Empowered by Hope
You want the best possible quality of life for your child regardless of diagnosis or prognosis. Raising a child with medical complexities is often lonely, scary and overwhelming. Join two parents of amazing children with rare medical complexities, Emily K. Whiting and Ashlyn Thompson, to get help and grow with them into empowered advocates for our kids. Here you’ll find a community of support, encouragement, education and resources, equipping you to navigate your child’s medical complexities with hope. To get more personal support, connect with us directly at www.ParentEmpowermentNetwork.org.
Empowered by Hope
Considerations Before Launching a Nonprofit with Gabie Benson from Sprout Fundraising
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We're thrilled to spotlight Gabie Benson, owner and founder of Sprout Fundraising, our insightful fundraising and leadership coach, who has been pivotal in elevating our nonprofit endeavors with her expert guidance and empathetic approach.
Have you considered starting a nonprofit in honor of your journey with your child's medical challenges? If so, you aren't alone and that's why we invited Gabie to speak to you today. With over 20 years of nonprofit fundraising experience, she shares a passion for empowering nonprofit founders, especially those who feel like underdogs. Gabie and Ashlyn share personal stories, from the challenges faced with our children's medical needs to the societal complexities of parenting, resonate deeply with the struggles of many parents. Through empathy and shared experiences, we celebrate the resilience and grace required to thrive in these roles, all while exploring the unexpected joys of helping others achieve their missions.
For those contemplating launching a nonprofit, this episode offers a wealth of knowledge to guide you through the essential steps. From researching community needs and establishing a strong board to crafting a clear mission and vision, we lay out the groundwork for creating a successful organization. We delve into the emotional complexities of fundraising, emphasizing the importance of community support and resilience. With insights from Gabie Benson, we aim to inspire and equip you with the tools needed to embark on your own nonprofit journey, fostering a network of support and hope along the way.
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Whether you've just been blindsided by your child's diagnosis or you've been in the trenches of their complex medical needs for a while, empowered by Hope, is here for you. Though we wish you didn't know this heartache, we're so glad you found us, so together we can walk this journey in hope.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone, welcome to the Empowered by Hope podcast. It's your co-host, ashlyn Thompson, and today Emily could not join us with the kids back to school. Let's face it, that means the germ parade is in strong force and she is dealing with some kids who need her attention more than the podcast right now. So we miss her, but send her well wishes for her sanity and all the kids to get healthy very quickly. So, because Emily couldn't be here today, I wanted to bring out a really awesome guest for you all, and I didn't have to think very hard about who that person should be. So I'm really excited to introduce you somebody who is the expert of experts, in our opinion, on the topic we're going to speak about today, which is we have people come to us. You know who.
Speaker 2:I think it's really common that people who are walking this journey, who have, you know, experienced the pain, the fear, but have also experienced the help and the support that you find yourself wanting to move from being the person needing the support to the person who's giving the support. I think that's a really natural part of healing and, truthfully, I mean exactly what Emily and I did is we needed help, healing, and the best way to do that was to use our pain to redefine what our purpose was in life was to use our pain to redefine what our purpose was in life, and that's being here with you all and creating this community and really just addressing that big, gaping problem that a parent or a family member experiences when you get that crushing news that your child's not well. It's that overwhelm of fear and hopelessness or feeling ill-equipped, like there's no way I can possibly do this or how am I going to get through this, and we want to be there to answer that together and show each other we can do that. But I think having that perspective can get us really amped up and, speaking from experience, emily and I got super amped up and we decided we were going to dedicate our lives to this and it's the best decision we've made. We're so thrilled to be doing the work that we're doing. We love doing Empowered by Hope podcast. We love all the incredible things that have been happening with Charlotte's Hope Foundation.
Speaker 2:But let me tell you, folks, it's a lot of work. It is so much more than we realized we were getting into, so much so that at the beginning of 2024, I started having semi panic attacks about how are we going to do all the work that we need to do and yet still address all the things that a nonprofit requires of you, such as fundraising, having the money to actually do the things that you need to be able to do as an organization? And I don't know, it was just a God thing. I somehow God just dropped the most perfect person in our laps and I am thrilled to bring on our very own fundraising coach, life coach, executive coach, all the things that you do for us, gabby, which are probably way more than we went to contract on. But I am thrilled to introduce to you all Gabby Benson, who we have been working with since this spring, and she has who we have been working with since this spring, and she has elevated our organization so much in so many ways, and we felt like it was a really important thing and valuable thing to bring Gabby on here to talk to you, because if you are considering starting your own nonprofit, we don't want you to go into it as blind as Emily and I did.
Speaker 2:We can all learn from one another, and that includes part of this being that process. So today we're going to talk about what are the realities of creating and running a nonprofit. What does it actually take? We're going to talk about alternative options to creating your own nonprofit and then Gabby's going to round us out with some really great things to consider, kind of some questions to ask yourself if you are considering that and trying to decide what the right step is for you. So with that, gabby, I'm so thankful that you're here today and I would love it if you could just give our audience an introduction to yourself and what is going on with you at Sprout Fundraising, and then we'll dive into the questions from there.
Speaker 3:Well, thank, you for having me, ashlyn, and asking me to come on the podcast. I've been a longtime, longtime listener, tuning into the podcast just to have a little bit of inspiration in my day throughout the week and hearing stories from other moms and parents who have been through a lot, have been through it a lot more than I have, even though I've been there too. The podcast just brings such a light to my day. So I'm happy to be a part of it and, of course, happy to work with you and Emily on Charlotte's Hope Foundation.
Speaker 3:I started Sprout Fundraising and Consulting because I wanted to help the little dogs, the underdogs, the Cinderella stories of nonprofit founders figure out how to fund their vision and fund their mission.
Speaker 3:Because it is hard and it feels lonely a lot of times and there are tools and resources and sometimes too many tools and resources to figure out what you're supposed to do. But having a guide by your side, figure it all out and decide what's worth your time, what's not worth your time, helping you focus your mission and your vision, where are you going, pick out the right tools that is what I just I love to do. I've been a nonprofit fundraiser for over 20 years. It's the only job I've ever had besides mom and waitress and dance instructor. I do do that on the side, but I've always been a fundraiser, I've always been in the nonprofit sector, so it's just a topic that I love. I'm just that's also where my heart is is helping others. I just always feel like that has been my purpose, so I get to live that out and helping other people live out their own personal missions.
Speaker 2:Well, we are definitely huge benefactors of you living out your mission. We're very, very grateful. If you wouldn't mind. You don't have to go into much detail, but I think it would be cool for the audience to understand that you understand our audience really well as a mom.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. That's really what made you pop out to me as a client that I wanted to work with, because I connected so much with being a mom hearing a diagnosis and not knowing how bad is this? How worried should I be? What does this mean for my child's future and even ongoing needs?
Speaker 3:My oldest was born with PDA, which is a heart defect that impacts how blood flows through the lungs of an infant, and in most kids that valve will close at birth or shortly after. But Elliot's didn't, and so he had surgery. It was a catheter procedure which is minimally invasive but still very scary. He had surgery at 13 months old, so just after his one year birthday. But we spent the whole year knowing that he had this heart defect and that a respiratory infection, a fever, extreme heat, extreme cold all kinds of things could impact how his heart was handling blood flow through his body. So we were just constantly worried about colds coming into the house and how he was going to handle it, and even today you know he had this procedure. The doctors at Riley Children's Hospital were amazing. Our cardio specialist there was amazing. He's never had any follow-up necessary, but every time we go for a well child check I'm like how's his heart sound? How does his heart sound Like he's 12 years old. He hasn't had any problems since then. He's been a very healthy child, but I'm I'm constantly worried about what that means for him, um, as an athlete, as a growing boy into a man. So, uh, that was.
Speaker 3:That was just a really sort of scary experience with my first child and then my youngest. My youngest is neurodivergent. He's autistic. He is the coolest kid I have ever known and will make me laugh all day long. But he is a constant journey, finding therapists and we I talk a lot about his bowel movements because that is a constant need in our household of finding the right combination of foods and resources and medicines to keep him feeling good so that he can also focus and do what he needs to do at school.
Speaker 3:And so I feel like every mom has those, you know, parts of their world, of being a mom that you know we carry it all day long and worried about how did school go today? No, you weren't feeling. How did a mom that you know we carry it all day long and worried about how did school go today? No, you weren't feeling. How did school go today? You know, and I know that you, so many moms that you guys work with, have diagnoses that are far more complicated than the ones my kids have had, but it's still. Everything is complicated to a mom Because we live in this society that has made it complicated and we that's just we worry about our babies. You know we want them all to be healthy and whole and happy and you know we just do whatever we can to keep guiding them on that process. But it's definitely been a journey.
Speaker 2:And one that you show such grace, and it's just Emily and I have really enjoyed working with Gabby just on from that perspective to working with another professional who also is committed to being there for their kids and navigating ongoing medical needs, and you somehow make it look really easy. I'm sure it's not, but you do an incredible job, and so it just is really special to us that, like we always say, we're sorry you're in this club, but we're glad you're here now, we're glad we're together and let's do something great with it, and that's what we're doing. So, for the sake of our audience, let's go ahead and jump into these. You know these three questions that we've outlined for this conversation. So the first question, gabby, what would you tell somebody who is considering starting a nonprofit? You know they've been through something with their child or are going through something and they say, hey, I have this idea, I want to start a nonprofit and I'm really excited and gung ho. What would you tell them before you flash a green light?
Speaker 3:Yeah, the first thing I would tell them is to do their research on. Is that a need in their community or in our community, or broadly needed? Is there demand? It's sort of like building your own business Is there a demand for your product? Is it a good or service that people need in their lives?
Speaker 3:And then I would do some research on if anybody else is already doing that and fulfilling that, because there are 1.8 million nonprofits in the US, which means there's lots of overlap and lots of duplication of efforts, but there's only so many dollars available from individuals, from corporations, from foundations, from your government. The resources are really minimal. So we've got to make sure that those 1.8 million nonprofits are all doing something very specific and unique and effective. So that would be my measurement tool is if you have an idea, is there anybody else already doing it in your community? Is there anybody doing that nationally that you could connect to? But what's is it being? Is it being provided someplace else? And that you want to make sure that you have done that research before you start anything new. Right, perfect.
Speaker 2:All right. So let's say somebody does that research and they feel like the need is there, they're comfortable in what they have to offer, is is important, has value. What are the type of things that somebody could you know? Let's say almost kind of a checklist of what are some good indicators that you're in a good position, that it's the right time for you to do this?
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 3:So, like I said, starting a nonprofit is very much like starting a business.
Speaker 3:So except you need bylaws and a board of directors. Before you ever even get your 501c3 IRS status as a nonprofit which means before you even officially can become a nonprofit you need to have done the work to have a structured organization in place, your rules and procedures for your bylaws, and who is on the board of directors? Who is ultimately responsible? They're the fiduciary, responsible humans for your mission, and it has to be more than just you, the founder. You need a group of people who is ultimately responsible. So do you have a network around you who also care about this cause and this program, this work that would become your board of directors? How networked are those people who are going to become your board of directors? Because it takes a startup costs like it would starting a business to start a nonprofit, and it is. You don't start from zero. There's a cost associated just to do the filings and just to get an email account with Google. You know just some of your basic technology things that you might need your bank, getting your bank accounts open, that sort of thing. So do you have people around you or connections to people who could help fund your startup costs. You could write checks very early to get you started. Who's in your network you could go to?
Speaker 3:I talk to founders all the time that started their organization by quote unquote begging. But that's how they feel about fundraising. It's not begging that's another topic we can come back to but asking their friends and family to donate. And their friends and family donate because the charity was created in honor of their child or in memory of their child or a parent or whatever their circumstances. So they feel emotionally connected and they want you to be successful. But that doesn't mean those people can keep funding your organization long into the future. So, having a broad network that you can call on, because it does take money to get started and it does take money to keep going. So are you, are you networked or do you know how to network?
Speaker 3:That would be a checkbox your name, your vision and your mission, making those crystal clear. Because if you are not unique and findable, your message is not crystal clear, you cannot be fundable. People will not give if they do not understand what you do or they do not understand your name. They don't understand your purpose. So, getting that mission, vision and name really solid before you even start to ask for any funds. I think is really, really important. That'd be my checkbox, and then my last checkbox would be how much time do you have?
Speaker 3:Because starting a nonprofit is, like I said, like starting your own business, and it's not a part time thing. It is a thing that is you. You are now part of part of your heart and part of your soul, part of your family's commitment. It means zoom meetings throughout the day or on the weekends, zoom meetings with board members in the evenings, going to events that you would not normally go to, but now you need to to be able to talk about your program and your opportunities. Your own nonprofit, no matter what the size is, because it takes so much to do it. So do you have the time or do you have the support system around you to give you that time and sometimes that just comes with the privilege of your own position to be able to give of that time and give of that resources from your family?
Speaker 2:Right. For example, something that comes to mind when you speak about time is if you have children who are not in school yet but will be going to school. Maybe this is something you start thinking about putting your your literally business plan together, values, looking through your network for potential board members, start the process but potentially wait until your kids are being cared for by the school corporation for at least six hours a day and then you know you actually have some built-in time to work on it. Because I can tell you, having you know a child who was not in school when we started and she's only goes now a couple of days I mean it's a lot of juggling and also to you know really having clarity on what your family needs to be okay. Can your family afford for you to work on a nonprofit and not get paid? Or can your nonprofit or can your family afford for you to work part time? Can your nonprofit or can your family afford for you to work part time so that you can do the nonprofit the other time? But will your family be OK covering the additional child care costs, things like that?
Speaker 2:And I only say that because there is nothing it is so rewarding doing work. You know that matters to your heart and it is so powerful being able to harness our experience and help one another. I mean, gosh, like what's more important in life than learning from it and helping one another? I mean it's just an incredible experience to be a part of. But you also need to make sure that you don't lose sight of taking care of your family.
Speaker 2:Need to make sure that you don't lose sight of taking care of your family, your child, your own needs, because nonprofit work is very, very personal and because of that, I think it adds another emotional layer to you know, you might feel like I got to be working all the time or I've got to reach these goals and this is so important to me, and if I don't do this, nobody else will. And you know it's intense, but I'm not trying to say anything to scare anybody off from it. I just think it's helpful to realize that, like you said, gabby, it is really helpful, I think, for people considering it to understand that it's really like setting up your own business.
Speaker 3:You're truly going to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I also think fundraising for you as a founder of an organization is very different than fundraising for a nonprofit that you are not personally affiliated or attached to. Right, because when you're asking for contributions, there is a feeling in you about worthiness and like. If they don't give, like is it personal to me, and it's very hard for founders to separate themselves from the organization when they are asking for funds, so that it takes some tough skin sometimes that you have to know that this is not about me, it's the mission and I am offering people the opportunity to support this mission. They're doing it because I asked. They're doing it because they know and love me, but ultimately it's not personal either, so that I think that is a mental shift that a lot of people have to have when they go from. I like to raise money for this particular cause because you'll know and love it right, and starting your own where you are the one responsible for it, I think you just have to. It does take tough skin and you gotta be prepared for that.
Speaker 2:It does, yes, and being comfortable, or becoming comfortable with putting yourself out there again and again and again. You know that's something that's taken work for Emily and I. We're three years into this and Gabby is still helping us. You know, refine that message and find confidence in our approach and you learn that you will have different approaches for different people or different businesses, and you know. But there's also a lot of really cool things that come from that. I mean you'll discover you know some hidden superpowers that you have. You'll discover that there's a lot of things you can learn on YouTube to help you run a business. You have to be ready to dive in and learn. It is really a sink or swim experience, in my opinion, in a lot of ways. You have to be willing to go out there and fail or try things and realize it's not going to be smooth all the time, but embrace that rocky road and see the growth in it.
Speaker 3:But if you can survive that girl, you can do anything because it does. It tests all of your skills and all of your abilities and challenges you in ways that you didn't even know. You could Google that thing, but you figured it out. So then the sky becomes the limit of what else you can do, exactly.
Speaker 2:Gabby, what do you think? What are a couple things that you've seen that you feel like are differentiators between the nonprofits that are successful and the ones that aren't? That's a really good question.
Speaker 3:I think the ones that are successful mobilize supporters to become advocates for them. They teach supporters what they do and why they do it, how they use dollars. They're very clear about how they use your dollars when you donate and people become so attached to the impact of that that they want to go tell other people to raise money. Help raise more money to do that.
Speaker 3:I think charity water always comes up as like the epitome of mobilizing other fundraisers, because they're crystal clear, right, your donation of a specific amount provides so much water to so many people and it you know what your contribution does. And then they report back very quickly. Here is the impact of what that water was able to do in that community and they they storytell in a way that makes you just want to make another contribution, like right away, because you saw the impact so quickly. I think that is what makes nonprofits stand out. When it's easy to give, you know what impact you're having and then you tell me again and again and again what impact I had on making that contribution right, making me feel a part of it. Everybody wants to feel a part of something in a community. They want to be in a community. They want to be part of the group. They want to be in the cool, the cool kids right.
Speaker 2:They want to be at the heiress tour.
Speaker 3:Like they want to be part of a movement that is bigger than them. So what's going to make you stand out is building something that people want to be a part of and feel like they are. They're in the group and that's the impact they can make.
Speaker 2:I think that's a great answer and I'm going to make a note for us to talk about something for us later. So one thing, that, one more thing that I think that would be really good for you to share, because you were actually sharing it with me again yesterday and you've said it before, but would you just talk our listeners through? That whole concept of a really early step is simply identifying the problem and how you plan to solve it, and I know that's a really simple philosophy, but I think that you do a really good job of explaining why having that clear is so important.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think a lot of people, when they're working on philanthropic work or even their own business, have a hard time communicating what it is they're doing and why they're doing it. So if you start with the problem, you know how a lot of moms and parents feel really overwhelmed when they have a kid with a lot of medical needs. Well, we started the Charlotte's Hope Foundation to be that support group for every mom and parent and caregiver at the minute that they were sick, given that diagnosis. So they never feel alone and they never feel overwhelmed because they have a whole team behind them supporting them. So you want to just position things with what's the need.
Speaker 3:That is relatable. So you know how lots of kids go to school hungry in the morning. Well, we provide lunch bags full of food for those children to take home every night after school so that they come back in the morning and be prepared to learn. That's how you would communicate what your need is and how you're fulfilling it. It doesn't need to be a huge elevator speech with a paragraph-long mission statement or even the name of your organization, because what you're trying to communicate is what's the need and how are you fulfilling it, how are you solving the problem?
Speaker 2:Right, oh, fantastic. I think that's a great, just really great recommendation on how to approach. You know, if you're considering starting a nonprofit, that's a really good place to start. Do you have a clear, identified problem and, equally, do you have a clear, identified solution that you're capable of providing? That right there makes a huge difference in developing your mission, your vision, your values and everything else that comes after that, and then, ultimately, you know, securing those, those loyal advocates for your cause, right, all right. So, just as a way to end this awesome episode, gabby, can you let our listeners know if they're listening? They've got all the way through this and you're still like. You know, I think I want to do this, I think I'm in that position to start a nonprofit. How could they work with you at Sprout Fundraising? What are some ways that they could work with you?
Speaker 3:Well, I would certainly encourage them to go follow me on Instagram and find me on LinkedIn.
Speaker 3:It's at Sprout Fundraising, because I share tips throughout the week on not just fundraising tips but leadership tips and productivity tips, because those are two topics that I also really, really love, and when you're a founder, you gotta be organized, you gotta use your time well and you have to really hone in on what your own leadership skills are to run an organization.
Speaker 3:So I've got really great content on Instagram and I share on LinkedIn as well, and you can also sign up for my newsletter on my website, sproutfundraisingcom, and I share tips and tricks every month for free, and so connect with me because you'll get all kinds of free content just to get start your wheels turning. And then I work with organizations at a lot of different levels, but I do come in sort of like your fairy godmother or your coach or your counselor, or however you want to think of it right and help you figure out what it is that you're doing, where are you going and what are your next steps, and I help you implement throughout. I don't ever leave a client like good luck with that plan I gave you.
Speaker 2:I'm in it with you in the weeds doing the work and figuring out how you fund that program fundraising. The key difference that we found with you, gabby, is you are so skilled in strategy development, but you also understand implementation. That, to me, has probably been the biggest difference in working with you, and what has helped us elevate our ability to meet goals is the fact that a lot of people can put together a strategy. You know a great high level. These are all the things you need to do, but you understand how to break it down and to okay, let's look at the reality of what time you do have to put into this and then let's break this down into realistic timeframes of when things can be achieved, what order? And that's huge, because trying to build Rome in a day is never going to happen and trying to build a nonprofit in a year is not going to happen, most likely and if you have congratulations, good on you it takes a lot of baby steps.
Speaker 3:It takes a whole lot of baby steps and they need to be done in a certain way for it to make sense and build. You know, push that boulder up the hill. You've got to keep building that momentum.
Speaker 2:Exactly, all right. Well, gabby, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing this information. We will have all of your contact info in our show notes and if you have any questions and you want to reach out to Gabby, I know she'd be happy to hear from you. And with that, we thank you for joining us and we'll see you on the next episode. Bye, bye.
Speaker 1:You are capable, you are equipped and you are not alone. Together, we can do hard things for our children. If this episode connected with you and you want to hear more, be sure to hit the subscribe button. We would also love to learn about your personal journey and how we can support you. Reach out to us at contact at charlotteshopefoundationorg. And, last but not least, if you know of someone who could benefit from this podcast, please share.
Speaker 3:Where hope is buried.
