Misha: Welcome to the GSD Factor podcast today. I’m your host Misha Bleymaier- Farrish. And my guest today is Stacie Marlowe. A little bit about Stacie. Stacie grew up in the heart of the North Carolina mountains that she calls home. She’s also had a passion for making the world a bit brighter. Whether that’s making you laugh, creating a memorable event or tackling community issues at the heart of her passion, like two things, serving others to the best of her ability and creative resourcefulness.
Misha: Stacie has held a lot of titles, production manager, operations director, event manager, resource development director, but her most dear one is Mother. Stacie currently serves as the resource development director for the Boys & Girls Club in Henderson County, which provides integral youth development support for members ages six to eighteen.
Misha: Welcome Stacie.
Stacie: Thank you, Misha. Good morning.
Misha: Good morning. Glad to have you. So Stacie, you talk to me about this resource development and what you do in the non-profit industry.
Stacie: Absolutely. So I have been in the non-profit world and a lot of different segments, throughout my career, whether it was arts or now serving the community directly through development programs with the organization I work with at The Boys and Girls Club.
Stacie: But it’s always the same. It’s always being able to say, “Hey, there’s a really clear need” and usually most people know about that need, but not everyone has a solution. And so you get the opportunity to be the problem solver and go to your community and say, “You get to help us and be a partner in solving this problem that you know exists.”
Stacie: And it gets people really excited because it can be a passionate cause that you get to be able to invest in and see the results come to life right in front of you.
Misha: It really gives people a purpose and a passion, right? It gives them the ability to apply that action. It gives them a place to donate, whether their time, their money, their resources, it really puts action into their words and their heart.
Misha: So what are some of the other things that you’ve been doing to help our nonprofits in their communities?
Stacie: So, of course there is always advocacy. People are often known, but they’re not known well. So, really being able to be sure that people can articulate their case for support and be able to take that message to new people and be able to arm those who might be volunteers or supporters of yours with the information of how to be able to tell your story is quintessentially important.
Stacie: One of my personal goals is to help non-profits integrate with technology. I’ve undertaken that goal myself. So, we have been working really hard on getting more efficient. Utilizing tools that are out there to the best of our ability and being able to put them into place so that we can reach more people, tell more story and be able to gain more for our youth here at The Boys and Girls Club.
Misha: That’s amazing. So, talk to me a little bit about what are some of the free technology resources out there that non-profits can implement into their systems and into their organizations.
Stacie: Absolutely. So, there’s quite a few opportunities that exist for non-profits one of the ones that we’ve recently undertaken is a Salesforce integration.
Stacie: It is a lot to expect yourself to be able to build these relationships and that’s a lot of what resource development is. So, having a powerful customer relationship management system is really going to launch us into new heights, I believe, and will serve any non-profit well. Salesforce actually offers 10 free licenses for certified non-profits.
Misha: That’s amazing! Ok…
Stacie: And we actually worked with an integration partner when we were doing that implementation to make sure that we had the support we needed from a training end and a setup end so that we knew we were rocking and rolling in the correct direction. You can also apply for Google ad grants. Which is something that everybody is always looking for those data analytics, being able to get seen and hit on those SEO words.
Stacie: So you can get up to $10,000 a month from Google granted to you for your organization. And that one is a really easy one that I think, it’s kind of a low hanging fruit that people should take advantage of.
Misha: No, those are great. I love the tangible actions that you’re giving people and the ideas and the nuggets, right?
Misha: That’s really what we want to talk about here at the GSD Factor Podcast. Whether your industry is insurance or technology or your organization is the non-profit. We really want to give everybody that story. We want to share your story, Stacie, share the story of The Boys and Girls Club.
Misha: But then we also want to talk about what are those tangible steps that other non-profits can listen to. What do you think was one of the pain points of a non-profit today?
Stacie: You know, I think that the past couple of years have really changed the landscape a bit. The need has become ever present and the desire for people to help is there too. But sometimes you can feel lost in trying to articulate that and actually reach into your customer base, right? Because at the end of the day, you are providing a product you’re providing a solution to your community for whatever pain point you work on in your non-profit. And so really being able to identify those key partners when we are disconnected has been very difficult. So being able to leverage technology, whether it be, zooming like we are today, or whether it be making sure that you have articulate email systems, integrated systems. Those have become really, really important and being able to continue to have direct communication and meaningful communication with those individuals.
Misha: No, I think that’s fantastic. So Stacie, you’re obviously a trailblazer in this non-profit world. So, talk to me about what have you done from an innovation perspective for your Boys and Girls Club. I want to be sure that we take a moment to highlight your efforts here.
Stacie: Yeah. So when the pandemic started, you know, especially our kids felt really disconnected. We started seeing a lot more mental health issues kind of bubble to the top. And if kids don’t feel safe, even in that social space, we knew that they were not going to succeed in other areas in their life. And so we said, what can we do?
Stacie: So, we took some action at our club to actually proactively bring licensed mental health counselors into our club to be able to serve our youth. We’re one of the first Boys & Girls Club in the country to be able to do that. And we actually received a Safety and Innovation Award from Boys and Girls Club of America.
Stacie: We’re kind of serving now as a pilot program for that, that they hope to be able to roll out to other clubs as it grows and develops. But we’ve been able to see our family health metrics improve. We know that our reference rates for disciplinary actions has gone down because we’ve been able to kind of see what are the underlying undercurrent issues with our kids.
Stacie: And can we go ahead and get them help before it becomes a behavior or a social issue that then we’re having to deal with on a community basis.
Misha: That’s great. Well, first of all, thank you for being that innovationist for really solutioning. I think that speaks to your experience and to your passion and to your mission.
Misha: Anything else you would like to share with anybody from a non-profit space? Right. Could be at some of our listeners are starting their own non-profit. Perhaps they’re on a board of a non-profit. Like I am myself. What are some last final comments that you would like to share with our listeners today?
Stacie: I would say really work on defining not only what your mission is, but what your vision is. When somebody comes up with a good idea, but if you don’t know that vision and where you want to be. You might find yourself in this wandering path instead of really being able to articulate what that is. And when you can articulate what that vision is and how it relates directly to your mission, that’s when you’re going to find those really deep relationships, those transformational gifts, and be able to make those huge shifts in your mission and in your community.
Misha: That’s fantastic. Thank you, Stacie. So now my final question, this is one of my fun ones that I do here on the GSD Factor podcast.
Misha: What advice would you give your younger self?
Stacie: Oh, what advice can I give my younger self? “People don’t think about you that often, Stacie, you just need to remember that.” Especially in this world, it can be odd sometimes to go to people and say, “Hey, would you consider funding this thing?” And then you can think about the fact that, “Oh, did I do that right?” People don’t think that much. They don’t think about you that often people want to help. They want to be able to provide solutions. And so the biggest thing that you can do is to offer people the chance to help. And you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t ask the question.
Misha: That’s fantastic spot on. Great! Great nugget of information,
Misha: Stacie, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for sharing the mission that you are doing both at The Boys and Girls Club, but also other non-profits. I think the nuggets and the tips and tricks, I’ll say, that you’ve provided to our listeners today can help anybody that’s in the non-profit space, whether they’re starting a non-profit, whether they’re on a board of a non-profit or whether they have some pain points in their non-profit space or organization that they’re looking for. But I want to be sure. Where can our listeners reach out to you for future collaborations?
Stacie: Absolutely. I love to collaborate with other non-profits and you can actually find me at staciemarlowe.com. That is S TACIE MA RLOWE.com.
Misha: Awesome! Stacie, thank you so much for joining the GSD Factor podcast where we like to ‘get shit done.’ And I appreciate your time today. Thanks so much.
Stacie: Absolutely.
Stacie: Thank you, Misha.