Behind the Blooms: How the American Floral Endowment Supports Every Florist

Episode 338: Most florists have seen the AFE logo, but many don’t realize just how much the American Floral Endowment impacts their business every day.

In this episode, Vonda and Lori sit down with Debi Chedester, Executive Director of the American Floral Endowment, to uncover the research, scholarships, internships, grants, and industry initiatives happening behind the scenes that help florists succeed.

Debi shares her unique journey into the floral industry, what surprised her most about the people who make it special, and how AFE has spent 65 years investing in the future of flowers. From flower quality and consumer research to sustainability, travel grants, and recruiting the next generation of industry professionals, this conversation highlights why AFE matters to every florist, whether you realize it or not.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• What the American Floral Endowment actually does
• How AFE research improves flower quality from seed to consumer
• Free resources available to florists right now
• Travel grant opportunities for industry events
• The growing importance of sustainability and Sustainabloom
• Why consumer and Gen Z research matters more than ever
• How AFE is preparing the industry for the next 5–10 years
• Ways florists can support and get involved with AFE

Whether you’re a retailer, wholesaler, grower, designer, or simply passionate about the floral industry, this episode offers a fascinating look at the organization quietly working behind the scenes to help flowers - and florists - thrive.

Because when we invest in the industry together, everyone blooms. 

Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:03

You guys are the ones selling the product. And if the consumer's not happy, you're the ones who hear about it. You guys understanding that this research that we do is vital.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Welcome to the Business and Pleasure of Flowers. We're your hosts, Vonda LaFever.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

And Lori Wilson. And we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Hey Lori, how you been doing? Good. Good. Just trucking along. Along, man. It's been a it's been a long couple weeks with our photo shoot and everything we had going on. So it's nice to be back at our desk again. Yeah. Yeah. It was a big photo shoot. It was like a big one. It was a doozy. I'm gonna call it a doozy. Vaughn, Lori, it was a doozy. But fun doozy, but it was a doozy. We'll have to cover that later because today we have a special guest. We do. We do. Very excited for uh Debbie Chettester, who is the executive director of the American Floral Endowment. And we are so excited to have you with us because we want to learn. We have this feeling that we don't know a lot about it, Lori. Right. And also that means that if we don't know, there's a lot of our community that doesn't know a lot about it. So I think it's really exciting to have you here today. Yes, thank you. Debbie, welcome. Thank you very much for having me. So before we get diving into what AFE is, why don't you tell us a little bit about your journey? Because we at the click, everybody's interested in the people. It's not just about the purpose, but it's the people and the purpose.

SPEAKER_03 1:47

We always got to have the backstory.

SPEAKER_04 1:51

I'll start with I have no floral experience whatsoever and no floral background. So my entire career has been around nonprofit management, association management, fundraising, all of that. I've spent a lot of years, over 35 years in the nonprofit uh management arena working for several different nonprofits. But for the last, wow, 27 years, I've been on the floral side. So I've been around a little while and started my floral career with the Society of American Florists and worked for them for nine years. And then for the last 18, I transferred over to the endowment and really wanted to focus on the charitable side and fundraising and foundational work.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

So yeah. I didn't realize that. Did you, Lori, that you'd been with SAF?

SPEAKER_03 2:40

No, no, we are big lovers of Society of American Fort. We love all the ladies and the few men that were today. We love all the people. So that makes total sense how your foundation started there and it drove you over to the nonprofit segment. That's really exciting. Can I ask a random question? Because you have been in this industry a long time. Is there one surprise that shocked you about our industry that you didn't expect that happened in any other industry?

SPEAKER_04 3:17

Yeah, that's a great question. And yes, so in all of the other industries I've worked for, and that includes parking, neuroscience, like all different they're very competitive. And this industry I have found is very sharing. And everyone will share everything they know in order to help the industry. And that's not the case in a lot of industries. And so the people in this industry are just amazing. And I think that's what keeps people engaged with this industry. People who don't have a floral background like me and other organizations that have staff, they stay here because the people are just so genuine and hardworking. And it's just really an amazing industry to work for. And I'll just share, my first industry organization was called the Color Marketing Group. And I met Dwight Larimer and Rocky Politz at a very young age working for that industry. So when I came to the floral side, I immediately had two friends that wow able to, yeah, so decades later. But yeah, it's it's been great. And the floral industry is just a great community.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

You had the best of the best with those two, starting with them. Oh my God. No? Yeah. How awesome was that?

SPEAKER_03 4:34

It's interesting. Again, I was telling Debbie earlier, we tend to go on tangents. So the questions we send her, I'm like, yeah, that's off the rails. We never send those questions. But just hearing you say that I was working on some stuff helping Vonda with some AIFD stuff. And one of the things we asked a lot of people a long time ago was like, who elevated you? Which is a question in the industry. Who jumpstarted your, who encouraged you and inspired you? And I was working on something recently where I had to pull all of the testimonies of these people. I cannot tell you how many people mentioned Rocky. Yeah. Multiple. And I'm like, golly, what a legacy. What a legacy.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

And you and you and Lori have the common ground of not being in this industry. Lori did not.

SPEAKER_03 5:27

I have no skills, no flower skills. But I'm with you. You don't want to leave the industry because it is truly like a big giant family.

unknown 5:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:41

Yeah. And it lends itself to what we always say internally when we're talking about bringing top talent to the industry. You don't have to have a floral background. All of these businesses, they need accounting people, they need tech people, they need administrative encourage those people that maybe just don't know where they want to land. There's a place for you in the floral industry. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

So true. So true. Okay, so let's move on to AFE and the impact. Many florists have heard AFE, right? And you see the little logo, and they're like, what does that exactly mean?

SPEAKER_03 6:17

So can you be allied, American? What does it even stand for?

SPEAKER_01 6:22

And actually it spells it out, so they should know.

SPEAKER_03 6:24

Floral. The F is floral, I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_04 6:28

Yes.

unknown 6:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:30

So let me try to simplify it a little bit. For those of you living in communities, you may have a community foundation in your area that supports food banks and community beautification and scholarships. We're the community foundation for the floral industry. So what we do is we provide funding back to the industry. We are a charitable organization, so donations are tax deductible and we operate off of donations, but we give all the money back to the floral community. We represent all segments. So it's retailers, it's wholesalers, it's growers, it's importers, it's educators, it's all of that. And what we do is we pool contributions together. We're an endowment, so we don't spend those contributions. We throw them in a big pot, we invest them, and then we use the earnings from those dollars every year to fund important floriculture projects through research and grants and scholarships, internships, just everything that you all are telling us that the industry needs help with, that's where we set our priorities and give back. We give back to the floral community, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

That makes a lot of sense, yeah. So how does AFE affect the retail florist? Because most of our listeners are retailers and wholesalers. We do have some wholesalers who support us and listen, but mostly that retailer, what are you giving back to that retail segment?

SPEAKER_04 8:05

Yeah. So let me start by saying even the research, although it may not be attractive to the retailer when we talk about pests and diseases and bugs and a lot of the research that we do, it's not something that a retailer sees. And so a lot of the things that we do are behind the scenes. And let me just give all of you retailers a huge shout out because you are the consumer-facing advocate for our industry and you are the face of our industry, basically. And so what we do is provide you with the best quality flowers and plants we possibly can, because we start our research from seed to consumer. So it might be breeding and genetics, it might be care and handling, it might be transportation, or just different areas along the whole supply chain of a flower in our floral products. So just know that the you retailers and floral designers out there, you're seeing the benefit of more quality and longer-lasting flowers and plants based on research that we're doing. Now, other benefits that you're going to resonate a little more with might be the care and handling things. We have care and handling posters that anyone can get to help train their staff. We have recruitment resources that you can use, job descriptions, ads. We have interns that we would love to place if you need help. And we have sustainability information. Sustainability is here to stay, and consumers are driving it. And so we have resources for you to share with them on what you are doing in that area. We've got floral marketing research. We have consumer data. What are their preferences? What do they prefer? What's driving them to purchase?

SPEAKER_01 9:56

I think there was something recently, Lori, that you were at Glyffey, right? And there was some type of presentation.

SPEAKER_03 10:03

Yes. Who's that? Brian? No, Ryan. Ryan is writer. Ryan Freeman. Yeah, Ryan Freeman and the whole Gen Z buyers. Right. So that's a new one that just came out.

SPEAKER_04 10:15

We're getting ready to launch an e-commerce one that I think is going to be extremely important for the retailers. And Brian's also helping with that. We're excited to have his input there. But yeah, there's a lot of things that we do for retailers. And we have travel grants. That's the one of the bigger ones. Is if a retailer wants to go to a show like Great Lakes or one of the state or national associations, AIFD even, they can apply for a travel grant. So we are here to fund to do that.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

I don't mean to interrupt, but that's what's just so powerful. I did not, I was not aware. I think of so many flower click members, not so many. That's a little bit of an exaggeration, but many people that are like, yeah, I'd love to do that. I just can't afford it this year. And I haven't had a resource, but they could have, if it was early enough, they could have at least reached out.

SPEAKER_04 11:12

So this year's deadline is October 1st. I'll just throw that out there. Okay. People come to the website. We actually have a landing page specifically for retailers. And so you come to the website and you can say, I am a retailer, and it will take you to all of the resources that we have for retailers. We try to make it as easy as possible, but I hope more people will now learn of these opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

I love the idea that, as you're saying, because you don't think of that, the care and handling seed to consumer. We need to know that the flowers we're getting as retailers are going to be the longest lasting. And those resources are really important because the consumer, of course, buys base it on, oh, it's not going to die tomorrow. It's something that they can enjoy for a longer period of time. And that AFE is funding those projects from the beginning. I know I've seen several that over the years that you have funded on care and handling at many of the universities, which has been fantastic. So I did know a little about that, but you don't realize how that's really impacts the retailer. It's like it directly impacts them.

SPEAKER_04 12:20

Absolutely. You guys are the ones selling the product. And if the consumer's not happy, you're the ones who hear about it. You guys understanding that this research that we do is vital. And if we aren't doing it, no one's doing it.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

So it's not even just if the consumer's not happy, if the designer creating we have designers, this is not quality. This is not so it's great to have an organization like you that's behind the scenes doing all the work.

SPEAKER_04 12:51

Absolutely. And we are behind the scenes. We're not a membership. Everything that we have is free to the industry. It's 24-7. You can get on our website and find what you need. And so that's why it's important that we have floral community support as well.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Yeah. There's a couple of things on our questions that's like, why should I care? And so what we're saying is the care and handling, is there anything that recent research findings that you think every florist should know about?

SPEAKER_04 13:18

Definitely the consumer data, because that's really relevant and timely when that comes out. We spent a million and a half a few years ago on thrips and botrytis research. And that was huge because there was huge losses because of botrytis and thrips, which is a pest. And we were able to dive in and fund, I think, 14 different projects to address different areas of shipping and just how to handle the pests without just a lot of things. I pride ourselves in talking to every segment of the industry to find out where they're challenged. And we have a great group of volunteers on board who are industry leaders. And Vonda, you're now going to be joining our board. So we're thrilled to have you. But we listen to the industry, and that's what drives what we fund and where we fund it. Back to the research, we probably are funding 18 to 20 different projects every year. And that's a lot. And they're all at universities. And so we're trying to continue to support the university system because those are also shrinking. We're losing faculty members, we're losing whole court departments, we're losing floral design departments. So we try to make sure our funding goes to those institutions to support them so that they continue to support us. So it's like coming full circle for that as well.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

So I know right now, currently, there is a fundraiser going on, RISE, which means you're going to have to explain all that to me because as you said, I'm coming on as a board member. So I'm a newbie. I have no idea what's happening. A year from now, I'll really know what's going on. But why don't you explain that to us a little? That would be great.

SPEAKER_04 14:56

Absolutely. So every year we do an annual campaign, which is like a 45-day. All of the board members are very competitive. So you're going to be put on a team Vonda, and it is very competitive. We give updates every week, and everybody wants to know who's winning and all of that. So this is our 45-day trustees, really reach out to their networks. Our goal is to raise $100,000 in 45 days. And we've been really successful with that, doing it that way. And so now through the end of June, we started right after Mother's Day, and we reach out to the industry and we ask for contributions to support the work that we're doing. And so it's called Rise to Support. Rise stands for the four core areas of AFE, which is our research, our internships, our scholarships, and our education. So Rise to Support. And people can donate any amount. It doesn't matter how much. We do have different sponsorship levels if people want different perks for bigger, but every dollar matters. So you can donate $10, you can donate $1,000, you can donate whatever it is you have, but it goes to support the floral community and the work that we do. And so if you want to get Vonda ahead of ahead of everyone else, make sure you put her name down when you donate. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:19

And I'm just sitting here going, we're gonna have to do some sort of flower click promo. Get all of the group to join. So she because she is competitive.

SPEAKER_04 16:28

She's gonna work it. Yeah, we have married.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

You make me competitive. I will be competitive for her. I'm not as competitive. Go, come on.

SPEAKER_04 16:38

I'm gonna it's it's for a great cause, and we try to make it fun. And so we are 65 years this year, and so I have been pushing the $65 donation. So 65 for 65 if anyone's interested in that. But yeah, it's a way to give back to the community and get involved.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

That's what I was very surprised at is that when I was looking at the things that you've been sending, and it was like contributions didn't have to be high numbers. It was great to have the corporations or bigger companies who are giving a nice monthly donation. But it was like I was seeing some for, like you said, 25, 50, 100, 200, 500. It was just all these little amounts, too, that I'm like, oh my gosh, because like you're saying, every dollar counts. And that just made my heart happy because actually I knew some of those names, and I'm like, oh, that just is so nice to know that they're supporting the industry and supporting AFE this way. So are there any forward-facing programs that AFE has? If I'm at a convention, actually, I do know the answer to that. I just thought of that because Amanda Soliday is going to be at AIFD and doing a program there. Lori's done a little bit of social stuff for that.

SPEAKER_03 17:51

Like I can picture her face because I created a graphical panel on sustainability.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

And I worked with her on a panel last year. So it was good to see her coming back. And so she will be able to present and let us know about that. Is that the type of thing you do for forward-facing and to get the word out a little bit more?

SPEAKER_04 18:07

We do. We actually go to a lot more industry events than we used to. We used to allow the trustees to serve as our ambassadors, but we all know how busy all of you are. And we started to get out there to more industry events. So we talk about research, we talk about scholarships at different events. If it's a grower conference, we want to go talk about the research and how they can apply the research. For AIFD, sustainability is a big one. And Amanda has done a great job with Sustain a Plume, which is our newest initiative and program that's really taken off. Those that go to that session will actually get a look at a new template that we developed specifically for retailers. It's a self-assessment. So you can do this in the privacy of your own shop and figure out where you are in your sustainability journey. And then we provide resources that can help you move the needle and meet you where you are with things. So that's what she's going to be presenting at AIFD, which will be exciting. And then we just like to talk about our Young Professionals Council, which is a group of young people entering the industry and supporting them. But we do, we can go to a lot of the major industry events and even the state association events.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

That's great. That's great to see you there. Looking ahead five to 10 years, what opportunities or threats do you see for the floral industry? And how is AFE helping prepare us for that? That's a tough question.

SPEAKER_04 19:36

It is a tough question. And let me start with opportunities first. So the good news is flowers aren't going away. And people celebrate birthdays and anniversaries and weddings and all of that. And so flowers are always going to have a place in our everyday life. And the number of people purchasing flowers is small compared to the number of people that could be purchasing flowers. So the good news is there's plenty of opportunity for us to move the needle and introduce new people to the industry. That's also a challenge. How do we do it? And I think providing the best quality flowers and plants is the best way to start. If customers and consumers are happy, they'll share their experiences, which will lead to more people wanting to do that. Now, challenges, boy, there's a ton of challenges. And I don't know that any of it's going to get better anytime soon with the labor issues, the tariffs, the expense of things. I hope that sustainabloom will provide opportunities for us to cut waste, transport better, just figure out ways to improve upon processes that we are already doing. And but yeah, I think there's going to be more consolidation, unfortunately. And is that good? Is that bad? I don't know. I talk to some people and organizations and they're cutting a lot of their things, but they're cutting things that they can do without and still focus on what's important to them. So I think being flexible, just being mindful is where we need to do. And AFE will continue to listen to the challenges that everyone has and figure out how we can help.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

I think that's the key is really having your ear to the ground, right? With us as different trustees, because I love it that everyone is from a different segment and everyone has their own audience in a sense that they can listen to and to see what is happening in their segment so that they know where those funds need to go to be able to improve things. So I think that's pretty cool. When you mentioned consumers and buying, is that flower feeling part of AFE or funded partially by AFE?

SPEAKER_04 21:56

So that flower feeling is not part of AFE. But we are collaborating with them and we do support them through our floral marketing fund organization. Okay. Marketing's important. Promotion is important. And so, yeah, so we absolutely need to have that in place. So, yeah, we support it and we try to promote them as much as possible. We have them on our floral marketing website. And AFE, because we're not membership, we want to be partners with everyone. We want to partner with Wolfsa. We want to partner with Calflowers, SAF, AIFD. We're in that position that we just want to serve everyone in the industry. And so having those collaborators and partnerships, that's what's important to us. So I'm the biggest collaborator you'll ever meet. I want to just work together, avoid duplication, and let's work together to do it.

SPEAKER_03 22:53

Yeah. Okay. So you were talking about how you guys do all the research and people bring ideas to you, whatever. Here's my idea. I'm bringing to both of you. I'm bringing to the new board member and I'm bringing to you right now. Hold on. I'm going to write it down. Write it down because this is abdoosy. Because I I don't know how you test this. Everything you're talking about, the challenges and things that are happening are very real that are not going away. Yes. Here's what I hear daily. A huge problem is how to better communicate with your customer or educate your customer without just adding a surcharge or an extra fee. Because a lot of shop owners are like, I don't know how I how do I say that? I don't want to make them mad. I don't want to do that. They need help with this type of thing. And I'm seeing more and more, which I love, business owners, flowershop owners doing like Instagram reels or TikToks on, hey, you know what? This flower right here six months ago, it cost me the stem. Now it's cost me this. This is a reality of a business. And they're doing it in such a beautiful, eloquent, educational mindset. I'm like, how do we help our florists, our flower shop owners stay open and continue to thrive? This is a big part of it. Communication is everything.

SPEAKER_04 24:35

So well, I'm not going to tell you my thought because I just wrote it down. And I'm going to surprise you with it. But I think there are definitely ways to do that. And I think everyone understands what's happening in the economy and that the price of everything is going up. And I think you have to empathize with their side and they have to empathize with size. Right. And so I think there just needs to be that conversation and however you communicate with your customers. But I do have a thought. So I will give some more thought to this, and maybe we can provide something.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

It's interesting. We went to the farms, a couple of us from the team, Audrey and Ellie and I went a few years ago. And when we were there and with many from the floral industry, and we watched them put the carnation from start to how it starts to grow, and then how they have to do this to it, and then they cultivate it and then they pack it and all that. And we're like, and people are complaining about one or two cents. It's it just it was almost mind-blowing to think that people are complaining and they have no idea what goes into the world.

SPEAKER_03 25:45

They don't understand.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

They don't, and that's I think we need to do better as an industry educating the retail florist. Like you're saying, oh, we all this research goes into making sure that things are taken care of at the farm, but then the transportation, the logistics to get it to here and here. We almost need that little flower bopping around. And I kind of feel like years ago there was something about that, and like how it makes all the difference to when you get to that. Then you're saying, Oh, yeah, even the consumer would say, I didn't realize that flower went right from here to here to here to here. And then it's going to last me two weeks in my house.

SPEAKER_04 26:22

Yeah, you know, I think I think an easy way to get started on something like that is a did you know. Or if you're savvy in social media and you do videos on a regular basis, something easily to do is pick up one of your flowers and say, Did you know that this came from this place? And it took this many days to get here. And this is the journey of the flower. And if you do little did you knows, I think your customers are gonna be like, No, I didn't know that. That's pretty cool. Right. And so a place to start.

SPEAKER_03 26:54

Yeah, no, I love that. And a lot of flower shops do. It's just getting those shops that maybe don't have the personality or don't feel like they do, they're they're not comfortable. Like, how do we help? That's a whole nother, a whole nother podcast, right, Vonda? But like, how can we help them help their customer? So that's a big concern I have in this industry because that's my wheelhouse. I'm always trying to figure out how can I help them help their customer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

No, that's great, Lori. Great. So last question. Debbie, if every florist listening today could understand one thing about AFE and why it mattered to their business, what would you want them to know?

SPEAKER_04 27:45

I would want them to know that AFE has been here for 65 years and we've been supporting the industry for that long. And it's been thanks to donors. And we do work behind the scenes. We're working every day to do something for the industry, whether it's through research or new programs or grants or scholarships for young people. Just know that if you want to invest in the industry, AFE is a great place to do it. And we have a hardworking board and committees that make sure your dollar is spent in the best possible way. So I would encourage you to get involved. We have opportunities for people to review applications, to look at scholarships. There's plenty of volunteer opportunities. Just know that we're here for you. And we are wanting to make sure we serve the floral community in the best possible way to fund advancements and innovation.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

And that we're here another 65 years, right?

SPEAKER_04 28:43

And we'll be here another 65 years.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

That's great. Thank you so much for joining us. It's just great to have you on here. I look forward to meeting you face to face in the end of August. And we'll see Amanda in just a few weeks at AI.

SPEAKER_04 29:00

Absolutely. Thank you so much for the opportunity. It's a pleasure meeting you, and thanks for sharing the AFE message.

SPEAKER_03 29:07

Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you. If you did, make sure you hit that subscribe button or add the Business and Pleasure of Flowers to your Google morning routine or your flash briefing on Alexa.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

We look forward to seeing you next week. So please come back and join us to discover how a bit of knowledge and one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business.