Missions to Movements
This isn't just another nonprofit podcast - it's your weekly invitation to think bigger, take bold risks, and create lasting change in an ever-evolving social impact landscape. Meet Dana Snyder, your guide through the evolving landscape of nonprofit innovation. She's on a mission to help change-makers like you push the boundaries of what's possible in nonprofit marketing and fundraising. Each week, Missions to Movements serves as your personal mastermind session, delivering actionable insights and bold strategies that challenge traditional nonprofit thinking. Dive into revolutionary approaches to digital fundraising, discover how to build magnetic monthly giving programs that create lasting donor relationships, and learn to amplify your voice as a thought leader in the social good space. Whether you're reimagining your organization's impact or forging game-changing partnerships, you'll find the ideas, insights, and inspiration to take your mission further than you've ever imagined. Ready to turn your mission into a movement?
Missions to Movements
A Talk with Ben & Jerry's + Greyston Bakery: How Brands Can Leverage Lived Experiences Responsibly
As a board member of the Impact Communications Institute (ICI), I am excited to share a thought-provoking conversation during one of our Impact Councils that we hosted in partnership with 3BL Media.
In this episode, we explore how open hiring and criminal justice reform can be woven into brand storytelling without objectifying those with lived experiences.
You’ll learn how purpose-driven companies like Greyston Bakery and Ben & Jerry's are turning their values into action and creating inclusive employment opportunities that resonate and drive change.
By focusing on potential rather than past barriers, these organizations are providing second chances while fostering a culture of respect and empowerment.
Whether you're aiming to implement open hiring practices OR seeking to anchor your brand in meaningful values, this episode will empower you to communicate your impact more effectively while creating a more equitable and sustainable world.
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Let's Connect!
Open hiring is a big part of Grayston's brand identity, and so that's really the focus about today is how brands are incorporating this into their brand story without objectifying people with those lived experiences. So open hiring is a big part of Grayston's brand identity, and criminal justice reform is a big part of Ben and Jerry's known mission and their brand identity. And so, since both organizations have been at this purposeful work for as long as I've been alive, we can say with confidence that nothing about this is performative, nothing about it is opportunistic, and there's a lot that brands can learn from these two organizations on how to really meet individuals where they are in the workplace, as this trend for brands to do this is growing and making sure that they're helping these individuals promote and support their mission in a really respectful, dignified manner.
Speaker 2:Hey, there, you're listening to the Missions to Movements podcast and I'm your host, dana Snyder, digital strategist for nonprofits and founder and CEO of Positive Equations. This show highlights the digital strategies of organizations making a positive impact in the world. Ready to learn the latest trends, actionable tips and the real stories from behind the feed. Let's transform your mission into a movement.
Speaker 3:As a board member of the Impact Communications Institute, shortened for ICI, I am excited to share a thought-provoking conversation during one of our Impact Councils that we hosted in partnership with 3BL Media. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with ICI, we are dedicated to advancing the practice of strategic communications in service of creating a more just, equitable and sustainable world. We bring together communications professionals and thought leaders to really share best practices and research and insights on using storytelling to drive meaningful change. So if you, listener, are on the leading edge of using storytelling for change-making, which I know you are, I would love to invite you to join the pledge with us. You can click the link in the show notes or head to impactcomsinstituteorg. Now let me set the stage for this episode. Who loves ice cream?
Speaker 3:Raise your hand, I do. During this episode, we'll explore how brands can authentically and responsibly incorporate lived experiences into their brand narratives. Now, what do I mean by this? And what do I mean by ice cream? Greystone Bakery is a company that has been a trailblazer in inclusive employment since 1982, since its open hiring process of their employees, many of whom have faced barriers to employment, and they bake the brownies that have been featured in Ben Jerry's chocolate, fudge brownie and half-baked ice cream flavors since 1987. Have you had that flavor? If so, this story is going to become a whole lot more interesting to you. I'm sure Joseph and Sean really dive into the critical elements that brands need to consider when developing these purposeful partnerships, including the thoughtful preparation necessary for spokespeople to share their lived experiences with the media. This conversation is so good. It's so good, you guys. It highlights the importance of intentional storytelling and responsible communications, aligning perfectly with ICI's mission to empower organizations to communicate their impact effectively. I hope you enjoy.
Speaker 1:It's great to see all of your faces this morning and this afternoon. For many of you, we're joining each other from many various different unceded lands and territories. I myself live and work in the city of Vancouver, which is situated on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations. The Impact Relations Institute recently dedicated its July newsletter to the topic of land acknowledgements and in that we cited various different links and resources on how to make sure that your land acknowledgements are more than just a performative action before a meeting. So we invite you to read that. We will add that to the notes section of our YouTube upload after this. That also leads me to. Jenna will go ahead and share our YouTube channel. This session will live live on our YouTube channel later today Our YouTube channel. You can find previous Impact Councils where we've interviewed and had riveting and impactful conversations with organizations like Patagonia, Southwest Airlines, Kind Snacks, Fral, Raven and, of course, Ben Jerry's. So please look for the notes section of that for details on how to do an impactful land acknowledgement. Two final things I've already mentioned. Please go ahead and put your questions in the comment box. We'll do questions and answers at the last 10 minutes and we have a five minute spotlight guest speaker before we jump into that.
Speaker 1:But before we jump into our interview, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Melissa Rocco. I will be your host and moderator today. I'm the founder of BILU Public Relations and I'm one of the co-founding board members of the Impact Relations Institute. If you're joining us for the first time today, the Impact Relations Institute is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that's committed to educating professional communicators on the discipline of impactful and transparent communications, and we really just want to empower and provide everybody with the tools and resources to use to build the communications. It's a positive force for good. Our global network consists of more than 1,200 communicators worldwide and we all stand in solidarity to promote the importance of purpose-led communication. So we welcome you to join us in this mission by pledging at impactrelationsorg. For those of you who don't know this, you would know this by signing up today For those of you who don't know this.
Speaker 1:You would know this by signing up today. These sessions are free and that's because a big part of our mission is to make these learnings widely accessible to folks everywhere. So if you enjoy this session, please feel free to sign up and join us for future ones. Share it with anybody that you think would really benefit from these learnings. And that leads us to our conversation. Thank you for your patience in my intro. We're really excited about our guest speakers today. We're joined by two titans in the social impact space. An individual I've had the privilege and pleasure of working with and seeing firsthand in work Joseph Kenner. He's the president and CEO of Grayson Bakery and with him is my dear friend, one of the co-founding board members of the Impact Relations Institute, sean Greenwood. He has been the Grand Poobah of public relations for Ben and Jerry's for the past 36 years, I believe.
Speaker 5:Four-year degree people. This was not a. You don't just mail this in with a coupon for your breakfast cereal. Four years of the Grand Poobah degree.
Speaker 1:That's well. Well, that's amazing, and I'm really pleased that unilever allowed you to keep that title after the acquisition. Um, that's all I was really concerned about when that acquisition happened, to be honest. Um, but to our topic. Our topic today is formerly incarcerated and gainfully employed how two brands have leveraged lived experiences responsibly and will be reviewing a social justice framework for inclusive and open hiring. I'm going to set the stage a little bit and give you a little background.
Speaker 1:So since 1982, grayston Bakery has been on a mission to unlock the power of human potential through inclusive employment. Through their open hiring process, it's workers who have overcome various barriers to employment, such as former incarceration and many other things. It could be a language barrier, etc. And I think Joseph will happily take us through those details. It's helped people overcome barriers to employment by, and has allowed them to become bakers and fully them to become bakers and fully pardon me gainfully employed, and they've gone on to work in other amazing positions, and one of them is a senior director at the company now. So one of the open hiring is a big part of Greyston's brand identity, and so that's really. The focus about today is how brands are incorporating this into their brand story without objectifying people with those lived experiences. So open hiring is a big part of Grayston's brand identity, and criminal justice reform is a big part of Ben and Jerry's known mission and their brand identity. And so, since both organizations have been at this purposeful work for as long as I've been alive and I'll be 40 next month we can say with confidence that nothing about this is performative, nothing about it is opportunistic, and there's a lot that brands can learn from these two organizations on how to really meet individuals where they are in the workplace, as this trend for brands to do this is growing. And making sure that they're um, that they're promoting that they're, that they're helping these individuals promote and support their mission in a really respectful um, dignified, dignified manner. Pardon me, let me take a sip before I ask my first question to joe. All right, joseph. My first question to Joe. All right, joseph. So Brittany Glassman. He is the founder of Grintham Bakery, often quoted by saying we don't hire people to bake brownies, we bake brownies to hire people.
Speaker 1:And not all brands can say that their social purpose came before their reason for existing. In most cases, it's the opposite. An example that comes to mind is Dove wasn't born to promote body positivity. It was created to sell soap and the social purpose came later. They've done a fine job of executing this by engaging spokespeople and models of various sizes and backgrounds and abilities to promote their products. But that benchmark is pretty soft compared to what brands are championing these days, from trans rights representation to reproductive justice. So what advice do you have for organizations that are engaging folks with trauma or relevant lived experiences to their mission to be the advocates and brand ambassadors to a company's social purpose? How can brands incorporate these folks lived experiences responsibly and respectfully?
Speaker 7:Well, first of all, thank you for having me. It's great to be with a fellow Titan. I didn't know I was going to get the title Titan today, but glad to be with you, melissa, and always good to be with Sean. We've been on other outlets like this before, so it's really exciting to be here. But let me just begin first and thank you for the question you talk about how can we kind of tell these stories and be respectful and it really starts there, just being respectful and the stories that these folks have, because it's their story, it's their lived experience, it's, you know, what they have been through. But if I could just back it up a little bit, just so folks understand Greyston and understand what we're all about and how we came about, just so folks have some grounding as we have this conversation, you mentioned our tagline we don't hire people to bake brownies, we bake brownies to hire people. And that is the focus the people.
Speaker 7:When Bernie Glassman started this organization, it wasn't about brownies, it wasn't about the cakes and tarts that they used to make, which came before the brownies. Actually, it was about the folks that were on the sidelines, the folks that wanted to work, the folks that wanted to contribute to society and, as he believed and as I believe, to this very day, and carrying that legacy on, everybody has some God-given potential to do something, whatever that might be, and Bernie believed. It's our duty to help you find it, and not only that invest in it. So that is what we are about. We could be making anything, to be honest with you. We could be making bicycle seats, we could be making widgets, whatever. We just so happen to be making these amazing brownies for an amazing organization like Ben Jerry's, a marquee company in this space of B Corps. That's our means to an end, and the end is helping you unlock that human potential.
Speaker 7:So, going back to your question, it's about that. How do we tap into that story? For those folks and for us, we're not the heroes. It's not Grayston, it's not me. It's the folks that are actually doing the work, the folks that have actually overcome, and they are the heroes. These, this is the most resilient group of folks that you'll ever meet because of the experiences that they've had, but, more importantly, because of the success that they've had post-employment. That is really the story and that's what we need to talk about. It's not about us doing these great things and we're this do-good organization that's providing opportunities. That's all we do. We provide the opportunities, we provide the resources. It's up to you to make that happen. And if you have that resolve to say you want to be successful, the opportunity is there for you and we just provide that. But you actually make it happen. And telling that story in a very respectful way is really the point.
Speaker 1:Have there been scenarios where there's a spokesperson for the organization that's comfortable one day sharing the story and then suddenly they wake up one day and they think I don't really want my past to be part of my present anymore. I don't want that to be something that I'm constantly sort of wearing on my sleeve. I kind of ready to put it behind me and just work and and then you have to sort of groom another spokesperson to to communicate the mission for the organization and be an ambassador to the open hiring process.
Speaker 7:You know what I will say is there are hundreds of stories Most people know, like Dion. Or lately we had another. We have a documentary out that was produced by some Westchester Community College students here in New York film students that produced a documentary called Wide Open Dreams. I invite everybody to Google that and you can see the trailer.
Speaker 7:There are a lot of folks that tell they've been telling the story of what Greyston has meant to them and sometimes we kind of get fixated on them. But there are hundreds, literally hundreds, of story and no, not everybody wants to tell their story, but everybody is happy to be here and to be a part of it and we have to respect that and I think that's the point. And to the ones that do want to tell the story, I always say, yes, there is a Dion, yes, there is a Shauna, but there are hundreds of Dions and hundreds of Shaunas and some that don't even work here anymore. To be quite honest with you, they have a story too. To the extent they want to tell it or don't want to tell it, that's really fine.
Speaker 7:At the end of the day is looking at the people that we hire and I love to say we are DEI, esg with substance, because I don't have quotas for how many people of color or women that work with us and I have to say it is off the charts in terms of our bakers, in terms of just under a hundred percent of our bakers are people of color, are women. Naturally, open hiring does not have a target. Open hiring is put your name on a list, next person on the list gets hired. We don't pick and choose, it just naturally, organically is DEI and ESG with substance.
Speaker 1:That's actually a really good opportunity for me to play this short clip that you shared with us before the session. That does include a little bit of that storytelling and I think it gives a little bit more good context for our joiners today to see how this looks. So, if you just bear with me, I'm going to screen share and pull up this video.
Speaker 7:And I can give some additional color after you've shown it.
Speaker 1:Awesome, thank you.
Speaker 8:Because I didn't have that experience, or because I wasn't a male, or because I, you know, didn't have the education, or it was so different factors that they just looked at me and was like, no, and they didn't give me that chance. And I get it, you know, but all I needed was a chance. So I just kept pushing and, pushing, and pushing and I just kept getting no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 9:So it was hard getting no, no, no, no, no, no. So it was hard, hi shauna. This is melissa calling from grayston bakery. Please be here at 9 30 with two forms of id congratulations, welcome to grayston we focus on the future.
Speaker 7:We don't focus on the past. How do we give people?
Speaker 8:hope it's just been up. You know, they told me yes when everyone else said no, and it means everything.
Speaker 7:I'm just a whole host of folks about 10 million actually across this country who have some type of employment barrier.
Speaker 10:Starting my lifestyle over from the negative to the positive.
Speaker 7:We have this amazing open hiring model that I can tell you is quite revolutionary, this idea of just having someone put their name on a list.
Speaker 8:Grayston means everything. I'm stable. There's no question mark for tomorrow. I know that I have a job. I know that my bills are going to be paid. I know that my children are fed.
Speaker 7:It's a family because we're looking out for each other.
Speaker 8:They want to be part of this team. I felt like I had new life. I was able to provide for my family.
Speaker 1:So beautiful. You wanted to add a couple notes to that, Joe, before I move on to the next question. Please go ahead.
Speaker 7:Yeah, sure. So I would say, you know, if you I think there's somebody.
Speaker 1:Can everybody put themselves on mute, or you know what actually? I beg your pardon, that's my video still playing in the background. I would put myself on mute. I'll let you answer my question.
Speaker 7:Sorry about that yeah, I would just say you know this video. It's not. I don't know if you'll be able to see the full video on YouTube it's still being entered into some film festivals, but it features three different individuals a formerly incarcerated person, english as a second language, and obviously the focal point of that trailer was Shauna, who is a single mom. Her story was she has five kids, now six. She's just had her sixth child this past week. But when Shauna was looking for jobs I guess now, six years ago, seven years ago she couldn't get a job to save her life because, as she said, didn't have the education. She wasn't a male, there was just some issue where she couldn't get a job to the point where she was considering giving up her kids because she just couldn't take care of them. Literally to the day where she was about to make that decision, she gets the call from us to work the PM shift, which works for her from a childcare perspective. You fast forward six years later. At the time we were doing this video, shauna was one of our leads on the bakery line. Today she's now a supervisor.
Speaker 7:Other folks that were featured in that video former bakers went into our maintenance organization. Former baker went into our quality team. That's the. Those are the kinds of stories I love to tell and, again, the heroes of the story are those individuals. Greyston is just that means. I always say we provide the opportunity, not the promise, but it's up to you to make that success. It's not even about their barriers, it's really about their potential and, as you can see, they have a lot to contribute and it's up to us to, kind of as our founder would say, provide those opportunities and invest in our employees, as really any organization should.
Speaker 1:That's great, thank you. I'm going to shift over the questions to Sean now, our grand poobah of Ben and Jerry's, sean. Ben and Jerry's activism roots almost make it look too easy to establish powerful partnerships, and you all execute your mission so authentically and, most importantly, respectfully. I want to stress the fact that respectful is important because there's the risk that organizations might offend the communities that they're attempting to lift up by inadvertently objectifying them, as I've touched on earlier, in the pursuit of good PR. So how does Ben Jerry's assure authenticity and respect with the various causes and activism efforts that it supports? How do people know that it's not just a PR play?
Speaker 5:Yeah, great question and thanks for the invite. And it's always an honor Anytime I can ever partner up with Joe and the Grayson crew. It's always something that we jump at the opportunity and for impact relations known. I see some other alum here, but between yourself, melissa, jenna, charlotte, cedric, whole bunch of folks we've worked with before. So nice to be along with some like-minded folks and saw like Stacey posting a comment from Dr Bronner's right, like some incredible organizations, and I think it's learning from all those folks.
Speaker 5:Right, because we've certainly made our mistakes along the way and there were years where we were just chasing fires in terms of trying to make social impact.
Speaker 5:And I think for the folks who work at Ben and Jerry's or those folks who work with them, they know that that's a passion point for them.
Speaker 5:But I think one of the things we did that was really helpful is to stop the planning in a vacuum, the idea of saying, okay, we're going to go save folks, that's not the way it works. Right, it can be great intentions, but the idea of being able to be within those communities that you're trying to represent, right. And so, if the idea is, if I'm trying to be supportive and represent Greyston and we do something without Greyston's approval, without their support, without their planning, we may totally miss what it is that they're trying to do. Right, and I think similarly for all of us as organizations that are trying to get out there in those communities, I think, involving those communities in your from the strategy, don't wait until the project's done and then bring it up and stay in there and go here you go. Here's what we're going to do for you, because you may not really be helping and that idea of bringing them along that journey to be able to establish themselves right, so really helpful in this work.
Speaker 1:That's great. I think it's really key the part about bringing them in from the strategy. Look at them as partners, you know, not a beneficiary group as partners, as collaborators. So bringing them in from the thinking and planning part is so key. Joseph Gristin Bakery's approach is built on the belief that a job can become a stepping stone for a better life, and the open hiring process has been a cornerstone of Grayston's mission since day one. Could you share with us how the bakers have helped transform their lived experiences as individuals with barriers to employment into powerful advocacy for radical acceptance in the workplace and more inclusive hiring practices widely?
Speaker 7:Yeah, you know we've learned a lot over these last 41 years and I don't want to leave the impression that we think we're perfect and that you know everything that we do is you know all roses all the time. It's a challenge. I mean, this is bakery manufacturing. It's a tough job, it's monotonous, it's not meant for everyone, but you do learn things, as with any organization, any employer, where, particularly when you're dealing with open hiring, that folks bring their whole selves to work, shall we say, and as how do we kind of have that reciprocal relationship and build that level of trust? I mean, clearly we trust when we do open hiring, but really take it to that next level and help people deal with the other challenges that they face, whether it's kids in crisis, whether it's finding housing, and have them tell their own stories and help us, help them find the resources to support them.
Speaker 7:We learned over the years that what we needed to do was to hire what we call now a resource and support specialist that helps them through those challenges, and really this person is for anyone in the organization, doesn't have to be just the bakers, and you find, as they're telling these stories and as they're dealing with these issues, that they do want to work, but again, not everybody has the same type of social capital that you know many of us on this call might have or know how to deal with some of the challenges that they face.
Speaker 7:But folks you know utilize this resource and it's helped them help themselves, but also as an organization, as a business that's supporting Ben and Jerry's, un, unilever and Whole Foods and others. It helps us as well, because a happy, successful, fully engaged, able to bring their whole selves to work person is a good worker, and a good worker is providing products that help us get brownies out the door and help Ben Jerry's meet their needs with their customers. So it's important for us to provide those type of resources and also have that kind of open platform where folks can share and still keep their dignity and treat them in a very respectful way that helps them be fully human but also be a good worker at the same time.
Speaker 1:And I love that you have a dedicated person to that role and I think, considering the magnitude and the representation of people with barriers to employment that's in your workforce, it makes total sense to have somebody fully dedicated to that.
Speaker 1:Now in the case where it's a company like we mentioned Dr Bronner's or I think it's I see Lululemon on the call. So in the case that we have a company where they want to step their toe, dip their toe in open hiring, make a few hires, ask no questions, just bring people in as they are and they do have to think about all right, well, this person may have a parole officer, that they need to speak with their employer every once in a while. There's all of these other considerations that we need to make sure that we're accommodating while we're doing this. It's not just about not checking, not looking at that checked box, it's about other things too. If we provide that support, what person or what role in a in a larger company would be the most appropriate person to, to wear that hat, to to provide that support in the in the, in the case that they don't have a fully dedicated you know, social worker, slash, counselor to this role?
Speaker 7:who would be the best person in large company that's really getting involved in this. You know, it's interesting. We kind of couch these challenges in terms of the open hires or folks from the lower end of the employment spectrum. But when you think about it, getting to your question, this is just good HR, it's just good human resources. So where does this lie? It lies in HR.
Speaker 7:When you think about some of the barriers that folks are having, you have I come from corporate America. I worked on Wall Street you have folks that deal with substance issues. You have folks that have childcare challenges. You have folks that have, you know, things going on in their family that might impact their productivity. Everybody has those things. So really, if I want my employees and we should have learned this from COVID employees are looking to the organization. They're looking to the person at the top, obviously, but they're really looking to HR and all those other the function there. Who's helping me make sure that I'm safe in this organization? Who's investing in my learning and development? How do I know that I have a'm safe in this organization? Who's investing in my learning and development.
Speaker 1:How do?
Speaker 7:I know that I have a career path within this organization.
Speaker 1:All of those things come back to HR. So what we're talking about is good HR. Yeah, and tell you a secret kind of knew that, but I think a lot of people on this call wouldn't think that they have the resources and I just wanted to hear you say good HR, because everybody has good HR, so there's no reason where you can't do it.
Speaker 1:You heard it here, okay. Next question Sean Banning Jerry's is naturally, as you probably know, a dream brand partner for most organizations looking to increase the exposure to their cause or mission. In the case of Banning Jerry's and Grayson, you're much more than a brand ambassador to the mission. You guys are their largest buyer, or one of them. So what is it about Grayston that makes it easy for you to keep their business or, sorry, it makes it easy for them to keep your business? And what can other brands learn from this partnership? How can organizations like Grayston get the attention of loyal global companies like Ben Jerry's?
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's a great question. I think the truth is we consider Grayston the crown jewel of our values-led sourcing program. So the idea is we realized a long time ago, when Jerry and Ben were still working in the manufacturing and the management and saying how can we have the biggest impact on our global community, and that we realized purchasing ingredients can make such a huge investment because it not only can recognize you can work with a group that can use some help, but you can also establish them so they're able to build themselves up and be able to be successful moving forward. So I think that's one of the reasons when we identified Grayson as a partner right 35 years ago or so, to be able to start to do this work. The idea was they, you know as as incredible as their products were and right, and back then, when we first started, they were doing high-end cakes and desserts for restaurants in New York city. When our co-founder, ben, met up with Bernie and you know as amazing as their products are, their missions even stronger than their products, right, like the idea of how, like Joe said, it is about the people there, and so I've been real fortunate over the last you know, 20, 30 years of being able to go to Greyston a dozen, 15 times and you know the amazing story that you saw Shauna just telling. The great thing is that's not the only one, right, we know we've seen Dion tell that story. For, for those of you who haven't, dion was kind of the poster child of the like.
Speaker 5:I assumed I would someday be working and doing PR for Dion because he's such a superstar. But it's, it's those folks time and time again. And when I would go there and sit in the break room and talk with a baker who had come out and she would be saying thank you so much for buying brownies from us because it helps me. I was stuck on the street, I had three kids and I couldn't get a job because I had nowhere to put my kids. But I couldn't make any money to have a house either because I couldn't get a job.
Speaker 5:So it's this catch-22 piece and because of what Grayson was doing, it was easy for us to say when we find those authentic partners that are really trying to have an impact on their own communities, that's where we can be super supportive. And then the tail end piece of that is using our business power to magnify right, to be able to try to tell those stories. And when Joe started off saying you know, he's not the hero, we think Grayson is a hero, right, and so we always want to tell those stories. I think we shared some links too, I think right, and so we always want to tell those stories I think we we shared some links to.
Speaker 1:I think melissa has some videos for us to show right now, if that's okay, first one I'm gonna line up, it's just a short little video clip um a little commercial clip. This sort of shows how grayston in court or ben and jerry's incorporates um the message of working with good bakers or brownies that do good. Let me just share this real quick. This is a cute little commercial that just shows how it's sort of baked into your brand marketing. Thank you, Okay. So what is good about that clip?
Speaker 3:There's one simple hearing hack. Let me do that again.
Speaker 1:What's good about that clip is it's soft light, not too heavy, but people sort of know that your brownies or your ice cream is supporting organizations that do good. I'm going to also share the clip with Dion because it shows more about the collaboration between the partnership, and this is an old clip it's about nine years old but it still has so much relevance, so let me just line this one up.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and I think it's Dion up on the roof of the bakery actually telling his story.
Speaker 2:Now, in my monthly giving Slack group, the Sustainers, there are more than 100 nonprofits that share tips and tools to scale their recurring giving programs and, as you might believe, the CRM and fundraising tool conversation comes up a lot, and one that always comes up in conversation is Bloomerang. So if you're in the market to be looking at a complete donor, volunteer and fundraising management solution, head to bloomerangco. They have a very intuitive platform that tracks engagement, provides powerful insights so that you can really focus on driving your mission forward. So join thousands of small and medium sized nonprofits that are already thriving with Bloomerang and, again, you can visit bloomerangco to elevate your fundraising today.
Speaker 10:I can't explain the feeling I have coming to work every day and I walk to work. I walk with my iPod, my little book bag, my lunch, and it feels good.
Speaker 6:I'm sorry. Ben was at a conference with other leaders in social enterprise and Ben met Bernie Glassman, who was the founder of the Greyston community.
Speaker 11:For 30 years, greyston has been a leading social enterprise combining contract manufacturing baking with a social justice program based around open hiring, which means anyone that walks in the front door of our bakery. We offer a job around the open hiring program.
Speaker 4:We have other capabilities through Grayston foundations we provide about 300 units of affordable housing in Yonkers. In the surrounding area we have a childcare center, we have a community garden program. We have a program to service people with HIV. Surrounding area we have a childcare center, we have a community gardens program, we have a program to service people with HIV and AIDS and we have a workforce development program to help train people for jobs other than in our bakery.
Speaker 6:And so Ben said to Bernie hey look, you bake things. Why don't we figure out what you can bake for us, which turned out to be brownies. We make ice cream, we'll put them in the ice cream and let's make it really good and let's see what happens.
Speaker 11:This business right here seems yonkers.
Speaker 9:It don't matter what type of record you got, what type of police history you got.
Speaker 10:I was looking for jobs. Nobody wanted to hire me because of my background.
Speaker 2:If baking didn't change my life, I changed my life.
Speaker 10:If I didn't get in contact with Grayston, I'd probably be incarcerated for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2:But it put me in that position to help me change my life.
Speaker 11:It's an equal opportunity place. It's not judging people on their past performance, but it's looking at what they're capable of in the future.
Speaker 12:And there's places that say that but then don't mean it. But this place, this place really means it.
Speaker 9:And that's what it's about with Grayston. They give you an opportunity to pick up your life and to excel.
Speaker 6:What we're trying to do is to see how business can create social good. And for many years we've taken a page out of the Ben Jerry's playbook which is Linked Prosperity you create benefits out of the business decisions that you make, so that all along the value chain there's a sense of prosperity and Greyston is a wonderful model for that.
Speaker 9:They own a mission that's not good quality value, but to serve this community.
Speaker 6:We're looking to see if we can create social good, environmental good, economic good, all of that.
Speaker 11:Consumers are going to want to buy from businesses that they realize are doing better in the community.
Speaker 9:And Ben Jerry's has been that leading model for years and years. We take pride, you know, because we've got thousands, and thousands, millions of customers with Ben Jerry's help. So it takes a team effort and it's a hell of a team work.
Speaker 3:Wow, all right.
Speaker 7:Can I just comment real quickly on that video.
Speaker 1:One second. Let me just close this window, ready for your comments, joe.
Speaker 7:No, no, what I love about that and this is what really we got to drive home here. It's like you know, sean and I, we're not selling just brownies and ice cream, we are literally changing people's trajectory. When I look at that from nine years ago, you know, you start with Dion. He was a baker then he's now a senior supervisor. I saw a guy, charles, who now lives in Virginia, so he's mobile, and the guy at the end, reginald, still with us, and you see the different ways that people kind of add value and find their place and for us that is success. But everybody has their own definition of it. And just to see how people have progressed since, that video is quite amazing and this is what Ben and Jerry's and Greyston do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great. I saw a couple people asking questions in the comments about retention of bakers and that sort of answers that question that there is not just retention but lots of career advancements being done every day. Okay, joseph, one of the things that people often say in terms of ways to increase an organization's impact is one by establishing strong partnerships with values aligned organizations. The spin and jerry's case is a perfect case in point. Um, the other best practice for scaling your organization's impact is to open sorts of playbook for how you made it happen, how you make that change happen. So let's hear about grayston's open hiring 360 blueprint. I know it's had different names over the years but, like, really it's been a core mission for the organization to share its recipe for open hiring. Can you talk to us a little bit about how you're trying to encourage and educate other organizations on how to take notes from the playbook?
Speaker 7:Yeah, and certainly since I've been CEO now over three years we really wanted to focus on inclusive employment and inclusive hiring. And just to clarify from the video, because it mentioned a lot of things that we no longer do, like housing, community gardens and childcare those are all great things that continue to be done by other nonprofits, but we really wanted to focus on inclusive employment and double down on what I would say are core to who we are, open hiring being a big piece, but also workforce development, education and training. But to your question, as part of the foundations, greyston Foundation's goals and mission for 2030 really is to take that open hiring model to other organizations and you might have heard in the video that you played earlier, we've got 10 million people on the sidelines, you know, looking for work or give it up looking for work because they have one or more barriers to employment. It's incumbent upon us as business leaders and I applaud Ben and Jerry's and others that are looking at ways to bring folks off the sidelines we want to share open hiring with other organizations. We've had a great partnership with the Body Shop over these last five, six years to see this grow from, you know, 300 opportunities back in 2019 at a distribution center in Raleigh, north Carolina, to now well over 5,000 opportunities in their distribution center retail operations in the USA, canada, australia and the UK. We've just signed on with IKEA just last year. We're going to help them do some pilots in their distribution centers in North America, and we need other bold companies wanting to do the same thing.
Speaker 7:If you've got an entry-level position where someone can learn the job on the job and all that's required is the desire and the will to be successful and you teach them everything else do I care what your past is, what was like, I just want to make sure you're helping me make my widgets, helping me make my ice cream, helping me make my brownies. We need to provide that opportunity to folks. So that is the mission of the foundation is to work with those companies and to really I don't want to be unique anymore. I want other folks to be doing open hiring. I want other folks to be doing what we're doing and really using your business, leveraging your business's product or services. Whether it's a janitorial service company we work with one of those or whether you know you're the body shop selling beauty products, how can we change folks' trajectories with our amazing products and our businesses?
Speaker 1:That's great.
Speaker 1:You've answered a bit of my next question, but I'm going to go ahead and ask it for both of you anyway, as we conclude this question portion of the session. As pioneers in this field, this it for both of you anyway, as we conclude this question portion of the session. As pioneers in this field, this is to both of you. Is there any more advice that you have from either of your brands, or from either of your brands to other organizations that are looking to incorporate similar strategies? To hire individuals with lived experiences, to promote social change.
Speaker 5:You go first Jill.
Speaker 7:Okay what I would say and I get this a lot when I talk to different audiences people get a little apprehensive when you say open hiring and they think, oh my God, I got to do my entire organization or my entire manufacturing facility and do open hiring. Take baby steps, and particularly in the larger organizations, public companies and I come from a public company, so I understand all of the different machinations and all the bureaucracy that you have to go through but just take a baby step and either take a portion of your workforce or one job and just make that your open hiring job. We'll work with you on how to set it up and to move forward, but just take that first step and see, just like the Body Shop did, pilot it for however long you feel you need to do it. But really it's about just taking that first step and starting with that one job or that portion of your workforce or that one unit in Boca Raton, florida or Pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and saying this is going to be our open hiring. Pilot and test it, but get started somewhere and don't get so caught up in.
Speaker 7:You know the idea that this is a radically different way of looking at things and to my classically trained HR folks. I get it, but really, if you look at where we are today, we still have I think it's over 9 million now open unfilled jobs. We're not doing hiring very well right now. So we really have to figure out other ways to bring folks into our organization and look at how we're doing it and then where we're looking for the talent. I think that's really where we need to start. So that would be my advice and we're here to help you. So it's really reaching out to us and we can be on this journey together.
Speaker 5:I just basically reiterate what Joe was saying. My first thought is you know, always when people ask like, they'll say we don't have a social mission department in our business, but we believe we want to do something. Good, how do we do it? And it's always start small. Don't start by saying, all right, I'm going to try to. You know, go out and save the world. When you look for most of us in our businesses, you have an impact right in your local community. And so if there's a way to be able to do that in your local community, to be able to start small and say I'm going to hire someone four hours a week to come in and work and, you know, help us at a temp job, and then to be able to say, yeah, that was an open hiring candidate, that was somebody who may have had a barrier to employment, and see how well it works out and be able to reinforce that. And the last piece I think and again this is where Joe ended they're experts, right, like Ben and Jerry's, not an expert in this.
Speaker 5:Grayston is, and so don't feel like you need to do this alone. There are plenty of organizations Grayston is leading this work that you can reach out and say here's what I've got. We've got three manufacturing sites in three different states and we want to do this. And could we put it in Like a lot of this work has been done, and I think the beautiful thing about being you know fellow B Corps and folks who are working for companies that have a mission, that are values-led, is we want to share that information so you don't. So everyone doesn't have to start from scratch. They can build on the work that others have done and when you see the excellent work you know Grayson has been through it all with their, their work staff they know they can say you know, let's have a discussion with your HR people lead and and be able to be prepared for this, to be able to wade into those waters, do it thoughtfully and deliberately and then build on that success.
Speaker 1:And that that just looping back to the topic, because we're talking a lot about open hiring and inclusive hiring, but again about trans rights or maybe it's about I know Ben and Jerry's had their hand and you know legal life in gay marriage. This is how long you guys have been doing it, so that's up at threat right now. But, like, whatever the mission is, whatever the activism effort is incorporating somebody with the lived experience to be an ambassador in your team to make sure that your company lives and breathes those values, that it's not just a campaign that's attached to something that's a hot topic at the moment, but that it's being incorporated responsibly. So please just try to keep that in mind as you're listening to all of this, that this is a very you know narrowed focus on criminal justice reform and open hiring. But you can apply all of these tips of starting small, finding an impactful partner to whatever cause or mission or activism effort you are trying to achieve with your organization.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to open it up for questions and answers in a minute, but before I switch over to audience Q&A, we have a special guest in the audience Andrew Gibbs Dabney. Sorry about that. He's the CEO and the founder of a sustainable clothing brand called Libsyn, which is based in the Ozark Highlands. When Andrew first started his clothing brand, he was faced with some unexpected adversity in the light of something that happened in his past, many years ago. So I'll go ahead and let Andrew share his story, and I think he's going to have a question for the two of you, being sort of early in his game, approaching what you guys have been at for as long as my life. So, andrew, I'll push it over to you.
Speaker 12:Thank you and, first of all, thanks for putting this on. Thank you so much to the speakers here. It's been really cool to hear this and hear the stories that y'all told and the impact that's been seen through all of it. It's very inspiring, so happy to be here. My company, like she said, is Livzin Designs, shortened just for Livzin.
Speaker 12:We do sustainable outdoor apparel and my experience with addiction and incarceration actually led to the founding values that Libsyn's built on. The name is actually from Libsyn Jutare. Libsyn Jutare is the kind of English phonetic interpretation of that. It's a Swedish word that means one who lives life fully realization I had, as I was. I was locked up and going through recovery and looking at potentially, you know, 40 years to life in prison, but obviously coming out on the better side of that was that life is more about collecting experiences and sharing those with friends and family than it was about the stuff that you had right. So, with outdoors and where I come from, which is those Arc Mountains those are highlands, as Melissa referred to it, as I love that term is that I wanted to spend more time outside and I wanted to spend more time outside with friends, and what that means in outdoor clothing is that we need to make very functional, very versatile clothing that lasts a long time, that can work in the outdoors but also can be worn everywhere else, right, so that you don't have to own so much stuff. It's about experiences, not stuff, and to do that well, you also need to make it designed for the long haul, made with sustainable materials, using sustainable packaging, with a repair program, with a resale program. So we've now fully closed that loop recently, where we now have a peer-to-peer marketplace and all those things. So it's built on this realization, though while I was locked up that experiences are more important than the stuff we have, but the stuff you have should be additive to those experiences and help facilitate it. So it's not like you can't be fully minimalist, right, or you can, but like. That's not what we're about. It's about just meaningful and intentional.
Speaker 12:So when I started lives and I wanted it to stand on its own, based on its own merits, on the design of the product and the brand and the branding and the values that we put forward first, and we started with values and principles before the products. That's what we published first, before we ever even launched our first product it was. This is why we're doing this and we started collecting fans that way. So I kept my past not necessarily at the back, but it was like a third day conversation when I was talking to people that I was going to work with, people that were going to invest in the business people. It was not what I led with. It was hey, before we get too serious, I need to tell you about something. Usually that worked. It was okay. I get it. I respect you for the story and what you went through, but not a big deal. But I had a suspicion it was closing doors that I just wasn't seeing. Doors were closing, but I didn't know why. Well, one day, one door closed explicitly for that reason and they didn't tell me. Actually, at the beginning they said it was a big investor, kind of a public one. I would have been on TV with a pitch and it was going all the way up until recording of the show. And they said, hey, we're not going to do it anymore. And I said, okay, let's reschedule, it's fine, like you know, I know he's a busy guy, we'll figure this out. And they go no, it's because of your past. And so that time it became right up front and said look, this is because of you that your business is missing out on an opportunity, and so I made the decision at that point to put my story up front. This is right about a little bit.
Speaker 12:After this time last year, I wrote a LinkedIn post that was just like hey, a lot of y'all know this, but some of you don't. This is what I went through and this is what I did, and this is what I've done since then, and this is this is part of my story. I think one thing I said, which mostly you should use the same words, was my past is not my. My past and my present but. But I said, my past is not my present, but it brought me here right, like I wouldn't be here as who I am and the business wouldn't be here as what it is, with the values it has, without that. So I think it's valuable and I wanted those doors to close. If they were going to close. I wanted them to close before I ever walked up to them and my hope was that some doors would open right. More about this was just kind of getting it off from back here to the front, making sure that it was going to be something that wasn't. I didn't feel like I was holding back from people, but since then it has the response.
Speaker 12:The post went, you know, semi viral, received so much goodwill. Several press articles came out of it outside and Fortune and some of the really great outlets came in to tell my story and Fortune and some other really great outlets came in to tell my story and, more importantly, people were telling me one-on-one stories about people in their lives, people in their family that have gone through this and asking me to help or give some insight or whatever. And that was really powerful. And here we are now. Lives In is successful in its own merits. My story is not out in the world, but they're still kind of here and here we're getting closer right but we're still working on how to bring that together and if it's even appropriate. And this whole lived experiences thing is very near to me because it's my story Right, also my business. It's baked in but it's not necessarily cohesive yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think everybody has a little bit of discomfort when they're trying to decide should I leverage that? Is this right, is this opportunistic, or is this part of our founding story? And you tell it so beautifully. You can really feel that it is part of what you've, the values that you've embedded into the organization. So you have really fine tuned that. That message well, but what? What questions might you have for Ben-tuned? That message well, but what questions might you have for Ben and Jerry on how to repurpose this lived experience to help further your organization's mission?
Speaker 12:So I mean, I guess there's two places where I want to go with it, but the one that's much more close to what I just said is I'd love to hear your opinion on how we can weave that lived experience into Libsyn's mission and brand story without feeling exploitative. I just said is I'd love to hear your opinion on how we can weave that lived experience into lives and mission and brand story without feeling exploitative, without feeling like a sob story, without saying like we make clothes and you should buy it because of our founder in the story, but really bringing those things together in a way that we try and I would like to, but I'm obviously cautious about I think it's a great opportunity in front of you, andrew, and thanks for sharing the story.
Speaker 5:I do think you know, for one of the things that's worked successfully for Ben and Jerry's is tying in our product with our mission.
Speaker 5:So if there's any way that you can tie in a product, a product line, you know something that you say.
Speaker 5:This is directly inspired by my history, by my right, if it's designs, if it's, you know, new products, anything that you can connect that way.
Speaker 5:And I think the big picture for all of us and you've got some pretty impressive businesses tuned in here today right, I think those businesses that are successful when they stay true to their values find a way to really connect those two as close as possible and then look to use the power to lift others up.
Speaker 5:And I think that could be a great opportunity for you to say look, I know I've been through this. I'm now at a successful business and able to leverage where I've had my past and where that's made me who I am today. How do you then use the power of that business to help others to be able to do that? Because then tell them their stories, right, to be able to say I'm actively going to go out and try to find three more people who've had the experience that I have to be able to bring them into my organization and utilize their experience to be able to say how do we grow our impact even further this way. It feels like it's a great opportunity. I'll throw it over to Joe see if he's going to build on there too.
Speaker 7:No, I thank you, andrew, for sharing your story. I mean for me you kind of said it yourself. You know your past is not your present, but your present has a lot to offer, right, and that's what we always say to our folks here. I mean, you have the potential. You've seen people have seen now what you can do. How amazing would that be when you share that story with others who might be in your same position that want to do something but say, oh no, my past is preventing me from doing this, but I have these great ideas. Just do it. Just do it because I've done it and I've been successful at it. That's not a sob story, that's a success story. So that's that would be my advice to you.
Speaker 12:Yeah, thank you so much. That that's super helpful and that's what sharing it has, has, has done, is, is, is I've seen it have an impact on people, and so so far, that's that's kind of what we've done is just continue to share it. Right, that's what I've. That's been helpful and it's been helpful to people. It's been helpful to me. I'd love to continue to like, like, like we were talking about, bring it into the business, bring in either product line or a nonprofit support or some sort of practice and those things to kind of bridge that between my experience and kind of business practices. But we just haven't found the right one yet and, to be honest, we're a four person startup growing really fast and sometimes, sometimes the the nice to have is get pushed off in favor of what has to happen. So, but it's there, it's high up on our list of the priority to figure out. Thank you so much and congratulations.
Speaker 1:And that's a really great place for us to wrap up the interview session. Thank you so much, Andrew, for joining us. I just love how much it incorporated into our conversation today.
Speaker 2:Can you tell I love talking all things digital To make this show better. I'd be so grateful for your feedback. Leave a review, take a screenshot of this episode, share it on Instagram stories and tag positive equation with one E so I can reshare and connect with you.
