals aren't farms and ranches
have a humane life. It's very, very important. You already
know us through our conservation program. If you enjoy some

(12:53):
of the world's top zoos and aquariums where you're introduced
to an incredible megafauna and you fall in love with
a rhino or elephant. Those zoos and aquariums that have
our Good Housekeeping Silver approval. Our American you main certified
seal are the world's very best, and we're very proud
of that initiative. And of course you may know us,

(13:13):
particularly if you're a veteran, through our Pups for Patriots
service dog program. We founded that over seven years ago,
providing wounded warriors with those healing paws and healing leashes,
and we actually save both ends of the leash. We've
placed over three hundred healing leashes on this very day
and saved both lives and the ends of the leash.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Everybody, It's
just absolutely amazing. I do want to ask you a
question about leadership, Robin, And you're such a large organization,
and I know you have staff, and then you have managers,
and then you have people that work across the globe
with you. Yes, when it comes to the vision of
the organization, but also your vision, morals, ethics, and how
you want things to go down. Because there are so

(13:57):
many people, how does the work get trickled down to
make sure that the culture stole there, your message is
still there. Everybody's having a great time with those work
life balances, but still saying this is American humane. We're
doing all the same thing. It's the same mission for
everybody right across the board.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
With that many people, well, we do have a lot
of people, and most importantly, all of our people care
about those animals. So this mission is personal. This mission
is we act professionally in terms of the way we
follow our core values that we instituted fourteen years ago.
Core values of a culture that embraces kindness, compassion, personal excellence,

(14:36):
accountability to the mission. Those are entwined in everyone's individual
performance goals. Isn't that wonderful. Yeah, So when we talk
about a culture of civility, it's because we are running
the world's oldest humanitarian organization. So those values of what
is to be humane to animals are reflected in our culture.

(14:57):
And I believe I'm the number one culture champion. Right
to be, I have to be, and so I recognize
that I have. It's what Betty White told me before
she passed. She said, Rob, and I'm handing over to
you heavy mantle of responsibility. I said, oh no, Betty,
I don't know about this. She said, I'm getting old
and I want to hand over to you that heavy

(15:17):
mantle of responsibility of animal welfare and protection gave me goosebumps.
It still does, and I share that story to each
and every colleague a American Humane. It's our heavy mantle
of responsibility to be that voice for animals to be humane,

(15:37):
and that starts with how we are with each other
and how we hold each other to excellence, accountability, kindness, compassion,
and most importantly love.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
I love that. That's fantastic. And Betty Waite, if you
don't know, disloved animals, all animals. She was wonderful and uh,
quite a treasure. So I'm glad you've got some time
with her. I think that's really special.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
She was our oldest supporter and champions. Seventy five years
of her ninety nine year life she was engaged with
American Humane.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
Amazing, absolutely amazing. I do want to talk to you
about challenges. And I always tell people in this series
that when we talk to leaders and CEOs and entrepreneurs
and presidents of the series, that it's always windyst at
the top. And sometimes you know, when you have your issues,
there's not a lot of people that you can relate
with and talk to you about your problems. So I'm
here for you. So, but challenges in the industry, are

(16:28):
there any presenting you and your team right now?

Speaker 2 (16:31):
Well, first of all, let me tell you who I
do tell my challenges to. His name is Julius Caesar,
and he's his most perfect cat in the world. So
I have to sell of it. Julius Caesar, here's it all.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
Listen.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
Oh, he's a great listener. He purs right, you're going
through it. And he also gets his tuna every morning
at six am because he's an early riser king. But
I respect that lovely. So he is certainly a great confident.
But when I think about challenges in this space, first
and foremost, there's always the challenges of resources, and there's
never enough to protect the animals in Africa to the

(17:04):
animals in our own backyard. And so I say resources
are always a challenge. But that's where I think I had,
early on in my career a great talent with finances.
So I ensure that there are key performance indicators with
every dollar that we spend, and that we hold each
other accountable to using our financial resources with excellence, to

(17:25):
expect that we have impact and accountability, and that we
measure our social impact. So, first and foremost is a
challenge never enough resources, but that makes us more responsible
with the resources that we have. Secondly, I don't think
people understand the crises with animals. They think, oh, Robin,
you get to work with puppies and kittens all day,

(17:45):
and I say, on some days those are the great ones.
Of course, I had the best cat ever with Julie
is at home. But I also think about those animals
who have no voice, and we are facing what people
don't understand is real, and that is the sixth mass
extinction where one million species will be gone in our
children's lifetime twenty twenty five years. The very web of

(18:08):
life on this earth as we know it will not
be the same. So as I think about those animal
advocates out there, it's important for us to understand that
it's more than our companion animals in our lives. We
must be better stewards of the earth because the loss
of species and the loss of individual animals matters today.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
More than ever. All right, let's talk about a good story. Now.
I know, with almost being fifteen years at the organization,
yes that there are probably hundreds of great stories, but
maybe you could just share one with us about and
This is how I present it when I talk to
people like you that are in charge of organizations that
are doing some incredible things. This is why we get
up every day because that happened. Do you have a
story for us?

Speaker 2 (18:50):
I have lots of stories there.

Speaker 3 (18:52):
I know I do.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
That's an unfortunate question for me given a limited time
of a podcast. So I'll tell you one. I'll talk
about Mighty Mitchell. Mighty Mitchell, this very very cute and
charming boy and his T shirt said Mighty Mitchell. I
took Mighty Mitchell to Capitol Hill one day, and you
know why. Mighty Mitchell was winning his battle against a
horrible form of childhood cancer. Mighty Mitchell was one of

(19:15):
the first kiddos to participate in one of American Humane's
innovative clinical trials that worked to prove the efficacy of
the use of therapy dogs for kids with cancer. This
was one of my dreams when I joined American Humaine's
let's talk about how we can show and prove in
clinical trials and drive great effective public policy by showing

(19:36):
the healing power of the human animal book. I brought
Mighty Mitchell to Capitol Heel and he told his stories
to members of Congress, and we actually had the most
unbelievable study outcomes in eight children's hospitals around our great
country that proved the efficacy of the use of therapy
dogs for kids with cancer. And that is one of

(19:56):
the stories of Mighty Mitchell that gives me great hope
for the future because Mighty Mitchell not only a cancer survivor,
but an animal lover. And I'll have to tell you
it's the next generation of animal lovers who I will
transfer this heavy mantle of responsibilities to be the animal's
voice that Betty White gave me to them.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
Outstanding. Thanks for sharing that. I really appreciate that. Why
don't we stay on that Capitol Hill because part of
your job, by no is advocating yes and not only
I will talk about ways to give it. And there's
many ways to give with American humion. We'll talk about
that in just a moment. But you're probably constantly advocating,
whether you're going to be going up on Capitol Hill
or you're going around the world. Can you expand on
that just a little bit for us.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
Yes, we just finished I just finished my second documentary film,
Escape from Extinction, Rewilding narrated by the legendary Meryl Streep.
What a joy it is to have her voice associated
with this great message and cause. I'm so honored that
Merrill gave up her time and talent to participate in
this incredible initiative. I took Escape from Extinction and Rewilding

(21:01):
on Capitol Hill. I wanted to make sure that members
of Congress had an opportunity for a private screening that
really exposed and indicated the most pressing challenges that we face,
the biodiversity crisis and the loss of animals in our lives.
That was an incredible opportunity to advocate for a work
for to protecting dangered species, work in their own backyards,

(21:24):
to promote community gardens, work to promote the healing power
of the human animal bond. That's one example. I'm taking
the film to show to the EU Parliament. I'm scheduled
to do that in January. I'm scheduled to show the
film in November to the UK Parliament. I'm taking this
one documentary film to halls of government around the world

(21:44):
to indicate that we need to work together to create
communities of change those can happen globally. Those can happen locally,
but it's important that we create communities of conversation around
this very pressing issue.

Speaker 3 (21:58):
Well, I'm glad you have the opportunity to do this,
as I watch films all the time, especially documentaries, they
can be so powerful, yes, and that you're just watching
that for ninety minutes however long a documentary would be,
and just being able to see it right there, all
in front of you. So I'm glad you're getting the
opportunity to do that. I think it's wonderful.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
Let's talk about ways to give, because what's really cool
When I got on the website several weeks ago, when
I found OT I was going to chat with you,
I said, here's an organization as butt Nutt because there
are a lot of ways to give. Yes, which is
cool because we're living in an age that you know,
if you're just doing this one donation, that's okay, but
it's so different how people give money today, or cars

(22:35):
or anything. It doesn't matter or crypto, it doesn't matter
what it is. You have many ways to give. Can
you talk about that a little bit?

Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yes, absolutely so. Anyone that wants to make a difference
in the life of animals, have meaningful impact, create a
legacy of compassion, actually inspire your next generation by giving
your children an opportunity to make those gifts happen. You
can visit americanumane dot org and actually explore our many options.
I love the sophisticated gifting mechanisms through charitable trust and

(23:04):
legacy giving through wills and iras, which are always tax
advantage giving for sure, but there's also ways to make
a monthly gift, which is really important to create a
program that your family identifies and resonates with. We have
many veterans who make monthly donations to our Pups for

(23:26):
Patriots Service Dog program in honor of their own service,
in honor of somebody who might have passed away on
a field of battle. That's a really important opportunity to
have that person's legacy live on through a veteran and
service dog team. How wonderful is that to be able
to give that opportunity. We also see communities hit by disasters,
and those are our neighbors. I lived for a long

(23:47):
time as I shared with you in North Carolina, and
Hurricane Helene provide a great devastation there I give to
our rescue program. There we have rescue trucks you could
name after your favorite dog. So I actually have I
love my dogs. My mother's dog on one of our
rescue trucks because my mother inspired me. So I wanted
to give a gift in her honor. And that's her

(24:08):
dog on our rescue truck that provides so much services
in our home of North Carolina. So when I see
all of there's many ways to give, where's your heart?
Where is your passion? If you want to give to
save animals in Africa? I just bought a farm in Africa.
Can you imagine we're going to rewild a place that
hasn't seen white and black rhino in two hundred years.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
That's incredible.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
I'm cutting down those fences in April and I'm so excited.
So join me in translocating in rhino. Well name the
rhino after you.

Speaker 3 (24:41):
I love that, right. I guess my point to ask
you about this was there's so much variety of ways
you can give, and I love that you guys do that.
So many options, So thank you, and we'll give the
website a couple more times as we finish up the conversation.
If you're already having Google that we've given them once,
but we'll do that again. I did want to do
this before I get some final thoughts from Robin about advice.
You've been in this job, as we mentioned, for almost

(25:02):
fifteen years, and once again there's a lot of current
CEOs and entrepreneurs listeners program, but also a lot of
young people that want to do whatever their journey in
there is and yours is exclusive to you when we
realize that. But just maybe a little advice on your
journey by going because you did a lot of things
before this and now you've invested almost fifteen years in
this job, can you part a little advice to people

(25:22):
that want to maybe do something someday like you do.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
I've always known I wanted to have a life with impact,
and so I do believe the first part of my
career was building those tools that I needed to be
able to effectively run an NGO such as American Humane.
And again, when you're the CEO in the ngospace, but
I think this applies across a for profit areas as well.
Your passion has to be evident every single day. So

(25:50):
my advice is you have to truly love what you do,
and then you have to remember something that's so important.
You have to walk that talk every day. As I
tell you, I'm chief Culture Officer. I work really hard,
but I wouldn't expect any of my colleagues to work

(26:13):
any harder than I do. I live this life of compassion,
kindness and love because this is the space I choose
to be in. I choose to be a humanitarian. Those
are the values that I share in a spouse and
that is how I lead American humane and I expect
our colleagues to follow along in this journey that we're

(26:37):
on together because we have to lead by example. The
world today needs much more unconditional love. Agreed, Yes, more
kindness and while we are showing this through the voice
of animals, animals make.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
Us better people. They sure do. They sure do. Well said,
and I'm glad that you talked about passion. That's a
common theme with all of our leaders in this program.
It's almost the number one deal beside surrounding yourself with
people that are smarter than you and doing what they
do and just let them run at it. But I
will say this, and I relate my experiences in my

(27:15):
industry to our listeners as well too. All the years
I've gotten jobs and some real fun jobs as it
taken me across North America. The hiring manager wants it
got to know me and told me, Hey, you know
why I hired you. It was not because of your
skill set or you're good at this. I hired you
because of your passion for this business. Yes, and people
really appreciate that and they can feed off it. Yes,

(27:38):
And I just think that so powerful folks that I
just don't want you to underestimate is you go into
whatever turned you on to be super passionate about it,
and that will take care of almost everything else.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
It does get you up in the morning, It sure does,
and just by whatever else is happening in the world,
if you can make a difference through your passion. And importantly,
you know what as driving me every day is the
fact that I have the privilege of working with volunteers
and staff who are literally humane heroes.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
These are people who stop their own lives to rush
into a disaster. These are people who are connected with
veterans ensuring that suicide does not enter into their DNA
and that their lives forever change by the matching with
the service dog. These humane heroes are inspiring to me,

(28:33):
and I know they make a huge difference in our
communities around the world, and a lot.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
Of selflessness too, and I think that's just wonderful. As
we wrap up our conversation in the last thirty minutes, Sreah,
I've enjoyed it so much. But what I'd like to
do is get some final thoughts from you, Robin, and
I should really encourage people, as Robin will give the
website after some final thoughts for you. We're just hitting
the tip of the iceberg about what American Humane does.
It really truly is incredible, and you have to check
out the website and all they do, ways to give

(29:00):
and how you can be a part of it. But
if you could maybe do some final thoughts for us,
the floor is yours.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
I always say, you can't protect what you don't love.
You can't love what you don't know. So many of
us have lost the connection to animals in our lives.
So many of us have lost the understanding how animals
make us better people. We've lost that connection to the
earth as well. So I would say to all listeners,

(29:29):
find that connection to animals, find the way that you
can fall in love again. Visit your local zoo and aquarium,
Bring an animal into your home, and if you can't
do so, volunteer at a shelter plant, a butterfly garden,
or a hummingbird feeder in your yard. Bring animals into

(29:50):
your life, and that, I will tell you will allow
you to love, love your life so much and allow
you to change the world. I know that many corporate
leaders are listening to this podcast today and I'd like
to encourage them to reach out to American Humane. Perhaps
we can provide rescue training and education through an employee

(30:10):
giving program as well. So there's many ways to partner
with American Humane to bring animals into your employees' lives.

Speaker 3 (30:17):
Such good words to live by. Let's give the website
one more time, Robin, Americanumane dot org. Thank you so
much for this and you've given a lot, and I
know there's so much more to do with you and
your team, the volunteers and the world and what American
Human does. Thank you so much for this. We really
appreciate you joining us on CEOs you should know.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
That's another CEO you should know. Thanks for being a
part of our community and thank you for listening to this.
iHeart Omaha Radio station.