017 Speaking Calmly While Holding a Powder Keg | Alliance to End Hunger President Eric Mitchell

A member publicly demanded to know where the Alliance to End Hunger stood on the Gaza conflict.

Half of Eric Mitchell's coalition supported one side. Half supported the other. 

Silence was its own answer. He held off as long as he could, then decided to speak. 

Before the statement went public, he pulled leaders from both sides into crafting it. He talks through how he kept the consultation tight, who he brought in, and why staying strictly in the lane of food access let the Alliance say something true while helping people on both sides of the conflict.

Eric also leads a bipartisan organization in a city that wants to sort everyone onto one side of the aisle. He is candid about the gap between the job he trained for and the job he got. He came up on Capitol Hill. He now spends half his time raising money.

Eric Mitchell is President of the Alliance to End Hunger, a 107-member coalition spanning corporations, faith groups, universities, and nonprofits working to end hunger in the U.S. and globally.

Transcript

Introduction to the Alliance to End Hunger

Adam Jeske 0:04

Nonprofit CEOs are constantly making consequential decisions, often under pressure or in isolation. I'm Adam Jesky, the Nonprofit CEO Advisor, and this is the Nonprofit CEO Podcast, where CEOs talk about the decisions they carry. Today our guest is Eric Mitchell, the president of the Alliance to End Hunger.

Understanding Food Insecurity and Coalition Dynamics

Adam Jeske 0:21

Eric, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Adam. Tell us a bit about what the Alliance does, how you operate. It's a unique and interesting organization. Sure, I'm happy to.

Eric Mitchell 0:33

So the Alliance to End Hunger, we started over about 25 years ago as a coalition of multiple sectors, business sector, nonprofit sector, universities, foundations, committed to come together to address policies that will move us towards a path of ending hunger, both U.S. and around the world. We serve as a convener, a thought leader, and overall leading advocacy organization that's focused both on domestic and global food insecurity and malnutrition. So our coalition is very diverse. With that diversity comes strength. It enables us to really have a unique lens to addressing these complex issues like hunger.

Adam Jeske 1:16

Vital work, and it's an interesting one with that spread of constituents that are involved. Everyone should care about food insecurity. Can you give us a sense of what that spread really looks like, whether you name organizations, but give us a little bit more of how wide is that consortium, that alliance?

Eric Mitchell 1:36

Yeah, so we our membership is over 100. We have about 107 members, and we're growing, actually. And again, it starts with like faith-based groups. So you have groups like Breath for the World, Sunk Relief USA, World Renew. A lot of these are national organizations. Some are just U.S. based, some are U.S. based, but do work across the globe. We have members like Save the Children, a leading implementing partner. But we also have corporations who are members of the Alliance. A lot of the big corporations you could think of, Walmart, Amazon, Instacart, DoorDash, HEB is a part of the Alliance, as well as coalitions and councils. We have universities as well. George Washington University is a member of the Alliance. We have the 1890 Foundation, which is a consortium of all the land-grant historically black colleges and universities in the country. There's around 19 HBCUs of their part of the Alliance. We work closely with Baylor University as well as Auburn University. And then we have private foundations, family-owned foundations, who are members as well. So again, you know, our coalition is broad. We have some of the large groups, large multinational organizations, as well as just small uh nonprofits that are just doing the work in their local communities. We also have a vast network of coalitions throughout the country. We call them our Hunger-Free Community Network, where these are coalitions in over 30 states. There's uh 50 coalitions in 30 states that are doing uh advocacy, convening, uh, direct service in their local communities. They're committed to addressing food insecurity on the local level. We have them in states like Alabama, Texas, Florida, California, Oregon, a lot of places you can think of.

Adam Jeske 3:21

And you've been leading there for a number of years already, correct?

Eric Mitchell 3:24

So I'll be entering six years in November. I started in the midst of COVID in November of 2020. So there was a while we're we're a small organization. We have a team of eight. Oftentimes I tell people we punch above our weight class. But there were times where I literally was in my office by myself. And uh I don't know if you ever saw the movie Risky Business with Tom Cruise, but I kind of felt like that when I'm just dancing in the hallways and there's nobody there watching me, right? Um, but you know, as as we started to open up the doors again, uh the team still comes in. We're a hybrid, so we have some folks who are based in D.C. We have other team members who are based in other parts of the country. Um we meet as a or coalition. We have two annual meetings throughout the year. We have one in the spring and one in the fall, where all our members come to D.C. We have different meetings and discussions, panels, members of Congress will come, members of the administration will come to talk about these big issues. That's usually a time where we're we as a team are really all together face to face.

Adam Jeske 4:27

So starting at that point in history and dealing with food insecurity, I imagine you've needed to make a number of challenging or consequential decisions through through the years. Can you take us into one of the decisions that's uh been important during that time frame?

Eric Mitchell 4:47

I'll say one of the most recent decisions that I had to help league. And again, as you can imagine, with a coalition that's as as diverse as you as we are, you're not gonna get there. There are times where we have groups who are on most issues are probably on opposite sides of the spectrum, but when it comes to addressing food security, uh they join the alliance so they could be part of these coalitions and work together on a common goal. I would say one of one of our times where it was really challenging, you I can give you two examples, but one, it was like during the height of the Israeli-Gaza conflict, where obviously you can imagine with groups who represent the number of faiths, represent a number of perspectives, we had members who were on both sides of those issues. And there were times where a lot of organizations were speaking out in one way or the other on these issues. And the Alliance in Hunger, we tried to stay neutral on a lot of things. As the rise of hunger was was increasing in the Gaza Strip as a result of the war, there was a desire among many of our partners to speak out and speak up. And of course, the Alliance was in the midst of that conversation around how do we engage? We have Muslim groups who are part of our coalition. We also have Jewish organizations who are part of our coalitions. We have staff members who practice Islam, we have staff members who are Jewish. And so, as you can imagine, this was a very intense and very sensitive topic and debate, both internally and externally. And one of our members actually called us out and asked us, what is the alliance position on what's happening in Palestine? And we had to have a real come to Jesus moment, if you will, to really talk about how we want to engage. We want to make sure that whatever we say is is productive. We also want to make sure it's reflective of the vast number of members that we have in organizations that are part of our coalition. We had some very intense conversations about how strong we wanted to say something in internally in the staff. And I made the decision to talk to some of our partners who are directly impacted on both sides of these issues. And so I had a conversation with some of our Jewish organization partners who are very sensitive to what's happening, particularly with the rise of anti-Semitism that's happening that you've seen globally, uh, who and they're seeing it from their lens. I also talked to some of our partners who are from the Muslim community who are seeing directly impact how this is impacting their neighbors, their brothers and their sisters, etc. And together, we worked to create a statement that we worked with both organizations and both sides to really create a statement that talks specifically around the issue of food insecurity that's happening in the region. We did it in a way that, quite frankly, was a very 30,000-foot-level way, but it was about the need to rock to make sure that pathways to being able to deliver food remained intact and were open so that the World Food Program and others can be able to deliver food to those who were suffering. We didn't put any blame on the cause of the war. We didn't go into the politics of the war, but we talked about the nature of those who were suffering directly as a result of uh the blockades that was happening. I would say that at the end, what that did was it brought our team together, but also gave us the chance to really engage our partners. Our members, particularly the groups who were directly impacted on both sides of this conversation, really appreciated the authenticity that we came in talking to them first about how should we approach this conversation. They both understood the dilemma that we were in, but they also wanted to ensure that we worked together and putting it together. And the president of the Jewish organization was really appreciative that the president of the Muslim organization that we partnered with, all three of us really worked together in creating a message. It was one of those messages where it probably wouldn't have been as strong as one of those organizations were going to say on either one on either side, but they understood where we were in that position and they really appreciated our ability to bring the groups together to come with a statement that was strong, that was authentic, but also talked directly about the issue around the folks who were suffering as a result of the conflict that you see. Um and it allowed us to bring those two sides to be even stronger partners of ours. And so that was one of those decisions I would say was

Navigating Sensitive Decisions in Leadership

Eric Mitchell 9:16

was near dear to me because it was a tough decision. It was one of those ones where I, as the executive, had to make an executive decision about how we're going to approach about one speaking out on this issue, two speaking on this issue that was sensitive in a way to all those who are impacted, as well as protecting the organization and protecting the members who are within our umbrella. We have corporate partners, we have other groups who rely on us to make sure that we are saying things that doesn't put a bullseye on their chest as well when they are talking to policymakers, quite frankly. And so, you know, I was really happy with the outcome of where we were in that regard. I would also say, as you can imagine, we are based in Washington, D.C. We are a policy-driven organization, even though we are bipartisan and nonpartisan, depending on what you say really falls lines, and you can fall into the lines of you're either on this side of the aisle or that side of the aisle. And oftentimes our policymakers, and and and this isn't anything new, it's been happening for years, but oftentimes policymakers want to try to pigeonhole you on one side or the other on an issue. If you're an anti-hunger organization, you must be a progressive organization that only supports Democrats. If you're an organization that believes in strong markets or believes in having access to capital, oh, you must be on this side of the aisle. Therefore, you're only a Republican, you're a conservative organization. For us, we have members on both sides of the aisle who reflect both sides of those spectrums. We're focused on the issue of hunger. But as you can imagine, with all that's happening, particularly in the political space, there's that desire from groups to want to pull you one way or the other. And so we often have to kind of have blinders on and really focus on the end game of an issue. And so if even if there's a piece of legislation that's out that is a partisan piece of legislation from the congressional or political sense, we have to give the analysis about the hard analysis about whether, what does this do to move the ball forward in ending hunger? And so the most recent conversation you can see obviously is the farm bill that is currently being considered in the House Agriculture Committee. This is a bill that has some missteps in what we say around addressing the big elephant in the room, which is closing the gaps around the $180 billion cut to SNAP and other domestic nutrition programs. But there are some things in that bill that our coalition supports. And so we have to play that middle role. And oftentimes as the as a leader, I'm the one that has to kind of to do the smell tests around whether or making sure that our message is a factual message, it's direct message to exactly what the policy would do it without villainizing one side of the aisle over the other. Um, this isn't a Democrat issue, this isn't a Republican issue, this is an issue of hunger. And so we try to really stay focused, and it's my job to make sure that we stay focused in that, in how we deliver that, despite the pressures and the challenges of for groups to want us to go one side or the other.

Adam Jeske 12:26

In a previous part of my career, I worked on strategic communications, and it's hard to come up with something that would be more contentious than an association that involves the parties that care about an international conflict as intense as the one you're describing. When you were entering into the discernment, you're receiving requests to say things or to say certain things, did it feel like I'm gonna lose members here?

Eric Mitchell 12:53

I mean, this was an issue where you could lose members, but also it could fracture your team. We are a small team. Majority of my team members have been with the Alliance longer than I have. And we have folks who are very passionate on one side or the other. You know, at that time, we had a team member who has done humanitarian assistance in Gaza, in the West Bank. That person has seen the things that the folks who live in those communities are having to deal with and struggling with. You had I had another person who's who's a devout follower of the Jewish faith. And that person is very sensitive to the content and the rhetoric that you're seeing bubbling up, particularly in America, around the attacks that you're seeing, the different synagogues, schools, and what have you. You know, these are one of those issues where you have to really be above the conversations and make one make sure that the team respects each other's opinions and differences, and while at the same time make sure we accomplish the mission of the goal. Yes, it was a it this was an issue that could have fractured our team as well as loose members. I mean, anytime that you have members who are asking you very specific, what are you saying on this? And then you put on top of that, because we work with policymakers, they're also monitoring what you're saying on these issues as well. Um, so yes, it was one of those things that gave me a little bit of anxiety about how we wanted to deal with it. And I'll be honest, Adam, I mean I was trying for the longest to be able to kind of stay under the radar without us having to publicly say anything. Because there were some groups who just came out on the top and was immediately started advancing their positions, and we tried to stay as quiet on the issue as possible, not because we didn't have concerns one way or the other, but it was also one of those issues like not everybody's voice is needed at that time all the time. You know, there's a lane for people to be in. And as a coalition, we have our lane and we try to let our individual our members have their individual lanes as organizations. Um but when this challenge came before us, we made the decision for us to speak out. And then the question is, okay, once we as an organization agreed that internally, and that was a discussion, a real strong discussion within our organization. Should we speak out? Once I made a decision for us to speak out, then the next question is what's the process towards that path? And so I consulted with my senior leadership, first of all, told them that this is going to be the decision that I make. So therefore I take the burden and the blame. And that's why I'm here to carry that weight. I spoke with my senior leadership about what we should do, and through my senior leadership, we all decided that it's best for us to reach out to our two strongest members who are on both sides of these issues and get their thoughts and opinions on how should we speak out and what should we say. Again, as the leader, that's my job to then speak to those members. One member is a board member, which is another level of pressure in of it by itself. But that board member, understanding the organization and understanding us and understanding me, one appreciated my reaching out to them, and two, coached me on how to talk to the other organization around this issue. And so when I reached out to the other organization, they were appreciative that we were coming together as a as a threesome to discern one, this is what we want to say. I want to make sure you're comfortable with it. And most importantly, what should we say from your lens? And so we came up with a message that was a that was a blend of both their opinions and thoughts about what our message should reflect. Both agreed that this isn't a case to villainize one over the other. We're going to stay out of politics, but focus directly on provide opening up access and channels of access to food assistance for those who are suffering, who are on the verge of famine. And as an anti-hunger organization, I felt like that was an authentic lane for us to be in. So it was consistent with some of those larger organization messaging. And so, yeah, I think we we came out unscathed, and I felt like we also came out with showing credibility on that issue too, because we didn't try to mission creep or cross over one lane over the other. We really stayed focused on the impact that this war was causing. It's continue, you know, the conflict continues to cause, but focusing on the impact allowed us to stay true to ourselves. Mm-hmm.

Adam Jeske 17:36

And uh it's clear that you were talking to your leadership team, you were talking to at least one board member, maybe others, you were talking to a couple of key member organizations. Did you seek input perspective from anyone outside of those groups, even outside of the organization entirely?

Eric Mitchell 17:56

No, not for this one. Mainly because we, I mean, our coalition is so broad that I could pretty much stay within the coalition and talk to a number of various groups. You know, I think I, without me talking, I mean, I talked to my wife, who's like my ultimate conciliary, but at the end of the day, as it relates to the organization. No, we really kept it. That's the other thing. We wanted to keep it real tight. I felt like it with credibility, talking to the key groups that are impacted, the two major groups who have been from our coalition are most long-serving partners. They know the alliance, they've been partners. One is a founding organization of the alliance, one of the founding partners of the alliance. So they know us, right? And so I felt it was better to talk to the groups that know you and and they could speak to you frankly without and trust you. And that way you're not inserting too many agendas in this conversation. I think sometimes as leaders, we tend you can go one way. You can go either authoritarian, I'm my decision, the buck stops here, I'm not gonna consult with anyone. We're gonna just gonna do what I want us to do, my vision, my, my, my. Or you can have someone who brings too many chefs into the kitchen. Yeah. Nothing gets solved, right? And I mean, I've only been in this role for a short time in my six years, but I've been in enough leadership roles in organizations where I've seen both sides of that that argument. And for me personally, that just wasn't being an authoritarian was not my ethos, but also trying to consult with too many people wasn't necessarily going to work in this particular process as well. So I kept it very tight. That way you don't get conflated with so many other thoughts and opinions or how we should go as an organization. And I went to the two organizations that knew us the best. And and it really helped to strengthen those relationships.

Adam Jeske 19:59

Share with me a bit about the internal dynamics that you were holding and navigating, thinking about the emotional side of such a complex and high-stakes decision.

Eric Mitchell 20:13

I mean, so for me, it's one of those where I mean, I've been raised to respect and understand everyone's differences, thoughts, views on multiple things. There are things, and I I I'm a firm believer of we can agree to disagree. I think you can disagree with somebody without being disagreeable, if that you know what I'm saying. And so I am a firm believer that that as a leader I need to spend just as much time listening as I am talking. And I think with the staff, they appreciated me listening and hearing them out. And that was the other thing that as part of the conversation as a team is that I gave people opportunity to express their views on this issue. This is beyond politics, this was deeply personal for our team, for folks in our team. One, as we work for an anti-hunger organization, so anytime you see people suffering, that impacts you from you know, and so but then on top of that, you bring your own personal history into a conversation, your own experiences and life and views and values into that, it makes it even harder. And it's one of those conversations where there's definitely groups who are right and wrong in that. But as it relates to our organization and how we feel about this, there was no wrong view on in this, at least in that context of the conversations that we were having. No one in the room supported uh Hamas and what they did. No one in the room was supporting, you know, everything that Nightahoo was doing in the relates to the war itself. So that wasn't even an issue on that side, it was an issue of like whether or not Not we should say something about it, and how do we say something about it? And make sure we say something that doesn't isolate one group or the other. And so we started that by one making sure I started that by one making sure that my team didn't feel isolated. So I allowed folks to express how they felt about this, and it was real passionate. It was a really passionate conversation. Fortunately, I have a team. Our team respects each other. I want to say we like each other, but we definitely res but we definitely respect each other. And I'm I've been blessed to have a team that's like that. Like I said, this team, a lot of members of the team were here long before I came on board. So they there's that, there is that relationship there. And so I think for something like this, we were able to get through it. And then, you know, I again made my executive decision about this is what we're going to say something. But we're going to make sure that we engage our partners to help us say something. And I think for our team, particularly our team members who had concerns about us saying something, they appreciated the fact that one, I allowed them to express their concerns. And their concerns really weren't necessarily about the issue of us saying something, it was really about the larger context of what was happening and how the broader communer society was was responding to what was happening.

Challenges of Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations

Adam Jeske 23:58

Widening out from the particular decision, what parts of the role as president, CEO, ED, what parts of the role consistently produce difficult decisions?

Eric Mitchell 24:14

Well, and I mean, obviously, the difficult decisions around finance, budgets, compensation, those are always a challenge. I mean, you we live in a society where I'm not live in a society, we live in an area where it is expensive. And so you want to make sure that you are, and you have we have a team that works hard. You know, you have a team that works hard. And so you want to make sure that they're duly compensated for the work that they do. But at the same time, you know, you're you you see the budget and you see the revenue that's coming in or not coming in, depending on how it's operating for you. And so that's always that challenge. Also, I would say uh you know, making sure for me, I think it's also important to make sure that there's opportunity for growth and support for the organization.

Navigating Leadership Challenges

Eric Mitchell 25:00

I, for the longest, was always on that trajectory of moving up, you know, trying to move to the next level and the next level. So I've I've been in cases where you've been where you have been fully supported by your supervisor or boss or not supported by your supervisor and boss. And so I think there's always that challenge of making sure that you are supported, but you also got to make sure that that that person is being is doing the work and meeting the demands that you are providing for them, that you are asking them to do, and are competent. And so you have to be blunt in when when the product is not to your liking, you you have to be blunt about it. But I think there's ways of doing it where you are also giving room to empower them to be able to succeed. So I think for us, for me as a leader, I try to walk that balance of having my expectations, making sure that they meet those expectations, going beyond the expectations, but at the same time supporting them in that journey. Uh um in trying to treat everything like a learning opportunity. I can't say I always get it right. I don't know if I'm always getting it right, but I think it's my intention is there to make sure that the team is supported in the work that they do in the journey that they're they're on.

The Reality of Nonprofit Leadership

Adam Jeske 26:20

Let's proceed to something of a lightning round, some some quick hit questions. What do you wish someone had told you before you were leading uh the Alliance?

Eric Mitchell 26:33

That the majority of your job is going to be behind the scenes, making sure that the ship is running. Especially in this day and age where uh in the social media world, a lot of leaders have to be up front for branding purposes, to get their the organization's name out. You have to be a little bit more entrepreneurial in how you talk about yourself and the work. And we show the sexy stuff, the fun stuff. But there's also the HR, there's also the finance, there's also board relations, there's also nonprofit space, there's a huge part of development. Fundraising is most of my time. I spend 50% of my time raising money or cultivating relationships to raise money. And that's not my natural ethos. I am a former congressional staffer, I am a former lobbyist, government relations person. I like to be on the hill. I like talking to policymakers, I like lobbying. That's my love, that's my that's my safe space. Yeah. I don't get a chance to do that as much as I thought as you think you do. And at one point I thought I missed that. But to be honest, I also love the strategy part. I love the kind of coming up with new ways for us to engage, coming up with new ways for us to be

Fundraising and Member Engagement

Eric Mitchell 27:49

relevant, be impactful. So you're really using the same brain. You're just using it kind of like you're using the same skills, but just kind of using in a different way. And so, yeah, I I I think for that, I think that is one thing that you know, I wish, I don't know what I'm saying I wish someone told me, but I one thing I did not realize until coming in, how much back in support you're doing. You really are spending a lot of your time supporting your team, lifting your team up, cultivating relationships. You know, we are a membership organization, so for us, majority of our revenue comes from membership dues and members members. And over the past five, six years, we've grown our membership by like 25 per 25 to 30 percent. Went from 70 to 75 members to over 100. Yeah. And so that's significant growth, right? And so I use the same way I when I was back at a firm and I used to pitch clients, it's the same brain, same skill set I'm using to engage new potential members, organizations of the alliance. And so, but you just talk about it in a different way, but it's the same skill. You know, talk about our relevance, talk about, talk to our members about, talk to our petition members about the return on the value, return on their investment, the RI. Where can we engage, where can we not engage? Some not every potential member is the right fit. Not all money's good money, right? And so you have to figure out, okay, when this marriage isn't gonna be equally yoked, so maybe we need to think about engagement in another way. Maybe membership isn't the right fit for us. You know, and and and so that's a that's one of those things we as leaders have to determine. So yeah, I I think that was the thing that I didn't really see know until I came into this role. I had to go to fundraising school to learn how to really fundraise. Um, one of my board members supported uh me taking classes to be able to do that. And I still do courses, coursework. That's a skill set I think that you continue to innovate and cultivate and build, fundraising and learning how to fundraising, writing grants, all those different things. So yeah, I think that's the part that that I didn't that I underestimated when I uh when I first came into this role.

Continuous Learning in Leadership

Adam Jeske 30:13

Yeah. Is there a a book that has been particularly formational for your leadership and bonus points if it's an uncommon one?

Eric Mitchell 30:25

Man, that's a great question. I don't so I have a bunch of books in my other room that I want to share, but I can't can't get up to get them. But I can't think of anything on the top of mind just yet. There's a book that's that's coming out uh from the Reverend David Beckman that I'm gonna start reading, and I'll I can send it to you in the link that's gonna be about the role that politics and policy play and advocacy play in lifting up in um helping to move us in the path to to addressing hunger. But yeah, on top of mine, you know, I think there was one I was reading called Faithful Uh Advocacy and Faithful Leadership. And so you're really engaging around how you know our your leadership should be really focused on at the end of the day, your faith is the centerpiece of who you are. And so your leadership ref should reflect your internal faith um voice in person. And so for me, I try, I'm I'm devouting my faith, and I really have trying to reflect that in how I lead, particularly in an organization as a secular organization, but my values still reflect the work in the way in the way that I try to run. So um I would just say that there's there's this ton, there's a ton of different things that kind of have helped me over the past few years.

Adam Jeske 31:48

Is

Balancing Faith and Leadership

Adam Jeske 31:49

there a practice or a habit within the work itself that helps to sustain you in the work?

Mental Health and Work-Life Balance

Eric Mitchell 31:57

So for me, mental health is is is very important. Having some clear lines on some healthy boundaries and lines on when to turn on, turn off. I think what I've learned in this role is that your brain is constantly on. I'm always thinking about different levels of work and what I need to be doing. However, I try to force myself to turn off. So one of the things I've I started to do was have two separate phones. I have my work phone, I have my personal phone. When five, let's be honest, when six o'clock hits, I put my work phone down. I walk away from it. And I try not to look at it ever again until seven in the next morning.

Adam Jeske 32:41

Yeah.

Eric Mitchell 32:41

To get a chance to kind of see what my calendar is going to be the next day, I put it so I can mentally prepare myself when I need to get up, when I need to move, and and don't and don't look at it. So that has been helpful in these years. I think also something that someone told me, because I I I did a boot camp a few years ago, a leadership boot camp years ago, uh, that was actually preparing me for this role without me even knowing it, was the practice of having your own personal board of directors. For all of us who are leaders, you know you have a board, you have a chairman, you have a chairman of the board, you have a secretary of treasurer, yada yada yada. You also need that in your personal life. You need a cohort of people who are either in your same space, professional space as you or same personal beliefs as you, just a certain group of people that you trust. It could be a small group, three to five. It doesn't have to be huge. And you you guys become each other's board of directors. And you even ask people, I want you to be on my board of director. And so I have a group of people who I who are like my conciliary of like three to four folks who are kind of, we're all kind of the same professional space where we meet up and we talk, we talk shop, we talk shop, but we also talk ways that we can support each other. And we've done some cool things with each other, you know, through our respective fields to help. I'm actually meeting with them the night, some of them the night for dinner to to kind of lift our work up, lift our organizations up, but also support each other and in the things that we do. And so that's something that has been very helpful. And and it's even good to have that just in life. You have the professional side, but even a group of people who are just personal or professional people that you know who support each other. I I work, I uh monthly I meet with a group of guys who we get together, we we talk, shop, drink, sip some wine, listen to some music, but we also then talk about some some work activities and products and things.

Adam Jeske 34:42

Yeah.

Eric Mitchell 34:42

And you know, it's just it's just good to be able to kind of unwind in that kind of way. I think so. So that's been a practice that that I've I wanted to do, I'm doing more of, wanting to do more of, where, you know, just finding ways to shut off the work, but also find personal slash professional development opportunities where you're continuing to sharpen your mind. You know, iron sharpens iron. So you want to be around folks who are like-minded, same kind of goal-driven, who can help build you and you in turn helping to build them.

Adam Jeske 35:21

Eric Mitchell, president of the Alliance to End Hunger. What do you love about your work?

Passion for Purpose: The Work We Love

Eric Mitchell 35:29

So I've I've I've made a mission to say if you're gonna spend 12 hours a day doing something, you need to do something that you love doing. And the thing that I love about my work is one, I love the issues that we are working on. You know, fighting food insecurity, fighting malnutrition is something that you would think is easy work to do, but it's not. What I love is the fact that with our coalition, I'm engaging and talking to so many different people, so many different groups who are who are interested in learning more about how we can move the ball forward to address food insecurity, who want to join the alliance, want to learn more about hunger. And what I found, I'm at the point where I could talk about this all every all 24-7. And so I think what I love about my work is the work, to be honest. Because I'm doing something I'm passionate about. I'm doing something that I can at the end of the day, I don't have to I don't feel like I have to take a shower because I'm because I'm talking about something that I don't believe in. I I'm doing something, and at the end of the day, I'm doing something that feel like will make the world better for my daughters, that will help me get into heaven. And uh and also it's just something that that makes the world a better place. And so, yeah, that's uh what I love about the work is the work.

Adam Jeske 36:55

Eric, thank you for joining me on the Nonprofit CEO podcast. Thank you. It was great. Everyone, if you know a nonprofit CEO who's carrying something significant, send them the show. And if you want more of the patterns I'm seeing across hundreds of CEO conversations like this one, you need the nonprofit CEO briefing. It's weekly and it's available at nonprofit CEO.com. I'm Adam Jesky, the nonprofit CEO advisor. Thank you for what you're leading.