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The ENGAGE Podcast

Subscribe to The ENGAGE Podcast to hear experts from across the social good community share best practices, tips and must-know trends that will help organizations increase their impact. Formerly called The sgENGAGE Podcast.
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Now displaying: October, 2019
Oct 31, 2019

How has grassroots advocacy changed in the past few years? And what are the current grassroots advocacy trends that your organization should be leveraging to have greater success?

Today’s episode, recorded at bbcon 2019, features Jeb Ory, co-founder and CEO at Phone2Action and Zach Ragbourn, director of digital communications at National Parks Conservation Association. Listen in to hear Jeb and Zach speak with host Steve MacLaughlin about how to influence legislators, how digital advances have changed advocacy, and how to think about youth advocacy.  

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

  • Changes in the grassroots advocacy space in the past few years
  • What influences legislators from an advocacy standpoint
  • Strengths of storytelling and personalization 
  • How digital has changed advocacy
  • How to think about youth advocacy
  • How to make advocacy and communication sustainable

Resources:

Jeb Ory

Zach Ragbourn

Modern Advocacy Requires Modern Tools

Quotes:  

“It’s now common and acceptable for people to share what they feel about issues online, on social media.” –Jeb Ory

“We’re turning a corner toward greater personalization and a greater need for emotional storytelling, both to and from advocates, to move the needle.” –Zach Ragbourn

“What it all comes down to is listening, honestly.” –Zach Ragbourn

Oct 24, 2019

Innovation is a big buzzword today, but what does it actually mean for social good organizations to innovate? And how can leaders create an atmosphere that allows for innovation?

Today’s episode, recorded at bbcon 2019 in Nashville features Kyla Shawyer of DSIL, an agency that works with organizations to innovate through systems changes and human-centered design. Listen in to hear Kyla talk with host Steve MacLaughlin about how the working environment has changed for leaders, what liberating structures means and why it’s important, and how to take more risks to achieve innovation. 

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

  • How the working environment has changed in terms of what’s expected from leaders
  • Engagement in established vs new organizations
  • Statistics on worker engagement
  • Liberating structures
  • How to take risks in risk-averse environments
  • Fear of failure in leadership
  • The power of hierarchy
  • The role of feedback

Resources:

Quotes: 

“I think leadership is about creating an environment where people can flourish.”

“About 16% of full-time employees are actively disengaged in what they do.”

“Innovations can sometimes be as much about stopping doing something as starting it.”

Oct 10, 2019

The 8th annual #GivingTuesday is coming up soon on December 3,2019.  #GivingTuesday represents an opportunity for everyone to give back in a variety of ways, and companies are increasingly realizing how important it is to get involved in this global movement. Listen in to today’s episode for tips on how your company can leverage its people and core competencies to engage on #GivingTuesday.

In this super-sized episode, Blackbaud’s Rachel Hutchisson talks to both Gary Levante, senior vice president of Corporate Responsibility & Culture at Berkshire Bank and Icema Gibbs, director of Corporate Social Responsibility at JetBlue. Gary and Icema share how their respective companies celebrate #GivingTuesday and how the day connects to the rest of their CSR programs and overall business strategy. They also give advice for how other companies can make a mark on this global day of giving. 

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

  • Why it’s important for companies to step up on Giving Tuesday
  • How to evaluate #GivingTuesday success
  • How #GivingTuesday relates to Berkshire Bank’s core purpose
  • What Berkshire Bank employees do to celebrate #GivingTuesday
  • Why it’s so important to leverage social media on #GivingTuesday
  • Gary’s tips for small-to-midsize companies who want to participate in this year’s #GivingTuesday
  • Last year’s JetBlue #GivingTuesday initiative, Destination Good
  • How JetBlue employees engage on Giving Tuesday
  • Spreading out the giving spirit over the whole year
  • Measuring the impact of giving and volunteering programs
  • Icema’s advice for how to leverage your company’s core competencies to make an impact on #GivingTuesday

Resources:

Gary Levante

Icema Gibbs

#GivingTuesday Toolkit and Resources

Quotes:  

“When I think of the real power of social media it’s to have a conversation with your customers with your community members with your partners about why activities like giving Tuesday are important.” --Gary Levante

“Our crew members are giving back not only through financial contributions, but really giving back in ways of really highlighting what’s important to them in their communities.” --Icema Gibbs

“We realized that we have to be able to talk about not only the outcomes, but the impact. What we did was fine, but how did we help somebody? What was the impact?” --Icema Gibbs

Oct 3, 2019

Coming up with strategies for fundraising can be difficult. However, if there’s a culture in place that promotes and encourages giving as a norm, an important chunk of the work is already done. That’s why it’s so important to create a culture of philanthropy, especially in social good organizations.

On today’s episode, Alia McKee and Mark Rovner of Sea Change Strategies are here to talk about their report, Inside Out Fundraising: How to Create a Culture of Philanthropy by Treating Systems Instead of Symptoms. Alia and Mark explain what it means to have a culture of philanthropy, the things that get in the way of creating that culture and how organizations can overcome the challenges to doing do. Listen to the episode to learn why culture is an important part of fundraising success and hear the big takeaways from their research. 

Topics Discussed in This Episode: 

  • The signs Alia and Mark saw that indicated it was time to start talking about culture with their clients
  • What it means to create a culture of philanthropy, and why it’s so important
  • What Alia and Mark found in their research
  • The primary challenges that get in the way of forming a culture of philanthropy
  • Implementing “the golden trio” in your organization
  • Balancing facts and data with passion for a cause
  • What boards can do to take pressure off fundraisers
  • How fundraisers can put recommendations from the Inside Out Fundraising report into action 

Resources:

Alia McKee

Mark Rovner

Sea Change Strategies

Inside Out Fundraising: How to Create a Culture of Philanthropy by Treating Systems Instead of Symptoms

Quotes: 

“I think the biggest “aha” was that only one in five fundraisers say their organization has a strong culture of philanthropy.” –Alia McKee 

“Increasingly with channel proliferation, with people being communicated with across multiple channels, you can’t do your own thing without affecting other pieces.” –Mark Rovner

“I think that the first piece needs to be stock-taking.” –Mark Rovner

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