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NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT: The Swim Up Hill Foundation

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Speaker 1 (00:05):

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 Philanthreprenuer Amber Wynn. 

Speaker 2 (00:28):

Hey fam, it's me, your girl, and I am back. And I'm excited for this second part of Strengthening your Nonprofit where I share with nonprofit leaders, especially those in the startup phase, but actually it could be any phase because if you are in the nonprofit sector, you know that it takes money to run an organization and especially for a nonprofit where for some reason people believe that nonprofit means no profit. That is not the case. But I am on the case here today to talk to you about two really amazing resources that I think will help you as you move forward to strengthening your nonprofit. 

Speaker 2 (01:12):

I remember being in a situation where I'm getting all of this advice from people as an Executive Director about what it is I should be doing. And the reality is the money short, but the expectations are high. So what I wanna do is share with you as many free or low investment resources that I can, so that until you get to that point where you have reserves or you have allocated funds just for operational costs such as marketing or building your infrastructure so that you can manage your donors, until you can build that pot up, I'm gonna provide you with some recommendations for resources that you can use. It's not an endorsement. I'm not getting paid for any of these. I just really wanna be able to support the hardest working people in our communities, which are our nonprofit founders. So we're gonna start today with a resource that is all things fundraising. It's called Give Lively. Let's take a look at their clip really quick. 

Speaker 3 (02:26):

When it comes to online fundraising, Give Lively's fundraising platform provides a variety of easy to use and free options for nonprofits. Let's walk through the ways your nonprofit can use the platform. As a Give Lively member you can start customizing your nonprofits own fundraising pages where people can donate online easily and securely. Share links via email, on social media or behind your websites' donate buttons. For events or special campaigns you can set up individual campaign pages for each fundraiser with separate goals and branding. Use our platform's embeddable widget to fundraise directly on your own site so visitors never have to leave your page to complete a donation. It's as easy as copy and pasting the code found in your nonprofit admin portal to your website. With Text to Donate, you can easily fundraise anytime, anywhere. It's great for galas, walkathons or other onsite events. Just create a code in your admin portal and link it to one of your campaigns. 

Speaker 3 (03:28):

Then encourage people to text your code, enabling them to give with just two tabs. You can track progress toward your campaign goal in real time, turn social followers into donors by adding a donate button on your Facebook page and linking it to your fundraising page. It's a quick and convenient way to reach more donors and encourage giving while visitors are checking out your profile. Last but not least, our platform now offers best in class peer-to-peer fundraising. So you can leverage the power of your supporters networks as they easily raise money on your behalf, all maintaining the same customized look and feel of your brand. Choose one fundraising channel or integrate them all based on your nonprofit's needs. Have any questions? We're here to help. 

Speaker 2 (04:18):

So you see how amazing that resource is. For those of you who know me, and for those of you who are gonna get to know me, technology and I are not friends. We're distant cousins. We know each other cuz our mamas are related, but I suck at technology. And so to be able to find a resource where you can, number one, do it all on one platform, is very helpful. For those of you who don't have a staff or if your staff is basically your volunteers, you wanna make it as easy and simple as possible. And with Give Lively, you can streamline your fundraising. As you saw, they had things such as you can just get a link and put it on your website, embed it, you can do text fundraisers, peer to peer. So, because it's a free resource and you have all of these opportunities to generate funds, I think it's an amazing opportunity for any fundraising Founder or Executive Director to look into. 

Speaker 2 (05:17):

And here's the thing, your branding is extremely important. So if you can have something that appears as if it's all streamlined, that's gonna be better. You don't want it to be choppy, you don't want it to look like you've got all these different looks. You want to appear as if you're streamlined and all of your resources are integrated and Give Lively allows you to do that. The other thing is this nonprofit community is a small community. You don't want people to say, oh my goodness, I tried to do this with this organization and they didn't give me my money or whatever. Because once you mess up with one, then you've pretty much messed up with all. Cuz people talk, especially in the nonprofit world, when Funders are giving out money, they want to give out money to organizations who they can rely on and who they can trust. 

Speaker 2 (06:13):

And there's no better way to identify a trustworthy grantee than from your peers. So you wanna look the part, you wanna be able to diversify your funding streams always, but in particular in your startup phase because remember, the goal in the startup phase is to be able to create an impact. You wanna be able to let people see that you're doing something that's making a difference in the community. Because when they see that you're making a difference, then they wanna partner with you, then they wanna fund you, then they want to access your services. So it's important that you create that visibility that you need. So check out, Give Lively. The other thing you wanna do is you wanna have an email marketing platform. I don't care what stage you're in, but in particular in the startup phase, you want to have an email marketing campaign. I'm gonna share with you MailChimp. Now, the caveat being that once you get to 2000, once you get to 2000 donors or whatever, you have to pay. But up until then MailChimp is free. Let's take a look at their clip right now. 

Speaker 4 (07:35):

You run a business, maybe a digital radio show or a blog or a podcast and you want a bigger audience. So you use MailChimp. We're a complete marketing platform. So we help you create ad campaigns, send beautiful emails, automate your marketing, and more, so your audience grows. They love your work, so you sell them some merchandise, but you don't have to start calling your business a radio show / merchandise spender. Names don't need to be that literal. We do way more than mail. 

Speaker 2 (08:07):

The point being, especially for those of you who are super engaged on social media, here's what I need you to understand. Those friends are not your friends. They are people out in the internet world. They are not your donors until you have their email addresses. So if Facebook or Instagram were to shut down right now and you said, oh, we've got 10,000 followers, you have nothing. So it's important that you gather their emails and the way that you do that is by having a button on your social media that they can click, give you their email address, and so now they're a part of your database. It's really, really, really important that you can engage with the people on social media in your own way and on your own time. You wanna be able to send them newsletters, you wanna be able to send them emails, you wanna be able to send them requests for Giving Tuesday. 

Speaker 2 (09:08):

And you wanna have them in your database because as I just said, if they're on social media and you're just using those platforms, they're not your friends, they're not your donors until you have them in your database. So for MailChimp, they offer things like that. You can customize a beautiful newsletter. Why a newsletter? Well, when you're first starting out or at any phase in your development, you wanna be able to share with people who you are and what you do, what your philosophy is, what your mission is. You want to get them inspired. If you have a campaign, you wanna be able to create a newsletter that says, hey, guess what? We just graduated 15 youth, we're so excited, we're sending them to the other side of the country. And then you wanna have a donate button that says, and if you wanna support them too, donate here. You can do things like that. 

Speaker 2 (09:59):

If you've been in the news, you can take that clip, drop it into that newsletter, say, check us out, we were on NBC, whatever you have you can put it out there. And it used to be, back in the day, where, when you sent out a newsletter, you had to print it and it was so costly. Now you just use MailChimp or Constant Contact or there's a dozen of them out there and you can let your donors know that you're doing things. What are you doing with their money? Give them insight to your programs. So, MailChimp is very intuitive. I've used it before. So y'all know it's intuitive. It's drag and drop. They have templates. They also connect with your social media, which is important. 

Speaker 2 (10:46):

You send it to one place and it'll just disperse to all of your social media. So it's really, really, really important that you have some type of email marketing platform. If it's not MailChimp, then it can be Constant Contact or these other ones. It's just that MailChimp is free up until 2000 subscribers and then you generate the money from all of your campaigns and you can find another one. Again, today I'm talking to you about how to strengthen your nonprofit, and I'm sharing with you some of the resources that are either free or low investment. And we're talking about an email campaign with MailChimp. All right. So I just need you to understand also that even if you're not where you wanna be, you gotta fake it till you make it. What does that mean? Am I telling you not to be truthful? No, I'm telling you to highlight those things that you're doing the best. 

Speaker 2 (11:46):

If you're only doing workshops right now and you haven't connected with a partner where you can develop a full on program, then highlight those workshops in your emails, in your newsletters and let people know that you're out there, not only because you're looking for resources, but also because you want clients and you want collaborators so that you can deliver these programs. So in the beginning, you don't really qualify for grants. So you need to diversify your funding stream. If you're using Give Lively, you can do text campaigns, you can do peer to peer campaigns, you have all of these other resources. Every nonprofit should have at least 10 funding streams. If it's a text campaign, if it's peer to peer, if it's on your website, if you're selling swag, all of those count. But you need to have multiple streams of income. And your email platform is extremely important and it's how you get your information out there and it's how you connect to people. 

Speaker 2 (12:53):

But most importantly, it's how you start to collect your donors. If you keep your friends on Facebook and you don't get them into your database, then you can't develop your donor base because they're on another platform. So I can't stress enough how important it is for you to start to build up your email list. It's because that's how you start to engage your donors. So let's just say you have a campaign and you're saying, we are sending 15 people to college. If you wanna support, donate here, and they donate $25. Then say like, that's in June. Then you have that person's email. So come November for Giving Tuesday, you say, hey guys, we're doing our Giving Tuesday campaign. Let us know if you wanna support. It's the end of the year, perfect time for preparing for your tax benefits. And we're giving out food to our unhoused youth who we've sent off to college, and they may be struggling a little bit, and then they give $50. 

Speaker 2 (14:02):

So now what you're doing is you're collecting information. They gave $50 the first time, they gave $50 the second time. So next year you may specifically ask them for a higher amount. Would you be interested? Would you be willing to give $75? Here's what we are going to use it for. These are the things that you learn when you're engaging with your friends, with your supporters. If they're always on Facebook or always on Instagram, you don't get to see this type of information, but if you have them in your database and you're sending out these MailChimp newsletters, they collect the statistics in the background. They'll tell you which stories they clicked on, which is important because what you don't wanna do is burn out your supporters. If you use MailChimp or another email platform, you can look to see which stories they clicked on. Now you know what they're interested in. 

Speaker 2 (14:56):

They didn't click on the one where you're asking them to volunteer, they clicked on the one that supported the kids that were being that you had graduated. So in the future, you'll specifically send them more about kids graduating or your kids in other programs. So this type of information is not only beneficial for you in terms of being able to build your donor base, but also to cultivate your donors. You gotta segment them. You've gotta know what is Amber Wynn interested in? What is Jane Doe interested in? Everybody's not interested in the same thing. And that's a good thing because now you can hand pick who you're gonna send your messages to. So all of these platforms that I've been sharing with you is gonna help you build up your organization. You're gonna strengthen your nonprofit by bringing in a variety of ways to bring in money. 

Speaker 2 (15:49):

All right, so at this point we are going to move into our next segment, but before we do, I wanted to share with you that I get a lot of Funders who aren't really at a position where they have a huge budget. So I have put together a free resource library, and it's 10 items that I think would benefit a Funder. Everything from a Funding Formula to my 90 Day Calendar to terminology. It's just a wealth of information that I wish I would've had coming into this arena. So be sure to go to my website, www.amberwynn.net, and right on the front page, there's a red button and it says, click here for my free resource library. That's for all of you amazing nonprofit leaders out there doing the damn thing. I wanna support you and it's information that I know is gonna help you strengthen your nonprofit. All right, so now we're gonna move into the segment Ask Amber. And it's where you get to ask your question of me. 

Speaker 2 (17:10):

You can do it on any platform. You can email me, whatever it is that you wanna do. Ask me your question and I'll answer it here on air. So here's the question for today. How do I engage potential supporters on my social media without a social media budget? So when we talk about engagement, we are saying that you put something out there and then your supporter responds to it, right. And what has been trending a lot, especially on social media platforms, are videos. Short videos where people respond or click or whatever. And it's true these types of platforms and resources can be costly. Trust me, as a consulting company, I know that they cost. But there is this amazing resource out there that I discovered. It's called Animoto, A N I M O T O. And it's another free platform where you can create videos. 

Speaker 2 (18:19):

You can, they have like a library with music that's already approved. They have videos, and it's again, drag and drop. You guys are gonna really notice that most of the things that I do are drag and drop. Why? Because as I said, technology and I are distant cousins. So Animoto, you can upload a whole bunch of pictures. You can upload videos from their stock, you can put text on, and then that way you can create these short little videos on your social media to engage with your supporters. It's another resource that I use. And because you don't have a social media budget, it allows you to look the part, right? You've got these videos with the cute music and the pictures and everything. You can put a button there for them to, again, that'll connect you so that you can get their email, they can get a product. 

Speaker 2 (19:18):

Maybe you wanna promote an event or a fundraising campaign; Giving Tuesday, whatever you wanna do. You can do it free of cost by using this resource called Animoto, A N I M O T O. Check it out. All right? So again, I am here for you. And this next segment is where I get to demonstrate that. This nonprofit that I'm going to Spotlight was founded by a gentleman by the name of Jamal Hill. If you have the opportunity to meet this brother, all I can say is you're just gonna be wild. Cuz his mama raised him right. He has the best spirit. He is, I don't know. He's just an amazing individual. And he founded this nonprofit called The Swim Uphill Foundation. He is a paralympic bronze medalist, Jamal is, and he created the Swim Uphill Foundation because he has an ambitious goal of teaching a million people from underserved underrepresented communities to swim. 

Speaker 2 (20:41):

They provide multimedia educational resources, including training manuals, children's books and digital audio visual libraries for trainers, coaches, parents and guardians to reach community members where they are mentally, emotionally, and physically. And it's a passion of his being a paralympic bronze medalist because as you know, it's already a challenge trying to be an Olympian. You add to that other physical and perhaps even mental challenges, and you know that this person has a heart of gold. Let's take a look at Jamal Hill as he strikes out with trying to help a million people learn how to swim. 

Speaker 5 (21:40):

Jamal Hill isn't just winning big at the Paralympic games. He's also winning big in the community. He won a bronze medal in Tokyo and now he's pledging to teach 1 million students how to swim in the next seven years. Community journalist Ashley Mackey has the story. 

Speaker 6 (21:55):

Every four years, the Olympic Games shine a light on remarkable athletes around the world and their remarkable stories. And Jamal Hill, a native from Inglewood is no different. 

Speaker 7 (22:06):

I was a part of Mommy and Me with my mom. I came up in swim lessons, joined the swim team at a very young age. Due to my neuropathy, ultimately, I stopped swimming at the age of 10. 

Speaker 6 (22:17):

At 10 years old, Jamal was diagnosed with a neurological condition called Charcot-Marie-Tooth. But that didn't stop the Paralympian from winning a bronze medal in the 50 meter freestyle in Tokyo this year. 

Speaker 7 (22:28):

Only three people in every event get to have that honor and that distinction. So, to have brought my A game and amongst the best in the world, being able to come out top three, is a great honor. 

Speaker 6 (22:38):

After essentially being in a state of full body paralysis, Jamal said it was the support from his parents that motivated him to relearn how to walk and get back into sports. 

Speaker 7 (22:49):

They believe that I shouldn't be limited, that I shouldn't go and start to place myself in this box of what limits are usually stigmatized regarding disability. 

Speaker 6 (22:59):

In 2020, Jamal decided to pursue another passion by founding his nonprofit, The Swim Uphill Foundation, in an attempt to lower the global drowning rate, starting with his community in Inglewood. 

Speaker 7 (23:11):

A lot of people in low and middle income communities don't know how to swim. People of color, whether it be nationally or internationally, it's an endemic. Too many lives lost, almost a million every single year. 

Speaker 6 (23:19):

Jamal's Swim Uphill Foundation has a goal of teaching 1 million people how to swim annually by 2028. And although 1 million people won't get one of these, he says the main goal is to spread swim education. 

Speaker 7 (23:33):

There's so much of our community of people of color that are not engaging in swim education, whether it's free, whether it is accessible, and that's because there's no bridge. 

Speaker 6 (23:43):

And Jamal says he's hoping he can be the bridge for his community. For more info on the Swim Uphill Foundation, you can visit swimuphill.org. In Inglewood, Ashley Mackey, ABC Seven Eyewitness News. 

Speaker 2 (23:56):

An amazing individual and an amazing nonprofit with an ambitious goal. So if you wanna partner with the Swim Up Here Foundation, be a sponsor or make a donation, to help Jamal save lives, you can reach him at www.swimuphill.org or at (310) 367-6401. For those of you just joining me today, we've been talking about strengthening your nonprofit and I have been sharing with you some free resources to help you do that. This is part two of a series that's talking to nonprofit organizations about getting your house in order, getting you to the place where you look the part. It's not enough to just serve your community because you are competing against other nonprofits out there. You have to put yourself, you have to stand out among your competitors. And one way you do that is through branding. I talked today a little bit about Give Lively, which is a fundraising platform that will help you do what all nonprofits should do, which is to diversify your funding stream. 

Speaker 2 (25:04):

Check out, Give Lively. Then I also talked to you a little bit about MailChimp. MailChimp is a free marketing email marketing platform where you can leverage the connections that you have with people on your social media. Collect their email so that when you have other campaigns, when you have openings in your organization, volunteer opportunities, when you want to recruit board members. These are things you can do if you have emails because then you can send e-blasts out to these people who have demonstrated that they support your organization. All right. And so now is time for Mindset Minute. This is the time where I get to talk to you about some of the things that I've noticed as a nonprofit veteran talking with new and older, seasoned nonprofit community leaders. The Mindset Minute today is going to really talk about engagement, cuz that's what we're talking about when we talk about sending communications out to your supporters. 

Speaker 2 (26:14):

And engagement is important because what you put out into the space, whether that's social media, whether it's your programs, it represents who you are, it represents what you're doing, and it lets all of your potential supporters, whether those are clients, whether it's Funders, whoever, it lets them know why they should support you. And so what I'd like for you to step back and to consider is that social media is not social media for social media's sake. You're building your brand. You need to consistently get visibility so that you can be put in front of people, number one, who may need your resources. Number two, you need to put out what it is that you're doing so that potential Funders, who happen to come across or somebody sends it to them, can see the impact that you're making in your community. This is especially important for creating long-term sustainability, right? 

Speaker 2 (27:18):

It's a small community. Nonprofit Funders talk to each other. If you are showing and it's tooting your own horn, and that's perfectly fine. If you're showing how you're making an impact in the community, then other potential funders get to see that. And it's simple things, telling stories, right? You can tell the story yourself, or even better, you can let one of your clients tell the story about what it is that you've done and how it's impacted and improved their lives. And then finally, you want to be able to have your potential clients, your supporters and funders, understand who you are, what you do, and the programs and services you deliver are different from your competitors. How the things that you do are better. And so you do that by putting out what it is that you're doing, putting out the impact that you're making in your community. 

Speaker 2 (28:11):

So don't just think about social media as a time to get out there cuz everybody's doing it. Think about engagement as a way for you to grow your business, right? It's important that you understand what you're doing and why you're doing it. And as I close, I'd like to say, you're doing an amazing job. I know that it's a lot. It really is. But a nonprofit is a business. It's just a business with a philanthropic purpose. These are the things that you have to do in order for you to be able to continue to provide services to your community. And I just wanna thank you for the services that you're all providing and for staying in the game, because this world needs you. So until the next episode, I want you to take care of yourself, like you take care of your community. I'll see you next time. 

Speaker 1 (29:04):

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.