Episode 47: A Nontraditional Approach to Increasing Capacity - Employee Volunteer Programs

Get more bang for your buck: increase engagement with potential funders by leveraging THEIR employee volunteer program. Using a project-based approach, complete your goals by partnering with corporations with employee volunteer programs. Learn how to increase your capacity, increase donor engagement, and increase revenue by helping corporations meet their Corporate Social Responsibility goals.

LINKS:

Google For Nonprofits
YouTube Nonprofit Program

NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT: Autism Speaks

Podcast Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):

Welcome to On Air with Amber Wynn, where nonprofit leaders learned to fuse passion and commitment with proven business strategies to create long-term funding, impact and sustainability. And now here's your host and resident philanthrepreneur Amber Wynn. 

Speaker 2 (00:26):

Good morning fam. It's your girl, Amber. And we have been talking for the last couple of episodes about a Nontraditional Approach To … and the reason why we've been focusing on a nontraditional approach. Well, first of all, is because everything that I do when I am is nontraditional. Look at my title, Philanthrepreneur, right? Fusing the best of philanthropy with proven business practices for long-term impact. And so we're going to keep that theme going, and we're going to talk today about a Nontraditional Approach to Increasing Capacity. This is probably the most important thing that you can focus on as a nonprofit leader, is increasing your capacity, right? We're going to talk a little bit about what capacity is, and then we're going to dive into a nontraditional way of increasing it. But you know what we do, guys? We're going to start with my first commercial break, and then when we come back, we're going to jump right into it. 

Speaker 3 (01:31):

Nonprofits are building a better future for everyone. Whether your organization focuses on bringing clean and safe drinking water to everyone on the planet, or caring for people in your local community, nonprofits like yours are making a difference every single day. But nonprofits also face a unique set of challenges, how to manage volunteers and operations on a limited budget. How to raise awareness about your organization and mission through storytelling and how to drive more engagement from donors to fundraise for your nonprofit. We believe that every nonprofit should be able to focus more energy on making an impact. Our mission at Google for Nonprofits is to equip nonprofits with the best of Google tools at no charge in more than 60 countries around the world. 

Speaker 3 (02:25):

Your nonprofit can collaborate and communicate more effectively with smart, secure business apps from Google Workspace. With Gmail, your nonprofit employees and volunteers can send email from your nonprofit's custom domain. Teams can stay connected from different locations by using Google Meet and Chat, and you can access and collaborate on documents from anywhere with Google Drive. Increase your productivity so you can spend more time serving your cause or community. Through Google for Nonprofits eligible organizations can receive free advertising to run ads on Google search with Ad Grants. Ad Grants enables your organization to appear in ads on Google search. When someone's searching for topics related to your mission. Your nonprofit can receive free advertising to raise awareness, reach donors and recruit volunteers. Tell the story of your organization through video to create an emotional connection to your cause. With YouTube, nonprofits can expand their audience, reach new supporters, and connect viewers to their mission. And finally, imagine that your donors and supporters could see exactly where their donations are making a difference. With Google Earth and Maps, nonprofits can create compelling custom maps that help tell their story to the world. Nonprofits are changing the world. We are here to help. Learn more at google.com/nonprofits. 

Speaker 2 (04:03):

Welcome back. You're On Air with Amber Wynn, Philanthrepreneur. In today's episode is a nontraditional approach to increasing capacity. What is capacity? The definition of capacity building is the process of developing and strengthening the skills, instincts, abilities, processes, and resources that organizations and communities need to survive, adapt, and thrive in fast changing worlds. An essential ingredient in capacity building is transformation that is generated and sustained over time from within. Transformation of this kind goes beyond performing tasks to changing mindsets and attitudes. That is the official definition of capacity building. But for the purposes of this episode, I define capacity building is freeing up the executive director's time, reducing the amount of duties that they have, reducing stress, basically becoming more efficient and more effective. That's how I define how I simplify. Now, based off of that definition, you've got to obtain skills and abilities and processes to create that, but the end game is really just making sure that the executive director frees up their time and are not doing everything. 

Speaker 2 (05:30):

So from that space, we're going to talk about how to increase your capacity, how to increase your ability to do less. It's not to do more. We don't become more efficient. We don't reduce the amount of duties that you have so that you can work more. That's not it. The purpose, the role, the responsibility of an Executive Director is to network and to build relationships. Executive Directors should not be doing the actual implementation of the program. The Executive Director should be running the organization. You should have people in place who are actually doing the programs. So, if you can increase your capacity, meaning if you can free up more time, then you can do the things that an executive director is supposed to do. When you're networking and building relationships, that means that you are securing more grants and securing more collaborations and securing more contracts, which then should translate into more money or more resources. 

Speaker 2 (06:33):

But if you're in the office, if you are in the field doing the programs, then you're not able to generate more revenue. So what happens is you stay in this stuck place, you're on this poverty wheel, and so we don't want that to happen. What we want to do is increase your capacity so that you can then have the resources you need to strengthen your organization. So that is capacity. We've talked a little bit about what your role is. Let's talk about how you can do that, how you can increase your capacity in a nontraditional way. And I say nontraditional because the traditional path is get an organization, get money, then strengthen your infrastructure, right?. That's the traditional way. Oh, I'm going to start a nonprofit and I'm going to get these grants, and then I'm going to hire these people, and then I'm going to get more grants and I'm going to buy this equipment. That's a traditional route that could take forever. We want you to be more efficient. So think about this as a way of getting to your endgame quicker. 

Speaker 2 (07:45):

I want you to think about incorporating a corporate employee volunteer program. A corporate employee volunteer program. What is that? It's where corporations encourage their employees to donate their time to nonprofits. Why should you create an opportunity for corporations to partner with you with their, I've had people say, oh, well, I want to work with X, Y, and Z, but they only have an employee volunteer program. My response, great, great. I need money. You need resources, right? And sometimes the pathway to resources is not a straight and narrow pathway. Sometimes it zigzags, right? So how I want you to look at corporate employee volunteer programs is that you are creating relationships. So I had a client, she partnered with Microsoft. She provides academic training, so SAT, essay writing to get into colleges, and so she partnered with Microsoft. They brought in 25 of their employees to work with the youth. 

Speaker 2 (09:04):

The youth are from the foster care system, so they helped the youth with writing their essays to get into college. What does that do for my client? Well, number one, it allows these employees to contribute, right? Number two, it allows these students to be in the space of professionals, people who are committed to community, so much so that on their free time, they're volunteering to help them write their essays. Number three, it frees up her time because prior to these employees coming in, she had to sit down with all of these students and help them with writing their essays. So you can see she's increasing her capacity because she's not the one actually writing the essays. Now, does she have to take time to train them on what to do and how to do? Yes, all of that. But she did that once or over a series of weeks, but in the long term, she had bodies, a workforce to then do the work that she didn't have to do. 

Speaker 2 (10:05):

But let's take it a step further. Once they successfully completed this first round, guess what Microsoft did. Microsoft then gave them a $25,000 check. I'm just saying. So what also happens is because these individuals are spending time with these kids, now they're forming relationships. Now they're falling in love with these amazing kids who just don't have access to resource. So guess what these employees are going to do? They're either going to become individual supporters because they really admire the work that's going on, or they're going to go back to Microsoft and say, we need to give them money. We need to give them more money, or we need to give them space, or we need to give them computers, whatever. But that's what happens when you create a relationship. That's what happens when there's a connection. So this is one way into the corporation. All right? 

Speaker 2 (10:57):

So I'm going to explain to you why it is corporations have employee volunteer programs. Number one for corporations it does a couple of things. It gives them a good look, right? So corporations like Microsoft and all these big companies, Coca-Cola, whatever, they make a lot of profit. So if they have their employees going into the community, it looks good. It shows that they're committed to the community. So one thing is, it's a good look. Second thing is it really, research has shown, it really helps companies to retain their employees. So Microsoft may say, okay, you get up to eight hours that we will pay you to volunteer into the community. What, you mean to tell me? I get to choose an organization that I'm passionate about and you're going to pay me to give back? That is amazing. That helps to build morale. So that's one thing. 

Speaker 2 (11:59):

It helps with retention. It also helps with recruitment. In this day and age, millennials are really, really concerned about how companies are involved in communities. It's not enough now just to write a check. So if a company says, guess what we allow, encourage our employees to actually spend it up to eight hours volunteering. That is a good selling point. So recruitment wise, having an employee volunteer program is really sexy. On top of that, just between you and I, those things can be tax benefits. Some of it, and I'm not a tax professional, but some of that stuff can be written off, right? Because you are donating time, you're donating resources to 501(c)(3) organizations. So trust and belief that there's some tax benefits that they're getting from this type of thing. So all that to say, it is a win-win for everybody, right? It is a win-win for everybody. 

Speaker 2 (13:00):

When you are thinking about, oh my goodness, I have to deliver this program, and I have to. Think about how you can package your need so that volunteers can help you deliver them. What do I mean by that? Last episode or the one before that we talked about project-based hiring? Well, the same thing would happen for your volunteers. It's going to be project-based. When I volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club here in LA, they would have projects, you can paint the fence or you can paint the wall, or you can clean up this area. You would give the volunteers projects so that they can then do it. Now, there's a whole method to creating a sexy volunteer program, and I'm going to put in my link, I mean in my bio, a link for you to access how to build a sexy corporate employee volunteer program. 

Speaker 2 (14:00):

And it's going to break down all of that because it's not just enough to say to corporations, Hey, if you want to send your employees here, we'd love to have you. You've got to pitch it, and it's got to be a way that they think it's going to be enticing and they think that it's going to bring value. So today, the episode is just to encourage you to look at increasing your capacity in a different way, not by hiring people that you can't afford, but by leveraging corporate volunteer program where you can, one, start the relationship not just with the corporation, but also the employees so that you can increase your individual giving. Two, you want to start that relationship so that you can then access more resources. And then three, you want to be able to say, Hey, I got this corporation who's supporting me. You put that on your website. Then other corporations will be like, oh, okay. So there's a whole bunch of benefits in the process of increasing your capacity. So think about that and check out in my bio. I'm going to put a link, How to Build a Sexy Corporate Employee Volunteer program as one of your processes that you want to put into action and help to increase your capacity. All right, we're going to pause right now, but when we come back, you know what time it is. It's time for Ask Amber. When we come back. 

Speaker 4 (15:28):

Are you a nonprofit organization with 501(c)(3) status? Are you using video to promote your cause and attract donors? If you answered yes to both of these questions, then the YouTube Nonprofit program was created, especially for you. The YouTube Nonprofit program allows you to activate your cause, broadcast a compelling story, and launch an effective campaign via YouTube. The program gives nonprofits access to YouTube tools that most users don't get, an embedded donate button, call to action overlays, annotations, live streaming, and access to a community forum. So take advantage of this program for your nonprofit, and you can really see the results in your video and overall communications. 

Speaker 2 (16:10):

Welcome back. You're On Air with Amber Wynn, and today we are talking about a Nontraditional Approach to Increasing Capacity. Right now, it's time for me to answer your questions. If you have a question that you'd like for me to answer, be sure to hit me up on my socials. You can hit me up on Instagram, Facebook, you can even email me at amber@amberwynn.net. Today's question was an email question from James in Santa Clarita. Here's the question. Hi, this is James writing from Santa Clarita. First, I'd like to say thank you, Ms. Wynn. This podcast is very helpful. You make things so clear, and I really appreciate your time and commitment to nonprofit leaders. You're welcome, James. 

Speaker 2 (17:00):

My question is about funding. I've been running my organization for young black males. It's a mentoring program that focuses on getting young black men in and out of college. We stay connected with them through their entire time in college, supporting them to make sure that they don't just get into college but actually graduate. So I have a dedicated crew of men who volunteer because we know how hard it was for us, and we want to ease the load and give direction, but I'd like to at least offer these dedicated brothers something, maybe not bring them on payroll, but honor their commitment. They've been rocking with me for 10 years now. We've graduated over 115 young men. Woo, woo. Okay, since starting the program. I run the program but haven't really had a board and all the things you talk, but I'd like to be able to at least bring in enough to warm their palms and show my appreciation. 

Speaker 2 (17:55):

How would I go about getting enough funding to do that? First of all, James from Santa Clarita, let me just say Thank you brother. Because as we know in any institution, females typically outnumber the males. And then in the African American community, we know that there's an even smaller population of males, not just getting into college, but as you say, graduating from college. So thank you for that, for your service. 10 years is a long time, so that's some dedicated commitment. But here's my question for you. Do you want to continue to run your organization as a hobby or do you want to run an organization, a business? Because that's really what it comes down to, right? If you're going to continue to not have a board and not to strengthen your nonprofit organization, then it's a hobby. It's a hobby, and your dedication will be rewarded. 

Speaker 2 (18:50):

As you see, you have some output, but you have an opportunity. You have a track record, 115 young black men. That is a success record. You could be bringing in money, not just to warm your brother's palms, but actually expanding and doing more. Maybe even, I don't know what you do, but you could do scholarships so that while they're in college, they're receiving money so that they're struggling less. There's so much more you can do, but my question is, do you want to keep it as a hobby or do you want to turn it into a real organization? If you want to turn it into a real organization, I'm here to tell you that I'm here to support you, and it can be done. If you want to keep it as a hobby here's the answer to your question. You can approach small retail stores. 

Speaker 2 (19:38):

You can approach Best Buy, you can approach Target, and you can get $500, $750, $1,500. You can get that with what you're doing because you have a track record. You could also approach some of the service programs like the Soroptimist, Shriners, those types of small organizations. They will give you up to $2,500. The Chamber of Commerce. You can do that, and that'll be plenty to warm the bro’s hand, but I really want to encourage you to think about doing the work. You're doing it anyway, and turning this hobby into an amazing organization that can make a difference in more of our young black males lives. Hope that helped. All right, so now it is time for my favorite time of the episode where I get to focus on amazing people. That would be you, my amazing nonprofits. This is time for me to just give you an opportunity to be acknowledged because you do the work. You're in the community. So now we're going to spotlight a nonprofit. Today's nonprofit is Autism Speaks. Autism Speaks is dedicated to promoting solutions across the spectrum and throughout the lifespan for the needs of individuals with autism in their families. They do it through advocacy and support, increasing understanding and acceptance of people with autism and advancing research into causes and better interventions for autism. Let's check them out. 

Speaker 5 (21:19):

We wanted help, but we just didn't know where to turn to get the help.

Speaker 6 (21:22):

As a mom, I really felt like I needed an anchor. Autism Speaks was that anchor for me. 

Speaker 7 (21:27):

Autism Speaks has done a terrific job concerning opportunities for those that are on the autism spectrum. 

Speaker 5 (21:33):

I have never been in an environment that was so welcoming. Joanne just blossomed. 

Speaker 6 (21:39):

I needed knowledge, I needed resources. They provided it to really encourage us to keep going. 

Speaker 8 (21:45):

I have autism and I have been living my entire life without knowing. I'm a mother of two children. One of them, Charlie, is severly autistic. I wish I had gotten the diagnosis sooner just so I could have gotten more help, and the more we talk about it, the more people are going to be aware and we can be a part of it. The workforce, the everything, 

Speaker 6 (22:04):

That's what drives me to do the things that I do because humanity simply can't wait.  

Speaker 5 (22:08):

Are you happy? 

Speaker 6 (22:09):

Yep, I'm happy. 

Speaker 2 (22:19):

Thank you. Autism Speaks for all the work you do. If you are interested in donating or you need resources or support, please visit www.autismspeaks.org. Yay. All right, so as we wrap up, this is the time, the Mindset Minute. This is the time where I share with you just a minute of my thoughts on a specific topic, and the topic really has to do with the subject matter for today, which is increasing capacity. And what I'd like for you to do is just to pause, because 99% of the time when I'm talking to potentially new clients, I hear the same thing. I thought, I thought, I thought this and I thought this. I thought I could. And I have plenty of episodes where I say the same thing, research. It's not based off of what you thought because the IRS runs this organization. But today's Mindset Minute, I want you to shift into creating a different mindset. 

Speaker 2 (23:31):

I want you to reframe the idea of management because typically when you come into the nonprofit sector, you think, I've got to hire people and then manage people and in a traditional way, right? I'd like for you to reframe that. I'd like for you to think short-term commitment. When you go the traditional route, you're hiring people, you're paying taxes, and that is a long-term commitment. And I want you just to shift, think short-term commitment, long-term value, short-term commitment with a volunteer program. It could be for a semester, it could be for a program year, it could be right, but it's short term. You've got this commitment and it's going to bring a long-term value. You commit with this corporation. These employees come in, they donate their time, but over a long period of time, you're going to get a whole bunch of, you're going to get a whole bunch of resources and benefits. 

Speaker 2 (24:41):

That's what I was looking for, benefits. So yes, you can hire one person and that one person can fill the role, or you can engage an entire corporation and you can get way more in terms of your output. So think reframe management from long-term commitment to short-term commitment with a long-term value. You want to be able to give donors something valuable so that their employees can come. Is it leadership opportunity? You have a person who's leading this project. Is it visibility? You have a project where the community comes out and sees. What is it? What is it? But at the end of the day, build something robust so you can have this short-term commitment with a long-term value. 

Speaker 2 (25:36):

It's a shift in the way you think, but if you think about it, it's sexy as hell. I'm just saying, and I've seen it in action. Like I said with my clients with Microsoft, they just fell in love with the work that she was doing. How can you not? You see the benefits, you see results. It just really takes some reframing in the way that you think. All right, so that's really all I have for today. We're going to continue this series of a Nontraditional Approach To, in the meantime, be sure to subscribe. Be sure to share this episode with someone that you see working hard, doing everything you really feel that they could do for a reshaping of the way they're doing things you think maybe this corporate volunteer program might help them, free them up. And then check in my bio so you can get the link, so you can figure out how to build a sexy corporate employee volunteer program because you want to make it enticing for a corporation to come and join your organization. I want to thank you so much for having me in your space today. Please, if you have any questions, hit me up on my socials, and if you would like for me to spotlight your nonprofit, hit me up; send me an email with a two minute video. Make sure the last slide has your contact information, and we will check you out next week. Bye guys. 

Speaker 1 (27:13):

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave a review on iTunes. Head over to www.amberwynn.net/podcast for the links and resources mentioned in today's podcast. See you next time.