Scaling Impact

In this episode, Community Engagement Officers from DreamSpring, Shaundra, and Meghan, share insights on the importance and impact of community engagement in small business growth. They discuss strategies for effective outreach, trust-building, and partner stewardship. The hosts also highlight the benefits of partnerships and the significance of investing in relationships for long-lasting success. Additionally, they touch on measuring impact and taking care of oneself and their ecosystem while growing a business. Join Shaundra Jacobs and Meghan Rauker on this episode as they share their remarkable career journeys. Shaundra's experience spans roles at AT&T, Lyft, and BakerRipley, leading to her current position as a Community Engagement Officer at DreamSpring, where she fosters relationships to support entrepreneurs. Meghan's expertise lies in strategic communications, program management, and business development, showcased through her roles at PeopleFund and as a Business Development Lead at TÁPI Story. Together, they offer invaluable insights into community engagement, nonprofit organizations, and business growth strategies. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact: Resources: DreamSpringDreamSpring NewsSpring Board NewslettersBusiness Resource BlogNxtStepPodcast Chef Connecting with Shaundra Jacobs and Meghan Rauker: Shaundra JacobsMeghan Rauker Connecting with Sean Boyce: LinkedInEmail Quotables: If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.

In this episode of Scaling Impact, Sean Boyce hosts Anne Haynes and Marisa Barrera from DreamSpring to discuss their mission of supporting entrepreneurs and driving economic and social change. They explore the meaning of impact and the importance of equitable access to capital. Additionally, they delve into the role of nonprofit boards in fundraising, building a partnership with CEOs, and maximizing positive change. Marisa Barrera is the Chief Impact Officer at DreamSpring, bringing over 27 years of experience to her role. With a background in public and international affairs, Marisa is dedicated to driving economic equity and inclusion through her work. Anne Haines, the CEO and President of DreamSpring, is a recognized leader known for her commitment to ethics and excellence. Under her guidance, DreamSpring has become one of the top-performing nonprofit microfinance institutions in the United States, providing funding and support to small businesses across 27 states. Anne's vision and impact have earned her numerous awards and accolades, making her a respected figure in the industry. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact: Resources: DreamSpringNxtStepPodcast Chef Connecting with Marisa Barrera: LinkedIn Connecting with Anne Haines: DreamSpring Connecting with Sean Boyce: LinkedInEmail Quotables: If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.

In this episode, Amber Kani, Head of Stakeholder Engagement at Dream Springing, talks about their approach to using technology to overcome challenges in scaling impact for underrepresented communities. She emphasizes the importance of analyzing donor journeys and addressing pain points through technology while staying open to changes. Dream Springing also adapts to pandemic challenges by providing self-paced options for donor engagement. Amber Kani is an experienced professional in the field of stakeholder engagement and philanthropy. She currently serves as the Head of Stakeholder Engagement at DreamSpring, where she has successfully implemented comprehensive business development and stewardship strategies to advance the organization's mission. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact: Resources: DreamSpringNxtStepPodcast Chef Connecting with Amber Kani: LinkedInEmail Connecting with Sean Boyce: LinkedInEmail Quotables: Amber: Yeah, I think the first thing is you need to put your head down before you can put your head out. And you know, we really looked internally at who are our donors and partners, and aspirationally who are we trying to attract? Because like you said, the folks who are supporting you in your backyard and your community are absolutely essential.” If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.

In this episode, Senior Executive Director of GreenLight Fund, Melissa Luna, discusses the organization's mission to remove barriers to inclusive prosperity by launching and scaling proven programs that address community-identified needs, GreenLight Fund's approach of investing financial resources and providing long-term sustainability support to partner organizations, and the significance of community engagement and learning from past data and trends within the GreenLight Fund portfolio. Melissa Luna is an experienced Managing Director with a demonstrated history of working in the philanthropy and nonprofit industry, who is skilled in Nonprofit Management, Program Design, Politics, Policy Analysis, Event Planning, and Evaluation. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact: Resources: GreenLight FundNxtStepPodcast Chef Connecting with Melissa Luna: LinkedIn Connecting with Sean Boyce: LinkedInEmail Quotables: If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.

This episode, The GreenLight Fund’s Vice President Casey Johnson talks about the venture philanthropy space, why funding should be unrestricted, and the different types of personalities you need in an organization to scale successfully. Casey Johnson has over 20 years of program management experience for various non-profit organizations, including five years focusing on implementing and refining literacy programs in the United States and globally in 10 developing countries. Casey also has over 10 years of experience working in venture philanthropy doing strategic grantmaking, deep diligence on potential portfolio organizations, and local community landscape analysis work. She is currently the Vice President of The GreenLight Fund which helps transform the lives of children, youth, and families in high-poverty urban areas. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact: Resources: GreenLight FundNxtStepPodcast Chef Connect with Casey Johnson: LinkedInEmail Connecting with the host: LinkedInEmail Quotables: If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.

This episode, Founder and CEO of Braven Aimee Eubanks Davis talks about the challenges underrepresented youth face in the labor market, what graduates need to be successful in the workplace, and the ways Braven measures its impact and plans to scale. Aimée Eubanks Davis is the founder and CEO of Braven, a national nonprofit focused on ensuring that underrepresented college students are able to put their education to work and land strong first jobs upon graduation. Since 2013, Aimée has led a talented team of regional executive directors as well as the heads of product, technology, development, external affairs, and staff to ensure the best possible experience for Fellows. In partnership with university and employer partners, Braven is providing a systemic, sustainable, diverse talent strategy for our nation and has served more than 3,295 college students in Chicago, the Bay Area, Newark, New Jersey, New York City, and Atlanta. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact: Resources: BravenNxtStepPodcast Chef Connect with Aimee Eubanks Davis: LinkedIn Connecting with the host: LinkedInEmail Quotables: If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.

This episode, Co-Founder and CEO of The GreenLight Fund Margaret Hall talks about what makes a non-profit successful, how non-profits can avoid restrictive funding, and how she prepares organizations to deliver their mission effectively. Margaret Hall is the CEO and Co-Founder of The GreenLight Fund which raises and invests funds to open opportunities for children, youth, and families facing barriers to prosperity through an innovative, locally-driven approach that targets social innovations where they are needed most The GreenLight Fund currently operates in ten cities and is expanding at a rate of one community per year. Across its sites, the GreenLight Fund’s portfolio now consists of 44 high-performing nonprofits reaching more than 565,000 low-income children, youth, and families annually. Before co-founding the GreenLight Fund, Margaret was a Fellow at the Center for Effective Philanthropy, and earlier served as Associate Director of the Georgia Center for Nonprofits, where she launched the public policy program. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact: Resources: The GreenLight FundThe Center for Effective PhilanthropyLean ImpactNxtStepPodcast Chef Connect with Margaret Hall: LinkedInEmail Connecting with the host: LinkedInEmailQuotables: If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.

Paul Isenberg is the Co-Founder and CEO of Bringing Hope Home which helps families dealing with cancer through financial assistance and other resources. Bringing Hope Home is a recognized 501c3 organization that has helped more than 6,400 families in the mid-Atlantic region, provided over 7 million dollars, and is now expanding into other areas to help even more people. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact: Resources: Bringing Hope HomeThe American Cancer SocietyEntrepreneurs' Organization PhiladelphiaBloomerangNxtStepPodcast Chef Connect with Paul Isenberg: LinkedIn Connecting with the host: LinkedInEmail Quotables If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.

Patience-Marime Ball is the Founder and CEO of Women of the World Endowment and is deeply experienced in capital markets, including debt and equity financing, large-scale infrastructure investments, distressed assets (restructuring and settlements), deal structuring and negotiation, interpretation of laws and regulation, as well as investment in early-stage companies. Ruth Shaber is the President and Founder of Tara Health Foundation where she promotes health, well-being, and opportunity for women and girls by strategically investing financial and human capital in innovative, evidence-informed programs. Ruth partners with nonprofit organizations and other like-minded foundations, choosing financial investments that have a social impact and advance their mission. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact: Resources: Women of the World EndowmentTara Health FoundationThe XX edge unlocking higher returns and lower riskDiversity Matters: The Role of Gender Diversity on US Active Equity Fund PerformanceTelltale signs of higher returns? Gender mix could be oneEthos ESGNxtStepPodcast Chef Connect with Patience-Marime Ball: LinkedIn Connect with Ruth Shaber: LinkedIn Connecting with the host: LinkedInEmail Quotables If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.

Vicki Burkhart has over 20 years in working for nonprofits rising to VP/Director level and gaining extensive experience with major gift cultivation, board development, strategic planning, organizational development, and volunteer management. Vicki founded the More Than Giving Co. with the goal of delivering innovative solutions to help more volunteer-driven nonprofits reach sustainability. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact: Resources: The More Than Giving Co.Kids'​ Chance of AmericaHow to Staff Your Nonprofit for SuccessLeveraging Fractional Staff To Confront Common Nonprofit ChallengesNxtStepPodcast Chef Connect with Vicki Burkhart: LinkedIn Connecting with the host: LinkedInEmail Quotables If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.

Julie Sowash is the Executive Director for Disability Solutions, where she works with federal contractors to assess outreach, hiring, and retention systems and policies in a company that impacts the organization’s ability to successfully engage and retain qualified job seekers with disabilities. The Disability Solutions team, including Julie, works with corporate leaders to build and implement, national to local hiring initiatives. Julie’s current focus is working with the leadership of Pepsi Beverages Company in implementing the Pepsi ACT (Achieving Change Together), a national engagement to increase recruitment, hiring, and retention in the company’s workforce. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact: Resources: Disability SolutionsCrazy and the King PodcastHubSpotNxtStepPodcast Chef Connect with Julie Sowash: LinkedInTwitterInstagram Connecting with the host: LinkedInEmail Quotables If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.

Markita Morris-Louis is an experienced Leader with a demonstrated history of working in various fields including the financial services industry, housing and community development, and the performing arts. Markita is now the CEO of Compass Working Capital, a nonprofit financial services organization whose mission is to support families with low incomes to build assets as a pathway out of poverty and toward financial stability. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact: Resources: Compass Working CapitalLean ImpactNxtStepPodcast Chef Connect with Markita Morris-Louis: LinkedIn Connecting with the host: LinkedInEmail Quotables: If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.

Brian Adamczyk has been an active performer throughout the east coast since 2005, doubling on all saxophones, clarinets, flute/piccolo, oboe, English horn, and ethnic woodwind flutes, and has performed with John Legend, The Who, Idina Menzel, Josh Groban, Sarah Brightman, Lindsey Stirling, and many more. After initially being appointed as Director of Programming and Productions at the Brooklyn Music School in NYC, Brian became the Interim Executive Director, where he focuses on advancing the BMS mission of providing quality, accessible performing arts programming to all those who wish to receive it, regardless of economic or financial circumstances. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact: Resources: Brooklyn Music SchoolNxtStepPodcast Chef Connect with Brian Adamczyk: LinkedIn Connecting with the host: LinkedInEmail Quotables If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.

Lindajoy Jackson is the Director of Business at Hopeworks and has a demonstrated history of working in the government administration industry. LindaJoy is skilled in Coaching, Management, Leadership, Risk Management, Strategic Planning, and Business Development. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact: Resources: HopeworksNxtStepPodcast Chef Connect with Lindajoy Jackson: LinkedInEmail Connecting with the host: LinkedInEmail Quotables If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.

What I talk about in this episode: If you’d like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit by more than double in less than half the time, sign up for my free 5 day email course (https://nxtstep.io/impact/) Episode Transcript Hey everyone, Sean here and today what I want to talk to you about is why overhead is consistently vilified, or why it shouldn't be because it matters when it comes to scaling impact. Now, overhead is everyone's favorite line item on the balance sheet to pick on, especially when it comes to nonprofits. The public and other people seem to have this impression that if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing or you're making the most of the dollars that are contributed towards you, and your overhead should be extremely low or near zero. For a whole multitude of reasons. This is just wildly impractical, and in my opinion, it's a fundamental misunderstanding of what overhead represents. Now, while we might not all love the fact that we have to have and manage overhead, it doesn't mean it isn't important. Your overhead is a key element of making sure that you have a strong team. If your overhead is being kept ridiculously low deliberately so then that is going to impact the strength of your team and what your team is capable of. I love the saying that goes if you want to go fast go alone and if you want to go far go together. The reason why I like that is because it really highlights the fact that you can't do this alone, and you can't remain ridiculously lean to the extent where it affects your performance. You need a strong team if you're going to have a strong team. That means your overhead is not going to be ridiculously low or near zero and people need to understand that. But what I would recommend doing instead of focusing on overhead especially if people are trying to beat you up over that is to readjust their focus and reposition the conversation around impact. Right because I've heard these heartbreaking stories about nonprofit organizations who overhead has grown. And people have just kind of run with that as a story and then made them out to look like they were doing something they weren't supposed to be doing. When in reality their overhead was growing because their impact was scaling. And they were making significantly greater contributions over time. So the overhead played a key element in that but it was correlated to what was most important and that was the impact that they were generating. So if people are taking a closer look at your overhead and they really want to know why that number is growing or getting bigger, then I would encourage you to refocus them around where the performance really should be and why that overhead is going up because your impact is going up, ideally even faster. So that's what matters more than most and that should help you avoid this as a trap. If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.

What I talk about on this episode: Competing Against Luck If you’d like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit by more than double in less than half the time, sign up for my free 5 day email course (https://nxtstep.io/impact/) Episode Transcript Hey everyone, Sean here and today what I want to talk to you about is a framework referred to as jobs to be done, and how learning more about it can help you with scaling impact. Now the jobs to be done framework comes from an author by the name of Clayton Christensen and it's talked about in detail in his book that's called Competing Against Luck. Now, in this book, they talk quite a bit about how people ultimately decide to or not to make the kind of progress that they want to in their lives. That's kind of what you could consider to be a high level description of the jobs to be done framework is all about. It tries to put the emphasis on figuring out how people are determining whether to use or not use certain products in their lives. And it puts it in this context of what job are you hiring that product to do. And if you think about it from this perspective, I think it immediately might seem a little bit confusing but in reality, when you think about the products you use in your lives or whatever it is your laptop, your car, you may or may not have had pair of headphones, I'm just looking around at some of the stuff that I have on my desk here I'm holding a pen, right the two different products that we use, we use them for specific purposes. And that's the point of this framework is to figure out why people ultimately decide to use certain products and also put into context any of the other products they have decided not to use instead of that product. And that's what jobs to be done is all about. So this framework can be particularly helpful for you to get a better understanding in who it is you're looking to learn more about so that you can figure out which problems they have that you can help them with right and if we put this through the context of what your organization is likely trying to do in scaling impact. If you're, for example, nonprofit organization, you can think of this, you can leverage the jobs to be done framework to figure out how to best scale impact by first getting a better understanding and who you want to help. That's the place to start. Once we know who that is, right? Maybe that's your nonprofit program client. Maybe that's the members of your organization, whomever it is, we need to be specific about that. Right? Because we need to be talking to the same type of person, as we're figuring out how to leverage this framework to figure out how to scale impact now if we're focused on your nonprofit program, clients might be figuring out how to help them more with whatever the mission is of your organization, like ending asset poverty or helping cure education problems and things like that. If we're focused on your team, it might be around how to enable them to increase their leverage so that they can help more of your clients, right? Maybe we're talking about getting them time back, or enabling them to do more with less, whatever it is, right? Those might be some of your high level objectives. But once you figure it out who you want to help, now you start leveraging this as a framework. By spending time with those individuals and focus on something called storyboarding. That's where you learn all the things of unrelated to what it is is going on at the moment in this individual's life as it pertains to the particular topic or problem that you ultimately want to help them with and that problem is either going to be a major issue or minor issue or somewhere in between for them. But you're only going to get the context that you need by interviewing them, and better understanding the kind of impact that problem may be having on their life. Then once you're talking to them about that you can learn more about how they're trying to solve that problem...

What I talk about in this episode: If you’d like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit by more than double in less than half the time, sign up for my free 5 day email course (https://nxtstep.io/impact/) Episode Transcript Hey Everyone, Sean here and today, what I want to talk to you more about is a concept called storyboarding and why it's so important to do well, in order to give your organization the best opportunity to scale impact. Now the concept of storyboarding, for me comes up when I'm thinking about a topic related to what's called jobs theory, which is another concept you can use. That is helpful for figuring out how to leverage products and particular software products. In order to scale impact. Jobs theory focuses on this concept of better understanding what job the person that you're trying to help is trying to solve, in order for their problem to be resolved. Now storyboarding plays an important element in leveraging jobs theory to achieve success by using different types of products. And that product can be virtual. It can be software and technology in this case, as as is often a lot of the work that I do to help nonprofit organizations with scaling impact. And storyboarding is a concept of really getting to understand that person very well, and what's going on in their life, to better understand anything that might be standing in the way of them leveraging a new product or a solution in order to help solve their problem, which should be related to the impact that your organization is trying to drive. Storyboarding is a concept is really figuring out everything that's going on in said individual's life, so that you have a better understanding and what might be standing in their way of leveraging certain solutions. And you can also figure out where there are genuine opportunities for you to take advantage of by helping them in a way that they may not be actively searching for a solution themselves. Some of those instances they have problems where they don't have solutions. Other instances they have problems where they do have solutions, but those solutions are falling short. And you need to know as much as you can about this in order to figure out how to best help them and how to scale impact. So storyboarding is concept of figuring out how to be able to tell from start to finish, everything that's going on in the individual's life that you need to know in order to figure out what they're doing before, during and after. When they're experiencing whatever problem is you're intending to help them solve. That's because there might be something standing in the way of them ultimately leveraging a solution you may want to provide. And if you don't have that context, they'll be prevented from being able to leverage your solution and benefit from the value you're trying to provide for them. I'll give you an example. If you'd like to provide some form of tech solution to let's say, some of your nonprofit program clients, and it's only available on a workstation or a laptop or a desktop computer. But your nonprofit clients don't have access to a desktop or a laptop computer they're never going to be able to use your solution. So that's a barrier to them to be able to leverage your product and get the value out of it. Regardless of how well it might ultimately solve their problem. If they can't access it, then that's going to prevent them from being able to use it. That's why in a lot of work that we do, were quite a bit of our nonprofit program clients that don't have access to workstations. We leverage mobile solutions because many of them do have access to cell phones or smartphone technology. As such, we can make products work on that platform. To be able to ensure that more of our clients are able to access that as a digital solution. So this is something that would come up if you were performing storyboarding, where you're asking them all these questions about what they're doing before, during and...

On this episode I talk about: If you’d like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit by more than double in less than half the time, sign up for my free 5 day email course (https://nxtstep.io/impact/) Episode Transcript Hey everyone, Sean here and today what I want to talk to you more about his the work that I do and how you can leverage it and your organization to scale impact and what I mean by that is product management. Now, you may have heard this phrase before, you may be somewhat familiar with this role, or you may have never heard of anything even somewhat related to it and that's okay. This episode is intended to explain to you more about what product management is and how at your nonprofit organization you can leverage the skills of a product manager, both from any of the team members you already have or someone you can potentially add to the team at a future date in order to greater scale impact at your organization. So if you're unfamiliar with product management, it often gets confused with more common terminology like project management or a project manager. And it's slightly different than that, but I usually try to explain things whenever I can in the context of another familiar concept that people are aware of like project management, for example. So I'll start there. If you've heard of Project Management before, you're probably somewhat familiar with what goes into managing a project, right? There might be timelines and might be people that might be setting the goals and measuring progress against them that might include managing budgets as well also, everything of and related to that project and the project can really include anything. It doesn't really matter what it is from building anything somewhat tech related to building houses or working on a project at your organization, right, whatever that is. A project manager can oftentimes help you with keeping everything organized and making that progress that you would like to now the way that I like to kind of describe what product management is, is I'm going to I'm going to compare it to your project manager. Now whereas a project manager is keeping track of all those things that I mentioned before, the difference between that and a product manager that I would say as a product manager is often doing so exclusively with some type of physical or virtual product. Now in my world, it's mainly these virtual and digital products. So that means software and technology. So when I say that that might be a website, that might be an application, that application can be web based, that application can be mobile, whatever it is, most of the work done in product management is affiliated with managing an application. So a digital product that is either accessible via a web browser or a mobile device that has a specific purpose. Now these products you can consider to be essentially almost anything like an app on your phone, like Gmail, for example that you might use to access email to a website application that you might use as well to like Google Documents. For example. Any of these examples these are all considered, quote unquote products. Even though they are digital, they're not physical. They're considered products and product managers organize the efforts related to some of the project management responsibilities, but specifically for these products, as in, they will be managing, basically what features and capabilities to these digital products have today? And what should they have in the future in order to be better for whomever uses them, right? And that's usually the target market customer or the user. In this case, product managers are going out and they're interacting with his target market user to better understand what the needs are that they have that are currently unmet. Then they figure out how do we get functionality built into those products to better address those needs, and solve any of those problems or challenges that those users...

On this episode I talk about: If you’d like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit by more than double in less than half the time, sign up for my free 5 day email course (https://nxtstep.io/impact/) Episode Transcript Hey everyone Sean here and on today's episode, what I want to walk you through is a real world example of generating revenue by building a product that solves the problem that you or your organization has. Now, I've talked about this in a previous episode on I want to walk you through as a real world example. So one of my clients they had a need to want to scale impact by first enrolling as many clients as they could into their process, many more than they had before. Probably a multiple, which is usually what I recommend when we're talking about setting scaling impact level goals. We want to aim for doubling or more as opposed to increasing by something conservatively like 10 or 20%. That helps us think differently, and leverage different resources and strategy to try to reach a much more aggressive goal, which in turn should really help you with scaling impact. So in this one example, what we did was we built an enrollment portal to help them move their enrollment process from offline running in person events to online which was much more cost effective, required a lot less time and removed any restrictions, any geographical boundaries that they had in place before. Now they could enroll clients from anywhere as long as they could reach them. Now the results of that were pretty dramatic. What we're able to do was increase their enrollment by greater than 300% in less than half the time. So their team was over the moon about these results, and I was too that was the objective. That's what we were trying to do and we did it which was very exciting. Now what I want to talk about is in this instance, now they experienced that dramatic improvement, which is fantastic. But and sometimes when you invest in a project like this or you build a product to solve your own problem, more than likely, other organizations like you have the same problem and can't find that solution anywhere or are trying to cobble together something to provide a better solution than what they have available today. But it's still not great. as such. If you've built something that solves that problem for them, they're going to want to have access to it as well too. So as opposed to thinking through building something like this to help you with improving operational efficiency or scaling impact, like I just described, it can do even more than that. And what I mean by that is if you provide this solution to these other organizations like you, they're more than likely to want to use it and also pay for it because it solves an important problem that they have. And that's how this turns out to generate revenue. And that's what we're doing right now. We're taking that enrollment portal, my client and we're moving it from just them using it to making it available for the rest of the world to use as well too. So we are building it so that other organizations like them can have access to it. And they're ultimately going to be paying for using it because it's going to be solving an important problem for them. Now this opens up another entire world of possibilities, because this product is going to be able to be revenue generating now that what we're seeing potentially as maybe an operational efficiency improvement and treated somewhat as an expense is now much more so of an investment. Right? It's helping them scale impact dramatically. And now it's going to start generating revenue for them as well, which is going to become a funding source that they're going to have control over which is going to enable them to continue to even scale impacted even greater levels, which is super exciting. So now this will continue to pay dividends over time as this becomes a funding source of in itself. So I want to talk about some of the technical things...

On this episode I talk about: If you’d like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit by more than double in less than half the time, sign up for my free 5 day email course (https://nxtstep.io/impact/) Episode Transcript Hey everyone, Sean here and today what I want to talk to you about is the advantages of focusing on solving your own problem when it comes to scaling impact and leveraging technology and software in order to do it. Now it can be tricky to achieve product success and I talk a lot about that on this show. But leveraged appropriately software and technology can really help you scale impact at an entirely different level than you may have before. If you've been leveraging people or mainly services. In order to take full advantage of what software and digital products are capable of. You really need to have a tight value proposition as you need to know what specific problem you're solving or which specific target market and how that solution is better than however they were trying to solve those problems today. I talk a lot about that, but in this particular instance, I'm referring to this as a sort of design pattern, which is common terminology you'll hear about if you're ever reading up on much in terms of product development or software engineering. It's essentially a pattern in which to follow where you're trying to solve a particular common problem. There oftentimes becomes a pattern that becomes developed that many can use and replicate in their own projects in order to prevent themselves from having to kind of reinvent the wheel when they have to solve a similar problem so it can speed up the progress terms of what it is you're trying to accomplish. This case I want to talk about the advantages of solving your own problem. Now if you want to leverage this strategy the way you should do it is you should first figure out how you can do so in order to maximize your impact, right, because that's the number one objective. Once you know that, you can perform the discovery that I've been talking about, but you can perform it within your own organization as opposed to needing to get access to anyone external to your organization. You could perform it with your own team and figure out what is slowing them down what are the biggest problems and challenges they are having in order to try to provide the kind of impact that you would like to to your clients, your nonprofit program clients. The results of this discovery should yield an opportunity for you to bring a better or an improved solution to market when compared with however your team is going about solving those problems today. So you may be able to find where they're losing most of their time or what challenge is standing in the way of them making even more progress presenting to you the opportunity in this case. Now, after you have identified how you would like to solve that problem in a better way with a form of a software or a digital product. You can build and bring that solution to market and then measure the results. Did it ultimately achieve what you had set out to achieve? If so, that's fantastic. And now you can look for other areas where you can expand the reach of this value proposition to others that might need it. One great example of that is other organizations like yours, more than likely, if you found a problem within your own organization, chances are high that in other organizations like yours, they have the same problem. They also are more than likely leveraging a similar existing solution, meaning that there's an opportunity to sell to them as well. So this means that what might initially feel like an expense because you're investing in building something, but for your own team, in terms of helping you become what you might consider to be only operationally more efficient, which is still most of the time a worthwhile investment depending on the numbers and how big of a benefit you're going to get. What you ultimately find out...