EP# 110 - Empowering Nonprofits with Resilience and Strategy: Sheryl Soukup's Journey to Success

When life throws you a curveball, it's the resilient ones who catch it and throw it right back. Sheryl Soukup, the spirited head of Soukup Strategic Solutions, is proof of that resilience, turning her personal trials into a triumph for the nonprofit world. Her journey from conducting microbiological research to leading a consulting firm that empowers nonprofit organizations is at the heart of our latest episode. Sheryl's intimate recount of how her daughter's medical complexities led her to a deeper engagement with nonprofit work is nothing short of inspiring. She offers a rare glimpse into the transformative power of volunteering, highlighting its ability to not only change lives but also to pave professional pathways.

Embrace the chance to absorb Sheryl's treasure trove of expertise in nonprofit fundraising, as she articulates the critical role of adaptability in both personal growth and organizational success. Our conversation explores how Soukup Strategic Solutions' shift to a remote work model exemplifies a commitment to work-life balance, a principle that Sheryl passionately advocates. For professionals eager to navigate the nonprofit landscape with grace and tenacity, Sheryl's insights are a beacon in the strategic realm. Join us as we unpack the resilience and dedication necessary to flourish in the nonprofit sector, all through the lens of a leader who has elegantly charted the course.

Soukup Strategic Solutions, Inc.
Sheryl Soukup
3050 Horseshoe Drive N. Suite 285
Naples, FL 34104
(239) 234-5596
info@SoukupStrategicSolutions.com
WEBSITE

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast , the place where local businesses and neighbors come together . Here's your host , Cabo Jim .

Speaker 2 0:08

Schaller . Welcome Good Neighbors to episode number 110 of the Good Neighbor Podcast , estero . Today we have Good Neighbor Sheryl Soukup from Soukup Strategic Solutions , Sheryl , welcome . That's a lot of S's .

Speaker 3 0:24

It sure is Thank you so much Cabo .

Speaker 2 0:28

Yeah , no , I'm excited to learn a little bit more about what you do and share with the community here , so why don't we just jump right in and why don't you share what you do ?

Speaker 3 0:40

Okay , well , I am the president and founder of Soukup Strategic Solutions and we are a consulting firm that specializes in nonprofit organizations . So we do business consulting for nonprofits , because most nonprofits are fundraising organizations . We have a real focus on fundraising to help those nonprofits bring in the revenue that they need to accomplish their missions .

Speaker 2 1:05

Very much needed in the community for sure . So can I ask how you got started in this industry ?

Speaker 3 1:12

Sure . Well , let's see , I started my career as a scientist and I was doing research microbiological research and then I was helping my husband start a company and got pregnant and I thought , you know , I always thought that I would go back to my career once I got my husband set up and established and , as it turned out , best laid plans . Just a joke , it really didn't work out the way that we had thought . Our daughter was very medically complicated . She had medical complex , she had a lot of medical issues and needed a lot of help , and so through the course of trying to learn how to help her , I got involved with talking to a lot of different families and a lot of different healthcare organizations and I ended up volunteering .

Speaker 3 2:16

So I started volunteering to help others and it kind of helped me feel like I wasn't so alone . Also , I learned a lot from doing that . So it helps my daughter and our family . So as I got more and more involved with volunteering , my volunteering turned into an offer of a part-time job that then evolved into a full-time job and then I ended up just working in nonprofits after that . So that's kind of how I ended up in the nonprofit space just wanting to help others and knowing that we're kind of all in this together in this complicated world .

Speaker 2 2:52

So yeah , and after that I didn't really look back .

Speaker 2 2:56

That's incredible . It's like sometimes life shows you the path . It's like it's not the path you thought you would have , but you know it takes you down the path you were meant to be at . So obviously that's a challenging situation . My question was going to be along the way , have you experienced any challenges or obstacles ? You know , maybe we look at the business side of things that you can look back at now and say you know , all right , I made it through that , we're in a better place now now and say you know , all right , I made it through that , we're in a better place now .

Speaker 1 3:34

Yeah Well , I can say just obstacles related to .

Speaker 3 3:35

I was actually going to just tell you about my daughter a little bit . My daughter was like her health challenges were a huge obstacle and at one point I was working at the Children's Hospital in Boston , a nonprofit organization , and she was hospitalized so often that they gave me a computer to use in the ICU so that I could just keep working .

Speaker 3 3:53

So they were really very , very flexible with me and I've tried for us to be flexible here too at Sukup Strategic Solutions . So after the pandemic , when you know so many people went back to work , we made it optional . And now our team is , you know , we work all over the country , I have people working all over the country now . So we just we kind of make it optional and nobody has to work in the office .

Speaker 3 4:19

We had one position that was going to be a , you know , like a position that that manned the office , but now we're actually we're actually getting ready to go fully remote so that nobody has to do that , because , truthfully , our team really just prefers to be remote and and have that flexibility . So I think that work work-life balance is so important and we have so much work to do that if we can at least be flexible with people and allow them the ability to make their own schedule and work from home if that's what they choose , then that's a great thing that we can offer people .

Speaker 2 5:01

No , that is wonderful . That's what I mean . You get in situations and you understand that and it's just , it's , it's . I think people are actually more productive too , because they feel like you know they they need to work in that situation . Are there any myths or maybe misconceptions regarding the nonprofit sector that maybe we could clear up for our listeners today already , in the nonprofit sector , that maybe we could clear up for our listeners today .

Speaker 3 5:26

Well , I do think a lot of nonprofits are started with this idea in mind that you know , if you just you know , if you just start work really hard and offer these services , that everything will take care of itself and it'll be a little kumbaya . But it's not as easy as that . Nonprofits are also businesses , and so being able to look at the business side of your mission is really super important . And so , just like for-profit businesses , you need strategic planning , you need an annual budget . You need to and not because your grant funder says you need strategic planning , you need an annual budget , you need to and not because your grant funder says you need a budget , but because you really need a budget , annual operating plans and you know , just having an operational plan can help so much . But then also , thinking about you know you're an employer , you hire people and you also have volunteers .

Speaker 3 6:20

It's a little bit different with nonprofits because you have more than one so-called customer you have . In a for-profit business , you maybe you have customers , but in a nonprofit you have both the people that you serve . If you're a people serving organization , most are and then you have your um . You also have your donors , who you are in service to as well . So you kind of have two main audiences , and then you have two types of workforce . One is volunteer labor and one are paid labor employees , so sometimes consultants too .

Speaker 2 6:56

Yeah , and it's difficult . Like you mentioned , a lot of people come into it with a great idea and a great vision and passion to help . Support needs ideas , but then don't know how to lay it out and do it properly . So people like you are very important in guiding them that way . Jim , Nope go ahead .

Speaker 3 7:15

I was just going to say like I think that's one thing that you know . There's also maybe a little misconception about consultants . You know what ? Why are consultants important ? Or why might I need a coach ? You don't know what you don't know until something goes wrong , right . So just being able to understand what the best practices are and be able to get a little bit of guidance along the way helps you to avoid a huge number of pitfalls that you can fall into and waste a lot of time , effort and donors' dollars too .

Speaker 2 7:54

Absolutely . We call it in other industries preventative maintenance , avoid it before it happens . So that's very , very important . So do you , do you see any , any trends nowadays with the nonprofits or things that are going on ?

Speaker 3 8:09

Sure definitely Okay . There's two main things that I think are big issues in the industry . One is among fundraisers . So last year , the statistic was that one third of development professional positions were vacant one third so that's one third of the professional fundraisers had exited the industry , and I think that's a really big challenge for nonprofit organizations . Some of this had to do with what they call the great recession , but I think also a lot of people coming into the industry don't really want to work as hard as perhaps people wanted to work or were willing to work in the past .

Speaker 3 8:53

So there's been a little bit of a feeling of , you know , maybe being being a professional fundraiser is not , um , everything that's cracked up to me .

Speaker 3 9:04

So I , so I would just say there's , you know , people , some people are rethinking that as a profession , um , but I also think another big , huge thing that's helping is that we have AI coming down the pike , and AI and fundraising is transformational . It's , it helps in so many ways . Um , so we're we're working really hard to stay at the top of the , at the top of the crest of the wave , um , helping people to understand how to use AI , to understand how to use AI to improve their efficiency and also tap into creativity and also get great insights on donor behavior and opportunities for your nonprofit . So there's just there's so much that AI can help you with . I don't think it takes the place of people , but I think it can help you become much more efficient and give you new insights that you couldn't perhaps have gotten in that kind of amount of time . Most nonprofits are really strapped for time , and so nonprofit professionals struggle to take this big body of data and analyze it , and so they just sometimes never get to it .

Speaker 2 10:19

This makes it so much easier yeah , yeah , yeah , when used in a proper way , and it can be very resourceful . It's just , you know , like you say mentioned it saves a lot of time and then resources . So , outside of this , are you from Southwest Florida originally .

Speaker 3 10:35

I am from Boston originally , but I've been here for 20 years . What's that ?

Speaker 2 10:42

What brought you down here ?

Speaker 3 10:45

Oh , family , just to be near family . I told you I had a daughter with special needs and we had two more kids really quickly after that , and so our parents said , come on down to Florida and you'll have some extra sets of hands . So we came and also we just thought the weather would be great .

Speaker 3 11:03

It'd be a lot easier to push a wheelchair in the sunshine than in the snow . And we also thought it'd be really great to raise our kids in beautiful weather outside all year round , where they could just play and be kids .

Speaker 2 11:17

Exactly that's why we live down here . So , speaking of that , what do you enjoy ? I know your job is very demanding and you've got a lot on your plate , but what do you enjoy doing outside of work ?

Speaker 3 11:27

Okay is very demanding and you've got a lot on your plate , but what you enjoy doing outside of work , okay . So I will tell you I have this absolute love of hiking . There's not a lot of great hiking in florida although I do I do enjoy going to crew and walking the trails there and I enjoy going on the greenway , which is has a nice boardwalk , and so I I do find great places to to , you know well , I guess you might call it a hike . It's really more walking but , but , um .

Speaker 3 11:52

but I do love hiking , and so I try to take hiking trips whenever I can .

Speaker 2 11:57

Any favorite places .

Speaker 3 11:59

Well , last year I visited Glacier National Park and that was just astonishingly beautiful . I really had a great time there it was . It was just astonishingly beautiful . I really had a great time there , it was . It was just beautiful , breathtaking , truly . And then next year I'm going to Nepal and I'm really excited about that . That's going to be great , great hiking there . So , yeah and um , this summer I have a trip planned to Utah , so do a little bit of hiking there , I don't know where else , maybe probably Asheville , probably go to to the Blue Ridge Mountains and yeah , just .

Speaker 2 12:33

See , it's nicer that way because you get . You get to go visit those places but then come back to Florida . That's right .

Speaker 3 12:41

No , but this is a beautiful place , a beautiful community . I never regret moving here . I just think it is just a fabulous place to live , and you know , in Southwest Florida particularly .

Speaker 2 13:05

I'm with you . I agree 100% .

Speaker 3 13:06

So is there maybe one last thing that maybe our listeners should know about Soukup Strategic Solutions that maybe they don't know ?

Speaker 3 13:16

Well , I would just say that you know we have a whole team of experts who have all types of knowledge and experience in working in nonprofits , and so if there's anything that you are wondering or you need , we don't always have to be on contract for you to get a little bit of information . We love to help the community , so if somebody is just looking for a little bit of information , we're happy to try to help wherever we can . But I think one thing that people don't realize about consulting services is that the return on investment can be so great . So when you're , for instance , wanting to get into grants , a lot of nonprofit executives are writing grants of small to medium-sized nonprofits . It's the executive or maybe the development director . They're writing grants instead of doing all of these things that they could be doing out in the community getting their name out in the community , meeting individually with donors , for instance but just having the grants written for you , the return on investment is immense .

Speaker 3 14:23

You can spend a very small amount of money and have it come back to you many , many fold , and so , instead of not submitting those grants , making a smaller investment can help you be able to expand the good that you're doing for the community .

Speaker 2 14:43

I love it . So are there ? How would our listeners go about getting ahold of you , if , or if they're part of a nonprofit or no nonprofit ? That needs some guidance .

Speaker 3 14:53

Well , we have a website . It's soukupstrategicsolutionscom . That's S-O-U-K-U-P soukupstrategic solutions . com . They can also visit us on LinkedIn and on Facebook , and we also have a podcast of our own called impactability . So impactability the nonprofit leaders podcast . So that's another place that you can learn about us . And here's some , you know , helpful tips about working in the nonprofit sector , some inspiring stories . Yeah .

Speaker 2 15:28

Perfect , Sheryl , it's been a pleasure getting to know you . Thank you for being such a good neighbor and what you do to help the community here and locally and nationwide . It's been a pleasure .

Speaker 3 15:40

Thank you so much . I appreciate your time .

Speaker 1 15:43

Yeah , thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Estero . To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show , go to gnpastero . com . That's gnpastero . com , or call 239-296-2621 . 621 .