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Alana Muller Coffee Lunch Coffee Strategic Networking for Nonprofits

Alana Muller | Founder

Creating a strategic plan & details

visit them here: www.coffeelunchcoffee.com

 

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KC Cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice, tells the stories of Kansas City nonprofits and connects them with the community.  

Produced by Charitable Communications 

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Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Take risks. Own success. Be Uncommon.

TW: @kauffmanfdn FB: @kauffmanfdn IG: @kauffmanfdn

[Transcript]

 

 

Pet Resource Center of Kansas City Fights Pet Homelessness Provides Pet Services in Kansas City

Michelle Rivera | CEO

Our mission is to decrease pet homelessness, increase pet retention and improve the quality of life for pets through education and supportive services for families in need.

visit them here: www.prckc.org

 

Find us on

Facebook:@ Kccaresradio

Twitter: @kccaresradio

Instagram: @Kccaresonline

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Also available on

Itunes || Spotify || Stitcher || Soundcloud || Youtube 

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

KC Cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice, tells the stories of Kansas City nonprofits and connects them with the community.  

Produced by Charitable Communications 

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

In partnership with: 

Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Take risks. Own success. Be Uncommon.

TW: @kauffmanfdn FB: @kauffmanfdn IG: @kauffmanfdn

[Transcript]

​00:00:00:27 – 00:00:23:02
Ruth Baum Bigus
Welcome to KC Cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice. We’re telling the stories of Kansas City nonprofits and the people behind them. KC Cares is the intersection of the nonprofit and profit communities making Kansas City a better place to live, work and play. This KC Cares segment is brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. WW W Doug Coffman Dawg.

00:00:24:08 – 00:00:47:01
Ruth Baum Bigus
My name is Ruth Bob Vegas and I’m your host. More than 135 million households own a dog or a cat. Many here in Kansas City, numbers swelled during the pandemic, and yet many more dogs and cats have been surrendered back into shelters awaiting forever. Homes. Some still wander streets. At the Pet Resource Center of Kansas City, the goal is to keep our furry friends with us.

00:00:47:14 – 00:01:07:29
Ruth Baum Bigus
Started in 2002, the center is up to a half million animals in our area, providing services such as vaccinations. Spay and neuter. Emergency surgery and much more. Founder and CEO Michelle Rivera has the joy of seeing many furry friends each day. And a lot of people friends, too. She’s with us to share the story of the center. Michelle, welcome.

00:01:07:29 – 00:01:09:19
Ruth Baum Bigus
We’re so happy to have you with us.

00:01:09:24 – 00:01:11:02
Michelle Rivera
Thank you for having me on.

00:01:12:15 – 00:01:29:10
Ruth Baum Bigus
In prepping for this show, I was so interested in your approach. Your approach is different than other shelters and organizations in the metro area. Let’s start there. What makes this center different? What’s what’s that approach? Yeah.

00:01:30:05 – 00:01:57:20
Michelle Rivera
So our approach is more pet retention, shelter intervention. We’ve heard and been preached for decades now to spay and neuter. Spay and neuter. Spay and neuter. But this approach is a little bit more innovative over the last decade to looking at why people relinquish pets and trying to work on those resources and education and services to people to help them keep their pets healthy and keep them in their homes and off the streets.

00:01:57:28 – 00:02:04:28
Michelle Rivera
We’re not a shelter, but what we do is prevent animals from going to the shelter.

00:02:05:25 – 00:02:15:18
Ruth Baum Bigus
So much to dove into about everything that you do. But I want to go back to what inspired you to do this. You have a love for animals going way back.

00:02:16:20 – 00:02:38:25
Michelle Rivera
Well, I do, and I don’t. I. I was scared of dogs growing up. I was allergic to cats. I had been in abusive relationship. And my therapist suggested animal therapy by volunteering at an animal shelter. I didn’t know how I was going to do that since I was pretty terrified of dogs. But I ended up going to a local animal shelter.

00:02:39:04 – 00:03:02:20
Michelle Rivera
I got over my fear of dogs pretty quickly and really started to relate to some of those animals in the shelter that had been abused and neglected. I can relate to that, and I started to specialize in helping to rehabilitate those pets and build trust again. I left my corporate job and just fell in love with helping animals, helping on the business side, entrepreneurship side.

00:03:03:05 – 00:03:26:14
Michelle Rivera
And I just delve in and started helping at the front desk until I moved all the way up to management. But in those years that I was there, I was unaware of just how serious pet overpopulation was. In fact, I was so unaware that I didn’t even know our own shelter was killing 4000 animals a year. I guess I just thought they were getting adopted when they weren’t there.

00:03:26:29 – 00:03:55:28
Michelle Rivera
But after working there for a while, I found out indeed we were killing healthy, adoptable dogs, cats, puppies and kittens. And after doing that for four years, I couldn’t take it anymore. I knew there was a better solution. And so looking at the East and West Coasts and the spay neuter movement and how successful that can be in reducing pet overpopulation, I left the animal shelter and the pioneer of bringing the spay neuter movement here to Kansas City.

00:03:56:24 – 00:04:17:18
Ruth Baum Bigus
I want to get into that whole philosophy, but I want to go back a little bit. You stepped into a place where it was frightening for you. It was not a place like, Oh, goody, I get to go see animals for a little kitty cats and all of that. How did that organization kind of help you move through that, that it’s very dramatic.

00:04:18:29 – 00:04:41:22
Michelle Rivera
Well, there was a lot of animals that would stay to the back of their cages or to their runs and I didn’t know I was I was not familiar with animal welfare at that time. And so I was told, you know, those animals were scared, maybe abused, not treated well. And they were probably just going to have to build trust with people before they could even become adopted.

00:04:42:04 – 00:05:03:07
Michelle Rivera
And so that’s what I worked on, is just standing in there with animals are sitting in a run. I remember just sitting in a run with dogs, with their backs to me, looking at the wall, so terrified, so scared and traumatized, but working with them every single day and building that trust was such a rewarding feeling and it helped me as well.

00:05:03:14 – 00:05:14:26
Michelle Rivera
Give me more purpose and knew those animals needed me and I needed them. So that was absolute positive therapy for me to get over what had gone through in the previous years.

00:05:16:00 – 00:05:19:04
Ruth Baum Bigus
How brave of you to do that.

00:05:20:01 – 00:05:36:16
Michelle Rivera
Yeah, it was it was scary at first. I was terrified, but I just I could see the difference I was making with those animals, helping them through and getting them adopted. It just made me feel so good. And then I just wanted to do more. I wanted to find homes for all of those animals.

00:05:37:11 – 00:05:55:23
Ruth Baum Bigus
And I’m one of those believers who thinks that animal feels what the human feels as well. So it’s kind of a mutual healing that goes on that I think sometimes those that are not pet owners or not familiar with it don’t see or understand that dynamic. We get to have a whole conversation about that and don’t want to get stuck there.

00:05:56:02 – 00:06:05:21
Ruth Baum Bigus
So fast forward, you were seeing the spay neuter movement. It comes to Kansas City in when take us give us a little history.

00:06:06:09 – 00:06:34:00
Michelle Rivera
So in 2002, I had left the animal shelter to start this program. And I was working out of a full service veterinary clinic and sold my vision and my idea of being able to stay a neuter. Thousands of pets every year. I’m thinking a couple of thousand a year. And so we use that practice to help build up a reputation and start a low cost spay neuter program.

00:06:34:00 – 00:07:02:07
Michelle Rivera
And then it just took off. A partnership with MSU emerged from that where students came to Kansas City to help us with that movement. And we were doing several thousand, but I started doing research and calculating out just how many we would need to do to actually make a difference. And it was a drop in the bucket, so we had to explore bigger spaces and expand out to do thousands more.

00:07:02:07 – 00:07:09:22
Michelle Rivera
And by 2005, we were surpassing 5000 pets a year of spay neutering.

00:07:10:01 – 00:07:13:21
Ruth Baum Bigus
At what point did you take that next.

00:07:13:26 – 00:07:15:18
Michelle Rivera
Step of.

00:07:16:03 – 00:07:19:14
Ruth Baum Bigus
Creating a nonprofit and moving that forward?

00:07:20:08 – 00:07:43:00
Michelle Rivera
So we were spay neutering, and yet I didn’t feel it was really enough and we were called spay neuter Kansas City back then. We’ve recently changed our name, but one of the biggest pivotal moments for me is realizing, you know, it’s great, all these people are calling us, but what about the people that are not calling us? They need to be they need to have their pet spayed and we have to reach them.

00:07:43:13 – 00:08:07:06
Michelle Rivera
So we started outreach and that meant going out into the community, knocking on doors and talking to people about the benefits of staying neutering and then using a transport system to get those animals into the clinic. And then we saw another Bruce, but then it was a few years later, by 2008, I then worried, okay, we’re spay neutering thousands of pets a year and that’s great.

00:08:07:25 – 00:08:28:29
Michelle Rivera
What if these people don’t keep their pets? What if the millions of dollars we have invested the time and expenses that we’ve put into this program and they don’t keep their pets. Looking back on my own experiences with my pets and in many cases that we came across of people just how much they love their pets, we began to start to focus on, well, let’s make sure they keep their pets.

00:08:28:29 – 00:08:56:19
Michelle Rivera
So we need to provide the resources that they might need. And we started with just the basics food pantry, some dog houses, making sure that they could call us if they needed something. And that worked great. And then it just continued to evolve and evolving, evolve where we’ve got to give people everything. We’ve got to give them access to affordable resources across the board and overcome that stigma.

00:08:56:19 – 00:09:18:23
Michelle Rivera
If you can’t afford a pet, you shouldn’t have one. That was a big challenge for us and an obstacle that we were trying to get through to our supporters. They didn’t quite put two and two together and understood and that people love their pets regardless of their financial means. And in fact, I’ve seen a lot of houseless and low income people who depend on their pets.

00:09:19:02 – 00:09:34:13
Michelle Rivera
Their life is their pets. And so we are an organization that embraces that with compassion, nonjudgmental, and want to make sure that we’re here for everybody, for all the resources they need to not break that bond between the animal and human.

00:09:35:19 – 00:09:46:23
Ruth Baum Bigus
We’re talking with Michelle Rivera. She is the pet Resource Center of Kansas City. You mentioned you had recently gone through a name change. What was that process like and why did you do it?

00:09:47:03 – 00:10:07:26
Michelle Rivera
Yeah. So we’ve been called spay neuter Kansas City and that’s what we primarily primarily focused on, but then adding all those outreach resources and then starting to do low cost vaccinations. We heard over and over again, oh, you do that, too. All you do that, too. And so we knew, you know, spay neuter was not going to be enough.

00:10:07:26 – 00:10:33:20
Michelle Rivera
We had also seen such a reduction in pet overpopulation in Kansas City that by 2016, no more healthy, adoptable pets were being killed in our area shelters. So technically, I started off, you know, in a job or in an a mission to put myself out of business. But it’s really evolved past that where spay neuter just isn’t enough anymore.

00:10:33:21 – 00:10:45:28
Michelle Rivera
You’ve got to be able to provide a broad range of resources and support to your community for people to keep their pets healthy and keep them out of the shelters in the first place.

00:10:47:21 – 00:11:03:05
Ruth Baum Bigus
How did you come up with the name? Was it I always like to share with other nonprofit leaders, you know. Did you hire an outside firm? Was they pulling your team together or was it an epiphany moment? How did you land on it? It says it all. Yeah.

00:11:03:24 – 00:11:32:23
Michelle Rivera
It took years. We tested out Families Better Together program. Kind of tested that as our outreach program. It took years and nothing we settled on just felt like, Yeah, this is it, this is it. So we did go out to an outside marketing company who found us something within 30 days. They came in, they toured, they immerse themselves in our mission, and they came back with a few renderings and ideas.

00:11:32:23 – 00:11:42:20
Michelle Rivera
And when we saw the logo and Pet Resource Center of Kansas City, we fell in love. We just knew that was us. That was absolutely 100% us.

00:11:43:07 – 00:11:43:27
Ruth Baum Bigus
It clicked.

00:11:44:09 – 00:11:44:19
Michelle Rivera
Yeah.

00:11:46:02 – 00:11:51:12
Ruth Baum Bigus
So let’s let’s share with our audience all the things that you do. Do you still do some spay and neuter?

00:11:51:25 – 00:12:14:13
Michelle Rivera
Correct? Yeah. And yeah, we do spay neuter about 11,000 a year. And, you know, I’m amazed every time I go back into the spay neuter ward. Where are they coming from? They’re still coming. Every single day, about 70 surgeries a day. And then we do a wellness vaccination clinic. This is a drive up system that was invented during COVID.

00:12:14:13 – 00:12:38:19
Michelle Rivera
We have six lanes. It’s real easy. You stay in your car with your pet. The pets are less stressed. It’s a waiting process, but we serve over 100 pets a day in just vaccination and wellness. So, you know, it’s a busy, busy clinic, but everybody gets a high standard of care and the most affordable vaccinations and wellness care for their pets.

00:12:39:02 – 00:13:12:24
Michelle Rivera
We just launched an open, urgent care in June of 2022, have seen 3000 pets and expect that to double within the next year. We are expanding and opening starting a capital campaign to expand that clinic. This is a clinic that accepts pretty much everything across the board sick, injured, emergency surgery, trauma. It’s a it’s the only affordable and low cost urgent care facility in Kansas City for pets.

00:13:13:08 – 00:13:42:14
Michelle Rivera
We started rentals to help keep pets healthy. That’s one of the things that a lot of our lower income pet owners struggle with is you get an elderly pet and they end up with bad teeth. Very, very expensive to get that done. So we focus on those urgent cases of elderly pets who might have some bad teeth. And then we focus on salon wellness, keeping those teeth clean throughout so they don’t end up with any kind of dental disease.

00:13:42:28 – 00:14:03:26
Michelle Rivera
We have an outreach program and provide dog houses, leashes, collars, pet food, litter, any anything a family might need. It’s a program where they can come in once a month or twice a month to pick up some of the resources that they might need just to help support them along. They might be struggling to feed their own family.

00:14:03:26 – 00:14:34:13
Michelle Rivera
We don’t want them to relinquish their pet because they can’t afford to feed their pet. So we have about 700 families on that program. We also, due to COVID, expanded and went mobile. So we have several mobile units and we are out in the community doing vaccinations. We have a partnership, we call them sit in serves with several partners in the community like Westlake, for instance, will be out at Westlake every Wednesday in a different location of the city.

00:14:34:24 – 00:15:00:10
Michelle Rivera
We do curbside service for those that are shut in or without transportation, as well as doing drive thru clinics every other Saturday where we might see 150 to 200 pets in one single day. And then just recently working with K-State, they we are on their curriculum and they send students in to help us on those mobile efforts and to help our houseless population.

00:15:00:29 – 00:15:02:05
Ruth Baum Bigus
How big is your team?

00:15:03:13 – 00:15:13:00
Michelle Rivera
I think that’s it. We have about 51 employees. I have five full time veterinarians, nine relief veterinarians, and we have over 150 volunteers.

00:15:14:07 – 00:15:28:25
Ruth Baum Bigus
Wow. That’s just incredible. You mentioned this is affordable, so let’s just put it right out there. Yeah. What is pricing like compared to, let’s say, going to another regular vet?

00:15:29:03 – 00:16:00:18
Michelle Rivera
Sure. You know, there are some full service clinics in town that have very reasonable prices. Our prices range from 125 to 250. For spay neuter, let’s say a very large dog is going to cost 250 $300 here. It’s going to cost 600 to 800, possibly at a full service vet. Now, keep in mind, this business model and this approach is this is a price that is affordable to some, but not to everybody.

00:16:00:27 – 00:16:24:13
Michelle Rivera
So if what we do is encourage pet owners who can afford that to pay as much as they can towards the services, then that helps cover those who can’t. So we don’t turn anybody away. We use that financial approach, good customer service, value of services, and encourage people to pay as much as they can towards the services to help the next pet.

00:16:25:21 – 00:16:29:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
You mentioned those crucial volunteers. What role do they play for you?

00:16:30:09 – 00:16:56:19
Michelle Rivera
We allow our volunteers to do pretty much anything here and they are in the mornings. They’re helping us run pets in and out of vehicles. We have volunteers trained to be technicians in recovery and vaccination clinics. They go out on mobile clinics. They do a lot of preparations out of our clinics. They get things ready for a surgery team or for a food pantry.

00:16:57:00 – 00:17:16:08
Michelle Rivera
They help with administration. We have a lot of volunteers that come in and help with data entry, help with phones, just pretty much everything a lot of volunteers like. And enjoy our offsite clinics that are pretty much run by our volunteers as well as going out on outreach and going door to door.

00:17:17:04 – 00:17:22:14
Ruth Baum Bigus
Remind us, how many offsite clinics are those, those Wednesdays at a Westlake and things like that.

00:17:22:22 – 00:17:32:20
Michelle Rivera
Or drive thru in a large, large parking lot where like 150 to 200 cars may line up and then we usually have them through in about four or 5 hours.

00:17:34:06 – 00:17:37:08
Ruth Baum Bigus
How do you get the word out about what you do and what you offer?

00:17:38:06 – 00:18:11:04
Michelle Rivera
So our clientele is based about 80% on word of mouth. We work very, very hard on providing very good customer service and encourage people to tell others about us that along with some marketing into the communities working with neighborhood associations, those drive through clinics, social, social media and we get a lot of referrals from other clinics, shelters and those who are reaching the low income population that might need help.

00:18:11:05 – 00:18:32:21
Ruth Baum Bigus
Because you’re not sheltering these animals, you’re keeping them with their owners. How do you deal with folks who, while they own a pet, may not really know how to care for that animal? Is there a component to your programing that can kind of help steward them along?

00:18:33:27 – 00:18:56:13
Michelle Rivera
Yeah, absolutely. We ask. We actually love that. We occasionally get people that walk in and say, hey, I found this little kitten wandering down a street or a puppy or they took it. I really don’t know what to do. I don’t know if I should keep I don’t even know if I can afford it. So our team will sit down with them and talk to them about all of the resources and the needs that pet might need.

00:18:56:13 – 00:19:15:15
Michelle Rivera
And many times, especially in our kittens and puppies, we have the ability to set them up with a crate and and puppy food and everything they need for that first year of that puppy, making sure it gets its vaccinations and gets spayed or neutered early on so that they can continue to build that bond and keep that pet out of the shelter.

00:19:15:15 – 00:19:27:23
Michelle Rivera
But yeah, we we love to help people and overcome their fear or hesitations of keeping a pet just because they don’t think they can afford it. We always say, if you provide a love, we’ll help you with everything else.

00:19:28:19 – 00:19:39:10
Ruth Baum Bigus
Now what are great phrase? I love that. Yeah. What is the best way for people to find out all this information about what you provide or to volunteer to donate?

00:19:40:07 – 00:20:03:04
Michelle Rivera
Yeah, a lot of our information is on our website of course a PRC KC dot org. But we encourage walk in if you don’t if you want to know more about our programing, you just need to come in and talk to somebody. We’re at 59th interested. You can come in or you can call. We have seven call center representatives that can take your call and talk to you about all the resources that we have.

00:20:03:15 – 00:20:15:19
Ruth Baum Bigus
I want to go back again. You’ve got this huge breadth of services. Spay neuter food pantry on and on. How do you afford this? You do this.

00:20:16:14 – 00:20:50:21
Michelle Rivera
So 80% of our program’s financial revenue comes from what people pay towards the services. So, again, we empower all of our staff to work with everybody. We are a yes organization, even if it’s something we couldn’t do. All of our team make sure that we follow that person down to any referral that they get. So if we refer them out, we make sure that they get to the place that they need and that would be for, you know, something we can’t do in oncology or serious orthopedic issues or something just out of our realm.

00:20:51:18 – 00:21:22:29
Michelle Rivera
But otherwise we just work with every single person through the support of those who can pay for the services. So we tell a lot of people, you know, we’re open and supported because of you. So what you pay and the more you pay towards your pet is going to help other pets in the future. So it’s with that that we’re able to recycle into the I wouldn’t call it profits but because we’re covering our expenses were able to cover everybody across the board.

00:21:23:10 – 00:21:43:07
Michelle Rivera
Now if we were reliant on donations and grants, it might be a little bit more difficult to do that. I could see we’d be in a position where we might have to turn people away because we don’t have the funds, but we are really blessed and thankful to those pet owners who are paying for the full costs prices because they are helping those who can’t.

00:21:44:06 – 00:21:56:23
Ruth Baum Bigus
That’s an interesting model. Many nonprofits don’t operate that way. They’re more a 50 mix, you know, one or the other. I’m fascinated that you’re 80%. So the other 20%, though, where does that come from?

00:21:57:11 – 00:22:25:11
Michelle Rivera
That comes from donations, an annual event. We have an annual gala that brings in about 200,000, and then the rest comes from our donors. We do several appeals, and I think that’s been one of our biggest challenges. It feels like we’ve had to educate the public and our support team kind of on a one by one pace, because until people get in here and hear what we actually do, it’s hard to comprehend and understand what we actually do.

00:22:25:19 – 00:22:46:10
Michelle Rivera
A lot of people assume we’re a shelter because we’re working with animals or don’t understand all of the resources that we provide or that our mission is to actually keep those animals out of the shelter and in the homes with the owners who love them. I think we are also very blessed that we get to see 40,000 pets a year.

00:22:46:11 – 00:23:11:02
Michelle Rivera
These pet owners love their pets and we see that. And that’s a unique experience when you look at anybody on the other side of animal welfare or shelters, animal control, they come across, you know, animals that are abused, neglected owners who are wanting to give up their pets. And so you’re constantly bombarded with that negative side of animal welfare where you may not see the positive side.

00:23:11:02 – 00:23:29:26
Michelle Rivera
And that’s where we get to celebrate and see that positive side. Of course, we see the bad side, too, and have zero tolerance for that, have to work with animal control on some cases. But I’d say 99% of the animals in the pet owners we come across are very, very much love their pets and want to do the right thing.

00:23:31:16 – 00:23:45:29
Ruth Baum Bigus
How do you meet that challenge? You said it’s really getting the public to understand what you do. Hopefully this cast will help spread the word. But how are you trying to kind of change that narrative or, you know, knock down that wall?

00:23:46:08 – 00:24:23:12
Michelle Rivera
Yeah. With our clients, it’s been easy. That just word of mouth. People are telling others about our organization. We have a great reviews, great customer service, but on the donor side of it, yeah, it’s it’s really things like this your program right now that will help get the word out and giving people tours and talking to them just on how important our mission is to the future of keeping head of our population under control and keeping cats in their homes and, you know, my goal is that shelters, their cages, their spaces, their shelter is meant for animals who truly need to be there, not the ones that don’t.

00:24:23:12 – 00:24:40:10
Michelle Rivera
So if there is a resource and I am talking to pet deposit, behavioral, medical, whatever those things are, that’s what we want to be here for is to help those pet owners so they don’t have to break that bond with their pet.

00:24:41:03 – 00:24:51:06
Ruth Baum Bigus
You talked about your pet food pantry. So are you going out there and purchasing food or have you crafted arrangements with organizations? Yeah, we donate.

00:24:51:19 – 00:25:12:13
Michelle Rivera
Very fortunate to get in a steady stream of pet food donations from the general public, from other shelters. Amazon donates several pallets of food. And then we have other partners across the nation who may swing through Kansas City and drop off a semi full of food and then we also share that with rescue groups and others that need it.

00:25:13:24 – 00:25:36:25
Ruth Baum Bigus
We started our conversation about you sharing that you had been in a corporate job. Life had given you some changes that that you made that connection, that to help with you. How has being someone from the corporate setting aided you now in being a nonprofit leader for a number of years in an area you didn’t even ever think you’d probably be doing?

00:25:38:02 – 00:25:58:07
Michelle Rivera
Well, I am an entrepreneur at heart. Funny story. When I was in second grade, my teacher told my mom that I wanted to be a businesswoman and carry a briefcase and I guess that’s been my mission ever since. I’ve been in a lot of jobs where I’ve moved to the top or how to move on because I hit a wall.

00:25:58:17 – 00:26:24:06
Michelle Rivera
And then this passion of animals that I came to love at the shelter and then the entrepreneurship side of me, it just met both needs that I had at the time where I really wanted it for that shelter to be successful and I wanted to be successful making a difference in our community. I my first dog came from that shelter and she saved my life.

00:26:24:07 – 00:26:28:21
Michelle Rivera
She changed my life. And I think, sorry.

00:26:29:25 – 00:26:30:19
Ruth Baum Bigus
That’s okay.

00:26:31:02 – 00:27:02:09
Michelle Rivera
Remembering that that she truly saved my life. I wouldn’t be here today without her. I know that feeling. So I can relate to people who might be struggling. And the last thing I need to do is worry about their pet. They need their pet when they come home. They might be having a hardship that we can’t understand every day that they’re dealing with, whether it’s feeding their family, paying their bills, medical or health issues, that pet might be the only thing that’s keeping them alive.

00:27:02:11 – 00:27:20:24
Michelle Rivera
I’ve heard this story time and time again. I’ve been in households where that’s the case, and so I want to be here and leave a legacy for everybody to have access to all the resources they need to keep their pets healthy and and continue to keep that bond strong.

00:27:22:06 – 00:27:32:10
Ruth Baum Bigus
You know, only if they can talk to us. You know, they do talk to us. But if we could really, totally understand what they were saying, I think we probably get a lot of wisdom, don’t you?

00:27:32:15 – 00:27:57:23
Michelle Rivera
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We understand in our hearts they’re there for us. It’s an unconditional love. And I’m just. I wish we could bottle up what we see here and give it to everybody because it is amazing. You know, even yesterday I was struggling a little bit. Yesterday, all it took was for me to go out into the lobby and sit with some clients and talk to them.

00:27:57:23 – 00:28:20:15
Michelle Rivera
And it’s just it makes a world of difference to hear from them how important we are here, how important my staff is to them, and the services that we provide. And I don’t get many opportunities like this because we’re so busy to sit down and reflect on this. So thank you for this too. It’s very nice to reflect back and remind what we’re doing here.

00:28:20:22 – 00:28:29:22
Michelle Rivera
Despite the crazy chaos and the busyness every day, it’s nice to take it back and and understand the bigger picture here of what we’re doing.

00:28:31:00 – 00:28:52:15
Ruth Baum Bigus
And really see the mark that you’re leaving in Kansas City for people, you know, one people, one person at a time, you know. And that’s, I think, the joy of working in the nonprofit community. I’m sure there are times that are frustrating for all of us, but it’s you know, it’s that take that moment to breathe and look at what you’re doing and what you’re accomplishing and you’re accomplishing so much.

00:28:52:15 – 00:29:16:09
Ruth Baum Bigus
Michelle We’re so grateful that we’ve gotten to share this with our audience. It’s the Pet Resource Center of Kansas City. Check them out. They’re doing wonderful work. Thank you, Michel. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. For KC Cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice were produced by Charitable Communications, which is also a nonprofit. This KC Cares segment was brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

00:29:16:09 – 00:29:41:02
Ruth Baum Bigus
WW W document that or if you’d like to be a guest on KC Cares or underwriting opportunities, go check out our web site KC Cares online dot org and spread the love you’ll find us on Facebook and Twitter at KC Cares Radio and on Instagram at KC Cares online. Don’t forget, you can catch us Saturday mornings on ESPN 15:10 a.m. and 94.5 FM.

00:29:41:02 – 00:29:46:19
Ruth Baum Bigus
That’s at 8 a.m.. Thanks for joining us. And KC Cares.

 

Global One Urban Farming Anthony Nealy Discuss Kansas City Urban Gardens

Anthony Nealy | Co-Founder

Global One Urban Farming is a 501(c) (3) non-profit that produces and distributes free organic vegetables to seniors, veterans, and low-income families with the goal of raising health levels throughout Kansas City. Our team converts unused land into sustainable organic community vegetable gardens. We also have partnered with the Kansas City School District where we teach Urban Farming Clubs in schools here in Kansas City, Missouri.

visit them here: globalurbanfarming.org

 

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[Transcript]

00:00:05:06 – 00:00:29:02
Ruth Baum Bigus
Welcome to KC Cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice. We’re telling the stories of Kansas City nonprofits and the people behind them. KC Cares is the intersection of the nonprofit and profit communities making Kansas City a better place to live, work and play this. KC Care segment is brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. WW W.K. Coffman Dawg I’m respon biggest across the country.

00:00:29:02 – 00:00:54:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
Many folks think of the Midwest as the nation’s breadbasket with plenty of food for all. Yet here in the metro area, there are many folks who face food insecurity and many urban neighbors that are defined as living in food deserts where it’s difficult to buy affordable or good quality food. That means children, families, as well as seniors can’t get fresh fruit, vegetables and other wholesome foods.

00:00:54:29 – 00:01:21:17
Ruth Baum Bigus
The situation often leads to folks eating fast food and other cheaper items that lack nutritional value. These food deserts have bothered Anthony Neely, and together with his wife Star, the couple has been working hard to change the situation through their nonprofit Local One Urban farming. They have been hard at work creating their own Garden of Eden throughout the community, reclaiming land and growing produce and making a change.

00:01:21:17 – 00:01:25:15
Ruth Baum Bigus
And Anthony is with us today. It’s so great to have you all here.

00:01:25:16 – 00:01:29:13
Anthony Nealy
My pleasure, Ruth. Yeah, yes. Appreciate your happiness. On a day.

00:01:30:09 – 00:01:39:01
Ruth Baum Bigus
You have a very personal story to tell. I would love for you to go back and share where this whole idea really came from.

00:01:39:15 – 00:02:06:03
Anthony Nealy
Well, I. I just turned 63, and I grew up in Detroit. And in the sixties, practically everyone had a garden in the sixties and seventies. And my mom and dad moved us into our home after the 68 riot and moved us and mortgaged a new nice home with two extra locks. And I had a first time I had a tree house in our apple tree.

00:02:06:14 – 00:02:25:20
Anthony Nealy
And around 72, my mother looked at our yard. She said, Oh, we’re putting the garden in here. So I was the only son I have had older sister with six years apart. But at that time I was about 12, 13 years old and I had to learn how to clear that grass and level and and start putting my mother’s gardening in.

00:02:25:20 – 00:02:48:20
Anthony Nealy
So we did that for about 23, almost 30 years in Detroit. And and so I had natural skills from doing that for so long of of organic growing with the cow manure and we grew out our vegetable. She would she would blanch it, freeze and put the dates on our vegetables for the winter. She would put them in the freezer.

00:02:48:20 – 00:03:10:11
Anthony Nealy
So when Christmas came, we would be eating on our own green beans and and collard greens and she would put up squash and and freeze different things. And so I got married here. I came here, relocated in and met my wife. And we worked together. 1984, Brian and I proposed there, came back we got married in 2009 on Valentine’s Day.

00:03:10:11 – 00:03:26:06
Anthony Nealy
So our anniversary just passed. The other day had been 14 years now. And, and when we got to the first home she was in, she had a little garden in the backyard. And I was like, Oh, you little cute little tomato plants. I said, I know how to put in a garden because we had never talked about that.

00:03:26:06 – 00:03:47:00
Anthony Nealy
She was like, You did. I said, I want to go garden. And I said, Let’s find another house and and well, we move, I’ll put our garden here. So we ended up moving in and by 2010 I started putting our garden in and then our neighbor, we had a senior citizen next door. Her mother was and we asked her mother was, would you like a garden after she saw?

00:03:47:00 – 00:04:15:02
Anthony Nealy
And she said, Yeah, sure. So we had to put a garden in her yard and then we had a, a pastor church that we had joined and we offered a gift to them. So that was our third garden. I may have an acre. We started putting a garden in as a gift for our church. And, and so our tax person at the time was telling us he was like, well, we can get some of your money back because we were giving away food.

00:04:15:02 – 00:04:34:07
Anthony Nealy
And, you know, we buy two or 300 tomato plants, a plant and and our our tax person was like, well, we could retrieve some of that because you spending your money on it. And so he he retrieved some of it, but he said, well, you’re not going to always get your money back right when you do it. And this person said you should be a nonprofit.

00:04:34:07 – 00:04:59:04
Anthony Nealy
So he encouraged us to create this nonprofit and become a 5 to 1 three. So we went through the steps and we did and we’ve been established now going on almost eight years and we have four board members. And so we ended up having a blessing from one of the schools here, Dr. Pope, over a prayer. She saw what we was doing.

00:04:59:04 – 00:05:17:25
Anthony Nealy
She was like, well, you guys, we have a greenhouse here. Would you like to come over and see our greenhouse and maybe teach the kids? So we started going our son was going to that school at the time, and it was a middle school and it was called the George Washington Carver Greenhouse. So, oh, that’s where we practice and learn out of Germany and and produce our own plants.

00:05:17:25 – 00:05:44:25
Anthony Nealy
So we started producing 5000 tomato plants and bell pepper plants and stuff. And really and so it was a gentleman at city market, a local businessman. So heirloom tomatoes and plants. His name is a Fred mercenary, him and his wife. And and he would ask me one year he said, What are you doing? When I used to make the place because I got it to need about 500 plants, he said, Well, you know, you need to learn how to germinate.

00:05:44:25 – 00:06:04:29
Anthony Nealy
So if you come up to our farm and say, Joe, we’ll teach you in about three, 4 hours, almost 20 years of germination. And we went up and he told us and so my wife and I, we produce all of our plants and and currently we we teach at two schools and we are partnerships with the Kauffman School.

00:06:04:29 – 00:06:29:26
Anthony Nealy
We’re actually our son goes he’s 15 year old Kauffman student. They’re going to 11th grade. And we also teach at the KIPP Academy Real Learning Program. And so it’s for for us, you know, after the pandemic and inflation, you know, we’ve really seen how working class people with certain certain levels are still needing food. At the end of the month.

00:06:29:26 – 00:06:36:14
Anthony Nealy
They’re standing in line as single moms with their kids, and they don’t have enough money to make it through the month. So our.

00:06:36:14 – 00:06:37:23
Ruth Baum Bigus
Whole our whole.

00:06:38:15 – 00:07:02:20
Anthony Nealy
Purpose was was producing and distributing free to help raise our levels here in Kansas City, Missouri. And and so we are we purchase an acre from land bank. And it’s so happened the zip code is in a USDA food insecurity a zip code. And so they had one grocery store there. They had been there for maybe 50 years.

00:07:02:20 – 00:07:23:22
Anthony Nealy
And he and up close enough, he had financial issues and closes. So that’s not even a grocery store in miles radius of our community garden. So we’ve become to be very essential to produce and food and help with folks when they need them and teaching people that it’s really simple. You know, you can simplify growing. It’s not it’s not really hard.

00:07:23:22 – 00:07:40:17
Anthony Nealy
You know, you just have to you have to have the initiative. So we’re trying to enlighten people that, hey, you know, you can just grow your backyard to grow in a new fabric bags and and once you plant a seed and water it, that’s basically, you know, it’s not a lot of maintenance to it. So I mean, because to be other things, you need to learn.

00:07:40:17 – 00:08:03:04
Anthony Nealy
But we just try to let folks know if you have a backyard, you can grow some of the food that you need, you know, and and so I love doing it. My wife, she grew up loving tomatoes and her grandmother worked and retired from our house here. And she said when she was a little girl, she used to tell her, don’t you eat all of these tomatoes we just bought?

00:08:03:04 – 00:08:27:13
Anthony Nealy
And she said she would eat them and then her grandmamma would say, Stick your tongue out, let me see your tongue. And and the acid from it was shown and she ate too many because, you know, you get a little white little acid bone for your tongue. And I thought that was so funny. And and so now we grow a lot of heirloom tomatoes and and and fresh vegetables and leafy stuff and your regular your spinach and your green beans and and and we love doing it.

00:08:27:13 – 00:08:39:07
Anthony Nealy
So, you know, it’s it’s not even work for us. You know, we’ve been doing this almost eight years consistently. We haven’t let a year ago by you know, we don’t grow and give away. So so yeah. That’s global one urban farming. Yes, ma’am.

00:08:40:22 – 00:09:03:08
Ruth Baum Bigus
Well, you make it sound so easy. I’m sure this journey was not that easy. So it really did start from your own growing up and and having a garden all your life and then, you know, kind of paying it forward. What were you doing before this? I mean, you know, I’m sure this takes a lot of your time now, but can you give us a little background of what you were doing before?

00:09:03:08 – 00:09:03:20
Ruth Baum Bigus
And you.

00:09:03:26 – 00:09:35:08
Anthony Nealy
Yeah, I, I love going to a pro computer program in school and making before I relocated here and got state certified. And I ended up doing data entry, medical billing, call center work sales. And in the early nineties when it was really just a started you know it wasn’t a lot of me and call center and data entry work at that time so I was kind it was kind of unique for me and be the first time I was the first in my family to start really delving into computers.

00:09:35:08 – 00:09:59:19
Anthony Nealy
And, and so I did that for years. And my wife, she oh, she started out as building trade when she was 18. She ah well her, her story so unique to, I mean it was amazing when she was well my wife, Star Wars was 16, she was she stayed with her grandmother. Her and her sisters were raised by her grandmother, but she wanted to be independent.

00:09:59:19 – 00:10:24:09
Anthony Nealy
So her grandmother had her do the paperwork to emancipate herself at 16, to be independent. And so they did the paperwork. She went through it and became independent. And moved to a place that helped her go to school and and and housed her and she and I’m going to build a trade school. And in 1819, she was doing bridge work, building, trade, carpentry.

00:10:24:16 – 00:10:55:17
Anthony Nealy
And that’s what she did at 1819. I’ve independence. So so that was that was amazing. And through the years she’s she’s I went back to school for massage therapy. So she’s been a licensed therapist almost 15 years now as well. And, and so the holistic side of that, well, we started learning, you know, of getting more we’re trying to get more away from pharmaceutical healing and into holistic healing and knowing what you should eat to balance out things in your body and stuff, it just became to be amazing to us.

00:10:55:17 – 00:11:30:11
Anthony Nealy
And so it’s become a passion for us. As she still offers our corporate a table chair massages, we’re going to clue that to our community garden actually starting in April and we’re sending it up there. Well, we have a couple of therapies there. They’ll take appointments and be able to offer chair massages here for particular. But, you know, it’s like I mean, I know the medical field is here to help, but the the the holistic side is really if you don’t if you don’t have the initiative to learn yourself, they don’t really teach you because they make so much money off of pharmaceutical you.

00:11:30:11 – 00:11:48:09
Anthony Nealy
They don’t want to tell you, oh, don’t take the information pill, drink some cherry juice. You know, they just and I’ll tell you, they don’t tell you where you like. I didn’t know I have I have a degenerative form of arthritis in my joints, so I’ve had both my joints replaced and both of my shoulders need to be replaced.

00:11:48:09 – 00:12:17:05
Anthony Nealy
And I’m having a knee surgery to replace on my left me actually next month because you know my joints go bone on bone. So what happens is you know, you get inflammation something you can ice it but they give you medicine. But by me marrying a woman who’s who also studied the holistic side of it, I’ve learned that certain things like just putting them aside is on direct joy bones in Lester, Lester blood flow.

00:12:17:05 – 00:12:44:00
Anthony Nealy
And it takes the stiffness out and not the motor. And just a massage, just a deep tissue massage helps that arthritis. So things like that, you know, we like sharing and helping people understand because a lot of people, they just don’t know. They think a massage is a is a thing for, you know, it’s almost like, you know, some extra just some extra social type or extra, you know, just is really is is really needed.

00:12:44:01 – 00:13:02:09
Anthony Nealy
You know, most people can’t afford it, so they have to learn, you know, well, how can I know? How can I’m assassinated? Because, you know, your muscles get to you figure people going their whole life without a mustache and don’t know that the tense muscle, the no flow of of the blood and the muscle, it creates problems. It puts pressure on nerves.

00:13:02:09 – 00:13:23:21
Anthony Nealy
It makes other places hard that you don’t even know is stiff here, but it’s making the right side. I mean, so much stuff is connected to to that. And not knowing that is, you know, people always turn to pharmaceutical, but it’s holistic ways of of helping yourself. And it comes to food and just just something out of me to to to run off, but just something like a Google Earth.

00:13:24:05 – 00:13:35:03
Anthony Nealy
A Google of lettuce. While lettuce spikes three cancers and starts to aging a brain sales who I’ve never nobody’s ever told me that. I mean, you know who says that?

00:13:35:03 – 00:13:36:28
Ruth Baum Bigus
I just I.

00:13:36:28 – 00:13:55:07
Anthony Nealy
Mean, you Google it, they learn it for yourself. But no one no one never makes it, you know. And and so so is is is is really a big thing. And they’re like you were saying, you know, as in in the USDA food insecurity community is, you know, people the less money they have, the cheaper products they buy.

00:13:55:07 – 00:14:13:24
Anthony Nealy
That’s just does just how it goes. And that means that you’re eating less healthier foods and you’re not able to go to Whole Foods and buy the organic stuff. You can’t afford it. You know, you might not be in a for a care except in the end of the end of the month and brussel sprouts and red onions and garlic.

00:14:13:24 – 00:14:23:17
Anthony Nealy
And people just some people can’t if they can’t afford it, you know, and the things that they need to eat. So we we try to help, you know, let people know with some of those things you don’t have to buy, you can grow.

00:14:24:00 – 00:14:40:26
Ruth Baum Bigus
So I love that you have chair massage when people are working in a garden. I would think you might need that. When you’re down in the dirt and you’re toiling and you’re picking and you’re putting in in all kinds of I was going to say manure. I didn’t want to use that. But, you know, you’re fertilizing your fertilizer.

00:14:40:26 – 00:15:03:21
Ruth Baum Bigus
Scott, can you talk a little bit about your growth process to do this? I a lot of nonprofits, you know, say we’ve got this great idea and we’ve started it at X or Y place, but now what do we do? So how did you all kind of maneuver growing urban urban farming?

00:15:04:06 – 00:15:27:11
Anthony Nealy
Well, we were blessed to first have a veteran, a county that we would refer to, 40 year veteran. So he guided us through knowing how to do the paperwork correctly. And then when it came to registering a nonprofit, I mean, some things if you can’t, you should pay for. I mean, you’re not we’re not experts on everything. We are smart, but we’re not experts on everything.

00:15:27:11 – 00:15:46:02
Anthony Nealy
So just this, even though the application for the fiber 1c3 stat is that you have to fill out for the IRS. It’s pretty it’s pretty extensive, you know, so we end up paying a person that had been doing it for years and that was their profession. And and I mean, it was like 600 bucks, but it’s worth it.

00:15:46:02 – 00:16:11:22
Anthony Nealy
I mean, you know, we didn’t have to worry about the paperwork. We got approved in less than 90 days because if you put an application wrong, they sent it back, you know, it could prolong you getting your final C3 status. So if you can’t, it’s best to to give people or your team or to be able to pay for the service for that and and once we got approved, we we started trying to get folks to help us with grants and all that.

00:16:11:22 – 00:16:44:18
Anthony Nealy
But the more you can learn yourself, the better. The more you can study and understand. The proper way to do your grants is fine. I mean, this is good. It’s good to have people with seniority to help you. But, you know, you should you should have a good understanding of it yourself. And and and so we we went from there and and I ended up working I was doing temp service for me and I ended up working at Unite Services here and helping folks a day and take applications for help for their rent and utility bills.

00:16:44:28 – 00:17:02:13
Anthony Nealy
And I ended up meeting a grant writer for that organization, and he took a liking to us and he looked at what we were doing. And about five years ago and he was like, listen, I’m about to retire. I’ll bring you all as a project when I finish. I want to help you guys show you how to show you how to do your grants, and I’ll help you the first year, too.

00:17:02:13 – 00:17:28:02
Anthony Nealy
So, you know, you have to you go through your he accounts here in Missouri, only four board members. So, you know, you get your board members, you get your application for you for one seat three are submitted. You got to have your you got to set your mission statement up, your purpose of your company, all that should be on paper and most people don’t know you should set your first year to budget up on spreadsheets.

00:17:28:02 – 00:17:45:12
Anthony Nealy
You shouldn’t even hesitate. You know anything that you need, put it on the line, put it on your mind, what you’re going to need, you know. And and once you set that up, you kind of can get help from me because there’s a lot of professionals out. And once you get your basic going and if you got a passion for the you know, you just don’t stop.

00:17:45:12 – 00:17:49:01
Anthony Nealy
You know, you just you just you continue till you get it right.

00:17:49:01 – 00:17:52:27
Ruth Baum Bigus
So how many gardens do you have now?

00:17:53:15 – 00:18:33:11
Anthony Nealy
We are we currently have a home garden in a greenhouse and then we have a 20 by 50 greenhouse on an acre owned by our neighbors associates. So currently we have the two gardens and the garden and via our neighbor association is about 46,000 square feet. So we’re a couple of thousand feet over acre. And and so we grew on there and we’ve had these community gardeners partners and you and K.C. and rockers, they’ve came out and help and we’ve put all our grow boxes in and and had help with our greenhouses 20 by 50, green house, hoop house.

00:18:33:11 – 00:18:57:22
Anthony Nealy
And and so, you know, we grow on the ground. We plow until and actually spring is in here now because once you get into April, if you can look ahead two or three weeks without don’t see any frost at night, you can start planning. So April is when you start going outside in the ground you know and and put your CS in and some in your plants and stuff all seeds can go on the ground just about in April.

00:18:58:00 – 00:19:01:27
Anthony Nealy
And so yeah. So we are we getting ready for that again this year?

00:19:01:27 – 00:19:09:26
Ruth Baum Bigus
So who’s the manpower and the woman power? Is it just you and start or are we helpers?

00:19:09:26 – 00:19:44:14
Anthony Nealy
Well, we have we got four board members, but we’ve got blessed to have great partnerships, like I said, with you and KC and they come out in the spring, they bring about 20 folks, 20 volunteers are students, and they come on and help. When we start planning and needing work done and move a sort of self around and then Rockhurst also have coming to us for a partnership and now we’re setting up what is our new program, which is Kassie Community, which is global one urban farming community garden youth jobs program.

00:19:44:14 – 00:20:04:16
Anthony Nealy
So we’re going to start giving we’re going to start giving the high schoolers that we work with a chance to come work and learn and get a stipend check for coming to work at Community Garden. So we’re getting more help now. Me and my wife used to try and do everything and we really realized when you started and you know, it’s a lot like a two acre.

00:20:04:16 – 00:20:17:07
Anthony Nealy
You get like you can’t do everything yourself. So we’re a we’re getting blessed to if you get volunteer help. And then like I said, we’re going to start the new job program this spring and paying our high schoolers to come work work at the community garden.

00:20:17:07 – 00:20:43:10
Ruth Baum Bigus
So smart. Mayor, we’re talking with Anthony Neeley. He is the co-founder of Global One Urban Farming. They’re hard at work trying to change the situation in our own community with urban deserts and really helping folks who may face food insecurity, get nutritional food using their own kind of labor or the the help from others. Did I did I sum it up pretty well help from other folks, too?

00:20:43:20 – 00:20:59:10
Anthony Nealy
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The community, they love coming out with the kids and folks like to come and learn. And like I said, we distribute the food free. So we all we always sell the products, everything we grow, we, we we distribute free. They help the community. So yeah, it’s fun.

00:21:00:26 – 00:21:09:07
Ruth Baum Bigus
Now when you do distribution, is it as food is ready or do you have like certain days of the week or times of the month that you make it available?

00:21:09:13 – 00:21:22:06
Anthony Nealy
Yes, according to the harvest time, whatever the product is. And and we have folks come out on Saturdays and food a week and it’s said days up and they can come on and pick up vegetables. So yeah, we have a fun with that.

00:21:23:07 – 00:21:32:06
Ruth Baum Bigus
What has been the greatest challenge as you’ve built this organization from your own backyard to where you are today?

00:21:33:19 – 00:21:59:20
Anthony Nealy
Well, at first it was finding the land. You know, you do have some issues dealing with dealing with the county and city and trying to purchase large amounts of land. I mean, you can get smaller lots and stuff. But what we came to find out is once you start growing, you really want to help people. You run out of space quick.

00:21:59:28 – 00:22:18:16
Anthony Nealy
You know, you can have a lot next door to your house. And once you fill that up, you look up and well, I want to parent some more but don’t have any more room. So getting them out to about a room, we’re trying to look for another acre now and purchase to it to be able to produce more.

00:22:18:16 – 00:22:44:14
Anthony Nealy
So getting the land first, finding your A location first. If, if, if, if you don’t have it and and secondly, it probably would just be the grant writing because mountains out of ten most people he’s trying to grow they kind of already know how to grow. If they trying to start a nonprofit, most people don’t start. And when you’ve talked about gardening, you probably have some skills in gardening.

00:22:44:14 – 00:23:02:07
Anthony Nealy
So that’s not a problem. But the other the other thing is learning how to do the grants and getting to the right category so you can get grant approval. And and so because, you know, you start off, you spend a lot of your personal money, you know, trying to trying to get established. And that’s what we were going through.

00:23:02:07 – 00:23:24:21
Anthony Nealy
My wife was at Ford Motor Company at that time, and I was doing counseling at work. And and yeah, we we use our money a lot of through the years buying everything and and so getting funded, making sure if you could possibly find a good grant writer straight off of the soon as you’re getting started, get somebody to show you how to do grants and try to get some grants approved at first year two.

00:23:24:21 – 00:23:30:05
Anthony Nealy
And so you can have some funding for what you want to do. You know.

00:23:30:05 – 00:23:40:00
Ruth Baum Bigus
So that’s a great Segway because I know that you guys do some fundraising and you have some fun things coming up. Can you talk a little bit about the kind of events you do to help?

00:23:40:13 – 00:24:02:28
Anthony Nealy
Yeah, yeah. We are where you start when you have a nonprofit and you get grant funding and donations, you still expected to devise a way or create a way to create your own revenue, some type of you know, some people say, okay, some people, you know, make things and give away and and if you find ways to to try and make some money.

00:24:02:28 – 00:24:29:22
Anthony Nealy
So we are we have started our fundraisers this year. They got approved through the downtown City Hall Tourism Department, and they had us in a meeting and like what we were about to do. And I was raised as a drummer and my dad was a jazz drummer, and he paid off the sticks down to me and sent me to private school back then, and I had to learn how to read and play.

00:24:29:22 – 00:24:49:09
Anthony Nealy
And I played the Kettle Drums and Tiffany’s and and I was playing a jazz bass line. I couldn’t even I wasn’t old enough to even buy liquor, but I was like 18 playing in bands and stuff. And, and so I figured, I said, Well, let’s offer some entertainment for our fundraisers. And we’ve kind of put on what is called jazz in the garden.

00:24:49:24 – 00:25:12:18
Anthony Nealy
And so we’re going to still have a lot of jazz bands playing local recording artist playing at our fundraisers. And we’re going to offer a, of course, Kansas City barbecue. And then my wife is setting up the corporate chair massage just a two minute, 12 minute chair massage. And that’s all going to be our fund raiser to four times a year right now to help raise money for our organization.

00:25:12:18 – 00:25:32:24
Anthony Nealy
Yeah. So we’ll we’ll be posting that is actually on Facebook already and tickets are on sale for the first event which is April 8th. And we started. Yeah, but it’s called Jazz in the garden and the tourist department downtown is supporting us and we’re excited about that. And so that’s our first fund raiser. BE April 8th.

00:25:33:14 – 00:25:37:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
How great. Where’s the best place for people to find out information.

00:25:37:26 – 00:26:04:23
Anthony Nealy
Are on our Facebook page global on our farm on Facebook and we’ve got the tickets on sale through Eventbrite so they can purchase day tickets online or pay at the gate and any questions. The phone numbers are there as well. They can call us if they need anything. So yeah, yeah. So our events are actually we set the date for April 8th, June two, and then will be September 3rd and October 7th.

00:26:04:24 – 00:26:08:10
Anthony Nealy
So all four dates are already set. So we’ll have those out there as well.

00:26:09:18 – 00:26:18:22
Ruth Baum Bigus
You’re doing amazing work. You’re growing what’s what’s the best crop besides volunteers you to figure out how to plant those. Right.

00:26:19:09 – 00:26:45:10
Anthony Nealy
Well, you know, you’d be surprised. Real easy to grow green beans. You plan them, you water, they bush up, you pick them your your bell peppers. You know, those are sturdy, strong plants. You know, some of what you put your favorite plants in there, no major storm and and then early spring you do your leafy stuff but your your leafy stuff there’s really no maintenance to them.

00:26:45:10 – 00:27:04:21
Anthony Nealy
Your spinach, your frugal love, your cabbage, your mustard greens, your collard greens, your Swiss chard. I mean, is really if you got a sunny area once you planted the water and gave good Mother Nature takes care of the ridge, all you got to do is keep it watered.

00:27:04:21 – 00:27:13:06
Ruth Baum Bigus
And you build you build it up as opposed to down where some of our little friendly, fuzzy friends can get to it easily. Right?

00:27:13:06 – 00:27:37:24
Anthony Nealy
Yeah. Yeah. We haven’t had too many problems with small m we had a couple of, we had like three beers recently. So we’re fencing in the fence and fencing in the acre and but I mean, you know, you don’t have too many problems with animals. There’s some stuff you can you can put around your plants, actually determine certain herbs and stuff and and depending upon it is a can or a we women haven’t had any problem.

00:27:37:24 – 00:27:42:02
Anthony Nealy
I’ve never had problems with with critters here.

00:27:42:02 – 00:27:49:25
Ruth Baum Bigus
Well, that’s a good thing. I know a lot of people who complain about that, but you must have the magic mojo. Just keep them.

00:27:49:25 – 00:27:52:06
Anthony Nealy
Away. Yeah.

00:27:52:06 – 00:27:59:14
Ruth Baum Bigus
We want to tell our audience it’s global urban farming and its website is global one.

00:27:59:27 – 00:28:06:14
Anthony Nealy
Urban farming. And that’s global one urban farming dot org.

00:28:07:05 – 00:28:09:04
Ruth Baum Bigus
Perfect. And can you use volunteers?

00:28:09:16 – 00:28:28:27
Anthony Nealy
Yes. Yes, definitely. Anyone contact us? Well, let them know. The days of time is going to be a lo this next few weeks going into March, you know. So I’ll get to be a rainy season. And but do you figure going into April we’ll start doing a lot of outdoor planning and tilling and plowing. So yeah, this month, March and April.

00:28:29:04 – 00:28:30:18
Anthony Nealy
Yeah, we could definitely use some help.

00:28:31:22 – 00:28:37:26
Ruth Baum Bigus
Lend them a hand. They’re doing great things in our community. Anthony, thank you so much for sharing what you’re all about.

00:28:38:04 – 00:28:41:03
Anthony Nealy
Share, share. Thank you so much. We appreciate you having us.

00:28:41:17 – 00:29:03:14
Ruth Baum Bigus
Thank you for joining us. For KC Care’s Kansas City’s nonprofit voice, we’re produced by a nonprofit Sharable Communications. This KC Cares segment was brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. W WW dot Coffman Dawg. If you’d like to be a guest on KC Cares or underwriting opportunities, visit our Web site KC Cares online talk and spread the love.

00:29:03:14 – 00:29:22:25
Ruth Baum Bigus
You’ll find us on Facebook and Twitter at KC Cares Radio and on Instagram at KC Cares online. Don’t forget, you can catch us Saturday mornings at 8 p.m. on ESP and 1510 and 94.5 FM. When you’re out in the garden, you can listen and thanks for joining us and KC Cares.

 

 

Chris Rosson CEO United Way Discusses 2023 Initiatives

Chris Rosson | CEO & President

The United Ways mission has always been to mobilize our city’s collective generosity, because we know there’s strength in numbers. They work together with hundreds of nonprofits across our six-county region and help 1 in 3 Kansas Citians gain access to health, education and financial resources. United Way connects those who want to be catalysts for change with causes that change our community for the better. The Waymakers make this possible.

visit them here: https://www.unitedwaygkc.org/

 

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[Transcript]

00:00:00:19 – 00:00:22:18
Ruth Baum Bigus
Welcome to KC Cares. Kansas City’s nonprofit voice were telling the stories of Kansas City nonprofits and the people behind them. KC Cares is the intersection of a profit and nonprofit communities making Kansas City a better place to live, work and play. The segment is brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. W.W. Kauffman dot org. I’m responding as well.

00:00:23:05 – 00:00:50:19
Ruth Baum Bigus
It was pre-pandemic when we first encountered our dynamic guest today. He was leading Teach for America here in Kansas City, being innovative, bringing equity across the educational environment in the in the entire metro. Then an opportunity came and Chris Ross couldn’t resist. It was come to United Way and we got to talk to Chris. And it was pandemic and it was crazy.

00:00:50:19 – 00:01:07:21
Ruth Baum Bigus
And we were on Zoom and it was just amazing. We could even get connected. But here we are. You’ve been here a little bit of the way for a while. Let’s talk about the Mr. Changemaker and Mr. Innovator. Bring us up to speed on all things United Way.

00:01:08:12 – 00:01:35:14
Chris Rossen
Well, first off, thanks for having me, Ruth. I always love getting the opportunity to talk with you and talk about all things change and possibility in our community. We have been busy. You know, you’re right that I arrived at, I think, a very opportune time as what I would say. You know, I think collectively, the pandemic and the racial reckoning and everything that we saw happening over the last 24 months plus really sort of called upon all of us to recognize that we needed to think about things differently.

00:01:35:14 – 00:01:57:20
Chris Rossen
We need to do things differently, and we need to be more responsive and agile to what we’re now. Community needs that could change on a dime. And I think one thing that became very clear to us was that we needed to find a way to galvanize around community needs issues in a more collaborative way, but also to make resources available and more and more reactive to how community need is changing in real time.

00:01:58:05 – 00:02:20:21
Chris Rossen
And so we’ve done a few things. We have launched our new primary grantmaking channel, which is Impact 100. And so it is a collection of organizations where every year we identify 100 organizations in our community, nonprofit organizations that we believe are driving the highest impact against where community need lives today, right now in real time. And we know that’s ever changing.

00:02:21:03 – 00:02:48:10
Chris Rossen
And so that’s an annual cycle. We publish an annual list, and we take it very seriously. It’s a very rigorous effort on our part, and we believe it’s a really reflective list of of organizations that are driving impact. The second thing is, of course, in two in one, we just during the pandemic, we really found two and one to be that almost like the canary in the coal mine where we were able to see community needs spike in certain areas in particular around housing insecurity and food insecurity.

00:02:48:14 – 00:03:13:18
Chris Rossen
I think the last time we talked, which I shared, that while there were lots of resources and efforts being put into the here and now pandemic response, that I had a real concern and we were monitoring sort of the long tail implication of COVID and what that would do in our community. And that’s certainly something that we’ve been able to leverage two and one to mine for data, to see how those trends are emerging, to see how they change, and to make sure that we’re getting out in front as much as possible in our community.

00:03:14:09 – 00:03:34:08
Chris Rossen
And then with that, you know, we’ve taken on and continued on with a few strategic initiatives, including a very large one around eviction. And so eviction prevention initiative that’s been going on for for for nearly two years now. And again, tied to sort of pandemic related effects that we continue to monitor and make sure that we’re addressing holistically as a community.

00:03:34:23 – 00:03:43:23
Ruth Baum Bigus
Impact 100. Talk about the nuts and bolts of that and how those different nonprofits were chosen and why they were chosen.

00:03:44:12 – 00:04:21:07
Chris Rossen
Well, so we have for quite a while continue to focus on the issues of health, education and income, financial stability, really as key drivers and transforming lives throughout our community. And that has been the case for some time. However, from a grantmaking standpoint, we intended to go toward longer term grants. And I think, again, just looking at the pandemic and looking at how quickly community need changed and shifted overnight, I just felt it was very important for us as an organization to be agile in our response and to be nimble when it came to addressing those needs and to really take a stance of rigor and really in some ways be a bellwether to the

00:04:21:07 – 00:04:40:23
Chris Rossen
community about organizations that are driving impact. It is a big, difficult task. You know, I think we talked before and I had shared that over the last ten years we’ve grown in our region from 500 registered nonprofits to over 10,000 that is a monumental amount of huge continues to to increase. People are finding all sorts of ways to get connected to causes.

00:04:40:23 – 00:05:04:01
Chris Rossen
And people are starting new organizations all the time and I think, you know, for us as an organization became very important to make sure that we were still being that bellwether in our community of organizations that were really high, high, high impact, really rigorous about outcomes and really driving a meaningful, measurable difference against those those those points of data that we look at in those areas of health, education and income.

00:05:04:01 – 00:05:21:21
Chris Rossen
And so it is a it’s a it’s a rigorous process. We accept applications widely. We encourage organizations to apply. If you’re if there’s somebody listening in their organization that would consider applying, they should do so. We we’re about to launch or announce our latest list here in in the spring summer timeframe. And so be on the lookout for that.

00:05:21:21 – 00:05:41:15
Chris Rossen
But it is, I think for us, an ability to not only drive dollars to those organizations, but to draw eyeballs, attention, volunteerism, awareness of some of these organizations. And again, when you look at that list, you will find organizations on that list that are household names that people would know. And you’ll find a whole host of organizations that you never heard of and you had no idea existed.

00:05:41:15 – 00:05:45:01
Chris Rossen
But are really driving incredible outcomes are in our community.

00:05:45:03 – 00:05:50:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
So if you made the impact 100 the first time around, you are not precluded from reapplying.

00:05:50:17 – 00:06:06:13
Chris Rossen
No, not at all. You’re not you’re not you’re not precluded from from applying. You can you can certainly apply again. But but there’s no guarantee that you’ll make it back on that list. Right. It is it is a dynamic list and it is really rooted in and where community need lives at this moment in time.

00:06:07:05 – 00:06:25:13
Ruth Baum Bigus
I know one thing we talked about the first time we had a conversation when you started at the very beginning of United Way, I said to you, there are some organizations that say, Oh, my United Way, Grant, it’s so long. It takes me forever. How have you addressed that? Is have things changed there?

00:06:25:22 – 00:06:54:23
Chris Rossen
Yeah, they have. You know, we really streamlined the application process for funds like Impact 100. We’ve taken a we’ve committed as far as I’m aware, we’re the largest and the first major philanthropic entity here in Kansas City. And a big funder to completely adopt the trust based philanthropy principles. And so, you know, when we part of that is ensuring that we have a low barrier to entry in terms of access, that we’re not making that process extra cumbersome on folks that are already doing great, meaningful work.

00:06:54:23 – 00:07:14:13
Chris Rossen
We want I want I want organizations that are applying for funding and applying to partner with us to spend as much effort as possible driving mission and as little effort as, as as required doing administrative tasks like applying for these sorts of things. And so we do try to make it streamlined and easy, but we do take a high bar in terms of the types of quality of inputs that we get from from that process.

00:07:14:13 – 00:07:25:07
Chris Rossen
But that was definitely a point of feedback that I heard that I wanted to address and something that, you know, as somebody who ran an organization that would have been eligible for funding like that in the past, it was important for me to make sure that that was a streamlined process as well.

00:07:25:19 – 00:07:30:21
Ruth Baum Bigus
Trust based philanthropy. I’m not sure I’ve heard that buzzing out there. How would you define that?

00:07:31:06 – 00:07:58:08
Chris Rossen
Well, I think trust based philanthropy really puts the ownership on the grant maker to take a rigorous stance in looking into what makes an organization tick, what’s driving their mission, and to really be relational, I think more than anything, it is it is acknowledging that there’s an inherent power dynamic at play when there’s somebody holding on to funding and somebody who’s requesting funding, and it’s acknowledging both the complexities and the dynamics of that while simultaneously saying, we’re partners in this.

00:07:58:08 – 00:08:27:02
Chris Rossen
You know, and and the expectations not that the organization’s perfect, the expectations that the organization’s making progress on an ongoing basis, and that we’re really partners in that we’re coaches in that provide feedback, we provide connection, and we provide opportunities to get funding, but not in a way that is punitive or or overly rigorous. It is it’s intended to make the funding accessible and the partnership really a true comprehensive partnership.

00:08:27:07 – 00:08:52:18
Ruth Baum Bigus
That’s see change. That’s really see change. I think for folks who maybe have been in this community and used to the old way of doing things that United Way versus the New Way, collaboration is huge. You’re a collaborator, you’ve got lots of energy. That’s kind of your vision. So how have you been able as your leading United Way, to bring that in and move things forward?

00:08:53:10 – 00:09:10:02
Chris Rossen
Well, you know, it’s in our name, United Way, right? You know, I think about I was at the Chiefs game. You know, we got the we got the the the a lot of excitement around here around the Chiefs. And, you know, I think about the fact that how powerful we are as a as a as a crowd and how involved we get into the game.

00:09:10:02 – 00:09:27:13
Chris Rossen
And we all elevate our voices together. And so collaboration is absolutely critical if you’re trying to move something at scale and with the types of challenges where we’re taking on and really transforming the community by transforming individual lives and the lives of families in our community that that are facing hardship, that takes it that takes a community effort.

00:09:27:13 – 00:09:44:04
Chris Rossen
It really takes a village. And so a lot of our efforts are rooted in not the transactional, just sort of here’s here’s some funding go do with it, but really getting grounded together in the in the challenges, getting grounded together in the solutions and and bringing all perspectives and voices to the table to try to address those.

00:09:44:18 – 00:10:10:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
What you mentioned, the issue of housing, unhoused people who face temporary housing, etc.. How do you how do you do that? It’s such a big challenge and it’s across ages, too. I think that sometimes people don’t realize it’s just, you know, families with children or a single. I’ve now been hearing about terrible issues with older adults who can’t find affordable housing.

00:10:10:21 – 00:10:14:03
Ruth Baum Bigus
So how do you tackle that huge issue?

00:10:14:10 – 00:10:44:10
Chris Rossen
Yeah, it is a huge issue. And it’s and it’s one of those things we talked about the long tail implication of of COVID. It’s one of those things that we were early on just sort of aware of. We were getting an influx of calls and two and one that were and we still today today right now, today, we get over 100 calls a day from families who are facing facing housing insecurity, families who are somewhere in either the eviction process or recognize that they can’t pay their bills and and are in a situation where they really need some support and some help.

00:10:45:16 – 00:11:12:11
Chris Rossen
To this point about collaboration, we’ve taken a collaborative approach to addressing that and a proactive approach addressing that. We worked with a variety of legal aid partners, both at U-M KC Law School, as well as the Heartland Center and as well as of about 30 or so social service agencies throughout the community. And collectively, we’ve been able to advocate for around $25 million in both federal resources, as well as pooling private resources together and taking on what we call the Eviction Prevention Initiative.

00:11:13:04 – 00:11:33:10
Chris Rossen
And it’s really trying to address the issue of homelessness and housing insecurity before a family is facing eviction, before a family being kicked out of their homes and and having to, you know, look to a shelter which are already already facing really constraints. And I’m pleased to say that through that effort, in some cases, we’re paying back rent.

00:11:33:10 – 00:11:57:13
Chris Rossen
In some cases, we’re helping people get up to up to a current on their utility payments. In other cases, we’re really standing with them in the courts process and we’re representing them through legal aid in the in the eviction courts process itself. And I’m proud to say that over that last 24 months, we’ve supported 75,000 people, kept them out of homelessness, 25,000 families, 75,000 individuals in our community.

00:11:57:16 – 00:12:19:13
Chris Rossen
I think, as you said, I think there’s a misnomer and a misperception that folks that are facing that these are folks that are maybe unemployed or or facing other sorts of situations, but know what we’re seeing. But with with with inflation and with other things, we’re seeing that actually about half of the folks that are coming to us from court making those calls, these are folks, working people who are employed, who are really doing the best they can.

00:12:19:13 – 00:12:30:13
Chris Rossen
They’re resilient and they just need some support from their neighbors. And I’m just really glad that, you know, that way we get to be able to provide that support and be that that friendly, helping face whenever that whenever they face that moment of hardship.

00:12:31:11 – 00:12:33:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
How do the municipalities play with you?

00:12:34:05 – 00:12:51:09
Chris Rossen
We work we coordinate with them often both in terms of social service delivery, but also in terms of making sure that funding is getting used and put in the most optimal places. So they are strong partners with us and all that, and that’s really region wide. County by county, the cities, I mean, it’s really a it’s really is a collective effort.

00:12:52:12 – 00:13:02:20
Ruth Baum Bigus
Let’s flip to two, one, one. Been there for a while. Bring us up to speed on what it’s doing and how that really makes a difference in the community to have that.

00:13:03:05 – 00:13:21:14
Chris Rossen
Yeah. So you know two and one for those who aren’t aware, it’s our community’s resource and referral network. It’s, it is really the connective tissue of our nonprofit space is the connective tissue of our social service space really in some ways the connective tissue of our community. We have community resource navigators who stand by the ready on the phones.

00:13:22:02 – 00:13:38:13
Chris Rossen
24 seven 365 over 150 languages spoken. And these are and they really deserve a shout out. Our community resource navigators really deserve a shout out. I’m really grateful to to the support that they provide our community. And these are folks who are answering calls. When somebody in our community falls upon hard times, they don’t know where to turn.

00:13:38:13 – 00:13:57:23
Chris Rossen
They’ve got an unexpected medical bill that they can’t afford. They’ve got they’re facing housing insecurity. They can’t put food on the table and they’re not really sure where to turn in that sea of 10,000 plus nonprofits, two and one becomes that place that they can call, they can speak to a friendly friend, friend who who will walk through, learn about their situation and connect them.

00:13:58:09 – 00:14:17:01
Chris Rossen
We have an over 90% success rate in connecting people with resources they need in the community, and then again, we also now are really doubling down on using it as a way to measure and sort of track emerging community needs. And so that sort of canary in the coal mine kind of approach, we certainly use it as an input to assessing and understanding community need and how it evolves.

00:14:17:17 – 00:14:33:00
Chris Rossen
And I think that it’s one of those resource in our community that needs to be talked about, more needs to be understood. More and more people need to be aware of it. And I will say, when we talk about community and measuring it, you know, since 2018, we’ve seen it over 20% increase in call volume two, two, two, two, one, one.

00:14:33:05 – 00:14:39:14
Chris Rossen
And that’s a real indicator of the fact that we have real significant challenges that we’re facing and need to address in our community.

00:14:40:04 – 00:14:47:08
Ruth Baum Bigus
They’ve got to be nice people with lots of patience. I would imagine, to sit there and, you know, listen to somebody else’s woes, albeit very legitimate.

00:14:48:04 – 00:14:50:17
Chris Rossen
But can I just say that can be any of our woes. And I think.

00:14:50:19 – 00:14:53:09
Ruth Baum Bigus
Absolutely. Absolutely. And you’ve been there?

00:14:53:10 – 00:14:54:22
Chris Rossen
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

00:14:55:07 – 00:15:06:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
How does that how does your own background weigh into what you do here every day? And if you want to give a little recap in case someone missed the last time we talked.

00:15:06:11 – 00:15:28:01
Chris Rossen
Yeah, well, so so by way of background, I grew up here in Kansas City. I grew up in a low income household. I grew up in one of our city’s high violent crime rate neighborhoods. I was the first person in my family graduate high school, first person to go on to graduate college. And that is that that lived experience is something that is a very present thing with me.

00:15:28:01 – 00:15:47:09
Chris Rossen
It’s something that goes with me every and every room and every conversation. And it really does inform every decision that I make here. When we’re making decisions about programs to support, we’re making decisions about resource allocation or we’re making decisions about Asian initiatives to take on. You know, I’m often we talk that we talk about these things that scale.

00:15:47:09 – 00:16:02:13
Chris Rossen
I mean, we’re working I mean, we touch one in three people in the community every year. And so when when that’s the sort of scale that you’re working with, sometimes it can be easy to fall into the fray of just looking at these in terms of numbers. But for me, what I know is that I was that kid on the other side of that equation.

00:16:02:13 – 00:16:19:14
Chris Rossen
I was the person who was receiving those sorts of benefits. I’ve benefited so directly from those things. And so that is a part of of every conversation. And I think one thing that’s important to note, I hear a lot of talk sort of in the community as I go out and about about, you know, which which which sort of solutions better than the others.

00:16:19:14 – 00:16:45:14
Chris Rossen
And when I look at my own life story, you know, I didn’t just need food pantry assistance. I didn’t just needs afterschool programs. I didn’t just need mentoring programs or free health clinics. Of course, I needed all of those things and at different points along my journey. And one of the things I love about the approach we take care at United Way is that it is a comprehensive, holistic approach, community based approach, and a really a collective action approach to addressing to transforming lives.

00:16:45:19 – 00:16:59:22
Chris Rossen
I feel like given my background and given the transformation that I’ve experienced firsthand, I’ve got the best job in the world I get we get to change the world every day, one life at a time. And and that and that is very meaningful and very personal work to me.

00:17:00:22 – 00:17:16:05
Ruth Baum Bigus
You have employees, obviously, teammates, associates, whatever the term is. You want to use that work here with you every day. Let’s talk about lay leadership and the role of the rest of the community. How do they play into what United Way is doing?

00:17:16:13 – 00:17:35:04
Chris Rossen
Well, so that’s really at the core. I think of another role we play, which is to stoke that philanthropic flame. In fact, we often talk about our work now in terms of inspiring and enabling a local movement of change agents, or, as we call them, way makers. Because when I think about my that path that I talked about, those opportunities were made possible.

00:17:35:04 – 00:17:54:05
Chris Rossen
Those other teams made all the difference in the world to me. And they were made possible by strangers who chipped in a dollar where they could, who made an investment when they could, who volunteered their time, who gave of their expertize. And in order to sort of I really believe that the business of changing the world, the business of transforming the community is not any one organization or one individuals responsibility.

00:17:54:05 – 00:18:06:02
Chris Rossen
It’s all of our responsibilities. And so we more and more view our role as helping enable that and helping educate and helping help give people proximity to both the challenges and also the promising solutions that exist here in our community.

00:18:07:04 – 00:18:20:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
So what role is there for a volunteer? If they say, I’m all behind this, I’m all behind what Chris is saying, rah, rah, let’s go. How do they get in, get connected, help make some of those decisions or carry the mission?

00:18:21:01 – 00:18:42:22
Chris Rossen
Yeah. So you can I would say go to our website and follow us on social media. We post volunteer opportunities regularly. We also bank a a resource bank where any nonprofit organization in the community can post volunteer opportunities post needs. And that’s a great place. You know, I would say start anywhere, anywhere, start anywhere is that is the thing to do.

00:18:43:03 – 00:18:58:17
Chris Rossen
And I think it also can be intimidating if you’re new to the space, you don’t and you’re not really sure where to start it. It can be intimidating. We’ve tried to sort of ease that as well. We have a whole host of what we call immersion experiences, bus tours and educational opportunities where folks can go and visit organizations.

00:18:58:17 – 00:19:23:11
Chris Rossen
They can learn about an issue, for instance, you know, homelessness or education or early childhood education. They can learn about what are the issues related to that? They get proximate to some of the organizations making a difference in those spaces. And my hope is that they find their love and they find their passion. But whatever they do, I would just encourage folks to get involved, be an advocate, be educated and and do what you can because we all can do something.

00:19:25:09 – 00:19:42:01
Ruth Baum Bigus
What have you found to be the greatest challenge? Maybe challenges would go with more than one. If there is one, as you’ve you’ve settled in now, you you’ve kind of gotten your team, although we know people go in and out. What’s that challenge and how have you tried to meet it?

00:19:43:00 – 00:20:10:18
Chris Rossen
You know, the, the, the, the best the worst part about this job is that you’re you’re confronted every day with the challenges. You know, we really have significant, significant challenges in our community. And I think that one thing that I find is that increasingly as a society, we feel divided. You know, politics, economics, technology, you know, increasingly puts us further and further in our silos, further and further tucked away from each other.

00:20:11:00 – 00:20:26:18
Chris Rossen
And I yet at the same time, I get so inspired at the best part of the job is I get so inspired. We, we, we see individuals and organizations throughout the community who are stepping up to to address needs, stepping up to make a difference. And, and every day when those folks step up, they support a neighbor in need.

00:20:26:18 – 00:20:41:04
Chris Rossen
They volunteer with an organization who’s looking for help, that they mentor somebody, a young person in their community. Every time those things happen, those are folks who are choosing a brighter future for all of us, choosing a collective future of their choosing, whether they work with us or not. They’re choosing a united way forward for all of us.

00:20:41:11 – 00:20:57:18
Chris Rossen
And those really are the way makers in our community. And so from a from a challenge standpoint, I would just say that that’s keeping people’s attention on these issues. And when it’s not facing you every day, when you’re not growing up in that environment, when you’re not sort of confronted with some of those real challenges, it can be.

00:20:57:18 – 00:21:06:21
Chris Rossen
It can be it can be a challenge to grab people’s attention in such a cluttered world. But what I also see every day is that that’s a challenge is being met, particularly here in Kansas City by our community.

00:21:07:11 – 00:21:14:03
Ruth Baum Bigus
You’ve got some new things, share intel. You’ve got the Food Pantry initiative, talk a little bit about that. Yeah.

00:21:14:03 – 00:21:37:13
Chris Rossen
So I’m pleased to share that we just recently we know we’re just really again closely monitoring community need with what we know about inflation is that that’s putting a pinch on everybody and particularly organizations like women’s shelters and and organizations, Head Start centers and organizations who are supporting youth. The new American populations, particularly vulnerable populations accessing certain needs and supports.

00:21:38:20 – 00:21:59:19
Chris Rossen
And so in order to address that, we’ve partnered together with a few of our philanthropic partners. We pooled community resources that have been donated to United Way. And I’m and I’m grateful to say that we’ve just recently awarded nearly $400,000 in additional food pantry assistance to about 30 organizations here in town who are providing food pantry assistance to folks in order to bolster up what they have.

00:21:59:19 – 00:22:15:03
Chris Rossen
And what we’ve seen and heard from them is that they’re seeing a 20% increase just because of inflation, a 20% increase in demand. And those are again, many of them are working families. These are folks who are doing everything they can. They’re pinching pennies. They’re living paycheck to paycheck. And they just need a little extra support from our community.

00:22:15:12 – 00:22:21:17
Ruth Baum Bigus
Right. And in the bio arena, you’ve got another new initiative here, this catalyst program. You were telling.

00:22:21:17 – 00:22:38:18
Chris Rossen
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. I’m also, you know, really excited to share that we’ve we’ve partnered with the Kauffman Foundation and we’ve created, in addition to the impact, 100 and other sort of grant initiatives that we have, we have an opportunity for a catalyst fund that is about about two and a half to $3 million over the next three years.

00:22:38:18 – 00:23:06:14
Chris Rossen
That collectively United Way and the Coffin Foundation have committed to creating a catalyst fund to support Bipoc, Black, Indigenous and people of color led or primarily serving organizations in our community. In particular, we’re looking at small nonprofits, organizations that may not have the the the time history or have had the access to capital or have had the access to networks that have been able to reach a certain degree of impact scale to be competitive for something like Impact 100.

00:23:06:14 – 00:23:18:13
Chris Rossen
But we want to make sure that they have access to funds and resources that are fully dedicated and set aside to, again, catalyze the next generation of important nonprofits and community rooted nonprofits in our community.

00:23:19:07 – 00:23:34:21
Ruth Baum Bigus
Probably the elephant in the room. How are contributions going? What have you seen? I mean, we were in the heat of the pandemic. We’re now in what, pandemic? Two or whatever you want to call this new phase. How have you watched that happen and how are you addressing it?

00:23:35:15 – 00:24:01:09
Chris Rossen
Well, our community continues to be incredibly generous with time, talent and treasure. They continue to be generous. And we’ve certainly seen that, you know, companies are facing, as you said, through pandemic and other things, all sorts of disruptions in terms of workforce, workforce. And and yet at the same time, I am just emboldened by the fact that our largest companies, individuals throughout our community, step up again year after year and understand that there are these real needs in our community that need be addressed.

00:24:01:09 – 00:24:24:15
Chris Rossen
And they continue to trust United Way with that. And so fundraising efforts have been strong, you know, as as is as you know, it can always be stronger. We can always, always use more. But what I what what I what I see though is that a real resiliency in the funding community as well, even in spaces where the same challenges that we talk about food insecurity, inflation, some of these sorts of things, they affect all of us.

00:24:24:22 – 00:24:32:21
Chris Rossen
And yet we still find folks who continue year after year to make giving and investing back in the community. And a big part of what they a big part of.

00:24:33:01 – 00:24:45:21
Ruth Baum Bigus
And stepping is stepping up when when it’s needed. All right. So let’s take Chris’s crystal ball now. Where do you envision United Way, let’s say, in five years from now? What do you see.

00:24:46:01 – 00:25:06:12
Chris Rossen
One five years from now? I hope that we continue to just be really resilient and agile in terms of how we’re addressing community need. I, I hope that that as a community we continue to build smarter and more sustainable solutions to addressing these challenges. You know, I one of the things that that gets asked of me often in public forums is, well, you guys have been in operation for 100 years.

00:25:06:12 – 00:25:24:13
Chris Rossen
You know, how, you know, why have we solved homelessness or why have we solved educational inequity? And I often sort of think about the weather, right? We still have hurricanes. We still have earthquakes. We still have these sorts of things. I can’t think of any point in time in our history that we’ve not had issues of inequity, issues of haves and have nots.

00:25:24:13 – 00:25:40:05
Chris Rossen
We’ve not had issues of isms and tribal isms and all these sorts of things that happen. And yet we have to be smarter and more sophisticated in the solutions set that we that we address those with and some of the evolutions that we’ve talked about even today, are our efforts to make sure that we are continuing to stay relevant.

00:25:40:05 – 00:26:01:00
Chris Rossen
We’re continuing to stay ahead of the curve in terms of addressing those things and in the same way with the weather. Right. We’ve got more sophisticated technology. We’re not just ducking under a wall. We’re sort of doing all sorts of things and it’s the same sort of thing in this space. And so I really view in many ways what we do at United Way, where we’re sort of a a crowdfunded solutions engine for the community.

00:26:01:00 – 00:26:08:18
Chris Rossen
Right. And we need to be constantly sort of in the aggregate, working together to build smarter and more sustainable solutions to these these really pressing issues.

00:26:09:11 – 00:26:12:02
Ruth Baum Bigus
You’ve got five girls, pretty young.

00:26:12:04 – 00:26:12:14
Chris Rossen
Yes.

00:26:13:23 – 00:26:31:04
Ruth Baum Bigus
How do you bring in the next generation? I’m not saying the 5 to 10 year olds, little young, but the millennial, the Gen Z, the whatever you want to call it, seems like that’s always a challenge for nonprofits. So how are you all going about trying to get that buy in and their involvement?

00:26:31:16 – 00:26:40:21
Chris Rossen
Well, we you know, we have a well, I’ve just one thing I will say on that, though, is that the younger generation of which I still like to think I’m.

00:26:41:10 – 00:26:45:17
Ruth Baum Bigus
You’re there some of us are in a little more mature generation.

00:26:45:17 – 00:27:05:14
Chris Rossen
The younger generation are incredibly idea focused. They’re incredibly issue focused. We are we are the issues that we take on and we get involved with. We’re very serious about. And I think they really lead with their heart in a lot of ways. And so we see that they are actively engaged and they want to continue to be engaged.

00:27:05:20 – 00:27:22:09
Chris Rossen
We, of course, try to provide opportunities through those those immersive experience that I talked about to make sure it’s accessible to folks and also fun, you know, I’m a big believer that you should have fun doing serious work. And I think that that is part of what we see that we continue to try to infuse. And we get together for volunteer gatherings.

00:27:22:09 – 00:27:42:01
Chris Rossen
We get together for donor gatherings, and when we go on service experiences that we try to ensure that it’s also a fun experience. And I haven’t met somebody, a younger person anywhere that’s not interested in having a good time. I wanted to tell. Yeah. And I would just say that they’re also very, you know, there there are a million ways that folks can get over a million ways to be united, million ways to to get involved.

00:27:42:01 – 00:27:58:15
Chris Rossen
And and that that that young people are really creative in terms of how they find ways to get involved. And a lot of the growth that we talked about, the nonprofit sector is being driven by young people who are saying, you know what, I think I have a I think I have a different solution set that we can bring to the table, a different way of looking at that problem.

00:27:59:04 – 00:28:02:22
Chris Rossen
And I think that’s what gets me really excited and optimistic about the future.

00:28:02:22 – 00:28:10:03
Ruth Baum Bigus
Do you ever get any pushback from those folks that, well, this is the way we’ve always done it, or I have the wisdom because I’ve been here longer than you.

00:28:10:11 – 00:28:11:01
Chris Rossen
Of course.

00:28:11:11 – 00:28:14:17
Ruth Baum Bigus
Of course. So how do you do that? You tap dance right now.

00:28:14:17 – 00:28:37:08
Chris Rossen
We say, hey, tell us what you think and let’s talk about it. Right. And I also think that, you know, I heard the other day that everyone’s called everyone collectively smarter than anyone individually. And I think that any we want all ideas, all ideas at the table. I’m aware when we’re doing that. You just you did mention something that I want to I want to bring up, which was that we talked about my little kiddos.

00:28:37:10 – 00:28:54:12
Chris Rossen
Right. And ensuring that they’re getting involved. That’s something that I think it’s never too young to get involved. And actually, we see we see young kids, you know, go to go to a go to an elementary school and check out their food drive. Go to an elementary school and talk about and really the things that young people do.

00:28:54:12 – 00:29:02:05
Chris Rossen
They’re thinking creatively. They have a different perspective to bring to the table. And I don’t think it’s ever too young to get folks involved in and in shaping the community for the better.

00:29:02:19 – 00:29:06:20
Ruth Baum Bigus
Plus, they can learn the right way to do things instead of all the mistakes that we go through, right?

00:29:06:20 – 00:29:10:07
Chris Rossen
That’s right. Build up, build, build and iterate off of the mistakes of the past for sure.

00:29:10:08 – 00:29:21:22
Ruth Baum Bigus
Chris, it’s been great to sit down with you. Thank you for bringing us up to speed. We expect great things moving forward and fun things moving forward. Right. And everybody should check out United Way. Go ahead and give the plug on your website. If you want.

00:29:21:23 – 00:29:28:09
Chris Rossen
To check out United Way’s our website, follow us on social. That’s the best way to get to get in touch with us and stay up to date on all things in our community.

00:29:29:06 – 00:29:48:03
Ruth Baum Bigus
Thank you for tuning in to KC Cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice. We are glad to be sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Don’t forget, you can catch us Saturday mornings on ESPN 1510 and 94.5 FM. Thanks for joining us on KC CARES.

 

Folly Theatre Discusses Arts in the Kansas City Community

Rick Truman | Executive Director

To preserve Kansas City’s oldest historic theater as a premier performance venue, we commit to maintain our building’s heritage, diversify our program and entertainment offerings, and be an enthusiastic participant in the continuing revitalization of downtown Kansas City.

visit them here: www.follytheatre.org

 

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KC Cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice, tells the stories of Kansas City nonprofits and connects them with the community.  

Produced by Charitable Communications 

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Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Take risks. Own success. Be Uncommon.

TW: @kauffmanfdn FB: @kauffmanfdn IG: @kauffmanfdn

[Transcript]

 

Nonprofit Impact Communication Through Storytelling with Bobby Keys

Bobby Keys | Nonprofit Expert

In this Ask The Expert series, we talk with nonprofit leader Bobby Keys, who specializes in Nonprofit Storytelling and Impact Communication. He offers 7 Ways nonprofits can tell their story!

visit them here: bobbykeysmedia.com

 

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•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Also available on

Itunes || Spotify || Stitcher || Soundcloud || Youtube 

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

KC Cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice, tells the stories of Kansas City nonprofits and connects them with the community.  

Produced by Charitable Communications 

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

In partnership with: 

Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Take risks. Own success. Be Uncommon.

TW: @kauffmanfdn FB: @kauffmanfdn IG: @kauffmanfdn

[Transcript]

00:00:02:05 – 00:00:30:13
Ruth Baum Bigus
Welcome to KC Cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice. We are telling the stories of Kansas City nonprofits. KC Cares is the intersection of the nonprofit and the profit communities making Kansas City a better place to live, work and play. This KC Cares episode is brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. WW Dot Hoffman dot org. Well, today we have an increase of all guests.

00:00:30:14 – 00:01:01:16
Ruth Baum Bigus
Nothing expresses a nonprofit’s purpose better than it does but the device of storytelling. With today’s technology, there are so many options on sharing your story. But what’s right for you and your organization? How do you know which one to choose? How do you even craft your storytelling? Well, for our monthly Ask the Expert series, we’re chatting with KC Care’s own producer, Bobby Keys, who is a master storyteller, videographer and website master with great experience under his belt.

00:01:02:05 – 00:01:04:12
Ruth Baum Bigus
Bobby, welcome to the show.

00:01:04:14 – 00:01:06:09
Bobby Keys
Hello. Thanks for having me, Ruth.

00:01:07:01 – 00:01:31:08
Ruth Baum Bigus
This is so fun to get to talk to a master who is often behind the scenes. So I’m not sure, not a lot of pressure, but a lot of good information. We thought to share with our nonprofits and even profit organizations can benefit. So we hear we hear the term storytelling thrown around a lot. Can you kind of flesh that out?

00:01:31:09 – 00:01:33:01
Ruth Baum Bigus
What do we mean when we talk about that?

00:01:34:03 – 00:02:07:04
Bobby Keys
Yeah. So storytelling in, you know, for nonprofits and for profits is basically just communicating who you are, your brand, you know, the people behind it, telling the story, how you impact the community warrior. You know, if you’re if you’re a small business, you tell the story of how you impact your customer. You know, so and that’s, you know, through various various ways video, case studies, newsletters, blogs, you know, social media.

00:02:07:12 – 00:02:17:22
Bobby Keys
But it’s always, you know, something that has ideally a compelling character, you know, a clear message, relatable characters, and then, you know, a call to action.

00:02:19:28 – 00:02:26:25
Ruth Baum Bigus
So you’re sitting down, you’re the marketing director or maybe the development director or even the executive director.

00:02:26:29 – 00:02:27:09
Bobby Keys
Who.

00:02:27:27 – 00:02:35:07
Ruth Baum Bigus
How do you start how do you start to craft a story that eventually will be very compelling?

00:02:36:18 – 00:03:03:15
Bobby Keys
Yeah, that’s a good question. So, you know, the way I do it is you always have to think of one the end goal. And to your whoever you’re trying to reach, your target, your target audience, your or your your buyer persona, as I call them. But you, you know, think about who they are and how how they’re going to be inspired, how you’re going to engage them.

00:03:04:28 – 00:03:27:05
Bobby Keys
You know, a lot of a lot of people just kind of throw, you know, this is who we are. This is what we do. You know, out into and think that’s a story they try and feed that the people and a lot of times that falls flat. You usually have to come up with a compelling character or a reason that you’re there.

00:03:27:22 – 00:03:58:11
Bobby Keys
Typically, like I would say, you know, if you’re a nonprofit, think of an impact story that know you’ve experienced in your time at the nonprofit, somebody you’ve helped, you’ve helped, you’ve helped somebody you know, a family that you you have affected. Think about that and then use them as the main character. Then you come up with kind of like your story framework.

00:03:58:24 – 00:04:18:23
Bobby Keys
I always like to tell a story in an in order in my my framework. It’s easy for me to start out with. What was life like for this family, for this child, for these people? You know, what was it like before you were involved? What are the hardships? What are the pain points that they you know, they experience?

00:04:20:02 – 00:04:40:28
Bobby Keys
What it would look like in a perfect world if, you know, if they had the solution you’re providing as a nonprofit or small business. Talk about the change that you’ve seen. You know, from the beginning of your time with that family. Like over time, I’ve seen this child, you know, since they came here. Now they’ve come to our nonprofit.

00:04:41:06 – 00:05:04:15
Bobby Keys
They’ve seen we’ve seen a change. I remember the day that they changed. I saw the sparkle in their eye when this happened. Think about those that the moment that you affected their life and how that changed. You can throw in some data points as well to help reinforce who you are and what you do. And then, you know, tell about your what’s what’s coming up in the future.

00:05:05:05 – 00:05:25:09
Bobby Keys
I mean, you can get into there’s different types of story frameworks, but, you know, that’s always the the for me when I’m shooting video, that’s always the easiest one to go to. You know, what’s what’s life like before you, you know, you know, what are some of the other problems and agitate those problems? What are the problems they face?

00:05:26:11 – 00:05:52:27
Bobby Keys
What are the solutions you provide? What’s the data? Is there any is there any data to reinforce what you do? And then what does the future look like? And then, you know, if you’re speaking to a donor, you always want to use them as the hero of the story. You as the donor can help, you know, such and such get to a better place, you know, by X amount of bicycles, you know, you know, feed X amount of children, you know.

00:05:53:16 – 00:05:57:02
Bobby Keys
So that’s that’s I guess, a loose way of doing it.

00:05:58:15 – 00:06:25:01
Ruth Baum Bigus
That’s a whole lot of steps. So I want to go back. You were talking about a compelling emotional story before and after, and then you have data points. How do you know? What is that balance? As our expert, how how would you advise someone? I know we probably have both sat through videos at a number of events where it’s like, can you get to the next frame?

00:06:25:01 – 00:06:33:08
Ruth Baum Bigus
I’ve seen so much data, I’m swimming or you have me crying. Tell me you know how I’ve moved the needle. So how do you do that?

00:06:33:28 – 00:07:05:17
Bobby Keys
Yeah. You know, it all depends on who your target audience is. If you’re if you’re appealing to, you know, the general donor, you know, you want less data, you want more story, less data. Because you’re right, it does it does get monotonous. And you can just vomit data points to where it’s like, okay, you lost the story. If you’re appealing to more of a corporation, they’re going to want to see more data about the impact of your, you know, you have on the community.

00:07:06:11 – 00:07:43:29
Bobby Keys
So that’s that’s, you know, with something like that, with case studies. And it’s just another way to tell a story. Outside of video you use, you could use data, grants, use data. So it’s always it always depends on who you’re trying to reach. Honestly, that’s really going to mold your story. And that’s where you’ll find that balance. And if you are watching a video back or you’re looking at it and you do feel go with your gut, if it’s like if you’re creating the story and you’re and you’re creating the case studies or the blog articles or the newsletter, and it is you just like that’s a lot of data to pull it out.

00:07:44:08 – 00:07:49:26
Bobby Keys
You know, hit the crucial parts, hit the crucial parts that reinforce what’s your mission in your causes?

00:07:51:18 – 00:08:21:00
Ruth Baum Bigus
Well, a lot of our nonprofit friends can’t necessarily afford to have a high quality produced video. Yeah. You know, for every for the donor, a stakeholder, the staff. So is there a way to kind of balance that? And my follow up question would be is, what’s the right length? That’s always something I hear debated. How much is too much in a video and yeah.

00:08:21:28 – 00:08:54:04
Bobby Keys
Yeah. So okay. So I’ll give you seven ways that nonprofits can tell their story. And one of them is video and documentaries. That to me is the most effective way. There’s just too many statistics around video that shows how engaging it is for the end user. Yeah. So but yeah, documentaries and videos are a great way to as nonprofit can tell their stories, case studies, you know, kind of in-depth stories of individuals and communities that have been impacted by your nonprofit work.

00:08:54:18 – 00:09:24:10
Bobby Keys
They can be video or but you know written usually those will be in a a PDF form or a website. You can go just a small little case study of how, you know, how we impacted this family or this community. Testimonials. Testimonials are another way for you to tell your story. That’s a great way for somebody else to tell your story and how it, you know, it impacted your life and you know, how your nonprofit impacted their life.

00:09:25:08 – 00:09:49:03
Bobby Keys
That is that’s you know, that’s one that’s at the top. You know, if you can get testimonials from from families and and even donors from other donors, that is huge. And that could be that can live on your website. It can be in videos that can be in social media, that can be in a newsletter as well, which social media is another way to tell your story?

00:09:49:21 – 00:10:18:25
Bobby Keys
They can be small, little bites that you use throughout the work that you gather throughout the day. It could be of the people, the volunteers, the staff members, the people who are the beneficiaries of your nonprofits. Just little bite sized, bite sized videos, bite sized, you know, content that’s consumable, easily consumable and easily communicate your message in a hurry.

00:10:20:11 – 00:10:44:12
Bobby Keys
You can do blogs. That’s a great way to tell your story. And newsletters. That’s another great way to tell your story. You know, it keeps people engaging and you know, you should be communicating regularly and updating your content on your website with blogs, and you should be reaching out to your donors regularly with newsletters. So fit those stories in there and they don’t have to be long.

00:10:44:13 – 00:11:08:19
Bobby Keys
They could just be little bits of bite size information that ultimately drive people to your website. If you’re, you know, if you’re using a newsletter or even social media because that’s the goal of a lot of these this content is to drive people to your website. You can do infographics, infographics, those are relatively easy to make these days with Canva.

00:11:08:28 – 00:11:34:16
Bobby Keys
It’s a great you know, it’s a great platform to be able to produce, design content, produce and design content. And they have templates that you can use for infographics, events. Events are another way to tell your story. Open houses, tours, volunteer fairs. Yeah. It gives people a chance to see your nonprofit firsthand.

00:11:35:06 – 00:11:49:01
Ruth Baum Bigus
You gave us some great information and a list of where people can even just start to look at that. I want to take a step back and that’s when you’re crafting the story. Who should be at the table to do that?

00:11:50:13 – 00:12:12:18
Bobby Keys
So you all your director, your nonprofit director should be there. Your marketing director should be there. Your program director should be I think it should be everybody, because everybody’s going to be affected differently by the different people that you engage, right? By the various people that you engage with in your nonprofit. So everybody is going to have a story.

00:12:12:24 – 00:13:00:28
Bobby Keys
Everybody’s impacted different ways. So I think those, you know, even volunteers grab a volunteer, a key volunteer, a key program director or somebody who’s who’s in charge of a manager, your executive director, board members. You know, and then sometimes if you are I’ve worked at nonprofits in the past that that deal with children you involved their family. And so you get your get their family on board, too to give it the okay to tell the story of the child and how they were affected, how it affected their family, the changes that they’ve seen and what that future looks like, know that’s that’s you kind of got to get all parties involved.

00:13:01:06 – 00:13:02:15
Bobby Keys
But those are just some of the people are.

00:13:04:03 – 00:13:32:03
Ruth Baum Bigus
All right. I’m going to be the devil’s advocate since I work in the communication end. And I’m the person who’s, you know, at the table trying to say, okay, we’ve got this together and now I have all this here. Should I start with an outline? Should I have something kind of crafted where these things kind of feed in, or should I just have those conversations first and then kind of draw you know, create that outline of this story?

00:13:33:29 – 00:13:53:03
Bobby Keys
So I think it’s going to I think it’s always going to be a mix. And, you know, it’s the creative world, right? And it’s always fluid. There’s always going to be changes. But if you have some type of process of, you know, what’s the goal? I always start with the goal and reverse engineer everything. Who are we trying to reach?

00:13:53:12 – 00:14:15:04
Bobby Keys
What you know, and how do we reach them, you know, what’s the best way to reach our target target audience? Is it via social media? Is it the infographics? Is it, you know, a blog newsletter, white paper? You know, how how do they consume and how are they going to to receive the message that you’re trying to send?

00:14:16:24 – 00:14:38:25
Bobby Keys
And then from there, you know, we start with the stories, then we start developing those stories. But yeah, I mean, always come with an outline, basically with the goals at the top. What is the goal of this this video or this newsletter or this, you know, whatever we’re doing, what is the goal and how are we going to how is it going to impact and inspire the people we’re trying to reach?

00:14:40:06 – 00:15:01:18
Ruth Baum Bigus
We’re talking with Bobby Keys. He is our Ask the Expert. Expert, and we’re talking about storytelling in the way nonprofits can create their story and where they can share it and how to share it. I kind of jumped over a question I asked you earlier. All right. How long is too long or how short is too short if we’re talking in a video or digital medium?

00:15:02:26 – 00:15:26:12
Bobby Keys
Yeah. So some of it’s going to depend on where it is, you know, most of the time, you know, if it’s living online and you’re sending it via email, you’ve got it on your website, you want to stick to, you know, anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes, right? You don’t want to typically go over 3 minutes because people will tune out.

00:15:26:12 – 00:15:57:25
Bobby Keys
There’s a higher rate of tuning out after 3 minutes. When it comes to events, sometimes you have you know, a lot of nonprofits have these big events, fundraising events. You know, everybody is dressed up. And then there’s a video that is a centerpiece of the ask a and those have gone, you know, I’ve shot them up to 7 minutes some maybe even a little bit more, but people start to tune out, right.

00:15:58:03 – 00:16:19:06
Bobby Keys
You want to keep it? I would say you want to keep that within 5 to 7 minutes. You know, if it’s got to if it’s going to go longer, you better make it compelling. You better. You better craft that story and and and make sure, yeah, it’s not full of data. It’s got a good mix of story data, visuals, music.

00:16:19:27 – 00:16:38:18
Bobby Keys
But you don’t want to go past that. I, you know, with I’ve seen the glaze over people’s eyes when it gets too large, it’s like, okay, you know, because, you know, you want to take them on an emotional roller coaster, but you don’t want to wear them out. You want to keep that energy flowing. So right when the video’s down, boom, then you go into the ask.

00:16:39:20 – 00:17:06:17
Ruth Baum Bigus
But yeah, I’ve been at those events where you start pushing the dessert or you ask for the next cup of coffee and it’s more the anticipation of, okay, now they’re going to do the ask, is there a some people are apprehensive of that ask is there anything to do in our storytelling to make that more comfortable for that part of an audience?

00:17:07:22 – 00:17:36:29
Bobby Keys
I think honestly, I think that people are expecting it, right? You know, asking for money, whether it’s, you know, your nonprofit or you’re even a small business and when it comes time to negotiate the dollars or to ask for the money, that’s always an uncomfortable feeling. But to me, the best results are when you just do it. You know, we need your help and we need to raise this X amount of money to keep moving forward.

00:17:37:07 – 00:18:02:28
Bobby Keys
You know, but I don’t think you you really have to phrase it like that. I think, you know, when you when you put it on, like, you know, the the the hinge of we’re not going to make it unless you donate. And to me, that’s a turnoff, right? So if you can say, you know, we need, you know, in order to help X amount of X amount of people this upcoming year, we need this, right?

00:18:02:28 – 00:18:24:27
Bobby Keys
You’re giving people a goal. You’re being very specific about what you need and it’s not hinging on you making it. You know, our nonprofit is going to move forward. But here’s our goal for this year. Last year, we helped 20,000 people. This year, we want to help 30,000 people. And here’s how we’re going to do it with your help, you know, so it’s you know, it’s all how you frame it.

00:18:25:05 – 00:18:31:28
Bobby Keys
And it’s, you know, it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. I think that always goes back to, you know, storytelling.

00:18:33:07 – 00:18:45:20
Ruth Baum Bigus
In other words, probably a tactic is it’s your fault if we fail. Yeah, it should be. We can do so much more. Yeah. Please join us. Yeah. In going. Going on.

00:18:46:08 – 00:18:47:12
Bobby Keys
Yeah.

00:18:47:12 – 00:19:16:13
Ruth Baum Bigus
So you craft these videos. I know you do that because I’ve seen some of them. They’re wonderful. At what point in a process do you show it to your customer, which is the nonprofit? And let’s say it just is like, Oh my God, it’s not what we want. Is there a way? I guess maybe my question is, is there a way to avoid that along the way so that the video storyteller is not going, Oh my God, we’re past budget and now they want me to do this?

00:19:16:13 – 00:19:44:18
Bobby Keys
Absolutely. Is that is that is something that every video producer starting out runs into. And I’ve learned over the years that you have to have a plan and you have to set expectations. All of that is done in the pre-planning. And if you if you start out and have these meetings and you say, what is our goal? You know, who are we talking to?

00:19:44:18 – 00:20:09:04
Bobby Keys
Here’s our plan. Here’s what it’s going to look like. You know, you provide style frames. You provide the basic framework of the story and what the what that goal is and how you’re going to get there. You know, if you’re assuming that you’re meticulous about the pre-planning, it really does. It really does. You know, keep you from scope drift.

00:20:09:10 – 00:20:32:15
Bobby Keys
Right. Which is which is a killer that’s going to you know, it’s going to kill your budget. It’s going to kill the timeline. It’s going to kill the story. You know, because then you start it. It creates a panic, right? If you if you just kind of willy nilly and like, I’m going to shoot this, I’m going to do this, and I’m just going to, you know, give them this, this, this, this content.

00:20:32:24 – 00:20:53:00
Bobby Keys
If you keep the the nonprofit directors and the key principals involved the whole time, you know, it will help you help eliminate that that, you know, going back and saying, we don’t like this, you need to start over. There’s so many people that just willy nilly just start, you know, throwing stuff against the wall and it just I guess it’s like the wild, wild west.

00:20:53:00 – 00:21:11:03
Bobby Keys
And they, they, they, they hand them a video and people are like, well, what’s this? You know, this isn’t what we talk about. Everybody’s got a different vision of what the end goal, what the end product is going to look like. It never fails. Ever, ever fails. It is always, oh, okay. Well, I didn’t think of it like that.

00:21:11:03 – 00:21:43:16
Bobby Keys
I like it or no, that’s not what I had in mind. I don’t like it, you know. But you know, the key is to preplan, plan some more and then keep the client involved. You don’t want to. You don’t want to you don’t want to get in a situation to where you’re basically sending a video out to a client and and you didn’t get the key stakeholders involved early enough.

00:21:43:16 – 00:22:20:18
Bobby Keys
And then ultimately, you know, they end up sending it to their higher ups. And they haven’t been they haven’t been communicating this process the whole time. Then the higher ups, you know, maybe it’s a team of ten people now all of a sudden they have opinions about what the video should look like and, you know, they come back with all these changes and, you know, that’s something you want to avoid that’s that’s part of the pre planning got to get the key stakeholders involved early early in the process show them the framework I always start out with I call it the backbone of the story.

00:22:20:18 – 00:22:50:12
Bobby Keys
Right. You’re always going in, you’re shooting the story of the year. Typically with us, it’s interviews, it’s talking heads of the of the the key stakeholders, the directors and and the people, the beneficiaries of the nonprofit. Right. So you get those stories. You let them tell the story. You lay that out in a cohesive timeline. You send it to you know, you send it to the nonprofit, to the client, and you send it to the client.

00:22:50:22 – 00:23:10:19
Bobby Keys
Let them look at it. Let them understand that this is the backbone of the story. Now we’re going to start adding B-roll. Now we’re going to start adding a few graphics if we need to. So, you know, pre-planning and keeping them involved, you know, is is huge. And in keeping it from scope, drifting.

00:23:13:03 – 00:23:42:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
That did it. Now you’ve lost your hair over this. I know there have been nightmares. You know where you run into that. So what I extrapolate from what you’re sharing is that you know, nonprofit, try to have your act together before you meet with your digital storyteller, your videographer, whoever is helping you produce it so that it’s really clear who is, you know, who’s the you know, the buck stops here person on the team that can say, okay, this is what we’re doing and we’re going to move it.

00:23:42:22 – 00:23:51:25
Ruth Baum Bigus
We’re going to move it forward. I want to know what are the biggest mistakes that nonprofits make as they go into storytelling like this?

00:23:51:25 – 00:24:20:18
Bobby Keys
Ooh, that’s a good one. The biggest mistakes are not planning. That’s probably the biggest one. You know, that’s that’s where things just go awry. And they don’t have to they don’t have to plan everything out. A lot of times people that aren’t in the creative world, they don’t know what they don’t know, you know. So it’s not like they can come to the table and just say, we’ve got this whole plan, you know, this, this, this, this should happen, this should happen.

00:24:20:18 – 00:24:52:24
Bobby Keys
This should happen. Usually that, you know, it’s good, but that ultimately gets thrown out because they don’t understand the video the the the video process. Right. So, you know, not planning, not getting the key people involved, not understanding what their goal is, is is a big problem. They have to understand what their goal, you know, what they ultimately want to do, where that video wants to live, if they’re shooting video, you know, there’s other ways to tell the story.

00:24:52:24 – 00:25:13:23
Bobby Keys
But if they’re shooting video, they want to know who they should know where they want to push this, where they want to put the video. And it’s my job to to help them understand that as a you know, as a, quote, unquote, expert, you know, I help guide them and walk them down that path and say, you know, here’s where you should, you know, based on your goal, here’s where your video should live.

00:25:13:23 – 00:25:35:20
Bobby Keys
Here’s where we should concentrate our efforts. You know, here’s who we’re talking to these people. Here’s the type of content we should be providing over thinking. It is another problem that nonprofits have. You know, it’s not always it doesn’t always have to be this big, grandiose production. It can be this could be something that shot on your phone.

00:25:36:00 – 00:25:58:15
Bobby Keys
It could be just little stories about what are you doing today? You know, what if such and such doing a day in the office and how is that helping, you know, our our target, you know, our people, you know, you don’t have to it doesn’t have to be a huge, huge, you know, five camera shoot with, you know, lights and an HD truck.

00:25:58:15 – 00:26:31:04
Bobby Keys
I mean, it doesn’t have to be that big. It could be something simple. Yeah. And not utilizing it after you get it is another is is a huge mistake. You know, a lot of times and this is how I got into website development. You know, that’s mainly what I do is shoot video and build websites a lot of time after I’d shoot a video and this is a while back where video was more cumbersome, you would shoot a video and nonprofits would spend money, spend time days shooting this.

00:26:31:04 – 00:26:57:14
Bobby Keys
I mean, you know, weeks of production. And you give them the video and they use it once and then it’s done. And I’m like, Well, that should be living on your website. You know, you want to drive traffic to your website all the time, and that video can be a centerpiece of your website. So, you know, getting nonprofits to understand and a lot and then and then back to story websites, they would know how to do that.

00:26:57:14 – 00:27:16:06
Bobby Keys
So I would say, oh, well, give me the video. I know how to build websites and I throw it up there. But that’s, you know, and these days it’s relatively simple. You can do it up on YouTube. But yeah, utilizing, utilizing the content that you create and making it evergreen. So yeah, those are some of the problems that they’ve.

00:27:16:17 – 00:27:37:16
Ruth Baum Bigus
But you’ve offered solutions, which is great and will of course have some of these great tips on our own social media. So you can follow up and we would be remiss if we didn’t let people know where they could learn about all your efforts expertize besides our Casey cares online dot org it’s Bobby Keys media and the website is.

00:27:37:24 – 00:27:57:12
Bobby Keys
Bobby Keys medium.com you can go there check out some videos websites. I’ve got blog articles, you know, about nonprofits and how they can tell their story. You know, different ways nonprofits can tell their story, what’s crucial and then, you know, other other tidbits of information that you might find useful.

00:27:58:15 – 00:28:12:04
Ruth Baum Bigus
And feel free to reach out to us as well. If you’ve got a question, we would certainly get the expert back in touch with you so that you will know all things. Bobby, I’m so glad we got to sit down and have you be the expert.

00:28:12:10 – 00:28:14:08
Bobby Keys
But I appreciate you having me.

00:28:15:05 – 00:28:39:05
Ruth Baum Bigus
Absolutely. And thank you for joining us on Casey Cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice. We’re produced by a nonprofit called Charitable Communications. This Casey Care segment was brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. W WW UCF McChord to be a guest on KC Cares or underwriting opportunities, please visit our website. That’s KC Cares online talk and Spread the love.

00:28:39:05 – 00:28:54:27
Ruth Baum Bigus
You’ll find us on Facebook and Twitter at KC Cares Radio and on Instagram at KC Cares online. Don’t forget, you can catch us Saturday mornings at 8 a.m. on ESPN, 15:10 a.m. and 94.5 FM. Thanks for joining us on KC Cares.