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online. On with the show.

0:50

Hello and welcome to NonproFit NATion. I'm your host,

0:54

Julia Campbell, and I'm going to sit down with nonprofit

0:57

industry experts, fundraisers, marketers, and everyone

1:01

in between to get real and discuss what it takes

1:05

to build that movement that you've been dreaming of. I

1:08

created the nonprofit Nation Podcast to share practical

1:12

wisdom and strategies to help you confidently find your

1:16

voice, definitively grow your audience, and effectively

1:20

build your movement. If you're a nonprofit newbie or an

1:23

experienced professional who's looking to get more visibility,

1:27

reach more people, and create even more impact, then you're

1:31

in the right place. Let's get started.

1:39

Hello. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to NonproFit NATion.

1:43

Happy to be here with you today, wherever you are. I'm

1:46

your host, Julia Campbell. And today

1:50

we have an actual nonprofit professional from the

1:54

trenches to share all of her war

1:57

stories, successes, tips, and tricks on how she

2:01

built and continues to build a culture of philanthropy and

2:04

gratitude at her organization. So we have Maria

2:08

Shanley. She's the Director of Marketing and Data

2:11

Management at Second Harvest Food bank of Central Florida. She's

2:15

a creative and analytical fundraiser with 14 years of

2:18

experience in campaign development, brand awareness, and

2:22

data analysis. Maria sits on panels and speaks at

2:26

local and national conferences. And we'll both be speaking at Planet

2:30

PhilAnthropy in Orlando. Excited about that. She also speaks about

2:33

fundraising best practices and when she's not fighting to end

2:37

hunger in Central Florida. I love this. You can find her rooting for the

2:41

Red Sox. That's who I root for. With her

2:44

husband, reading with her eight year old, and relaxing with her

2:48

two tuxedo cats. Maria, welcome.

2:51

Thank you. I'm so excited to be here today. What are tuxedo

2:55

cats? I don't know what they are. Are they like black and white? Yes.

2:59

They have the white down their chest so they look like they're wearing

3:02

tuxedos. That's what we call them, tuxedo cats. I don't know if

3:06

that's an actual name for those cats, but that's why I've always called them. I

3:10

love it. I'm going to look it up on Instagram. I'm sure there's like a

3:12

whole community around that. But I love rooting for the Red

3:16

Sox. And as of this recording, we are getting into spring

3:20

training, second day of spring here. And

3:24

people that know me know I'm a Red Sox fan, so I think that's great.

3:26

So, Maria, we have known each other online.

3:30

We've known each other for several years now.

3:34

And I'm just interested. I want to hear more about your

3:37

background and how you got into nonprofit

3:41

marketing. I think people would be very interested in that. Yes. But first, I also

3:44

want to just thank you for having this podcast and getting

3:48

all these great speakers and all the knowledge that you put out

3:52

there on there. Because my team soaks it all in and

3:56

I soak it all in. So it's something that I really like to listen to

3:59

when I do my walks. Oh, great. Thank you. And you always

4:02

email me and it really helps me. It inspires me to let

4:06

me know that this is really helpful. So thank you. And I'm

4:10

always sharing it with people. I'm like, you have to listen to this. You have

4:12

to listen to. Great, great. Thank you. Yeah.

4:16

So as far as my journey goes, I came to the United States when I

4:20

was seven. I spoke maybe five words of

4:23

English coming. I'm sharing that because for me, learning

4:27

has always been a big part of my journey, whether

4:31

it's through life or through work. And so school was always easy

4:35

for me. So I jumped in and got a scholarship at UCF Go

4:39

nights. I've been in Orlando for over probably 20

4:42

years. Really like those in college. I

4:46

was a marketing major, and I did a minor in management information systems because I

4:50

really loved data back, even in college when I wasn't even sure where

4:54

I was going to end up or if I even wanted to work in nonprofit.

4:57

But I just wanted to have those marketing business skills, right. And my

5:01

parents always pushed that on me. But then the last two

5:05

years of college, I actually spent it traveling to

5:09

conferences and going to protest huge

5:12

animal right activists in college. And then I actually ended up

5:16

organizing a conference by last year, and

5:20

we had a protest at SeaWorld, and 18 of us got arrested at

5:24

it. Good for you. I mean, not that I'm advocating

5:28

getting arrested, but good for you for protesting SeaWorld. Yes, but it wasn't on

5:32

purpose. It kind of also pushed me away from the

5:35

philanthropy sector because of the experience I had. So then I was like,

5:39

I'm going to go work for an architecture company. And at that company I got

5:42

to learn more about website building and email marketing. And then I

5:46

realized I want to go back into philanthropy. And so I applied for a

5:50

job at a local NPR PBS affiliate in.

5:54

I love NPR. I learned about membership fundraising, which was

5:58

so interesting and new to me. And I was fascinated by the

6:02

data and the emails doing that, and also

6:05

continued my growth and learning more about web design.

6:09

And then from there, I was recruited by Second Harvest Food bank of

6:13

Central Florida. So I can't share that. I've had multiple

6:16

jobs and experiences, but I can share that.

6:20

When I first started at Second Harvest, I started our social media channels

6:24

that first week I was here. And this month I'll be 14

6:28

years at the Seas Bank. Oh, my gosh. I think we need to take a

6:31

moment because that's amazing. That's truly

6:35

amazing. There's so much turmoil in the sector and

6:39

there's so much transition and turnover is what I was trying

6:43

to say. And a lot of people do not stay in development and marketing

6:46

jobs for three years, let alone 14 years.

6:50

Fabulous. Yeah. And I think one of the things, and one of the reasons

6:54

that I love my job is because every year is different and it's

6:58

really cool when you can grow as your

7:01

organization grows as well. So when I started, we

7:05

were a team of four in development. We're a team of 24

7:08

now. I know what it's like to work in a small team,

7:12

being part of a team. And now I lead two teams at the same

7:15

bank. So I've had the opportunity to learn and to grow

7:19

at this organization. And it's been interesting, right? Because we're in

7:23

Florida, there's always hurricanes. We have recession,

7:27

we experience government shutdown. Like everybody, we

7:31

went through COVID and then there's more hurricanes. Right?

7:34

And so just learning how to fundraise, doing

7:38

all these events that happen have just taught me so

7:42

much about fundraising and stewardship and gratitude

7:45

messaging. And I think that also helps or drives me

7:49

to speak at conferences, because if you were to talk to me,

7:53

like, eight years ago, I would be so scared to speak at a

7:56

conference. I'd be like, no way. No, thank you. I think a lot of us

8:00

are. Yeah. And so I want to just give a shout out to Mark

8:04

Becker because he kind of pushed me to speak at. I think it was like

8:07

n Ten was the first conference I spoke at and we spoke about our virtual

8:11

food drive and since then, I love just sharing

8:15

the knowledge and hoping that I can help other nonprofits who are doing similar

8:18

work, whether it's a food bank or an animal organization.

8:22

I like to talk about email marketing, our monthly donor

8:26

program and the growth of it. Talked about our branding

8:29

campaigns. I talk about our digital ads that we do. So we do

8:33

a lot of things at the food bank and it's grown in the past 14

8:36

years and I love to be able to share that information. So I think that's,

8:40

for me, that's how I kind of got into the nonprofit

8:43

marketing. It's just really fun and it's always changing. So it

8:47

sounds like second harvest has really

8:51

been kind of on the cusp of innovation

8:55

and using technology for new

8:58

things. So something we could talk about

9:02

everything. Give me Tuesday telethons, monthly donors, gratitude

9:06

campaigns, branding campaigns. I'd love for you to tell us about the

9:09

virtual food drive tool. That sounds really neat. I've never heard

9:13

of anything like that. Oh, yeah. So we basically have.

9:16

It's a peer to peer tool where companies or

9:20

individuals can fundraise and they set up a virtual food

9:24

drive and they basically ask their friends to give to it. A lot of our

9:28

virtual food drive participants are companies. And especially in the

9:31

fall, when we have our messaging out where

9:35

the need is greater and people want, everyone deserves to enjoy the

9:39

holidays. Right. And so when we have our messaging out, we encourage

9:43

our donors, our volunteers, to sign up for a virtual food drive. So

9:46

it's a visual representation of what your gift can provide. And

9:50

at the food bank, every dollar that you donate provides four

9:53

meals. That's right. And for those of you that don't know, I

9:57

know a coworker of Maria's. She's in my social media for Social

10:01

Good Academy, and she was telling me that, and I think that's

10:05

absolutely fantastic, that $1 can translate into four meals.

10:08

Because what we were saying is, let's tie this into

10:12

grocery bills for a family of four.

10:16

Grocery bills have, of course, quadrupled in the past few

10:19

months. And how unsustainable that is, but yet

10:23

how incredible. Like, how you can stretch a dollar at Second harvest.

10:26

I think that's amazing. Yeah. And I think the really cool thing about

10:30

virtual food drives is we've learned what works with

10:34

them and what doesn't. And then we've also learned that people, and I think we

10:37

all know this, right? People want to fundraise how they want to fundraise. Yes, they

10:41

do. You don't want to box them into a virtual food drive.

10:44

So we're looking to set up, like, a DIY fundraiser in the next

10:48

year because we want to take that peer to peer

10:52

experience that we give with the virtual food drive and translate it into

10:56

something that's more open and bigger for someone to be able to give back in

10:59

the Way that they want to give back. Wow. So

11:02

you lead two teams.

11:06

You lead the marketing and fundraising team and the data management and

11:09

analysis team. How do you balance that? So I balance, like,

11:13

mentally. I go for a walk every morning. I do yoga once

11:17

a week, and I meditate. I think COVID

11:21

really brought meditation into my life. And it works.

11:24

It's the weirdest thing, but it can calm you. It can shut

11:28

that voice in your brain off. It just

11:32

really works. And I don't even know how to explain it, but it just does

11:36

for me, as far as balancing my two

11:39

teams, it's hard,

11:43

but it's still very rewarding. And I say it's hard

11:46

because in order to work with your team, you have

11:50

to really be vulnerable. Right. You have to share your

11:54

mistakes. You have to share your experiences.

11:57

You have to create an environment where people, where you build trust.

12:01

And when you create that type of environment, you

12:05

see your team transform, and they almost end

12:09

up giving each other feedback. Whereas before, they were kind of

12:13

not scared, but kind of afraid to hurt each other's feelings. Right. But

12:16

now we're more open with feedback. We all listen to each other.

12:20

We communicate with each other. And I think once you have that groundwork

12:24

of that trust and what it creates, then the work is

12:28

actually kind of like the easy part, because then you have a team

12:32

that really gels and knows how to communicate with each other.

12:35

And the work is. I feel like that's easy for us now.

12:39

And really all the ideas, all the photography, all the

12:42

stories, that's the team. They're doing it all. I'm just there to

12:46

help make sure that they have what they need to get their jobs done and

12:50

that I'm also cautiously looking for burnout.

12:54

Right. If I see somebody struggling or somebody who is

12:57

overwhelmed, I work really hard to kind of sense that and kind of help

13:01

and see how can I help you with this? How do we work together to

13:05

move forward? With my whole team, it's never on one

13:08

person's shoulder. It is. Our whole team will help each

13:12

other with projects. Well, that leads me to another

13:16

question that I can hear people listening to this

13:20

saying, my entire organization is

13:23

siloed. What I see in a lot of my work with my clients

13:26

is the marketing director is over here. And then maybe there's a social media

13:30

volunteer, and maybe there's a development person. Maybe that's all one person. But

13:34

still the work is very siloed, away from the

13:37

programs, away from the leadership team, away

13:41

from the actual workings of the

13:44

organization. So how do you fight that silo effect,

13:48

and how do you really bring people together? Meetings with

13:52

agendas? Yes. Sounds good to me.

13:56

And then just making time to get to know each other, get to

13:59

know different departments. And I think that not just my team,

14:03

but the other half of our development team, who handles stewardship and major

14:07

gifts and volunteers within the team.

14:10

We really work together on campaigns throughout the year. We do a

14:14

lot of team building together as a development team. We've done

14:18

strength finders training, we've done feedback

14:21

training together as a team so that we understand what

14:25

criticism is versus what feedback is. How do we work

14:29

together to create a stronger team? Just our own development team of

14:32

24. But then on top of that, how do we build these

14:35

relationships with our programs department, or even our finance department,

14:39

especially working with my data team, you don't realize how much data and

14:43

finance integrate with each other, and so that communication

14:46

is so important. And I think it helps that we like each other

14:50

at the food bank, because anybody you talk to at the food

14:54

bank, they just help each other. And

14:58

my husband always tells me, I work in this bubble that doesn't exist anywhere

15:01

else when I come home and. Tell them stories,

15:05

but you built it. You built it. And I'm thankful for the leadership that

15:09

we have here. They really continue those communications.

15:13

They pursue professional development for the organization.

15:17

They create events that we can all come together

15:21

to celebrate milestones or during

15:24

COVID our kitchen team was also helping provide lunch

15:28

for staff who were here during COVID because half our

15:32

team went remote and the other half stayed. And so I guess

15:35

it's just building that culture of working with each other. And helping each

15:39

other. Communication is such an easy word to say, but it's really a very

15:43

complicated thing to do. Building this culture of

15:47

philanthropy, culture of teamwork, where everyone's working on the campaign

15:50

together, is the reason for

15:54

success. Because I've had a lot of clients and I've had a

15:58

lot of students in my courses that come to me, and they say, I want

16:02

to do this campaign, but there's really no buy in from the top,

16:05

or it seems like I'm just another thing on this long list of

16:09

to Dos for the marketing team, or I feel like it's just being

16:13

shoehorned in with other responsibilities and putting out

16:16

fires. So I love what you're saying, that everyone is working

16:20

on this campaign together and everyone's invested in the success

16:24

of the campaign, and it's not on one person's shoulders. I think that's

16:27

really important. And, Julia, so I listened to your podcast, and I heard you

16:31

talk about marketing and fundraising under the same umbrella.

16:35

Right. And I was talking with Lacey about this yesterday as well, because

16:39

we like to talk about all these things, and it is under

16:42

one umbrella. But I do have two different positions devoted. One is

16:46

to marketing and one is fundraising.

16:51

Because they understand each section. Could they

16:54

understand the work that the other one is doing and how they work together with

16:58

it? I think that's why for us, that marketing

17:02

calendar that we have includes so many different types of

17:05

messaging and we're not competing with each other. Yes,

17:09

exactly. There are a lot of conversations that have to happen, right.

17:13

Because everybody wants to talk about their program or have their stuff in

17:16

the spotlight. But we work together as a team to make sure

17:20

that it's a balanced message out and we have all these

17:24

channels that we can use, and how do we make sure that we're sharing that

17:28

story to all the different types of donors and

17:31

supporters that we have? So this brings me to

17:35

talking about donor communications,

17:38

because I know that second harvest focuses a lot

17:42

on incorporating gratitude and impact, like you infuse it

17:46

in your yearly messaging. So tell me about this and how it comes

17:49

about. And also, can gratitude be

17:53

systemized? Yes. And so for us, and I always

17:57

tell my team this. And one day, stuck in my head, I was like, well,

18:00

you know what? There are only 365 days in a year

18:04

and there are only twelve months, and there are only

18:08

three or four weeks every month. Right? And so when I first started

18:11

laying out my yearly calendar with my messaging,

18:15

I just saw all our fundraising messages on there, and it just looked very

18:19

one sided. And I was like, we need to change this.

18:23

We have to share gratitude and impact. And so what

18:27

my calendar now has is within each of our.

18:30

I have an Excel spreadsheet with all the months and

18:34

all my channels, right. And within each channel, most of

18:38

the channels, I have three different sections. I have a section for

18:41

cultivation, stewardship, and engagement.

18:44

Cultivation is a match campaign where we're driving

18:48

gifts for a specific reason. Stewardship is a thank you

18:52

story or a message about impact, of maybe how many

18:55

meals were provided this summer to kids or how

18:59

many school markets, which is a pantry

19:03

at middle schools, how many kids were fed that year. And then I have

19:07

engagement. Engagement are those the messages that

19:10

include ways that someone can get involved? Or just like stories

19:14

of the food bank, of donors that have raised money for us or

19:17

donors that set up like a virtual food drive or our

19:21

super volunteers that we have? We have brand ambassadors at the food

19:25

bank. They go out into the community and they table for us and talk about

19:29

us. They go through a training. We have a young professional group that

19:32

also does fundraising for us. So we have all these really great

19:36

stories that we can put in these engagement,

19:40

engagement messaging that we have out that really inspire others

19:44

to give back and to give. And so I think

19:48

when I look at my calendar and when I look at the different types of

19:51

messages that we include, then I work with my team

19:54

to map it all out. In Asana, we love

19:58

Asana. I use Monday. But yes, I love Asana, too.

20:02

And it's nice because then we can look back at previous years and see what

20:05

we did those years. But it really helps us integrate and make sure

20:09

that our messaging is balanced out. And when we meet

20:13

as a team every Monday, we can kind of look and see what it comes

20:16

up and making sure that we always include

20:19

gratitude in there. And then something that I think a lot of nonprofits worry about

20:23

is, I don't have time to write, like a gratitude story. Right? Where am

20:27

I going to find another story? And so we are big

20:31

proponents of reusing content. Yes, reusing content. I

20:35

love it. Let's not reinvent the wheel every time. Exactly. And so

20:39

that's what we do. We talk about a story. We talk about what are the

20:42

different ways we can use this story? How can we use it in direct mail,

20:46

social media, email? What parts of the story can we use? Because every

20:50

channel that you're on is going to have a different part of the story. You're

20:53

not necessarily going to tell the whole story. And then, most

20:57

importantly, when we do a fundraising campaign and we use a

21:00

story because we're segmenting some of our donors out of

21:04

those asks, especially like our monthly donors, we take that story

21:08

and we use it as a thank you story. And so every month,

21:12

our monthly donors get a thank you story because it's a story that we

21:16

used in an ask that we had for that campaign that month.

21:20

I just think this is so helpful. So to review, the three

21:24

categories which most people I think would lump together, but I love

21:28

that you spell them out, stewardship,

21:30

cultivation and engagement, and you go

21:34

from there. So it's sort of like looking at your communications plan and your

21:38

calendar, not from the nitty gritty of the

21:42

blocks and like, oh, this event, this event, this event. It's what do we want

21:45

to accomplish this year? What are our themes and how do we want people

21:49

to feel and how do we want them to get these

21:52

communications and what goal of the donor journey? Like which piece

21:56

of the donor journey are we hitting? It's just so strategic. I think a lot

22:00

of us just sort of react. How did you get into this

22:03

proactive mode and what tips do you

22:06

have for other development or marketing? People that really want

22:10

to be this proactive but maybe are facing some

22:14

roadblocks? I think you have to start saying no to some

22:17

things. You really have to look at your schedule and look at your

22:20

plan and take that time or make the space

22:24

to really sit down and think about it. A lot of times, you're right. We

22:28

are being reactive and we don't take the time and the space

22:31

we need to really plan out. And a lot of times, I think a lot

22:35

of nonprofits don't have that capacity to try to do everything

22:39

they want to do. And that's where you have to step back and start saying

22:42

no to some things and really come up with a plan. It's helped

22:46

me immensely. Coming up with that yearly plan wasn't always like that

22:50

for me. I was probably reactive. The first probably eight

22:54

years I started at the food bank because I didn't have the

22:58

team I needed to be able to get. I was very ambitious. I didn't have

23:01

the team I needed to get the work done, and I burned myself out

23:05

several times. And it's just learning and

23:08

understanding that if I don't make the time to look at the numbers,

23:12

to look at the data, to see what's working, it's almost like

23:16

you're throwing like spaghetti at the wall and trying to see what's going to work.

23:19

Right now, we are more strategic in all our messaging

23:23

and all our channels, and I encouraged my

23:27

team to tell me that when they're not able to do anything else

23:31

and it's okay because I'm going to support them with that. And let's

23:34

figure out what can we do and how do we do it. And I think

23:37

having a year plan, when you do this is super helpful because

23:41

you've mapped out that work already. And we know things come up

23:45

right, disasters come up, hurricanes come up right. And

23:48

now that we've had experience as a team, maybe two or three hurricanes

23:52

together, for us, it's like we already know all the things that have to happen,

23:56

all the things that we need to do. We have plans in place already.

23:59

We're not being as reactive, but we also want to

24:03

take time to take care of yourself, especially with a hurricane come. If you

24:07

don't have power, you don't work. Not everything has to go out and just give yourself that

24:14

grace to not be perfect. I think that this would be a

24:18

fabulous speaking topic. Creating a yearly communications

24:22

calendar in a noisy, crazy

24:25

world. How do we create this yearly calendar?

24:29

How do we use content? I think that'd be fantastic. I think a lot of

24:32

people would want to learn about that. So you have survived

24:36

global pandemics, and like you said, hurricanes, a lot of natural

24:39

disasters, government shutdowns, all those things.

24:43

And I know just based on the data that donors came

24:47

out in record numbers to support food pantries during the

24:50

pandemic. What are you seeing and how are you

24:54

navigating fundraising post pandemic? So I asked

24:57

my data guide to pull this number for me because I think

25:01

that sometimes I block out COVID because of how stressful it

25:05

was for myself and my team. In that first

25:09

year of COVID we acquired 42,000 new

25:13

donors. So it's a staggering number.

25:17

So a big focus on stewardship started

25:20

once we were able to be proactive. I think we spent two.

25:24

COVID was a disaster. It was a hurricane that lasted for two years for

25:28

us, our world. One day we left the food bank

25:32

and we weren't allowed to come back. We had to figure out how

25:35

to work remotely with each other. And then

25:39

people were scared. It was kids were

25:43

home, my team trying to work with little ones at home.

25:47

And so I always get a little PTSD from when I hear COVID.

25:50

But now we are able to be more

25:53

proactive. And thankfully, because of the growth that the

25:57

organization has had, because of the generosity of our community,

26:01

we've been able to grow our programs and help more people

26:04

in so many different ways. But on the fundraising part, we've also

26:08

been able to invest in positions and to really focus on

26:12

the stewardship part of the work that we do, whether it's through

26:16

gratitude, messAging, or newsletters. But also on the major

26:19

donor side, where we added some major gift officers,

26:23

we have a Phoenix Hope Society, which is like a society that

26:27

thanks a specific level of donors. That's what they do, and

26:31

they create events for them. We do thank you calls every

26:34

week to donors as well. So stewardship is a

26:38

huge part of retaining these new COVID donors. We

26:42

definitely had seen it's going down, but now it's starting to balance

26:46

out. And so it was kind of not funny. But

26:49

you would just send an email out and it would just raise so much

26:53

money. And we were just like, what is happening? Because people

26:56

just really wanted to help and they wanted to give. And I think that's

27:00

why it's so important. Not just during COVID but every

27:04

month. Your nonprofit is doing amazing

27:07

work. And you don't need to put together

27:10

this crazy brochure or some really long story,

27:14

but it's so important to share your mission and to share the

27:18

work that you're doing, because whether you're thinking

27:22

someone or asking someone for money, you're really just sharing information

27:25

about what's happening in real time with your

27:28

supporters. And so that's what we continue to do.

27:32

I want to get into marketing campaigns, but I want to talk more about

27:37

fundraising while we're on this topic because I know that you

27:41

loved what Stephen Screen had to share on Nonprofit Nation.

27:44

That was one of my most popular. So he's just

27:48

so phenomenal. Everything he said, I just wrote down and was, like, clapping.

27:52

But the myth of donor fatigue. So are

27:56

you seeing this? How do you fight this myth in your own work? So

27:59

I was on a walk when I heard that podcast, and I was just kind

28:02

of put my hands up in the air every time you mentioned something new.

28:06

So thankfully, because I do oversee the data team,

28:10

I'm able to work with our data manager to look at data and

28:14

numbers and we ask every

28:17

single month. We run a camp fundraising campaign every month. And what I'm

28:21

seeing is our donors are giving between two and three times a

28:25

year. Our monthly donors are giving when we ask them for

28:28

additional gifts. What else am I seeing? I'm

28:32

seeing, like, our virtual food drive. Donors who just start a virtual

28:35

food drive will continue and stay as donors. And so

28:39

for me, I'm able to fight that because I'm seeing the things that we're

28:43

doing are working. I look at our emails, I look at our unsubscribe

28:47

rate, I look at how much they're raising. We started testing

28:50

out impact emails and removing donate buttons from

28:54

them, and I'm finding that they're raising just as much

28:58

money as if you were to put a donate button on them. But the unsubscribe

29:02

rate is lower because some people see that as an

29:05

ask, but others don't. And so we're just kind of testing that out to see

29:09

what happens. I do like to incorporate, especially during end of

29:13

year, when we are running like four different campaigns in like two or

29:17

three months, that impact messaging is always in there. That story

29:21

is always in there because especially in the

29:24

fall, I've seen some of those gratitude emails with no donate buttons

29:28

raise more than some of our ask emails. That's just so interesting. I

29:32

love this. It's very data driven. You are head of data analysis,

29:35

so this is helpful. People should not stop asking,

29:39

but they should test, like you just said, put a donate button, don't put a

29:43

donate button. Put a link, don't put a link. Send more emails, send fewer

29:46

emails. I think that's just so important that you test things out,

29:50

but you're not afraid to share

29:54

your impact and ask for support when you need it. So I think that's really

29:57

interesting. And beyond fundraising,

30:01

what I love, the second harvest does the educational

30:05

multichannel campaigns, and I've seen that this is food campaign,

30:09

but you tell us a little bit about how you choose what to focus on

30:13

and how you organize these sort of education campaigns.

30:16

Yes, we first started with like a spark campaign. It was like

30:20

a what's your Spark campaign? Because we got a grant from Walmart where

30:24

we had to kind of go around and share people's whys at the food banks.

30:28

I think that's where we first started with some educational campaigns. But this

30:31

is food was a really big campaign for us because we

30:35

actually went through a brand study where we were trying to figure out, should we

30:38

change our name? Because anytime somebody came to the food bank, they

30:42

always leave saying, you're more than a food bank. Our food bank,

30:46

we work with 625 nonprofit partners, and

30:50

that's how we're able to get food out to 300,000 people every day.

30:53

We also have a culinary training program at the food bank that

30:57

teaches adults to cooking skills and life skills. We

31:01

also push nutrition at the food bank. Any food that we're

31:04

distributing, we like to add recipes. We have cooking classes.

31:08

We do advocacy work at the food bank, where we're talking to

31:11

officials. We're encouraging our community to engage

31:15

and reach out to the officials as well. And so after this

31:19

brand study, we found that our name is really powerful. And

31:23

people know, even though our name has food bank in it, people

31:26

know some of the work that we're doing. So then we're like, well, how do

31:29

we educate our community about the work that we do? And that's where

31:33

this is food camp came from. And so for us, it

31:37

had different pillars. It was like, food is change, food is

31:40

medicine, which ties into the nutrition part of the work that

31:44

we do. Food is success that ties into the culinary training program.

31:48

Food is learning, ties into the kids that kids

31:51

grow and learn, and food is change. That's the big one,

31:55

right? Because food is change. One action

31:59

can create a ripple effect and help so many in our

32:03

community. And the cool thing about this campaign, it was all story

32:06

based. So every theme we had had a story

32:10

tied to it. So we were able to launch this campaign in

32:14

August, September. We had digital ads, we did print

32:18

ads in our community. We did a brochure, we

32:21

added it to our speaking engagements that we had.

32:25

And now we are going to continue this campaign

32:29

every year, but modify it a little. So this year we're celebrating

32:33

our 40 year anniversary, and so we're going to incorporate the

32:36

different pillars of this campaign to celebrate 40 years of work. So

32:40

we're still trying to figure that out. That's amazing. But it's so

32:44

important to educate and to share the work that you're doing.

32:48

And sometimes people get confused when they come to the food bank

32:51

because they don't realize everything that we're doing. I

32:55

know a lot of the people listening can completely relate to

32:59

that statement. They're known for one thing, but it's so much

33:02

more, and it translates into so much more, and it means so much more.

33:06

So storytelling is a huge topic of importance for

33:09

my audience, something that I'm very interested in. So how do you

33:13

collect, craft, share the stories about

33:17

the food bank in such an organized way? So I don't know

33:20

if we're trying to get organized. It seems organized.

33:25

Well, that's all due to Erica Spence. We

33:29

hired a storyteller position five years ago,

33:32

and when she started, we got a hurricane

33:36

two months later. Wow. Jeez. And she's just

33:40

been such a huge part of storytelling at the

33:44

food bank. And thankfully, because of her, she's also

33:47

helped train other people on our team, like our

33:51

multimedia specialist who takes videos and photos and goes

33:55

out in the field. She's learning how to collect story. Our community

33:58

kitchen marketing manager who works with our culinary students,

34:02

he's also learning to collect stories. And so it's hard

34:06

to just have one person at the organization collect and write all the

34:10

stories. It's really about training your

34:13

program team, letting them know what to look for

34:17

and what questions to ask, and then being able to follow up with some of

34:21

those stories. Yes. Oh, it's creating that culture that

34:25

you have successfully created where everyone is willing to

34:28

help and pitch in towards the fundraising, marketing,

34:31

storytelling, impact, sharing efforts. So

34:35

kudos to you. I think that's fantastic. Also, hiring a storyteller, that's like a

34:39

dream come true. I think a lot of organizations would love to do that. So

34:43

that should be something that I think even small nonprofits should

34:46

aspire to, because it's the person that is the champion. It's

34:50

the person that's coordinating everything. So it doesn't always fall on the

34:54

development director, the marketing director. But I think that's

34:57

fantastic. I know we could talk for another 5

35:00

hours. I'll have to have you on again, but just to wrap it up,

35:04

where can people find you, connect with you, and learn more

35:08

about Second Harvest. Yeah, so you can find me on LinkedIn. Just look

35:12

up my name, Maria Shanley. I like to share all

35:15

things leadership, fundraising, as well as second harvest

35:19

campaigns that we're running and just impact of things that we do. I'm

35:23

so thankful. I work for an organization that just helps so

35:26

many in our community and does it in a really smart and

35:30

innovative way, and that's really inspiring. I just love sharing

35:34

all the work that we do. But you can also learn about Second Harvest if

35:37

you go to feedhopenow.org as well on our website.

35:41

Okay. Thank you so much for being here and sharing your expertise and

35:44

just being so willing and generous to share your time.

35:48

Thank you. I love doing this. Well, hey there. I wanted to say thank you for tuning into my show

36:00

and for listening all the way to the end. If you really enjoyed

36:04

today's conversation, make sure to subscribe to the show in your favorite

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36:23

and create even more impact. So that's pretty much it. I'll

36:27

be back soon with a brand new episode, but until then, you can

36:31

find me on Instagram at Julia Campbell 77.

36:34

Keep changing the world, you nonprofit unicorn,

36:39

you Sam.